What is inside the Operation Blackout PDF?
Thirty-seven pages, the longest case file in the catalogue by page count. The cover, the how-to page, the briefing, the inventory of nineteen exhibits, working sheets, the conclusions report, then the exhibits photographed one per page: logs, messages, reports, plans. Everything is available from the start.
What stays online, on the case file portal: sixteen hints arranged in four tracks, and the solution behind two questions. The product page, with five real pages as excerpts, is Operation Blackout.
What does a narrative clock change in a detective case?
In the other cases the crime is in the past and the group works at its own pace. In Operation Blackout the fiction is still running: the city is dark, the hospitals hold on their generators, and the documents are dated to the hour. That does not put a stopwatch on your table, the run time stays 2 to 3 hours, but it gives the reading an order: what was known at which hour, who could still act, which message came too late.
It is the case that feels most like a thriller, and the one where a sheet of times is not optional.
How are the sixteen hints organised in four tracks?
Most cases offer four hint levels on a single line, from a reminder to an unblocking. Operation Blackout has more threads than that, so its hints are arranged in four tracks, four per track, each track following one line of the investigation. You open the track you are stuck on, at the level you need, without touching the others.
The hints are on the portal, behind your code, one voluntary click at a time. After them, an intermediate question and the final question that opens the solution. Three wrong answers open a safety exit, so a group that paid always gets its solution.
Who is Operation Blackout for, and who should skip it?
For a group that likes contemporary settings and has already solved one printable case; for coworkers, since the setting is professional and the exhibits look like the documents of an office; for a team of five who want two hours with a real ending. It suits teenagers from 14 with an adult at the table. The seven cases are compared on the detective case files page.
Skip it for a first case if the group has never played: start with The Heist of the Century, the only mid-level file. And if you are six to twelve with a host, look at the murder mystery kits instead.
What do you need on the table?
The thirty-seven pages printed single-sided, A4 layout with fit to page on Letter, pencils, the working sheets, and enough room to line up the dated exhibits in order. No device is needed: the portal is only for the hints and the solution, and nothing in the case requires a phone.
The price is $39 for one to seven investigators. The code received by email waits until you first open it; from then on the portal stays open one week.
Frequently asked questions
Is Operation Blackout timed?+
No. The fiction runs on a clock, the documents are dated to the hour and the city is still dark, but your table plays at its own pace, 2 to 3 hours in practice. The clock orders the reading; it does not limit it.
What are the sixteen hints in four tracks?+
Four lines of investigation, each with four hint levels, from a reminder to an unblocking. You open only the track you are stuck on, at the level you need, on the portal with your code. Nothing forces you to open any of them.
Does the case require technical knowledge?+
No. The setting is a cyberattack, but every fact needed is written in the exhibits in plain language. No IT background helps; careful reading and a sheet of times do.
How many players?+
One to seven investigators, cooperative, no host and no character to play. A team of four or five is the sweet spot for the volume of documents.
