Cyber Crisis – A CXO’s Quest
Cyber Crisis: A CXO’s Quest
Cyber Crisis: A CXO’s Quest is a tabletop game I created (styled after Dungeons & Dragons game play) to help people understand what happens inside a company during a cybersecurity incident. Players take on executive roles like CEO, CISO, or CFO; and respond to a simulated breach over a series of turns.
The game is based on real-world events. It focuses on how decisions get made, what’s at stake, and how roles across the business react under pressure. The goal isn’t to win. It’s to learn what can go wrong and what happens when priorities don’t align.
Why I Built It
Most security tabletop exercises focus on tools or compliance. They rarely show the bigger picture; how leadership communicates, how delays happen, or how conflicting goals slow down a response. This game highlights those challenges.
It also helps you see things from another role’s perspective. For example, a legal officer may care more about liability, while a security leader is focused on stopping the attacker. Both are right; but their priorities can clash.
How It Works
- The game is turn-based. Each round introduces a new development in the breach.
- Players make decisions using limited time and information.
- Roles have unique goals, which sometimes conflict with others.
- Scenarios are inspired by real attacks like SolarWinds or the MGM breach.
- After the game, players get a written summary of what happened and what could have been done differently.
Ways to Use It
- Solo – Explore scenarios or prepare for running a tabletop at work.
- With a team – Assign CXO roles to coworkers and walk through a breach together.
- As a learning tool – Use it to understand how business, legal, and technical decisions come together during an incident.
Try It
I built a custom GPT in ChatGPT that runs the game, acts as the Incident Master, and helps you build scenarios.
Final Note
Ask it questions along the way. Ask it to explain things. Don’t feel limited to the multiple choice options! It’s designed to respond to whatever you throw at it. The more dynamic you are, the more interesting the session gets. That’s what makes tools like this worth playing with.