Passenger Zero

Midnight. A passenger train on the quarantine line. You're in the kitchen. Control gave the order over the radio: identify passengers behaving abnormally and remove them from the train. No one tells you who's infected. You have one tool: dinner. But it's not enough on its own. Food is a diagnostic tool Someone who has to pass as human has to order. And in ordering, they're forced to ask for something they can't eat. You pan-fry the steak, oven-bake the fish and chicken, and prepare the sandwich by hand. Then you carry it to the table yourself. - Steak comes with garlic. - Fish comes with lemon. - Chicken comes with onion. - Ham & cheese sandwich tests nothing. That's your control group. Did they want the meat raw? Did they push the garlic or onion aside? Did the plate come back full? What's on it? Every clue has an innocent explanation The infected might not be able to eat onion. But not everyone who skips onion is infected. Maybe they're just allergic. The same logic applies to every clue. That's why a single clue is never enough. You need at least two, side by side. The night window is one of them too: some passengers cast no reflection there. But to see it, you have to stand close, have the light on, and look from the right angle. That's not enough on its own either. Clues don't come from the plate alone Food is the fastest channel, but not the only one. You can read the same passenger from more than one place: - At the order: did they want the meat raw, did they refuse the onion - The returned plate: did it come back full, what's left on it - Paperwork: where the ticket was issued, whether it's for the city the radio declared under quarantine - The lavatory: what they left behind - The sleeper car: a suitcase, a coat, a bunk that hasn't been slept in - The night window: whether they cast a reflection None of them is enough on its own. Put two side by side, and it starts to tell you something. You drive the train too The locomotive isn't scenery: throttle, brake, radio, route map. Speed determines when the train can stop. The outer door only opens while the train is moving slowly. Which means whoever's in the cab is a partner to whatever gets decided in the corridor. They're also the one who hears Control's broadcast: which city has been placed under quarantine, how many people you're required to arrive with. The player with the most information is at the far end of the train. The entire train is walkable Locomotive → kitchen → passenger car → sleeper car. Four zones, four different kinds of information: the kitchen sees the returned plate, the corridor the passenger's reaction, the sleeper car the suitcase and the unslept bunk, the locomotive the radio and the route map. No ping. No shared inventory. No marking. If you need to tell someone something, you walk over, you shout, or you blow the whistle. Features - 1-4 player co-op, proximity voice chat - No role lock: everyone cooks, serves, and drives the train - Real kitchen mechanics: cooking, oven, tray service - Six separate clue channels: order, plate, paperwork, lavatory, belongings, reflection - 0, 1, or 2 infected passengers per run. Zero is always possible - Seven stops in one night. Daytime never comes - No interface: everything you need to read is printed where it sits, at a readable size