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IM Quick Start Guide

One page for the Incident Master: what to prepare, the round loop, and the five things to say.
ImportantIM only

Only the Incident Master reads this page before the session.

You lead. The Comrades’ chair and the Company’s chair play the case; you reveal, call the rolls and play the other side. Learning over winning. This page is the whole game on one sheet. The run sheet is the printable version you keep beside you.

What to prepare

Allow 30 minutes. DEFAULT

The round loop

Each stage is 2 rounds. Each round: DEFAULT

  1. Reveal. Announce the evidence tier (noisy, partial, clean) and any event. The case starts at noisy and the tier carries across stages. Never say why a Comrades move moved it.
  2. Discuss. The table talks. The best-fitting role acts.
  3. Act. Each player has 2 actions. Ask, Look and Hold are free and never roll. Every other role verb costs one action and rolls, except Pull-log, which never rolls and always spends its lookup. Pull-log and Question a hire also cost one lookup. You pick at most 3 rolls per table per round, the highest-stakes ones. A cover roll thrown by a Comrades table counts as one of them; your own cover roll in Company-only play counts toward nothing. Your own-side moves do not count. The Company acts first, then you play the other side’s move.
  4. Resolve. State the target before the roll, and say whether a success would score, close or inform. The acting player throws the d20 and reads it aloud. You throw for the side you play. An inform success reveals one unrevealed fact of the verb’s record type, your choice from the card; a money check before stage 2 is “not on file until stage 2” and still spent. Move the tracks. Check the end triggers.

Targets: Easy 8, Standard 12, Hard 16. The tier sets the Company’s target: noisy is Hard, partial is Standard, clean is Easy. “No doubt, no roll.”

The five things to say

TipSay these every session PROPOSED
  1. “The target is [number].” Before every roll, out loud.
  2. “No doubt, no roll.” When a move is clearly plausible.
  3. “The tier is [noisy, partial or clean].” At the top of every round. No cause.
  4. “Which control would have stopped that?” Whenever someone accuses or cuts. Looks alone never answer it.
  5. “Judge the process, not the person.” When the table turns on a hire, or on each other.

When stuck

Set the d20 target yourself, say it aloud, move on.

Quick reference

  • Stop-the-line: any player, either side, 1 call per stage per table. RULED Costs Payoff -1 and Exposure +1, paid at the call, and the call is spent even if no accusation follows. DEFAULT
  • Lookups: 3 per stage, shared across the Company, one action each. A costed lookup raises the tier one step, capped at clean, and that rise is not hidden. DEFAULT
  • Scoring verbs (Payoff +1): Use-key, Relay, Forge-doc, Route-wage, Swap-payee, Cash-out. Closing verbs (Payoff -1, floor 0): Isolate, Hold-payment, Scope and Review (only a control the case card lists, otherwise they inform). All other verbs inform. Say which before each roll. DEFAULT
  • Cover roll: 12, one per stage, thrown by the cover holder, announced before the scoring move’s d20. At or above, that move cannot raise the tier, pass or fail. Below, no cover. DEFAULT
  • Payoff is one running total, shown as at most 8 until the round ends. Payoff 9 ends the case only if the operator is not cut by the end of that round. DEFAULT
  • Exposure sources: stop-the-line +1, wrongful offboarding +2, stage passivity +1 (a scoring move stood, no control closed, no cut), each second and later closing success in a stage that lowers Payoff +1. DEFAULT
  • Cut gate: 2 revealed clues, one process and one money, money from stage 2. Then a named control or a human cost, then Approve-cut, which never rolls. A cut at Payoff n freezes Payoff at n. DEFAULT
  • Question a hire: one action, one lookup, never rolls; no card line gets “The file does not say” and still costs the lookup. Probe-interview: one action, no lookup, rolls. DEFAULT
  • Stop-the-line is not a roll. A tie for clue leader counts as no clue leader. DEFAULT
  • Log as you go: you write the hop log and the tier log on the run sheet. The Scribe keeps tracks, lookup ticks and finger counts only. DEFAULT
  • Clock: at minute 40, in every mode, if the stage in progress is not finished, drop its round 2 if it has not been played. DEFAULT
  • Wrongful offboarding: Exposure +2, the stage ends now, tier resets to noisy. In stage 3 the case ends at once and the operator counts as not cut. DEFAULT
  • Fewer players than roles: any player may borrow another role’s verb for one action. From 6 players, the extra player is the Scribe.

What next