One Week of Portal Access, From First Opening

Four things close together when the week ends: entering the code, the portal page, the PDF download and the answers to the questions. Until then, everything is open: you can download the file again, open a hint, answer the intermediate question on Saturday and the final one on Sunday. The PDF you downloaded does not expire. It is a file on your computer, and the license lets you print it again for other private games. Only the online part, hints and solution or host's guide and reveal, follows the week.

Because most people buy before their party, sometimes a month before, and a week counted from payment would give them a dead code on the night. So the code waits, unused, as long as needed. The clock starts the first time it is entered on the case file portal, which is usually the moment the host downloads the file to print it. A practical consequence: do not enter the code just to see if it works, weeks ahead. Enter it when you are ready to download and prepare.

Buy now, file the email, and do nothing on the portal. A few days before the party, enter the code, download the PDF, read the host's guide or the how-to page, and print. The week then runs through the party and a few days after it, long enough for a case file to be finished on a second evening. If the party is postponed after you opened the code, write to us with the order details. The week exists to stop codes from circulating between groups, not to penalise a change of date.

The PDF is not on the clock. Once downloaded it is a file on your computer, and the license lets you print it again for other private games, months or years later. The week only governs the online part: the portal page, a fresh download, the hints and the answers. Nor does the week limit how long a game may last. A case file spread over two evenings inside the same week is fine, and so is a kit prepared on Tuesday and played on Saturday. What the week prevents is a code passed from group to group for a year, which would turn one purchase into a dozen games at other tables. If you want a printed record of the solution, open it on the portal at the end of the game and print that page from your browser before the week runs out.

Because an eternal code would be shared. A buyer hands the code to a friend, the friend to another, and one purchase serves a chain of tables while the file itself is sold once. The kits already cost $39.90 for six to twelve players; the week is what keeps that price possible without a login, an account or an app. One week is long enough for any private use and short enough that a shared code is worth little. It is the same reasoning as the refund policy: a digital file delivered instantly cannot be taken back, so the rules protect honest buyers rather than chase the others.