The watch
You are the watch commander. There are no cameras and no sensors that see for you: only your torch, your ears, the guards on their walkie-talkies, and whatever they last told you, which may no longer be true.
You walk the compound yourself. You cannot be everywhere. Something will wait too long, and the report at the end of the watch will tell you what you knew, when you knew it, and what was left undone.
- PatrolWalk a route you come to know, until you know what normal sounds like.
- NoticeA fluorescent tube stuttering. A scrape at the service door. Searchlights over the city.
- InvestigateGo and look. Knowing what is wrong and putting it right are different jobs.
- Respond or delegateMend it, bar it, ring the bell, or radio a guard and trust his report.
- AcceptWhat you could not reach in time stays on the record.
- ReassessThen the next sound, and the next decision.
What the night brings
Every warning in the game comes the way it would come to you: seen, heard, or reported, and stale soon after.
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Generator running unevenly heard, 0s ago
A diesel generator that weeps fuel and misses beats before it fails. Service it early, repair it at the fuse board, or shut the fuel valve before a fire spreads.
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Knocking at the gate heard, 12s ago
People reach the gate in the night and wait there until someone lets them in, and then they are in your charge too.
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Stranger forcing the service door seen, 1m ago — stale
A barred door or a guard at the post turns a stranger away. Some nights the man who comes is armed, and how much force you use is counted.
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Air-raid sirens across the city heard, 0s ago
Searchlights, then sirens, then jets. Ring the bell and get everyone to the refuge before the bombs fall. A building showing light is a target.
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Smoke from the infirmary roof seen, 30s ago
A firebomb smoulders in the roof before it takes hold. Sand puts it out early; after that it takes the extinguisher and buckets, or a guard sent to it.
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Chilled through from the road seen, 4m ago — stale
Someone chilled through from the road, a wound to dress, the evening medicine. Given in time, or missed, and the night's report says which.
Night after night
The nights run one into the next, with a day between them. What a night leaves (the hurt, the broken, the used up) carries into the next. In the day you choose a few jobs: put things right, or make ready for what the night is said to bring.
No two runs are alike. A night may change who keeps which post, when the trouble comes and where it falls, and the day before tells you what it can.
The quiet hours
The watch is not all alarms. Supper for the guards, the shutters for the blackout, news on the kitchen wireless, and a hand of scopa, a game of chess or of borgo at the kitchen table, with one ear on the night outside.
From the watch
Knocking at the gate.
Supper on the stove for the guards.
Searchlights over the city.
Bombs inside the walls.
Beating down the fire in the infirmary.
Smoke from the generator.
Not yet issued
A demo you can play here
When the game is far enough along, a free demo will be playable on this page, in the browser, with nothing to install. There is no date yet, and nothing to download until then.