// How to play
Knowledge Files
Every area holds part of the truth.
Reconstruct the root cause of the failed launch: uncover the facts that explain the impact, the blocker and the contract issue, order the sequence, and present the full causal chain, from the root cause to what the client saw on launch day.
- Players
- 3–20 people
- Teams
- 1–4 teams
- Duration
- 45 min (configurable from 20 to 90)
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Devices
- Computer or tablet · does not work on phones
La premisa
On Monday, March 3rd, Grupo Almendra launched Portal Faro for Distribuidora Río Claro. Within hours the client suspended its use. No one knows why: each area holds part of the story, and none of them has the full picture.
Sales, Technology, Operations, Legal and Finance receive emails, tickets, memos, photos, invoices and credit notes. Fifteen pieces of evidence in total, split differently every match. Some explain what happened; others are true but unrelated.
The team pins what it has to a shared corkboard, draws threads between evidence from different areas, orders the facts on a timeline, and presents a four-link causal chain. If the chain holds, the case is closed.
Los roles
Cada puesto ve una parte distinta. Nadie puede resolverlo solo.
Sales
The emails and commercial documents for the Río Claro account: what was promised, to whom, and by when. You see your own evidence in full and, on the board, whatever the rest of the team has already shared.
Pin your evidence to the board, connect it to other areas' evidence, flag suspicions, move timeline chips, and help build the report.
- First minute: open your evidence, pin whatever confirms the launch date, and say out loud which template the contract went out with.
- Your emails carry dates and commitments: they're almost always the starting point of the timeline.
- Say what was promised and when, even if it feels uncomfortable. The game isn't looking for someone to blame — it's looking for the sequence.
- Not everything you have is relevant. If a note doesn't connect to anything, say so and set it aside.
Technology
This quarter's roadmap, the deployment notices, and the platform team's chat. You know what shipped, at what time, and in what state.
The same as everyone else: pin, connect, flag, order, and propose links. No area has exclusive commands.
- First minute: pin the launch-day deployment notice and read the warning it carried out loud; then say when the integration was actually scheduled for.
- The deployment notice has an exact time: it's the anchor for launch day.
- If the roadmap contradicts a sales promise, that clash usually reveals a fact.
- Your team chat looks like small talk, but it says whether something was ready or not. Read the whole thing.
Operations
The day-to-day tickets and rollout plans, plus the client's complaint. You know what got stuck, since when, and what it was waiting on.
Pin, connect, flag suspicions, order the timeline, and propose the report.
- First minute: pin the migration ticket, say its status, and which approval it was waiting on.
- A stuck ticket never gets stuck on its own: look for the document from another area that explains the blocker.
- The client's complaint is the effect, not the cause. It's useful for the last link.
- The whiteboard photo is tempting and leads nowhere. Happens in real cases too.
Legal
Policies, memos, and clauses: what could be done, what needed review, and what happens if it isn't followed.
Pin, connect, flag, order, and help build the report, just like everyone else.
- First minute: pin the personal data memo, read the condition it sets before migrating, and ask Sales which contract template they used.
- Your memo is the piece that shows up most often in the chain: share it early.
- Read the dates out loud. Legal usually has the fact that orders the sequence.
- The penalties clause is true and explains nothing about the launch. Say so, so no one wastes time on it.
Finance
Purchase orders, invoices, and credit notes for the client. You know what was signed, when, and what stopped being paid.
Pin, connect, flag, order, and propose links.
- First minute: pin the purchase order and say the required date and when the client signed.
- The purchase order sets a date in writing: use it to confirm what Sales promised.
- The credit note is a consequence, not a cause: it shows up after the complaint.
- If an invoice doesn't connect to anything, it's a red herring. Saying so is a contribution too.
Una partida, paso a paso
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Lobby
Everyone picks an avatar and a color and marks READY. With several teams, each one investigates its own board: the evidence splits are different.
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Briefing
Areas are assigned in secret and the case is told: Portal Faro launched on March 3rd and the client suspended it. Read your evidence before you speak.
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Read and share
The EVIDENCE tab has your full cards: type, title, date, metadata, and body. Pin them to the corkboard so the team can see them. Depending on the settings, other areas read the whole card or just the cover (and the content then has to travel by voice or chat).
