Always, Never, Now

SCENARIO FILE
v05-11-13
Written and designed by Will Hindmarch

Illustrated by Steven Sanders and Noah Bradley
Based on characters by Anton Gleason,
Martin Gleason, Seth Stevenson, and Tony Wagner
Developed from rules by John Harper,
Clinton R. Nixon, and Luke Crane
Graphic design by Will Hindmarch and Craig S Grant
Created with the generous support
of cherished Kickstarter backers
Playtested at Gen Con, Origins Game Fair, PAX,
PAX East, and in homes. Thanks, testers!
alwaysnevernow@gmail.com
always-never-now.tumblr.com
Stphane Sokol (order #6286545)
Influences include (with thanks):

William Gibson, Ian Fleming, Quentin Tarantino,
John McTiernan, Robert Rodriguez, John Woo,
The Wachowskis, Paul Greengrass, Doug Liman,
Kathryn Bigelow, Masamune Shirow, Mamoru Oshii,
Kenneth Hite, Robin D. Laws, Vincent Baker,
Jason Morningstar, Steve Segedy, Jeremy Keller,
Fred Hicks, Rob Donoghue, Leonard Balsera,
Ryan Macklin, Gregor Hutton, Cam Banks
and many more
The text of this project is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike 3.0 license.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real events or
persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Will Hindmarch
HOW TO PLAY
AS THE GM
SPOILER ALERT
This manuscript contains all the secrets of the story

thats coded into this project all the background
dirt and details that players (and their characters) are
meant to uncover during the course of play. Facts
and motives alluded to via the clues in each scene
get spelled out directly in this document for the benefit of you, the GM.
If you read this stuff, youll spoil some of the surprises for yourself.
If you read this stuff, tell your GM so she knows
what you know.
If you read this stuff, youd better be ready to use
your spoiler-charged knowledge to make the game
better for your fellow players by helping the GM
build up to certain surprises, dramatize key events,
and play scenes with gusto.
Actors whove read the script dont blow the story
for the audience, after all, but work to make the material as compelling as possible. By reading ahead,
or by playing A/N/N after youve run it yourself,
youre trading in some of your pleasures as an audience member for some duties as a player on the
stage. Every RPG player is part audience and part actor, of course, but youre changing your ratio.
All that should be fine provided youre all good
sports.
2
How do you play an RPG adventure? A lot of material has been written on this subject over the years.
In Always/Never/Now (aka A/N/N), I assume you already know how to play a roleplaying or story game.
In addition to the adventure info, I offer tips that
worked for me, but Im not the boss of you.
You can bring a lot of tricks and techniques from
your favorite games to your version of A/N/N and
spin the adventure in bold, new ways. I recommend
it. Experiment. Talk shop with your fellow players,
who are taking on the roles of their individual characters, and discuss what you want to say outright and
what you want to leave unsaid during play.
For example, some games ask the GM to stay
hands-off, to keep his mitts off the storys emergent
trajectory. Other games call on the GM to work the
throttle and the tiller to make sure play stays within
certain charged or fruitful areas, to keep the players
from wandering somewhere that might be boring.
Both are legit modes of play. A/N/N draws a bit
from both modes.
A/N/N is built to provide a lot of structure, to
keep things moving forward with a minimum of distractions and confusion. One groups distraction,
though, is another groups welcome breather or dramatic exploration of the characters. So A/N/N modulates to make it easy for you to work the throttle, to
speed up or slow down as you like.
This kind of play requires a dialogue. When that
dialogue is implicit and full of appreciated subtext
when a look conveys volumes and everyones receiving all the signals its a phenomenal experience of
flow. Truth is, though, that its not always like that.
Sometimes youll want to talk stuff out. Converse.

Say things outright that actors making a scene together would never say in front of the audience. Say
things that creators say behind-the-scenes. Talk honestly. Notions of whats on stage and whats behind
the scenes may get all tangled sometimes during
play. Thats the way that goes. Enjoy that talk. Good
stuff happens there.
Doing Your Own Thing
Its my sincere hope that, while I encourage you to

GM this adventure in one way, to help you out, youll
also get a chance to confer with other GMs online or
in person, talk out different tactics and styles of play,
and throw out my words when you get a wave of inspiration at the right frequency to make your instance
of play really hum.
In this project, I focus on specific options and challenges befitting this adventure. Some of this only
makes sense when youve got a sense of the whole
story in your head, after youve been through this
document once. Dont sweat it.
I first built A/N/N to be played in one long night,
but I have since played it as a big, extended adventure over multiple sessions. The scene-choosing
method of play is designed to maintain focus and
momentum under time constraints. Its not the only
way to play.
Pull this sucker apart and put it back together however you like for your version. Maybe you ransack
the scenes in here for your own scenes. Maybe you
keep the backstory the same but change the antagonists plans and see if the PCs can save Josine or his
plans without the pacing mechanism of the scenes
presented. Maybe you start in the middle, screw my
backstory, and follow the PCs as the players guide
them across the globe, running into Nanotech and
the Technocracy whenever they happen to collide

with their schemes. Do your thing.
Heres the truth: I present A/N/N as a complete
adventure because I figure thats the most cogent
way to get all these parts across. If Im going to give
you scheming antagonists, they should scheme. If
Im going to give you a bunch of scenes, they should
hang together. If Im going to share this adventure
story I played, Im going to share with you how I told
it. I figure its easier to pry this stuff apart than it is to
assemble it.
Even still, the whole story isnt here. How the PCs
change and act and react to the events of the plot
and the actions of their enemies thats not written
in here. Not all of it. The players have more freedom
than it might appear. This web of scenes just makes
sure that exciting things happen in the places they
go. But this isnt a story about what Nanotech or
the Technocrats want. Its a story about the PCs as
your players see them. How the players and the PCs
change and act and react to all the stimuli in this file
thats what its all about.
The specifics, even in the scenes that assume
certain arcs or paths, are there to help you make
decisions. Screw this escape sequence! is a decision. That enemys too tough! is a decision. If your
group thinks a smash cut or a fade to black in the
middle of a scene is the way to end that scene, then
have at it.
If you want to play the adventure thats in here,
though, Ive tried to give you a lot of material to work
with. Ive found it a fun story to tell.
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Facilitate the Fiction
Its good to provide context and details, as the GM,

so that everyone can render the scene in their head.
A lot of those details can come from the table collectively, as players say things like Im picturing the
windows all fogged up from the temperature differences inside and out and you say That makes
sense, yeah, nice.
Trust but verify. Let the players enjoy the rendering
they have of the scene in their head but check in on
important details now and again to make sure compatibilitys intact. Ask questions like: I hear the glass
crunching under your feet, even if the thugs dont
hear it, is that right? Or: Im picturing Tank with the
hardware in her metal hands. Is that where it is? Or:
Did Emily turn the lights on when she came into this
room? Was she expecting that to be necessary?
Adding and revealing details over the course of the
scene like this works well for preventing people from
getting bogged down in a flood of details all at once.
Plus, everyone gets a chance to contribute to the action, atmosphere, and environment of the fiction.
Building up the fiction is a collaborative act but
you can help by moderating that process. Help
players reconcile their details. You dont have to be
bossy, just evoke and confirm. Youre the one whos
got the scenes and the backstory and the schemes
in front of you, though, too. So sometimes it falls to
you to say something like, If that were possible,
it would be breakthrough technology, or Nice,
but if it worked like that, nobody would ever have
Hunted marked, or something else that protects
the long-term flexibility and sensibility of play. When
this happens, offer an alternative way for the player
or PC to be awesome. The PCs live in this world as
cunning operatives with death-defying lifestyles
they should benefit from the tables collaboration.
Questions
Ask questions; questions are great.

Ask questions that point toward tangible details
in the game world: What does that look and sound
like, when Henri brings down that goon?
Ask questions that characterize actions: Are you
sneaking down the hall or are you more, like, striding?
Ask questions that reveal things about the characters: When Tank takes out these two thugs, does
she say anything to them or is it just, like, wham!?
Notice how some of those questions put two options up for grabs, so the player can easily slot in an
answer along that spectrum by saying something
like Oh, Im totally being sneaky, here or Neither,
cause Im sprinting down the corridor to get the
jump on the next bad guys. Giving options when
you ask these sorts of questions gives hesitant or shy
players something to hold on to and build on without denying them the chance to make an important
stylistic choice. Players with a strong idea already in
mind, meanwhile, can disregard your options in favor of their own. Gameplay is all about choices. In
my experience, any given player sometimes uses offered options and sometimes doesnt, so its always
good to offer, regardless of whether you think theyll
use your options or not.
Heres a great fallback question to ask when you
want a player to say more about what his character is
up to: What does that look like?
To involve other PCs in a cool stunt or action
scene, try something like this: What do Yoshi and
Utseo see when you do that? Or: What do the
other characters hear?
Its okay to let the players into enemy points-ofview, too. Describe what an NPC sees or hears to
highlight the surprising and incredible things PCs
do. The guard has no idea youre there, right? So

he stomps out his cigarette and when he looks up,
youre right in front of him and you have that moment
before he can process the kind of trouble hes in.
Information and Choices
Remember that the players characters are good at

what they dothey notice things, remember details, and know how to read a situation. Its your job
as the GM to give players enough information so
they can see at the crossroads and appreciate the
decisions they have to make.
Gameplay is a series of choices. Easy choices,
hard choicesboth are fine. Confusion is poison.
Boredom corrodes. Hunting for choices to make
isnt what this kind of play is about. Describe the situation, bring the choices to life with fictional details
and clear (if sometimes implied) consequences, and
then let the players decide.
Jumping onto the helicopter is totally doable,
you might say, but if you miss or get shaken off,
youll land right in its field of fire. You could get Injured or worse. Do you want to give it a try?
Players might cook up other options, other ways
out of a choice you present them during the sandbox of any given scene. Thats great! Finding ingenuity and creativity are just part of why we play.
Some details are important to the fictional background, though, because they contain intel that
leads to new scenes in the story, so the GM has the
authority to put some details and cues into the fiction for that purpose. The hit squad outside Reykjavik
carries gear manufactured by a known high-quality
arms company recently acquired by Nanotech, Inc.,
for example, while the staff of Dougray Hoeflers
floating residence just dont know what deals hes
made outside the company these details come
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pre-packaged because theyre clues to whats happened before and whats happening elsewhere,
while the PCs are doing other things. They represent
the agency of the enemy.
RUNNING THE GAME
When youre the GM, its your job to keep everyone

at the table clear on the action thats unfolding. Its
your job to draw out interesting details and obstacles so that successes are always rewarding and setbacks are always exciting. Its your job to avoid those
cardinal sins of storytelling: boredom and confusion.
Do this by asking questions, lots of questions.
Aim those questions at what interests you as a spectator and as a fellow player. If you want to know what
it looks like when Tank busts open a server rack to
get at the data inside, ask the player, What does
that look like to the other characters? Maybe offer
options for the player to use: Do you snap it open,
pieces going everywhere, or do you maybe peel the
top off so you can plug into the drive inside? The
player doesnt have to use your options, of course,
but youre helping them winnow.
Heres a good question: Does taking out that
thug kill him? The answer has tactical consequences and reveals a lot about the player and the character.
Remember that after one player describes something, you can zoom out and contextualize their actions for the rest of the group. Banter doesnt usually
require someone to take a turn, so other players can
say things like, Utseo, look out! to add drama to a
roll, for example.
Listen close. Find ways to tie one players action
into something another player is doing (So, while
youre locked in this martial-arts battle with this mysterious hit-squad driver, bits of shrapnel rain down
on you both from the snowmobile Emily just blew

up.). This keeps everyone involved without stealing
anyones moment to shine.
Play your parts with verve and detail. Remember,
you play the goons, the informants, the heavies, the
bullets, the skies, the broken glass, the close calls,
all that. Pick two senses sight, sound, smell, taste,
touch and try to use two of them whenever its
time to bring the environment or one of your characters to life. Mix and match. You can feel spent
casings rolling under your feet, you say, and hear
the whine of your cybernetics straining. Or, the air
tastes like gunpowder as the roaring guns pulp the
concrete to gravel all around you.
Take the details you hear from the players and
build on them. What they do should appeal to the
senses just the same way.
Find the Obstacles
The players characters are simultaneously experts in

their fields and often in over their heads. They can
do things like climb, jump, sprint, tumble, hack, and
perceive with ease. Climbing a server facility girder
half-twisted by a helicopters rocket blast? They may
slip, they may gash their hands, they may wobble,
but they do it. These are action heroes.
So whats an obstacle? When in doubt, an obstacle represents any attempt to take out an opponent
or to avoid or overcome a Condition.
You dont roll for your characters but youre allowed, as the GM, to ask a player to incorporate
a roll into almost any action, to avoid a Condition.
You vault up the terraced floors and get on that
snowmobile, no problem, but show me the roll
you make to do it without being Injured by gunfire
along the way, yeah? If that roll fails, for example,
it shouldnt thwart the character it just means she
reaches the snowmobile all the more dramatically,

with McClane-style injuries to show the danger she
was in while getting up there.
Sometimes a player does things without obstacles
coming into play for a while. Maybe theyre playing
to their characters strengths, maybe theyre setting
up for a great move, maybe theyre cunningly staying clear of what might hurt them so they can pursue
intel. As long as theyre still involved in the game,
thats fine.
Reading the Obstacles
Some of the obstacles in here use arcane phrasing

