A space-battle dice game
STARLOCK
Roll. Read. Lock.
About
A space-battle dice game for 2–6 captains, each on their own phone. The dice are public; the commands are secret. You can see exactly what every rival could fire at you this round, and you have to guess what they will, because everyone locks in at once and the Lock-On Reveal fires it all together.
- Public dice, secret commands. Roll five dice, reroll any of them up to twice. Commands need poker-style hands of matching symbols: a Pair, Two Pair, up to Five of a Kind. The gold star is the Command face, and it’s wild.
- A Refit every round. Scavenge for Charge, what you spend on new commands, from a shared pool (if more captains claim a kind than are left, nobody gets it), or go to Engineering: buy as many new commands as you can afford, and keep a die for the fight.
- A Command Library of 24 cards in three lanes, Common, Uncommon and Rare, each with its top card face up from round one, so the chase is saving up for the Rare. Suited cards name the faces they want: Plasma for weapons, Shield, Crystal for reactors, Targeting, Warp.
- Two ways to win. Reach 15 VP (victory points) from Reactor commands, or be the last ship flying. Once the Charge runs dry, every hull takes 1 unblockable damage each reveal, so nobody can hide behind shields forever.
- The Lock-On Reveal in 3D on a phone held upright: a fleet of generated ships, each painted in its captain’s color, beams that leave a line behind, shields that ripple where they’re struck, and a camera that swoops in on the big moments. Painted over with a brushstroke filter. Wide screens get a flat version.
- A table screen, if you like: a TV or laptop joins the room, shows every ship and plays the reveal big. It has no seat.
- Learn to play in three minutes: two coached rounds against an easy bot (claim Charge, fire a cannon, then keep a die, buy a Reactor and score VP), with the dice set so every step works. After that, a bar at the bottom of your phone always says what to do now and holds that step’s buttons; hold a die or a card to see what it is.
- Bots that play like people you can read: the Hunter finishes off the weakest ship, the Raider goes after the leader, the Warden shields up when your dice look dangerous, the Engineer races for VP, and the Cadet goes easy on you.
- Peer to peer. The host’s browser runs the rules and keeps the clock; phones connect straight to it. Reload and you get your seat back.
A game, screen by screen
A four-captain room, played to the end: Ada hosts, Vega joins from her phone, and two bots take the other seats. Both phones are played by the bots’ code, tapping the real buttons.
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The Lock-On Reveal
Every command turns face up at once, the shots fly and land. A phone held upright plays it in 3D; a wide screen gets the flat one. The 3D pictures here replay a real round of the game above.
The table screen
Open Starlock on a TV or laptop, type the room code and tap Use this screen as the table. It shows every ship, their dice and their commands. Phones keep the secrets.
Rooms and bots
Every bot is a named captain with a fixed style, so a table can learn to read them. In a room they also wear a Bot pill, so nobody mistakes one for a friend.
| Style | Ships | Plays like |
|---|---|---|
| the Hunter | Red Kestrel, Iron Talon | Finishes off the weakest ship. |
| the Raider | Black Comet, Nightjar | Always goes after the leader. |
| the Warden | Steadfast, Lantern | Shields up when your dice look dangerous. |
| the Engineer | Forgelight, Reckoning | Builds reactors and races for VP. |
| the Cadet | Little Wren, Paper Moth, Mossback, Lucky Tamsin, Small Hours | Easy: never rerolls, shops badly. Only when you ask for one. |
How a round works
Dice. Commands need poker-style hands of matching symbols: a Pair is any two matching dice, Two Pair is two different pairs, then Three of a Kind, Full House, Four and Five of a Kind. A few rare commands name the symbols they want. The gold star is the Command face: wild, it counts as any symbol.
- Refit. Secretly choose Scavenge (roll for Charge from the shared pool: a pair gets a Spark, a full house a Battery, five of a kind a Singularity; if more captains claim a kind than are left, nobody gets it) or Engineering (spend Charge on new commands, as many as you can afford, or 1 Charge to turn over three new ones, and keep one die for later).
- Command. Roll five dice, reroll any of them up to twice. Five of a kind at the reveal gets you 3 Charge (1 VP once the pool is dry). Your dice are public. Pick one of your commands that your dice make, pick a target, lock in.
- Lock-On Reveal. Everyone’s command fires at the same time. Shields block, repairs mend, reactors score VP, and a ship at 0 HP is destroyed.
Winning. Reach 15 VP, or be the last captain flying. You start with a cannon, a shield, an evasive maneuver and a small field reactor (three of a kind: 1 VP); the bigger VP comes from Reactor commands you buy in Engineering. Once the Charge pool runs dry, the rift deals 1 unblockable damage to every ship each reveal.