Lockpick
| Lockpick | ||
|---|---|---|
| Nicholas Vaccaro | ||
| A solitaire lock-picking challenge | ||
| Players: | 1 | |
| Length: | 20 minutes | |
| Complexity: | Medium | |
| Trios per color: | 1 | |
| Number of colors: | 5 | |
| - - - - - - Other equipment - - - - - - | ||
| Color die, six-sided die, Zark City deck | ||
| Status: Complete (v1.2), Year released: 2020 | ||
Lockpick is a solitaire game in which the player attempts to hack through a complex firewall using her homemade software, "Lockpick 1.0". The player attempts to break all of five different colored locks before the system detects the hack.
Equipment[edit | edit source]
You need:
- A six-sided die
- The Color Die
- Zark City cards, Rage cards, or another five-suited deck with 13 ranks
- 15 pyramids, one trio from each color on the Color Die
Goal[edit | edit source]
Freeze all three tumblers in each of the five firewall locks before the hack is detected. (Dispensing with the thematic language, the goal is to remove all 15 pyramids by making sets before you run out of cards to draw.)
Setup[edit | edit source]
Place all pyramids standing in a line grouped together by color, ordered red, yellow, green, cyan, purple. Separate the deck of cards by suit, shuffle each stack together, and place each of the five stacks face-down in front of its matching-colored trio. Leave enough space below the shuffled, face-down stacks for five columns, with each column able to fit around 10 cascaded cards. A discard pile will go off to the side.
How to Play[edit | edit source]
In a nutshell, each turn you will draw cards, place those cards, and then use any sets of three that have been created to freeze the lock tumblers, which are represented by the 15 pyramids.
Pop and Push[edit | edit source]
To Pop is to draw cards into your hand from one of the face-down Code Stack decks. You start each turn with zero cards in hand. Begin each turn by rolling both the color die and the six-sided die. The color die indicates which of the face-down Code Stack decks you will draw from, and the six-sided die tells you how many to draw. So if you roll a , you will draw four cards from the green face-down Code Stack deck. When there are not enough cards to draw, but there is at least one, just draw as many as are available. A wild roll lets you draw from any color deck.
Once you have cards in hand, you will "Push" cards onto the Pick Stack columns. To Push is to lay down all the cards in your hand, one by one, onto the cascading card columns (the "Pick Stacks"). Begin by placing a card onto any Pick Stack column you wish. Then choose a direction (left or right) and place one card from your hand onto each column in the direction you chose. You can rearrange your hand any way you like before placing the cards onto the columns. When you hit the edge of the board, wrap around to the other side. Make sure to place the new card so that it cascades down from any previous cards: the values of all cards in the Pick Stack columns should remain visible. See example below.
The player rolls on her first turn. She Pops six codes (draws 6 cards) from the red Code Stack deck. For easy tracking in our diagram, let's say that, improbably, the cards she has drawn are , and let's say that she has chosen to place them in that order. She decides to place her first card on the green Pick Stack column and move left. The next cards go onto the yellow, red, purple, cyan and green (again) Pick Stack columns.
Set[edit | edit source]
While you are laying down cards, it would be wise to try to arrange things so as to create sets within the columns. A set consists of three cards of a matching value ( ) or three cards that form an ascending or descending run ( ). Runs of cards can wrap around between the King, Ace and 2. Sets do not have to consist of matching suits.
| Example Sets | |||||
| valid 3-of-a-kind set |
valid ascending set |
valid descending set |
valid ascending set |
valid descending set |
invalid set |
Lock In[edit | edit source]
Whenever a Pick Stack column has three adjacent cards forming a set, you must Lock In these cards. Do this by removing the three cards from the column and discarding them to the Lock Stack (the common discard pile off to the side). Then freeze one tumbler from that column by placing a standing pyramid on its side. Congratulations; you're that much closer to breaking through the firewall. The set cards do not have to be the most recently-placed ones to be Locked In. If sets form due to cards' being pulled from the center of the columns, those sets must also be Locked In. (See diagram of this below.) You may notice sets that have formed on previous turns that you didn't see at the time: Lock these In right away, even if you're doing another action. The only time you should wait to Lock In cards is if you are in the middle of Pushing (placing cards down from your hand). Once your hand is empty, your cards have been distributed, and all the sets on the table have been Locked In, the turn is over. Roll both dice to begin a new turn.
Jump[edit | edit source]
To Jump is to move a single card from one column to another. The Jump action becomes available to you whenever the color-die tells you to draw from a Code Stack that is empty. To perform a Jump, look at the color and quantity you rolled. Scan the columns for cards that match the color you rolled. Now look at the most recently placed card of any of the Pick Stack columns, and count up the column, stopping at or before the number you rolled. If you reach a card of the right color, you can take it into your hand and place it on any Pick Stack column, including the one from which the card was just removed. After placing the card, Lock In any sets if possible (by discarding each set and then knocking over a pyramid in the column that set was formed in). Upon rolling a wild, you are allowed to choose the color of a depleted face-down Code Stack deck in order to do a Jump move. You are also allowed to choose a depleted color and then refrain from taking the Jump action, thereby effectively passing.
- Example Jump
The player rolls . There are no cards left in the face-down cyan Code Stack deck, so the player decides to Jump. There are 7 cards in the red Pick Stack column. Counting from the most recently placed card (), the third and fourth cards are cyan. The player chooses to take the third card from stack and place it on the yellow Pick Stack column. Removing the Ace from the red stack causes the to make contact, forming a run in the middle of the stack. The player Locks In these three cards.
|
|
| cyan Ace card Jumps from red to yellow column |
set forms in red column as a result |
Note that the , , and would also have been valid Jumps, but the was inaccessible because it was six steps up in its column, greater than the that was rolled.
Game End[edit | edit source]
To win, Freeze all 15 lock tumblers before you run out of cards in your face-down Code Stacks. If the final card is Popped from the final Code Stack, you have until the end of your turn to Freeze the last tumbler. Otherwise, the hack is detected and you lose.
Rules Reminders[edit | edit source]
- Popping cards and Locking In are mandatory actions. Jumping is optional.
- Even after all three tumblers of a color have been Frozen, cards are still Locked Into the Lock Stack.
- If there are not enough cards in the Code Stack pile to equal the die roll, but there are at least some, the player simply draws all the remaining cards.
- If the Code Stack pile that the player must draw from is completely empty, she may perform a Jump or pass.
- If the player notices a Set of cards she failed to Lock In previously, she Locks In the cards immediately, even during another action.
- If the player rolls a wild, she may choose a color which allows her to Pop cards or Jump cards. If she chooses a vacant stack which allows her to Jump, she may then further choose to refrain from Jumping, thus effectively passing the turn.
Terminology[edit | edit source]
- Firewall
- The set of 15 pyramids representing the security system to be broken.
- Tumblers
- Individual pyramids representing the different parts of the firewall. Tumblers are frozen when sets of three cards are formed within their columns.
- Code Stack
- Face-down cards representing the available codes. Cards are Popped off the Code Stacks.
- Pick Stack
- Face-up cascaded cards representing possible codes. Cards are Pushed onto or Jumped between parts of the Pick Stacks.
- Lock Stack
- The common discard pile off to the side, full of correct codes that the player has discovered. Sets of cards are Locked Into the Lock Stack.
- Detected
- The hack is detected by the security system when all Code Stacks are depleted.
Notes[edit | edit source]
This game was designed to be a solution to Glotz Challenge #2 from the Pyramid Arcade instruction book.