How to play an ImmA investigation

It is an investigation played on your feet, in a real place, by a team sharing one case, each player on their own phone, and no actors in costume. A writer built the case; the platform runs it.

Three things make it different from a boxed mystery game:

• The suspects answer you. Every character is played by an AI that stays in role and responds to whatever you type. There is no list of three questions to pick from. If you want to ask the housekeeper what she was doing at eleven, you ask her that, in your own words.
• The evidence is in the world. Clues sit behind QR codes at real locations, in what people tell you, and sometimes inside a physical object the organizer hid before you arrived.
• You are a team, not a queue. Everyone plays at once on their own phone, sharing one pool of points and one case file. Splitting up is a real strategy.

A session usually runs one to three hours, and the scenario page tells you which before you book.

• A phone with a camera and a browser. There is no app to install. You open a link and you are playing.
• A charged battery, ideally. The screen stays on for the session and the camera opens in bursts, so a power bank is worth packing for a long one. Neither is required, and nobody will check.
• Teammates. Most investigations are built for a small group. One person can play, but the characters are more fun when someone is arguing with you about who is lying.
• Comfortable shoes, if it is an outdoor scenario. You are walking between locations.

You do not need to have played before, to know the setting, to read anything in advance, or to be good at puzzles. The characters will tell you what you need if you ask them properly.

1. One person buys the team's access. You pay once for the whole team, not per head, and the price is set by the event.
2. That person creates the team and gets an invite code, shown as a code and as a QR your teammates can scan.
3. Everyone else joins free with that code, up to the scenario's maximum number of players. They each need an account, which is a matter of seconds.
4. You gather in the lobby, see who has arrived, and one tap takes the whole team into the investigation.

If you arrive and someone hands you a QR code, just scan it. It carries the invite, so it drops you straight onto the join screen with the code already filled in.

Your team starts with a pool of Action Points, shared by everyone, and almost everything you do spends some. This is the whole economy of the game and it is what stops an investigation being "ask everyone everything".

• Talking costs points, and a hostile character costs more per question than one who likes you. Being liked is literally cheaper.
• Searching a location costs points, though some places are free to search and the game says so.
• Scanning a new location could earn points, and so could any number of other things your team does. The scenario decides what pays and what does not, so acting on the world is often what funds the questioning.
• The ledger shows every movement, so a team can see where the budget actually went.

You are not meant to have enough for everything. Deciding what not to ask is the game. If the team genuinely runs dry, the organizer has a hint code that tops you back up, at the cost of some final score.

Clues arrive three ways: you find them by searching a location, someone tells you because they trust you enough, or something you did unlocked them.

The important rule is that no single clue convicts anybody. The case is written so that the culprit is only provable by combining several, which is why a team that splits up and pools what it found beats a team that walks around together.

Evidence is not only for reading. You can present a piece of evidence to a character during a conversation, and some of them react to being shown a specific thing in a way they never would to a question. Items marked with ??? are the ones with a reaction waiting.

A conversation is a chat box. You type or talk to them, and they answer in character, out loud if you want them to: every character can be heard as well as read, and you can mute them or change the speaking speed.

Two things govern what you get out of them:

• How much they like you. Every character tracks how they feel about your team, and it moves during the conversation depending on how you treat them. A character who trusts you concedes things they flatly deny to a stranger, and costs you fewer points per question.
• What they are willing to lie about. Each one has things they answer honestly and things they do not, and the second list is where the case is.

Catching a lie is a move, not an observation. When something a character said contradicts something you know, you select the claim and then cite the statement that contradicts it, straight out of your team's history: every question anyone has asked and every answer anyone has been given is searchable, so you can confront this character with what a different one told a teammate on the other side of town. You can still type a quote by hand when the proof came from somewhere else. A confirmed contradiction compels them to give up the truth, and it counts on your final score.

The scan button is on screen at all times, and it is how the real world gets into the game. Point the camera at a code and one of several things happens:

• A location opens up, and you can now search it.
• You are paid points for reaching somewhere new.
• A character becomes reachable, and appears in your Talk panel.
• A piece of evidence lands in the case file.

If the camera will not read a code, there is a manual entry box: type what is printed under it and it works exactly the same. That is the fix for a dark corner, a wet code, a cracked lens, or a phone that will not grant camera permission.

Along the top is your team's point balance. Along the bottom are three panels and the scan button. That is the entire interface, and it is built to be used one-handed while standing up.

You end it when your team decides to, not when a timer says so. Once you are holding the evidence that matters, a Resolve the mystery banner appears, and one of you confirms.

What follows is the case questions: who did it, how, and why, plus whatever else the writer chose to ask. You answer them as a team, in your own words, and they are scored the moment you submit, against the truth the writer wrote.

Ending is final, so agree on it first. If nobody resolves it, the investigation closes itself when the time is up and you answer the same questions with whatever you have.

The recap is a page of its own, and it is safe to share: it shows your team name, not anybody's real one, and it never reveals the solution.

• Your score and your rank against every other team who played that investigation.
• How the team did: clues found, lies caught, points earned, places visited.
• A share button, because the link is the point.
• A review box. Reviews appear on the investigation's public page, and they are the main way the next team finds a good one.

Scores also feed the leaderboards, which run across every investigation on the platform.

You probably arrived at your first game because somebody else organised it. You can be that person, and it takes about ten minutes.

The Little Mysteries are single evenings you buy outright: pick a story, pick a date, pay once. Up to five teams play, and everyone you invite plays free: you are the only person who pays anything.

What you actually do on the night: print the QR code kit (plain A4, one sheet per place), put the sheets up wherever you are playing, and send your guests a link by email. They scan the first code and the game starts. There is nothing to install, nothing to learn beforehand, and nothing to referee: you get a live screen showing where every team is.

Where people run them: a flat, a garden, a village hall, a few streets. Birthdays, weddings, leaving parties, shop openings, family gatherings that need something to do.

If your plans change, cancel up to a week before and you are refunded in full.

• A code will not scan. Use the manual entry box and type the characters printed under it.
• You are completely stuck. Ask the organizer for a hint code. It gives the team points back and costs a little final score, which is a fair trade for finishing.
• A character is being useless. They are usually protecting something. Try what you know rather than what you want, and consider whether they simply do not like you yet.
• Something is actually broken. Tell the organizer first, since most problems on the night are local. The bug report link in the footer reaches us directly with a screenshot.

Your companion is always free to talk to. Asking them for direction never costs a point, so when the team is going in circles, start there.