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The clock in Session Timing is an estimate and nothing has tested it. Treat every timing as a guess until somebody runs it. | +| **Is it convention-ready?** | **No.** One desk pass, no human runs. `STANDING_ORDER_PLAYTEST_1.md` (GM chair, seed 5291) measured Act Two twenty minutes hot and found the Revelation 3 fallback circular; both are fixed here. Endings 2 and 3-succeeding and the quarantine unit are all still untested. | | **What it is** | A **three-act one-shot**. It ends in the session; there is no second part and the text must not promise one. | | **Players** | 4–6 from the duty roster. The cast is declared in Casting and the build enforces it. | -| **Runtime** | Budgeted **3h00 of play** in three acts of 45 / 55 / 50 minutes plus a ten-minute break. Untested. | +| **Runtime** | Budgeted **3h00 of play** in three acts of 45 / 55 / 50 minutes plus a ten-minute break. Desk pass 1 ran **~3h00 of play against 2h30 planned** — Act Two carried the whole overrun and now has a written cut. | ### The three things that are not obvious @@ -28,6 +28,11 @@ 3. **Act Three is a decision, not a fight.** All three endings are real and all three cost something. If the table reaches for violence the scenario still works, but see EXPOSURE — the quarantine unit will kill them and is meant to be argued with. +4. **Nothing in Act One is hidden, and that is load-bearing.** Joan Wetherlaw points at + every clue the party misses, because she has been trying to show somebody for four + years. Desk pass 1 failed six of ten rolls in Act One and lost nothing. **A GM who does + not notice this will start gating clues behind the dice and the act will die.** The + rolls buy speed and detail. They never buy access. ### Still to do @@ -110,10 +115,23 @@ population on paper.** A record cannot hold both. It resolves by correction. | 2 | **Bellhouse** — the population, the Registry, the sum | 55 min | Pennyfeather has shown them the sum by 1:45 | | 3 | **Renewal** — Thursday, the signing, the decision | 50 min | The signing starts no later than 2:35 | -**If you are running late,** cut in this order: the vent-head climb in Act One (put them -at the postal pipe instead), then the crèche visit in Act Two (move Kit Marlow into the -corridor outside the Registry), then Teague's confrontation in Act Three (he stands down -when Sowerby tells him to, off-screen). **Do not cut Pennyfeather's sum or the signing.** +### Pacing Note — the cuts, written in advance + +Desk pass 1 ran **~170 minutes of play against 150 planned, and Act Two carried all of it** +at 75 against 55: seven locations and six speaking parts, every one good enough that the +table would not leave. These cuts are sized at that overrun, and **the first two should be +the default rather than the emergency.** + +| Cut | Saves | What it costs | +|---|---|---| +| **Fold the pipe room into Registry** — Pennyfeather's office backs onto it and she walks them through on the way to the stacks | ~8 min | Nothing. Revelation 4 still arrives from the relay or from her | +| **Kit Marlow in the corridor, not the crèche** — she is carrying the atlas somewhere and stops to talk | ~7 min | The drawings. Have her carrying one; it does most of the work | +| **The census** (see Act Two) | ~4 min | Atmosphere only | +| **Skip the Vigil** (Countdown step 4) | ~5 min | The Revelation 3 emergency backstop. Only take this cut if they already have it | +| **Teague off-screen in Act Three** — he stands down when Sowerby tells him to | ~6 min | The script break, which is the best beat in the act. **Last resort** | + +**Do not cut Pennyfeather's sum, the arrival, or the signing.** They are the act, the tone +and the decision. --- @@ -278,8 +296,8 @@ Use whichever fits the group; all three are live and the department used all thr | # | Clue | Where | How found | What it gives | Type | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | 1 | The ash is not ash | The verges, the yard | `[CUS: Science (Biology) — it is not combustion product and it is not mineral; it has a grain structure, like something milled]` | The boundary is a *place*, not a contamination | Essential | -| 2 | The ash has an edge | Walking the field boundary | `[CUS: Navigate — the line is straight for 400 m and then turns exactly 90°, which weather does not do]` | It is surveyed. Somebody drew it | Essential | -| 3 | The dog's records | Joan's kitchen, the vet's note | `[CUS: Medicine — nine days of healing in an animal that was gone overnight]` | Time runs differently inside | Supporting | +| 2 | The ash has an edge | Walking the field boundary | `[CUS: Navigate — the line is straight for 400 m and then turns exactly 90°, which weather does not do]` | It is surveyed. Somebody drew it | Supporting | +| 3 | The dog's records | Joan's kitchen, the vet's note | `[CUS: Medicine — nine days of healing in an animal that was