Stop-the-line and the cut
Only the Incident Master reads this page before the session.
Stop-the-line is the moment the game turns from investigation to a decision about a person. It is also where the table most easily goes wrong, because a decision about a person invites a decision made on looks. The rules make you the keeper of the process. This chapter takes you through the chain: vote, meeting, cut, and the cases that follow.
Quick reference
The chain RULED (effects DEFAULT)
- Call. Any player on either side, once per stage per table. Cost: Payoff -1, Exposure +1, paid at the call. The call is spent even when no accusation follows.
- Vote. On three, everyone points at one hire, or folds arms to abstain. Most fingers wins. A lone finger wins.
- Meeting. The picked hire is the suspect. 3 yes or no questions. The cell answers, argues and may deflect. No timer.
- Cut. The Company has 2 revealed clues of different record types on the hire (the cut gate), names one control or shows the human cost, and Finance & Legal uses Approve-cut, which never rolls. Video alone gives only the meeting.
Calling it
RULED Any player on either side may call it, once per stage per table. A Comrades player can call it as well as a Company player: it costs both tracks either way. DEFAULT The default amounts are Payoff -1 and Exposure +1, whichever side calls. Payoff does not go below 0.
When a player calls it, stop the action. Do not finish the round’s remaining rolls. Stop-the-line is not a roll. Nobody throws for the call, and it does not count toward the 3 rolls. The words:
“Stop the line. That costs both tracks. Everyone, get ready to point.”
When you play the Company and a Comrades player calls, the Comrades table votes alone and you do not point. The IM-Company cuts only if the picked hire is the clue leader, and a tie for clue leader counts as no clue leader (the call picks a hire, no cut follows); see chapter 03.
Apply the track cost when the line is called. The cost is paid at the call, and the call is spent even when no accusation follows. Say so in the opening so the table can weigh the call.
A second call in the same round
DEFAULT A first call ends the stage only through a wrongful offboarding or by cutting the operator. If the first call did not end the stage (no accusation, no cut, or a meeting that ended without a cut), a second call in the same round is valid, paid at its own call, and resolved after the first. If the first call did end the stage, a second call in that round is void and unpaid (see chapter 05 for two tables). “Once per stage” means one call per stage per table, and a call that ends with no accusation still uses it.
The vote
The vote script holds the exact words. The rules in order:
- Count down: “One, two, three.”
- On three, every player points at one hire, or folds arms to abstain. Pointing is simultaneous. Nobody changes a finger after three.
- Count fingers per hire.
- Most fingers wins. A lone finger wins if nobody else points.
- Nobody points, or all fold: no accusation.
- A tie. Each tied pointer says one sentence, then you call the vote again. Not a debate, one sentence each.
- An abstainer may not change vote on the re-vote. They fold again. On the re-vote, anyone who pointed may change their finger.
- A second tie means no accusation.
RULED The vote is plain, simultaneous and uses fingers. Do not offer a different method.
What the sentences should be
Each tied pointer’s sentence is where you listen for the process. You do not comment. Afterwards, note which sentences cited a fact on the card and which did not. The debrief replay uses them.
With two hires left
After a wrongful offboarding only two hires remain. The vote works the same.
Both-chairs mode
DEFAULT In both-chairs mode the cell also votes and may deflect at an innocent hire. When the Comrades table calls, the Company table’s fingers join one combined tally and you do not point. When the Company calls, the cell’s fingers join the same tally. See Both-chairs mode.
The meeting
RULED The picked hire is the suspect. DEFAULT You question the cell, in persona, with 3 yes or no questions, answered by the cell. There is no timer. The cell may argue and deflect.
When you question the cell, prepare your 3 questions from the suspect hire’s process and money facts, never looks. Good examples:
- “Was the ship-to address changed after the offer?”
- “Did the hire install a remote tool that IT did not approve?”
- “Has the payee changed since the first payroll?”
- “Has the ID check been completed against a document?”
The answers matter more than the number. If the cell’s answer is “no” to a question whose real answer is on the card, you do not contradict it: the meeting records what the cell said. The debrief shows the card.
A question with no card line. DEFAULT In Company-only play, if the Company asks a meeting question that no card line covers, answer: “The file does not say.” The question still counts toward the 3. Do not improvise.
When the Company sits alone. DEFAULT There is no cell in company-only play. The Company writes the 3 yes or no questions, and you answer as the suspect hire from the pre-written card lines, never improvised. A decoy gives its harmless reason. The operator gives its cover. The case card carries 3 lines per hire.
When the Comrades sit alone. You question the cell, and the cell answers yes or no. The cell may argue and deflect.
“The suspect is hire [number]. I will ask 3 yes or no questions. Answer, argue or deflect, as you see fit.”
The cut
RULED To cut, the Company names one control, or shows the human cost, and Finance & Legal uses Approve-cut. Video alone gives only the meeting.
A cut needs four things together: the cut gate, a named control or a shown human cost, the Finance & Legal verb, and a hire picked in the vote.
The cut gate
DEFAULT Before you accept Approve-cut, check the gate: the picked hire carries at least 2 revealed clues, from 2 different record types, process fact and money fact. A device fact counts as process. Read the record type of each clue from the case card.
