Gameweave

The House Job

A co-operative blackjack heist. Two to four players share one crew, one 52-card deck, and one pool of chips — the Take — against an automated house dealer. There are no personal stacks and no personal score: the crew wins or loses together, and the cards you hold are as often spent on somebody else's hand as on your own.

Objective

Grow the Take across a job: one pass through one deck. The job ends the moment the deck can no longer deal a full round, and the crew's score is simply what is left in the Take. Finish above the 1,000 it opened with and the crew has taken the house; finish level or below and the house kept its edge. The board says which, with the figure, the moment the job is over.
There is no individual score anywhere, not even at the end.

Setup

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The Take starts at 1,000 chips.
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One standard 52-card deck is shuffled. That deck is the whole job: it is never reshuffled between rounds, and when it runs low the job is over.
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Each seat (2–4) drafts a role — the Lookout, the Sleight, the Ghost, the Bagman, or the Inside Man — and keeps that role's three ability cards and its one passive. No two seats share a role. Those three cards are the whole job's supply — nothing brings a spent one back, so spend them where they count. The passive costs nothing and is never spent: it is on from the draft to the end of the job, written on your player card.
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Each seat gets its own box in front of the house dealer.
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Seat 1 is the first round's caller. The caller moves one seat on every round.

Card values

Standard blackjack values: Ace counts as 1 or 11 (whichever keeps a hand at or under 21), 2–10 count as their number, and Jack/Queen/King all count as 10.
A blackjack (a natural) is a two-card 21 in the opening deal. It stands at once and pays 3:2. Only the deal makes a blackjack: a 21 made any other way — after a split, a Palm, a Shift, a False Cut or a Drop — is a plain 21, and pays even money if it wins.

A round

Every round gives each seat up to two turns: a betting turn before the deal and a playing turn after it. Nothing is played outside them (see "Your turn"). The banner across the table always says whose turn it is, and nobody is ever handed the device just to pass.
1.
Bet. The round's caller bets first, then each seat in turn round the table. On your betting turn, play any before-the-deal abilities first — and, if you're the caller, call the Mark or the Heavy — then push chips onto your box: +10, +50 or +100, as many times as you like, up to whatever the Take can cover and up to the table maximum of 250 on any one box. Each chip leaves the Take as you push it. Your betting turn ends when you press Deal me in, not when the first chip lands, so there is no rush to get the amount right in one press. A seat the Take can't cover (fewer than 10 chips left) sits the round out.
2.
Deal. Every box gets its first card. If The Call is in play and no box is Marked yet, the deal stops here once for the caller to Mark a box or choose No Mark. Then the dealer takes its face-up upcard, every box gets its second card, an Extra Box gets its two, and the dealer takes the hole card face down.
3.
The dealer peeks. If the dealer's two cards make blackjack, the hole card is turned and the round ends there: a player blackjack pushes, and every other box loses (unless Short Change covers it). Otherwise the hole card stays down and play begins.
4.
Play. Each seat with a box to play takes its playing turn, in seat order — seat 1 first, whoever is calling. A seat dealt a blackjack has nothing to play and is skipped. On your playing turn:
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Cold Feet — if a Ghost is at the table, walk the box out for half its bet back, before your first hit.
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Hit — take another card. A bust ends the box at once; so does reaching 21, which stands automatically.
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Stand — keep the current total.
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Double — double the bet and take exactly one more card, then stand. Only on a two-card hand, and only if the Take can cover the second bet.
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Split — if the two cards match in rank, split them into a main box and a split box, each getting a new card and its own bet (the Take must cover it). Once per round, and never on the Extra Box. A split on a pair of Aces gets one card per box and stands automatically. A 21 on either box after a split is a plain 21, and stands.
Play your abilities at any point in the turn (see "Your turn"). Your turn ends when your last box is done — a split box, then an Extra Box, come after your main box. Once you stand, you're done until the next hand.
5.
The dealer plays. The moment the last box is done, the dealer plays straight through, with nobody asked anything: it turns the hole card, then draws until its total reaches 17 or more (16 with Slow Hand) — but only if at least one hand is standing against it. If every box has busted or has a blackjack, the dealer just turns the hole card. The Nod, set up earlier, takes effect here.
6.
Settle. The round settles as soon as the dealer finishes. Every hand is compared with the dealer's final hand:
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Bust (over 21): the hand loses its bet — even if the dealer busts too.
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Blackjack: pays 3:2, unless the dealer also has blackjack, in which case it's a push.
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Win (higher than the dealer, or the dealer busts): pays even money.
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Push (tied with the dealer): the bet is returned.
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Loss (lower than the dealer, or the dealer has blackjack): the hand loses its bet.
Every payout — win or loss — goes to or from the shared Take. There is no individual chip stack anywhere in this game.
7.
Next round. The seat after this round's caller presses Next round and becomes the new caller, so it bets first. If the deck can't deal another full round, that press ends the job instead, and the table shows the crew's final score.