to save space. Heres a quick rundown of how to
read the obstacles:
Difficulty: Sometimes youll see Difficulty in parentheses (e.g., Difficulty: 4), sometimes youll see
the number of hits required to take something out
(e.g., a 4-hit foe). If the text doesnt specifically
say a roll is untargeted, the rolls targeted. If the text
doesnt specify untargeted hits, the player needs to
declare what theyre targeting before they roll.
Untargeted hits: Can players who roll more than
they needed use some leftover hits to take out untargeted foes? The answer is almost always yes, but
you do have the authority to override that to reflect
the fiction. I sometimes dont remind players of this
so that one bizarre roll doesnt rob the other players of a chance to shine. I also sometimes turn a targeted foe into an untargeted foe so that an uncommonly high roll can do more than drop one targeted
foe (especially when, say, Versatilitys being used). I
dont usually hide it. I say, That roll was so high, I
think you can also take out the guy behind you, what
do you guys think? What happens to him?
#/#: Sometimes youll see a single target has
multiple Difficulties on it, like 4/3 or 5/4/4.
5
Such targets are actually three different obstacles

and each Difficulty must be overcome in order before the thing goes down for good. (This helps multiple PCs get in on the action, sometimes.) These
are the bosses who get up off the ground and come
back for more. These are the armored vehicles you
cut through to take out the driver. These are the scariest bad guys. Beating one step of these obstacles
counts as overcoming it, so a Condition shouldnt
apply to that roll even though the enemy isnt
dropped yet. Always dramatize the fact that an obstacle has been overcome, though. Show the players that theyve made progress. Maybe the agents
sunglasses get broken. Maybe the tanks outer shell
is pierced. Maybe the foe throws away her broken
gun and switches to an improvised weapon.
Rolling enough hits to take out a multi-obstacle
enemy doesnt take it out in one fell swoop unless
the obstacle looks like:
#+#: When you see that plus sign, it means
youve got a multi-obstacle foe that a single terrific
roll can take out. If the Difficulty reads 5+3, then
five hits are needed to take out the first obstacle,
leaving 3 hits behind for the second but if a single
roll beats the total, the foe drops. In this example, 5,
6, or 7 hits takes out the first obstacle but 8 or more
hits takes the foe out altogether. This helps PCs team
up but rewards unusually good rolls.
The uncommon Difficulties work best when you
dramatize them in ways that tell the players that
something is up. For some groups, its enough to
describe how the bad guy gets back up after a bad
beat and comes back for more. Hes hurt but hes
not quitting. After you describe the fiction you may
want to say something like, Some foes are more
than one obstacle.
These enemies are designed to convey a danger-
ous world populated by more than one-and-done

foes. Use them not just to add menace and danger
but also to help the PCs look and feel like action stars
for overcoming serious rivals.
Calling For Rolls
Forward momentum is important. Dont call for rolls

just because you havent had any in a while, call for
them because you want to know if a Condition applies, if a foe is taken out, or if things otherwise escalate in the scene. Rolls represent risk, so always ask
yourself before you call for a roll: Whats the risk?
Look to the Conditions for inspiration. Is the risk
that a PC might get Injured, Exhausted, or Trapped?
Is it that more enemies might arrive? Is it that they
might fail to stop a foe before some fearsome deadline? These are all reasons to roll.
Sometimes players will want to roll to dramatize
something that theyre not in any danger of failing
that you dont have a consequence for. Sometimes
I even let them get as far as gathering dice while I
think about the risk that might be involved. If I dont
have one, if I dont want the consequence in the mix,
then Ill say something like, Its sounds like youve
got this well in hand. I dont think you need to roll.
Then, sometimes, Ill add something like, Unless what do you think might go wrong?
If the player has a consequence in mind, you can
either take the opportunity to underline the PCs expertise (Thats not a risk in this case, youve done
this before) or roll to embrace the possibility of the
players interesting consequence.
Enemies exist to give the PCs things to do and to
provide consequences to things PCs could otherwise do automatically. Enemies endanger the path.
Emily can hack that computer system, no problem, but can she do it without being pinned down
(Trapped) by enemy gunfire? Tank can fly a VTOL

craft between the crowning towers of that skyscraper but if she doesnt get it right, the bad guys stay in
pursuit. Enemies dramatize consequences.
Dont go into a roll without a consequence in
mind. If the description of the action or something about the roll makes you rethink the consequences you had in mind if you get persuaded
by the players fictional tactics, for example it is
okay temper those consequences. Maybe a Condition only applies for a little bit or maybe you
decide the consequence can still be averted with
one more roll (if, say, the back-up guards alerted
by a failed roll can still be locked out by manipulating security doors or something). Let whats
happening in the fiction inform the choices you
make when calling for rolls and choosing to escalate or apply Conditions.
Remember that you can call for rolls by giving the
bad guys agency. Tell the players that if nobody engages that enemy helicopter, successfully or not, itll
pick a target of its own. Then, if nobody engages it,
pick a target and have them roll to avoid a Condition. You can do that.
Keep the enemy actions rare for a while, maybe.
Use it to define the big bad guys. Do it a little bit
more as the adventure unfolds, though, to show
that the stakes (and the skills of the bad guys) are
going up.
Above all, use it to give PCs something to do
when theyre not sure what to say in the conversation of play. The helicopters motorized cannon
angles toward you. How do you get out of there?!
Then put it all together. If their descriptions great,
let them dodge automatically this time. I usually
set the Difficulty to avoid an attack at one step less
than the current Difficulty to take out a foe. If the foes
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vulnerable to untargeted hits, a roll to avoid an attack can even take them out!
Revealing the Difficulty
As a baseline, I dont reveal the Difficulty of an action.

I like the players to roll and reason. A four didnt do
it, they say. We might be in trouble.
I do make exceptions. When a player thinks he
cant hope to succeed, I might tell him, The Difficulty cant be more than 4, given the situation, and
you have a chance at that. Give it a shot.
Hidden Difficulties help some players keep an eye
on the fiction but leave other players at sea. Start by
not revealing Difficulty numbers and then, case by
case, reveal them when its helpful.
Escalation
Escalation is an art. Not every choice you make to

escalate is going to be a hit. Thats okay. Aim for fun
and thrills and the occasional stumble is no big deal.
Escalation is about making the threats and excitement feel serious. Its about turning the disappointment in a failed roll into a dare to overcome this
new challenge. Its about that beat when the stray
laser-cutter ignites the spilled fuel or when someone
glances out the window and sees that more bad
guys are on their way. Its about the thrill of being in
over your head.
Its also about pacing. Escalate too much, too
fast, and you trap the PCs in a holding pattern where
theyre just waiting to roll 5 hits so they can get out
of there. Escalate not enough and a scene might
rocket by. I tend to aim for quicker scenes and then
accidentally escalate into longer scenes by accident. So it goes.
Here are some built-in things you can do escalate
when someone fails to overcome an obstacle:
Escalate the fiction: Nothing in the game rules

happens, you just dial up the suspense and tension
by adding details like a rampant fire, ricochets, broken glass, the threat of future backup, that sort of
thing. This sets up or establishes a future escalation
and lets the players and their PCs know that worse
things might happen if, say, the fire spreads to the
fuel tank or the backup arrives.
Raise the Difficulty: You can raise the Difficulty
on an obstacle by one step (to a maximum of 5) just
by describing how its harder to overcome now that
the place is on fire, or what have you. This is great at
making things more perilous but can also just make
a scene longer. Youre absolutely allowed to lower
the Difficulty back to its original value if the fiction
changes and somebody, say, puts out that fire.
Add enemies: Bring in more bad guys. Be careful with this, though, because its not just raising the
Difficulty, its adding whole new obstacles, which is
like adding a bunch of Difficulties. This is good for
ratcheting up the tensions and jeopardy, though,
and for giving the players more to do in a scene.
Dont do this if you dont want to draw out a scene
a bit, though.
Apply a Condition: This is like escalating the
fiction and raising the Difficulty for just the affected
PC(s). This also creates a new obstacle, to undo the
Condition, which might be achievable with or without a roll, depending on whats happening in the
fiction. This is my preferred thing to do because it
is tangible in the fiction and on the character sheet
and because it formalizes the way I can raise the Difficulty by saying something like, Since youre Impaired, this is going to be harder. Also, theres this:
The GM can invoke a Condition to raise a Difficulty by one step, even up to a 6! No matter how
many Conditions you invoke, though, the Difficulty
just goes up by one step and cant go higher than

6. You are also always free to invoke Conditions in
the fiction without actually raising the Difficulty at the
same time, if you want.
Reveal Intel
Intel provides answers and context and motivation

to the PCs by revealing what their enemies are up to
and where the PCs can go to take action. Dont roll
for intel. Players and their characters get it by asking
the right questions in the right scenes and some
intel they get just for showing up. The characters
know more about investigation in this future world
than we do, so they notice, recognize, and puzzle
out things that we might not.
Intel isnt necessarily fixed at the start, though.
You assign it to scenes based on the mode of your
version of the adventure. The end of this file provides
some guidelines and a core model to draw from but
you may want to meddle with it. Thats okay. Sometimes the players think of something in a scene that
should logically reveal intel you assigned exclusively
to another scene. My advice is to hint at, allude to,
or outright give them the intel then and there. Let
them use it to speculate. Until their theories are verified, even having a lot of information can feel like not
having enough.
Part of this story is about uncovering whats been
happening and whats happening now. Then the
players decide what happens next.
In other words, the PCs are sort of behind the
curve at the beginning. Theyre facing the mystery
of Josines fate (and, it turns out, the fate of his big
plans). Mysteries usually involve a bit of catch-up
with those who know the truth and dont want to
talk.
Your goal isnt to keep the PCs behind the curve,
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its to give them enough intel to navigate the curve,

make some speculations, and then test those against
the truth near the end of the adventure, when theyre
out in front.
Intel pushes the story forward through five Phases, each of which indicates an inexorable forward
movement in time. The five Phases are divided out
over three Acts representing the essential beginning, middle, and end of the story. Once youve left
a Phase, you cant go back to play scenes from an
earlier Phase. The Phase represents a move forward
in time, in motivation, and in the schemes of the enemies. Certain key elements of the fiction can change,
too, as the antagonists act in the background during
each Phase.
Most of this stuff managing the intel, knowing
what Phase it is falls to the GM to handle. To do
that, youll need to know the background (whether
mine or yours), the scenes, and the intel.
BACKGROUND
In all the time we spent playing the campaign that

inspired A/N/N, we produced a lot of fictional lore
that informed our version of the adventure. You
dont need to worry about most of it. The flashbacks
allude to some of it; the character histories hint at
other parts. For your groups adaptation of the adventure, though, what we said and did in our sessions isnt all that relevant mostly.
Some amount of backstory, though, is woven into
the motivations of the antagonists. Some of it explains whats happening outside of the PCs immediate experience. Some of it makes up the mystery
wound up and ticking at the heart of it all.
That backstory is important to include or adapt for
two big reasons.
First, its what motivates important NPCs to act,

thereby explaining what would happen if the PCs
werent in the picture. That helps highlight how the
PCs do matter; things happen differently if theyre
not around.
Second, it contributes to the intel, the connective
tissue within and between the scenes, and surfaces
as the PCs dig into the information held, hidden,
and lied about by the rival NPC factions: Nanotech
and the Technocrats.
This background is the source and subject of a lot
of intel. It leads the PCs deeper into the story, which
is in part about digging up and unraveling backstory
and then using that backstory to inform climactic
choices that shape the future.
So, heres what happened
THE WHOLE STORY
Josine was a Technocrat, once.

As a high-ranking intelligence handler he worked
with next-generation AIs on clandestine assignments
for the Technocracy. Together with three remarkable
AIs designated Key Alpha, Vital Beta, and Lucid
Gamma Josine took on a code-breaking case that
turned into a signal analysis project. His bosses gave
Josines unit access to a signal intercepted in secret
by the Technocracy on an unspecified date. Josine
and his squad of AIs toiled on the code for months
without success.
One AI, Alpha, speculated that the signal was not
of terrestrial origin. When Josine took this theory to
his bosses, they promptly elevated the security rating required to work on the signal and shelved the
project until a breakthrough could be made.
Josine didnt want to wait. He wanted to continue
his work and the AIs were on his side. So Josine
prepared new identities for himself, stole a copy of
the alien signal, liberated the AIs, and fled the Technocracy. Within a few days of being diverted, Josine
and his retinue had disappeared underground.
Life as a Spymaster
He settled into a fortified and hidden lair beneath the

New England sprawl. He surrounded himself with
operatives, bodyguards, and allies he saved from
Technocracy agents. He lived on stolen accounts,
forged passports, and falsified identities, sharing his
cultivated or fabricated wealth with his new friends.
He planned missions to save lives, share technology,
and slow down forces like Nanotech and the Technocracy. Agents like Yoshi, Utseo, and Emily carried
them out. They were building a new future.
And all the while, Josine labored on his passion
project: making sense of the alien signal. He and
the AIs spent years unraveling the signal. They even
brought in enhanced, cybernetic cetaceans, wired
for neural interfaces during some mad corporate
war, to consider the signal from a different perspective. The combination of human, artificial, and augmented cetacean intelligences all chipped away at
the mystery signal. It worked. The signal wasnt any
kind of ordinary playback, it was like an encoded
memory containing instructions on how to signal
back via intense, ultra-focused transmissions. It was
an invitation for contact and information sharing. Josine was all about it.
So he and his liberated AIs made a plan. First, Josine went about backing up his memories in carefully sliced segments called shards, which he stored
with various data backup operations throughout
the globe. The idea was that no one shard could reveal enough about Josine to blow the plan but that
enough of Josine would be preserved to salvage
things in case the plan went to shit later.
8
Gamma stepped up to test the viability of their

plan; it agreed to a neural downlink into residence in
a human brain: Josines. The technology for getting
the AI back out of the meat brain didnt exist at the
time, but it would one day, they trusted.
Beta set out to prepare hardware and networks
for the final phase of Josines plan. It ventured out
into the global network, moving from machine to
machine, establishing nests for itself and preparing
to monitor and protect Josines plan until it came to
fruition. It was Beta who hacked the Technocracy
monitoring systems to allow Josine access to secret
high-powered communications arrays.
Alpha packaged itself up for transmission. Josine uploaded Alpha to a Technocracy needlecasting installation the kind of next-gen installation
they keep secret from the unready public and
transmitted Alpha out toward alien receivers. The
transmission would take years to travel each direction, but while with the extraterrestrial intelligences,
Alpha would commune with their AIs for just hours
or days, and then be transmitted back to Earth for
downlink into a human brain.
Josine set up a receiver and neural downlink device in a failed arcology in St. Petersburg, sealed up
part of the building, and set out to wait for Alphas
return. It would be almost a decade before the AI
came home. Beta was to keep the arcology securely
defunct until Josine could get back in there and retrieve Alpha.
Josine disappeared just days after the transmission. The Technocracy traced his handiwork, gunned
down his guards, and captured him. Josines closest
agents the PCs were kept in the dark about the
AIs and the big plan to protect them from this kind of
situation. Satisfied that Josines operation would dissolve without him, the Technocrats locked him away
in a nameless prison and let his old agents drift apart.