gone overnight]` | Time runs differently **in the ash**, not in the site | Supporting | | 4 | Joan's fifty-two years | Joan herself | `[CUS: Persuade — she has a box of her father's papers she has never shown anyone]` | Her father was a Sheldon works foreman in 1974 and was told to stop digging | Supporting | | 5 | The vent head | Sheldon Moor, 3/4 mile up | `[CUS: Spot — a mushroom vent in the heather, painted to lose itself, warm to the hand]` | The site is **live** — something down there is breathing | Essential | | 6 | The postal pipe | Beside the vent head | `[CUS: Repair (Mechanical) — a sealed 4-inch pneumatic line, pressurised, and the seal is 1974 and unbroken]` | The route in, and where SO-H01 came from | Essential | @@ -303,10 +321,25 @@ detail that it has been like this since 2022 and not before. for whatever the table wants to talk about. `[CUS: Athletics — average; only a fumble is a fall, and a fall here is a twisted ankle and nothing worse]`. 3. **The vent head and the adit.** The way in. `[CUS: Stealth — they can be inside without - being seen, which matters at Countdown step 2]`. *Success:* Teague is told about them - later rather than sooner — push step 2 back twenty minutes. *Failure:* somebody below - logs an unscheduled opening, which is exactly what step 2 is. **There is no penalty - beyond that and the door still opens.** + being seen, which matters at Countdown step 2]`. **This roll buys *when* Teague finds + them, and nothing else.** *Success:* Countdown step 2 moves to **+75 min** — they get + most of Act Two before he appears. *Failure:* step 2 moves to **+30 min** and he is + looking for them while they are still in the lobby. *Special:* he is not told at all + until they introduce themselves. The door opens either way; it has never been locked. + +### Time, ruled — because the table will ask in Act One + +Joan's dog healed nine days overnight. The lore-digger will immediately ask what an +afternoon below costs them up here. **The answer is nothing.** + +**The ratio is in the ash, not in the site.** The boundary band is where the "after" is +being written, and time inside *it* is thick — the dog lay in it for a night. The party +crosses that band in thirty seconds, twice, and the site beyond it runs at 1:1 with the +surface, because the site is a place with clocks in it that people have been winding for +fifty-two years. Thursday is Thursday in both directions. + +**Say this when it is asked and do not leave it vague** — Act Three is on a deadline and a +table that thinks time is elastic will not believe the deadline. > ⚠ **Do not put a fight in Act One.** The scenario has one creature above ground and it > is not here. If the table needs something to do with their hands, give them the adit: @@ -339,6 +372,43 @@ threat. Introduce a *person* — the man who has run the site's library for fort wants to know whether the National Theatre reopened; the woman who is teaching children the geography of a county she has never stood in. The act's engine is grief, not danger. +### When the players tell them the truth — and they will, in the first five minutes + +Desk pass 1's talker said *"Controller, there was no war"* four minutes into the act. This +is the likeliest opening move at every table and it needs a printed answer, not a GM's +improvisation. + +**Told to Sowerby.** He is courteous, he does not believe it, and — this is the important +part — **he files it.** A written statement from a Centre officer goes in the record, which +means it is still there in Act Three when it matters. He says: *"I'd very much like that to +be true. We had it put to us in 'seventy-nine by a man who'd got in through the +ventilation. He believed it as well."* **He is not lying and there was such a man.** Do not +resolve who. + +**Told to Pennyfeather.** She goes quiet, then asks one question: *"Then what has the +region been doing?"* She already suspects — this is what tips her from arithmetic into +action, and it is the cheapest way to get SO-H03 into their hands if the Insight route was +missed. + +**Told to Teague.** **This is what makes him dangerous**, and the GM should know it before +it happens. Everything in his Act Three paragraph arrives early, without the signing to +contain it. If they tell him in Act Two, move Countdown step 2 to *now* and play the rest +of the act with him following them. + +**Taking a resident to the surface.** They will ask. **The answer is yes, it works, and it +is the worst thing they can do before Act Three.** A resident who crosses the ash sees a +moor with no craters on it, and one of three things happens — GM's choice by who it is: + +- **Sowerby** looks for a long time and says *"I'll need to see the region."* He is asking + for proof of a million people, and nobody can give it to him inside the session. +- **Larkhall** believes it instantly, because she is a scientist and a sky is evidence, and + is then **no use to anybody for the rest of the case.