A game where you must either play as a computer virus or the owner of the PC, and try to take, or regain, control over the device. Two players. One board. 60 road tokens.
when June 2026
type analog · tile-laying board game
players 2 (Virus vs PC)
pieces 60 road tokens · 5 PC · 5 virus
my part rules · tile art · board · pieces
Game goals
virus
Seize 3 files before tiles or pieces run out.
PC
Stop the virus from seizing files until all tiles have been placed, or kill all virus pieces.
What it is
BandiThe board is a motherboard. The four files in the corners are what the PC is trying to protect. Both players start in the centre block. At first the virus can only travel on red wires and the PC only on blue; purple connects to either. Once either side seizes a file, both can travel on any wire.▼
BandiYou build the circuit as you play: place a tile, every wire has to meet a wire of a matching colour. Then move. Seize a file and you get another piece. Fully block someone's path and their piece dies. It's the tabletop version of the videogame of the same name, except here the virus is a person across the table.
Game assets
60× road tokens1 × 1 inch1× game board9 × 9 inches5× PC piecesantivirus5× virus pieces
How to play
wires blue only connects to blue, red only to red. Purple connects to either. A side with no wire can't meet a side with one.end node grants an extra piece on that node for the cost of 1 turn. A player holding more than one tile may place a card diagonally and duplicate their piece onto it.turn node a piece standing on it may rotate any of the 8 surrounding cards for the cost of 1 turn. The only exception to the wire-connection rule.
Rules
1
Place tiles on a 9×9 board, starting from the centre block.
2
The virus side goes first; each player may place at most 1 tile per turn.
3
Each player gets one game piece at the start, on the centre block.
4
Virus travels only on red wires at the start, PC only on blue. Once either seizes a block, both can travel on any wire.
5
Players cannot pass directly through each other's pieces.
6
Every time a player seizes a file, they get one more piece in the centre block.
7
Players can kill each other's pieces by fully blocking their path.
8
60 cards total. If all are placed and the game isn't over, whoever has seized the most files wins.
On the table
a real game, at homefinal version, mid-gamethe board, before anything
The tiles
BandiThe road tokens, drawn one by one in Magma. Straight red, straight blue, purple crossings, corners, end nodes, turn nodes. The whole game is which of these you draw and where you're willing to put them.
Version history
V1.0
Initial version with 3 virus-invadable sections; player and virus each take a skill card per round.
V1.1
Added coins for buying skill cards each round.
V2.0
Reworked into a system closer to the current game.
V2.1
Added special nodes and pieces, the wire-connection rule, and purple wires.
V2.2
Added more wire types, tweaked node functions, and defined the PC and virus win conditions.
V2.3
Added more defined artwork.
version 1, on paper
What I learned
BandiWhat a board game is, and isn't. Compared with a video game there is much less room for story and for time: no cutscenes, no clock running in the background, nothing happens unless a hand moves it.
BandiBut the rules are looser in a way code can never be. Players bend them, agree on edge cases, house-rule the parts that don't work, and the game survives. A program crashes when a rule is unclear; two people at a table just talk.
