Skip to main content

Players’ Quick Start

Get ready to play Comrades & Chollimas in 10 minutes: pick a chair, learn your two actions, know the d20 and stop-the-line, and what to keep open.

Follow these steps and you are ready for your first Comrades & Chollimas session in a few minutes. This page prints on one sheet. Keep it next to you.

Your first session in 4 steps

  1. Get a chair and a role. The Incident Master (IM) assigns you the Comrades’ chair or the Company’s chair, and a role. See Chairs and Roles.
  2. Open your role page. It lists your three verbs, what each does, and what you never do. See the role cards.
  3. Learn the loop. Each round the IM reveals the clue tier, the table talks, the best-fitting role acts. You have 2 actions, and every role verb costs one. The IM calls the d20 and says the target first, and the acting player throws it.
  4. Ask questions. The IM is there to help. Nothing bad happens to you for trying.

What to have open

  • Your role page and the Quick Reference.
  • The case file with the 3 hire cards (the IM hands it out).
  • A notepad for your own notes and your debrief commitment.

Role snapshot

Chair Role Verbs
Comrades Persona Perform, Deflect, Stall
Comrades Ground Crew Hop, Relay, Forge-doc
Comrades Tooling Use-key, Mask, Probe
Comrades Money Route-wage, Swap-payee, Cash-out
Company HR Verify, Probe-interview, Reference-check
Company Engineering Scope, Review, Sandbox
Company SecOps Pull-log, Isolate, Watch
Company Finance & Legal Check-payee, Hold-payment, Approve-cut

Ask, Look and Hold are free for anyone. Only Pull-log and Question a hire also cost a lookup (Probe-interview rolls and costs none; Pull-log and Question a hire never roll). Short on players? Borrow another role’s verb for one action.

The five things to remember

  1. The IM calls the rolls, and the acting player throws. Target is Easy 8, Standard 12 or Hard 16, d20 at or above.
  2. Two tracks, both visible. Payoff is the Comrades’ progress. Exposure is the Company’s self-inflicted harm. Both run 0 to 9.
  3. Stop the line to accuse. Vote on three: point at a hire, or fold arms. Most fingers wins. Once per stage per table, and the cost is paid at the call. In stage 1 a call is a meeting only, because no money clue exists yet.
  4. A cut needs a reason and two clues. Name a control or show the human cost (a harm to a named person or group, tied to a fact in the file), and have 2 revealed clues of 2 types, process and money, not before stage 2. Looks alone never count.
  5. Judge the process, not the person. No accents, passports or faces as evidence.

Phones

No phones during play. If you need a fact the cards do not show, Ask the IM, or spend a lookup on a Pull-log or a question to a hire.

If you are uncomfortable

Say so or use the X-card. The IM pauses with no questions. See the safety page.

Level up after your first game