Bomb

A bomb is a pivotal game event. It is defined by a reward greater than the resources required to generate it. What prevents these major events from un-balancing a game is that all players are aware of the bomb, and often what player actions, collectively, will trigger it. The resulting competition can make benefiting from a bomb harder than might appear from the rules alone.

This is laid out in much more detail in an article by Jonathan_Degann?.

Examples:

• Vino? is a textbook example. The government giveaways occur when all other spaces in a territory are occupied, by any combination of players.
• The 'big buildings' in Puerto_Rico? have a huge impact on a players score, and each can only be bought once.
• Conflicts in Tigris_&_Euphrates? can create large swings in player position.
• In Hearts and related card games, ShootingTheMoon? is a bomb.
• In Magic: The Gathering, costly, powerful cards (like Memnarch) are bombs.
• Of course the most obvious example is the bomb in Counter_Strike? which is actually a bomb. Everyone knows which team can lay the bomb and which team can defuse it, what is unclear is which player will lay the bomb, at which time and at which of the known locations.

----- CategoryGoodIdea