How a Round Works
A round is short. The IM reveals what changed, the table talks, and the role that fits best acts. Everything in this chapter is a playtest parameter unless it is marked RULED.
The round loop DEFAULT
Each stage is 2 rounds. Each round runs in four steps:
- Reveal. The IM states the clue tier (noisy, partial or clean) and any event: a bank form arrives, a laptop ships, a remote tool shows up.
- Discuss. The table talks for a minute or two. Read the file, ask questions, say what you suspect and why.
- Act. The best-fitting role acts. Each player has 2 actions per round. The Company acts first, then the IM plays the other side’s move.
- Resolve. The IM calls any rolls, updates the tracks and the tier, and the next round begins.
In both-chairs mode both tables act at once. The IM visits each table every round, the table visited first alternates, and effects resolve at the end of the round.
What counts as an action
- Every role verb costs one action (Perform, Verify, Hop and so on), and it rolls when the IM calls a roll. Approve-cut, Pull-log and Question a hire never roll.
- Ask, Look and Hold are free actions. They never roll and do not use up your 2 actions. Ask is a question to the IM about the rules or about what the cards already show, or to a teammate. Look is reading what is already on the cards or the file. Hold is keeping an action unspent.
- Only Pull-log and Question a hire also cost one lookup from the stage budget. Neither Pull-log nor Question a hire ever rolls: each always spends the action and the lookup. Probe-interview is a rolled action that costs no lookup. Every other verb costs the action and nothing more, and rolls at the tier’s target unless it is free or “no doubt, no roll”.
- Borrowing another role’s verb is allowed when you are short of players. It still counts as one of your actions.
Not everyone acts on every beat. If the issue is a bank change, Finance & Legal or Money acts first. Use your second action where it fits, or hold it.
Who rolls
The IM calls every roll and states the target. The acting player throws the d20 and reads it aloud. You say what you do. The IM decides whether it needs a roll and what the target is. A player never decides on their own that something is a roll. When the IM plays the other side, the IM throws for it.
Before each roll by the Comrades, the IM also says whether a success would score, close or inform (see below).
No doubt, no roll DEFAULT. A move that is clearly plausible needs no roll. If an HR lead asks to see the ID check status of a hire, the IM just tells them what the card says. If the action has risk or an opponent, it rolls.
At most 3 d20 rolls per table per round DEFAULT. If more actions would roll, the IM picks the 3 with the highest stakes. The rest are narrated. Free actions never roll, and the IM’s own-side moves do not count toward the 3.
The d20 DEFAULT
The IM states the target before the roll. The acting player throws a d20 and succeeds on the target or higher.
| Difficulty | Target (d20, at or above) |
|---|---|
| Easy | 8 |
| Standard | 12 |
| Hard | 16 |
There are no role modifiers and no stat bonuses. The clue tier sets the target for Company actions:
- Noisy: Hard.
- Partial: Standard.
- Clean: Easy.
The more the Company has checked, the easier the next check. See Tracks, Evidence and the Bench.
For Comrades rolls the IM states the band: Easy for a routine move, Standard for a normal one, Hard when two live controls could stop it. Against an IM-played Comrades move the case card gives the band.
Cover rolls
The Comrades get a cover roll: a fixed target of 12, 1 per stage, rotating between roles RULED (the one-per-stage rotation is the owner’s, the number is a default).
- The cell chooses which role holds it each stage, from any seated role that has not held it yet. With fewer than 3 roles seated, a role may hold it again only when no other is available. When the IM plays the cell, the case card names the holder for each stage.
- The cover holder throws the cover roll.
- The Comrades table announces the cover roll before the scoring move’s own d20.
- At a table that plays the Comrades, the cover roll counts as one of the table’s 3 rolls that round. A cover roll the IM throws in Company-only play counts toward no table’s rolls.
- On 12 or higher, that move cannot raise the clue tier, whether the move succeeds or fails. A failed cover roll adds no rise of its own. Below 12 the move has no cover, and its own d20 follows the normal rule.
- In Company-only play the case card marks 1 scripted Comrades move per stage as covered, with the cover roll at 12. The tier rises on the other scripted moves as usual. Calling stop-the-line is not a roll and does not count toward the 3 rolls.
What a roll can do: score, close or inform
The IM states before each roll whether a success would score, close or inform. DEFAULT
- Scoring verbs: Use-key, Relay, Forge-doc, Route-wage, Swap-payee, Cash-out. A success is Payoff +1.
- Closing verbs: Isolate, Hold-payment, Scope and Review. A success is Payoff -1. Scope and Review close only a control the case card lists, and otherwise inform.
- Every other verb informs or sets up. It never scores and never closes.
A successful inform action reveals one unrevealed fact of the record type the verb checks, chosen by the IM from the card. A failed inform action reveals nothing and moves no track. A money check before stage 2 returns “not on file until stage 2”, and the action is still spent. A Probe-interview inconsistency counts as a revealed fact of its record type.
