RANSOM OR RESTORE

Waiting for tables to join…

Include practice round (free, doesn't count -- runs after setup)

Basic Rules

Each of the 5 rounds follows the same loop: a scenario reveals what happened, each table discusses, then chooses one response before the clock runs out.

PAY Pay the full ransom. Fast, but paying doesn't guarantee a clean recovery.

RESTORE Recover from your own backups instead. How well this goes depends entirely on your backup posture.

NEGOTIATE Counter the attacker at 50% of their demand. High risk, high reward.

Every round costs Company Health, whichever path a table takes. Highest Company Health after all 5 rounds wins — everyone starts at 2000.

Security Configuration Options

Category	Free	Middle Ground	Best Protection
Backup Hardening	Standard — 0 tokens	Basic Hardening — 1 token	Immutable — 3 tokens
Backup Isolation	On-Network — 0 tokens	Segmented — 2 tokens	Air-Gapped — 5 tokens
Recovery Testing	Annual — 0 tokens	Quarterly — 2 tokens	Monthly — 4 tokens
Zero Trust	None — 0 tokens	Partial — 2 tokens	Strict — 3 tokens
Detection	None — 0 tokens	Endpoint — 1 token	Endpoint + Servers — 3 tokens
Cyber Insurance	None — 0 tokens	Std Business Policy — 2 tokens	Cyber Policy — 3 tokens
Incident Response	None — 0 tokens	In-House — 1 token	Retained — 3 tokens

Meet the Threat Actors

Settings

Team Token Budget

Misattribution Chance % (odds any given round's threat actor is wrongly reported)

Outcome Point Adjustments

Extra Company Health lost on each outcome, on top of the round's demand where applicable.

Pay — Partial Recovery Bonus Restore — Success Base Cost Restore — Failure Cost Negotiate — Reject Penalty Negotiate — Retaliate Cost

Bot Players

Add a bot-controlled table -- to fill out an odd number of tables, or for solo testing. Each always locks in its own setup and round decisions automatically; nothing to submit for it. Lobby-only -- can't be added or removed once the game has started.

🤖 Recover or Bust Maxes Backup Hardening, Isolation & Testing; always RESTORE. 🤖 Guard the Castle Maxes Detection & Zero Trust; decisions weighted 50% Pay / 25% Negotiate / 25% Restore. 🤖 Roll the Bones Setup and decisions are fully random. 🤖 Pay Ya Later Maxes Cyber Insurance & Incident Response, random on everything else; decisions weighted 65% Pay / 35% Negotiate. 🤖 Next Year's Budget Takes the cheapest paid tier (1 token) wherever one exists, skips every other category entirely; decisions weighted 70% Restore / 30% Negotiate. 🤖 Quantum Hybrid backup/detection/IR posture; each round it computes the actual expected cost of Pay, Negotiate, and Restore against that round's attacker and picks the cheapest -- no fixed odds.

HOST ACCESS

RANSOM OR RESTORE

Basic Rules

Security Configuration Options

Meet the Threat Actors

Settings

Outcome Point Adjustments

Bot Players

Configure Backup Posture

Round — Decisions Practice Round — Decisions

Round Results Practice Round Results

Leaderboard

FINAL RESULTS

Reveal Configurations

Insider Round

Cost Curve

Summary By Round

Closing Question