Summary: Cohado® introduces Opus 1, a collaborative tabletop system designed for players, facilitators, and educators seeking structured, group-based problem-solving experiences. Also Featuring a Virtual Cohado Game.
BALTIMORE, April 28, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Cohado® announced today that its flagship tabletop system, Opus 1, will launch on Kickstarter on May 1, 2026, with the campaign running through May 28, 2026.
Cohado® Opus 1 is a cooperative tabletop game rooted in the Zulu philosophy of Ubuntu — the principle that we are responsible for each other's well being. The Cohado® game experience is designed to enable groups to engage in pure collaboration, shared decision-making, and dynamic problem-solving within a gamified context — in essence a simple to learn yet challenging puzzle that players work together to solve. The experience is a metaphor that enables participants to experience the challenge of working together in a safe and trust-building environment. This removes virtually all of the high-sakes barriers that are embedded in families, workplaces, teams, and other ecosystems, to practicing a different way of working with other members of the community.
While tabletop gaming represents one of the most active categories on Kickstarter, most projects focus on competitive or genre-based experiences. Opus 1 is positioned differently: as a reusable tool that supports both gameplay and applied group interaction across social, educational, professional, really any situation.
Two unique aspects of the Cohado® experience is that it feels remarkably similar to cross-perspective relating so that engaged participants take the process seriously and really try, and learn to work together. The other common experience is that people get to know each other at a deeper level that we are used to in most relatively short encounters since there is not a particular role one assumes, as in opponents or combatants in competitive games. You show up as who you really are. This enables others to truly "see" you, and learn about your strengths, relational orientations, challenges, and capacities, free of the stresses, labels, and roles that accompany "real-world" situations. It is a true and compelling simulation. Players note that the more they play, particularly with the same individuals, the more the skills they develop to work through challenges advance outside of the arena of play. Many consistent players have noted they become better leaders, colleagues, family members, and team mates and that organizations and ecosystems who regularly engage with Cohado® see positive evolution in the overall culture – moving towards respect, transparency, and reciprocity that significantly builds trust and supports innovation.
One experienced player noted, "I like to call it a virus. And when you first play the game, you think you're just playing a game. But by the time you've completed the third round. There's been a shift in the way you view the world."
"Cohado offers us a tool to create an elegant solution to the problem of how we put our pieces together. We all have gifts and insights to offer each other. And what results at the end of each round is a beautiful artifact of our work together. This is also symbolic proof that if we work together like this beyond the table, we can begin to create workplaces, schools, neighborhoods, cities – really a beautiful world that works for everyone." said Paulo Gregory, Founder and Inventor of Cohado®. "Opus 1 creates a shared environment where groups can navigate complexity together, rather than struggle within it."
Players have noted:
At a time of division, Cohado provides a deeply needed path for the world by showing that it's possible, even necessary, to win by working together.
Victor Hwang
Founder and CEO of Right To Start
Cohado is a framework that can help us get "unstuck" on important yet seemingly intractable problems. It helps us to bring more human expectations of each other and of our organizations, so that we can grow and evolve.
Letitia VanSant
Recording Artist | Community Activist
The Cohado game has reimagined how we as human beings can interact. It's a reminder that the Collective is always stronger than the individual. It should be a roadmap to how we all work together moving forward.
Thibault Manekin
Partner, Seawall Development
Since I've known Cohado, it has been my constant source of hope, for a collaborative world, for a sustainable future, and for a way of seeing others that is revolutionary today.
Serena Treppiedi
Systems Design Thinker
Multidisciplinary Designer
To create something different. We have to become something different. Cohado gives us the skills to become something different individually and collectively.
Far I Shields
Founder Ogreena
A game with "co-ponents" instead of opponents is by itself brilliant. A game that is so rich in meaning with a thoughtful ethos and narrative wrapped around it, and a game that isn't just a game but a lesson and tool to help spark collaboration and demonstrate how the right tide can lift all shifts!
Josh Barnes
COO and Owner, Harbor Designs and Manufacturing
The Opus 1 system has been tested through hundreds of sessions across community, educational, and facilitated environments. These sessions informed the design of a modular framework that allows participants to revisit and adapt the experience over time, rather than engage in a single fixed playthrough. Cohado® has been applied in workplaces that within a relatively short time, teams in different isolated departments began to communicate and collaborate in ways that had never been imagined. Large entrepreneurial ecosystems have been created using the Cohado® model, or evolved through working with it into environments that fluidly share resources to ensure that all of the members have access to all that is available within the community. Even businesses in the same industry – often seen as competitors – have offered each other support that literally saved a business from having to close its doors.
Cohado® has completed an initial limited production run of more than 100 handcrafted bronze sets. The upcoming Kickstarter campaign will support the first scaled production run and expanded distribution of the system. The Cohado® team has also developed a fully functioning, equally stunning virtual web-based version of Cohado® where participants can play together from anywhere in the world with access to the internet. Since Cohado® relies on symbol matching, it can be played in any language – even across languages.
Though Cohado® is a delightful and challenging tabletop game, Cohado® is positioning itself as both a game and a reusable collaborative framework, Cohado® aims to expand how tabletop systems are used beyond entertainment into areas such as group alignment, learning, and innovation. The launch is expected to resonate with several overlapping audiences, including experienced tabletop participants interested in collaborative play, facilitators, human resource and organization development professionals, and educators seeking structured engagement tools, and social groups looking for more meaningful, conversation-driven experiences. There are a host of tools and training programs to support integration of Cohado® into any collaborative environment.
The Kickstarter campaign will offer first access to the Cohado® Opus 1 sets, and will simultaneously release access to the Cohado® virtual platform. In addition the Kickstarter will offer a number of associated rewards that support and reinforce the idea and practice that we are responsible for each other.
Campaign Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulogregory/cohado-peoples-set
Video Trailer URL: https://vimeo.com/cohado/trailer2?fl=ip&fe=ec
More Information: https://cohado.com
About Cohado®
Cohado® is a collaborative design system focused on strengthening cohesion and enabling groups to navigate complexity through structured interaction. Developed by founder Paulo Gregory, the platform integrates elements of game design, systems thinking, and facilitation to support alignment, innovation, and shared understanding.
Media Contact
Jennifer Yell, Cohado, 1 4437941688, [email protected], Cohado.com
Paulo Gregory, Cohado®, 1 4437941688, [email protected], Cohado.com
SOURCE Cohado
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