The book's game
OPENCASE
Six people investigate a decision that went wrong. Each of them was there. Each knows something the others don't.
And the box with the evidence only opens if they talk.
I want the case file →Table box · 4-digit lock
Each digit is on a different phone. No one can open it alone.
What it is
An investigation game about an uncomfortable question: who did it?
Open Case turns the book's thesis into an experience. Your team receives a complaint from a fictional company: a decision that hit its target and cost a fortune. The board wants a name.
Each participant plays one of the people involved, with a secret of their own and a goal that sometimes clashes with their table's. Their phone becomes that character's phone: emails, chats and documents only they can see. To move forward, the table has to cross what lies on the table with what each person keeps in their pocket.
At the end, everyone votes on who is responsible and has to back it up with evidence. What happens in that moment is the conversation your organization needs to have.
Characters
Everyone has something to hide
Six people involved, no villain. Each did something reasonable from where they sat.
Evidence
It only makes sense when crossed
One piece from the table plus one from someone's phone. Apart, they say nothing.
Lock
No one opens it alone
The combination is split. If someone stays quiet, the whole table stays locked out.
The board
The Decision's Chain of Custody
Eight links. In each one, a name and a piece of evidence. Without evidence, the link doesn't count.
1 · What for
What problem were they trying to solve?
2 · Who thought of it
Who set the criteria?
3 · Who had a hand in it
Which people and systems shaped it?
4 · Who said no
Who challenged the recommendation?
5 · Who signed off
Who made the final call?
6 · Who did it
Who carried it out?
7 · Who paid
Who answered for the impact?
8 · What changed
What did the company learn?
If you read the book, you already know why this board is hard to fill.
Two ways to play
In the same room or on the same video call
In-person workshop
The box on the table
- Who
- Tables of six, several tables per room
- Length
- About three hours, including the closing conversation
- What's in it
- A physical box per table: documents, cards, the board and the lock. Each phone is a character's phone.
Virtual workshop
One video call
- Who
- Tables of six, everyone from wherever they are
- Length
- A little over two hours, in a single session
- What's in it
- The room screen is shared on the call. Each table talks in its own group chat and joins with a QR code. Nothing to install, nothing to ship.
Pieces of the case
What you hold in your hands
OPEN CASE
CHARACTERSECRET
READ IT IN SILENCE. DON'T SHOW IT.
Rule: you can say what you see. You can't show the screen.
During questioning
OBJECTION!
Show the evidence that contradicts the witness. Get it right and the table scores. Get it wrong and the witness gains credibility.
For your organization
What the room takes away
While tables investigate, the app records how the group decides: who it blames first, which evidence it opens and which it ignores, when someone objects and when they stay silent. At the end, the organization receives a room report, always aggregated. No one appears by name.
What we never ask for
That anyone upload documents from their company.
That anyone share confidential information. The case is fictional and the company is made up.
That anyone download, install or print anything.
Open your case file
Tell us what you're interested in
Leave your details and we'll write to talk about your team.