Incident Master Handbook
Only the Incident Master reads this page before the session.
Welcome, Incident Master
Comrades & Chollimas is a collaborative incident-response tabletop about DPRK IT-worker hiring fraud, and in the end it is about risk: what can they reach, what do we know, and what does it cost to be wrong. You lead it. Learning comes first and winning comes second. A table that argues well, names the control that would have stopped a move, and refuses to accuse someone because of how they look has played the game well, whatever the tracks say at the end.
This handbook is yours. It is not a script to read to the players and it is not the players’ handbook. Players have their own pages in the Players’ Handbook.
On every page under im-handbook/, “you” means the Incident Master. Players are “the table”, “the Company”, “the cell” or a named role. If a line is meant to be read aloud, it sits in a quote or a Say box.
What the game asks of you
The game has two chairs. The Comrades’ chair is the operator cell: Persona, Ground Crew, Tooling and Money. The Company’s chair is the organisation that hired: HR, Engineering, SecOps and Finance & Legal. Either one chair sits at a table and you play the other side, or both chairs sit at once at two tables with one IM and one debrief.
In every mode your job is the same four things:
- Referee the d20. You call the roll and state the target before it. The acting player throws the d20 and reads it aloud. You throw only for the side you play. RULED that rolls are IM-called; the target bands are DEFAULT.
- Keep the secret. One of the 3 hires is the operator’s persona. You hold it, sealed, until the debrief.
- Play the other side fairly. A written script of three numbered moves per stage: round 1 plays move 1, round 2 plays move 2, and a blocked move is replaced once by move 3. No judgment calls.
- Run the debrief. The 20 minute debrief is where the learning happens.
What you are
- Process guide. You run the round loop, the clock and the tracks.
- Fair referee. The same d20 target applies whoever acts. You say it aloud first.
- Safety keeper. You hold the X-card and the room. The table plays the operator cell for fun; nobody is mocked.
- Question asker. You ask what the table sees, which control it would name, and what it would do next.
What you are not
- The expert with all the answers. The players bring the security knowledge.
- A lecturer. The case file and the tracks teach. You ask.
- A judge of people. You judge the process: was the accusation tied to a named control or a human cost?
- A hidden player. There is no hidden player at the table. What is hidden is a card, and you hold it.
Core principles
- Trust the structure. Rounds, tiers and the vote exist so that you do not have to invent rules under pressure.
- Trust the table. Players who know how controls work will know which control would have stopped a move; the rest learn it from them.
- Say the target first. The target is stated before the roll, always. It keeps you honest and it keeps the table calm.
- Judge the process, not the person. Nobody is a suspect because of an accent, a passport or a face. Tells are behaviour, process and money.
Chapters
| Chapter | Read it when |
|---|---|
| 00 Incident Master philosophy | First. It sets the voice. |
| 01 Preparing the session | The day before. 30 minutes. |
| 02 Running the session | Before you run round 1. |
| 03 Playing the other side | Before any one-chair session. |
| 04 Stop-the-line and the cut | Before the first vote. |
| 05 Both-chairs mode | Only when you run two tables. |
| 06 Session management | When the clock or the room worries you. |
| 07 Troubleshooting | When something is going wrong. |
Resources
- IM quick start guide: the one-page first read.
- Run sheet: clock marks, the round loop, tick boxes, end triggers.
- Opening script and closing script.
- Round transitions and vote script.
- Debrief protocol and question banks.
- Safety and the X-card.
- Players’ quick reference and the first-five-minutes answers.
Status labels
Every mechanic in this handbook carries a label. RULED means the owner has decided it. DEFAULT means it is a playtest parameter: run it as written, note what happened, and change it only when its metric says so. Where a page gives advice that is not a rule, it says PROPOSED. A PROPOSED line is a suggestion, not a rule, and the first playtest may drop it.
Your first three sessions
- Run one chair at a time. Company-only play is the simplest: you seal the persona and play the cell from a script.
- Say the target, then roll. If you remember one habit, make it that one.
- Protect the debrief. Cut slack and rounds before you cut the 20 minutes.
What next
Read chapter 00, then chapter 01, and set aside 30 minutes.
Every expert was once a beginner. You need curiosity, patience and a sealed envelope.