PROJECT ZERSETZUNG
A.K.A.
THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF GANGSTALKING
This game has not been announced yet, so please don’t share this page on social media until I’ve made the formal announcement.
The United States Department of Gangstalking is a game about disinformation, harassment, paranoia, and the collapse of civil society. The game is for 2-4 players who take on the roles of Agents of Gross Cognitive Harm, with the goal of harassing a grid of Targeted Individuals until they become Radicalized. They do this by using Operations cards, which detail various harassment tactics, like covert implants, drugs, mind control, and other forms of manipulation that cause stress to the Targets. When Individuals reach Max Stress, they become Radicalized and cause stress to other Individuals around them, produce rewards for the player that radicalized them, and are removed and replaced with another Targeted Individual. Some Individuals are High Value Targets, like Radio DJs, celebrities, and politicians, and they produce greater rewards and cause more stress when they are Radicalized.
All Individuals have Traits, like Drug User, Delinquent, Religious, Patriot, Impoverished, or Traumatized. Certain Operations are particularly effective against these Traits, and when they are used against an Individual with a matching Trait, it deals an additional point of Stress to them and to any other Individual adjacent to them.
Throughout the Operations deck, there are numerous cards that say WAKE UP. When a player uses one of these cards, it immediately refills their current maximum Requisition (the resource they use to play cards and use abilities) and increases their “WAKE UP” level by 1 point. When a player has 3 WAKE UP points, all players gain the ability to target other players. Agents can withstand very high amounts of stress, so targeting them while targeting other Individuals is crucial.
The game continues until only 1 agent is left alive.
The entire game will be written and created by me, using infrared, thermal, and digital photography. If you want to know more, including seeing cards as they are developed or find out about upcoming playtests, please join the discord.
This is a draft of the “Targeted Individual.” These are the Targets that are subjected to harassment by the players of the game. They have traits like Patriot, Delinquent, Religious, Sexual Deviant, Isolated, Traumatized, Drug User, and High Value. They have a Max Stress level in the top right corner: once enough stress has been delt to them, they become Radicalized, causing stress to other Targets around them and rewarding their harasser with resources detailed at the bottom of the card. At the very bottom, they have unique flavor text that gives insight to their place in the story of the game.
The following are examples of the Operations cards. This deck contains various types of cards that are played throughout the game.
Please keep in mind that all of these are drafts and are subject to change throughout the development process.
Everything shot and created by me.
OPERATIONS
ACTIVE MEASURES
These care contribute directly to causing stress to Targeted Individuals and, eventually, other players. Their Requisition cost is listed in the top corner. Below that, the subdepartment to which they belong. Varying NEWS cards (still being developed) will confer discounts and bonuses for cards within particular departments. Note that certain ACTIVE MEASURE cards are effective against certain types of Individuals, which causes the Target to receive more stress and to cause more stress to those around them.
Many of these cards are early drafts, so there are errors and miscategorizations throughout these galleries:
FIELD MATERIEL
Within the OPERATIONS deck, the FIELD MATERIEL cards are high-cost, high-value semi-permanent pieces of equipment that can be played directly to any of the 4 COMMAND LINE slots available to every player. While they are generally very costly to play, they usually provide the player with a special action that can be taken at every turn. Other players can pay a high amount of requisition to destroy them, and an even higher amount to take them and directly add them to their COMMAND LINE.
DOSSIER
Dossier cards allow players to gain more cards, information, protection, or board control, without causing direct Stress to a Target.
KOMPROMAT
These cards are secrets that are played face-down on the table. These can be played very early in the game and can offer players a chance to disrupt other player’s actions before the game enters the COLLAPSE state.
WAKE UP
The WAKE UP cards are the most powerful cards in the game, allowing the player to completely restore their available Requisition. The core storyline of the game will be delineated across all 30 WAKE UP cards, with each card containing a paragraph from an interview with the master archivist of the USDG.
Please note that the rules for WAKE UP cards have been drastically changed since these drafts were made. The new text on the cards should read:
Place this face-up on the table and restore all your available requisition. Once any player has played at least 3 WAKE UP cards, the game enters COLLAPSE. Once in COLLAPSE, any player can target any other player directly. During COLLAPSE, playing a WAKE UP card will either Destress your Agent for 4 OR cause 3 Stress to your Agent and restore all available Requisition.
Not included on this page are the NEWS cards, which are small changes to the global rules that last until the current player’s next turn, and AGENT cards, which are the player characters for the game. They’re coming, I just have to make them first.
If you are interested in being included in the game, please check out this form to apply to be a Targeted Individual.
If you are in Chicago and would like to be included in a playtest of the game, email me.