v0.5.3 — a table you size yourself, and games an administrator can see and end

Both halves came out of playing the StartOS build. The wrapper's health
check and admin actions consume this; they land separately.

The host picks the table size (2-4) when creating a game, and the seats
array is built at that length once. Before, it GREW as people joined, so
the four rows on screen were partly fiction — a 2-player game just started
with a 2-long array, while a host who dropped a bot into a later chair
padded it with a null and silently disabled Start behind a one-line note.
A gap can no longer be written down rather than merely being refused.

That also avoided a trap. Compacting seats at Lobby.Start — the obvious
way to support a "closed" chair — would have shifted the player index that
every PlayerSession stamps at join time and that /api/stream and
/api/intent both route by, handing a player somebody else's railroad with
no error anywhere.

And it fixed a live balance bug: minCombinedRevenue is derived from the
player count, but the config was fixed at CREATE while the count wasn't
known until START, so the lobby guessed 4. Every 2-player game ran against
a floor of 60 instead of 30 — and missing the floor means everyone loses,
so a 2-player competitive game was set up to fail for a UI artifact rather
than a rule.

/api/health gained games:{active,lobby}, read from a new cheap summary()
on GameSession rather than exportSave(), which would copy every intent of
every game to answer a question about none of them. Three admin routes are
new behind an ADMIN_SECRET env var in an x-admin-secret header: GET
/api/games, GET /api/games/<id>/save, DELETE /api/games/<id>. Until now a
started game could not be ended by anyone — no route, no player action, no
resignation — so an abandoned game stayed active in the index and was
faithfully resumed on every boot, forever.

Three deliberate choices there: the admin secret is NOT the join secret,
which every player holds and which would therefore let anyone at the table
destroy anyone else's game; unset means the routes 404 exactly as any
unknown path does, with or without a header, so a server never given an
administrator doesn't advertise that it has one; and a delete returns the
deleted game's save, since the intents are the game (D5) — nothing is
destroyed without being handed to whoever destroyed it.

SavedGame gained an optional lastMoveAt (falling back to createdAt) so
"has this stalled?" survives a restart. Kept out of history for the same
reason the turn timings are: a replay must reproduce a game from decisions
alone, and wall-clock is not a decision.

index.ts logs "Resuming N saved games..." before the loop rather than one
line per game after it. Measured a full 4-player game at 100ms to replay,
and only unfinished games are replayed, so listening before loading would
have bought nothing for the cost of a "still loading" state everywhere.

Verified: 667 tests pass (662 + 5), and the new session tests were checked
against two mutations (lastMoveAt never advancing; resume dropping it) to
confirm they fail without the code. Live against a running server: health
counts tracking through the lobby->game transition, admin auth rejecting a
missing and a wrong secret, list/export/delete, the deleted game's files
and index entry actually gone from disk, a second delete 404ing, the admin
routes invisible when ADMIN_SECRET is unset, and a 3-player table refusing
a 4th player and a size of 5 refused at the door.

Also carries the TODO items raised on 2026-08-21: the lobby offering no
game parameters (the floor bug within it now fixed, the form still
missing), and the four optionalRules — of which only reducedVisibility and
emergencyToolbox are read by anything, while sisterTrains and
employeeRotation are declared, defaulted, and consulted nowhere.

