// How to play
Blind Operations
No one has the full picture.
Bring all five of Aurora-7's systems online and transmit with the authorization code before time runs out. With two teams, each one solves its own room: the session ends once everyone has transmitted.
- Players
- 3–10 people
- Teams
- 1–2 teams
- Duration
- 30 min (configurable from 15 to 60)
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Devices
- Computer or tablet · does not work on phones
La premisa
Aurora-7 is a weather station at 3,200 meters. Last night a lightning storm burned out the link and left it mute: no one knows if the people at the shelter are okay. The satellite passes overhead once a day, and that window has already started. There are five systems to bring online — Power, Frequency, Routing, Pressure and Transmission — and none of them can be solved alone.
Each of you walks into the room through a different door and sees a different slice of it. Whoever has their hands on the controls has no instructions; whoever has the manual can't see a single light. The readings belong to someone else, the antenna map to another, and the authorization code to a fifth person. On its own, every screen is an incomplete puzzle.
The only thing you share is your voice. The match moves at whatever pace the team asks, dictates, repeats and confirms. Once the first four systems are online, the transmission keypad unlocks, someone enters the code, and the station speaks again.
Los roles
Cada puesto ve una parte distinta. Nadie puede resolverlo solo.
Operator
The room's console: the power breakers, the frequency dial, the patch panel with its ports and nodes, "VALVE B" and "VALVE C" with their state spelled out (OPEN or CLOSED), Pump A (ON or OFF), the vent button and the transmission keypad. You also see which systems are already online and the Game Master's hints, which show up inside the system they belong to.
You're the only seat that touches anything. Everything that changes in the room goes through your hands: flipping breakers, turning the dial, plugging cables, opening and closing valves, starting the pump, venting and transmitting. You don't have a "request attention" button either — the others use theirs on you.
- Don't act on a hunch: start by describing what controls are in front of you and ask for the first step to be dictated.
- Repeat out loud what they dictated before you touch anything ("Breakers B and C, confirm?").
- Ask for data by name and one at a time: "Navigator, give me the routes port by port."
- If something goes wrong, describe what you did: the others see the result, not your hands.
- Before turning on Pump A, ask for a fresh reading and the safe range. Once the pump is on, the circuit seals shut and the valves and vent stop responding.
Analyst
The live instruments: the "BUS PHASE" screen with the phase's name and color, the load gauge, the overload warning, the signal oscilloscope, the current dial reading, routing integrity (how many links are correct out of how many), the pressure gauge with its safe range and the temperature, and the alerts.
Read things out loud. You can't act on anything: your only command is "Request the team's attention on…" for a given system.
- Start by calling out the bus phase and the pressure with its safe range: those are the two numbers everyone is waiting for.
- Read the numbers again every time the Operator touches something. You're the only mirror the team has.
- When you call out the pressure, call out the safe range too: the number alone isn't enough to decide anything.
- Routing integrity tells you how many links are correct, not which ones: use it to confirm what the Navigator dictates.
Specialist
The manual, split into tabs: the table that translates each bus phase into breakers, the frequency formula by sector (base and step in MHz), the safe pressure range with its rules — more or fewer depending on difficulty — and a notes page. You can't see a single instrument.
Translate what others see into instructions someone can act on. You can't touch controls: your only command is "Request attention on…"
- Start by asking the Analyst for the bus phase and turning it into specific breakers; then ask the Navigator for the sector and channel to work out the MHz.
- Do the math out loud so the team can catch a mistake: "South Sector, channel 7 → 129.5 MHz."
- The safe pressure range sits above the rules, right in your own manual: read it as written, don't recite it from memory.
- For Pressure, dictate the procedure step by step and wait for confirmation on each one.
Coordinator
The objectives board with the breakdown of who contributes what to each system, the four-digit authorization code, the number of transmission attempts, and a facilitation guide. You can't touch controls: your only command is "Request attention on…"
Split up the work and steer the conversation. You decide what gets handled first when two systems are moving at once.
- Kick off the first four systems in parallel: don't wait for one to finish before starting the next.
- Pair the Navigator with the Operator for the patch panel, and the Analyst with the Specialist for power and pressure.
- You're the only one who can see the code. If you don't dictate it, the mission doesn't end.
- Hold onto it until the other four systems are online, then dictate it digit by digit, asking for it to be read back.