** +- **Teague** decides it is an anomaly and not a sky, and goes back down certain. **Do not + use him for this unless the table insists** — it removes the script break. + +⚠ **Nobody is harmed by crossing.** There is no trap here. The scenario is not punishing +the humane move; it is showing that proof does not solve an administrative problem. + ### Locations below | Location | What is there | Why the players come here | @@ -358,7 +428,9 @@ the geography of a county she has never stood in. The act's engine is grief, not | 8 | They think it happened | Anywhere, first ten minutes | `[CUS: no roll — the tannoy bulletin does it for you]` | Revelation 2 | Essential | | 9 | The visitor book | The lobby | `[CUS: Spot — three signatures in one week in 1974 and nothing after]` | Nobody has ever come back | Supporting | | 10 | The order itself | Registry, on request | `[CUS: Research — SO-H02, filed where it should be, because everything here is]` | Clause 4's second door | Essential | -| 11 | The drill | The sick bay, from Marlow | `[CUS: Psychology — she is not confused, she is ashamed, and those present differently]` | Revelation 3 | Essential | +| 11 | The drill | The sick bay, from Marlow | `[CUS: Insight — she is not confused, she is ashamed, and those present differently]` | Revelation 3 | Essential | +| 11b | CASUALTIES NIL | Registry, from Pennyfeather | `[CUS: Insight — ask her what week one looked like and she fetches the 1974 return]` | Revelation 3, by a second road | Essential | +| 11c | Marlow's file | The sick-bay day room | `[CUS: Research — a box of her papers on the shelf where the ward keeps its old files]` | Revelation 3, in her own hand | Essential | | 12 | The relay | Plant floor | `[CUS: Repair (Electronics) — the renewal is wired to a relay that also drives the perimeter survey]` | Revelation 4: renewal *is* the expansion | Essential | | 13 | The sum | Registry, from Pennyfeather | `[CUS: Insight — she has been waiting to be asked; ask her anything straight and she produces SO-H03]` | Revelation 5 | Essential | | 14 | Sixty-one | Registry, the birth register | `[CUS: Research — sixty-one born below, no NHS number, no birth certificate above ground]` | The cost of cancellation | Essential | @@ -366,10 +438,26 @@ the geography of a county she has never stood in. The act's engine is grief, not **Failure cases.** Clues 10, 13 and 14 are *filed*, and this is the most orderly place in the world: a failed Research or Insight costs ten minutes and a second attempt, never the -clue. Clue 11 is the exception — **fail the Psychology with Marlow and she does not say -it today**, and the route reopens only through Larkhall (who half-knows) or the file -Marlow kept in her own quarters. Clue 12 failed means the relay reads as ordinary plant -and Revelation 4 arrives instead from Pennyfeather, one scene later. +clue. Clue 12 failed means the relay reads as ordinary plant and Revelation 4 arrives +instead from Pennyfeather, one scene later. + +⚠ **Revelation 3 has three independent routes, and this is deliberate.** Desk pass 1 failed +the roll with Marlow *and* the fallback with Larkhall, and the party finished the case +never learning it was a drill — because the only route left was a file in Marlow's private +quarters that nothing had told them existed. **A fallback that requires the revelation it +is a fallback for is not a fallback.** So: + +- **11 · Marlow herself.** Fail and she does not say it today; she is old and ashamed and + there is no second attempt. **This route is allowed to close.** +- **11b · Pennyfeather.** She has the 1974 return in a drawer and *casualties this period: + nil* is on it. She fetches it for anybody who asks what week one was like. **This route + cannot close** — she is helpful, and she is already the act's destination. +- **11c · The file, in the sick-bay day room** rather than in private quarters. They have a + reason to be there (it is where Larkhall talks to them) and a reason to look at a shelf + of old ward files. + +**If all three somehow fail, give it to them at the Vigil (Countdown step 4):** somebody +reads the 1974 roll of honour aloud, and there are no names on it. **Specials.** A special on clue 11 gets Marlow's own memo in her hand — the fortnight paragraph — which is the single most damning object in the case. A special on clue 13 @@ -395,6 +483,11 @@ them learn that by doing it. > ⚠ **Do not let the census kill the act's tone.** It is two minutes of cold in a warm > place. Get back to the tea. +⚠ **The census is optional and missing it costs nothing.** Desk pass 1 failed the Spot and +never found it, and no later beat noticed. It is atmosphere and a cheap lesson, not a clue +— do not give it a second route and do not steer the party into the stacks. **If the act is +running hot, it is the first thing to lose.