Troubleshooting
Only the Incident Master reads this page before the session.
Most problems in this game come from one of three places: the table is judging a person instead of a process, the clock is slipping, or someone in the room is uncomfortable. This chapter gives a symptom, a response and a prevention for each. Use the response that fits and move on. When stuck, the printed rule applies: set the d20 target yourself, say it aloud, and move on.
Quick reference
When stuck
- Target in dispute: set it yourself, say it aloud, move on.
- Accusation on looks: ask for the control.
- Tied vote: one sentence each, vote again. Second tie: no accusation.
- Behind on the clock: slack, then discussion, then a round.
- Someone uncomfortable: X-card, pause, offer a break.
Process problems
The table accuses on looks
Symptoms:
- “His camera was off.” “She did not look like her photo.” “His accent was strange.”
- Players point at the hire with the least familiar name.
- The table moves to stop-the-line with no fact from the card.
Response:
- Stop the action. “Let us pause.”
- Say the appearance clause: “Appearance does not name a control and does not show a human cost. It can open the meeting. It cannot cut.”
- Ask: “Which fact on the card is a process or money fact? Which control would have stopped it?”
- If the table names one, continue. If not, let the vote and the meeting run. Note it for the replay.
Prevention:
- Say the fair-play line in the opening: “Judge the process, not the person.”
- Remind the table that the cards carry no portrait, no accent and no language field.
- Say “persona”, not a nationality, from your first sentence.
A table cites a nationality or a stereotype
Symptoms: a player says a country, a language or a stereotype as a reason.
Response: stop calmly and say: “Nobody is a suspect because of an accent, a passport or a face. Tells are behaviour, process and money.” Return to the cards. You do not need to shame the player, and you do not need a discussion. If the player continues, offer a short private word at the next break.
Prevention: the opening sentence, repeated at the first stop-the-line.
A tied vote
Symptoms: two hires have the same number of fingers.
Response:
- “A tie. Each tied pointer says one sentence.”
- Listen. Do not comment.
- “Vote again. On three.”
- An abstainer folds again. Anyone who pointed may change their finger.
- A second tie: “No accusation.”
RULED That is the whole rule. Do not offer a third round, a coin flip or a decision by the IM.
Prevention: read the tie rule aloud before the first vote. The vote script has the words.
Nobody points
Symptoms: everyone folds arms.
Response: “No accusation.” The line is over. The stage continues. The track cost was paid at the call and the call is spent, so remind the table of what it spent.
A cut is asked for before the gate is met
Symptoms: the table says “cut them” with one clue, two clues of the same record type, or in stage 1.
Response: “The gate is not met. A cut needs 2 revealed clues, one process and one money. Money clues open in stage 2.” The meeting may still run (a stage 1 call is a meeting only, and is paid and spent). There is no cut, the call is spent, and the stage goes on.
Two calls in one round
Response: if the first call ended the stage (a wrongful offboarding or the operator cut), the second is void and unpaid. If it did not, the second is valid, paid and resolved after the first.
A tie for clue leader when the Comrades call
Response: a tie for clue leader counts as no clue leader. The call picks a hire and no cut follows. The call is spent.
A wrongful offboarding happens
Symptoms: the table cuts a decoy. Exposure rises by 2. The stage ends, the tier resets to noisy and two hires remain.
Response: say the effects and nothing else. Do not name the hire as innocent. Do not comfort or scold. Move into the next stage. The room may go quiet. That is the lesson working. In stage 3 there is no next stage: the case ends at once with Exposure +2, the operator counts as not cut, and the debrief begins.
Do not: let the table argue about whether it was fair in the middle of the session. Say: “We will look at that in the debrief.”
Prevention: the rules state the cost up front. The playtest tracks how often it happens (more than one per session is a signal).
A cut and Payoff 9 in one round
Symptoms: players dispute which came first.
Response: the cut wins. Payoff freezes at its value at the moment of the cut. See chapter 04.
Roll problems
A dispute about the target
Symptoms: “That should be Easy.” “No, Hard.”
Response:
- Listen to one reason.
- Say the target aloud. “Standard, 12.”
- Roll.
The printed rule: set the target yourself, say it, move on. Arguing about the band costs more time than a wrong band does. DEFAULT The playtest watches pass rates, so a consistent IM matters more than a perfect one.
Rolling before stating the target
Response: stop, say “Let me re-do that,” state the target and roll again. Do not use the first roll. The habit is the point.