Josines been in Technocrat custody ever since.
(Later, to keep an eye on them, the Technocrats install a spy near one of Josines former operatives. Her
cover name is Caroline Killebrew. In the internecine
tradition of the Technocracy, she is being tested at
the same time she is being employed. Killebrew was
part of an investigation and interrogation team that
failed to break Josine. The Technocrats want to know
if Josine has turned Killebrew.)
All About the Information
Time passed. The Technocracy tried to break Josine,

tried to find out what exactly he transmitted and
how to decrypt whatever might signal might come
back. Josine gave up just stray bits of intelligence
as he weakened over years of interrogation but he
gave as good as he got a parade of Technocrat
interrogators gave up on the case and he effectively
turned a few agents to his way of thinking along the
way. Combined with Lucid Gamma, he made a formidable foe.
At the same time, Nanotech gradually built up a
sense of what was happening inside the Technocracy through spies and turncoats. Eager to beat the
Technocracy to whatever signal might come bearing
futuristic technical specifications (and confident they
could crack it before the Technocrats), Nanotech set
out to locate Josines AIs, thinking they were the best
way to unravel the signal when the time came. To do
that, they turned to their R&D departments developing advances in artificial, biological androids (aka
biodroids) and a secret weapon they had over the
Technocracy for a while: they had access to some of
Josines memory shards.
The Hoeflers, a family of international memory
brokers and data-storage specialists, had bought
up smaller data-backup companies in an effort to solidify their market share. Along the way, they bought
up databanks containing many of Josines memory
shards (in addition to countless other memories and
files). But the Hoefler patriarch was dying. To stop a
feud between his sons, Edgar and Dougray, he gave
them each half of the company. Nanotech quickly
bought Edgar, gaining access to some of the data
the Hoeflers were keeping secure for their customers. Dougray, suspecting his brother was selling
out, offered his own share of the company to the
Technocrats before Nanotech could sift through it
all, while it was still worth something.
So the scheming between Nanotech and the
Technocrats continues. The Hoeflers, Josines data,
and the AI called Vital Beta are all caught in the midst
of it. And last year, Alpha came home.
Now
Nanotechs plan is to lure out Josines agents including the PCs and the AIs (since Nanotech doesnt
know what happened to them) by installing fragments of his memory into custom-built biodroids
designed to match the images of Josine they have
on file (including images smuggled out by spies
within the Technocracy). Nanotech isnt so sure that
Josines people dont know things about the mans
secret plan. Theyre not even sure that the Technocrats arent protecting Josine while pretending to incarcerate him. Now the megacorps going to have
to move up the timeline despite better judgment.
The Technocracys plan is to let some of Nanotechs scheme play out and then intervene if Beta (or
Alpha) turn up. The Technocrats dont realize that
Alpha was transmitted; they think its in hiding like
Beta. (Josine has told them where Gamma is, much
to his own dismay.) The Technocracy might even as9
sume that Alpha and Beta are in unknowing PCs. The

Technocracy is confident maybe too confident
that others wont have luck decrypting any alien
transmission that arrive. They dont realize yet that
the second signal bearing Alpha has already
arrived and is waiting in St. Petersburg.
Then a band of data thieves in Iceland robs a
Hoefler suite, hooks it up to a satellite signal to export the data, and everyones plans go to hell as a
Josine memory shard carries out an old program and
calls in the PCs.
With them in the mix, everything changes.
PLACING CAROLINE KILLEBREW
This parts tricky. Caroline Killebrew doesnt need

much establishment for the reveal in Perugia to
work. Give her too big a role and youll have to
keep track of her for the whole adventure and the
PCs might build up and reincorporate details that
wont work with the reveal in Perugia. If that happens, the version of Caroline that the players invest
in wins. Recast Agent Wolcott as just a protg of
Josines who is making a play to help him at a late
hour in the game. Forget the whole spy-in-theirmidst angle.
That said, if you can have it both ways, such that
the players pay just a little bit of attention to Caroline and then lose track of her before she turns up in
Perugia, thats great. All you really need is one moment early in the adventure, maybe during an opening montage, when Caroline is present and you can
set her up with the necessary exposition. Something
like, Caroline Killebrew has been your personal assistant for years. She keeps things running when you
go out of town. Shell keep an eye on stuff while you
get the band back together.
Emily and Utseo are the easiest PCs to which you
can attach Caroline, but here are some ways to assign her to other PCs:
Yoshi: Caroline haunts a barstool next to Yoshi
or is a regular client in his bodyguard-and-driver-forhire service. Maybe shes even there when the text
comes in that triggers the whole adventure. Important text? she asks.
Utseo: Caroline is one of Utseos top assistants.
She keeps on eye on Utseos underlings while hes
away. Ill handle things here. Go do what you need
to do, she says.
Alex: Alex is the tough one. If you assign her to
Alex, dont set her up at all. Instead, in Perugia, reveal how shed been on Alexs case for years. Youre
a hard man to keep up with.
Emily: Caroline is Emilys scheduler or factor for
Europe and North Africa. Caroline pretends not to
know why Emilys canceling appointments. I know
better than to ask questions like that.
Tank: Caroline is a contact of Tanks for moving
hardware throughout Europe and Eurasia. They go
back a few years. I can get you to Reykjavik without
raising any red flags, sure.
Henri: Caroline is a contact of Henris for moving
medicines and gear. She once warned him before a
local operation busted his clinic, saving him a lot of
trouble. I can refill meds while youre gone. Just be
careful.
Once Caroline is established, leave her alone until
Phase 3 and then reveal that shes gone missing, if
the players bring her up. Let the players speculate.
The less of a big deal it is, the better.
Final warning: Some players get rankled by this
bit. Without fair warning that she was a spy, they may
feel cheated. Not once have I actually encountered
this in the wild, but its worth being ready for it. The
tricky part is showing them, in Perugia or in an inter-
rupt scene with the Technocrats (including Agent

Wolcott), that Caroline really did have their best interests at heart. The time she spent assigned to the
PC in question? Thats what makes Perugia unfold
the way it does. This isnt about spotting the hidden
motive its about how knowing the PC(s) changed
Carolines mind.
ALTERNATE BACKSTORIES
Maybe youve got another idea for how to connect

the action scenes. Maybe youve played A/N/N
once with my backstory and now you want to try it
a different way. Maybe you think the backstory sucks
and you want to adapt your own ideas into the story
to appeal to your players. Fair enough. You know
your players better than I do.
Have at it. To get you started, here are a few other
ideas to work with (at least a couple of these I considered while devising the adventure in the first place):
Josine is dead. Nanotech caught up to him
while the PCs were off saving the world and
the death of their boss is just the price they pay
for doing dangerous business. The backed-up
memory shards he stored throughout the planet
are all thats left of him and gathering them is a
memorial act as much as its an intelligence operation.
Josine rejoined the Technocracy and is working
to prepare the Earth for the arrival of extraterrestrial AIs transmitted into our satellite networks
using alien tech. The first alien AIs may already
be here, either hiding out in public or held captive by some corporation out to either rule the
planet or save it. Josines been working for
years to let the PCs retire, in their own fashion,
10
but either he needs them now or he just cant

keep them protected forever.
Josine uploaded an AI into his own brain years
ago to protect it and its secrets about alien contact. Nanotech has had Josine in captivity for a
decade, trying to separate the AI from the human brain so they can root through the AIs
knowledge and Josines old Technocracy secrets. Nanotechs motives are, as ever, all about
global domination and profit.
All of those are pretty close to my big backstory,
of course. I hope some of you devise whole other
ways to recombine the core scenes of A/N/N and
share them with your fellow GMs. Think about how
to reveal your backstory using the scenes provided
(or scenes you create yourself). You can do like I did
and attach one or more clues to each scene or you
can dole them out by Act and Phase, or you can try
other options and let us know how it goes.
HOW SCENES
CONNECT
The core rundown on this is in the Player File. Lets
build on that.
The Scene-Flow Diagram
Look around for the scene-flow diagram and the

sample path (taken from one of the at-home playtests), on nearby pages. Theyll help you understand
the Acts, Phases, and flow of the scenes in the default arrangement: Hybrid mode.
Note the key symbols on the scene-flow diagram:

The Arrows indicate an entrance and an exit from
a scene. So, for example, if you go from Atlantica to
Seattle, youre not stuck there; you can move on to
any other scene in the Phase.
The Dots indicate an exit only. They mark the
spots you cannot enter, reinforcing the rule that you
cannot move back to an earlier Phase of the adventure once youve moved on to the next.
Youre meant to play any given action scene just
once or not at all.
THE SHAPE OF IT
Play the Reykjavik scene for Phase 1, then maybe

play some recovery scenes, then let the players
choose between Mumbai and Atlantica for Phase 2.
Maybe you have flashbacks in the mix. Maybe you
play an interrupt between recovery scenes, to show
that the antagonists mean business. Then its on to
the next scene.
At every decision point, when its time to select
the next action scene to play, the players should
have at least two scenes to choose from. For example, after the first scene of Phase 2, they can choose
between playing the other Phase 2 scene and moving on to Dezhou, Lagos, Seattle, or Sydney.
When its time to choose, lay out the cards for
the eligible scenes. Let the players know that if they
move on to the next phase, they cant go back. You
might even tell them at the beginning of a phase that
you intend to play only one scene (or two, or however many) in that phase, so the choice is a big one.
Dont rush the scene-selection process. Everyone
should get a chance to read those cards.
Each card contains one or two descriptors
drawn from Action, Intrigue, and Stealth that
hint at what that scene is designed to highlight.
11
them outright, You know what there is to learn from

that scene, so only pick it if you want to play it for
kicks.
You also have a card for interrupt scenes. Put that
on the table to signify that youre launching a scene
on behalf of an NPC force. You can do this before,
between, or after recovery scenes. You can even put
the interrupt card into the mix of scenes for the PCs
to choose from, in case they want to select that kind
of side-quest challenge, but I havent tried it.
Lets look again at the modes of play put forth in
the Player File and see how they interact with the
master scene-flow diagram.
Linear Mode
Theyre listed in order of magnitude, so an Action

+ Intrigue scene has a prominent action element
to it while an Intrigue + Action scenes intrigue
component is more prominent. To be clear, though,
most scenes can be approached in many ways action especially can break out whenever the players
want so remind everyone that these are hints, not
12
mandates. The description of each scene is more informative but can also sometimes set up surprises.
Depending on how the intel shakes out, players
may select a scene that has no new intel for them.
Thats okay! Getting redundant intel can confirm
clues or shed new light on their speculations. If you
want, maybe in the interests of time, you can tell
Linear mode short-circuits all that, particularly the

part where players choose action scenes, and replaces it with a chain of action scenes youve chosen in advance. The idea here is to just throw a few
playgrounds at the players, let them brainstorm and
describe some exciting sequences, and then move
on with the story. I dont recommend this mode but
it is an option if you really need to mind the clock or
you dont want to be responsible for handling more
complex intel deliveries. Players should still be able
to call for recovery scenes between action scenes,
lest their PCs get overwhelmed with Conditions.
For example: You might go from Reykjavik to
Mumbai to Perugia to St. Petersburg with no option to deviate from that course, just to play a quick
version of the adventure and then move on with
your life.
Hybrid Mode
This is how I assume youll be playing. This mode

uses the scene-flow diagram, with each scene broken out by Act and Phase, progressing through time
from left to right, but deploys intel differently than

the Open mode. In Hybrid mode, you reveal intel
based on how far into the adventure the PCs are and
how many scenes you intend to play. So if youre in
Phase 3, and youre only planning on playing one or
two scenes in that Phase, you might deliver all the intel you think the players need in and after that first or
second scene so that Phase 4 makes sense and has
scenes to offer. The players still decide what scenes
to play, which affects what the intel looks like and
some of the intel they get, but doesnt depend on
them to dig only in the right places to get treasures.
Dont withhold information for the sake of mystery; spread it out over multiple locations only if the
players want to play out multiple locations in this
Act and Phase of the adventure. Dont guess. Decide how many scenes you have time for asking
the players how many hours or sessions they want
to spend playing is ideal and then parcel out the
clues to fit the available time.
Youre also allowed to give them some additional
intel between scenes to make sure they have scenes
to choose from in the next Phase.
At each decision point, lay out the cards for the
eligible scenes and let the players pick. Special intel reveals Buenos Aires and Vietnam after the first
scene of Phase 3 (mostly to keep the players from
picking from so many scenes at once).
For example: One of my playtest groups went
from Reykjavik to Mumbai to Lagos to Vietnam to
Hokkaido to Perugia and finally to Karakum. Recovery scenes were mixed in here and there and I
played, I think, only one interrupt. That took us a few
sessions of play spread over a few weeks.
13
Open Mode
This mode also uses with the scene-flow diagram

