Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
Batavia, capital of Dutch East Indies, 1922. 'Vrije man' or 'free men' roamed the corners of the city.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Read the full game description
Batavia, capital of Dutch East Indies, 1922. 'Vrije man' or 'free men' roamed the corners of the city. Their appearance often troubled the Dutch colonial government as they were master of Silat (local martial art) and refuse to bow down to the government. They were called heroes by the local citizens at the time. The story revolves around Mat Goceng, a local Vrije man, that vowed to always save the weak and drive the Dutch away from his land. He then met Nyi Kencleng, a rich merchant from the land of Pasundan (west Java), and helped her build a Padepokan Silat. A place where everybody can learn Silat for free. Some people then tried to stop Mat Goceng made his dream into realization. Mat Goceng is a card game that can be played by 3-6 players. The game mechanism consists of deduction (guessing who is the ally or enemy), bluffing (avoid being attacked), card management (to produce the longest hit combo), and persuasion (persuade other people to ask help from you). The active player chooses which person he/she will attack. Then both of them alternately will try to build their own combo to defend and attack. They can ask for help from the inactive players; the cost of helping is negotiable. The longest combo win the battle. Then, the player on the left (of the active player) then proceed as the new active player. The objective of the game depends on which character the player will have in the beginning of the game. As example, if you have Mat Goceng’s card then the winning condition is to make sure both you and Nyi Kencleng survives until the end of the game. Meanwhile Nyi Kencleng’s objective is to survive the game and collect more money than the other players. There are total of six characters with different objectives.