Guide to Play the Game

Published February 2015

Guide to Play the Game

Contents
BC24 Testimonials ................................................................................................................................... 4
BC24 in your tool-kit ............................................................................................................................... 5
Competition .................................................................................................................................... 6
Team or Individual Sessions ............................................................................................................ 6
Embedding BCM.............................................................................................................................. 6
External Awareness Raising ............................................................................................................ 6
BC24 for Game Administrators ............................................................................................................... 7
Home page screen .............................................................................................................................. 7
Register screen.................................................................................................................................... 7
Manage: To set up new games and manage existing ones ................................................................ 8
Status: To view progress on game completion and to contact game players .................................... 9
Playing BC24.......................................................................................................................................... 10
Ready to play BC24? ............................................................................................................................. 11
Support with game set up or play..................................................................................................... 11
Additional Information.......................................................................................................................... 12
Do I need to register or book a time-slot? ........................................................................................ 12
Single Player-Mode ........................................................................................................................... 12
Multiple Games Single Administrator ............................................................................................ 12
Managed Event/Tournament ........................................................................................................... 12
Can we buy BC24 for our own organization? ................................................................................... 12
Are there any technical prerequisites for BC24? .............................................................................. 13
If I get the wrong answer, can I go backwards and correct it? ......................................................... 13
Is the game available in any other languages? ................................................................................. 13
Future development ......................................................................................................................... 13
About the Business Continuity Institute ............................................................................................... 14

Guide to Play the Game

Purpose and acknowledgements
BC24 is an online incident simulation game for up to six players. Players are faced with a series of
choices through the game, the choices made are scored and outcomes may differ depending on the
choices made.
BC24 provides an excellent tool to support the embedding of Business Continuity (BC) across an
organization and its partners and can form an essential part of developing a resilience capability
through exercising.
BC24 was devised by the BCI and developed in conjunction with leading experts from the worlds of
e-learning and gaming.
Launched in March 2011, some 2000 teams have since played BC24.

http://bc24.thebci.org/

Guide to Play the Game

BC24 Testimonials
The simulator is quite simple and asks questions about how to act in
a contingency situation. Many of the questions are quite fast and have a very
short time to answer. The idea is pretty good because they make a simulation
with multiple profiles common in an organization (the Director of the Company,
the IT Director, Human Resources Manager, Production Manager and Business
Continuity Manager) and they simulate a flood situation in offices. The
simulation is focused on validating your expertise to solve an emergency
situation.

We had a very positive response from those who took part in the
game. Interestingly enough those without direct BC knowledge
scored much lower than those in the BC community.
We didnt go out to win a prize but rather to include as many
people who dont normally get involved directly with BC duties
and the game is a brilliant mechanism for attracting interest in
the subject - and providing food for thought. So lets get out
there and do some more work on "embedding BC" buds.
Its a great game to get people involved in BC and quite a clever
tool to add to your suite for inductions/training - even for mid to
senior management.
Eugene Taylor MBCI, VocaLink, UK

I fully agree that BC24 is being well received. It is

being used to increase awareness within our sites
globally (DHL SC) to support a BCM program that has
recently been implemented.

BC24 seems to have gone down really well

and although we didnt get a team on the
leader board we were only a point away and
may well try again. Keep up the good work!

We are already receiving quite a bit of unsolicited

positive feedback. The team within the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia sent me an email advising me that "... I
must say everyone enjoyed the experience and it
gave us all an excellent insight into what could go
wrong as well as drawing attention to the complexity
of managing all the small things that go wrong in a
disaster situation, things that we expect to be just
there, like the internet etc." Well done BCI for this
initiative.

Shaun Lockwood MBCI, BT, UK.

Trevor Fossey, DHL Supply Chain (entered 80 teams

from around the world)

Many thanks again for all of your support.

I'm most impressed, and will be
recommending this tool/your service to any
person or organization it may be of benefit.
Amie McGrory, Emergency Planning, Central
Bedfordshire Council

Guide to Play the Game

BC24 in your tool-kit
BC24 provides an excellent opportunity to introduce colleagues and partners to the issues of
effectively managing an incident. BC24 is a single scenario game involving a flood, a supply chain
failure and impending reputational consequences. It has been written by professional e-learning
and gaming professionals and avoids the use of BC jargon, so anyone can play the game.
Feedback from those who have played BC24 confirms that the game is an effective way to raise
awareness of the BC team and BC within the organization. BC24 can form a key part of a BC
communication strategy and contribute to a wider exercising one as well. With the benefit of a
database of team and individual scores, BC24 now provides a ready benchmark against others.
800
700
600