but deploys intel differently than Hybrid mode. In
Open mode, you only give out a scenes intel during or after that scene, never moving things around,
so if the players skip certain scenes, they go forward
without some intel and understanding of events.
This mode is tricky because its possible to move
through the adventure in a way that doesnt necessarily make much sense of the backstory. The players may be motivated to have their PCs interrogate
NPCs more often to get at the truth, unlock scenes,
and understand just what the hell is going on in the
background.
Intel is assigned by Phase, too, to help things hold
together, but if youre very strict with intel, players
might actually end up with fewer choices for scenes
as they go.
This mode is described here to acknowledge that
you might make it work or instinctively find its style
more appealing than Hybrid modes style of customizable exposition.
For example: After starting Phase 3 with the
Seattle scene, the players decide to go straight to
Hokkaido in Phase 4 without getting the Phase 3
intel you assigned to Vietnam and Buenos Aires.
Thus they cant access Perugia (or Karakum), so they
move on to St. Petersburg and only sort of understand whats happening there.
Special: Free Play Mode
In Free Play mode, you peel apart the whole thing

and use the pieces to react to the choices and decisions the players make about where to go and who
to fight. I presume you still start with Reykjavik, just to
kick things off, but thats up to you. In this mode, you
dole out intel as the players ask the right questions,
wherever they are, as they interact with the plans
and background of the NPCs, until you reach some
kind of ending that satisfies you and thus decide to
stop playing.
For example: You play Reykjavik, then dole out
intel that sparks the players to go to St. Petersburg or
Karakum (or both), and then collaboratively improvise the consequences and larger world as you go.
All the scenes become resources you use to build
up the fiction when you like. The PCs are the spearheads and their enemies try to chase down intel on
them for a while.
BEGINNING PLAY
After all this time, a message from Josine.

Everything about it, from its simplicity to it specificity, feels like him... just years too late. Is he finally
surfacing after all this time?
The message affords only a few clues. This is the
first intel of the adventure, reveal it as the players ask
questions:
The text bears none of the telltale markers official cell carriers would put on it. Its a ghost message
bounced through a dozen satellites.
The coordinates point to a spot near the end of
the Alftanesvegur road in Iceland, north of Reykjavik.
Nearby, on a south-facing coast, is a glass-andsteel structure that looks almost like a sleek greenhouse from above. Its a simple structure: longer
than it is wide, situated on a steep hill above the sea,
with a small parking lot on one side and vents jutting
from the ground to bleed off heat. No data lines go
in or out of the facility. Its isolated.
The building is a server farm, part of a defunct
startup operation intending to provide discreet
cloud storage for wealthy customers. The whole
operation was bought out by the Hoefler brothers
memory and storage dealers, heirs to a memory
empire their father built. They use the site for overflow data storage and redundant backups now, according to contacts and research. Its a low-security
facility with a staff of three or four.
The players characters begin play on a windswept and grassy hill overlooking the information
suite below, glittering in early night on the coast of
rural Iceland. What happens next is up to you. Make
your decision based on the amount of time you have.
14
For a faster start, gloss over the details of how

everyone got there. One of the characters whoever the players decide held out hope for Josine the
longest got the message and brought in the other
characters for this job. Somewhere down in that
server facility, you say, Josine needs your help. Describe the setup using the details on offer here, or
those of your own devising, and let the players loose
on the facility in whatever fashion they like, whether
its rough and tumble or elegant and suave.
For a slower build, find out where each character was when she learned of Josines call for help.
This is like a montage, so dont get too deep into it.
Maybe do it like this: Say Youre all standing on an
Icelandic hillside overlooking the server facility, the
wind snapping against you. Work with each player
to make their flashback quick and evocative, to show
what their characters life is like when theyre not doing the action-hero thing. Do that by asking one
question What was your character doing when
the call came in to rescue Josine? and then either
offering or asking for a sentence that begins with the
phrase I picture my character and describes what
the PC was doing when the call came. After that, ask
these follow-up questions: What do you look like
now, standing in the snowy grass on the hillside?
How do you come across from outside?
Either way, ask the players how the PCs arrive at
the server facility from Reykjavik. Did they come on
sleek, silver snowmobiles? Did they come in a single
snow-cat with big, fat treads? The characters have
the means to rent, borrow, or steal such things for
this op; its really a question of style.
THE SCENES
Here, then, are the scenes that make up A/N/N,

starting with the optional flashbacks and proceeding on through the five Phases of all three Acts.
Printing Note:
The following scenes are arranged for
easy two-sided prints. To include the
flashback scenes, print pages 1655. To
skip the flashbacks, begin with Reykjavik
and print pages 2255 (or on through
to the end to include the guides for intel
and the motif).
FLASHBACK SCENES
These scenes take place long ago a decade or

more. Each scene reveals something about a characters past; many focus on things done while on a mission for Josine. Each scene asks the player to decide
what choices her character has made in the past and
how the character is changed by that experience.
Flashbacks are all about these choices. Theyre
defined by them. These scenes are about rewarding
a players decision, even if the outcome of that decision, back when, was not the happiest.
In the unfolding story, these flashbacks already
happened. We know the stars of these scenes make
it out alive. The real questions are How did it happen? or At what cost? or What did he learn
along the way?
How Flashbacks Work
Flashback scenes are interrupts a player can call

for her characters first flashback scene whenever its
her characters chance to act, whether its between
other scenes or in the midst of an action scene. A
flashback doesnt count as a characters action, it
just happens and then play resumes.
The player decides which flashback to play out, A or
B, by selecting the pair of Tags she wishes to choose
from. Players see the Tags in advance and might have
one in mind when they call for the flashback.
Then you, the GM, read or paraphrase the flashback situation and ask the player which course of action she wants her character to take to resolve the
scene. Read the outcome of that choice, usually asking the player to describe what the character does
to pull it off.
Once the player has chosen her outcome, her
character gains the associated Tag and adds it to any
list of Tags, under any Trait on her characters sheet.
15
So, the order of operations is:

1. The player calls for the flashback scene, picking
the scene (A or B) based on the pairs of Tags listed.
2. The GM reads or paraphrases the flashbacks
situation, then asks the player to choose between
the two approaches to the situation.
3. The player chooses.
4. The GM reports the outcome of the choice,
then helps the player describe it.
5. The player assigns the related Tag to her character sheet as a part of any Trait list she likes.
Keep flashbacks brief. Get into the heart of the
flashback, present the choice, and get out. Instead
of treating them as full scenes, make them intense vignettes, visceral and immediate. Add details to make
the scene come alive, sure, but instead of building to
the big choice, start as close to that choice as possible. Trim all the fat.
Take turns. Players can call for their flashbacks in
any order but no player can play out a second flashback until everyone has played their first. Depending on how long you all have to play, you might even
decide that each player only gets one flashback.
Thats fine.
Do not roll dice to overcome obstacles during a flashback. Instead, the outcome of the scene
turns on a single choice made by the player. That
choice leads to built-in outcomes which, in most
cases, the player is invited to describe. Its an opportunity for the player to show off how awesome
or impressive their character is, even if theyve been
getting unlucky rolls lately.
The player doesnt get to decide what the outcome of their choice involves and some of the
outcomes might be more grim than hoped for so
they get to describe their characters part in that outcome, at least. At that step, play is about dramatizing the outcome in a way that satisfies the flashbacks
player and entertains all the players.
Stunt-dice can absolutely be awarded during
flashbacks!
What Flashbacks Do
Ideally, flashback scenes make a player secondguess the choice of Tag they were after, even if they
do end up selecting the Tag they thought they wanted in the first place. Its one thing to say I want Yoshi
to gain Support as a Tag, and another to risk Josines
secrecy and protection to get it even if the player
doesnt change her mind.
I dont know your players, though. Feel free to
tweak these to better challenge your players, but
not at the expense of their decision-making. Its okay
to say, Are you sure? but dont goad a player into
choosing a Tag they dont want.
A flashback is also an opportunity to reveal more
details about the game world, the characters relationships, and how these characters are linked to
Josine and each other. Take advantage of these to
show the pasts the characters share and the stories
they have in common.
At the end of every flashback, try asking the player this question: Who else knows what happened
back then, in that scene?
The answer is sometimes obvious because other
characters may have been nearby when it happened. Other times the answer reveals things about
who the character confides in. It also helps players
know what they can talk about in-character.
FLASHBACKS
A: Direct / Evasive
Yoshi is on a mission for Josine eleven years earlier.

The situation: Yoshi, perhaps with an accomplice, is
driving a gigantic stolen tanker-truck down a desert
highway, pulling a high-tech cargo container disguised as a petroleum tanker. Inside the tanker, a
cybernetic dolphin attached to a brain monitor and
an oxygen system awaits delivery to Josines contact, a cyberneticist called the Clock, who intends
to set him free. As Yoshi approaches a long bridge
across a deep canyon, a pair of sleek black sedans
with Nanotech plates appear in the rear-view monitors on either side of the truck. From each car, gasmasked thugs with submachine guns emerge and
wave for Yoshi to stop the truck. The truck is ten
times the weight of the cars, but damage to the trailer could harm the dolphin inside. If Yoshi doesnt
act soon, the truck may be boarded!
Was Yoshi +Direct or +Evasive in response?
+ If Direct...
Yoshi slams into one car, then the other, maybe
running either or both off the bridge, but not before
the second car opens fire with explosive rounds in
response, puncturing the tanker. Yoshis player: Describe how Yoshi uses the truck as a blunt instrument
to take out the two pursuit cars. How badly was the
dolphin hurt? Did it ever make it to freedom?
16
+ If Evasive...
Yoshi weaves the truck across the highway, maybe
tearing across the desert across the bridge to shake
the boarding party. Yoshis player: Describe how
Yoshi evades the pursuing vehicles on the highway
or across the desert. How does Yoshis driving help
him escape his attackers?
B: Protect / Support
It is a few weeks before Josine went missing. The

situation: Yoshis in a posh and glossy hotel bar at
the top of some dizzying tower in a Middle Eastern
metropolis just before last call. A Technocracy factor in a bespoke suit steps out of the background
and approaches Yoshi, saying, I know who you
are. He doesnt sit down. Your boss is a turncoat,
a coward, and a menace, he says. He gets good
people killed. Hell get you killed one day. Youre a
fucking fool. The Technocrat goes on and on.
Its clear that this factor knows Josines rep, which
implies a level of security clearance not befitting this
kind of talk in public. The Technocrat tries to stay
vague, but he brushes close to references that no
one wants said in a public venue. The world isnt
any safer because of what you do. How dare you?
Yoshi can protect Josine by staying silent or he
can support Josine by speaking up in his defense.
Did Yoshi +Protect or +Support Josine?
+ If Protect...
Yoshi stays quite while the Technocrat speaks,
long minutes ticking by, then finally says just a few
words that send the Technocrat packing without
giving up anything about Josine. Yoshis player:
What did Yoshi say? Did he keep his cool?
+ If Support...
Yoshi speaks up in Josines defense, explaining
why Yoshis loyal to his uncle, and says a little bit
too much something he cant unsay. The Technocrat lays off and leaves. Yoshis player: What did
Yoshi say? Could it have been something that led to
Josines disappearance?
FLASHBACKS
A: Clandestine / Notorious
Utseo is on a mission for Josine eleven years ago. The

situation: Utseo must liberate a hard drive from an
undersea research facility where cybernetically enhanced dolphins were used for uplift-technology research. The place is swarming with Nanotech troops
ransacking the place after the megacorp bought out
the facility and shot down trespassing scientists
who refused to leave.
Utseos outside the central lab, monitoring activity
within via fiber-optic camera and a signal-interceptor earpiece. He counts maybe six or eight Nanotech gunmen. He has just his knife, his metal legs,
and a damned lot of chutzpah. Every second, the
goons get closer to the encrypted backup drive Josine wants.
Was Utseo +Clandestine or is he +Notorious?
+ If Clandestine...
Utseo sneaks into the lab, taking out half the goons
one by one until he reaches the hard drive. Once
the drives in hand, Utseo slips back out, boards his
waiting rental sub, and disappears into the deep. Utseos player: Describe how Utseo sneaks in and out
of the lab and how he takes out half the goons.
17
+ If Notorious...
Utseo storms the place, taking out all the goons
and causing enough damage in the ensuing fight to
ultimately flood the facility but not before he nabs
the drive and flees in his rented submarine. Utseos
player: Describe how Utseo causes all this damage
and how word of his exploits spread from the Nanotech survivors.
B: Nimble /Powerhouse
Utseo is on a mission for Josine ten years ago

the last mission he got from Josine. The situation:
A crazed plutocrat exec ousted by the Nanotech
board, along with a loyal cadre of corporate soldiers and a stolen military AI, hijacked a Technocracy
orbital-laser and aimed its emitter at Hong Kong to
take out key Nanotech skyscrapers and set the company back a decade. Countless civilian lives will be
lost in the blast. Josine somehow knew about the
rogue executives plot before even the Technocrats
or Nanotech proper could respond so its up to
Utseo and his cohorts to stop the attack from on
board the orbital facility. While the rest of the team
holds off Nanotech goons, Utseo is just one shiny
metal corridor away from the lasers emitter array. If
the arrays taken out, the emitter wont deploy when
the locked-in countdown runs out, overriding the
firing sequence, halting the shot and saving Hong