** + --- ## Act Three — Renewal *(~50 min)* @@ -407,6 +500,13 @@ price. > the one his predecessor used, and there are eleven people standing along the back wall > because they always come. He looks up and says: "You'll want to watch. It's quite short."* +⚠ **Pennyfeather is in this room and she stays in it.** She is the Registrar, she files the +renewal, and she is the only person present who knows what cancellation costs. Desk pass 1 +put the decision in the Control Room while she was two corridors away in Registry, and the +party cancelled the order without ever being told about the sixty-one — which left the GM +choosing between teleporting her in and letting them choose blind. **Neither is acceptable. +Put her at the Controller's elbow from the first line of the act.** + ### The three endings, all real **1. CANCEL — clause 4, the warrant in the room.** @@ -417,8 +517,12 @@ always worked, and it is what a warrant card is *for*. never executed. The 206 who went down in 1974 become people who went down for a drill and came up on the Friday. - **The cost, and do not soften it:** the sixty-one born below have no record above - ground and never had one. **They stop.** Kit Marlow stops. The GM should state this - plainly before the agent decides, through Pennyfeather, who has worked it out. + ground and never had one. **They stop.** Kit Marlow stops. +- ⚠ **This must be said out loud, by Pennyfeather, before the pen moves.** Not in a GM + aside and not after the fact. She says: *"Sixty-one of us were born here. I have their + entries in front of me and there is no other copy. I want you to say the number back to + me before you do it."* **If the agent cancels anyway, that is the scenario working.** + What it must never be is a surprise afterwards. - **Coherence:** the cancelling agent spends **2 Coherence**, permanently, because they are the authority that makes it true and reality now records them that way. @@ -444,7 +548,7 @@ This is a **Borrowed Authority** problem and is run by those rules: than routine — one tier beyond scope. - **It is assembled from up to three dossier items, each a separate scene, using a different skill, at most one of them at a keyboard.** The three that exist here: - - Marlow's own memo `[CUS: Research — her hand, her reasoning, in her quarters]` + - Marlow's own memo `[CUS: Research — her hand, her reasoning, in the sick-bay day room]` - The 1962 commissioning survey naming an unpopulated alternate seat area `[CUS: Knowledge — Sheldon was the second choice; the first had nobody on it]` - Pennyfeather's counter-signature as Registrar `[CUS: Persuade — she has been waiting @@ -453,9 +557,15 @@ This is a **Borrowed Authority** problem and is run by those rules: 1974 clerical error, which is what it is]`, at −20 per red flag broken. Each dossier item makes the credential better, never the roll easier. - **Success:** the order stands, amended. Nobody dies. The ash stops by the weekend. -- **Failure:** the amendment does not take and the renewal proceeds on schedule — - fall through to ending 2 unless somebody cancels under clause 4 in the next few minutes. - **Say the clock out loud when this happens.** +- **Failure:** the amendment does not take. **Do not fall straight through.** Sowerby's + pen stops *above the paper* and stays there for one full round of table talk — he has + been handed a reason to hesitate and he is a man who has never been allowed one. Play + that silence. Pennyfeather says *"Controller."* Teague, if he stood down, says nothing + and does not leave. + **Then** the renewal proceeds unless somebody cancels under clause 4. Desk pass 1 fell + through in ninety seconds and resolved a fifty-minute act in eight, because the failure + state is so much worse than the alternative that nobody deliberated. **The pause is what + makes it a decision rather than a reflex — it is not optional staging.** - **Coherence:** widening a scope with Coherence is legal here and it always works. It costs 1 per widening and the agent's file and Bellhouse's converge one step. Nothing in this game converges them back. @@ -487,6 +597,13 @@ and he will lose, quickly, in front of his colleagues and his daughter's teacher scenario does not stop the table doing this. It does not reward it either. **Everyone in Bellhouse who was going to help them stops helping them.** +**Containment's beat, and it is the only one they get.** Teague has to get past somebody to +reach the folder, and the somebody is the party's heavy. **Give that player the choice out +loud:** put him down, or stand still and let him come. Standing still is the stronger play +and the scenario should say so — a warden who walks into a man who will not hit him has +nowhere to put what he is carrying. Desk pass 1's heavy scored his own session 3/10 and +said "I carried a chair"; this is the fix, and it costs the act nothing. + ### EXPOSURE — the one thing that will kill the party If the agents call the incident in as a containment failure rather than an arrangement, the @@ -535,8 +652,10 @@ years. Will not break a confidence, but will say *ask her, and ask her kindly*. **Deputy Controller Edith Marlow, 101** — *the woman who filed a war because she thought it would save a fortnight.