How to Play
Firing Room 1 · voice required
An asymmetric co-op set in a 1965 launch control room. One operator, a room of controllers, one split manual, and a clock. Talk it out and clear every console module before T-zero.
This game needs voices
Same room or on a call. There is no typed fallback, on purpose — the frantic talking isn't the transport layer, it isthe game. You are on the comms loop. Bring 3–8 people who can hear each other.
One mission, by the book
1. Get on the comms loop
One player is the OPERATOR at the console; everyone else is a flight CONTROLLER at a station (BOOSTER, GUIDO, SURGEON…). The operator sees the console but not the manual. Controllers read the manual but never see the console. The only bridge is your voices.
2. Read the panel, find the procedure
The operator reads a module aloud — “four wires: amber, amber, red, white, serial FR-51.” Controllers hunt their pages: the wire table is on one phone, the exception that overrides it is on another. Nobody holds the whole truth; you assemble it out loud.
3. Clear every module before T-zero
The operator acts on what the room agrees. Each cleared module floods green and its lamp climbs the big board. Get every module to GO before the T-clock hits zero and the whole room watches its rocket launch — with the crew's names on the fairing.
4. Rotate the chair
One mission per player, ~3 minutes each. After each mission the operator chair rotates to the next crew member, and a fresh console and manual are rolled. Everyone gets a turn in the hot seat and a turn in the trench.
Flight rules
Anomalies cost clock
A wrong action is an anomaly: the T-clock sheds 15 seconds and the module resets its step. Three anomalies scrubs the mission.
Scrubs, never explosions
Run out of clock or take a third anomaly and the launch scrubs — a hold klaxon and a HOLD HOLD HOLD stamp. Cleared modules still bank salvage points; the rocket stands for the next operator.
One dial tunes the night
Milk Run, By the Book or Max Q shifts module count, exception depth and clock length. Team score = modules cleared × seconds remaining, plus a flawless-mission streak bonus, posted to the co-op board.