src/server/http.ts

@@ -27,8 +27,11 @@ import type { Intent } from '../engine/intents.ts';
 import type { GameConfig, PlayerIndex } from '../engine/state.ts';
 import {
   appendTiming,
+  deleteGame,
   deleteLobby,
   gameDir,
+  readIndex,
+  removeIndexEntry,
   upsertIndexEntry,
   writeGame,
   writeLobby,
@@ -39,6 +42,7 @@ import type { GameSession, Push } from './session.ts';
 import {
   createLobby,
   freshGameCode,
+  playerCountAllowed,
   joinLobby,
   reassignHost,
   setBotSeat,
@@ -58,6 +62,14 @@ export type ServerOptions = {
   dataDir: string;
   /** `package.json`'s version — stamped onto every write, checked on every load (§12 step 15). */
   engineVersion: string;
+  /**
+   * Gates the administrative routes — listing, exporting and deleting games — and is DELIBERATELY
+   * not the join secret. Every player holds that one, so gating a delete with it would let anyone
+   * at the table destroy anyone else's game. This is held by whoever runs the server and nobody
+   * else. When it is unset the admin routes do not exist at all (404, the same answer as any other
+   * unknown path), so a server that was never given one cannot be administered by guessing.
+   */
+  adminSecret?: string | undefined;
   /** Reconstructed by `index.ts`'s load-on-start. Empty maps for a fresh server. */
   initialGames: Map<string, GameSession>;
   initialLobbies: Map<string, Lobby>;
@@ -212,24 +224,137 @@ export function startServer(opts: ServerOptions): void {
        * is what the client is about to offer the player anyway. It reveals no game and no seat.
        */
       if (url.pathname === '/api/health' && req.method === 'GET') {
-        sendJson(res, 200, { ok: true, service: 'station-master', engineVersion: opts.engineVersion });
+        // `summary()` rather than `exportSave()`: this is polled on a timer, and the save copies
+        // every intent of every game to answer a question about none of them.
+        let active = 0;
+        for (const g of games.values()) if (g.summary().status === 'active') active++;
+        sendJson(res, 200, {
+          ok: true,
+          service: 'station-master',
+          engineVersion: opts.engineVersion,
+          games: { active, lobby: lobbies.size },
+        });
+        return;
+      }
+
+      // -- Administration: listing, exporting and deleting games ------------------------------
+
+      if (url.pathname === '/api/games' || url.pathname.startsWith('/api/games/')) {
+        // Unset means the routes are not here — indistinguishable from any other unknown path, so
+        // nothing advertises an administrative surface to someone probing for one.
+        if (!opts.adminSecret) {
+          await serveStatic(opts.distDir, url.pathname, res);
+          return;
+        }
+        if (req.headers['x-admin-secret'] !== opts.adminSecret) {
+          sendJson(res, 403, { error: 'bad or missing admin secret' });
+          return;
+        }
+
+        const codes = new Map((await readIndex(opts.dataDir)).map((e) => [e.gameId, e.gameCode]));
+
+        if (url.pathname === '/api/games' && req.method === 'GET') {
+          const running = [...games.entries()].map(([gameId, g]) => ({
+            gameId,
+            gameCode: codes.get(gameId) ?? null,
+            state: 'running' as const,
+            ...g.summary(),
+          }));
+          // A lobby has no game to summarize yet — it is reported as what it is, so an
+          // administrator sees a table that never started rather than nothing at all.
+          const waiting = [...lobbies.values()].map((l) => ({
+            gameId: l.gameId,
+            gameCode: l.gameCode,
+            state: 'lobby' as const,
+            playerCount: l.seats.length,
+            playerNames: l.seats.map((seat) =>
+              seat === null ? '(empty)' : seat.kind === 'bot' ? 'Bot' : seat.displayName,
+            ),
+            createdAt: l.createdAt,
+          }));
+          sendJson(res, 200, { games: [...running, ...waiting] });
+          return;
+        }
+
+        const match = /^\/api\/games\/([^/]+)(\/save)?$/.exec(url.pathname);
+        const gameId = match?.[1];
+        if (!gameId) {
+          sendJson(res, 404, { error: 'no such route' });
+          return;
+        }
+
+        if (match?.[2] && req.method === 'GET') {
+          const session = games.get(gameId);
+          if (!session) {
+            sendJson(res, 404, { error: 'no such game' });
+            return;
+          }
+          sendJson(res, 200, { gameCode: codes.get(gameId) ?? null, save: session.exportSave() });
+          return;
+        }
+
+        if (req.method === 'DELETE') {
+          const session = games.get(gameId);
+          const lobby = lobbies.get(gameId);
+          if (!session && !lobby) {
+            sendJson(res, 404, { error: 'no such game' });
+            return;
+          }
+          // The save goes back with the deletion, so a game can never be destroyed without its
+          // record being handed to whoever destroyed it — the intents ARE the game (D5), so this
+          // is the whole thing, replayable later, not a summary of it.
+          const save = session?.exportSave() ?? null;
+
+          // Everyone watching is told the game is gone before its files are, rather than being
+          // left on a stream that will never push again.
+          for (const [, watcher] of gameConnections.get(gameId) ?? []) watcher.end();
+          gameConnections.delete(gameId);
+          for (const [, watcher] of lobbyConnections.get(gameId) ?? []) watcher.end();
+          lobbyConnections.delete(gameId);
+
+          games.delete(gameId);
+          lobbies.delete(gameId);
+          gameEventIds.delete(gameId);
+          const code = lobby?.gameCode ?? codes.get(gameId);
+          if (code) gameCodes.delete(code);
+          for (const [token, ps] of [...sessions]) if (ps.gameId === gameId) sessions.delete(token);
+
+          await removeIndexEntry(opts.dataDir, gameId);
+          await deleteGame(opts.dataDir, gameId);
+          sendJson(res, 200, { ok: true, gameCode: code ?? null, save });
+          return;
+        }
+
+        sendJson(res, 405, { error: 'method not allowed' });
         return;
       }
 