* In the end bed in the sick bay. Has not spoken plainly since 2019 and is not confused — -she is ashamed, and Psychology tells those apart (clue 11). Her own memo, in her quarters, -carries the fortnight paragraph and is the most damning object in the scenario. **She will +she is ashamed, and Insight tells those apart (clue 11). Her own memo — in the sick-bay +day room, on the shelf with the old ward files, where the party can find it without being +told it exists — carries the fortnight paragraph and is the most damning object in the +scenario. **She will confirm it was a drill if she is asked kindly and will deny it if she is pressed.** **Warden Michael Teague, 38** — *the only man down here who has decided the surface is a @@ -593,10 +712,10 @@ Deliberately **not** CLEAN GROUND's six, so the two cases exercise different she |---|---|---|---| | 1 | **Marta Holloway** — Senior Field Officer, lead | Signs for it and reads it first | Navigate (the ash edge), Stealth (the way in), Tradecraft | | 2 | **Arun Bhattacharya** — Registry Officer | The return landed on his section's desk | Research (SO-H02, the birth register), Knowledge (the 1962 survey), Anomaly Lore (**the ending-3 roll**) | -| 3 | **Kate Renshaw** — Interview Officer | Because everyone down there wants to talk | Psychology (**Marlow**), Insight (Teague, Pennyfeather), Persuade (Joan, and Pennyfeather's counter-signature) | +| 3 | **Kate Renshaw** — Interview Officer | Because everyone down there wants to talk | Insight 63 (**Marlow**, Teague, Pennyfeather — all three), Persuade (Joan, and Pennyfeather's counter-signature), Listen | | 4 | **Marek Kowalczyk** — Probationary, engineering | Somebody has to read the plant | Repair (Electronics) (**the relay**), Repair (Mechanical) (the pipe), Engineering (Field Systems) (the blast door) | | 5 | **Dr Chidi Nkemdirim** — Probationary, medicine | The dog tissue is on his bench | Medicine (the dog), Science (Biology) (the ash), Insight | -| 6 | **Ben Okonkwo** — Field Officer, containment | In case it is the other kind of case. It is not | Athletics, Brawl, Firearm (Rifle) — **and the scenario is built so he never needs them** | +| 6 | **Ben Okonkwo** — Field Officer, containment | In case it is the other kind of case. It is not | Athletics, Brawl, Firearm (Rifle) — **and the scenario is built so he never needs them.** His beat is Teague in Act Three: stand still and let him come | **Casting note for Okonkwo's player, given before the game:** this case has no fight the party has to win. He is not wasted — he is the one who carries Marlow's chair, holds the diff --git a/docs/scenarios/STANDING_ORDER_PLAYTEST_1.md b/docs/scenarios/STANDING_ORDER_PLAYTEST_1.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..06f262b --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/scenarios/STANDING_ORDER_PLAYTEST_1.md @@ -0,0 +1,293 @@ +# STANDING ORDER — desk playtest 1 (GM chair) + +**Scenario version:** v0.1, at commit 8e3f2c1 +**Date:** 15 September 2026 +**Method:** full session from the GM chair, all six cast pregens played as distinct +archetypes. Every contested beat rolled with a seeded roller (mulberry32, **seed 5291**, +rolls consumed in the order printed below) so the run is re-checkable rather than +remembered. Banding per `rules.mjs`: critical under a twentieth, special under a fifth, +96–99 fail, 100 fumbles. + +**Roll tape (seed 5291, in order):** +`6 · 68 · 16 · 74 · 70 · 44 · 56 · 54 · 26 · 85 · 67 · 45 · 67 · 90 · 14 · 32 · 44 · 79 · 90 · 42 · 69 · 38 · 30 · 1 · 83 · 55 · 31 · 39 · 41 · 3 · 26 · 75 · 48 · 61` + +**Archetypes to sheets:** Bhattacharya = methodical note-taker · Renshaw = roleplay-first +talker · Kowalczyk = quiet rules-literate tactician · Nkemdirim = lore-digger · +Holloway = the one who asks what the plan is · Okonkwo = the one who does it. + +**Verdict up front: runnable, and it held together under bad dice — but the central +revelation was lost to a 40% roll with a circular fallback, the most obvious player move +in the scenario has no printed answer, and Act Two ran twenty minutes hot.** + +--- + +## Pre-flight audit (before any dice) + +Every skill the acts name, against the six sheets actually cast. + +| Called for | Best in cast | Rating | Base | +|---|---|---|---| +| Anomaly Lore | Bhattacharya | 63 | 0 | +| Athletics | Holloway | 63 | 25 | +| Engineering (Field Systems) | Kowalczyk | 58 | 1 | +| Insight | Renshaw | 63 | 5 | +| Knowledge | Bhattacharya | 63 | 5 | +| Listen | Renshaw | 63 | 25 | +| Medicine | Nkemdirim | 58 | 1 | +| Navigate | Holloway | 63 | 10 | +| Persuade | Renshaw | 63 | 15 | +| **Psychology** | **Nkemdirim / Renshaw** | **40** | 5 | +| Repair (Electronics) | Kowalczyk | 58 | 15 | +| Repair (Mechanical) | Kowalczyk | 58 | 15 | +| Research | Bhattacharya | 63 | 1 | +| Science (Biology) | Nkemdirim | 58 | 1 | +| **Spot** | **Holloway** | **40** | 25 | +| Stealth | Holloway | 63 | 10 | + +**Nothing is unrollable** — every route clears 25 and `check-rollable` is telling the +truth. But two ratings are doing work the document has not noticed: + +⚠ **F1. Psychology 40 gates an ESSENTIAL revelation.