Run Sheet

The printable Incident Master run sheet: clock marks, opening script, round loop, tier and lookup tick boxes, vote script, end triggers, debrief script and the eleven first-five-minutes answers. Designed for two A4 pages.

IM only

Only the Incident Master reads this page before the session.

Print on A4, both sides. Values are DEFAULT; the vote, named-control and shared-tier chains are RULED. Page 1: clock to trackers. Page 2: vote to answers.

Clock marks

Setup and round 1: 10 min, start ____. 3 stages of 15 (Interview ____, Onboarding ____, First Month ____). Transitions 5 in all. Debrief 20 at ____. Slack 10.

Total 90. Minute 40, every mode: stage unfinished, drop its round 2 if unplayed.

Opening script (under 3 minutes)

Welcome. I’m [name], your Incident Master. I run the dice, the clock and the other side of the table. I’m not your opponent, and nobody at this table is secretly working against you. Learning matters more than winning here.

One rule before we start. If anything in this game is uncomfortable, tap the X card or say “X”. We skip it, no questions asked. Anyone can do that at any time, me included.

Here is the case. [Read the brief.] Three people start on Monday. One of them is an operator’s persona. [Company-only: I have sealed which one.] An odd detail is not proof. Checking is.

Two chairs. The Comrades’ chair: Persona, Ground Crew, Tooling, Money. The Company’s chair: HR, Engineering, SecOps, Finance and Legal. [Company-only: you are the Company, I play the cell.] [Comrades: you are the cell, I play the Company.] [Both: two tables, one IM, one debrief.] Tell me the role you want.

I call every roll and say the target first. d20, at or above it. Easy 8, Standard 12, Hard 16. If a move is clearly plausible, no doubt, no roll.

Two tracks, 0 to 9, visible. Payoff is the cell’s progress toward its mission: wages, data or IP, or keys the hire can reach. Exposure is harm the Company causes itself or lets slip.

Anyone can stop the line, 1 call per stage per table. On three, point at one hire or fold arms to abstain. It costs both tracks, paid at the call. To cut, name a control that would have stopped them, or show the human cost. Looks prove nothing. Judge the process, not the person.

Chair sheets now. Read your verbs, then we play round one, and I name every step.

Then: sheets out, cell picks in 5 minutes if Comrades, taught round 1. Stuck? Set the target yourself, say it aloud, move on.

The round loop

Reveal tier and event. 2. Discuss. 3. Act: best fitting role, 2 actions each. Free, never roll: Ask, Look, Hold. Every role verb costs an action; Pull-log and Question a hire also cost a lookup, and Pull-log never rolls. At most 3 rolls per table, a Comrades table’s cover roll included; your own rolls and a stop-the-line call do not count. Six players: the table nominates up to 3 rolled actions first, one swap if your event changes things. 4. Resolve: say the target and score, close or inform. The Company acts first, then you play the other side’s move. The acting player throws and reads aloud (you throw for the side you play).

Targets: noisy Hard, partial Standard, clean Easy. Comrades rolls, you set it: Easy routine, Standard normal, Hard two live controls could stop it. Score (Payoff +1): Use-key, Relay, Forge-doc, Route-wage, Swap-payee, Cash-out. Close (Payoff -1, floor 0): Isolate, Hold-payment, Scope and Review (only a control the case card lists, else inform). Others inform: a success reveals one unrevealed fact of the verb’s record type, your pick; a money check before stage 2 is “not on file until stage 2”, action spent. Failed roll: no reveal, no track moves. After a scoring success ask “which control would have stopped that?” (debrief only, Payoff stands). Cover roll 12, one per stage. The cell picks a seated role that has not held it (fewer than 3 seated: repeat only if no other). The holder throws, announced before the scoring d20: at or above, that move cannot raise the tier; below, no cover. A scripted move whose cover roll succeeds never raises the tier. Payoff is one running total, shown as at most 8 until round end; a closing success lowers it. 9 ends the case only if the operator is uncut at round end.

Questions. Question a hire: action plus lookup, never rolls, one per round per hire. No card line: “The file does not say” (lookup still spent; same in a meeting, still counts). Probe-interview (HR): action, no lookup, rolls by tier; state one inconsistency from the card, or none; it counts as a revealed fact for the cut gate and clue leader. Lookup at clean: tier stays clean, reveal one more unrevealed fact.

Trackers

Tier N, P, C. Start N. Write the cause each round. Say the tier, never a Comrades-move cause; a lookup rise is the Company’s own act, write “lookup”.

