# Station Master

## Documentation

- [Rules and design docs](https://draco.local:53871/Jesse.Markowitz/station-master/src/branch/main/docs)
  — the rulebook implications, the multiplayer design, and the game's architecture.

## What you get on StartOS

This service runs the multiplayer server: a lobby, and a table for 2 to 4 players to play a
competitive or cooperative game together from their own browsers. Everything a player needs — the
game itself, the lobby, and the connection back to this server — is served from the single web
interface below; there is nothing else to install or configure on a player's side.

## Getting set up

1. Run the **Get Join Secret** action from this service's Actions menu, and copy the value it
   returns.
2. Share that secret, and this service's address, with everyone you want to play with. Anyone
   holding the secret can create a new game or join one that hasn't started yet.
3. Open this service's **Multiplayer Table** interface. You'll land on the front page, which
   offers three ways in: solitaire, the replay viewer, and multiplayer.
4. Click **Play multiplayer**, then **Create Game** (or **Join Game** with a game code someone
   else created), and enter the join secret when asked.

## Using Station Master

### Multiplayer Table

The front page offers solitaire, the replay viewer, and multiplayer. **Play multiplayer** takes you
to the lobby: create or join a game, seat players (including filling empty seats with a bot), and
start. Once a game is underway, this same interface is where every player plays their turns and
watches the table — there is nothing else to open.

Solitaire runs entirely in your own browser and needs nothing from the server, so it works here
exactly as it does on the public Station Master site.

### Get Join Secret

Run this whenever you need the current join secret again, or want to shut out anyone still
holding an old one. Every run replaces the secret and immediately puts the new one into effect —
players already seated in a game are unaffected, but the old secret stops working for creating or
joining games from that point on.