contingency2027/docs/house-standards.md

House Standards — Contingency 2027

Every scenario in this repository is written to the same format. This page is the short version; it exists so a stand-in GM, or a future draft, does not have to guess.

Structure

• Introduction → Act One → Act Two → Act Three → Epilogue (VANITY games use the four-act variant.)
• 3h30 (210 min) of play inside the 4-hour slot, plus a 10-minute break — about 3h40 wall clock. Plan ~3h15 of actual content against that budget.
• Budgets: Intro 15 · Act One 60 · Act Two 90 · Act Three 30 · Epilogue 15. These are ceilings, not targets.
• The session clock counts play time and pauses for the break.
• Act Three always happens. Compress Act Two if the clock has beaten the table. Hard rule: at 2:45, go to Act Three regardless.
• The break sits at the end of Act One, on a cliffhanger.
• Every act ends with a Pacing Note: what must be true before the next act, and the specific fast-track if running late.
• A one-shot ends written — closure or designed ambiguity, never an unwritten "to be continued".

Timing table

Every scenario carries a Session Timing Guide with a GM Checkpoint column — a one-line test the GM can apply mid-session ("body examined, report started, they know the test moved"). The checkpoints are what make the table usable in play.

Clues

Every essential clue has three routes:

1. Automatic on the right approach — the right question in the right scene finds it without a roll. Rolls buy extra, not entry.
2. A written fallback — an NPC volunteers it, or a second location carries it.
3. The Countdown — the antagonist's scheduled move delivers or forces it.

Essential clues never sit behind a search roll. Each act has at least one essential and one optional clue. Clue trails are tables: # | Clue | Source | How Found | What It Reveals | Type.

The countdown clock

Antagonists move on schedule whether the players act or not, and each advance is felt — a van glimpsed twice, a witness suddenly unwilling. Keep the opposition one step behind the players until the climax. Pressure, not punishment.

Writing for the GM at the table

• Scannable over literary. Bullets, tables, bold keywords.
• Read-aloud text in blockquotes, three sentences or fewer (the cold open may run to six), always labelled "read aloud or paraphrase".
• Mechanics inline and bracketed: [CoC: Library Use — the 1893 entry], [BR: Observation — the torn hem]. Never send the GM to another page.
• Every NPC gets a one-line essence — who they are and what they want — before any other detail, and appears again in the end-of-document NPC roster.
• State the failure case for every clue, scene and set-piece: what happens if the players miss it, skip it, or break it.
• A 3–4 line system crash-course in the master rules block, so a stand-in GM could run the game cold.

Slot logistics

• Pregens always. Player count stated per game, with the scaling line: which count it runs at, which pregen drops first, how splits adjust. Nothing essential lives only on one PC.
• Safety tools stated in 30 seconds, no ceremony. One line in the Introduction. Content warnings in the Overview and in the Warhorn blurb.
• Slot Zero (the first 15 minutes): seating and safety line → pitch each pregen in one spoken tagline → players choose in five minutes → open in motion.
• Party splits are a feature. Parallel tracks, each holding half a revelation, alternating in ~12-minute segments, each segment ending on a pull.
• One set-piece per scenario, with its own GM quick-reference page. Idle players get jobs during it.

Endings

• Aim the climax at a decision, not a die roll — every option costs something, and every option is written.
• Write the chaos contingency ("if someone shoots") — the table that torches the negotiation still gets a real ending.
• List the compromise endings players will invent. When a playtest finds a new one, write it in.
• Epilogue: per-PC vignettes keyed to the outcome, then table debrief. Land the last line on the theme.
• Early finish at 2:30: expand the vignettes, then run the bonus scene, which is already written.

Versioning

v1 draft → playtest → v2 → v2.1… A game is marked convention-ready only after a full-session desk playtest lands inside the time budget with the fix list applied. Each game's README carries the version, the playtest count and what remains.

Art

Ink sketch / pencil illustration, hand-drawn feel, never photorealistic. Each scenario adds its own direction line on top. Asset IDs [Slot]-ART-##, handouts [Slot]-H[act]-[letter]. Generated via mj-gen "<prompt>".