Vote Script
Only the Incident Master reads this page before the session.
Stop-the-line is a plain simultaneous vote, then a meeting, then a cut. The chain is RULED. The effects are DEFAULT. Read the lines as written. Do not add a view about the hire. For the full IM guidance see Stop-the-line and the cut.
1. The call
Any player on either side may call it, 1 call per stage per table.
Stop the line, called by [name or side]. Everything pauses. The call costs both tracks: Payoff down 1, Exposure up 1. [Update the tracks aloud. Payoff never goes below 0.]
The call is not a roll. The cost is paid at the call, and the call is spent even when no accusation follows.
If the table has already used its call this stage: “That call is spent for this stage.”
2. Look, then count in
Look at the 3 hire cards. Say “ready” when you are.
When everyone has said it:
On three, point at one hire, or fold your arms to abstain. One. Two. Three.
Both chairs: “Cell, you vote too. You may point at an innocent hire.” The cell’s fingers join the same tally as the Company’s. If the Comrades table called, the Company table’s fingers join one combined tally with theirs and you do not point. If both tables call in the same round, the table you visited first resolves first. A second call in that round is void and unpaid if the first call ended the stage (a wrongful offboarding or the operator cut). Otherwise it is valid, paid and resolved after the first.
3. Read the count
Most fingers wins. A lone finger wins. RULED
Clear winner:
[Hire No. 00x] has the most fingers. That hire is the suspect. This is a meeting, not a cut.
Tie:
It is a tie between [No. 00x] and [No. 00y]. Everyone who pointed at a tied hire, one sentence each, starting with [name]. Then we vote again. Anyone who pointed may change their vote. Anyone who folded stays folded.
Then repeat step 2 from “On three”. On the re-vote anyone who pointed may change. An abstainer may not change vote.
Second tie:
A second tie. There is no accusation. The line starts again, and the call is spent.
All fold, or nobody points:
Nobody pointed. There is no accusation. The line starts again, and the call is spent.
One pointer, everyone else folded:
One finger, so that finger wins. [Hire No. 00x] is the suspect.
4. The meeting
The picked hire is the suspect. 3 yes or no questions, no timer. The cell may argue and deflect.
When a cell is at the table (Comrades’ chair or both chairs):
This is the meeting about [No. 00x]. I will put 3 yes or no questions to the cell. Answer yes or no. You may confer, argue, and deflect.
Ask questions from the question banks, one on identity checking, one on the device, one on the payee.
Company-only play, no cell: there is no cell. The Company writes the 3 yes or no questions, and you answer as the suspect hire from the pre-written card lines, never improvised. A decoy gives its harmless reason. The operator gives its cover.
This is the meeting about [No. 00x]. The Company writes 3 yes or no questions. I answer for the hire from the card.
After the last question:
The meeting is closed. Now the Company decides: cut, or no cut.
If a meeting question has no card line (Company-only play), answer: “The file does not say.” It still counts toward the 3.
5. The cut
Check the cut gate first: the hire has 2 revealed clues of different record types, process (a device fact counts) and money. Money clues open in stage 2. A stage 1 call is a meeting only: it still costs both tracks and the call is spent.
The gate is not met. A cut needs 2 clues, one process and one money. The meeting stands. The call is spent.
If the gate is met:
To cut, the Company names one control that would have stopped this hire, or shows the human cost. Then Finance and Legal uses Approve-cut. Approve-cut does not roll.
Human cost means a harm to a named person or group that the hire or the move would cause, tied to a fact on the card or the file, and read aloud by you. A general feeling is not a cost. Decoy cards carry no human-cost facts.
If the table has only video or appearance:
That is video or looks. It opens a meeting. It does not cut anyone. Name a control or show the cost.
If they do not cut:
No cut. The meeting is over. [Hire] stays and the stage goes on.
Cut, and the hire is the operator’s persona:
Cut. [Hire] loses their keys. Payoff freezes at [n]. The ending is read from that value. The case ends at the end of this round.
Cut, and the hire is innocent (wrongful offboarding):
Cut. [Hire] was a real hire. That is a wrongful offboarding. Exposure up 2. The stage ends now, [hire] is gone, and the tier is noisy again. Next stage.
In stage 3, a wrongful offboarding ends the case at once: Exposure up 2, the operator counts as not cut, and the debrief begins. Say: “Cut. [Hire] was a real hire. The case ends here.”
If a cut and Payoff 9 land in the same round, the cut wins.
6. When you play the Company DEFAULT
You call the Company’s stop-the-line 1 time per stage, only when the tier reaches clean, and you accuse the hire carrying the most clues. If two or more hires tie for most clues, you do not call that round and check again in the next. If you have made no call for 2 rounds in the stage, shuffle the tied hire cards face down, draw one and accuse it. The cut gate still applies. Say:
The Company stops the line. Our file points at [No. 00x].
Then run steps 1 and 4 to 5. You do not vote, and the cell cannot vote down your accusation. It argues and deflects in the meeting. When you cut, cite the stopping control from the case card aloud.
If a Comrades player calls it, only the Comrades table votes and you do not point. You cut only if the picked hire is the clue leader. A tie for clue leader counts as no clue leader: no cut. Otherwise the call is spent and no cut happens.
7. After the vote
Say only the tier, the tracks and the clock. Do not say why the hire was right or wrong. That belongs in the debrief replay.
Payoff [n]. Exposure [n]. The tier is [x]. [n] minutes left in the stage.
Quick reference
- Vote: on three, point or fold arms. Most fingers wins. A lone finger wins.
- Tie: one sentence each from the tied pointers, vote again. Second tie, all fold, nobody points: no accusation.
- Meeting: 3 yes or no questions. Company-only: the Company writes them, you answer from card lines.
- Cut: the gate (2 clues, process and money, money from stage 2), then a named control or a human cost, then Approve-cut, which never rolls. Video alone: meeting only.
- Wrong cut: Exposure +2, stage ends, tier noisy. In stage 3 the case ends at once.
- Re-vote: anyone who pointed may change, an abstainer may not.
What next
- Question banks for the meeting questions
- Round transitions