Kong. (The built-up charge may be enough to blow
the space station, though.)
The trouble is, the corridor leading to those gears
is filled with probing security lasers intense enough
to slice apart flesh. Somehow, Utseo got through
them, in microgravity, to the machinery beyond.
Was Utseo +Nimble or was he a +Powerhouse?
+ If Nimble...
Utseo dodges and spirals through the corridor
in microgravity, lasers searing and refracting off his
metal legs, always positioned just in time to save his
flesh. Once through, he somersaults and glides toward the gears legs first. Utseos player: Describe
how Utseo stops the machinery before the orbital
laser can fully deploy, thereby halting the firing sequence at the last minute.
+ If a Powerhouse...
Utseo pushes off a bulkhead in microgravity and
falls through the laser-filled corridor feet-first, grinding emitters off the walls with his heels and spinning
into the weapons gears beyond, jamming them
with his metal legs. Utseos player: How does Utseo react as his metal legs are destroyed and their
wreckage jams the vital gears?
FLASHBACKS
A: Talking / Fighting
Alex is on a mission to help out Josine eleven years

earlier. The situation: Alex is caught on the top floor
of the swanky Technocracy embassy in Prague following a harrowing chase. Hes cornered in his catburglar getup by armed guards in long gray coats,
each one pointing a rifle at him. Hanging from Alexs
belt is a thumb drive with hot Technocracy files on it,
freshly stolen from downstairs. Alex raises his hands
and smiles. Hes unarmed except for the laser-cutter
he used to get through a few security systems. The
closest exit is the window behind the guards 11
stories above the parking lot below. If only Alex can
reach that window...
Did Alex get out of this by +Talking or +Fighting?
+ If Talking...
Alex opens his mouth. Do you guys know where
the mens room is? A guard grabs him, takes the
thumb drive, and walks him toward the stairs right
by the window. Alexs player: Describe how Alex
uses his charms or lies to get the guards off balance
long enough for him to leap out the window with his
climbing harness. How does Alex manage to grab
the stolen data back?
18
+ If Fighting...
Alex hurls a nearby vase at the guards, kicking off
a hectic brawl designed to distract and disrupt the
guards long enough for Alex to reach the window
and escape on his climbing harness. Alexs player:
Describe how Alex fights his way through the guards
and makes his escape out the window, with the drive
still on him. Describe the injuries he gets in the fight.
Does he disappear into the night or go roaring away
on a hotwired motorcycle? Something else?
B: Rough / Smooth
Alex is on a job for himself, twelve years ago. The

situation: Alex is deep in the mansion of a gallery
owner (and Technocrat agent) in Montreal. Its the
night of a fancy party, but no one should be in this
part of the building. Alex has just slipped a prized
antique statuette into his tux when the lights come
on. The Technocrat host stands in a nearby doorway
in his tux. What are you doing in here? Alex knows
Technocrat agents are almost always armed.
Was Alex +Rough or was he +Smooth?
+ If Rough...
Alex talks too much, stepping on his own sentences, convincing no one. He finally says, And,
you know aw, screw it, and throws down a device that explodes in brilliant, flickering holographic
flames before bolting through the mansion for an
exit, statuette still on his person. Alexs player: Describe what Alex breaks or threatens to break as he
runs through the mansion. How does he get away
without getting shot by the yelling Technocrat?
+ If Smooth...
Alex is suave and sly. He lies about seeing someone in here and asks if anything is missing. We
should warn our host, Alex says, that guy should
be more careful with his guest list. Alexs player:
Describe how Alex talks his way out of the scene,
with or without the statuette. Does Alex storm out,
insulted, or does he seemingly disappear? Something else?
FLASHBACKS
A: Intimidating / Seductive
Emily is on a mission for Josine twelve years earlier.

The situation: Emily is on the dance floor of a posh
gala affair in Berne, dancing in the crowd, when
the music changes. Tango. The corporate agent
that Emily has come here to question stands a few
feet away, smiling in his tuxedo. He extends a hand.
May I have this dance?
He knows the access codes for a satellite weapon
system that uncle wants deactivated so spacecraft
can reach an orbiting habitat secretly and safely. His
bodyguards watch from every corner of the room.
Emily takes his hand. They begin to dance. Somewhere on his person is his phone. Emily wears a slew
of spy gadgets disguised as accessories. This is as
close as shes likely to get to the target. Time to go
for the intel.
Was Emily +Intimidating or +Seductive?
+ If Intimidating...
Emily whispers in the agents ear, telling him
what shell do if he doesnt give her the codes. He
laughs in disbelief. My men would have you on the
ground in no time. Emily grabs him, swings him into
a chokehold, and snatches his phone from his pocket. Emilys player: Describe how Emily commands
the whole room and escapes the scene. How badly
does she hurt him to bring back the data for Josine?
19
+ If Seductive...
Emily whispers in the agents ear, luring him to a
suite upstairs. He smiles and agrees. They go upstairs and he goes to the bar and pours them both
drinks. Emily slips a drug into his drink as she takes
hers, smiling the whole time. Shes charming as
can be until he passes out and she can ransack his
phone for data. Emilys player: Describe how Emily
is so smooth that the agent doesnt even realize hes
been lied to, drugged, and robbed. How does she
get out of the guarded suite?
B: Disarming / Turnabout
Emily is on a mission for Josine eleven years earlier.

The situation: Emily, clad in black, has been caught
deep in a plutocrats high-rise office by a security
operative in digital camouflage. He gets Emily in a
firm hold and puts a long knife to her neck. Emily can
see the gleam where a micro-sensor on the blades
edge records or transmits data back to building security if the blade tastes blood.
Youve got no way out of here, the enemy operative says. Who are you working for?
Disarm this security agent and a brutal, drawnout fight may follow but the blades sensor wont
be tripped. Turn the blade against him and hell be
quickly killed but the sensors get tripped.
Was she +Disarming or did she pull a +Turnabout?
+ If Disarming...
Emily talks a bit to lower everyones blood pressures, then slips smoothly out of the hold and kicks
the blade away. A murderous dance unfolds in the
office as the security operative, too proud to call out
for help, dodges blow after blow. Emilys player:
Describe what Emily says and how she is disarming.
How is the security operative finally, quietly defeated
there in the office environment? Is he alive or dead at
the end of the encounter?
+ If Turnabout...
Emily quickly ducks and pivots, driving the blade
into the operatives throat. Blood gushes. The blade
detects catalogued DNA and triggers an alarm. A
computer voice announces Operative down in Sector 7. Emilys player: Describe how Emily escapes
the scene with the plutocrats data despite the blaring alarms. Armed guards are en route. How many
of them does Emily take out making her escape?
FLASHBACKS
A: Ruthless / Wary
Tank is on a mission for Josine eleven years earlier.

The situation: Tank approaches a lakeside mountain cottage somewhere in Switzerland. Inside is a
corporate turncoat looking to sell some information
if he hasnt already been gotten to by rival spymasters. The corporate informer was supposed to
come alone for the meet but thermographic imaging reveals three people inside the cottage. Tank
can approach slowly, perhaps being spotted along
the way, or storm the place and take out the two unexpected strangers immediately, before they have a
chance to respond.
Was Tank +Ruthless or +Wary?
+ If Ruthless...
Tank smashes the door down with her metal arms,
rushes in and takes down two people in gray suits
with Technocrat ID badges on their lapels. Shes already got the turncoat in hand when she notices.
What did you do? the turncoat says. Is this how
you do things? Let me go! And tell your boss Im off
the market. Tanks player: Describe how Tank responds to the turncoat, even as a Technocracy VTOL
appears over the treetops. Does she let him go or
drag him bodily back to a teleconference with Josine, somehow losing the VTOL along the way?
20
+ If Wary...
Tank approaches the building carefully, sneaking
close enough for her short-range parabolic mic to
cut through the signal jammer on the cottage and
pick up the meeting inside. The two strangers are
Technocrats there to bring the turncoat in to a safe
house for debriefing, rather than let his intel spur
any kind of corporate espionage or violence. Tanks
player: Describe how Tank manages to hide out and
record the conversation, getting Josine the location
of the Technocracy safe house, before watching in
secret as a Technocracy VTOL craft carries all three
people away. Does she manage to hit the VTOL with
a tracking device? Describe how.
B: Devoted / Surprising
Tank is on a mission for Josine eleven years earlier.

The situation: Tank is tied to a chair, without her metal arms, in the rusted belly of a bombed-out tanker
ship on some remote Pacific island beach. Three
cold-hearted pirates have guns on both Tank and a
comrade in arms who is hooded, bound, and unconscious. The pirates want to know who Tank and
her cohort work for and how to contact him. Well
ransom one of you back, they say. Maybe kill the
other, if you dont talk fast. Tank can stay quiet, relying on her steely gaze and steady poise to hold
out and protect Josines identity until rescue arrives
or she can spring on the pirates, surprise them, and
risk a gun going off.
Was Tank +Devoted or +Surprising?

+ If Devoted...
Tank keeps calm and quiet even when the pirate
shoots her in the leg even when the pirate shoots
the cohort in the gut. You have until this one bleeds
out to tell me who and where your boss is, the lead
pirate says. But Tank is devoted and has endurance.
She keeps her eyes on the pirates even as they waver and grow bored waiting for the cohort to die.
When her three enemies are relaxed, Tank strikes.
Tanks player: Describe how Tank takes out all
three pirates. Who was under that hood? Was it
another players character, later saved by modern
medicine?
+ If Surprising...
Tank nods and whispers. The lead pirate leans in,
gun to her head. What was that? he asks.
Tanks player: Describe how Tank slips or breaks
the bonds holding her and takes out the three pirates. In the fight, one of the pirates opens fire,
shooting Tank through the shoulder. Does the hooded cohort get hit in the battle? Do they live? Who
was under that hood, anyway?
FLASHBACKS
A: Reasonable / Forceful
Dr. Qamar is serving in a private corporate army

thirteen years ago. The situation: Henri is in some
bombed-out cityscape somewhere, where hes the
last one left alive from his squad, when the patient
hes helping gets shot dead by an enemy merc who
appears from nowhere.
Im your patient now, says the merc, bleeding
from a gut shot, his gun hand steady. Help me or
we both die.
Maybe saving this soldiers life will defuse the situation. Maybe not. This soldier may well kill Henri
anyway once hes patched up. Better to take the gun
out of the equation.
Henri can talk the gun out of the soldiers hand or
he can fight him for it.
Was Henri +Reasonable or was he +Forceful?
+ If Reasonable...
Henri talks the soldier into handing over his weapon in exchange for treatment. Henris player: Describe what Henri says, or say it outright. Did Henri
help that enemy off the battlefield or did they part
ways? Did Henri treat that soldier to the best of his
ability? Is that enemy soldier alive today?
21
+ If Forceful...
Henri goes for the gun and gets it. Henris player: Describe how Henri gets the gun. Is it quick and
decisive or is it an ugly struggle? Was Henri able to
treat the soldier after that? Is that enemy soldier alive
today?
B: Rapid Fire / Precise Strike
Henri is on a mission for Josine eleven years ago. The

situation: Henri has been betrayed by the people flying him back from a mission. Three turncoat thugs
have pulled guns on Henri and a comrade in arms.
Henri, wanting to protect his cohort, has a fleeting
second to make up his mind he can reach a nearby submachine gun, hanging on a hook on the bulkhead, or he can pull the combat knife on his belt.
A rapid spray of gunfire might damage the aircraft
but could take out all three thugs at once. A precise
strike keeps the aircraft intact but could lead to a
messy fight with these thugs that could turn against
Henri and his cohort.
What was Henris approach?
Was it a + Rapid Fire attack or a + Precise Strike?
+ If Rapid Fire...
Henri grabs the submachine gun and sprays gunfire across the aircrafts hold. Two thugs drop, the
third dives for cover, and the guns potent ammo
blows a canister that weakens the planes skin. A
chunk of it peels free. That third turncoat tumbles
out of a new, widening gap in the fuselage. Henris
player: Describe how Henri gets out of this. Does he
grab a parachute before falling out of the aircraft or
do he and his cohort work together to capture and
crash-land the plane? Who was that cohort?
+ If a Precise Strike...
Henri slips his combat knife from behind his back
and takes out two of the turncoats. The third fires
a shot that drops Henris cohort just before Henri
drops that third turncoat, too. The gunshot also
blows out a cabin window, leaving Henri to perform
combat medicine on the fallen cohort in a howling,
struggling fuselage. Henris player: Describe the
knife fight and Henris reaction to seeing his cohort
get shot. Did Henri save that cohort? Who was it?
Information Suite
R E Y K J AV I K I C E L A N D
Placement: Act 1, Phase 1

