Tracks, Evidence and the Bench
Four things on the table tell you where the case stands: two tracks, one clue tier and a lookup budget. All of them are visible to everyone. There is no hidden number.
The two tracks RULED
Both tracks run from 0 to 9 (DEFAULT size) and both start at 0. Both sit on the table where both sides can read them.
Payoff is the Comrades’ progress toward the case’s mission. A case has one of three missions:
- Wages: pay routed to a payee the cell controls.
- Data or IP: material that leaves the Company.
- Keys the hire can reach: credentials and access that persist.
Wages are one payoff, and not the main one. Do not read the track as “the hire only wants a salary”.
Exposure is the harm the Company has caused itself or let slip. A wrongful offboarding raises it, and so does every stop-the-line call. Two more sources are listed below: a passive stage, and a second or later closing success in one stage that lowers Payoff.
What moves them DEFAULT
| Event | Payoff | Exposure |
|---|---|---|
| A Comrades scoring success | +1 | |
| A Company success (a closed control, a held payment) | -1, floor 0 | |
| A failed roll, either side | no change | no change |
| Stop-the-line called (either side), paid at the call | -1 | +1 |
| A cut on an innocent hire (wrongful offboarding) | +2 | |
| End of a stage in which a Comrades scoring move stood and the Company closed no control (not applied at a stage that ended with a cut) | +1 | |
| Each second or later closing success in one stage that lowers Payoff | +1 |
Only the second and later closing successes in a stage that actually lower Payoff cost that Exposure. A closing success at Payoff 0 costs none.
Stop-the-line costs both tracks RULED. The amounts above are defaults. The cost is paid at the call, and the call is spent even when no accusation follows. A failed roll moves no track. Payoff -1 at the floor of 0 changes nothing.
Payoff is capped at 8 until the round ends. Payoff is one running total, shown as at most 8 until the round ends. A closing success lowers the total. If the operator is not cut by the end of the round and the total reaches 9, the case ends. If a cut and Payoff 9 land in the same round, the cut wins. When the operator is cut, Payoff freezes at its value at that moment, and the ending is read from that value.
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. It can only open a meeting.
How it is applied DEFAULT: the Company must name a control or show the human cost when it accuses or cuts, and the cut stands only if it does. After any scoring Comrades success the IM also asks the table to name the control that would have stopped it. That answer is for the debrief only, and the Payoff change is not withdrawn.
Examples of a named control: “payee name must match the hire’s name before a first payment”; “ID check completed before a device ships”; “remote tools only from an approved list”. Human cost means a harm to a named person or group that the hire or the move would cause. It must be tied to a fact on the card or the file, and the IM reads it aloud. A general feeling is not a cost. Decoy cards carry no human-cost facts. Examples: a colleague whose work would be misattributed, a customer whose data would be at risk, as long as the file names them.
“They looked nervous on camera” is not a control. Neither is “the accent was off”. A shy camera is one of the weak oddities on an innocent hire. Fix the check that is missing.
The clue tier RULED
There is one shared tier: noisy, partial or clean. It is shown to the Company (in both-chairs mode, to every table), and there is no hidden number behind it. It tells you how readable the evidence is, and it sets your Company target:
| Tier | Company target |
|---|---|
| Noisy | Hard (16) |
| Partial | Standard (12) |
| Clean | Easy (8) |
What changes the tier DEFAULT
- Every case starts at noisy at the start of stage 1, and the tier carries across stages.
- It rises one step when a scoring Comrades move succeeds without cover, or a Comrades d20 fails.
- A costed lookup raises it one step too, capped at clean. A lookup at clean keeps the tier at clean and reveals one more unrevealed fact.
- Only a wrongful offboarding resets it to noisy.
The IM announces the new tier. The IM never names the cause of a rise that came from a Comrades move, so you do not learn why until the debrief. Guess if you like, but do not treat the guess as a fact. A rise caused by a lookup is the Company’s own act, and it is not hidden.
A clue is a fact on a hire’s card that has been revealed by a lookup, a successful inform action, a Probe-interview or a meeting answer. An inform success reveals one fact. A Probe-interview inconsistency is a revealed fact of its record type, so it counts for the cut gate and for the clue-leader count.
A tier that rises after a quiet round tells you the cell’s move had no cover. It does not tell you which hire made it. Do not accuse on the tier alone.
Lookups DEFAULT
The Company has 3 lookups per stage, shared across the whole Company table. One lookup costs one action.
Only two things spend a lookup. Each also costs one action:
- Pull-log (SecOps). It never rolls: it always spends the action and the lookup, raises the tier one step (capped at clean) and reveals one fact.
- Question a hire. One question per round per hire (1), answered by the IM in persona. It costs one action and one lookup and never rolls. If the card does not cover your question, the IM says “the file does not say”, and the lookup is still spent.
Probe-interview (HR) is different: it is a rolled action, with the target set by the tier. It costs one action and no lookup. The IM states one inconsistency from the card, or says there is none. An inconsistency counts as a revealed fact.
Every other role verb costs one action and no lookup. Ask, Look and Hold are free. Each lookup also raises the clue tier one step, capped at clean, so spending one makes later Company checks easier for you.
The Scribe (or the IM) ticks the lookups off. When the budget for the stage is gone, you cannot spend more until the next stage, so choose which hire gets the question. Phones and searches are not an option: if you need a fact the cards do not show, Ask the IM.
Before a lookup, say what you expect to learn and which hire it concerns. If the answer could not change your next move, hold the lookup.
The cut gate DEFAULT
A cut needs 2 revealed clues on the hire, from 2 different record types: a process fact and a money fact. A device fact counts as process. Each hire’s money clue is not available before stage 2, so no cut can happen before stage 2. Every innocent hire card carries two weak oddities, one process and one money, each with a harmless reason that is read out in the meeting, so two clues alone prove nothing: the named control or the human cost still has to be there. A money check before stage 2 returns “not on file until stage 2” and is still spent.
The bench RULED
The bench is where a piece of evidence gets graded. It grades the file, not the flag: what does it do? never who sent it?
- The default bench is a printed analysis card with no timer. The IM hands it to the table when the case calls for it.
- A hands-on artifact is an optional module, if the IM decided to use one.
- In both-chairs mode each table has its own sealed card, handed over at the first stage transition. The cell’s card is a tradecraft analysis card.
- A bench result may open a meeting, the body report RULED: it earns the table the right to question the cell, but it is not by itself a cut.
When a card arrives, read it as the table: say what it does, what control it implies, and which hire’s process facts it touches. If the card describes behaviour, process or money, use it. If it seems to rest on how a person looks or sounds, say so out loud.
Keeping the board
If you are the Scribe, keep these on the table where all can read them:
Quick reference
The board
- Tracks 0 to 9, both visible, both start at 0.
- Comrades scoring success: Payoff +1. Company success: Payoff -1.
- Stop-the-line: Payoff -1, Exposure +1, paid at the call and spent even with no accusation.
- Payoff is one running total, capped at 8 until the round ends. A cut freezes it.
- Exposure also rises by 1 at the end of a stage where a scoring move stood and nothing was closed, and by 1 for each second or later closing success in a stage that lowers Payoff.
- A cut needs 2 clues of 2 types (process and money), and no cut before stage 2.
- Clue tier: noisy, partial, clean. Starts noisy, carries across stages, reset only by a wrongful offboarding. A costed lookup raises it one step, capped at clean. Announced by the IM, Comrades causes revealed in the debrief.
- Lookups: 3 per stage, shared. Only Pull-log and Question a hire cost one, and neither rolls. A lookup at clean reveals one more fact.
- A cut stands only if a control is named or the human cost is shown.