- Your job is making sure not everyone talks at once: name whose turn it is to speak, and cut in once something is already settled.
Una partida, paso a paso
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Lobby
Everyone picks an avatar and a color (no repeats within the team) and marks READY. The Game Master watches the live count and starts once the team is ready.
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Briefing
Roles are assigned in secret. You'll see a card with your role, a summary of what you're in charge of, and the story of Aurora-7. No one sees anyone else's role in detail: read yours and sum up what you have in one sentence.
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The five systems
There are no rounds or turns: all five systems are open from second one and can be solved in any order. Power (read the phase, look it up in the table, flip the breakers), Frequency (active antenna + channel + formula → turn the dial), Routing (plug each port into its node), Pressure (valves, vent and pump within the safe range) and Transmission (the code, once the other four are online).
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Alarms and mistakes
A wrong move doesn't end the match: it leaves behind an observable incident. Flip two or more breakers outside the solution and the whole bus goes down. Turn on the pump with high pressure and you get overpressure. A wrong code adds to the attempt count. The team recovers and keeps going.
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Transmission and result
With all four systems online, the Operator enters the code and the station transmits. Everyone sees the result at the same time: systems online, incidents, hints used, and key moments with the minute they happened.
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Debrief
The Game Master opens the debrief: a timeline of the match, incidents grouped by type, and questions to talk through what information each seat had and when it was shared. No ranking of people, no labels.
Reglas de oro
Los equipos que ganan hacen casi siempre estas mismas cosas.
- Say what you see before anyone asks. Half of every delay is data someone had that nobody asked for.
- Use names: the name of the person you're talking to and the exact name of the data ("breaker C," "High Pass," "129.5 MHz").
- Confirm before you act. The Operator repeats what they heard, then touches something.
- One system out loud at a time. If two conversations collide, the Coordinator picks which one continues.
- When a number changes, say it again. A stale reading has the team working off something that no longer exists.
- If you made a mistake, say so right away. Fixing it fast costs less than discovering it three steps later.
Errores típicos
Cosas que pasan en casi todas las partidas. Son hechos observables, no juicios sobre nadie.
Breakers get flipped just to "try" combinations.
With two or more breakers on outside the solution, the bus goes down and you have to start over. Wait for the Specialist's table before touching the first switch.
Pressure gets called out without the safe range.
"Pressure's at 82" doesn't say anything on its own. Always give the number and the range ("82, and the safe range is 45 to 75"): only then can the team decide whether to close, vent or open. The range changes with the scenario and shows up in the Specialist's manual and the Analyst's gauge: read it, don't assume it.
The pump gets turned on with pressure out of range.
That causes overpressure or under-pressure and gets logged as an incident. Ask for a fresh reading right before turning it on: once the pump is running, the circuit seals shut and the valves and vent stop responding.
Someone transmits before all four systems are online.
The attempt still counts and brings nothing online. The Coordinator only dictates the code once their board shows all four objectives met.
Routes get dictated out of order or by pointing ("the one on top").
The Operator sees a list of names, not a picture. Dictate port by port, using the node's full name.
No one says out loud which of the eight antennas is active.
Seven are decoys. Start Frequency by naming the active antenna, then its sector and channel.
The whole team talks to the Operator at once.
The Operator can only execute one action at a time. Let the Coordinator set the order and have everyone else wait their turn.
Glosario
- System online
- A solved system. Its light turns green with a ✓ and locks: you can't touch it anymore.
- Bus phase
- The state of the power, with a name and a color. It's the Analyst's "BUS PHASE" screen; each phase has its own row of breakers in the manual.
- Breaker
- A switch on the power panel, identified by letter (A through E depending on difficulty).
- Dial
- The frequency knob. It moves in steps of 0.5 MHz: an in-between value isn't accepted.
- Patch panel
- The routing panel: each port (P1, P2…) has to be plugged into the node it belongs to.
- Node
- Each named destination on the network (Glacier, Shelter, Observatory, Valley, Lagoon, High Pass, Lighthouse).
- Safe range
- The pressure band where Pump A can be turned on without breaking anything. It's set by the scenario: it shows up in the Specialist's manual and the Analyst's gauge.
- Vent
- An action that drops the pressure a bit. The Operator has the button; the Specialist's manual says when to use it.
- Request (the team's) attention on…
- The button available to the four roles without controls: it makes a system blink so the team looks there. The Operator doesn't have it.
