Story

Sterling Pachinko is a mildly illegal operation, naturally. You knew that the whole year you spent cleaning the machines by night and hacking by day, when you should have been sleeping. But then your bosses found out you were good at what you did, and they offered you a real job. Their words.

They were a bigger operation than you'd realized, but also sloppier. It wasn't long before you found their financials, client list, everything. The real books, not the cooked ones for when the algocops came around.

So it's only a matter of time, and probably not much of it, before they realize you're a little too good at what you do. You know in your bones that this will be your last chance to peek at those beautiful uncooked books—see what they've hidden everyplace from the pachinko machines to the HVAC—and then hop an aero out of the megacity while you still can.

Objective

Hack your soon-to-be-former employers' system and steal as much data as you can before they trace your connection and send you packing.

The game ends when you scratch off the last space in your trace meter, or when you have revealed all 84 data icons.

You cannot lose the game. At this point, the only losing move is not to play.

HINT: Don't get careless in there. Pay attention to these hints for important clues to help you win.

Instructions

The network map is divided into servers, each of which looks something like this:

Each turn, scratch off a square in an unlocked server of your choice to reveal one of the following:

Data

Data is what you're here for. Data is good! For each data icon you reveal, you gain one point at the end of the game.

In addition to increasing your score, data unlocks servers, allowing you to explore more of the network. In the example above, the vid-phones server has an unlock threshold of 5, which means that you cannot scratch off any of its spaces until you have revealed 5 or more data in other servers.

When you unlock a server, scratch off its unlock icon and the red cable connected to it.

NOTE: The gateway is automatically connected, so you can access it immediately at the start of the game.

To keep track of how much data you've downloaded, scratch off the next space in the data tracker on the right side of the card every time you reveal a data icon, up to a maximum of 41 (the highest unlock threshold for any server).

ICE

ICE stands for intrusion countermeasure electronics. ICE are bad!

When you reveal an ICE, scratch off one of the three icons in your trace meter.

When you scratch off your last trace icon, the game ends. You don't lose, but you can't keep playing.

HINT: The numbers on the rows and columns of a server indicate how many ICE are in that row or column.

HINT: The number on an ICE shows how many other ICE are in adjacent spaces, including diagonals, up to a maximum of 8.

Programs

Hacking servers is more complicated than people think it is, and exactly as dangerous as they think it is, which is why you've loaded up your cyberdeck with helpful programs. You have two programs, each of which can be used four times.

Data Miner

To use the data miner, scratch off a data miner icon. You are now in data miner mode.

Continue scratching off server spaces.

If you reveal a data icon, handle it like normal. You are still in data miner mode.

If you reveal an ICE, ignore it. However, this exits data miner mode.

ICE Breaker

To use the ICE breaker, scratch off an ICE breaker icon. You are now in ICE breaker mode.

Continue scratching off server spaces.

If you reveal an ICE, ignore it. You are still in ICE breaker mode.

If you reveal a data icon, handle it like normal. However, this exits ICE breaker mode.

HINT: If you know where some ICE is located and have avoided scratching it, you can use your ICE breaker to remove it from the server.

Scoring

When the game ends, your score is based on the amount of data you revealed:

Questions?

If you have any questions about the rules, please email zach@coincidence.games to help us improve them.