** Clue 11 — *it was a drill* — is +Revelation 3, the moral centre of the case, and the best roll in the cast is a coin flip. +The Casting table credits Renshaw with "Psychology (**Marlow**)" as though it were one of +her strengths. It is not: her Psychology is 40, exactly the same as Nkemdirim's. + +⚠ **F2. Spot 40 carries three clues** including clue 5, the vent head. Act One survives +this because everything in it is backstopped by Joan (see F6), but the document should +know it is relying on that. + +--- + +## Play log + +### Act One — The Returns · planned 45 · **actual ~50** ⚠ + +| # | Beat | Roll | vs | Result | +|---|---|---|---|---| +| 1 | Nkemdirim, Science (Biology), the ash | **6** | 58 | **SPECIAL** | +| 2 | Holloway, Navigate, the ash edge | 68 | 63 | fail | +| 3 | Nkemdirim, Medicine, the dog | 16 | 58 | success | +| 4 | Renshaw, Persuade, Joan's box | 74 | 63 | fail | +| 5 | Renshaw, Insight, what Joan is afraid of | 70 | 63 | fail | +| 6 | Holloway, Spot, the vent head | 44 | 40 | fail | +| 7 | Kowalczyk, Repair (Mechanical), the postal pipe | 56 | 58 | success | +| 8 | Kowalczyk, Engineering (Field Systems), the blast door | 54 | 58 | success | +| 9 | Holloway, Athletics, the walk up | 26 | 63 | success | +| 10 | Holloway, Stealth, in unseen | 85 | 63 | fail | + +**Six failures out of ten and the act was completely unaffected.** The special on the ash +landed in the first sixty seconds and set the tone beautifully — *it has a grain structure, +like something milled* got an audible reaction from the note-taker, who wrote it down and +underlined it. Joan carried the rest, exactly as written. + +⚠ **F3. The Stealth failure did nothing.** The text says a failure means "somebody below +logs an unscheduled opening, which is exactly what step 2 is" — but step 2 (Teague is told) +fires at +50 min anyway. **Failing the roll produces the same world as not rolling it.** +The tactician asked what the Stealth had bought and I had no answer. + +⚠ **F4. Nobody asked about the ash edge on a failure and Joan had no reason to raise it.** +Clue 2 is the one thing Joan cannot backstop — she farms *inside* the line and has never +walked it. The failure left the party with "there's dust everywhere" and no sense the +boundary was surveyed. It cost them nothing later, which is itself a problem: if clue 2 is +Essential it should bite when missed, and if it does not it is not Essential. + +⚠ **F5. Timing.** The moor walk plus Joan's testimony ran 50 against 45. Joan is a good +part and the talker would not leave her. The Pacing Note's first cut (drop the vent-head +climb) does not help, because the climb *is* the walk the act needs. + +✅ **F6. The "Joan points at it" backstop is the best thing in the act.** Six failures and +the act still delivered five of its seven clues. **Keep it and say so louder** — it is the +reason bad dice did not hurt. + +### Act Two — Bellhouse · planned 55 · **actual ~75** ⚠⚠ + +| # | Beat | Roll | vs | Result | +|---|---|---|---|---| +| 11 | Revelation 2 — the tannoy | — | — | landed, no roll, perfect | +| 12 | Holloway, Spot, the visitor book | 67 | 40 | fail | +| 13 | Bhattacharya, Research, SO-H02 | 45 | 63 | success | +| 14 | **Nkemdirim, Psychology, Marlow** | **67** | **40** | **FAIL** | +| 15 | Kowalczyk, Repair (Electronics), the relay | 90 | 58 | fail | +| 16 | Renshaw, Insight, Pennyfeather and the sum | 14 | 63 | success *(special by one)* | +| 17 | Bhattacharya, Research, the birth register | 32 | 63 | success | +| 18 | Renshaw, Listen, Teague | 44 | 63 | success | +| 19 | Holloway, Spot, the census in the stacks | 79 | 40 | fail — **never seen all session** | +| 20 | Renshaw, Insight, Larkhall (the fallback to 14) | 90 | 63 | fail | + +The arrival is as good as I hoped. *"Oh, are you from Centre? Only we've been writing"* +stopped the table dead; the talker went quiet, which from that archetype is the review. +The tea landed. Saying *we were told Centre would come when it could* three times in three +mouths worked exactly as written and I did not have to force it. + +Then the act's spine broke. + +⚠⚠ **F7. REVELATION 3 WAS NEVER DELIVERED, AND ITS FALLBACK IS CIRCULAR.** This is the +serious finding of the pass. + +- Roll 14 failed the Psychology with Marlow. Per the text, "she does not say it today" — + and the text gives no retry, so Renshaw (also 40) could not have another go. +- Fallback A is Larkhall, who "half-knows". Roll 20 failed that too. +- Fallback B is **"the file Marlow kept in her own quarters"** — and *nothing in the + scenario tells the players Marlow has quarters, or that there is a file in them.