S3PSYS

*In a close and dark future, hackers from all types carry out industrial espionage and other tasks on behalf of all-powerful mega corporations.*

S3PSYS  (pronounced like sepsis) is a confrontation game for 2 players in which you try to be the first to reach 3 points through the use of PLOTS. In this war your weapons are SCRIPTS, TRAPS and HARDWARE.

## WHAT YOU NEED TO PLAY

- The files including 18 cards and a rules booklet

- A way to track of points, viruses and bits (some tokens of sort).

## SETUP

Each player starts with 0 virus and 2 bits.
Shuffle the cards and deal 5 to each players.
Keep a place for the discard: it is where the cards go once used or destroyed.
Place the remaining cards to form the draw pile side-by-side the discard.

## PLAY

Decide who starts.
The first player skip the draw step on the first turn.

Each turn you will in sequence do:

 1. Maintenance step: Flip face up all installed HARDWARE cards; they are now active. TRAPs and PLOTs stay face down.

 2. Draw step: one card from the draw pile. If the draw pile is empty, shuffle the discard pile to form a new draw pile.

 3. Actions step: By default you get 2 actions a turn that you can take among the ones listed in the ACTIONS section. (You can take several times the same action).

 4. End step: If you have more than 5 cards in hand, discard down to 5. It is now the next players turn.

## ACTIONS

During your turn you can take actions among the following:

 - Use your whole turn to execute a PLOT: If you have a PLOT already installed you can flip it, apply it's effect and then discard it.

 - Play a SCRIPT: Apply the effect indicated on the card and then discard it

 - Install a card: Play a HARDWARE, PLOT or TRAP face down.

 - Gain 1 bit: Take a bit token from the reserve.

 - Pay 1 bit to hack an installed card from your opponent: Chose a face down card from your opponent and flip it over. If it is a PLOT or a TRAP, apply the effect and then discard it. Else simply discard it.

## COUNTERING

During the action phase any player can spend 1 bit to prevent the planned action from being executed. It is called a counter.

A player can counter a counter by paying 1 more bit than the opposing player.

Note: A hack on a installed card must be countered after the card has been chosen but before it is flipped over. If the hack is successfully countered the card stays untouched.

## END OF THE GAME

The game ends when one of the player is the winner. The winner is the one to first reach 3 points while having less than 2 virus or whose adversary reaches 2 virus.