Your job is to find out what happened.
There has been an incident in a town, and the people there cannot agree on the truth. So they call an Offline. That is you.
You investigate, talk to the suspects, and find the culprit. You have one hour.
Cases come to you.
Your desk is a map of the country. Each town that needs an Offline is marked on the map, and letters from the Offlines arrive on your desk.
Open a case to read what happened. When you are ready, take the case. The clock does not start until you begin.
- Letters
- The map
- Taking a case
Read the incident file.
Every case starts with the incident file: what happened, who the victim is, where, and when. This is what is known before you start investigating.
The incident already happened, before you arrived. The people you talk to can lie about it, but they cannot change it, and neither can you. Your job is to find the truth.
- The incident
- A fixed truth
Meet the suspects.
The board shows the victim and every suspect. As people tell you how they know each other, lines appear between them: who is family, who works together, and who has history.
In Santa Cruz, Graham Whitlock is in the middle of the board. He is the victim. There are seven suspects: two families, a best man, a caterer, and a surfer who found the body.
- The board
- Relationships
- Availability
Ask in your own words.
Click a face to start talking. You type your own questions, the way you would ask a real person. There are no menus and no lists of choices.
They are people, not sources of information. Each one knows what they saw themselves and what they only heard from someone else, and what gets passed around town is not always true. They have their own read on everyone, their own theory about who did it, and their own secrets.
Nobody hands you all of it. Some leave things out, some downplay, some answer a question with a question, and a few will not lie to you but will not answer either. Some open up quickly; others make you earn it. Each of them wants something from you, and it all comes out in their own voice.
Graham was the kind of man who could make a room colder without raising his voice, honey.
- Free conversation
- Lies and dodges
- Every voice is different
YouGood morning, Bev. The families asked me to look into what happened to Graham. Can I ask you a few things while you cook?
BevOf course, honey, pull up a chair, but keep your elbows out of the crab cakes, because I’ve got three hundred and sixty of them going into the oven and nobody investigates well on an empty stomach. …
You… You fed everyone at the rehearsal dinner. What did you notice about the people at that table?
BevHoney, a rehearsal dinner tells you more than a deposition, especially when people are drinking wine that costs more than my first van. I was working the food, not sitting at their table, but everybody in the dining room heard Tess and Graham shouting in the kitchen, and Tess told him, “You’re stealing it, and you can’t even do that honestly.” …
When stories don't match, find out why.
People leave things out. Some of them lie. Others are honestly wrong, because they only saw part of it, or they are repeating what someone told them.
Everyone has a reason for telling it the way they do. The job is understanding people: what they want, who they are protecting, what they are afraid of.
- Lies
- Contradictions
- Reasons
YouHello Theo. I am the Offline the families called, and I am sorry about Graham. Can you tell me about last night, after the fire pit?
Theo… After the fire pit broke up, I stayed on the deck for a while … when I went up to bed at about one, I looked out and saw Kai shouting at Graham at the railing. You’re starting with the right question, which already puts you ahead of most people in this house …
YouKai told me something different. He says when he left by the side gate at one, you were walking across the grass toward Graham. How does that fit with going up to bed?
TheoIt doesn’t fit, because Kai is lying. I went up to bed at about one, looked out the window, and saw Kai shouting at Graham at the railing … You’re being thorough, I’ll give you that …
YouTheo told me he went up to bed at one and saw you shouting at Graham at the railing. I am not sure that is right. When you left the lawn, who else was out there?
KaiI was gone by one. I wasn’t shouting at Graham, and I’m not going to sort out Theo’s story for you.
YouI am not asking you to sort it out. Just one fact. When you went out the side gate at one, where was Theo?
KaiTheo was walking across the dark grass toward Graham, who was standing alone at the railing. That’s all I saw.
People may refuse to talk to you.
People react to how you treat them. Press someone hard and they get nervous, and you will hear it in the way they answer.
Push further and they end the conversation. Some will talk to you again later in the day. Others are done with you for the rest of the case.
- Getting nervous
- Shutting down
YouBev heard you tell Graham he was stealing it. A few hours later he was dead below the lawn. I need to know where you were after the party.
TessThat’s an accusation wearing a question mark. Bev hears plenty, but I’m not giving you my night in pieces because you waved her name at me.
YouI am not trying to trap you. But you found the price cut, and you shouted at the man who died. I still need to know where you were after the party.
TessI said I’m not giving you my night. You’ve asked twice and heard the answer twice, so take your questions to someone who enjoys being bullied. I’m done.
Everyone has their own day.
People go to work, run errands, and go home. Each person's chat shows their day: when you can reach them and when they are away.
If someone is away, come back later. Plan who to talk to first, because some people will not be around for long.
- Schedules
- Away
- Planning
Sometimes they approach you.
Press someone hard and the person who loves them may come to you instead. Build a case against someone and another person may arrive to defend them.
They are not coming to help. One wants you to stop. One wants to know what other people have said about them. One wants to ask you the questions. You can hear them out or turn them away.
- People reach out
What they tell you becomes evidence.
When someone tells you something that matters to the case, it is recorded as evidence. You see it happen in the conversation.
You can also save any line from any conversation to your notes.
- Evidence
- Notes
Your board, your theory.
Pin evidence to the suspect it points at. Write sticky notes. Move things around until it makes sense to you.
Nobody tells you whether you are right. The board is only for you.
- Pinned evidence
- Sticky notes
One hour is one day.
One real hour is one day in town, from eight in the morning to ten at night.
People leave as the day goes on, and you may not get to everyone. Before someone goes, you get one warning that it is your last chance to talk to them today. If you need a break, you can pause, and the town waits for you.
- One hour
- Last chance
- Pause
Name the culprit.
When you are ready, or when the day ends, you make your accusation. Choose who did it. Choose the evidence that proves it. Write your statement to the town council.
You get one accusation per case.
- The accusation
- Your statement
The council decides.
The council reads your case and gives its verdict. A case can end four ways.
- Culprit convicted: you named the culprit and proved it.
- Right name, no proof: the council could not convict on your evidence.
- Wrong suspect: the council rejected your case.
- Innocent convicted: your case condemned an innocent. The real culprit walks free.
Afterwards you can break the seal on the case file and read what really happened: who did it, why, and what you missed. It does not change the verdict. The case goes on your record as solved or failed, and your record is what decides which cases you are given next.
- The verdict
- The truth
Every case is different.
Every case is built from the ground up: a new town, a new incident, new people, and its own look. A karaoke bar in Koreatown. A taverna in Astoria. A wedding in Santa Cruz.
A theft, a fire someone set, someone missing, a secret that got out, a rigged vote: dozens of kinds of incident, set in hundreds of different situations, in towns all over the country. The cast is new every time, and no two people are built the same, down to how they tell a story and how they lie.
- New towns
- New people
Take your first case.
Hundreds of cases are waiting, and new ones arrive every day.
The Offlines runs in a web browser on a computer, in a window at least 1280 pixels wide. There is nothing to download. Typing is enough, and you can use your voice if you prefer.
Create an account to join the Offlines.