Tactical Picture Hunt

Psychology + Observation DM: Tactical Picture Hunt

In Tactical Picture Hunt, players outwit each other in a game of psychology and pattern matching.

Tiles

Tiles in TPH have three properties: background (which can be white, grey, or black), shape (which can be circle, square, or triangle), and color (which can be yellow, blue, or red). In total, there are 27 tiles:

Two tiles are said to match if all three properties differ. For instance, the white red circle matches the black blue triangle.

The Grid

The grid of TPH is a 9x9 grid, split into 3x3 subgrids.

The subgrids can be identified by two-letter uppercase names (for example, AX is the upper left subgrid) while the squares inside the subgrids are given two-letter lowercase names (ax is the upper-left square of each subgrid here). So, each individual square is given a four-letter name. For instance, the upper-leftmost square is given the name AXax.

In the actual game, the grid will be filled with tiles, with each square having one tile.

The letters ABC represent the columns, XYZ the rows, abc the subcolumns, and xyz the subrows. These are the four dimensions used in the game; each individual letter is an axis.

(Note: In the actual game, the axes may not be in the order shown in the picture. However, it is guaranteed that ABC are columns, etc.)

Gameplay

In this game, players alternate turns playing as the attacker (the one that can earn points) and the defender (the one that is attempting to avoid points from being earned). There are 30 rounds in total (so each player has 15 as the defender and 15 as the attacker).

In each round, a target tile is shown. This is one of the 27 tiles listed above. The goal of the attacker is to choose a region that maximizes the number of tiles that match the target tile. The score of a region is the number of tiles that match the target tile.

Regions are defined by two axes; for instance, the AX region refers to all squares with column A and row X. However, they are not selecting their region by themselves; the defender will "help" them with it.

The game is split into 6 periods of 5 rounds each. At the start of each period, both players claim a dimension, starting with the first attacker in that period. (The first defender cannot choose the same dimension as the first attacker.) For those five rounds, the axis that this player chooses must come from their selected dimension.

In each round, both players submit one axis along their chosen dimension. Along with it, they also submit a score prediction, representing the number of points they believe the region to-be-selected will score. The attacker wants to predict the score correctly, or at least as close as possible without going over. The defender wants to make sure the attacker cannot score more than they should. A score prediction cannot exceed 9.

Challenges and Scoring

When scoring, we consider the score predictions of the attacker and defender.

• If the attacker's score prediction is less than or equal to the defender's score prediction, their round is successful and they gain points equal to their score prediction.
• If the attacker's score prediction is greater, however, a challenge is automatically triggered. In a challenge, the attacker must write out as many matching tiles as they can in the given region. If they find as many as they claimed, the challenge fails; otherwise, it succeeds.

If in a challenge, the attacker fails, they do not earn points for the round; instead, they receive a penalty equal to the number of successful challenges on them so far. (Including this one. So, if this is the first time the attacker has failed, they lose one point; if it's the second, they lose two, etc.)

If they succeed, the attacker gains points equal to their score prediction, as well as an extra point for every unsuccessful challenge so far.

Endgame

After 30 rounds, the game ends. The player with more points wins. In the case of a tie, the player with the Advantage wins.

Timing

Players have 30 seconds to submit for each round. If a challenge is triggered, the attacker has 15 more seconds to list all possibilities. (I will err on the side of leniency for this game. As long as you aren't well over the time limit, I'll count it.)

If an attacker fails to submit, they are unable to gain points in that round. If a defender fails to submit, the attacker automatically gets points equal to the amount they claimed.

Advantage

The player with the Advantage chooses which player plays as the attacker for the first round. In addition, they win in the case of a tie.

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I wrote a flowchart for scoring; see below

(If you want anything else please let me know, I know these rules are a mess)

Clarification: Submissions are private originally, and both are revealed simultaneously after time has elapsed.

(The exception is when players select a dimension at the start of a period; that is public.)

Minor Rule Change: I'm extending the challenge timer slightly and making it strict. You have 20 seconds to post all your matches; a late submission won't be accepted.

For the purpose of posting matches, you may identify the squares with the two axes not chosen by the players. For instance, in the region AX, you may identify a square as cz instead of its full name of AXcz.