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Pull the thread
Drag a thread from one card's pin to another and choose how they relate: they contradict each other, one explains the other, or they confirm each other. The two cards have to come from different areas. If the connection is valid, a new fact appears in the FACTS tab. If not, the board tells you why and it's logged as a team mistake.
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Retracing your steps
The board can be taken apart. Tapping a thread's label lets anyone on the team remove it with "REMOVE CONNECTION"; opening a card you already pinned lets its owner take it back with "REMOVE FROM BOARD," as long as no thread runs from it. Nothing already learned gets lost: discovered facts stay in the list and completed objectives stay completed.
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Order the timeline
Below there are numbered slots and a tray of chips. Each chip corresponds to a piece of evidence already on the board, and the date only appears inside the card. Once the sequence is complete, tap VERIFY: if it's correct, the root fact appears.
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Present the report
Four links: the root cause, "this caused…," "which is why…," and what happened on launch day. Only already-discovered facts can be used, and four true facts aren't causal at all. With the right report, the case closes.
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Results and debrief
Everyone sees the discovered facts, the completed objectives, the mistakes, and the attempts. The Game Master's debrief brings the match's timeline, mistakes grouped together, and five questions about the case.
Reglas de oro
Los equipos que ganan hacen casi siempre estas mismas cosas.
- Pin first, discuss after. Evidence still in your hand doesn't exist for the team, and if it doesn't contribute it can be removed.
- When you pin something, say in one sentence what it says: type, date, and the key detail. "Email from Legal, 02/18: missing the data annex."
- Read dates out loud. The timeline only resolves with dates that live inside the cards.
- Before pulling a thread, say your hypothesis: "I think this memo explains the stuck ticket." That way the team can correct you before an attempt is spent.
- Call out the red herrings. Saying "this is true but not a cause" saves more time than finding a new fact.
- One person coordinates the timeline and the report. Five hands dragging chips at once get in each other's way.
Errores típicos
Cosas que pasan en casi todas las partidas. Son hechos observables, no juicios sobre nadie.
Two cards from the same area get connected.
The game only accepts threads between different areas. If a hypothesis is internal, look for the card from another area that confirms or contradicts it.
Relations get tried "just to see if it sticks."
Every failed attempt adds a mistake, and that pair with that relation gets locked: it can't be tried again. Say the hypothesis out loud and wait for the team's go-ahead. (A thread that did work is a different story: it can be removed and rebuilt any time.)
The board fills up with threads and stops making sense.
Tap a thread's label and remove it with "REMOVE CONNECTION": the fact it revealed stays put. Removing your own card with "REMOVE FROM BOARD" also helps clear space, but its threads have to come off first.
The timeline gets verified with chips placed by guesswork.
Before tapping VERIFY, have each area read out its card's date and build the sequence out loud together. Every failed verification adds a mistake.
The report gets built from the most eye-catching facts.
Four true facts aren't causes. For each link, ask yourself: if this hadn't happened, would the outcome have changed?
Someone sits on evidence without pinning it because "it doesn't seem important."
Red herrings need to be seen too, to rule them out — and sometimes the card that looks irrelevant is the one with the missing date. Pin everything.
With "voice only" evidence, people dictate summaries instead of the actual text.
In that mode, other areas only see the cover. Read the whole card, with the date and figures: a summary loses exactly the detail that connects.
A piece of evidence gets pinned and no one comments on it.
The board shows titles, not conclusions. Every time you pin something, say why you brought it.
Glosario
- Evidence
- A paper card with a type (email, ticket, document, photo, note, invoice, chat, notice), title, date, metadata, and body.
- Board
- The team's shared corkboard. Anything pinned there is visible to the whole team; anything not pinned is visible only to its area.
- Thread
- The connection between two pieces of evidence from different areas, with a chosen relation.
- Relation
- How two pieces of evidence relate: they contradict each other (≠), one explains the other (→), or they confirm each other (=).
- Fact
- What appears when a connection is valid: a conclusion with a title and body, visible to the whole team.
