Preparing for Your Session
You do not need to study. You need an hour and a half, a willingness to ask questions, and the habit of saying why. This chapter covers what to expect, what helps, and what to do if you are nervous.
What to expect
A session is a collaborative incident response about one new hire who may not be who the file says. You work at a small table, plus an Incident Master (IM) who leads.
Session shape (DEFAULT, target 90 minutes):
- Setup (10 min): the IM reads the brief, assigns chairs and roles, explains the d20, the tracks and stop-the-line, then plays round 1 as a taught round.
- 3 stages (15 min each): the Interview, Onboarding, the First Month.
- Transitions (5 min): a short reset between stages.
- Debrief (20 min): the part where most of the learning lands.
If a stage is not finished at minute 40, the IM drops its round 2 if it has not been played yet. At 6 players the table nominates up to 3 rolled actions together before the IM calls, with one swap if the IM’s event changes the situation.
If you play the Comrades’ chair, the cell spends the first 5 minutes of play choosing which hire card is theirs and two tells from a list, in secret from any Company table.
Before you arrive
What expertise you bring
Everyone has something the table needs. The Company chair rewards different backgrounds, and so does the Comrades’ chair, because a good operator thinks like a good defender.
- Share what you noticed, do not lecture. Build on teammates’ reads.
- Ask questions that help less technical colleagues follow the thread.
- Say what you do not know. The hire’s tooling may be outside your stack.
- Remember the business side. A control nobody can run on Monday is not a control.
- You hold half the evidence. Start dates, bank changes, reference habits and payee details are exactly what the cell works around.
- Your instinct for process is the skill. “Who signed this off?” is a strong question.
- Translate. Turn a log line into a business consequence for the table.
- Curious questions push everyone deeper.
- New eyes notice what experts stopped seeing.
- A learning mindset is catching. Model it.
Setting learning intentions
Before your session, ask yourself:
- What would I like to understand better: hiring checks, payment controls, device and remote-tool risk, or how to run a meeting about a suspect?
- What can I contribute from my real job?
- How do I learn best: by talking, by trying, by asking, or by watching first?
Managing pre-session nerves
Feeling nervous is normal. This is a game about being suspicious in public, which can feel exposed. Here are the common worries and how the game handles them.
“I do not know enough about DPRK or hiring fraud.” The brief gives you what you need, and nobody is graded on background. The case file is your source.
“What if I accuse the wrong hire?” It happens often, and the game expects it. A wrong accusation costs Exposure, and then the debrief asks what the table could have checked first. That question is the point.
“What if I cannot act or role-play?” Hardly any acting is needed. Say what your role does and what you want to try. If you play the Persona, you play a character, but short answers are fine.
“What if I say something that sounds suspicious about a real group of people?” Tells in this game are behaviour, process and money. If you notice yourself reaching for an accent, a face or a nationality, stop and ask what the file shows instead. The IM will redirect too.
“I will not fit in.” Sessions are built so every role holds a piece nobody else has.
If anything at the table makes you uncomfortable, say so or use the X-card. The IM pauses the game with no questions asked. See the safety page.
Practical preparation
What to bring
Required:
- Yourself, your experience and your curiosity.
Helpful, not required:
- A notebook or notes app for your own insights and commitments.
- One real example from your workplace that you would like to test.
Provided at the session:
- Dice (a d20), tracks and the clue-tier marker.
- Your chair sheet and role page.
- The case file with its 3 hire cards.
Do not use a phone or search engine to look up the case mid-game. If your table needs a fact the cards do not show, Ask the IM, which is free, or spend a lookup on a Pull-log or a question to a hire (see Tracks, Evidence and the Bench).
Mental preparation
Collaborative mindset
- “Yes, and”: build on teammates before correcting them.
- Curiosity over certainty: a good question is a contribution.
- Shared outcome: the table reads the same two facts at the end.
Fair-play mindset
- Judge the process, not the person.
- Never treat looks, an accent or a passport as evidence.
- Ask what control would have stopped it.
Your part in team success
- Share what you notice, early and briefly.
- Ask when you are confused. If you are lost, others are too.
- Invite quiet players: “What does your role see here?”
- Own your 2 actions per round. Do not wait to be called on.
- Accept the d20. The IM sets the target before the roll, and bad luck is not a judgment on you.
Mindset checklist
Phrases for when you are stuck
When you are lost
- “Can someone explain what that term means?”
- “What does my role do on this turn?”
- “Which hire is that about?”
- “What is the most important thing I should know right now?”
When contributing
- “From my job in [field], this looks like…”
- “I do not know the tech, but from a payment angle…”
- “Which control would have caught that?”
- “What does the file show, not what does it feel like?”
When supporting others
- “Say more about that.”
- “How does that connect to what [name] found?”
- “That is a point I had not considered.”
Your success is not how much you already know. It is how well you ask, share and learn with your table. Come as yourself and trust the process.
What next
- Chairs and Roles: which chair, which role.
- How a Round Works: what you do on a turn.