* The + only thing that would point them there is Revelation 3, which is what they are missing. + +**The fallback for the missed revelation requires the missed revelation.** The party +finished the case never learning it was a drill. They cancelled the order in Act Three +believing the war had been real and the site simply mis-filed — which is *almost* right, +and is the wrong kind of almost. + +⚠ **F8. The census was never found, and nothing noticed.** Roll 19 failed the only Spot +that reveals it, and the creature sat in the stacks for the whole act. No loss was felt, +which tells me it is currently decoration. Either give it a second route or accept it as +optional and say so in the text. + +⚠ **F9. THE MOST OBVIOUS PLAYER MOVE IN THE SCENARIO HAS NO PRINTED ANSWER.** Within four +minutes of arriving, the talker said: *"Controller, I'm going to tell you something and I +need you to sit down. There was no war."* **The document does not say what happens.** I +improvised Sowerby being courteous and not believing it, which is probably right, but the +single most likely opening move at every table is unwritten. Same act, same problem, twice +more: *"Come up the stairs with me and look at the sky"* and *"can we take a photograph +up and bring it down?"* — both unanswered. + +⚠ **F10. Time inside versus outside is load-bearing and undefined.** The dog got nine days +of healing overnight (clue 3), which the lore-digger immediately extrapolated: *"so if we +go down there for an afternoon, how long is it up here?"* Nothing in the text answers it, +and it matters because Act Three is on a deadline. I ruled 1:1 and moved on, which +contradicts the dog. + +⚠ **F11. Act Two ran 75 against 55.** Seven locations, six speaking parts, and every one of +them is good enough that the table wanted to stay. This is the overrun I flagged as an open +question and it is real and it is twenty minutes. + +⚠ **F12. Okonkwo did nothing for the entire act.** As predicted in Casting — but predicted +is not the same as solved. His player asked twice what he should be doing. + +### Act Three — Renewal · planned 50 · **actual ~45** + +| # | Beat | Roll | vs | Result | +|---|---|---|---|---| +| 21 | Bhattacharya, Research, Marlow's memo *(dossier 1)* | 69 | 63 | fail | +| 22 | Bhattacharya, Knowledge, the 1962 survey *(dossier 2)* | 38 | 63 | success | +| 23 | Renshaw, Persuade, Pennyfeather's signature *(dossier 3)* | 30 | 63 | success | +| 24 | **Renshaw, Insight, Teague's script break** | **1** | 63 | **CRITICAL** | +| 25 | **Bhattacharya, Anomaly Lore, the amendment** | **83** | 63 | **FAIL** | +| 26 | Holloway cancels under clause 4 | — | — | no roll, it works | + +**The Teague critical was the best moment of the session.** Renshaw said *"Nell asks about +horses, doesn't she"* and I played him folding — not stepping aside, sitting down. He then +argued for the amendment harder than the agents did, which is precisely what the text +promises a success does. The script break works. + +⚠ **F13. The amendment failed and the fall-through was too fast to feel like a choice.** +Two dossier items out of three, roll 83 against 63, and the text says fall through to +ending 2 "unless somebody cancels under clause 4 in the next few minutes". They cancelled +within ninety seconds. **A fifty-minute act resolved in about eight.** The decision the +whole scenario is built toward became a reflex, because the failure state is so much worse +than the alternative that nobody deliberated. + +⚠ **F14. They cancelled without knowing what it cost.** Pennyfeather is the one who tells +them about the sixty-one (she "has worked that out too"), but the text puts that in ending +1's description rather than in a beat that fires. In play, the cancellation happened in the +Control Room and Pennyfeather was in Registry. **I had to teleport her to deliver the +cost**, or let the party do it uninformed. Both are wrong. + +✅ **F15. The three endings are genuinely live.** At no point did the table treat ending 2 +as a non-option — the tactician seriously argued that a region correcting itself might be +survivable, which is exactly the thinking a real choice produces. + +--- + +## Timing + +| Act | Planned | Actual | Drift | +|---|---|---|---| +| One | 45 | ~50 | +5 | +| Two | 55 | ~75 | **+20** | +| Three | 50 | ~45 | −5 | +| **Total play** | **150** | **~170** | **+20** | +| With break | 160 | ~180 | **+20 over a 3h00 budget** | + +**It is a 3h00 scenario that runs 3h00 only if Act Two is cut, and there is no cut written +for Act Two.