       // -- Lobby: creating and joining (the door — join-secret gated) --------------------------
 
       if (url.pathname === '/api/lobby/create' && req.method === 'POST') {
-        const body = (await readJson(req)) as { secret?: string; config?: GameConfig; displayName?: string };
+        const body = (await readJson(req)) as {
+          secret?: string;
+          config?: GameConfig;
+          displayName?: string;
+          players?: number;
+        };
         if (body.secret !== opts.joinSecret) {
           sendJson(res, 403, { error: 'bad or missing secret' });
           return;
         }
         if (!body.config || typeof body.displayName !== 'string' || body.displayName.trim() === '') {
-          sendJson(res, 400, { error: 'expected { secret, config, displayName }' });
+          sendJson(res, 400, { error: 'expected { secret, config, displayName, players }' });
+          return;
+        }
+        // The table size is the host's to choose and is fixed from here on, so it is validated at
+        // the door rather than at Start — `createLobby` builds the seats array from it.
+        const players = body.players ?? 0;
+        if (!Number.isInteger(players) || !playerCountAllowed(body.config.mode, players)) {
+          sendJson(res, 400, { error: 'BAD_PLAYER_COUNT' });
           return;
         }
         const gameCode = freshGameCode((code) => gameCodes.has(code));
-        const { lobby, session } = createLobby(body.config, body.displayName.trim(), gameCode);
+        const { lobby, session } = createLobby(body.config, body.displayName.trim(), gameCode, players);
         await persistLobby(lobby);
         await persistSession(session);
         sendJson(res, 200, { gameId: lobby.gameId, gameCode: lobby.gameCode, token: session.token, player: session.player });

src/server/index.ts

@@ -20,6 +20,13 @@ import type { Lobby, PlayerSession } from './lobby.ts';
 const port = Number(process.env['PORT'] ?? 8081);
 const bindAddress = process.env['BIND_ADDRESS'] ?? '0.0.0.0';
 const joinSecret = process.env['JOIN_SECRET'];
+/**
+ * Optional, unlike `JOIN_SECRET`: a server with no administrator is a perfectly good server, and
+ * refusing to boot without one would break every existing deployment and every dev run. Unset
+ * simply means the admin routes are not there (`http.ts`), which is the safe default — the
+ * capability has to be granted, never merely left ungated.
+ */
+const adminSecret = process.env['ADMIN_SECRET'];
 const distDir = resolve(process.env['DIST_DIR'] ?? 'dist');
 const dataDir = resolve(process.env['DATA_DIR'] ?? 'data');
 