Team Scores

500
400
300
200
100

While many organizations have the capability to write their own exercises, BC24 is a straightforward
proven exercise that is implemented on the Web. It removes the requirement for investment in the
development of an exercise. It is tried and tested, and well-liked based on the testimonials received.
It allows benchmarking against many other teams and can be supported by less skilled and
experienced resources. It should therefore provide a useful option in any exercising tool-kit.
BC practitioners can bring value to the game through debriefing the players and helping colleagues
understand the questions and reasons for choices made before applying this to their own
organizations BC programme.
The following graph shows an example of the high and mean scores by player role.
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Business Continuity
Manager

HR Director

IT Director

PR Manager

Procurement
Manager

Senior Director

Guide to Play the Game

The game has been designed for six players each taking one of the following roles: BCM Manager,
Senior Director, HR Director, IT Director, PR Manager, and Procurement Manager. However, it is
also possible to just play a subset of these roles or for one person to play all six roles.
What is the incident about? While we do not want to give too much away, the scenario is based on
a flooding incident as well as a supply chain failure and requires a broader thinking perspective on
the reputational consequences of the original incident and the way in which the incident is
managed.
Based on teams playing the game at time of writing, organizations have been using the game in
different ways. Some examples are given below:
Competition
As BC24 is a game, organizations can run their own in-house competition, awarding a prize to the
top scoring team and/or role. Each role player can earn points based on the decisions chosen and
the score is presented to the player at the end of the game along with some high level individual
feedback.
Team scores will appear on the public leader board unless the opt out is chosen in advance
(privacy button). The names of the team can be freely chosen to preserve anonymity.
Team or Individual Sessions
BC24 can be set up such that each invited player can play when it is convenient to them. How long it
takes to play their role can vary but 10-15 minutes is a common timeframe and 30 minutes for a
single role is more than adequate. You can play the same role or different roles as often as you like.
Embedding BCM
If you would like to go beyond colleagues playing individually, then you might like to organize a team
session so that decisions made during the game can be discussed and extrapolated to your own
organization i.e. how would we do this?. Organizations who have done this scored highly and
invested approximately two to three hours in the activity.
External Awareness Raising
You might also consider using the game to promote BC to your supply chain partners and give
yourself an indicative measure of their maturity of BC thinking.

Guide to Play the Game

BC24 for Game Administrators
Home page screen
After you have registered and
have received login details, login
here to manage existing games
and to create new games.

If you are the organizer or

administrator of the game,
when you first set up the game,
you should click on either of
these.

Register screen
To register, complete the fields.
If you are playing BC24 outside
of BCAW, you will need to enter
a Game Passcode.
This is available to members of
the BCI Corporate Partnership
and licence holders.
Please note that the passcode is
not the same as your login
details.
Please also select the privacy
conditions for your contact data.
You only need to use this screen
the first time you create a game.
All subsequent games should be
created under the Manage
tab.

Guide to Play the Game

Manage: To set up new games and manage existing ones
You will know that you are
successfully registered when
you see your name here (an
email with your login details
will be sent to you separately).

Uncheck this box at the start, if you do

not want to appear on the leader
board.

Under the manage tab you can

assign your colleagues to
selected roles. They will receive
an email invitation to play the
role assigned. If, for some
reason they do not receive an
email, then this screen provides
the login email address and
password that you can send to
them.
If someone cannot play a role,
then the role can be re-assigned
with replace role.
PLEASE DO NOT ASSIGN THE
SAME EMAIL ADDRESS TO
MORE THAN ONE ROLE OR USE
DUMMY EMAIL ADDRESSES.

When all six roles have played, the game is automatically finished. If you want to prematurely end the
game, then click terminate this game and then click on create new game.

Guide to Play the Game

Status: To view progress on game completion and to contact game players

As you can see

these roles have
not been played

Game Status page allows the administrator to see the games that they have set up. In this section
you check whether colleagues have played the assigned roles. You can also send them a message
directly from here, if desired. You can also see the game participants scores on this page

Guide to Play the Game

Playing BC24

If you are going to play BC24 and you are not the administrator/organizer, then you will receive an
email inviting you to play once you have been set up on the system by your administrator. The email
will look like the one above. To play all you need to do is click on the link provided (it includes your
login details) and you will automatically be taken into the role/game.
If the link has been deactivated, or if you have lost this email, then your game administrator can
provide you with the login information. When you have this, go to the website and follow the
instructions below. KEEP THIS INFORMATION SAFE, YOU WILL ONLY RECEIVE AN EMAIL THE FIRST
TIME YOU PLAY BC24.
If you have received an invitation to play and
cannot use the link in the email (for first
timers) or are playing for a second or
subsequent time, you need to navigate to the
BC24 home page and click on either of these
buttons. You will then be asked to enter your
login details (email and password); and you will
see that you are logged in (top right hand
corner). From here, click on the Join or the
dark green arrow button to play the game

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Guide to Play the Game

Ready to play BC24?

