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Session management

Managing a Comrades & Chollimas session: the clock, what to cut when behind, six-player round length, the Scribe, energy and the debrief.
ImportantIM only

Only the Incident Master reads this page before the session.

DEFAULT The target session is 90 minutes. It has a clock, and the clock decides what you cut. This chapter gives the blocks, what to cut when behind, how to handle six players, and how to keep energy and participation up.

Quick reference

The clock DEFAULT

Block Minutes
Setup

10
3 stages, each

15
Transitions

5
Debrief

20
Slack

10
Total

90

At minute 40, if the stage in progress is not finished, drop its round 2 if it has not been played. This applies in every mode. Protect the debrief.

The clock

The blocks, in order:

  1. Setup (10 minutes): the opening script (3 minutes, no DPRK background), chairs and roles, chair sheets handed out after, and in comrades or both-chairs setups the persona pick (5 minutes).
  2. Stage 1, Interview (15 minutes): 2 rounds. Round 1 is the taught round, naming each step.
  3. Transition.
  4. Stage 2, Onboarding (15 minutes).
  5. Transition.
  6. Stage 3, First Month (15 minutes).
  7. Debrief (20 minutes).
  8. Slack (10 minutes), which absorbs overruns.

The transitions together take 5 minutes. A transition is short: state the stage, refill the lookups, rotate the cover roll’s holder, and say the tier. Before you refill, run the stage-end passivity check. See round transitions. The run sheet has the clock marks written out so you do not have to add.

The numbers are playtest parameters. Track the actual minutes per round on your run sheet and report them. The playtest changes a number only when its metric says so.

Reading the clock

Check the clock at three moments: the end of setup, the end of each stage, and the middle of stage 2. The middle of stage 2 is close to minute 40, and that is the line the rules draw: the cut-a-round rule applies at minute 40 in every mode.

What to cut when you are behind

Cut in this order. Stop as soon as you are back on time.

  1. Slack. It exists for this. Using it costs nothing.
  2. Discussion at the top of a round. Cut it to one minute. The table can still act.
  3. A round. DEFAULT At minute 40, if the stage in progress is not finished, drop its round 2 if it has not been played. The rule is the same in one-chair and both-chairs play. Cut the round, not the stage, and tell the table before you do.
  4. Lookups spent on idle questions. Remind the table the budget is 3 per stage, and rolls per table per round are capped at 3.

What you never cut

  • The debrief. It is where the learning is. If you must shrink it, keep the process replay, the own-company transfer and the closing sentence.
  • The target stated before the roll.
  • The announce-only-the-tier rule.
  • The X-card and the safety check.

The debrief blocks

DEFAULT The debrief is 20 minutes:

Block Minutes What happens
Reveal

4

 Unseal the persona, read the hop log, say what moved each clue tier
Process replay

6

 “Which accusation rested on looks, which on a named control?”
Own-company transfer

6

 Each player privately writes one control their real organisation lacks, then all reveal at once
Close

4

 One commitment each, and the closing sentence

The closing sentence: “Looks prove nothing either way: an appearance tell expires, so before anyone is trusted, check the ID, the device and the payee.” Read it from the closing script.

If the session runs short on time, trim the reveal and the replay lightly. PROPOSED: never shrink the transfer below the point where every player can write one control.

When you finish early

If the case ends by a cut early, you have more debrief time. Use it for the replay: walk through each accusation, with the control or “looks” you noted. Extra time belongs to the process replay, not to another round.

If the clock is ahead at the end of a stage, use the slack as a break. Do not add rounds.

Six players and the Scribe

DEFAULT A sixth player is the Scribe and keeps the tracks, the lookup ticks and the finger counts. That is 6 players or more at a table. The Scribe has no role verb. Hand them the tracks sheet at the start and say what the job is. In both-chairs mode you keep the shared tracks and each table’s Scribe keeps only lookup ticks and finger counts for that table.

  • Update Payoff and Exposure after each roll, aloud (one table).
  • Tick the lookup boxes and say the number left.
  • Count fingers in a vote.

The Scribe tracks and ticks only. You write the hop log and the tier log on the run sheet as events happen, and you announce the tier.

Round length at six players

DEFAULT At 6 players, the table nominates up to 3 rolled actions together before you call them, rather than each player taking 2 separately, with one swap if your event changes the situation. Say it in the opening, and note the round length. The playtest changes this only if a round runs longer than 8 minutes: then cap team actions.

Fewer players than roles: DEFAULT any player may borrow another role’s verb for one action. Say this in the opening, so a table of three does not stall.

Energy and engagement

Maintaining energy

  • Keep rounds moving. Short rounds, stated targets, short answers.
  • Rotate the voice. “Who has not acted yet this round?”
  • Use the tracks. “Payoff is [number]. Exposure is [number]. What does the table want to move?”

When energy drops

  • A break at the stage transition. Two minutes of standing.
  • A quick question. “Which hire would you want to ask a question of next, and what would you ask?”
  • Remind the table of the stakes. “The Comrades want wages, data or keys. What can this hire reach?”

Quiet players

  • Role-specific: “As [role], which verb would you use?”
  • Written first: “Write your action on a slip, then we read them out.”
  • Choice offering: “Here are 3 hires. Which would you ask?”

Dominant players

  • Acknowledge and redirect: “That is a good point. Let us hear the other roles.”
  • One action each: “Everyone takes one action before anyone takes a second.”
  • Rotation: “One thought from each role, then we decide.”

Reading the room

Watch for these:

  • A role never acts. Offer them the free actions (Ask, Look, Hold).
  • A table speaking over each other. Say “one voice at a time”, and give the floor by role.
  • Someone goes quiet after a card. Check in privately at the next transition. See the safety and X-card page.
  • The table fixates on a hire’s looks. Use the appearance clause line from chapter 04, and ask for the control.

After the debrief

Close with the closing script. Keep your private notes of cause, hop log, process tally and actual minutes. Those notes are the playtest data. Thank the players and ask each for one thing that did not work.

What next

Read Troubleshooting when something goes wrong.