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Quick Reference

One-page Comrades & Chollimas reference for players: the round, the d20, tracks, clue tier, verbs, stop-the-line, endings and the debrief.

Keep this open during play. Values marked DEFAULT are playtest parameters. Values marked RULED are fixed by the game’s owner.

The session DEFAULT

Part Minutes
Setup

10
3 stages (the Interview, Onboarding, the First Month) 15 each
Transitions

5
Debrief

20
Slack

10
Target total 90

Each stage is 2 rounds.

A round DEFAULT

  1. Reveal: the IM states the clue tier and any event.
  2. Discuss: the table talks.
  3. Act: the best-fitting role acts. 2 actions per player.
  4. Resolve: the IM calls rolls, updates tracks and tier.

At most 3 d20 rolls per table per round, chosen by the IM. The IM’s own-side moves do not count. Free actions never roll. “No doubt, no roll.” The IM calls the roll and the target. The acting player throws the d20 and reads it aloud. The IM throws for the side it plays.

The d20 DEFAULT

Difficulty Target
Easy

8
Standard

12
Hard

16

Roll at or above the target. The IM states the target before the roll. Cover roll: fixed at 12, 1 per stage, rotating between roles RULED. The Comrades table announces it before the scoring move’s own d20. It counts as one of the 3 rolls at a table that plays the Comrades (a cover roll the IM throws in Company-only play counts toward no table’s rolls). The cover holder throws it, and the cell chooses the holder from any seated role that has not held it (with fewer than 3 roles seated, a role may hold it again only when no other is available). On 12 or higher that move cannot raise the tier, whether it succeeds or fails. Below 12 the move has no cover and its own d20 follows the normal rule. A failed cover roll adds no rise of its own. In Company-only play the case card marks 1 scripted Comrades move per stage as covered. For Comrades rolls the IM states Easy (routine), Standard (normal) or Hard (two live controls could stop it).

Company targets by tier: noisy Hard, partial Standard, clean Easy.

Tracks RULED

Two tracks, 0 to 9, both visible, both start at 0.

Event Payoff Exposure
Comrades scoring success +1
Company success (closed control, held payment) -1 (floor 0) +1 for the second and later closing successes in a stage that lower Payoff; none at the floor
Failed roll none none
Stop-the-line (paid at the call, spent even with no accusation) -1 +1
Wrongful offboarding +2
Stage ends with a scoring move stood and no control closed (not at a stage that ended with a cut) +1
Each second or later closing success in a stage that lowers Payoff (none at the floor) +1

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 alone satisfies neither. In play the Company must meet it when it accuses or cuts. After a scoring success the table names the control for the debrief only, and Payoff is not withdrawn. Human cost: 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 the IM. A general feeling is not a cost.

Payoff cap: Payoff is one running total, shown as at most 8 until the round ends. A closing success lowers it. If the operator is not cut by the end of the round and the total reaches 9, the case ends. A cut freezes Payoff.

Scoring verbs (Payoff +1): Use-key, Relay, Forge-doc, Route-wage, Swap-payee, Cash-out. Closing verbs (Payoff -1): Isolate, Hold-payment, Scope and Review (Scope and Review close only a control the case card lists, otherwise they inform). All other verbs inform or set up. The IM says before each roll whether a success would score, close or inform.

Clue tier RULED

Noisy, partial, clean. Shown to the Company (to every table in both-chairs mode). Every case starts at noisy at 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 also raises it one step, 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 tier, and never names the cause of a rise from a Comrades move. A rise from a lookup is not hidden. A clue is a fact on a hire’s card revealed by a lookup, a successful inform action, a Probe-interview or a meeting answer.

Lookups DEFAULT

3 per stage, shared across the Company. Every role verb costs one action. Only Pull-log and Question a hire also cost one lookup (1 question per round per hire). Pull-log and Question a hire never roll: they always spend the action and the lookup, and Pull-log reveals one fact. Question a hire’s unanswered question gets “the file does not say” and still costs the lookup. Probe-interview is a rolled action (target by tier) that costs no lookup: the IM states one inconsistency from the card, or none. Ask, Look and Hold are free.

