Description

Following a blackout, in Neustart you and the other members of a municipal crisis management team need to protect a small town from chaos and destruction and provide the population with the best possible care. You don't know how long it will be before power can be restored. Dealing with uncertainty and insecurity, possibly with failures and losses, the situation will make enormous demands on you.

Each round of a game is a complete day, broken into day and night. Different events happen in day and night, with these events becoming more serious and all-encompassing as the days progress. Initially everyone still has enough to eat, but people might be stuck in elevators, and accidents or fires can occur as the population handles open flame to cook.

Over time, food will run out, people will need more care, and the population needs to be informed about what measures the administration is taking. To solve these problems, the players control five teams — fire brigade, police, rescue service, construction, and administration — each with three members. Each team has important skills, but they can also crossover to handle other tasks, with the construction team also being able to put out fires, for example.

Teams can be used only for a certain amount of work, after which they need to recover. Players must act under time pressure and a lack of information, having only a few minutes to decide how the teams will act, with anything unaddressed remaining undone — and unfortunately unresolved tasks deteriorate the mood of the population, possibly leading to riots and chaos. Teams and time are limited, though, so you must set priorities and ration where needed.

The game lasts 4-7 days, and you can determine how well you do based on the damage suffered by the population and area.