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Soliterror

The Soliterror boils across the land. Resplendent in harlequin regalia, clothed in divine power, the wicked Court reigns. A lone soul approaches— a challenger.

The Basics

Markers

Each card in the Chi Pix deck has a Marker just below the suit: ↓

Soliterror uses Markers for a few different purposes:

1. Orientation: When rotating cards, use the Marker to tell which direction it's facing.

2. Defense: Court cards have numbers in their markers, written in Roman numerals, which shows their Defense. Jacks have 3, Queens have 4, and Kings have 5.

Setup

First, take out all the Kings, Queens, and Jacks. Choose one of each, discarding the rest. Place the Jack face up, with the Queen and King beneath it. Make sure they're all in the upright position, with the marker in the top left. These are your Enemies.

Next, choose your Player Card, representing you on the battlefield. It can be any card, for any reason, except Court cards or Jokers.

Shuffle the deck, and set up the play area like this: ↓

Let's play a round!

Draw 5 cards. At the beginning of every turn, you need to hold exactly 5 cards in your hand.

Look at your Enemy's Marker. Jacks have a III. That's it's Defense— AKA how many cards you have to string together in a Combo in order to score a Hit. ↓

Make a Combo! If two cards share the same suit or number, they can be linked together in a combo. Take a look at your hand— are there any cards that can be linked? ↓

Yup. We could link the 8's together, and the Clubs together. The 8 of Clubs is the bridge between them, making it a nice combo of three cards.

Lay out your combo on the Combat Field between you and the enemy: ↓

Because our Combo is at least 3 cards, and the Jack's Defense is 3, we successfully land a hit! ↓

When an Enemy takes a hit, rotate it 90° clockwise.

This round is over— clear the Combat Field (moving cards into the discard pile) and draw new cards until you have 5 in your hand.

The Next Few Rounds

The rest of the game follows that same flow:

1. Start with 5 cards in your hand
2. Make a Combo with as many cards as the Defense of the Enemy
3. Rotate a card that gets hit 90°, looking at its Marker to see where it's facing
4. Reset the Combat Field for the next round

Damage & Death

When a card is hit 4 times (rotated 360°) it's dead.

This goes for both Enemies and Players. Every round ends with somebody getting hit— either you make a successful Combo, or your Player Card takes a hit.

You have to play at least one card per round, even if there's no way to make a big enough Combo. This can either be a single card, or a few cards that properly link together in a small Combo (but not a bunch of random disconnected junk). Think of it as a way to clear space for your next 5 cards.

When you defeat an Enemy, move it to the discard pile and reveal the next Enemy beneath it. To beat the game, you need to defeat a Jack, a Queen, and a King.

If your Player Card is killed, it's game over.

Creative Combos

We looked at a super-simple Combo— now let's look at more creative possibilities.

Clubs add power. If your Combo ends with a Club, immediately add +1 to the total combo power. So if you have a combo of 4 cards, and end with a club, it counts as a 5-card-combo, enough to score a hit on a King!

• Mnemonic: "hit em with a club"

Spades add cards. If your Combo ends with a Spade, immediately draw another card. This happens before the round ends, so if you're lucky, you'll draw one with a matching suit or number that you can add to the Combo!

It's a bit of a risk, but sometimes it pays off big time. There's no limit to how many times you can do it per-round, so you could get a few spades in a row, end up drawing 3 new cards, and narrowly escape certain death!

• Mnemonic "dig up a card with a spade"

↑ Notice how those two Combos use the same cards, just in a different order.

You can also include your Player Card in a Combo. It's optional, but can come in really handy in a pinch. It works the same way as a normal Combo— the cards must share either a number or suit to combo together. You can angle it a little, so you remember not to accidentally discard your Player Card afterwards!

Because you can include your Player Card in Combos, your choice of Player Card makes a bit of a difference to the gameplay. Choosing, say, the 6 of Clubs would increase your odds of making combos ending in clubs, getting that power bonus. Playing as the 9 of Spades would make it easier to end combos with spades, making the game slightly more chance-oriented.

Here's how your Player Card choice affects the difficulty:

• Clubs: Easiest difficulty, attack-oriented
• Spades: Slightly easier than normal. More random chance/risk
• Hearts or Diamonds: Normal difficulty, with no special advantages

They're all fun in different ways, so try all three!

One last random element: Jokers are wild, and can form a valid combo with any card, regardless of number or suit.

Two Player Mode

Soliterror can be played against a friend! It's basically the same, with a similar gameplay flow, but with some slight adjustments.

Here's how it looks: ↓

Two Player Mode rule adjustments:

• Both players have 3 Player Cards. Your cards are the Enemies for your opponent.
• Use Court cards as your Player Cards. Each player chooses a Jack, Queen, and King, and cycles through them in that order as they're killed by your opponent. The cards you pick must all be different suits— so think of when you want clubs and spades to show up. There's some strategy here!
• Make your Combos at the same time. Unlike in single-player mode, if a player isn't able to make a Combo, they don't automatically take a hit— hits only happen when the other player completes a strong enough Combo.

Everything else is the same as single-player! The game ends when one player successfully kills the other player's Jack, Queen, and King.

Table talk and friendly bets are encouraged :)

Glossary