Verbs DEFAULT

Role Verbs
Persona Perform, Deflect, Stall
Ground Crew Hop (a device or address, never an identity), Relay, Forge-doc
Tooling Use-key, Mask, Probe
Money Route-wage, Swap-payee, Cash-out
HR Verify, Probe-interview, Reference-check
Engineering Scope, Review, Sandbox
SecOps Pull-log (one lookup), Isolate, Watch
Finance & Legal Check-payee, Hold-payment, Approve-cut (never rolls)

Free for anyone: Ask (a question to the IM about the rules or what the cards show, or to a teammate), Look (read what is on the cards or file), Hold (keep an action unspent). Short on players: borrow a verb for one action. 6 or more players: the extra player is the Scribe, who keeps the tracks and the lookup ticks and counts fingers in a vote (in both-chairs mode the IM keeps the shared tracks and the Scribe keeps only lookup ticks and finger counts). The IM writes the hop log and the tier log. 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.

Stop-the-line RULED

Any player, either side, once per stage per table. The cost is paid at the call, and the call is spent even with no accusation.

  1. Vote: on three, point at a hire or fold arms. Most fingers wins. Tie: one sentence each, then vote again. Second tie, all fold or nobody points: no accusation. On the re-vote anyone who pointed may change. An abstainer may not.
  2. Meeting: the IM questions the cell in persona, 3 yes or no questions, no timer. The cell may argue and deflect. In Company-only play the Company writes the questions and the IM answers as the suspect hire from pre-written card lines.
  3. Cut: name one control or show the human cost, the hire has 2 revealed clues of 2 types (process and money, a device fact counts as process, money clues not before stage 2), and Finance & Legal uses Approve-cut, which never rolls. Video alone gives only the meeting.

A cut on the operator freezes Payoff, the ending is read from that value, and the case ends at the end of the round. A cut on an innocent hire: Exposure +2, the stage ends, that hire is gone, the tier resets to noisy. In stage 3 it ends the case at once, and the operator counts as not cut. Cut beats Payoff 9 in the same round. A meeting question with no card line gets “the file does not say” and still counts.

Calls with the IM as Company: a tie for clue leader counts as no clue leader, so a Comrades call picks a hire and no cut follows. If the IM-Company has made no call for 2 rounds in a stage and hires tie, the IM draws one tied card face down to accuse (the cut gate still applies). A first call ends the stage only through a wrongful offboarding or by cutting the operator. A second call in the same round after a first that did not end the stage is valid, paid and resolved after the first.

Both-chairs mode: the tier is shown to every table and the tracks are on one shared board. Each table has its own sealed bench card, handed over at the first stage transition. The IM visits each table every round, alternating who is first, and effects resolve at the end of the round. The cell’s fingers join the Company’s tally, and when the Comrades table calls, the Company table’s fingers join one combined tally and the IM does not point. If both tables call in the same round, the first-visited table resolves first, and a second call is void and unpaid if the first ended the stage. The idle table plays free actions and writes its next action on a slip, with no rolls and no track moves.

Endings DEFAULT

Company Comrades Condition
Contained Burned Operator cut, Payoff 3 or lower, Exposure 5 or lower
Costly Partial Operator cut with Payoff 4 to 8, or Exposure above 5, or not cut and Payoff 6 or lower
Breached Harvest Not cut and Payoff 7 or higher, or Payoff reached 9 (read Breached first; Costly applies only when Breached does not)

Process held: judged on cuts and on accusations that ended in a cut: each cited a named control or a human cost, none rested on looks alone, no wrongful offboarding. An accusation with no cut does not by itself break it.

Debrief (20 min) DEFAULT

Reveal 4. Process replay 6. Own-company transfer 6. Close 4.

Troubleshooting

Problem Try
Not sure what to do Ask the IM which role fits. Use Ask or Look.
Not sure of the target The IM sets it aloud and moves on.
Tied vote One sentence each, vote again (anyone who pointed may change). Twice tied: no accusation.
A teammate reasons from looks “What does the file show?”
You are uncomfortable Say so or use the X-card. The IM pauses.
The tier rose and nobody knows why Normal. The cause is revealed in the debrief.
Need a fact the cards do not show Ask the IM, or spend a lookup on Pull-log or a question to a hire. No phones.

What next