Stage	R1 tier	R2 tier	Lookups used (of 3)	Stop-the-line	Cover	Cause R1 / R2
Interview	N P C	N P C	☐ ☐ ☐	☐	____	____ / ____
Onboarding	N P C	N P C	☐ ☐ ☐	☐	____	____ / ____
First Month	N P C	N P C	☐ ☐ ☐	☐	____	____ / ____

Tier rises one step: scoring Comrades move without cover, failed Comrades d20, costed lookup (cap clean). Wrongful offboarding resets to noisy.

Payoff: ____ ____ ____ ____. Exposure: ____ ____ ____ ____.

Exposure sources (tick as paid): stop-the-line +1; wrongful offboarding +2; stage end +1 if a Comrades scoring move stood and the Company closed no control that stage (skip if the stage ended with a cut) ☐ ☐ ☐; each second or later closing success in a stage that lowers Payoff +1 (none at Payoff 0).

Hop log (you write it; Scribe: tracks, lookups, fingers; none seated, you count fingers).

Stage, round	What moved	From	To
____	____	____	____
____	____	____	____

Playing the other side

Three numbered moves per stage: round 1 move 1, round 2 move 2; a move whose control is closed is replaced once by move 3; a blocked move 3 lapses (no rolled action that round). The case card gives each move’s band, the covered move per stage (cover 12), the cover holder per stage and each clue’s stopping control (read it when you cut). As Company: at clean, call once per stage and accuse the hire with most clues. Tie for most: no call; after 2 silent rounds in the stage, shuffle the tied cards face down, draw one and accuse it (gate applies). A Comrades call: only they vote (both chairs: one combined tally with the Company table), you cut only on the clue leader, a tie for leader is no leader and no cut.

Vote script

Stop the line, called by [x]. Payoff down 1, Exposure up 1. Look at the cards. Say ready. On three, point or fold. One, two, three.

Cost paid at the call; call spent even with no accusation. A first call ends the stage only by wrongful offboarding or cutting the operator; a second call in the round is then void and unpaid, otherwise valid, paid and resolved after the first. Both chairs: the cell votes in the same tally; both tables call: first-visited resolves first.
Most fingers wins, a lone finger wins. “[No. 00x] is the suspect. A meeting, not a cut.”
Tie: “Tied pointers, one sentence each. Vote again.” Anyone who pointed may change; folders stay folded.
Second tie, all fold, nobody points: “No accusation. The call is spent.”
Meeting, 3 yes or no questions (ID, device, payee). Company-only: the Company writes them, you answer from the card lines, never improvised; no line: “The file does not say” (still counts).
Cut gate: 2 revealed clues on the hire, one process (device counts) and one money. Money clues open in stage 2, so no cut earlier: a stage 1 call is a meeting only, both tracks paid, call spent. Gate not met: “No cut. The call is spent.”
Cut: “Name a control or show the human cost (a named harm tied to the card or file, read aloud by you), then Approve-cut.” It never rolls. Video alone: meeting only.
Operator cut: Payoff freezes, case ends this round. Innocent cut: Exposure +2, stage ends, hire gone, tier noisy; in stage 3 the case ends at once, operator counts as not cut.

End triggers

Operator cut (end of round). Payoff 9 (a cut in the same round wins). Last stage over. Stage 3 wrongful offboarding. Say: “Operator [cut/not]. Payoff [n, frozen if cut]. Exposure [n].” Ending from that value, Breached read before Costly: Contained (Burned), Breached (Harvest), else Costly (Partial). Process condition last: judged on cuts and accusations that ended in a cut, each named a control or human cost, none on looks, no wrongful offboarding.

Debrief script (20 minutes)

Reveal, 4. “We are out of character.” Unseal the persona, read the hop log, say what moved each tier (tier log).
Replay, 6. “Which accusation rested on looks, which on a named control?”
Transfer, 6. “Privately write one control your real organisation lacks. On three, turn it over.”
Close, 4. “One commitment each: when [situation], I will [action].” Then: “Looks prove nothing either way: an appearance tell expires, so before anyone is trusted, check the ID, the device and the payee.”

Eleven first-five-minutes answers

Which chair? Comrades’ or Company’s. One at a time, or both at once.
My turn? 2 actions. The best fitting role acts.
Who rolls? You call it and set the target first. The acting player throws.
Tracks? Payoff and Exposure, 0 to 9, visible.
Who is the bad hire? One of 3. Sealed.
How to accuse? Stop-the-line.
Wrong accusation? Costs Exposure. That is part of the learning.
Phones? No. Spend a lookup.
Does anyone win? Endings, plus a process condition.
How long? 90 minutes.
Uncomfortable? X-card.