@@ -38,6 +45,11 @@ const initialLobbies = new Map<string, Lobby>();
 const initialSessions = new Map<string, PlayerSession>();
 
 const index = await readIndex(dataDir);
+// Said before the loop, not after it: replaying is the reason a restart pauses before the port
+// opens, and a log that only reports each game once it is done gives no warning of how much is
+// still to come.
+const resumable = index.filter((e) => e.status !== 'finished').length;
+if (resumable > 0) console.log(`Resuming ${resumable} saved game(s)…`);
 for (const entry of index) {
   const sessions = await readSessions(dataDir, entry.gameId);
   for (const s of sessions) initialSessions.set(s.token, s);
@@ -69,6 +81,7 @@ startServer({
   port,
   bindAddress,
   joinSecret,
+  adminSecret,
   distDir,
   dataDir,
   engineVersion,
@@ -80,3 +93,6 @@ console.log(
   `Station Master multiplayer server on ${bindAddress}:${port}, serving ${distDir} — ` +
     `${initialGames.size} game(s) and ${initialLobbies.size} lobby(ies) resumed.`,
 );
+if (!adminSecret) {
+  console.log('ADMIN_SECRET is unset — the /api/games administration routes are disabled.');
+}

src/server/lobby.ts

@@ -81,16 +81,40 @@ export function playerCountAllowed(mode: GameConfig['mode'], count: number): boo
 }
 
 /** The creating player is the host and takes seat 0 (`lobby-and-sessions.md` §2). */
-export function createLobby(config: GameConfig, hostDisplayName: string, gameCode: string): CreateResult {
+/**
+ * THE TABLE SIZE IS FIXED WHEN THE GAME IS CREATED, and `seats.length` is it.
+ *
+ * The host says how many are playing, so the seats array is built at full length with the host in
+ * chair 0 and the rest empty. Nothing ever grows or shrinks it, which is what makes a gap
+ * impossible to express rather than merely illegal — and that matters more than it looks: seats
+ * used to be appended as people joined, so a bot dropped into a later chair padded the array with
+ * a hole that silently blocked Start. It also removes any need to compact the seats at
+ * `Lobby.Start`, and compaction would have shifted the `player` index every `PlayerSession`
+ * already carries (`joinLobby` stamps it at join time, and `/api/stream` and `/api/intent` route
+ * by it) — quietly handing a player somebody else's railroad.
+ *
+ * Knowing the count this early has one more consequence, and it is a bug fix: the config's
+ * `minCombinedRevenue` is derived from the player count, and the lobby previously had to guess it
+ * as 4 before anyone had sat down.
+ */
+export function createLobby(
+  config: GameConfig,
+  hostDisplayName: string,
+  gameCode: string,
+  players: number,
+): CreateResult {
   const gameId = randomUUID();
   const token = randomUUID();
   const session: PlayerSession = { token, gameId, player: 0, displayName: hostDisplayName };
+  const seats: LobbySeat[] = Array.from({ length: players }, (_, i) =>
+    i === 0 ? { kind: 'human', token, displayName: hostDisplayName } : null,
+  );
   const lobby: Lobby = {
     gameId,
     gameCode,
     hostToken: token,
     config,
-    seats: [{ kind: 'human', token, displayName: hostDisplayName }],
+    seats,
     joinOrder: [token],
     createdAt: Date.now(),
   };
@@ -103,10 +127,10 @@ export function createLobby(config: GameConfig, hostDisplayName: string, gameCod
  * play in, but the running count is checked against `playerCountAllowed` at every join too, so a
  * lobby can never grow the seats array past what could legally start). */
 export function joinLobby(lobby: Lobby, displayName: string): JoinResult {
-  const cap = lobby.config.mode === 'solitaire' ? 1 : 4;
-  const empty = lobby.seats.findIndex((s) => s === null);
-  const seatIndex = empty >= 0 ? empty : lobby.seats.length;
-  if (seatIndex >= cap) return { ok: false, code: 'LOBBY_FULL' };
+  // The table was sized at creation, so joining takes an empty chair or none at all — there is no
+  // longer an "append another seat" path for a late arrival to grow the game through.
+  const seatIndex = lobby.seats.findIndex((s) => s === null);
+  if (seatIndex < 0) return { ok: false, code: 'LOBBY_FULL' };
 
