Posted: Jun 12, 2018 Hack into cyberspace as you move around secure servers, collecting secrets and inspiration that you can use to program new abilities - every mechanic involves stacking cards.

This is a game built around hacking servers and stacking cards. Initially inspired by the demise of Android: Netrunner, I wanted to attempt a hacking game which felt like programming. Unlike Netrunner, I wanted a spatial game board that you could move around, and I wanted something that involved hacking enemies and stuff.

I wanted to keep it in terms of a board game, just to limit how crazy I could get with the design. After all, a hacking computer game wouldn't feel like programming, it'd probably end up actually being programming. In fact, my initial ideas were along that line and it quickly spiraled into an untenable design. It wasn't until I came up with the card stacking game world (similar to those Mahjong matching games from the 90s) that I had a hook to hang the game from.

Fig 268.1 - Shock to the System.

This is a server the player is trying to hack. The game board is made up of face down cards with other cards stacked on top of them. Your player pawn can move between each card even if they are face down - you just can't interact with a face down location. When a card is free (that is, there is no card stacked or partially stacked) on top of a card, you can flip it over when you arrive and interact with it. For the non-ground floor locations, each one is a challenge that, when completed, is removed from the board.

The bottom level cards (the blue ones) are server nodes that you can interact with in order to gain secrets (sold for money and victory points) or inspiration (used to improve your cyberdeck and rewrite enemy programs). Some are nodes that can heal you, hurt you, provide bonuses, or just do nothing at all. Base level cards are never removed, thus if you find a card that hurts you every time you enter, it will stay there and continue hurting you every time you enter.

Like Netrunner, the game is built from a bunch of smaller, more targeted runs. It isn't like an RPG where you go into a dungeon and just stay there forever. Here, the player has a limited number of resources, time, and abilities, and must continually make focused runs to succeed. One run might do nothing more than target a particularly difficult challenge, putting all resources into a specific code breaking ability, beating the challenge, and logging out. The longer you stay in a server, the more dangerous it becomes.

To generate a server is relatively simple. You'll have a bunch of layout cards that have pictures, much like the above, of what the server looks like. Each layer is color coded for visual differentiation and for level creation. There is a second set of cards which have various card decks that populate the the various layers of the server. Each layer may have a certain number of required cards, with the rest being filled out randomly.

For instance, a "Bank Server" card may say that "ATM Interface", "Savings Account", and "PIN Numbers" are in the base layer. The "Circle Server" card shows a layout that contains 8 cards in the base layer. So you would create a base layer deck by picking those 3 required cards and then 5 base layer cards chosen randomly from the neutral base layer cards. Similarly, the Bank Server may have certain challenges at each layer with the rest filled in randomly.

Fig 268.2 - Inspiration Cards.

One of the basic resources that you'll find is inspiration. The inspiration cards are a basic 9 square grid that is broken up into Tetris-like blocks. Each blog has a skill written on it, like "code breaking", "resolve", "quick reflexes", "ice breaking", and so on. A single inspiration card may have between 1 and 9 different skills on it.

Fig 268.3 - Stacking Cards To Build an Inventory.

Here's where it gets slightly more interesting. You build a sort of inventory of skills that you bring with you on a run by stacking the cards on top of each other in order to build a Diablo-like inventory grid. The illustration above is 8 different inspiration cards, stacking upon each other. Each one covers some of all of the skills of the ones behind it.

Fig 268.4 - Here's a Nice Frame for the Inventory.

Finally, you get this nice frame that you could place around the specific section of the stack that represents your state of mind when you make a run. Only the skills inside this box are ones that you can use in a particular run.

Once a card has been placed down, it can not be taken up again. However, between runs, you can stack additional inspiration cards on the pile, either on top of what's already there, or continue building outwardly, creating a very large, but shallow state of mind. You can also move the frame between each run, possibly selecting a different set of skills inside the frame. You can not obscure a skill when stacking a new card on top of it, but when placing the frame, it is okay if a skill is partially out of frame.

