Up-down tiles

I was in a sprawling cave system, playing a game with a friend from work and some people I knew from highschool.

On the floor there were colourful tiles scattered around with deformed faces, symbols or shapes on them that you could easily accidentally stand on as it was so dark.

Some tiles had plus or minus symbols on them and would increase or decrease certain attributes as you stood on them.

Most of these attributes were aligned correctly, for example a plus would increase your walking speed, however sometimes a plus would increase a negative attribute as well.

As we were walking through we were nonchalantly chatting about work whereas other people were rushing through the caves, landing on every tile available.

Once we’d established certain positive tiles that counteracted negative ones, we’d tell other people we met so their afflictions could be cured.