Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
The Initiative — a unique co-operative board game of story, strategy, and code-breaking — lets players take on the role of teenagers in 1994 who have found a mysterious board game called "The Key".
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Area Movement
Move pieces between connected regions rather than along individual spaces.
Scenario Campaign
Play linked or standalone scenarios with their own setup, objectives, and consequences.
Cooperative Game
Players coordinate their actions toward a shared objective and win or lose together.
Deduction
Combine clues and exclusions to identify hidden information.
Variable Player Powers
Each player has different abilities, restrictions, or strategic advantages.
Read the full game description
The Initiative — a unique co-operative board game of story, strategy, and code-breaking — lets players take on the role of teenagers in 1994 who have found a mysterious board game called "The Key". Not only will they play The Key, but players will help the teens through a pivotal chapter of their lives by following a series of missions linked together via an interactive comic book. The game's campaign is broken into a number of chapters, each taking 30-60 minutes to complete and each starting with you reading a page of the comic book. The story advances even if players fail a mission, but winning may provide a reward in the future. Each chapter builds on the knowledge and story from previous chapters, weaving narrative, code-breaking, and mystery into one thrilling game experience.