< Introductory
text on the
assigned role is
here >

Playing the game is straightforward. Read the introductory text and advice provided on this screen.
Check how you would like your contact details to be managed. When you are ready, then click on
Start Game. When you have completed the game, you will be given a role score and feedback on
how you performed. If you want to keep a copy of this information, please print from the screen.
NOTE: now that you have played a game, you can actually set up your own game and invite
colleagues to play. Just click on the manage tab and set up a game as per the earlier instructions.

Support with game set up or play

If you have any questions regarding game set up or play, then contact the BCIs on-line help
desk, bc24@thebci.org. Queries will be dealt with during UK office hours unless otherwise agreed.
For any other enquiry, such as purchasing a BC24 licence, request for game pass code, or
individual/team score, please contact the BCI help desk by email at bc24@thebci.org .
Alternatively you can contact Jan Gilbert in the BCI Central Office

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Guide to Play the Game

Additional Information
Do I need to register or book a time-slot?
No, you can just login and play whenever it is convenient for you and your colleagues.

Single Player-Mode
To play BC24 in Single Player mode, once you have completed the login, go to the Manage game
page. From this page you will be able to create your team name and assign roles. In this mode you
would assign yourself to the Senior Director role, for example, and complete the details requested
and then go to the Join page to play that role.
When completed you can go to the Results page to see your score (remember to make a note of
your score). To play the next role go back to the Manage game page and assign yourself to the
next role, for example, IT Director, and follow the same instructions. This can then be done for each
of the other roles to complete the game. The game does not have to be completed in one session,
just remember to retain your login details, email address and password.

Multiple Games Single Administrator

Setting up multiple games can be achieved by a single administrator providing that all six roles are
assigned to different team members (unique email addresses). Login and go to Manage game page
and set up the first team. Once all roles have been assigned, you are then able to create another
new game and assign all roles.
Please note: You cannot assign yourself or others to two or more roles at the same time. If you want
to play in more than one game, then you need to complete each game before creating a new one.
We recommend that the administrator does not play in any games, however, if this is desired, then
the administrator should place themselves in the last game that is created.
You can set up multiple games in advance, but you may want to tell players not to play until a given
time. If they click on the play link, then all they need to do is close the browser and wait until the
assigned time.

Managed Event/Tournament
If you wish to run a competition across your organization as a special event, then the BCI can assist
with a dedicated landing page, leader board and provision of player results. The BCI would need to
charge for this additional service to accommodate help desk costs, development time and service
level agreements plus the provision of results. We will also need to understand when you want to
play and how many teams you expect. Contact bc24@thebci.org, if you would like to explore this
option.

Can we buy BC24 for our own organization?

BC24 is a hosted game. An online licence can be purchased from the BCI to play the game at any
time and as often as desired over a 12-month period. Please contact Jan Gilbert for further
information.

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Guide to Play the Game

Are there any technical prerequisites for BC24?

The game does not use ActiveX or Flash but it does require support of JavaScript. Some corporate
security policies may mean that the game cannot be played from the office, however, you can play
the game from any desktop or laptop computer with broadband connectivity and support of
industry standard browsers.

If I get the wrong answer, can I go backwards and correct it?

Once you have started the game you cannot go backwards, i.e. hit back on the browser. You can,
however, exit and rejoin at any time

Is the game available in any other languages?

The platform is specifically developed to deliver plain text, you can run the game through an online
translator if this makes it easier for your players. This was successfully done with Spanish during
BCAW 2011.

Future development
The BCI is looking at player feedback to consider future enhancements to the game, which may
include additional scenarios, new characters and enhancements to playability.

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Guide to Play the Game

About the Business Continuity Institute
The Business Continuity Institute (BCI), based in Caversham, United Kingdom, was established in
1994 to enable individual members to obtain guidance and support from fellow Business Continuity
professionals. The BCI currently has over 8,000 members in 100+ countries active in an estimated
2,750 organizations in private, public and third sectors.
The BCI is instantly recognised as standing for good practice and professionalism.
For further information, please visit the website www.thebci.org

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Guide to Play the Game

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