Scene Type: Action
Synopsis: Josines call came from an
isolated server facility near Reykjavik,
Iceland. Go there and rescue Josine.
Objectives:
Locate and rescue Josine
Get out alive
YESTERDAY CALLED
osines call came from and lead to a

long, low, glass-and-steel building located on an Iceland ridge overlooking
the Atlantic. The PCs reach the site to
discover the place is being ransacked
by a cadre of anarchist data-thieves
who busted open the site some time
ago. Just as the PCs finish taking down
the data-thieves, a mercenary hit squad
arrives via helicopter (and maybe
snowmobile) to eliminate the PCs and
obtain or destroy all working hardware
on sight. Whoever they are, they have
guns and are ready to kill to get what
they want. While dealing with the
hostiles, the PCs learn what they can,
including how they got the call that
brought them back together.
22
The building at the heart of this scene was meant

to be a modern office retreat and server farm for
an Icelandic company that never quite congealed:
Cerebral Compression Backups. CCB was bought
by memory storage experts Edgar and Dougray
Hoefler, heirs to a digital-memory empire. Theyre
in the business of storing peoples files in secret underground clouds maintained in high-security server
locations across the planet. The CCB site is just one
of their lower-security redundant sites.
The place is very beautiful and very cold and not
meant for human hands. The place was mostly automated until the anarchists dismantled it to make a
point and snag any drives they could maybe ransom
off. The bodies of the three on-site security staff lay
dead in the snow outside.
The Server Facility
The place is long and narrow, glassy like a greenhouse with black steel supports and greenish glass.
The parking lot has two modest hatchbacks in
it, each under a faint dusting of blown snow, plus a
muddy all-terrain van. The lots little gate has been
smashed by that van. A big, brown, windowless
truck has backed up to the front of the building and
sits there with its loading doors open. Lazy thieves,
thinking
Inside, the polished concrete floor, crowded with
racks and racks of servers, drops into the ground
through three terraced levels, making a shape that a
stepped pyramid might plug into. Four glass-walled
offices sit cold at the bottom, built into the walls of
the smallest, lowest level.
Electronic eyes run along the walls and ceiling on
delicate tracks, monitoring everything.
The People on the Scene
Half a dozen or so dudes in rugged wardrobes of

worn leather and frayed parkas are either moving
about the facility with submachine guns on short
straps or are tossing hardware into the back of the
van. They seem to be in no great rush. They figure
security wouldve arrived by now if it was coming.
The thieves are self-pierced, self-tattooed, and
marked with anarchist symbols suggesting theyre
part of Icelands new anti-establishment criminal outfit would-be revolutionaries engaged in a straightup robbery. They think theyll change the world with
the information they steal... but in their drugged out
way theyre trashing as much as they capture.
Details
Snow blows silent against soundproofed windows.

The chirps from the servers sound like a hundred
crickets trapped indoors.
It smells like hot solder but is quite cold inside.
Everything is smooth and solidpolished concrete
and black metal.
The surf crashes below, the sound suddenly audible once a window is broken.
Make An Entrance
This is an opening action sequence.

The players decide how to enter this scene but be
clear with them: stealth and intrigue are not really
options here for long. As soon as the data-thieves
see theyre not alone they open up with small-arms
fire, intending to shoot their way out of the place,
get back to their all-wheel-drive trucks, and make off
with some hardware. (Thats not happening, though
the mercenary hit squads ready to take out the
data-thieves if the PCs arent.)
Establishing the Characters
Especially if youve chosen not to play out an opening montage, ask each player how their character first
appears on screen. Is it in a flurry of blowing snow
and muzzle flashes? Is it while adjusting a necktie on
her way right up to front gate? Is it crashing through
the glass of the information suite? Give them each a
chance to shine.
OBSTACLES
This fight scene lets the players show off a bit, tests
the characters with gradually more difficult foes, and
introduces rules like location Tags.
Fighting Foes
Two waves of foes challenge the PCs in this scene:

the data-thieves and the mercenary hit squad. The
data-thieves are simple to handle and exist mostly to
show the players how things work, to give them a
chance to show off, and to trigger the action. The hit
squad is a bigger threat.
Each data-thief = 2 untargeted hits. Assume 2 of these foes per PC, each vulnerable to untargeted rolls.
23
Each mercenary = 3 untargeted hits. These

come clad in sleek special-forces gear with enclosed
helmets and no identifying marks on their outfits. No
targeted rolls necessary.
The helicopter = Difficulty 4. The helicopter
is big and tough, with shiny black armor and a capable pilot. It requires a targeted roll to take out.
Escalation: The Hit Squad Arrives
When the timings right like when the fight with

the data-thieves is about to end a mercenary hit
squad interrupts the battle, raising the stakes and the
difficulty. Pick an entrance for them to make or invent
one of your own:
Mercs rappel through the glass ceiling (or
whatevers left of it) right when the data-thieves are
taken out. Once theyre on the ground, their helicopter assumes an attack position.
Mercs shoot dead the last data-thief standing,
robbing the PCs of someone to question or of a final
victorious strike.
The mercs howl by overhead in their helicopter, shooting the whole building up and requiring
a roll to avoid being Injured (difficulty: 3). Then the
foot soldiers ride in on snowmobiles.
The hit squad is a kitted out in black fatigues and
body armor with sleek, new-model small arms and
featureless, shiny, closed-faced helmets. They wear
no badges, no patches, no identifiers of any kind
classic black-ops-for-hire mercenaries.
Intel: About Josine
At some point during the fight, especially if the PCs

are actively looking for him, reveal this: Josines not
here. Theres no sign that he is, or ever was, actually on site. Further investigation of the site, the
bad guys, or the servers here yields the intel for this
scene, which kicks off the rest of the adventure.

This scenes intel is specific and vital; youre using
it to set the premise for the rest of the adventure.
None of the intel here hinges on obstacles,
though. Even while youre withholding whats
happening elsewhere (and whats happened
before the adventure), you need to be up front
with the key facts that get the story moving, as
put forth in the intel material.
Easygoing Menace
Though the characters dont know it, this fight is a

chance to test out the rules. Dont inflict a condition on many failed rolls, only those that you want
to underscore with an extra dose of menace.
For example: the helicopter. If its target(s) dont
successfully dodge its gunfire or rotor blades (or
whatever) with 2 hits or more on a single roll,
they may be Trapped. It can keep up to two characters Trapped (pinned down) at once with the
big machine guns mounted in its right and left
weapon pods. Once a PC is Trapped, move on to
the bottom track of Conditions for further failed
rolls if you want to hammer home that this thing
is dangerous.
Remember that you can dole out intel after the
scenes over. This scene is a good time to help
the players get used to the pacing. They dont
have to wring every drop of exposition before
they leave.
Information Suite
+Plate-glass Windows, +Falling Glass,
+Razor-sharp Edges, +Jutting Girder,
+Live Wire, +Rack of Hardware,
+Windswept Snow, +Frigid Wind
R E Y K J AV I K I C E L A N D
Getting inside is a question of what kind of dramatic entrance the PCs want to make. They can stride in
or storm in, but the data-thieves arent here to talk to
people they assume are mercenaries coming to take
them out. (Maybe one even says, Its a kill-squad!
Lets get out of here! then sprays gunfire at the PCs.)
This opening sequence exists to help the players learn the game, get the story moving, and open
things with a bang. If things crawl (maybe the players
or their characters are overcautious), remind them
that these PCs did this stuff all the time back in the
old days.
Diving Through Shadow

Scene Type: Stealth + Intrigue
Synopsis: Skydive onto the airship lair
of a memory dealer in Mumbai and,
through him, get access to Josines data
backups. Escape the airship.
Objectives:
Skydive onto the airship
Get mainframe access information
from Dougray Hoefler
Access Josines backed-up data and
the server logs, then make your escape
from the airship
MUMBAI INDIA
LASER SHADOWS
he crew skydives onto the back

of a private airship circling above
Mumbai, and slip inside to get access
to Josines backed-up data using codes
and know-how kept by reclusive memory dealer, Dougray Hoefler, who lives
on board. Hes not eager to help but
hopefully his servers contain information that say something about Josines
fate or current whereabouts. This jobs
all about gathering intel. Once the
task is done, the crew must escape
from the airship without tripping the
scanning lasers of Technocrat guards,
who are watching the airship from the
city below. Just like old times.
24
Dougrays airship circles above Mumbai, tracked and

monitored by garish green scanning lasers cutting
through the night sky with wide, flat beams, revealing swirls of dust and smoke in the air as they do. The
scanning lasers are sensitive but their deployment is
imperfect: at a few points on its course, the airship
casts a shadow above itself into which the ground
sensors cannot see. Craft like helicopters and UAVs
are easy to detect but something person-sized and
unpowered might get through, so the way to take
advantage of this gap in the sensors is to drop directly onto the airship from a high altitude just when the
airship is passing over the laser emitters. Its a tight
window. Escaping the airships a whole other thing.
Thus the scene opens with the PCs in a cargo
plane near its operational ceiling, piloted by an old
friend (an NPC), flying high above Mumbai. Each of
them must step out of that perfectly good airplane
and dive through the night onto Hoeflers airship.
Reminds you of a job over Rio, all those years ago,
you might say to them. Those were good times.
The Residential Airship of Tomorrow
Dougray Hoeflers airship is a wide, squared-off

vessel dotted with maneuvering props, lined with
wide fins, and equipped with an aft row of three
main engines. The residence itself resembles a Frank
Lloyd Wright house affixed upside-down to the airships belly. It feels more like a five-story penthouse
than a yacht and the top two floors are up inside the
ships frame. Dougray spends most of his time in the
swanky lower parts of the residence that look out
over Mumbai. The rest of the ships utility corridors,
cabins, and control rooms feel sort of like what might
happen if Apple designed a zeppelin.
OBSTACLES
This scene consists of these main parts: the opening

wingsuit dive, the interrogation of Dougray, and the
escape from the airship. Different parts call for different degrees of resolution. A lot can happen in just a
few rolls.
You can streamline this for even quicker pacing.
For example, Dougray might simply know and tell
the PCs the clues they stand to gain from the Hoefler
mainframe, if you prefer.
The Dive
Ask the players to describe each PCs jump onto the

airship. Does a character leap boldly from the plane
or hold his breath and fall backward? Do they use
flashpaper parachutes that disintegrate at the destination or do they wear ultralight wingsuits to glide
in? These are cosmetic decisions unless they impact
which Tags come into play. The point is to help the
PCs look (and the players feel) like action stars.
This stunt calls for a roll with no set difficulty. The
more hits, the better the outcome. Ask the players
what their degree of success looks like. Use these to
gauge the quality of the success:
0 hits: Fall too wide, trip a laser beam, and mark
the Hunted condition before smashing onto the airship and getting Injured.
1 hit: Bounce off the upper hull and come to a
stop dangling from the airships edge; mark Angry,
Exhausted, or Impaired (maybe a piece of equipment plummets off the PCs kit?) until treated.
2 hits: Tumble across the surface of the airship
and come to a rolling stop, but otherwise do fine.
34 hits: Come to a running stop on the hull
within sight of an access hatch.
5+ hits: Land with perfect, cool graceunseen
and silentright by the access hatch.
Ask the players how they want to reach Dougrays

suite. Do they sneak in? Wear disguises? Drop
through the ceiling or cut in through a window?
Maybe Dougray steps out of the bathroom, wearing
a silk robe, and the PCs are just there. Presume they
succeed or make it a single roll to traverse the whole
airship and reach Hoefler whoever rolls best succeeds at getting all the PCs to Dougray. Anyone who
rolls fewer than 3 hits gets a Condition along the way
but reaches Hoeflers suite.
If you want, Dougrays got a bodyguard or two
in his suite with him (to provide a fight). Each bodyguard requires 3 targeted hits to take out and quietly is better, lest the airship crew sound an alarm,
alert the Technocrats below, escalating everyone
to a Hunted or Trapped condition. Any attack that
scores at least 2 hits keeps a target from being able
to sound the alarm. Dougray can be kept away from
the panic button on his keyring or the alarm button
on the wall with a stern look. He has other ways to
call for help, anyway.
Ask the players to show their Conditions in action.
What happens if a PCs already Angry when entering
the scene with Dougray, for example? This sequence
isnt about if, its about how.
Get Dougray Talking
Dougray talks after the PCs earn 5 total hits to persuade him with targeted rolls, whether thats by
word or deed. Everyone works toward the same total but you should have Dougray address each PC as
they roll, so they feel involved in the scene. If the PCs
are violent with Dougray, maybe ask something like,
Was your character always this ruthless?
Heres what Dougray knows. Each hit after the 5th
nets another bit of info. Characterize this info to suit
25
the PCs methods. Dougray might beg for his life or

coolly negotiate, depending on the tone they set.
6th hit: Josines backups were recently accessed
but only the server logs can say with what login or
from where. Youd have to check the mainframe.
7th: Josines data is why the Technocrats came
sniffing around! They want to know what he knew.
8th: My good-for-nothing brother and I are selling the company. My halfs going to the Technocrats.
Hes still shopping his half around, I think. Let the
buyers fight over the data! Its all just money to me.
9th: I dont care whats in the backups. Big players like Technocrats and Nanotech want whats in
there and I dont want trouble with them. I just want
to retire rich.
10th:Look, if you swear you wont hurt me [anymore], I can get you logged in to the mainframe from
up here and you can look at the logs yourself. Then
you can let yourself out and we never have to see
each other again.
Dougray is some combination of ill-informed and
a liar you decide which. If the players set a tone
for polite intrigue, play along. If you want them to
hate Dougray, have him sound an alarm (maybe with
a subdermal panic button) so things get more complicated for the PCs. Dougrays not a villain, though,
just a selfish guy hoping the Technocrats rescue him.
Accessing the Mainframe
Unless the PCs specifically think to tell him not to,