Your turn

You act only on your own turns, and every ability has its timing:
When
Abilities
Before the deal only — your betting turn, before you bet
Extra Box, The Call
Once cards are dealt — your playing turn
Rooftop, False Cut, Palm, The Drop, Alibi, Back the Play
Any time on your turn — betting or playing
Long Glass, The Load, Vanish, Double Bag, Slow Hand, Short Change, The Nod
Your three ability cards are always on screen, each with what it does and when it can be played. The ones you can play this instant are lit and ringed in gold with PLAY NOW; the rest are greyed, with their timing saying why — a Lookout betting sees The Call lit and Rooftop greyed, because Rooftop needs cards on the table. Click or tap a lit card to play it. Hover on desktop, or press and hold on touch, to read a card enlarged without playing it. Choose your role the same way: click or tap its card. A spent card stays in its place, faded, so you can see what you have already used.
Two of them are set up on your turn and fire later — the table shows each one until it does:
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The Nod fires when the dealer plays.
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Short Change fires at settlement.
The levers keep their own timing: the caller's Mark and Heavy come on the caller's betting turn, before they bet (and the Mark again at The Call's stop).
Your betting turn ends when you press Deal me in, so play anything you want before the deal first — and a chip you have already pushed does not close the window. A seat sitting the round out, or one dealt a blackjack, has no playing turn that round (unless it has an Extra Box to play). A seat with nothing to decide is never asked.

The table maximum

No one box may carry more than 250 chips of its own, whatever the Take holds. It is the house's rule, not the crew's, so it does not grow when the crew is winning. Three things bend it:
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The Bagman's Deep Pockets doubles it on the Bagman's own box, to 500.
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The Bagman's Back the Play lifts it off one box entirely for a round.
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A double ignores it, exactly as a real table lets you double past the maximum — and the Heavy doubles the effective bet at settlement rather than putting chips on the box, so a capped 250 Marked box under the Heavy still risks 1,000.
Chips backed onto a box by Back the Play are counted separately from the box's own bet, and are capped separately too.

The two crew levers

Unlike the ability cards, the two levers below cost nothing — they're always available to whoever can use them, once their conditions are met.
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The Mark. Once per round, the crew's caller (a seat that rotates every round) may declare one box the Mark — blind, on their betting turn, before any card is dealt and before they bet. A marked box pays 2:1 on a win (3:1 if the Bagman's Double Bag is also in play) and loses double on a loss. Called blind it is a losing bet on the numbers; Double Bag is what turns it into a good one. The Lookout's The Call adds a second chance: after every box's first card, the deal stops for the caller to Mark a box or choose No Mark.
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The Heavy. Once per job, the caller may call the Heavy on their betting turn, before they bet: every box's effective bet doubles, both ways, for that round. The Heavy and the Mark stack: the Heavy doubles the bet first, then the Mark's own 2:1 (or 3:1) and "loses double" apply on top of the doubled bet. There is one Heavy in a job and no way to get it back, so the round it is spent on is the crew's biggest decision.
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The crew never owes the house. The Mark's "loses double" and the Heavy's doubling are both debits taken from the Take after the bet itself is gone. Neither can take the Take below zero: if a marked box loses more than the crew still holds, it pays what is there and stops. A crew can be wiped out — that ends the job — but it can never finish in debt.
Putting chips on a crewmate's hand costs a card. It used to be free and every round; it is the Bagman's Back the Play now, once a job, which is what makes it a moment rather than a habit.