   const token = randomUUID();
   const session: PlayerSession = { token, gameId: lobby.gameId, player: seatIndex, displayName };
@@ -124,7 +148,9 @@ export function joinLobby(lobby: Lobby, displayName: string): JoinResult {
  * human seat; the host removes a person by them leaving, not by overwriting their seat. */
 export function setBotSeat(lobby: Lobby, seat: PlayerIndex, filled: boolean): Lobby {
   const seats = [...lobby.seats];
-  while (seats.length <= seat) seats.push(null);
+  // No padding: a seat outside the table the host chose is not a seat, and inventing one is how
+  // the old array grew holes in it.
+  if (seat < 0 || seat >= seats.length) return lobby;
   if (filled) {
     if (seats[seat] !== null) return lobby;
     seats[seat] = { kind: 'bot' };
@@ -157,11 +183,14 @@ export function reassignHost(lobby: Lobby, departingToken: string): Lobby {
  */
 export function startLobby(lobby: Lobby, callerToken: string): StartResult {
   if (callerToken !== lobby.hostToken) return { ok: false, code: 'NOT_HOST' };
-  const filled = lobby.seats.filter((s) => s !== null);
-  if (filled.length !== lobby.seats.length || !playerCountAllowed(lobby.config.mode, filled.length)) {
+  // Every chair at the table must be taken. The size itself was validated at creation and cannot
+  // have moved since, so this is only ever waiting on the last empty seat to fill.
+  if (lobby.seats.some((s) => s === null) || !playerCountAllowed(lobby.config.mode, lobby.seats.length)) {
     return { ok: false, code: 'BAD_PLAYER_COUNT' };
   }
-  const playerNames = filled.map((s) => (s!.kind === 'human' ? s.displayName : 'Bot'));
-  const botSeats = filled.flatMap((s, i) => (s!.kind === 'bot' ? [i as PlayerIndex] : []));
+  // Seat index IS player index — no compaction, because there is nothing to compact past.
+  const taken = lobby.seats as Exclude<LobbySeat, null>[];
+  const playerNames = taken.map((s) => (s.kind === 'human' ? s.displayName : 'Bot'));
+  const botSeats = taken.flatMap((s, i) => (s.kind === 'bot' ? [i as PlayerIndex] : []));
   return { ok: true, playerNames, botSeats };
 }

src/server/persistence.ts

@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
  * the measured scale (~350 intents, a few hundred bytes per game) there is nothing to optimize yet.
  */
 
-import { mkdir, readFile, rename, unlink, writeFile } from 'node:fs/promises';
+import { mkdir, readFile, rename, rm, unlink, writeFile } from 'node:fs/promises';
 import { join } from 'node:path';
 import type { SavedGame, TurnTiming } from './session.ts';
 import type { Lobby, PlayerSession } from './lobby.ts';
@@ -111,6 +111,24 @@ export async function upsertIndexEntry(dataDir: string, entry: GameIndexEntry):
   await writeIndex(dataDir, entries);
 }
 
+/**
+ * Removes a game from the index. Paired with `deleteGame` — the directory holds the game, the
+ * index says the game exists, and a delete that did one without the other would either resurrect
+ * it on the next boot or leave `index.json` pointing at nothing.
+ */
+export async function removeIndexEntry(dataDir: string, gameId: string): Promise<void> {
+  const entries = await readIndex(dataDir);
+  await writeIndex(
+    dataDir,
+    entries.filter((e) => e.gameId !== gameId),
+  );
+}
+
+/** Deletes a game's whole directory — its save, its turn timings, its sessions, its lobby file. */
+export async function deleteGame(dataDir: string, gameId: string): Promise<void> {
+  await rm(gameDir(dataDir, gameId), { recursive: true, force: true });
+}
+
 export async function writeLobby(dataDir: string, lobby: Lobby): Promise<void> {
   const dir = gameDir(dataDir, lobby.gameId);
   await mkdir(dir, { recursive: true });

