Operation Hardcover

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One Night, Four Places, One Hour

“Nobody sees the same screen. You cannot look at each other’s panels. Your voices are all you have.”

Operation Hardcover is an atmospheric cooperative escape heist for 2 to 4 players that runs directly in your browser. Everybody follows the same comic story; nobody holds the same tools.

A cartel runs the book trade: the Preisbindungstreuhand (the trust guarding fixed book prices). It pads every hardcover with foamed “volume paper” so that 190 pages look like they are worth 35 marks. Production cost: 1.40 marks. Shelf price: 35.

Its weak spot is one sentence in its own regulation: books with physical defects are exempt from fixed pricing. One stamp on the edge of the pages, and 35 marks become “price at seller’s discretion”. Tonight a crew the cartel wrote off as pulp wants to use that sentence on a whole print run.

One Night, Four Places

  1. The Back Gate: Sneak past the guard and the lock of an antiquarian bookshop without tripping the silent alarm.
  2. The Machine Hall: Print the run that must not exist and stamp the defect on every edge.
  3. The Director’s Vault: Crack the safe dial by ear and find the sheet with the real production costs.
  4. The Getaway: Flee out of town before sunrise, with evidence in your folder and police radios crackling in your ears.

Four Asymmetric Roles

  • The Mechanic (Ruth Kalander, “The Roller”): Sees mechanical state and no words: pins, pressure gauges, safe tumblers, throttles. She operates the physical levers.
  • The Scribbler (Ansgar Pleite, “Galley”): Has the only readable text in the game: guard log, machine manual, blueprints, radio keys. He reads aloud to guide the team.
  • The Forger (Selma Golder, “Gilt Edge”): Sees material details: night glass, magnifier, UV light, blind embossing, watermark shapes.
  • The Codebreaker (Nuri Wendt, “Check Digit”): Sees registers, circuit values, fuse boxes, office terminals, and listening devices.

How to Play

  1. Gather your crew (2 to 4 players) on Discord, Teams, or around one table.
  2. One player opens tableroom.de/en/escapes/hardcover and hosts a room.
  3. Share the 5-character room code or invite link with your crew.
  4. Everyone takes a seat (with 2–3 players, seats can hold multiple roles) and begin your heist!

Features

  • True Asymmetric Communication: Information is strictly divided. You must describe what you see; nobody can solve it alone.
  • No Game Over: Mistakes go on your cartel file and cost valuable minutes, but the night always keeps moving.
  • Zero Friction Web Play: No download, no installation, no registration. Runs smoothly on PC, Mac, Linux, and tablets.
  • Noir Graphic Novel Aesthetics: Hand-inked comic panels, high-contrast monochrome style with dirty crimson accents, and tactile synthesized browser sound.
  • Bilingual: Fully playable in both English and German.
  • 100% Free & Independent: No ads, no tracking cookies, no paywalls.

Über das Spiel (Deutsch)

Operation Hardcover ist ein asynchrones Koop-Escape-Game für 2 bis 4 Spieler direkt im Browser. Niemand sieht denselben Bildschirm. Alle hören dieselbe Nacht, aber jede Rolle hat völlig andere Werkzeuge und Dokumente vor sich. Kommunikation über Sprache ist eure einzige Waffe gegen das Buchkartell!

Auch auf Deutsch spielbar unter: tableroom.de/escapes/hardcover

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