The five roles

Each role is three ability cards and one passive. The three cards are the whole job's supply: a spent card does not come back. The passive is never spent — it is on from the draft to the end of the job, and it is written on the seat's player card. The two that report something, The Count and The Tell, also print their live reading under the Take. When each card can be played is in "Your turn" above.
The Lookout — knows what's coming before it comes
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Passive · The Count — the board always shows how many tens and aces are left in the deck, out of how many cards remain, and calls it THIN, EVEN or RICH. Divide tens and aces left by cards remaining: RICH at 43% or higher, THIN below 35%, EVEN otherwise. An empty deck reads SPENT. A fresh deck holds twenty of them and reads EVEN. Tens make the dealer bust and aces make naturals, so a RICH deck is the crew's edge and a THIN one is the house's — which is what tells you how hard to bet, whether the Mark is worth calling, and when to spend the Heavy.
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Long Glass — turn the next three deck cards face up for the whole crew. They stay on the deck. Whatever takes the next card takes them, in the order shown — a hit, a double, the dealer's draw, or the next deal.
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Rooftop — turn the dealer's hole card face up for everyone. It joins the dealer's hand, and the dealer's total counts it from then on.
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The Call — this round, the deal stops after every box's first card for the caller to Mark a box or choose No Mark. Only while no box is Marked yet.
The Sleight — no card reaches you by accident
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Passive · Palmed — when the Sleight's own box busts, the deck's next card turns face up for the crew — a look at what was coming, caught on the way down. It fires only on the Sleight's own failure and changes no odds; it is the lightest of the five passives on purpose, because the Sleight's three cards are the strongest set at the table.
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False Cut — discard a card from any box that isn't a blackjack or a bust — yours or a crewmate's, even one that has stood — and deal it a fresh one in its place. If the new card takes the box over 21, it busts on the spot.
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Palm — swap one of your cards with one from a crewmate's box that isn't a blackjack or a bust. Either box busts on the spot if the swap takes it over 21.
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The Load — move one of the cards the crew can see on the deck to the very top, so the next card drawn takes it. It needs at least two of them turned, which is what makes it sing beside a Long Glass — but a Palmed bust can turn one too.
The Sleight's card moves touch main boxes only — never a split box or the Extra Box.
The Ghost — nobody can prove you were there
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Passive · Cold Feet — while a Ghost is at the table, any box may be walked out for half its bet back, by whoever is playing it, before that box's first hit. It is the whole crew's option, not only the Ghost's, and it is the one thing to reach for on 16 against a ten. Half is floored: a 25 bet returns 12.
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Vanish — name any box, yours or a crewmate's; if it busts this round, its bet comes back to the Take, and so do any chips backed onto it.
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The Drop — discard a card from the box you're playing; its value comes off your total.
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Alibi — you were never at that table: put your whole hand back and take two fresh cards. You keep playing.
The Bagman — your money works harder than you do
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Passive · Deep Pockets — the table maximum is doubled on the Bagman's own box, to 500. Always on, and felt on the only decision every seat makes every round.
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Double Bag — the Mark pays 3:1 instead of 2:1 this round. Called blind, the Mark is a losing bet; this is the card that makes it a good one, and it can be played on your playing turn, once the marked box's cards are out.
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Short Change — name a box that isn't a blackjack. If its main hand loses this round — a bust included — it pushes instead, and so do the chips backed on it.
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Back the Play — push chips from the Take onto any box, yours or a crewmate's, with no table maximum on it. You push them on your own playing turn, before your first hit. This is the only way chips reach a box after the deal, and the only way any box goes all-in. Backed chips settle at even money with the hand.
The Inside Man — the dealer is on the payroll
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Passive · The Tell — every round, once the dealer has both its cards, the crew is told whether the hole card is HIGH (7 to king, or an ace) or LOW (2 to 6). One bit, every round, shading every hit and stand at the table. The whole card is worth far more, which is why that stays a card — the Lookout's Rooftop.
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Slow Hand — the dealer stands on 16 instead of 17 this round. It only pays when the dealer actually reaches a hard 16, so play it against a low upcard with the crew standing.
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The Nod — when the dealer stands, it takes exactly one more card — not after a bust or a blackjack, and only if a hand is standing against it. The dealer stands on 17 through 21, where one more card busts it far more often than not. It is the strongest card in the game; set it once the totals are out and you know what you are asking for.
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Extra Box — bankroll an extra hand from the Take, bet on the ladder, played after your own box(es). It also eats a round of the deck at a full table, so it shortens the job.

