Ahyoheek

In the fictional universe of Myst, Ahyoheek (often just "Heek") is a D'ni game played by the ancient D'ni. It is a complex variation on Rock, Paper, Scissors, played at an advanced holographic table by 2 to 5 players. The Ahyoheek game can be played as a mini-game in Untìl Uru, the online version of Uru: Ages Beyond Myst.

The Table

The Ahyoheek table was first found in Uru Live, the online portion of Uru. The table is found in The Hood, down the stairs from the link-in area, near the light garden. When Live closed down, the hoods and the Ayhoheek table went with it.

The first Uru expansion, To D'ni included a hood called "Bevin", which unfortunately contained a smashed, unoperational Ahyoheek table.

When Live returned as "Untìl Uru", the original hoods, and the table were back.

"Untìl Uru" keeps live Ayhoheek scores for each hood, displayed on the imager board closest to the stairs.

The Game

Ahyoheek is played on a special pentagonal table with electronic scorekeeping and holographic display built in.

The three "throws" are Pen, Book, and Beetle: Pen writes in Book, Book crushes Beetle, Beetle provides ink to Pen. (These are synonymous with Rock, Paper and Scissors from the more well-known game).

It is played by 2 to 5 people simultaneously, each person sitting at one side of the table. Each side of the table has a concealed panel of three buttons, each corresponding to a throw. A game of Ahyoheek consists of multiple rounds; the goal is to win three rounds with the same throw.

To clarify: Each player has a separate number of points for each throw. By winning a round using a given throw, they gain a point in that throw. The winner is the player with three points all won using the same throw. A panel of small lights, coloured red, green and blue, indicates the number of points each player has for each throw.

A round begins when one person chooses his throw: other players must choose their throw before a timer displayed in the center of the table reaches zero. Any players who fail to choose by the time the timer runs out will sit out that round and be unable to win a point. At the end of a round, each player's throw is compared with each of the other players'.

The following cases could occur:

• All (or both) players choose the same throw. In this case the round is tied, and no points are allocated.
• (In a three-or-more player game)Each of the throws are chosen by at least one person. In this case the round is tied, and no points are allocated.
• Two of the throws are chosen by at least one person, and the third throw is not chosen by anybody. In this case, one of the two "used" throws clearly beats the other. All players who chose the "winning" throw gain one point towards that throw.

The game ends when one or more players gain three points for the same throw. When this happens, those players are the winners. (More than one winner is possible, but most cases end up with a single winner).

Although it is possible for a player to join a game in play, it is not recommended. Players who join mid-game will begin with scores of zero, and be at a disadvantage.

Ladder Scoring

The imager up the stairs from the Ayhoheek table in Untìl Uru keeps a ladder for all games played in the current hood. All new players begin with 100 points. Each win increases a player's score by the number of players they were playing against. Each loss decreases a player's score by one point. This system makes Ahyoheek a Zero-sum game.