InterNyet

"American ARPANET took shape thanks to well-managed state subsidies and collaborative research environments and the Soviet network projects stumbled because of unregulated competition among self-interested institutions, bureaucrats, and others. The capitalists behaved like socialists while the socialists behaved like capitalists."

- Benjamin Peters, How Not to Network a Nation (2017)

InterNyet is a (Cold) Wargame on a postcard that tells the story of technology adoption in the USSR between 1953 - ~1972. In this game, the military hegemony of the USSR must maintain its dominance over emerging network technologies to build an ICBM back-up system, or “Dead Hand”. The military player will allocate ever more resources to themselves to deny the civil society player the ability to develop their own civilian network megaproject. While the military player is on track to win nearly by default, the civil society player must cultivate broad-based political support and generate actual system users to build the All-State Automated System (or OGAS) that will help in planning the USSR’s economy and liberate it from material want. Will the nation's future be a network of Red Plenty, or paranoia?

Playtime: 10 to 30 minutes

Components

Together with the postcard game itself, the game is played using:

• 9 double-sided markers (located on the top of this postcard, use scissors and glue to cut them out and paste their opposite backs together)
  • 6 Interest Group Markers
  • 1 Military Player Victory Point Marker
  • 2 Civil Player Victory Point Marker
  • 1 Network Effect Marker
• 5d6 (not provided) to represent infrastructure investment for each turn
• 1 fifty-two card playing card deck representing the political and demographic (PoliDem) makeup of the nation
  • Joker, ace, 2 and 3 cards of all suits removed 
  • Kings and Queens represent political intervention
  • Jacks represent accidents and mishaps
  • Numbered cards represent the general population

This is an early prototype of this game concept. Feedback is welcomed to ensure that game is not broken and is fun. Thanks to the Postcards from the Front game jam for helping me get this prototype on paper!

A solo mode is forthcoming.