Dougray logs the PCs into the mainframe using an
emergency account DHoefler7 which alerts the
Technocrats on the ground. The account is locked out
after 15 minutes when the Technocrats start freezing
Hoeflers access. Tell the PCs they got the intel thats
there to get but the jig is up and its time to leave before the airship lands amidst the Technocrats.
Complicating Things
At some point, you might want to toss a complication into the mix. Maybe a porter comes to
Dougrays suite to drop off towels or Dougray
gets a call on his cell from a blocked-out number.
(Its his Technocrat handler.) If allowed to talk,
Dougray works the word incalculable into a sentence alerting the caller to trouble with a prearranged code. Everyones Hunted now.
Make An Exit
Getting off the airship might be as easy as jumping, if the PCs still have the gear they came aboard
with, but devising an escape plan is something
the players can sink their teeth into here. Success
is a matter of dramatic improvisation and two
simple guidelines:
First, escaping the airship requires a roll for
each PC, Difficulty: 4. Escalation: the PC is
Hunted or Trapped by the airship crew and/or
Technocrat scanners. A player can use all the hits
from any roll for their own PCs escape or to provide another PC an escape, but a single rolls hits
cannot be divided over multiple PCs.
Second, each PC then needs a total of 5 accrued hits to escape the area, whether detected
or not. Each roll might dramatize a different approach; for example, one PC might fight free of
pursuing Technocrats while another attempts to
vanish into the hubbub of Mumbai.
Residential Airship Manor

+Security Doors, +Soundproofed Walls,
+Thrumming Machinery, +Distracted Staff,
+Unexpected Adjustment to Pitch/Yaw,
+Sturdy Bulkhead, +Handily Placed Tool
MUMBAI INDIA
Make An Entrance
AT L A N T I C A F R E E C I T Y
Party Hell

Scene Type: Intrigue + Action
Synopsis: Get into the guts of the seastead free city of Atlantica by infiltrating
the local party scene, then break into
the servers on site. Escape via watercraft to a hired submarine waiting outside Atlanticas detection range.
Objectives:
Use the local party to gain access to
the rigs lower levels
Access the server terminal deep inside Atlantica
Escape via watercraft and reach a waiting sub for extraction
INSOLUBLE
he free city of Atlantica a sketchy

seastead of trashy hedonists and
cheap memory-abusers. The place is
a 24-hour party booming in the sticky
wreckage of the previous days party,
crowded with dancers, drinkers, and
dreamers high on downloaded copies
of other peoples greatest memories.
Underneath it all, in the rusty depths
of the oil rig at the heart of the place,
is a nest of Hoefler servers belonging
to Edgar Hoefler, co-heir to the family fortune. The job: get in there, get
Josines backed-up data, and escape.
26
The Atlantica free city seastead was someones vision of a new world where a small
group of devoted citizens could fashion their own
laws and live according to their own beliefs. Then
Edgar Hoefler bought it and turned the place into a
lawless party haven.
Edgar told his father hed set the place up as a secret file-server installation for secure data storage,
and that he did, but Edgar lives there because the
place is regulated only by Edgar. He gets a cut of all
the liquor, drugs, and intel that comes through the
place and in exchange he quietly skims off experiential memories from the Hoefler backups so people
can escape their own lives by remembering Himalayan climbs and epic lays lived by other people in
other places, other times. The place is a full-time
party, now, with people reveling in shifts, always in
the wake of someone elses party.
Enter the PCs. The party provides easy access to
the seastead with the right cover: forged passports,
cold cash, or a famous face. Getting into the party
isnt in doubt. What matters is how stylish the PCs
look when they first appear on screen here.
High Prices for a Free City
Edgar Hoefler never had his fathers passion for

the data-storage business. He just wants to retire
someplace away from the worlds annoyances. He
thought Atlantica, located somewhere on the eastern edge of the Caribbean, was that place, but as it
rusted and became too well known he decided to
sell both Atlantica and his share of the company to
get himself safely ensconced somewhere posh, like
maybe on a glittering space-station estate, under
the weather eye of a formidable corporation.
Enter Nanotech.
Now Atlantica is a sticky, rusty network of submarine-like corridors with cheap plastic paneling,
peeling art, and a kind of graffiti thats no longer in
fashion, all broken up by derelict multi-story machinery spaces transformed into thumping pleasure pits,
lined with bars, teeming with backlit racks of exotic
liquors and painted with luminescent signatures
from parties past. Through the throngs move blacksuited security guards employed by Armingshire, a
Nanotech paramilitary subsidiary, protecting the investment while the details of the sale fall into place.
Through secure doors, beneath the club vibe,
deep in the guts of the rig, next-gen servers and
hardware hum and chirp amid solid-state security
systems. That is what Nanotech is paying for: hardware brimming with other peoples secrets.
OBSTACLES
This scene is meant to give the players a lot of room

to create their own plan of attack and get themselves into trouble. Remember: they can accomplish
a lot without rolling dice. The PCs are all capable and
experienced operatives.
Adapt the following obstacles to the approach
the PCs take to the mission. If, for example, some of
the PCs cut their way into the belly of the rig with
industrial lasers, that trips the environmental alarms,
bypasses some security layers, and might lead to an
exciting gunfight in the server room between wetsuited PCs and Armingshire agents. Go with it.
Part of the Party
Coolly become a part of the background noise before slipping away or boldly distract security with
glamour or trouble so someone else can slip away.
Blend. Difficulty: 2. Escalation: Hunted, Recognized, or Trapped.
Face to Face with Edgar
Edgar sits, languid, on a plush red couch in a bit of

sunken flooring in a VIP room. Partygoers hang on
his words, hoping for free drinks or sweet hookups
with rare experiential pins.
Intrigue. Difficulty: 3. Escalation: Angry or Exhausted (perhaps with Edgars bullshit)
Action. Difficulty: 4. Escalation: A fight with Armingshire thugs looking to eject the PCs overboard.
Successful rolls against the apt difficulty get Edgar
talking. The most relevant stuff he has to say:
Parties like this cant keep happening forever.
Im getting out of the memory game. Getting a good
sum for my shares, too.
Nanotechs been in the mainframe to do their
due diligence. I imagine the Technocrats have, too,
since my idiot brothers selling his half of the company to them. Better those two keep fighting than
either of them get an edge, anyway, I guess.
I only know Josines name because Nanotech
asked about his data. Who is he?
Handling the Guards
Handling the Armingshire security guards is easier

when theyre surprised, harder when theyre organized or have numbers on their side. 30 or 40 guards
are stationed at the seastead at one time. The guards
in the security office are always ready for action.
Difficulty: 2 each, untargeted. Escalation: Injured
27
(or worse), plus the guards get their act together

and go up to difficulty 3 each, still untargeted. Plus,
they can call more guards. Some partygoers might
also be ready badasses, eager to fight, if you want.
First Server-Room Security Layer
A biometric lock calls for a retinal scan or voiceprint

clearance from someone like Edgar or one his lieutenants. Difficulty: 3. Escalation: Hunted.
The first two failed attempts to bypass the lock
are harmless; the third brings Armingshire security
guards to investigate (see Handling the Guards).
Second Server-Room Security Layer
The server room is a climate-controlled environment

accessible only through a single human-sized hallway. The duct-work is too small for human passage
(by design). Access to the hallway requires an RFID
tag. Body heat in the passage without a proper RFID
signal activates cameras that feed to the security office. That hallway seals to hold trespassers for interrogation (or worse) and the floor can be opened to
drop trespassers 30 feet into the Atlantic below.
Difficulty: 4. Escalation: Trapped or Impaired in
the hall or in the drink.
In the Server Room
Inside the server room, PCs who get at a terminal

automatically discover the intel for this scene. The
Hoefler servers take 5 untargeted hits to disable or
sabotage, via force or hacking, and might cause
Nanotech to cancel their buyout of Edgars share in
the company (and maybe trigger Nanotechs Reprisal). If a fight breaks out in here, the thugs try to avoid
gunplay because errant bullets and damaged servers
threaten the memory backups of Hoefler customers.
That might not dissuade the PCs, of course.
High Speed on the High Seas
Escaping Atlantica requires two steps: getting

free of the rig and shaking pursuing speedboats
so the PCs can board their chartered, surfaced
stealth sub (or drive vehicles into its open bay)
without being tailed. Out on the Atlantic, Armingshire guards (who dont count toward the
3040 aboard the rig) patrol in speedboats and
fire off automatic weapons with action-movie
abandon. The legs of the rig and various yachts
and seaplanes anchored nearby provide the setting for this escape chase.
Let the players decide how many of what kind
of watercraft they want to escape inspeedboats, jetskis, catamaran, whateverwhich they
can either steal from the seastead or have had
ready and waiting beneath the rig.
Get free of the sea-stead: Break portholes
or windows, cut through the floor, whatever. Difficulty: 2. Escalation: Pinned down by security
(Trapped) or Angry as the plan goes to hell.
Shake pursuit/reach the sub: Either take
out the pursuing speedboats (one per PC; Difficulty: 3 each) or outrun them (Difficulty: 5; each
escaping PC vehicle requires a separate roll to
shake the tails).
Once the high-seas action sequence is done,
the chartered stealth craft submerges and slips
away from Atlantica, which might be smoking in
the background.
Renovated Oil Rig Partyscape

+Random Party Guest, +Corks Popping,
+Swaying Crowd, +Thumping Bass,
+Pulsing Lights, +Silvery Mirrored Tray,
+Open Porthole, +Ricochet, +Burst Pipe
AT L A N T I C A F R E E C I T Y
Distract. Difficulty: 3. Escalation: Angry (or

maybe another PC is Hunted).
Alternately, PCs distracting security can give helping dice to PCs trying to access the server room (in
which case the helped-out PCs must roll, Difficulty:
3, to avoid detection as they leave the public area of
the seastead).
Descent
DEZHOU CHINA

Scene Type: Stealth + Action
Synopsis: Get to the source of Josines
data in a derelict and subterranean factory complex beneath the citys solar industrial zone. Learn what you can from
the criminal underlord there, called Suzerain, and escape with your lives.
Objectives:
Get past (or go through) a local criminal enterprise to locate and identify
whoevers been using Josines codes
Escape the scene with the information
you canand alive
STAR WATTAGE
omewhere beneath a solar farm

in Dezhou, someone used Josines
data to attempt access to the Hoefler
mainframe. To discover who used Josines codes, the PCs descend into a
subterranean industrial ruin inhabited
by a criminal fiefdom. In this lawless
underground they confront shadows
of revenge from the past. Can they escape with their lives and just maybe
new clues to Josines whereabouts?
This mission plunges the PCs into a
grim scene of vengeance and peril,
ending when they make their escape
into the sunlight above.
28
Begin inside the enemy complex with the mission already underway. The drama here is about what happens insideand how the PCs escape. Ask them to
describe the method they use to descend into the
complex (do they drop through derelict ventilation
ducts?) and assume theyre successful. Say something to set up the scene already in progress, like:
Youve dropped through long-cold smokestacks on
microfiber rappelling lines, the sky just a distant disc
of stars at the top of the chimneys. Youre deep into
enemy territory now, surrounded and outnumbered
the enemy just doesnt know it. Yet.
Underworld Architecture
The subterranean complex is a metallic maze of

flimsy ducts and sweating pipes and swaying walkways and defunct machinery broken up by the occasional cluster of glassy offices, all of it crowded with
tents and tin shanties that house the Suzerain outfits
thugs, underground and off the grid. This place supplied power and heat, supporting a factory on the
surface, until the company fell in some corporate war
and was paved over to make room for the solar-panel field above. The massive shaft below, still stacked
with gantries and platforms, has since become a refuge from satellites and aerial drones a squatters
safe house and secret lair.
This is a miserable place. It reeks of body odor,
ozone, and recycled air. The whole place rattles and
vibrates with the still-running HVAC units. It has a rep
as a place where trespassers get killed and the local
police dont dare to venture.
Specific routes taken through the complex dont
matter. Let the players be inventive; tell them moving
around down here is like navigating a stack of buried
oil rigs or the inside of a running engine.
Details
Fluorescent bulbs throw flickering checkerboard

shadows onto corrugated walls.
What sounds like footsteps is actually a rattling
HVAC duct.
Whiffs of ozone flit up from old machinery below.
A buzzing disharmony drones on where metal vibrates on metal.
Wave after wave of artificial warmth comes off
some enormous heater deep below.
Faded emergency signage peeks out beneath
generations of half-assed graffiti.
Reverse Engineering
When the PCs reach a plastic, clean-room workshop

deep in the complex, they find a grim lead in what
looks like Josines bald, bloody head. Except its
not Josineits a cutting-edge replica called a biodroid, cut apart and toyed with by Suzerains people. His analysts strive to reverse engineer the thing
after stealing it during a hit on a Nanotech convoy.
Theyve been hacking its memory for a few days and
even let it online briefly to see if its logins could get
them anywhere and to see who might come out
of the woodwork if they did. Now the PCs are here.
The local outfit is run by a former agent of Josines
called Kyle Singer, once known by the handle Winsome, who was left adrift a decade ago while making
a delivery in South Africa. Winsome was caught by
La Ciudad outfit thugs looking to move in on Josines
turf and imprisoned for more than a year before Chinese rivals freed him and took him in. Hes since become lord of his own criminal fiefdom hence his
new handle of Suzerain and hes putting all of that
on the line to investigate Josines disappearance...
so he can locate and destroy whats left of Josines
old network. That includes the PCs.
The biodroid body is in pieces on tables all over the

room; it clearly put out a lot of blood or blood-like fluid during the dismantling. Plugging the Josine head
into a power supply doesnt facilitate much of a conversationthe jaws broken, the tongues a mess, the
eyes just plead and starebut does allow someone
to jack into the heads memory core, get the scenes
intel, and verify that this thing contains a (somewhat
corrupted) bit of data from the Hoefler backups. The
head smells like its burning while plugged in.
To be clear, this kind of tech is brand-damn-new in
the world. This is next-gen stuff to the PCs.
Portrayal: Suzerain
Winsome can appear on a monitor in the workshop

or in person, whenever you want to introduce him as
an obstacle. Dont protect him; let the PCs decide
how Winsomes story ends by interacting with him
in the moment.
Tell the players that all of the PCs knew Winsome
back when. He was a courier, an up-and-comer, always looking to get in on a sweet mission for Josine,
to do more exciting work with the PCs.
Show them hes not like that anymore. Now hes
a bitter, lonely, paranoid man. His hate for the PCs is
eclipsed only by his jealousy. We all disappeared,
he says. I was never found. If any of you had bothered to look for me. They tortured me for information I didnt have. Because I couldnt tell them where
Josine went... or what he was really after.
Ask if any of the characters did look for Winsome
back when. Let their answers inform your portrayal of
Winsome. He wants respect and revenge but cant
have both. Does he want them to leave the head?
Does he threaten to rat them out to the Technocrats?
Does he sic his people on them? Let it play out.
29
Ascent
Once the PCs have the intel, they can attempt their
escape through the only exit at the top of the factory
complex. This might be a running battle, a stealthy
exfil op, or a tense walk out (if Suzerain let them go).
OBSTACLES
How many hits it takes to get in and out depends on

the obstacles played, not on the actual distance traveled. Some suitable obstacles:
Searching & Pathfinding
Finding a route through the rusty complex isnt easy

