Frequently Asked Questions
Eleven answers for the first five minutes. Your Incident Master (IM) leads and can answer the rest. The full rules are in the players’ handbook.
1. Which chair do I sit in?
There are two. The Comrades’ chair is the operator cell: Persona, Ground Crew, Tooling and Money. The Company’s chair is HR, Engineering, SecOps, and Finance & Legal. RULED Your session runs one chair at a time (the IM plays the other side) or both at once (two tables, one IM, one debrief). The IM assigns chairs and roles when you start. See chairs and roles.
2. What do I do on my turn?
Each player has 2 actions per round. The table talks, and the best-fitting role acts. Your chair sheet lists three verbs for your role. Every role verb costs one action. Ask, Look and Hold are free actions anyone can take, and they never roll. Pull-log, Question a hire and Approve-cut never roll either; every other verb rolls unless it is “no doubt, no roll”. The Company acts first each round, then the IM plays the other side’s move. DEFAULT More in how a round works.
3. Who rolls?
The IM calls the rolls and states the target out loud before the die is thrown. The acting player throws the d20 and reads it aloud. A d20 roll must meet or beat the target: Easy 8, Standard 12, Hard 16. If a move is clearly plausible, there is no roll: no doubt, no roll. DEFAULT
4. What are the tracks?
Two shared tracks, Payoff and Exposure, both from 0 to 9, both starting at 0, both visible to everyone. Payoff is the Comrades’ progress toward the case’s mission: wages, data or IP, or keys the hire can reach. Exposure is the harm the Company has caused itself or let slip. RULED that both are visible, DEFAULT for the sizes. See tracks, evidence and the bench.
5. Who is the bad hire?
One of the 3 hires on the case file is the operator’s persona. In Company-only play the IM has sealed which one. When the Comrades’ chair is played, the cell picks. Nobody at the table is secretly playing against you. You find out by checking the ID, the device and the payee, not by looks. DEFAULT
6. How do I accuse someone?
Stop the line. Any player on either side can call it, 1 call per stage per table. On three, everyone points at one hire, or folds their arms to abstain. Most fingers wins. A tie means one sentence each, then a second vote, where anyone who pointed may change. A second tie means no accusation. The picked hire gets a meeting, and the Company can cut only by naming a control that would have stopped them, or by showing the human cost, which is a harm to a named person or group tied to a fact in the file, and only when the hire has 2 revealed clues of 2 types (process and money). No cut is possible before stage 2, so a stage 1 call is a meeting only, though it still costs both tracks. Video or looks alone never cut. RULED See stop-the-line.
7. What does a wrong accusation cost?
Calling stop-the-line costs both tracks (Payoff down 1, Exposure up 1), paid at the call, and the call is spent even if nobody is accused. Cutting an innocent hire adds Exposure +2 and ends the stage. In the last stage it ends the case. Exposure also rises by 1 at the end of a stage where a Comrades scoring move stood and the Company closed nothing, and by 1 for each second or later closing success in a stage that actually lowers Payoff. That is part of the learning. Judge the process, not the person. DEFAULT
8. Can I use my phone?
No. If you need a fact the cards do not show, Ask the IM, which is free, or spend a lookup. The Company has 3 lookups per stage, shared. Only Pull-log and Question a hire cost one, and each also costs an action. Neither rolls: Pull-log always reveals one fact. Probe-interview costs an action and no lookup, and rolls. A money check before stage 2 returns “not on file until stage 2”. DEFAULT
9. Does anyone win?
Not in the usual sense. You get an ending (Contained, Costly or Breached) based on whether the operator was cut and the final Payoff. A separate process condition then asks whether every cut cited a named control or a human cost. Read Breached first; Costly applies only when Breached does not. Winning and judging well are different things. DEFAULT See endings and debrief.
10. How long does it take?
About 90 minutes: setup, each stage, short transitions, a 20 minute debrief, and a little slack. DEFAULT
11. What if I am uncomfortable?
Tap the X card or say “X”. The table skips it, no questions asked, and anyone can do it at any time, the IM included. You can also pass on any turn. See playing well.
Still stuck?
Read the players’ quick start or the quick reference.