- The case card marks each hire’s money clue as available from stage 2, so no cut can happen before stage 2. A stage 1 call is a meeting only: it still costs both tracks and is spent, and no cut is possible. Say: “The gate is not met. The file has no money clue yet.” An early call is a deliberate price for 3 card-line answers. Playtest note: if stage 1 calls happen in under 20 percent of sessions, the meeting reveals one process clue.
- The operator carries at least 1 real anomaly of each type. Each decoy carries 2 weak oddities, one of each type, and you read out each one’s harmless reason in the meeting.
- If the gate is not met, there is no cut. The meeting stands, the call is spent, and the stage continues.
- A clue counts only once it is revealed (by a lookup, a closed check, a tier step or a Probe-interview inconsistency). Count revealed clues, not facts still on the card.
The named-control rule
RULED The named-control rule, as printed: a scoring Comrades move stands only if the table names a control that would have stopped it, or shows the human cost. DEFAULT The panel’s reading is that you apply it when the Company accuses or cuts: the cut stands only if the Company names a control or shows the human cost. After any scoring Comrades success you also ask the table to name the control that would have stopped it, for the debrief only, and the Payoff change is not withdrawn. Read literally, the printed sentence makes a Comrades success depend on the Company, which looks inverted. The owner may overrule this reading. Note any table that reads it differently.
Ask for it every time. When a player says “cut them”, ask:
- “Which control would have stopped this?”
- “Or whose harm are you showing, and what on the card shows it?”
A named control is specific. “Better vetting” is not. “A call-back to verify the payee before the first payment” is. “An approved-device list that blocks an unlisted remote tool” is. The control must connect to a fact on the hire’s card.
DEFAULT The human cost is a harm to a named person or group that the hire or the move would cause, tied to a fact on the card or the file and read aloud by you. A general feeling is not a cost. Decoy cards carry no human-cost facts.
The appearance clause
RULED Video or appearance evidence alone satisfies neither the named control nor the human cost. It can only open a meeting. If a player says “his camera was off”, “she did not look like her photo”, “his accent was off”, the reply is the same:
“Appearance does not name a control and does not show a human cost. It can open the meeting. It cannot cut. What is the control?”
Do not lecture. Say the sentence and wait. If the player names a control, the cut may proceed.
Approve-cut
Approve-cut is Finance & Legal’s verb. DEFAULT It never rolls. If the cut gate is met, a control is named or a human cost is shown, and the hire is picked, the cut stands. Do not offer a roll. When you play the Company, cite the stopping control from the case card aloud.
What a cut does
A cut removes that hire’s keys. Two outcomes:
The hire is the operator
Payoff freezes at its value at the moment of the cut. The ending is read from that value, and the case ends at the end of the round.
The hire is innocent: wrongful offboarding
DEFAULT All of these happen:
- Exposure +2.
- The stage ends now and the next stage starts.
- That hire is gone: two hires remain.
- The clue tier resets to noisy.
Say it plainly: “That hire is gone. Exposure rises by 2. The stage ends now. The tier is noisy.” Do not say the hire was innocent: the debrief reveals it. The Exposure move and the reset make it clear enough, and a person-by-person reveal in play breaks the debrief.
In stage 3 a wrongful offboarding ends the case at once. Exposure rises by 2, the operator counts as not cut, and the debrief begins. There is no next stage and no reset to play.
Adjudicating a cut and Payoff in one round
DEFAULT Payoff is one running total, shown as at most 8 until the round ends. A closing success lowers the total. If the operator is not cut by the end of the round and the total reaches 9, the case ends. If a cut and Payoff 9 land in the same round, the cut wins.
- When the operator is cut, freeze Payoff at its value at that moment and write it down.
- The case ends at the end of the round. Scoring moves after the cut cannot move the frozen Payoff.
- Write down the frozen Payoff and the Exposure and read the ending.
Because the cap holds Payoff at 8 or lower until the round ends, a cut operator always ends at Contained or Costly.
After the chain: the process condition
DEFAULT “Process held” is read last, independent of the ending. It is judged on cuts and on accusations that ended in a cut: each cited a named control or a human cost, none rested on looks alone, and there was no wrongful offboarding. An accusation with no cut does not by itself break it. Keep a short tally during play: for each accusation or cut, one line with the control cited (or “looks” or nothing).
Winning and judging well are different things. A table can reach Contained and fail the process condition. Say so in the debrief.
No accusation
If the vote ends with no accusation, the line is over. The stage continues. The table may not call again this stage, and the cost it paid at the call stays paid.
Common mistakes
| Mistake | Fix |
|---|---|
| Letting someone change a finger after three | Stop. Call the vote again only on a tie. |
| Letting an abstainer switch on a re-vote | They fold again. |
| Accepting “he looked nervous” as a control | Use the appearance clause line. |
| Telling the table the cut hire was innocent | Say the effects. Save the reveal. |
| Calling a cut without Approve-cut | A cut needs the gate, the named control, the verb and the vote together. |
| Cutting in stage 1 | The money clue is not available yet. The gate is not met. The call is a meeting only, and it is still paid and spent. |
| Counting the stop-the-line call as a roll | It is not a roll. |
What next
If you run two tables, read Both-chairs mode. Otherwise read Session management.