The Cipher at Bletchley
Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire · November 1943
“Everyone in this hut signed the same Act. That is not the same as everyone telling the truth.”
- Players
- 6 to 12 adults, plus the host
- At its best
- 8 to 12 guests
- Runs
- 2 to 3 hours with dinner
- Setting
- Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, 1943
- History
- Original fiction
- Suits
- Clever, note-taking tables. Twisty
- Best for
- Dinner parties
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Acting
- None needed. Short lines to read where the story needs them
- You need
- A TV or laptop, and a phone each
- Delivery
- Instant access. Printable pack included
- The host
- Plays the victim, then runs the inquiry
- Price
- A$39, one payment
- Content
- This story involves wartime espionage, treason, and a prisoner of war. It does not depict atrocity or real named victims.
Hut 6 at the wrong end of a night shift: cold tea, cigarette smoke held in by the blackout, and a room full of people who are forbidden by law from explaining themselves to each other. A cryptanalyst is found at his desk in the small hours. The work does not stop, because the work cannot stop, so the inquiry happens in the gaps between shifts, among people trained to give nothing away.
That is as much as the file will give you. The rest comes out on the night, one piece of evidence at a time, and the room will be well into the evening before the shape of it shows.
What you get
Fully scripted evening
Every act cued, every scene set, your lines where you need them. No prep, no printing, no experience required.
Clues arrive in stages
Evidence and private dossiers drop to your guests' phones as the night unfolds, one act at a time.
You play the victim
Set the table, welcome your guests, then haunt the evening while they work out who wanted you gone.
6 to 12 players
A core cast carries the case, with flexible roles as your table grows. Latecomers can join as observers.
App-hosted
The case runs from any screen in the room. Your TV is the stage, the phones are the wings.
Bletchley Park is real, and so is the extraordinary secrecy that surrounded it. The people, the death and the investigation are invented for this game.
Unlike our eight Case Files, which reopen real cases with real inquests, this file is invented from end to end. There is no historical verdict to look up and nothing to spoil by reading around it. The solution is fair, the evidence is all in the room, and your table settles it.
Want a real one? The eight Case Files are genuine historical cases, with real inquests and verdicts still argued over.
Take it to trial.
This case can end at the reveal, or it can go to trial: the person your table accused stands in the dock, your guests become the jury, and nobody learns who really did it until the verdict is in.
The trial for The Cipher at Bletchley is coming soon. Trials are released case by case, starting with The Masque at Carfax Hall. When it arrives, the trial can also be played on its own, as a jury case.
Host The Cipher at Bletchley.
Host it at your own table. Nothing to print, no script to learn, and you play the victim, so you finally get to attend your own party.