MATR1X 0VERL0AD
A downloadable game
INTR0.TXT
It is the year 21XX.
You are the best hacker in Pacifica Prime. You’ve been scraping pay-data off of corporate servers and scouting the dark corners of the neon-lit matrix since you were old enough to handle your mom’s ancient dvorak keyboard.
No one knows the matrix like you do.
You're ready to do one last righteous hack to kill the royals of Pacifica Prime, steal their money, and make it out alive.
GAME.RULES
MATR1X 0VERL0AD is a cyberpunk solitaire game about killing the rich by hacking the internet. You’ll use a standard set of playing cards to lay out a grid representing the internet and surround it with face cards that represent your targets. You’ll stack cards by order of their value on the grid, representing your efforts as a hacker to try to kill your targets, avoid ICE, and get out alive.
- Players: 1
- Playtime: 30 minutes
- Requires: A deck of playing cards, jokers loaded
CYBERMANCY
MATR1X 0VERL0AD:CYBERMANCY is a version of MATR1X 0VERL0AD that uses a deck of tarot cards to play and augment the game. The game includes the rules for the basic MATR1X 0VERL0AD game but comes with 3 additional game modes:
- CAMPA1GN: Play through 6 chapters that gradually introduce new mechanical and narrative twists into the basic game.
- RAND0M: Play basic MATR1X 0VERL0AD with random additional cards from the major arcana.
- ADVANCED: Play MATR1X 0VERL0AD with all cards from major and minor arcana for a unique solitaire challenge.
MATR1X 0VERL0AD: CYBERMANCY and the companion campaign guide are available for an additional $5. It requires a deck of tarot cards to play.
Credits
Written & Designed by Michael Elliott
Based on Gridcannonby Tom Francis
Download
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Exclusive content
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Community Copy
Everyone who purchases this game provides a copy for someone to download free of charge. These community copies of the game are intended for those who are experiencing financial hardships and cannot pay for a copy. If you want to check out this game and cannot afford the price, help yourself.
You can also get all my games by joining my Patreon for as little a $1 a month.
Development log
- CybermancyOct 27, 2019
Comments
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Hi small question to reset a Knight do all resets work or only the soft ones ?
If hard reset works where do the Knight stands ? Is it considered the lowest value ?
Hi! It's been a while but I believe that a stack with a Knight can only be reset with soft resets, since they have no value a hard reset wouldn't trigger them.
I made a version of this available on Tabletop Simulator !
I really love the game so far, and am hoping things get even better somehow in cybermancy
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3210566397
Oh heck thanks so much!
Np!!! Am really obsessing over this rn lol, would love an official tarot deck if that's something that's possible via a kickstarter or otherwise - though I know this is a really old project for you
I've actually been thinking about doing a new version now that I've learned a lot more about layout and presentation, and also I have a whole cyberpunk world this could fit into. Probably not this year, but at some point!
I'll be looking forward to it !
Played a couple rounds of the base game and it was pretty fun, I won most of the time, but it got quite close. For higher difficulty, remove one, two or even three aces from the deck!
One rules question though. When I use an ace to add a stack to the bottom of my draw pile, which way is the stack oriented?
Face down, so that the bottom card of the stack is drawn first?
Or face up (since the cards in the stack have been seen already) so that the top card of the stack is drawn first?
I am asking because the first option heavily restricts your ability to chain aces and keep playing with few cards, as you are always forced to play the ace you just recovered BEFORE any of the cards you recovered from that same stack (effectively filtering the two used aces to the top of your draw pile where you can't chain them in any productive manner). But the rules for the "recursion" lose condition make it sound like the ace you just picked up is supposed to end at the *bottom* of your draw pile, not in the middle (i.e. on top of the stack you just added).
Face down.
Still liking this one very much. It might even be worth kickstarting with a cyber themed tarot deck. I’ve found two good card decks to play with. One is Elephant’s “Circuit” Deck. My favorite version being the PCB edition (looking like old school printed circuit boards) and Bycycle’s “Dark Mode” Deck. I haven’t found a good Tarot deck that fits the theme, hence my suggestion above.
Can u make a video explaining much Better the rules with normal deck card.
Thanks
I Like it. Can you do an overload across the middle before that space is filled, or no? I would have thought not, except you mention that it is 0 points. No reason for it to have points if you can not overload across it, right?
Hi! An overload can trigger across the middle before that space is filled. It's unlikely to kill a royal since you would need a total value of at least 11 with 1 card.
and that shows me! I misread how Overload works. Thanks!
I'm kinda obsessed. Played 10 runs, ain't won yet. Feel like Aeon Flux. Always dying, but on pile of corpses of my own making.
Love this. Playing with my new Shadowrun Tarot deck. Question: say I'm playing and have King and Queen of Swords out and keep drawing ICE. Do they all go on the Queen (as her value is 12) or does gaining ICE change the priorities for ICE placement, i.e. I place a 4 ICE (Queen is now 12 4) and draw another 3 ICE. Does the King get this one (K:13 vs Q:16) or does is the Q:12 always get used, Thus Queen = 12 4 3?
Also why no entry on BoardGameGeek.com? You could upload the free version and link through to here.
