Nyx: Cloudonauts – THE AWS THREAT MODELING GAME

Step into the neon-lit skies

Step into the neon-lit skies of a fractured cyber-fantasy world, where AI cores hum beneath cloud cities and invisible wars rage over data, control, and survival.

Nyx: Cloudonauts is a fast-paced, team-based card game where players simulate real-world cyber attacks and defenses in a stylized sci-fantasy universe.

Whether you play as a rogue attacker/breaker exploiting vulnerabilities, or a resilient defender/builder securing your system’s last line, every card is a decision — every move is a lesson in security thinking.

Perfect for professionals, students, or anyone who wants to learn security through play, Nyx: Cloudonauts transforms threat modeling into a strategic, story-driven battle for digital survival.

Lore

In a world that we will not be able to recognize, is a city called Velatrax. This city is Cloud City which floats high above the ground. The main hero here is Nyx, the last Cloudonaut (somebody call her Cyberangel), who is a special task force in the city in the clouds. There are only very few cloudonatus that are guarding the fragile order of the cloud city.

She has special abilities, and she doesn’t remember where she got them. She is using her special abilities to fight unknown forces trying to infiltrate the All-Intelligence neural network that is guarding and managing the city’s civil services, computers, shops, and traffic.

One day, somebody breaks in the network, causing outages around the city. Nyx must go on and start to investigate. Become her guide in attacks and defenses in this story-driven threat modeling game.

Game Rules

Every player has 5 cards, and they refill their hands from the deck to 5 cards every round. Special cards allow special attacks or actions like Battery surge. The game is inspired by Nyx’s cyberpunk story, Last Cloudonaut. All images and graphics are cyberpunk or science-fantasy themed.

Each player has 5 cards in their hand.
At the start of each round, players refill their hands from the decks until they have 5 cards again.
The decks are divided into Attack (Break), Defense (Build), and Special cards.
Special cards allow special attacks or special actions like “Battery surge”.

Every round, the player can play one attack. Any other player can play a defense card in response to this attack. Defense cards are not mandatory; players play clockwise.

Special cards:

If the player plays successful defense, they may draw a special card in the next round.
If the player completes the kill chain with 3 or more cards, they may draw a special card in the next round.
To play additional defense in the attack phase, a player may play one defense card at the beginning of their next turn.

How to get points:

For every card in the kill chain, the player gets +1 victory point. Killchains have specific symbols.
For every defense card played, the defending player gets the card’s victory point value.
The player with the most victory points wins the game.

Gameplay flow:

Each round, a player must play one Attack card against their own system.
After the attack is declared, other players may defend with a matching Defense card.
Defense is optional — players may choose to let the threat succeed.
Players take turns clockwise.
At the start of each round, refill cards to 5.