src/server/session.ts

@@ -82,6 +82,33 @@ export type SavedGame = {
    * guessing from a display name rather than reading a fact.
    */
   botSeats: PlayerIndex[];
+  /**
+   * Wall-clock of the last accepted intent, so "has this game stalled?" survives a restart.
+   *
+   * Optional because it postdates the format, and defaulted to `createdAt` when absent — a game
+   * whose last move is unrecorded reads as untouched since it began, which is the honest answer
+   * rather than a fabricated one. Kept OUT of `history`, like the turn timings and for the same
+   * reason: a replay must reproduce a game from decisions alone, and wall-clock is not a decision.
+   */
+  lastMoveAt?: number;
+};
+
+/** What an administrator needs to see about a game without replaying it themselves. */
+export type GameSummary = {
+  playerCount: number;
+  playerNames: string[];
+  botSeats: PlayerIndex[];
+  status: 'active' | 'finished';
+  createdAt: number;
+  lastMoveAt: number;
+  day: number;
+  stage: number;
+  phase: string;
+  /**
+   * Whose move it is, or `null` — which is not an error state: the Mainline Phase runs itself, and
+   * a finished game waits on nobody.
+   */
+  waitingOn: { seat: PlayerIndex; name: string } | null;
 };
 
 export type IntentResult =
@@ -96,6 +123,12 @@ export type GameSession = {
   intent(seat: PlayerIndex, seq: number, i: Intent): IntentResult;
   /** Everything needed to persist this game and, later, rebuild it via `resumeSession`. */
   exportSave(): SavedGame;
+  /**
+   * A cheap description of where this game has got to. Deliberately does not copy `history` the
+   * way `exportSave` must — the health check polls this on a timer, and an administrator listing
+   * games wants the state of each, not a copy of every intent in all of them.
+   */
+  summary(): GameSummary;
 };
 
 type OpenSpan = { player: PlayerIndex; phase: string; day: number; stage: number; startedAt: number };
@@ -105,7 +138,9 @@ function buildSession(
   playerNames: string[],
   createdAt: number,
   botSeats: Set<PlayerIndex>,
+  lastMoveAtInit: number,
 ): GameSession {
+  let lastMoveAt = lastMoveAtInit;
   const lastSeq = new Map<PlayerIndex, number>();
   const lastFrame = new Map<PlayerIndex, Frame>();
   const sentLines = new Map<PlayerIndex, number>();
@@ -229,6 +264,7 @@ function buildSession(
       if (!applied) return { accepted: false, code: 'REJECTED' };
 
       lastSeq.set(seat, seq);
+      lastMoveAt = Date.now();
       const timing = settleTiming();
       // Any bot due to act now plays out entirely before this push goes back — the delta mechanism
       // diffs against whatever was last sent, so it captures the bots' moves along with the human's
@@ -246,6 +282,23 @@ function buildSession(
         status: game.state.status === 'finished' ? 'finished' : 'active',
         createdAt,
         botSeats: [...botSeats],
+        lastMoveAt,
+      };
+    },
+
+    summary() {
+      const actor = currentActor(game);
+      return {
+        playerCount: playerNames.length,
+        playerNames: [...playerNames],
+        botSeats: [...botSeats],
+        status: game.state.status === 'finished' ? 'finished' : 'active',
+        createdAt,
+        lastMoveAt,
+        day: game.state.clock.day,
+        stage: game.state.clock.stage,
+        phase: game.state.clock.phase,
+        waitingOn: actor === null ? null : { seat: actor, name: playerNames[actor] ?? `Seat ${actor}` },
       };
     },
   };
@@ -257,7 +310,8 @@ export function createSession(
   playerNames: string[],
   botSeats: PlayerIndex[] = [],
 ): GameSession {
-  return buildSession(newMultiplayerGame(seed, config, playerNames), playerNames, Date.now(), new Set(botSeats));
+  const now = Date.now();
+  return buildSession(newMultiplayerGame(seed, config, playerNames), playerNames, now, new Set(botSeats), now);
 }
 
 /**
@@ -267,5 +321,11 @@ export function createSession(
  */
 export function resumeSession(saved: SavedGame): GameSession {
   const game = fromMultiplayerSave(saved.seed, saved.config, saved.playerNames, saved.history);
-  return buildSession(game, saved.playerNames, saved.createdAt, new Set(saved.botSeats));
+  return buildSession(
+    game,
+    saved.playerNames,
+    saved.createdAt,
+    new Set(saved.botSeats),
+    saved.lastMoveAt ?? saved.createdAt,
+  );
 }

