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What is Black Box?

Black Box is a single-player Tabletop Role-Playing Game (TTRPG) about hacking. It uses the Carta game system, and is designed to (fairly abstractly) simulate Black Box hacking--which is attempting to break into a network that you know almost nothing about going in.

You can play it as a standalone, single-session game, or as part of a larger hacking campaign. It could also be played as part of a different TTRPG about hacking.

You need:

Deck of cards with Jokers
Set of hobby dice
Journal or other way to record your progress

More information

Status	Released
Category	Physical game
Rating	Rated 4.8 out of 5 stars (13 total ratings)
Author	Grahame @ Understory Games

Purchase

Buy Now$6.00 USD or more

In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $6 USD. You will get access to the following files:

BlackBox - Singles.pdf 362 kB

BlackBoxSpreads.pdf 353 kB

Black Box_ A Carta Hacking Game - 0.5.pdf 91 kB

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Development log

Iterative Development
Sep 07, 2021

Comments

Kiwi1 year ago (4 edits) ( 2)

It’s been a year and I finally got to at least reading a bit of the manual and doing the setup.

I have some feedback just from doing that (haven’t even started playing yet!). This is from reading the BlackBoxSpreads.pdf. Let me know if I should continue giving this kind of feedback and if it’s useful to you at all? Take what you find useful and discard the rest.

General

It would be good if you could add average play time somewhere on your page and/or in the manual. Or min/max as in 30 - 60 mins play time (this is just a made up number, I have no idea since I haven’t properly played).
Including images in the manual would help me to visualize the game flow e.g. flowchart, diagram of a typical game ‘Network spread’, ‘Hand’, ‘Discard’ (like what you see in an IKEA manual).
(related to the previous point) I still haven’t read everything, but I feel a high-level overview would save me time. There does not appear to be a high-level overview. I get the feeling I’m going to have to read everything once first before I start.
The pdf bookmarks are very helpful to jump around. However if someone was to print the manual out, there are no page numbers on the bottom of the pages.
- I just realized it’s probably not very ink-friendly either as a printout.
In the section ‘You need:’ you said “Set of hobby dice”. This can be improved if you tell me exactly what dice I need.

Formatting, Wording etc.

In the section ‘Discovering your target’ I assume you wanted to say ‘Create your own’, not ‘Create your one’.
In the section ‘Reconnaissance (Set Up)’. Perhaps this should be Setup which is the noun?
- Easier to read and skim over if you turned this into a step by step list?
Section ‘Game modes’ > ‘Single Game’. ‘For more or less difficulty’ sounds better to me as ‘For higher or lower difficulty’ or ‘For harder or easier difficulty’.
Section ‘Network Assets’. I recommend changing to ‘Network Assets (Clubs and Spades)’ to the title so it’s clearer. This will be more consistent with the previous headings like ‘Usernames (Hearts)’.

Duplicate pdf bookmarks

These show up twice in my pdf viewer:

‘Not Every Hack Will Be a Success’
‘GM Mode / Using in Another Game’
‘Network Assets’

Kiwi2 years ago

Excited to try this, just one quick thing. Can you clarify what ‘hobby dice’ means exactly? e.g. 1 d6, 2 d4 etc. It would be easy for me to whip out what’s needed.

Grahame @ Understory Games2 years ago

oh! Yeah, it just means a set of polyhedral dice. I think you just need d6 and d10 (maybe 2d10? It's been a while since I read this one).

If you have the full set, you're fine, though!

lookimapengu12 years ago( 2)

as someone who's had to do OWASP training before this might be the most realistic hacking game I've ever seen. I had a blast playing through it - definitely recommend checking it out!

Grahame @ Understory Games2 years ago( 1)

Thank you so much!

I've been working in cybersecurity for a few years now, which is kinda where I got the idea. That's what I was going for, so I'm really jazzed to hear that it landed!

Kiwi2 years ago( 1)

That’s so cool, I’m also interested in OWASP so this is a good way to practice and get into cyber too I guess :)

kumada13 years ago( 3)

Black Box is a Carta-powered standalone solo rpg (or minigame!) about hacking into a network you haven't intruded in before.

The PDF is 13 double pages, easy to read, and with a layout aesthetic that matches the game's subject.

The gameplay is a little like solitaire, in that you split your cards into a series of stacks and then try to whittle them down.

Black cards obstruct your progress. Red cards can be spent to remove them. Finding two jokers wins you the game.

There's a bit more complexity to it than that. You can roll to bypass black cards that you don't have the red cards to beat, but if you fail you take Heat. Heat serves as a timer before you're booted from the system, and as Heat accumulates each move becomes more costly.

Individual cards also have prompts, additional mechanics, plot twists, and assets that shape the game's narrative and tweak the mechanics.

At your discretion, there's a campaign mode where you can gain and spend money on one-shot items to help with troublesome hacks.

There's also advice on using Black Box as a minigame in another system.

Overall, Black Box feels like a neat solo card game about managing risk and trying to solve multifaceted problems. However, I think it also shines as a fully realized minigame that you can plug into another system.

With a little adjustment, you could even re-skin it as a dungeon room puzzle, or an espionage mission, or searching a library archive.

I recommend checking it out if you have the chance.

Minor Issues:

-Both password spray and brute force are used in the document, maybe interchangeably? Are these referring to the same mechanic?

-Core Gameplay and Password Spray describe the same mechanic differently. Core gameplay says you gain heat if you fail to roll the number. Password Spray says you gain heat if you roll the number.

Grahame @ Understory Games3 years ago( 2)

Thank you so much!

Yes, In reality, the terms "Brute-Force" and "Password Spray" are very close in meaning (I don't think interchangeable, but a password spray is a type of brute-force attack). But, seeing as not everyone who plays this reads as many cybersecurity reports as I do... I should maybe make some updates. Appreciate the notes!