- Root fact
- The fact that only appears once the timeline is verified correctly. It's the report's first link.
- Red herring
- A true fact that isn't part of the causal chain. There are four of them.
- Causal chain
- The report's four links, from the root cause to the outcome.
- Flag a suspicion
- A personal note on a card or a fact. It has no rules: it lets the team see what caught your attention. It goes with the card if you remove it from the board.
- Remove from board
- Take your own card off the corkboard once it stops being useful. Only whoever holds it can do this, and only if no thread runs from it.
- Remove connection
- Take a thread off the corkboard by tapping its label. Anyone on the team can do this, and the fact it revealed stays discovered.
Preguntas frecuentes
Can I see another area's evidence?
Only once that person pins it to the board, and with whatever detail the session's settings allow. Your private hand is never shown to anyone automatically.
What changes in "voice only" mode?
On the board, other areas only see each card's cover: title, type, and area, with no date or body. The content has to travel by talking or typing, so the match turns into a listening exercise.
Can a card be unpinned or a thread deleted?
Yes, both. Whoever holds a card removes it from the board, from the reader, with "REMOVE FROM BOARD," and only if no thread runs from it (if one does, the reader tells you to remove the connection first). Anyone on the team can remove a thread: tap its label on the corkboard and "REMOVE CONNECTION" — a thread is shared knowledge, not the property of whoever built it. None of that undoes what was learned: discovered facts stay put and completed objectives too. The only thing you can't retry is a pair+relation that already failed.
Is the evidence split always the same?
No. Several cards can land in an alternate area, with the guarantee that every area keeps at least two. Two teams in the same session play different splits.
We're four. Is a area missing?
No: a present area hosts the missing one's evidence and shows up on your screen as an extra panel. With four people, for example, Operations also holds Finance's cards. No evidence is ever lost.
What if we're more than five?
Areas repeat. Two people from Sales see and can pin the same cards: it's worth agreeing who pins what so the work doesn't get duplicated.
Do mistakes cost points?
There's no score. Mistakes stay as observable facts — connections with no relation, sequences with errors, wrong reports — to talk through in the debrief.
What does difficulty change?
The number of timeline events (5, 6, or 8) and how much feedback the board gives. On high, it won't tell you whether the pair was right but the relation wrong, or how many chips landed in place.
Where do the hints come from?
There are two per objective: first a nudge, which says where to look without solving anything, and then the answer. The Game Master sends them from its selector, and the list shrinks on its own as the team completes objectives. In solo matches they arrive in that same order, so the automatic help nudges before it solves. If the session was created with "Facilitator hints" turned off, there are no scenario hints or automatic help; the Game Master's per-objective "Give a hint" button still works.
How do we know if we're on track?
By the fact counter (n/8), the number of cards on the board (n/15), and the objectives panel. All three are visible the whole time for the whole team.
Jugar en solitario
In "Play solo" you take one area and bots cover the other four seats. The match starts on its own once you mark READY, with no Game Master and a 10-second briefing. The default difficulty is low.
Pins late and one card at a time. Sometimes names the wrong relation, or swaps two facts on the timeline or two links in the report, and corrects itself a few turns later. In "voice only" mode it can misread a date.
Barely makes mistakes and proposes a connection roughly every thirteen seconds. This is the recommended level to start with.
Pins up to three cards per turn and tries candidates every seven seconds. Easy cases close in a little over a minute of play.
- Bots never read the case "from behind the curtain": they don't know the facts, the chain, or the correct order. They deduce the same way you do, reading their cards and the chat, which is why they make mistakes the same way a real team would.
- The lowest-numbered bot acts as the scribe: it's the only one that orders and verifies the timeline, builds the report, and asks for evidence by name.
- If you don't pin your cards when asked, the case doesn't move forward: bots can't connect what they can't see. The scribe will call you out directly when it's your turn.
- Bots understand card titles (or a fragment), relation names, and fact titles written in English, with dates like "02/12" or "March 3rd."
- With rookie bots or on low difficulty, if two and a half minutes pass with no new objectives, an automatic hint arrives. The nudge comes first and the answer only after, so you get time to solve it yourself.
The other guides
Play Knowledge Files 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.
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