Knock Twice

Seven doors, taken in order, and behind each one is somebody who needs letting in, something that must not be, or nothing at all. At every door you are dealt one short thing you heard — privately, on your own screen, and half of you, rounded down, are handed the wrong one with nobody told who — and then the table talks and votes: open it, leave it, or knock twice and listen again. You find out what you were listening to at the end, along with which of you the house lied to.

How it feels

• Restraint
• Listening hard
• Regret

What the design is for

• 01

  Almost nothing on screen

  The game is what the table decides it heard. What you are dealt is one sentence long, it is yours alone, and you will never be shown anybody else’s.

• 02

  Half of you heard it wrong

  At every door the house takes half the table, rounded down, and hands them a fragment from the wrong side of it. Nobody is told who — and that includes the person it happened to. Nobody at this table is lying, and one of the honest reports is wrong.

• 03

  Opening is the only way to find out

  A door you open tells you the truth. A door you leave shut tells you nothing at all, and goes on telling you nothing until the corridor is over. Everything else in the game is built on that trade.

• 04

  Knock twice

  When what you have will not settle it, the table can knock and listen again — a second fragment each, corrupted freshly, which two bad draws in a row agree on far less often. It costs a tick of the hour, and you may do it once per door.

• 05

  Something inside makes it darker

  Let the wrong thing in and one fewer seat hears anything from that door on. Let a second one in and the evening ends there.

• 06

  One hour, done

  Ten ticks for seven doors: every door costs one, a knock costs another, and a doorway you open and find empty costs one more — so a table that knocks everywhere never reaches the end of the corridor. Forty-five minutes to an hour at a real table.

• 07

  The corridor opens at the end

  When it is over you are shown all of it: what was behind every door, how many of them you turned away without ever knowing, and which of you the house lied to at which door.

• 08

  No computer opponent, on purpose

  The content of this game is a table deciding what it heard. A machine cannot argue with you about whether a sleeve dragging down a panel is a person, so it is not offered.