Ground Crew
Revolutionary duty: a laptop ships to a very patient address.
Chair: Comrades’ chair (the operator cell). You handle the physical and local side of the cell’s work: where a device sits, where a parcel goes, which document exists. A Hop moves a device or an address, never an identity. (If the name Ground Crew does not read well for your table, the fallback is Local Hand.)
Verbs are DEFAULT playtest parameters. The role is RULED. The IM calls every roll and states the target first (Easy 8, Standard 12, Hard 16). You have 2 actions per round.
“I do not need to be there. I only need the parcel to be.”
Your three verbs
Hop
What it does: Move a device or an address: a ship-to changes, a device is passed to another place. It never moves an identity.
Roll it when: a Company check could trace the current address or device, and the cell needs a clean one. In the debrief the IM reads the hop log, so say each Hop aloud and keep it simple.
Relay
What it does: Pass a message, a call or a session between the persona and the world, so the persona does not have to be where the Company expects.
Roll it when: the table asks for a live check (a call, a delivery sign-off) and the persona needs help getting through it.
Forge-doc
What it does: Produce a document in the fiction: an ID-check form, a reference note, a delivery receipt.
Roll it when: HR or Finance & Legal asks for paperwork. The Company can only learn the truth by checking the source with its own verbs. Forge-doc is a scoring verb, so the IM tells you before the roll whether a success would score.
Free actions
Ask, Look and Hold are free for anyone and never roll. Ask the IM or a teammate a question, Look at the card or the file and read it aloud, or Hold an action for a better moment.
Tips
- Say what moves where: the device, the address, the date. Keep the hop log short and honest, because it will be read aloud in the debrief.
- Ask the IM what the case card allows before you Hop.
- Pair with Tooling: a hop and a key together make a scoring move.
- Hop never scores: it informs or sets up. Save the cover roll for a scoring move such as Relay or Forge-doc. The cell chooses which role holds it each stage, from any seated role that has not held it yet.
What this role watches
- The ship-to address and its history on the hire cards.
- Which Company role is asking for paperwork.
- The clue tier, since a Hop without cover can raise it.
What you never do
Never move or alter an identity: a Hop moves a device or an address, nothing else. Never give real-world operational steps. Everything is fiction at the table. Never use a person’s nationality or face as the cell’s cover story.
Judge the process, not the person.
Short on players?
Ground Crew pairs well with Tooling. Any player may borrow another role’s verb for one action. Say aloud which verb and whose it is. See Chairs and Roles.