src/web/lobby.ts

@@ -68,16 +68,15 @@ export function runLobby(onReady: (r: LobbyReady) => void): void {
   function renderSeating(lobby: Lobby, you: PlayerIndex, token: string): void {
     $('lb-gamecode').textContent = `— code ${lobby.gameCode}`;
     const isHost = lobby.hostToken === token;
-    const cap = lobby.config.mode === 'solitaire' ? 1 : 4;
 
     let html = '';
-    for (let seat = 0; seat < cap; seat++) {
+    for (let seat = 0; seat < lobby.seats.length; seat++) {
       const occupant = lobby.seats[seat] ?? null;
       const isYou = occupant?.kind === 'human' && occupant.token === token;
       const isSeatHost = occupant?.kind === 'human' && occupant.token === lobby.hostToken;
       const who =
         occupant === null
-          ? '<span class="dim">— empty —</span>'
+          ? '<span class="dim">— waiting —</span>'
           : occupant.kind === 'bot'
             ? 'Bot'
             : `${occupant.displayName}${isYou ? ' (you)' : ''}${isSeatHost ? ' — host' : ''}`;
@@ -97,16 +96,14 @@ export function runLobby(onReady: (r: LobbyReady) => void): void {
       btn.onclick = () => void postJson('/api/lobby/bot', { token, seat: Number(btn.dataset['seat']), filled: false });
     }
 
-    const filled = lobby.seats.filter((s) => s !== null).length;
-    const noGaps = filled === lobby.seats.length;
-    const legalCount = lobby.config.mode === 'solitaire' ? filled === 1 : filled >= 2 && filled <= 4;
+    const waiting = lobby.seats.filter((s) => s === null).length;
     const startBtn = $<HTMLButtonElement>('lb-start');
     startBtn.hidden = !isHost;
-    startBtn.disabled = !(noGaps && legalCount);
+    startBtn.disabled = waiting > 0;
     $('lb-start-note').textContent = isHost
-      ? noGaps && legalCount
+      ? waiting === 0
         ? ''
-        : 'Needs 2–4 seated players (human or bot), no empty seats in between.'
+        : `Waiting on ${waiting} more ${waiting === 1 ? 'player' : 'players'} — add a bot to any empty chair to start now.`
       : 'Waiting for the host to start the game.';
     startBtn.onclick = () => {
       void postJson('/api/lobby/start', { token }).then(({ status, body }) => {
@@ -138,7 +135,15 @@ export function runLobby(onReady: (r: LobbyReady) => void): void {
       setError('lb-create-err', 'enter a display name first');
       return;
     }
-    void postJson('/api/lobby/create', { secret: secret(), config: defaultMultiplayerConfig(mode), displayName }).then(
+    const players = Number($<HTMLSelectElement>('lb-players').value) || 4;
+    // The real seat count reaches `defaultMultiplayerConfig`, so the combined-Revenue floor is
+    // sized for the table actually being played rather than for an assumed four.
+    void postJson('/api/lobby/create', {
+      secret: secret(),
+      config: defaultMultiplayerConfig(mode, players),
+      displayName,
+      players,
+    }).then(
       ({ status, body }) => {
         if (status !== 200) {
           setError('lb-create-err', String(body['error'] ?? 'could not create the game'));

src/web/play.html

@@ -241,6 +241,14 @@ ul.blocked li{padding:2px 0}
       <span><b>Competitive</b><br><span class="dim">Highest Revenue wins, unless the table misses the combined minimum — then everyone loses.</span></span></label>
     <label class="ng-radio"><input type="radio" name="lb-mode" value="coop">
       <span><b>Co-op</b><br><span class="dim">Everyone's Revenue counts as one table score, against the same kind of combined minimum.</span></span></label>
+    <label class="ng-num"><span>Players at the table</span>
+      <select id="lb-players">
+        <option value="2">2</option>
+        <option value="3">3</option>
+        <option value="4" selected>4</option>
+      </select></label>
+    <p class="ng-note">Every chair has to be taken before the game can start — by a person or by a
+       bot. Pick the size of the table now; it cannot change once the game is created.</p>
     <button id="lb-create">Create game</button>
     <p class="dim" id="lb-create-err" role="alert"></p>