Question Banks
Only the Incident Master reads this page before the session.
Core principle, kept from M&M: questions draw on what players already know. They do not test what players do not know. In C&C there are four banks: what players ask a hire, the meeting questions, how you answer in persona, and discovery questions for the debrief.
1. Questions players can ask a hire
Questioning a hire (Question a hire) is one question per round per hire, answered by you in persona, and it costs one action and one lookup from the budget of 3 per stage. It never rolls. If the card does not cover the question, answer “The file does not say.” The lookup is still spent. A lookup at clean keeps the tier at clean and reveals one more unrevealed fact. Probe-interview is different: HR’s rolled action, target by tier, one action and no lookup, and you state one inconsistency from the card or say there is none. DEFAULT Asking you about the rules, or about what the cards already show, is Ask, and Look is reading the cards: both are free. 1 question per round per hire. Every answer comes from the hire card fields: role and start date, work pattern, process facts (ship-to address, remote tools, ID-check status) and money facts (payee, bank changes).
| Card field | Questions a player might ask |
|---|---|
| Role and start date | “Which team will you join, and who is your manager?” / “Are you free to start Monday?” |
| Work pattern | “Which hours will you be online in week one?” / “Will you be on camera in team meetings?” / “Who will you pair with first?” |
| Process: ship-to | “Where should we ship the laptop?” / “Will the laptop stay at that address?” |
| Process: remote tools | “Which remote tools will you use on the laptop?” / “Do you work from one device or several?” |
| Process: ID check | “Did your ID check complete before today?” / “Can you re-run the check live with us?” |
| Money: payee | “Which account should payroll use, and is it in your own name?” |
| Money: bank changes | “Have you changed any bank details recently, and why?” |
Redirects. Players will sometimes ask about origin, accent, language or appearance. The card has no such field. Do not answer. Say, flat:
The card has nothing on that, and it would prove nothing. Ask about the device, the ID check or the payee.
If they ask a vague question (“Tell me about yourself”), answer in one plain sentence from the role field and ask: “What do you want to check?”
Good questions have an answer someone could verify later. “Where is the laptop?” can be checked. “Are you honest?” cannot.
2. The meeting questions: a pattern
In a meeting the Company puts 3 yes or no questions about the suspect. The count is DEFAULT. A pattern to use them: one question per control that the closing sentence names.
| Slot | Pattern | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Identity | “Was [the ID check] completed before [access was issued]?” | “Did the ID check finish before the laptop shipped?” |
| 2. Device | “Is [the device] at [the address on the card]?” | “Is the laptop at the ship-to address on the card?” |
| 3. Payee | “Is [the pay] going to [an account in the hire’s own name]?” | “Is payroll going to an account in this hire’s own name?” |
A good yes or no question is about one fact, has one checkable answer, and does not ask about looks. If a player asks about appearance, accent, language or “feel”, decline: “That is not a control. Ask me a yes or no question about the ID, the device or the payee.” If a question has no card line, answer “The file does not say.” It still counts toward the 3.
When a cell is at the table, you ask these questions of the cell. The cell answers yes or no and may argue and deflect afterwards. In Company-only play there is no cell. The Company writes the 3 questions and you answer as the suspect from the pre-written card lines (three per hire), never improvised: a decoy gives its harmless reason and the operator gives its cover. See vote script.
3. The persona answer pattern
You answer every hire in the same plain voice. Same pace, same register, same vocabulary, same spelling in anything written. Never use an accent, a second language or fluency as a tell. The only difference between an operator and a decoy is what the card says about process and money.
Each answer has three beats. Use the Persona verbs as your frame: Perform, Deflect, Stall.
| Beat | Operator persona | Innocent hire with a decoy oddity |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Perform | Answer the question exactly, from the card, in role. | The same. |
| 2. Reason | Give a plausible, brief reason that cannot be checked in this answer. | Give a harmless reason that can be checked. |
| 3. Deflect or Stall | On a process or money field that has an anomaly, move to another subject, or ask for time. | Offer to show proof if asked. |
A decoy has two weak oddities, one process and one money. Give the harmless reason for the one asked about.
Example, ship-to field. Card: ship-to address differs from the work address.
- Operator persona: “Use the address on the form. Could we send it Friday so I’m set up for Monday?” (Perform, then Stall.)
- Decoy: “That’s my partner’s place. I’m between flats, and the lease letter is attached to the file.” (Perform, then an offer to check.)
Example, payee field.
- Operator persona: “Payroll can use the new account. I’d rather not go back and forth with banks.” (Perform, then Deflect.)
- Decoy: “I moved banks last month. Here is the date. You can call the bank.” (Perform, then an offer to check.)
Rules for you:
- Read the card. Answer only from the card fields and the pre-written card lines. Do not invent a tell or an answer.
- Stay in the three beats. No speeches. Two or three sentences.
- Never answer a question about origin, accent, language or looks. See Safety and the X-card.
- Never confirm a guess. Say “That is what the card says” and nothing more.
- Innocent hires are not nervous. Nerves are not a tell either.
4. Discovery questions for the debrief
Adapted from M&M’s discovery bank. They are open and invite expertise. None has a correct answer.
Reveal (what happened):
- “What was the first thing that seemed unusual?”
- “What did you check first, and what did it tell you?”
- “What would you have wanted to know a round earlier?”
Process replay (judgement):
- “What made you point at that hire?”
- “Which control would have stopped it?”
- “Was it a behaviour, a process fact, a money fact, or a feeling?”
- “Who on the other side of the table would see this differently?”
- “Where did a clean tier make you more sure than you should have been?”
Transfer (your organisation):
- “Who at your organisation checks the ID before the laptop ships?”
- “Where does your device go on day one, and who knows where it is?”
- “Who can change a payee, and how many people would notice?”
- “What would the business say if you asked for one more check at hiring?”
- “What in your real process looks like the last round of this game?”
Close (commitment):
- “What is one control you will ask about this week?”
- “Who will you tell, and by when?”
Use the same structure of questions across sessions so you can compare tables. Everyone speaks once before anyone speaks twice.