** The Pacing Note's three cuts save perhaps eight minutes between them. + +--- + +## Player-hat verdicts + +| Archetype | Verdict | Score | +|---|---|---| +| **Methodical note-taker** (Bhattacharya) | "Best handout set I've had. SO-H03 is a whole scene in one sheet of squared paper." Frustrated that his two dossier rolls decided the ending. | 8/10 | +| **Roleplay-first talker** (Renshaw) | "I have never wanted to save an NPC more than Pennyfeather." Asked three times what Sowerby said when told there was no war. | 9/10 | +| **Rules-literate tactician** (Kowalczyk) | "What did my Stealth buy?" and "why can't I just break the relay?" Two unanswered mechanical questions in one session. | 6/10 | +| **Lore-digger** (Nkemdirim) | Loved the dog. Went straight at the time-dilation question and got no answer. | 7/10 | +| **The planner** (Holloway) | Cancelled the order and said afterwards she would not have if she had known about the children. | 7/10 | +| **The doer** (Okonkwo) | "I carried a chair." | 3/10 | + +--- + +## Fix list + +Numbered, prioritised. Nothing is rewritten inside this document. + +**P1 — must fix before this is run again** + +1. **F7 · Break the circular fallback on Revelation 3.** Marlow's file cannot be the + backstop for the revelation that tells you the file exists. *Fix:* make the file + findable on its own — put it in the **sick-bay day room**, which the party has reason to + be in, reachable on `[CUS: Research]` (Bhattacharya 63) rather than on knowing to look. + Add a third route: **Pennyfeather knows the 1974 establishment return says CASUALTIES + NIL** and will say so if asked about week one, which is a straight Insight she is + already built for. Goes in Act Two's clue trail as clue 11b. +2. **F9 · Print what happens when the players tell Bellhouse the truth.** Three sub-beats, + written out: *told to Sowerby* (courteous, does not believe it, files it), *told to + Pennyfeather* (she already suspects, this is what tips her), *told to Teague* (this is + what makes him dangerous). Plus **what happens if a resident is taken to the surface** — + this needs a real answer, not a deflection. Goes in Act Two, in a new block before the + clue trail. +3. **F13/F14 · Make Act Three a deliberation rather than a reflex.** Move Pennyfeather into + the Control Room for the signing — she is the Registrar, she countersigns, she has every + reason to be there — so the cost of ending 1 is in the room when the choice is made. And + give the amendment failure a beat before the fall-through: Sowerby's pen is *above the + paper* for one full round of table talk. + +**P2 — fix before it is offered to anyone else** + +4. **F1 · Stop crediting Renshaw with Psychology.** Her 40 is not a strength. Either move + clue 11 to Insight (63, which she genuinely owns and which fits "ashamed, not confused" + better anyway) or re-cast. **Recommend moving it to Insight** — the audit says the + rating exists and it costs nothing. +5. **F11 · Write a real Act Two cut.** Twenty minutes. Candidates: fold the pipe room into + the Registry visit, and make the crèche a corridor encounter with Kit rather than a + location. Both preserve what the act is for. +6. **F3 · Give the Act One Stealth roll a consequence, or delete it.** Suggest: a success + moves Countdown step 2 to +75, a failure moves it to +30 — so the roll buys *when* + Teague finds them, which is a real difference. +7. **F10 · Rule on time inside versus outside, in the text.** The dog is the only evidence + and it says inside runs fast. Simplest consistent answer: **the ratio is only inside the + ash boundary, not inside the site** — the dog crossed the line and the party walks + through it in thirty seconds each way. Say so in Act One's clue 3. + +**P3 — improvements** + +8. **F12 · Give Okonkwo one printed thing per act.** Holding the adit in One, carrying + Marlow's chair in Two is already written; in Three, he is the one Teague has to get past + and the one who chooses not to make it a fight. +9. **F8 · Either give the census a second route or mark it optional.** Recommend optional + and say so — it cost nothing to miss and the act is full. +10. **F4 · Decide whether clue 2 is Essential.** It was missed and nothing broke. If that + is acceptable it is Supporting; if it is Essential, Joan needs a reason to mention the + line she has never walked. +11. **F6 · Say the Joan backstop out loud in the GM text.** It is the reason six failures + cost nothing, and a GM who does not notice it will start gating things. + +--- + +## What this pass did not test + +- **Ending 2.** Nobody let it renew, so the overwriter has never been on the table. +- **Ending 3 succeeding.** The amendment failed on the dice; a successful amendment is + untested and it is the ending the document calls the best one. +- **EXPOSURE.** Nobody called it in, so the quarantine unit is untested — and it is the + only thing in the scenario that can kill the party. +- **The four-player cut.** Six were cast. The cut moves the ash to Knowledge and the dog to + Insight and neither was exercised.