One final thing worth pointing out is that the skills are grouped by color as well. So all the red skills will be aggressive, fighting skills. All the blue skills are intellect and problem solving. All the green skills are wisdom and experience. And so on. This is important during runs.

The basic loop of the game is that you go into a server on a run. When you encounter a challenge, you use some of your skills to survive it and/or defeat it. Some encounters will give you inspiration cards that you can use to build up your mental state, while others will give you juicy secrets. A server is considered defeated if you gain X number of secrets, with X being specified by the server type card (which will also ensure that at least X secrets are found within the cards).

So, how does an encounter go down? First, your player pawn moves to a card. If there are cards above it on the stack, it remains face down and nothing happens. If there are no cards above it, it is flipped over and encountered.

Fig 268.5 - Encountering a Challenge.

When a card is flipped face up, it will have a series of commands that will happen (not unlike ICE in Netrunner). These commands will do things (probably terrible things) to the player, and each command can either be suffered or cancelled by spending an appropriate skill.

Fig 268.6 - Fatigue and Damage.

For instance, a card might say "> Suffer 3 Damage (green) (green)". This means that the player can suffer the effect (lost 3 damage) or use two green skills to cancel the effect. You use a skill by placing a fatigue token on one of the boxes. So if you cancel this command, you'd place two fatigue tokens on two different green squares in your cyberdeck (they can both be from the same skill, if the skill takes up more than one skill). Similarly, suffering 3 damage means placing 3 damage tokens on any three squares in the grid. When a skill is covered up by fatigue or damage tokens, it can no longer be used. When all grid spots are taken up, your run is over. Return to base.

Fatigue can be replenished during a run, while damage is only healed between runs. Fatigue is replenished on cards that purposely have a command that replenish fatigue (usually a base level card). Sticking around on that card for a few turns can increase the effect, but since you are limited in the number of turns you can use each run, you might just be trading one limited resource for another.

Sometimes, a specific skill is required. Instead of "(blue)", you might have "quick thinking". In this case, it costs 1 fatigue specifically from a skill square with "quick thinking" written on it. However, you can strain yourself and spend two of any like-colored skills to get the same effect. So either 1 fatigue on "quick thinking" or 2 fatigue on blue squares - for each named skill. So if it requires two named skills, it could potentially cost you 4 fatigue to defeat.

In addition to each command, challenge cards that are not base level cards may also have a removal cost, where one can spend skills to defeat the card. If this cost is not paid, the card remains there until it is. It is entirely possible to land on a challenge and be forced to suffer each command and still not be able to remove it.

In addition to the player's pawn, moving around the server map, there are also independent pawns representing ICE (bad guys). I'll be honest, I tried to come up with some unique mechanisms for these guys such that you could use card stacking to sort of program them - kind of like gambits from Final Fantasy 12. I just wasn't feeling it. So, I'm just going to go with the Pac Man approach. There are 5 pieces of ICE, each with their own behaviors.

Red - Every other turn, makes a move towards the player. If reaches the player, attacks. Moves slower than the player, but keeps them on their toes.

Yellow - Every other turn, makes a move further away from the player. If defeated, player gets a key that deletes a challenge.

Blue - Stationary (position set by layout card). Every 5 turns, sends out a pulse, damaging the player if on a card on the same level as Blue.

Green - Moves towards Red, Yellow, or Blue. Stacks with them. When stacked, they have more attack (red) or defense (yellow) - or both, in the case of Blue.

Orange - Moves one card towards the player. Any card it is on requires an additional fatigue of any color in order to cancel a command or delete the card.

In addition to these 5, there's also DOOMSLAYER, a special ICE that comes out after X turns have passed. It is a hunting ICE, not unlike Red, but invincible and does a lot of damage. Basically, a terminator that comes out when your time is up to make sure your time is up.

So, now all you need is some sort of combat system which ties into the skill system that allows you to fight the ICE and bam, there you go.