Description

Lockpick is a solo game in which the player attempts to work with randomly-drawn cards to create Rummy-style sets of three in various columns. The theme is one of breaking in to a security system via lockpicking and computer hacking. Designed for the Looney Pyramids family, Lockpick requires a Zark City deck (or other five-suited deck from with values from 1-13), 15 pyramids in five colors, and two dice: a standard D6 and a specialized color die.

In more detail, the card deck is separated into five piles by color with space left below each pile to form a column. Space for a discard pile goes off to the side. Each turn, the player begins with an empty hand and rolls the two dice. The numeral on the D6 determines how many cards the player must draw, and the color die determines what color pile the player must draw from. With these cards in hand, the player must now distribute them among the columns beneath the color piles, using a mancala-style distribution that wraps around and will cause newer cards to cascade down, partially covering previously-placed cards. Any three-card sets that are created within the columns are now removed along with the colored pyramid that sits above that column.

Once a color pile is depeleted, subsequent die rolls of that color allow the player to remove a matching color card from one of the columns and reposition it at the bottom of any column desired, thus allowing for the possibility of sets being created through the joining of two previously unconnected groups of cards within a single column, along with the rare opportunity for two sets to be formed at once. Victory is achieved when a player has successfully defeated all 15 security measures (represented by the 15 pyramids). Defeat occurs when all the cards have been depleted while there are pyramids still standing.