Someone wants a roll for everything
Response: “No doubt, no roll.” A move that is clearly plausible needs none. Remind the table that a table makes at most 3 rolls per round and that free actions never roll.
Someone asks why the tier changed
Response: if a Comrades move caused it, say “That comes out in the debrief.” You announce the new tier and never name the cause of a rise from a Comrades move. A rise from a lookup is the Company’s own act, so you may say so. If the player presses, say: “I will show you every change and its cause in the debrief.”
Group problems
The expert who knows everything
Symptoms: one player answers every question and picks every action.
Response:
- One action each: “Everyone takes one action before anyone takes a second.”
- Role redirect: “[Name], which of your verbs would you use? Then let us hear [role].”
- Coach role: “[Name], what question would help the others find the control?”
Prevention: say “one action each” in the opening.
The silent player
Response:
- Direct invitation: “[Name], as [role], which verb would you use?”
- Written first: “Write your action on a slip.”
- Free actions: offer Ask, Look or Hold first.
Perfectionist paralysis
Symptoms: a player wants complete information before acting.
Response: “In a real hiring case you act on a noisy picture. What would you try first?” The tier starts noisy for a reason. A wrong action costs one roll. A missing action costs a round.
Analysis paralysis
Symptoms: the table debates the same point and the clock slips.
Response:
- Pattern interrupt: “We have spent a while on this. Let us step back.”
- Decision forcing: “Which role acts? Which verb?”
- Time box: “One more minute, then the best-fitting role acts.”
A personality clash
Symptoms: a disagreement turns personal.
Response:
- “Let us pause for a moment.”
- “Both views have value. Which one is tied to a fact on the card?”
- “How would a real incident team settle that?”
Structure: point the disagreement at the vote. A plain vote ends it.
Safety problems
A player is uncomfortable
Symptoms: a player taps the X-card, goes silent, or leaves the table.
Response:
- Stop at once. No questions about why.
- “Thank you. We move on.” Skip the card or the scene.
- Offer a short break at the next transition.
- Check in privately if the player seems to want it.
The safety and X-card page has the words. The opening names the X-card once.
A player plays the persona with an accent or a stereotype
Response: pause. “We keep it plain. No accents, no stereotypes. The joke is the propaganda voice on the printed cards, never the people.” Return to play.
A real incident comes up
Symptoms: a player says the case looks like something at their own organisation.
Response: welcome it. “Hold that for the own-company transfer in the debrief.” Do not use the session for the real case: it is a game, and a real incident belongs to the real process.
Both-chairs problems
A table waits too long
Symptoms: a table sits idle for several minutes while you are at the other.
Response: use the idle-table handling in chapter 05: free actions, and the next action written on a slip, with no rolls and no track moves while you are away. DEFAULT If a table waits more than 4 minutes, switch to strict alternation with prepared cards.
Both tables call stop-the-line in one round
Response: the table you visited first resolves first. A second call in that round is void and unpaid if the first call ended the stage. See chapter 05.
The tables overhear each other
Response: move one table. Do not carry on with a table that can hear the other’s secrets.
Secret problems
The envelope is opened or lost
Response: if the persona envelope is lost, tell the table plainly and continue from your own notes (you wrote the pick on your copy). If a player peeks, continue and note it. The debrief is learning, not scoring.
The table guesses the persona too early
Symptoms: a player names the persona in round 1 with nothing to back it.
Response: say nothing about whether it is right. The accusation still needs a named control or a human cost. A guess without a control costs the table at the vote.
Clock problems
Behind schedule
Response: use the order in Session management: slack, then discussion, then a round. At minute 40, if the stage in progress is not finished, drop its round 2 if it has not been played. Never the debrief.
Ahead of schedule
Response: use the extra time in the process replay. Do not add rounds.
A late arrival
Response: give them the open chair sheet, say one sentence about where the case stands, and let the table fill the rest.
Technology problems
- No projector: the tracks go on a sheet or a whiteboard.
- No die: use a die app on a phone you hold. The table’s phones are not a lookup.
- No printer: hand-write the hire cards from the case file. Keep the fields the same.
After a hard session
If a session did not go well:
- Write down what happened while you remember it: the minutes per round, the tier changes and causes, the process tally, any ruling you improvised.
- Separate the rules from the room. Did a rule fail, or did you? Mark each.
- Tell the coordinator the numbers the playtest tracks: persona pick time, calls per stage, wrongful offboardings, round length at six players and table waits.
- Keep the habit. State the target. Announce only the tier. Judge the process.
What next
Return to the IM handbook index, or open the run sheet for your next session.