Payoff -1 at the floor of 0 changes nothing, and a closing success at that floor costs no Exposure. Only the second and later closing successes in a stage that actually lower Payoff cost Exposure +1.
When to roll, when to talk
Roll when:
- Someone is trying to avoid a check or answer.
- The outcome is uncertain and the stakes are real.
- Another player’s plan would be changed by the result.
Do not roll when:
- The move is plainly plausible.
- It is a free action.
- The table already has the information.
If the table is stuck, the IM sets the target aloud and moves on. The aim is momentum, not precision.
What a roll changes
A success or failure moves the tracks and the clue tier. Both are visible to everyone.
| Result | Effect |
|---|---|
| Comrades scoring move succeeds | Payoff +1 |
| Company success (a closed control, a held payment) | Payoff -1, never below 0. The second and later closing successes in a stage that lower Payoff also cost Exposure +1 |
| Successful inform action | One unrevealed fact of that record type is revealed |
| Any failed roll | No track moves |
| Scoring move succeeds without cover, or a Comrades d20 fails | The clue tier rises one step |
| A costed lookup (Pull-log, Question a hire) | The clue tier rises one step, capped at clean (the IM announces the new tier). At clean the tier stays and one more unrevealed fact is revealed. Pull-log reveals one fact and never rolls |
Two extra rules apply to a Comrades scoring move:
- The named-control rule RULED: a scoring Comrades move stands only if the table names a control that would have stopped it, or shows the human cost. Video or appearance evidence alone satisfies neither. In play the Company has to meet it when it accuses or cuts. After any scoring Comrades success the IM asks the table to name the control that would have stopped it. That is for the debrief only, and the Payoff change is not withdrawn.
- The IM announces the new tier, never the cause of a rise that came from a Comrades move. Those causes are read out in the debrief. A rise caused by a lookup is the Company’s own act, so it is not hidden.
A worked example
Company table, stage 2, round 2. The tier was noisy at the start of the stage. In round 1, Priya (SecOps) used Pull-log, which cost her one action and one lookup, needed no roll, revealed one fact and raised the tier one step, so it is now partial. One lookup of 3 is used. The hires are: Backend engineer, DevOps engineer, Contract developer.
Reveal. The IM: “The tier is partial. A bank-change form arrives for hire 2.”
Discuss. Jo (Finance & Legal) says the form looks late. Sam (HR) asks whether ID check status is on file. Priya wonders about the ship-to address.
Act. Jo uses Check-payee on hire 2’s new account. It informs, so the IM says: “Partial tier, so Standard, 12 or higher. A success would inform.” Jo throws 14. Success. The IM tells her the payee name is a different person’s. That fact is now a clue (a money fact, available because this is stage 2; in stage 1 the IM would have said “not on file until stage 2” and the action would still be spent). Her second action is Hold-payment. The IM calls it: “Standard again, 12 or higher. A success would close.” Jo throws 15. Success. Nothing is paid to that account until it is explained.
Resolve. A closing success is Payoff -1, but Payoff is at the floor of 0, so the IM says: “Payoff stays at 0.” A closing success at the floor lowers nothing, so it costs no Exposure either. Two rolls were used of the 3 allowed this round. A late bank change is the kind of weak oddity that also appears on innocent hires, so the table notes it and does not accuse yet.
Sam spends one action and one lookup on Question a hire, aimed at hire 3. That is the second lookup used this stage, so one is left, and the Scribe ticks it off. The lookup raises the tier one step, partial to clean, and the IM announces: “The tier is now clean.” Later Company rolls this stage are Easy, 8 or higher. The question needs no roll of its own.
The Comrades table in a round of its own, tier noisy. Money wants to Swap-payee, a scoring verb. Money holds this stage’s cover roll, which the cell chose, and the cell has not used Money for it before. The table announces the cover roll first, before the Swap-payee d20. Money throws 15 against the fixed target of 12: cover holds. The IM then says the Swap-payee roll would score and sets the target. Money throws and fails. A failed roll moves no track, and a Comrades d20 failure would normally raise the tier, but under cover the move cannot raise it, so the tier stays noisy. The two rolls count as two of the table’s 3 that round.
She named what she checked (the payee), said why, and used the verb on the card. That is the habit the game rewards.
Quick reference
A round at a glance
- Reveal, discuss, act (the Company first, then the IM’s side), resolve.
- 2 actions per player. Free: Ask, Look, Hold.
- At most 3 d20 rolls per table per round, chosen by the IM. The IM calls the roll and the target, the acting player throws.
- Every role verb costs one action. Only Pull-log and Question a hire also cost a lookup, and neither rolls.
- Scoring verbs score, closing verbs close, all others inform. The IM says which before each roll.
- Target: Easy 8, Standard 12, Hard 16. Cover roll fixed at 12: announced before the scoring move, counts as a roll at a Comrades table, thrown by the holder (any seated role that has not held it), a success stops that move raising the tier.
- Clue tier sets the Company target: noisy Hard, partial Standard, clean Easy.
- A failed roll moves no track.
- A costed lookup raises the tier one step, capped at clean.