Post originally by Torben Mogensen at 2005-06-01 07:49:43
Converted from Phorums BB System

The cooperative aspect and the "Evil gains power" part reminds me of two games. The best known is Reiner Knizia's "Lord of the Rings" game, which is much simpler (and random) but has some of the same choices of taking damage to yourself to further the group goal.

A lesser known game is Avalon Hill's "Wizards" that each player playing wizards that solve quests to prepare attempting to defeat the evil power that is slowly taking over the land. This also has a degree of copperative play (you must work together to avoid evil from winning), but also a competitive aspect, as the one to finally defeat the evil power is declared winner. This game is considerably more complex that Knizia's LotR (and also has some flaws making the endgame uninteresting), but interesting nonetheless.

In any case, I'm not sure you can call the idea of a cooperative game "innovative". Unusual, yes. Hard to get right, yes. But not original, no.