S
Glad you're enjoying it!
When you have to play a card as ICE you place it on the royal with the closest value. In your example it would go on the King first, since 13 is closer to 3 than 16. Basically the lowest total value royal (including any ICE) gets the card. If there's a tie you can pick where it goes as ICE.
I haven't messed with boardgamegeek yet. I only just got used to DriveThruRPG but I'll definitely take a look, thanks!
Cool. I think I'd still have died with Black Ice that game anyway. Second game ended in a Fatal 1nf1n1te Recurs10n Err0r (with only 2 Royals to go). Definitely add your game to BGG. It can be a bit tedious to set up but it's free and once your game is there, it becomes a hub for interested players. It is the goto site for board and card games and I only found this game by a post there in a discussion thread on solo games for Tarot decks. I've played a few and this is, by far, the best and most engaging. I'd love to record some play through videos for my YouTube channel but it would be better with a BGG area to upload them to. S
Just lost game 3. Black Ice this time. Added an overview video to my channel.
Awesome!
Thanks. Took me 5 games to beat Basic. I think I'm getting the hang of it. Managing Resets is important. Now moving onto the Campaign. This game is so good! It has turned my Shadowrun Tarot deck indulgence into a quality gaming purchase :)
Very fun, but the rules are a little unclear. Eg. do Knights count as 0 for the purposes of hard resets, or can you only remove them with aces? And when do you add the major arcana? Still, definitely enjoying it!
Hey! Sorry this took so long to get to! Knights can be reset with any reset card. You can add the major arcana all at once or gradually through the campaign mode. The rules in Matrix Overload: Cybermancy and the Campaign Guide take you through what to add and when.
The Cybermancy rules don't note that Knights should initially be removed. (The campaign does say it though.) In fact, in the bas1c game m0de section it mentions removing just 2t thru 21t, saying "this should leave you with a 54 card deck" which it of course doesn't. (It leaves me with 58.)
Just thought I'd mention it in case you do a revision.
Hey, I also wanted to say, One Trillion Years is quite the thing. I encountered it through the thousand year game competition (I played as many of the entries as I could, though Nomad was the only one which stuck with me). Cool to randomly encounter you via a different route.
Hey !
The game is quite fun, I like it, but the rules of the base game are not all that clear (for me, a french-born, so it may be my fault)
With Cybermancy, it's easier to understand the base game, espcially for placing royals on corners, when their color isn't on the matrix.
I still have some questions : What about the hole in the middle of the matrix ? We just fill hit whenever we want ? Are we suppose to take out of the cards 3 royals ? The objective is "kill[ing] all the royals in the deck (all 3 jacks, 3 queens, and 3 kings)" but there are 4 J, Q and K...
PS : I might do (for myself at first) a French version of the rules, would you be interseted to put it with the other files ?
Hello! Thanks for playing!
Yes, the hole in the middle of the matrix is a free space where you can place any card (to start) and then follow rules for placement as normal. The rule about royals is I think a typo, it should say royals of each suit, so yes you need to kill all Jacks, Queens, and Kings. If you do end up doing a French translation please let me know!
Hey ! Thanks for anserwing. I've started to do the traduction, slowly but surely, and I still have some questions... 😅It will be esaier to explain with an example :
I've on a row the following cards: K♥; 17t, 2♠, 2t. If I place a 3t on the 2t, would the K♥ die, because there is more than 13♥on the row when overloaded, or he survive because the 2 cards aren't ♥ ?
Another question : shouldn't the maximum of ICE be augmented from 21 to (19t 18t=) 37, as it can be atteigned on advanced mode ?
Thanks again for anserwing.
In order to kill a King each card in the payload must match the suit. It doesn’t matter if one card exceeds the health if the other isn’t also a heart or wild.
The number for ICE remains static throughout the game. If you’d like an additional challenge you can always augment that rule and see how it goes.
Really loving the base game and looking forward to running the more advanced ruleset! (Also, the "Ending the Game" section says there are 3 of each face card, when there are four (one for each suit).)
Thank you!
I know this nitpicky and doesn't really matter but in the campaign document it says that Major Arcana 11 is Strength, but Strength is 8, 11 is Justice.
I just get distracted by stuff like that. The actual game itself is really fun and I love how you expand upon the basic rules of gridcannon and gave it a creative theme and story.
Thank you! I wasn't aware of the different interpretations of where Strength and Justice fit in the major arcana. Perhaps I will switch them around in a future version!
8 is traditionally Justice, and 11 Strength or Force. AE Waite popularized the switch to 8=Strength in the early 20th century, based on the Golden Dawn theories. But the second-most-famous deck, Crowley's Thoth, reverted to the traditional numbering, and the Marseilles tarot (the most influential in continental Europe) naturally kept the original numbers because it's where they came from. There's no need to make 8=Strength unless you prefer it that way, as either is valid at this point in time, depending on one's preference.
Great game! Tons of fun and the theming is super cool!
Thanks!
My dad LOVES this game. :D
Happy to hear it :)
This game goes above and beyond what a typical game of Solitaire ever thought to do. I love it. Should probably dig out one of my tarot decks soon and try Cybermancy.
Thank you so much!