- Incident
- An observable mistake (bus down, overpressure, wrong code). It doesn't subtract points: it gets talked through in the debrief.
Preguntas frecuentes
Why can only one person touch the controls?
Because that's the rule that forces everyone to talk. If everyone could act on what they see, the team would solve the game in silence and there'd be nothing to talk about afterward.
We're fewer than five. Do we lose information?
No. When a role is missing, another one inherits its panel: with four people the Specialist also sees the Coordinator's board; with three, the Navigator covers both Specialist and Coordinator. No piece of data ever disappears from the game.
We're more than five per team. What happens?
Roles repeat: the sixth person becomes an Operator again. Two Operators can touch the same controls, so it's worth agreeing who does what so you don't step on each other.
Can you make mistakes without losing the match?
Yes. Blind Operations has no built-in loss condition: mistakes leave a logged incident and the team recovers. The only pressure is the session's clock.
What order do the systems need to be solved in?
Any order. All five are open from the start, except Transmission, which needs the other four online. Many teams start with Routing because it can move forward while something else gets solved.
What does the Game Master's help button do?
They're two separate buttons. "Give a hint" sends a nudge: it says which two seats need to talk to each other, without giving the answer, and the log shows "Game Master gave a hint for X." "Reveal solution" is the next step; it needs a separate confirmation, and only then does the Operator see the answer (the correct breakers, the target frequency, the routes, the pressure procedure or the code); it's logged as "Game Master revealed the solution for X." The hint shows up inside the system it belongs to, not in a strip at the bottom.
What about the hints that show up in chat?
There are two per system: a "· nudge" and an "· explicit" one. The Game Master picks from a list that shrinks as the team brings systems online, and in solo matches the nudge always arrives first.
What about the "Facilitator hints" setting?
If it's turned off, the hint list stays empty, no automatic hints arrive in solo matches, and the Game Master's panel hides "Give a hint" and "Reveal solution."
Is it always the Aurora-7 station?
It's the default scenario, but not the only one: "North Shelter" tells the same story in the engine room of a shelter cut off by an avalanche, with Generator, Tuning, Terminal Block, Boiler and Beacon standing in for the station's five systems, and with different numbers (a different safe range, a different dial resolution). The rules and roles are identical: your organization can pick it when creating the session, for a replay that doesn't repeat the story.
Does it work on a phone?
No. The console needs a screen of at least 1280 × 720: use a laptop, a desktop computer, or a tablet in landscape.
Can we talk over voice?
If your organization has voice enabled, there's a team channel and a general channel with push-to-talk. If not, the team chat is enough: the game is designed to be playable entirely by typing.
Jugar en solitario
From "Play solo" you can put together a match on your own: pick the game, the role you want (or leave it to chance), your teammates' level and the difficulty. Four bots sit down, one for each role you're not covering, and the match starts on its own once you mark READY — there's no Game Master. The briefing is short (10 seconds).
Reacts slowly, shares little unless you ask, and sometimes dictates a wrong number — a channel off by one, two routes swapped, the code's last two digits flipped — and corrects itself a few turns later. Good for practicing how to ask and verify.
Shares almost everything without being asked and rarely makes mistakes. This is the recommended level for your first solo match.
Reacts in seconds, shares everything it sees, and executes several actions per turn. The match resolves fast: good for seeing the whole run end to end.
- Bots don't see the full game state: they decide with the same filtered screen you'd see in that seat, plus whatever was said in team chat. They're not generative AI — they're rules with memory.
- If you choose Coordinator, you're the only one with the code: the bots never see it, so the mission doesn't end until you dictate it in chat.
- Bots understand phrases written with the vocabulary from their screen ("P1 glacier," "breakers A and C," "129.5 MHz," "the code is 4821"). "The cable up top" or "a hundred twenty-nine point five" won't be understood.
- With rookie bots or on low difficulty, if the team goes two and a half minutes without completing an objective, an automatic hint arrives.
- Once the match ends you see the results, can open the debrief and play again. Whoever plays solo can't open the Game Master panel, not even as an administrator — it would show every role's information.
The other guides
Play Blind Operations with your team
Sessions are set up from your organization's panel: people, teams, scenario and a facilitator. Don't have a space yet? Write to us at larp.latam@gmail.com.
The platform How it works Play solo Questions from companies