The deck

The deck is never reshuffled — the crew plays through it once, and that is the job. A round consumes at least two cards per box plus two for the dealer, so a single 52-card deck supports a handful of rounds before it runs low. When it can no longer deal a full round, the job ends once that round settles.
That is the clock on everything else: The Count's read gets sharper as the deck thins, a Long Glass is worth more the later it is taken, and three ability cards have to cover however many rounds the deck gives you. At four seats that is three or four rounds, so a card you are saving for the right moment may never get one.
If a round's own hits and doubles exhaust the deck mid-hand, the discard is shuffled back in right then so the round can finish — and that round is the job's last.

Ending the job

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The deck runs out. The round after the deck can no longer deal is never dealt: pressing Next round ends the job instead. Whatever is in the Take is the crew's score.
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Broke. If, between rounds, the Take can't cover the minimum bet (10 chips) and no chips are on the table, the job ends there and then — a loss. Chips already bet hold it off: a crew that bets the Take down below 10 still plays that round out, and any seat left unable to bet simply sits it out.
Either way the table shows the same thing: the final Take, what it opened at, and whether the crew came out ahead.

What the crew can see

Nothing is hidden between crewmates. Every box, the dealer's face-up cards, the cards turned face up on the deck, The Count's read and The Tell's HIGH or LOW are drawn for the whole crew, and the table lists anything set up to fire later, under the Take.
Every seat has a player card: its role card, its passive (marked always on), and its three ability cards, with a spent one faded in its place. Hover or tap a crewmate's role card or any of their ability cards to read it in full, so you always know what the rest of the crew can do for you.
On a phone the table is laid out for the phone: the house and the Take in one strip, whose turn it is, your own player card with your three ability cards to tap, your crewmates' cards, and the controls.
Only the deck (its order, and any card burned face down) and the dealer's hole card, until it is turned, stay face down. That is presentation-only: the platform does not yet withhold unseen cards from the game data sent to every device, so a technically determined player could read them. This is an accepted, deliberate limitation for a co-operative game with no human opponent to cheat against, and it will be revisited when the platform can withhold unseen cards properly.

Reading the log

The table keeps a running history, newest line on top; tap it to open the whole round. It is blow-by-blow, one line per moment, and it carries the numbers:
The house shows 7 Crew 1 is dealt a blackjack Crew 2 hits to 26 — bust Hole card up — house has 16 The house draws to 26 — bust Crew 1 21 BLACKJACK +15 Crew 2 26 BUST · LOSS -10 Round settled — Take 1240
A settlement line reads seat, total, outcome, chips: the chips are what the box actually moved against the bet it had already spent, so +15 on a natural is the 3:2 profit and -10 on a bust is the bet itself. Chips raised onto a box by Back the Play get their own Raise on … line beside it. Lines about the house carry no seat colour.

Players

2 to 4. Every seat plays its own box against the house, drafts its own role, and spends its own ability cards — but every bet, ability, and lever moves the same shared Take, and the crew's result is one number everyone shares.