(Difficulty 3). Escalation: PCs trip a sensor (Hunted),
find the workshop but get locked inside (Trapped),
spend too long roaming (Exhausted), or encounter
thugs (untargeted Difficulty 2 each).
Wired Patrol
2 or 3 patrolling goons (targeted Difficulty 3 each)

are wired for soundtake them all out simultaneously or theyll radio for help. Escalation: Hunted,
more goons show up, or they drop fire doors to
leave the PCs Trapped in a section of the complex
(until they bust out).
Winsome
Talking to Winsome requires care and suavity, otherwise he sics the whole complex on the PCs. Intimidation = Difficulty 5/4; flattery = Difficulty 4/4;
heartfelt sympathy = Difficulty 4/3. Escalation:
Youre going to die like I did,(i.e., Trapped) or
You cant take Josine hes mine but you can
walk out of here knowing that Ill put the Technocrats
on your trail in an hour (Hunted). If Winsome faces
the PCs directly (Difficulty: 4+3), its here or in the
Solar Battleground.
Run and Gun
Fight free of the industrial zone in a running battle against an endless stream of 2-hit untargeted
foes. Hits not spent taking out foes can go toward an escape to the surface (5 accrued hits
total needed) but every turn a character doesnt
take out a foe is a chance for... Escalation: Angry, Exhausted, Injured, Dying; or tougher foes
arrive (3 untargeted hits each).
Solar Battleground
On the surface, a dawn battle in the solar farm

awaits. Either Winsome reneges on his promise
to let the PCs go or the PCs caused more trouble
on their way out. If nothing else, Winsomes hold
over his people proves so weak that they choose
not to let the PCs escape. Winsomes weak,
one of them says, thanks for showing us that.
One or two outfit hitmen per PC (3 targeted
hits each) plus a Fire-Breather laser-equipped
crab-like walker tank (targeted hits: 5/4/3)
confront the PCs on a concrete field crowded
with articulated solar panels while military UAV
drones (2 untargeted hits each) circle above,
film everything, and take pot shots at the combatants. Escalation: Laser burns, gashes from
broken solar panels, shrapnel from drone blasts,
an additional hitman or two appears.
End, maybe, with glare off the solar panels filling the frame before fading into the next scene.
Solar Panel Field

+Articulated Armature, +Sharp-Edged
Solar Panel, +Solar Panel Shard, +Glare,
+Live Wire, +Broken Ground,
+Rusty Scrap Metal, +Open Pit
DEZHOU CHINA
Portrayal: The Head
L AG O S N I G E R I A

Synopsis: Meet in a secure highrise with someone who has Josines
codes and negotiate for information,
possibly including Josines current
whereabouts. Get out with intel.
Objectives:
Get to the meeting without alarms.
Get in with your gear, if possible.
Gather intel.
Negotiate a fair price for Josines data.
Get out alive.
SKYLINE VIEWS
igh up in a secure luxury skyscraper, someone is using Josines logins on secure sites and
leaving breadcrumbs in their wake.
Who has Josines data, where did they
get it, and what are they doing with
it? With a bit of social engineering, the PCs have arranged a meeting
with this person who claims to have
some of Josines info from the Hoefler
databases and may be willing to bargain. He or she is willing to meet, sans
weapons, in a posh skyscraper condo
in downtown Lagos. The room: 8008.
The terms: No weapons. Its time to
get some answers.
30
The Tower
Open with the PCs striding into the sleek and shiny
lobby of the Lagos Grand Tower a mixed-use liveand-work high-rise brimming with hanging gardens
and wide balconies. The place opened just last year
and is teeming with boutiques and restaurants beneath a hundred floors of palatial apartments and
suites. That the contact would choose to meet here
suggests he or she has expensive tastes and the
funds to back them up.
Helicopters and VTOLs come and go from rooftop pads. The ground and rooftop lobbies bristle
with anti-intrusion devices and weapon detectors.
Its clear, though, that the private bodyguards of the
building tenants are allowed to conceal and carry.
Getting inside the tower is easy just sign in.
Getting weapons inside requires some ingenuity.
Characters can attempt to hide weapons on their
person (Difficulty: 5) or they can devise more elaborate approaches like, say, buying a unit in the building. A PC who cant or wont take weapons in isnt
Impaired they just cant use Tags that require that
weapon in hand.
That Face
When the PCs reach room 8008, theyre welcomed

into a wide, posh living room by huge dudes in suits
the colors of guns, each one of them adorned with
kevlar and plainly packing sidearms in shoulder
holsters. Whoever the contact is, he or she is well
protected. Then the contact emerges from the bedroom. Its Josine.
Sort of.
He looks great; hasnt aged a day. Hes in good
spirits and he seems delighted to see the PCs. You
look tired, he says. How long has it been?
Your Portrayal
First, rely on your version of Josine here, modified as

follows for this scene:
Be lively, almost jovial
Ask the PCs probing questions; push for details
His body lacks any cybernetics or scars
Make and offer drinks but do not partake
When the players have had a chance to play out
their exchanges with Josine and hopefully get suspicious move on to the twist:
Listen, Josine says. I need you to get me out of
here. Can you do that for me? The bodyguards look
at each other with confusion on their faces. Im sort
of a hostage, right? These guys are my captors. So
lets get out of here.
The bodyguards can pull guns whenever you like,
but give the PCs the chance to set the tone for this
part of the scene first. If they keep things civil and
talky, go along with it and share any intel you like.
If the PCs escalate to violence, the bodyguards are
only too happy to hurt the PCs. The intel can come
from Josines dying breathes or broken body.
Shoot the Hostage
Once its clear that Josines going to be trouble here,

the bodyguards try to take out Josine and the PCs in
that order. Things escalate fast.
If Josine cant catch a bullet during this scene, his
handlers can always remotely trigger the self-destruct on him, which burns out his systems and wipes
his memory. Josine twists and strains in agony, blood
running out of his nose and mouth. He forgets who
he is, who the PCs are, why hes there, as the drive
in his head disintegrates. Eventually hes just an enigmatic manufactured body that Nanotech can track,
loaded with intel the PCs might want.
This scene is a great chance for the PCs to load up

on intel if they can keep Josine talking and forestall
the violence. Once things turn ugly, though, make
this scene all about survival.
Walking In
The PCs should know theyre walking into a potential ambush. Tell the players straight: the thugs in the
suite with them are armed with guns and move like
theyre wired with heightened reflexes. These are
serious people. The question is if the PCs can get
out without violence or if theyd rather fight their
way to answers.
Remind the players that the PCs have lived
through ambushes before. Maybe remind them that
the moments before an ambush are a fine time to
award each other stunt dice?
Parley with the Past
The front part of this scene is all about roleplaying

the PCs. Prompt them with questions like: How
much do you give away with your expressions or
body language when you see Josine? and What
do you want to say? What do you say? and What
do you want the guards to think you think?
If the players do manage to negotiate their way
out of this scene somehow unlikely because
Nanotech wants them dead and doesnt care about
anyones life or property in this scene thats great!
Something About A Tortoise
The PCs may try to discern if this Josine is the real Josine just by talking to him. Try to handle this through
dialogue if you can. Josine keeps circling back to the
same topics, doesnt remember anything from the
past 11 years, and wants the PCs to do the talking.
31
If the players insist on making it a roll of the dice,

play along. Difficulty: 3. Escalation: Angry? Josine
doesnt freak out under any circumstances but his
guards might if they think the PCs are wise to the
ruse. They know the PCs are dangerous. Theyre
ready to shoot people (like this Josine) if they think
the PCs wont talk.
Ambush
When the guards attack, theyll automatically make

Injured any PC who doesnt go for cover or move to
fight back. The PCs should be able to take on the
guards even without all their weapons, though, by
utilizing the environment and their other Tags.
Put two more guards than PCs into the scene.
More can burst through adjoining doors or rappel
in from a balcony above, if you want. Each guard
requires 4 untargeted hits to take out. They carry
enough deadly weapons for the PCs to grab guns,
knives, telescoping swords and batons, and other
gear off them once theyre down. Escalation: Injury or worse, the VTOL gunship arrives early, more
guards arrive, or one of them tosses a grenade in the
suite that takes out two of the location Tags before
they can be used.
Hover, Aim, Fire
When you want to escalate (or when the guards are

all taken out), the windows rattle and the furniture
shakes in the apartment as a hovering VTOL gunship
rises into view beyond the balcony. It carries a hefty
machine gun and maybe more suited thugs, if you
want. These guys are willing to shoot up the whole
apartment to take out the PCs.
But they probably get too close, so they can send
in more thugs close enough that people can leap
to the VTOL for sure.
Encourage the PCs to be descriptive when

finding and taking cover. They may take the
VTOL as a sign to get the hell out of there... or
they may use it as their escape vehicle.
Dodge machine-gun fire: untargeted Difficulty 3. Take out the VTOL crew: Difficulty 4 each.
Take out the whole VTOL: Difficulty 5. Escalation: The VTOL backs away from the building to
attack from a distance (perhaps with PCs still on
board) or the VTOL crashes into the apartment
itself when the crew is dead and everyone must
make a Difficulty 4 roll to avoid a condition like
Trapped or Injured or worse by the wreckage.
Escape the Skyscraper
Escaping the skyscraper can involve wingsuits

or a stolen helicopter or the hijacked VTOL or
whatever. In general, getting to the ground floor
requires no roll but getting past security there requires a total of 10 hits rolled by the PCs before
anyone misses a roll. Getting to the roof requires
a 4-hit roll to represent hotwiring the elevator or
climbing up to the top of the building. Any stunt
that involves leaping from the building requires
just 3 hits (because no ones planned a countermeasure to that) but failure can be deadly.
Escalation: Hunted, Nanotech reprisal, or injury incurred on the way out of the scene.
Close on something like a shot of Josines
dead body, wherever it is, staring at nothing.
L AG O S N I G E R I A
OBSTACLES
Fabulous Penthouse Suite

+TV Wall, +Well-stocked Bar,
+Bottle of Fine Scotch, +Stylish Wall Sconce,
+Windswept Balcony, +28-Story Drop,
+Bulletproof Glass, +Full Modern Kitchen
Details

Scene Type: Action + Intrigue
Synopsis: Youve gotten your hands
on someone with Josines data in their
possession. Keep them talking while
you make your escape from the Seattle
city core via the privatized highway system. The corporate mercs on your tail
wont let you go easy, so drive fast.
Objectives:
Get intel out of your passenger
Escape all pursuers
S E AT T L E U S A
CALL SHOTGUN
hings have already gone to hell.

This scene opens in the midst of a
high-speed car chase. The PCs, with
a dying Josine biodroid in their custody, find themselves on the run from
UAVs, enemy drivers, extraordinaryrendition vehicles, and a Technocracy
fighter jet. Hurtling along a privatized,
elevated expressway, they must find a
way to shake or eliminate the vehicles
on their tail and see if its possible to
call this operation a rescue at all.
32
Open with a few quick details:

A million little cubes of safety glass tumble across
the dashboard.
Hot lead slugs hammer against the auto body.
The engine takes a quick breath as the driver
changes gears.
A cars horn changes pitch as you careen past it.
Drivers and Passengers
Zoom out then to reveal the situation:

The PCs are in one or more cars speeding along
the elevated Free American privatized highway
system in Seattle, Washington, USA. Theyve just
left the canyon of skyscrapers behind them and are
gunning it uphill with black luxury cars on their tail.
Corporate mercs lean out the windows of those cars,
firing dozens of bullets at the PCs car(s).
In (one of) the car(s) with the PCs, Josine is bleeding out from a gunshot wound to the chest. He
should be dead already its a bad wound.
Ask the players what kind of car(s) theyre in. They
couldve had cars ready or they couldve stolen stuff
off the street as they made their getaway. Its largely
a cosmetic decision, but tell them fewer vehicles is
better, then let them choose and ask whos driving.
Bleeding Out
This Josine is a biodroid replica made by Nanotech

and loaded with memories from the Hoefler drives,
meant to lure the PCs somewhere that they could
be killed or captured. The PCs sprang the trap and
now theyre making their getaway with a Josine shot
by his so-called bodyguards. The PCs escape has
caught a lot of attention and now theyve got a slew
of high-end corporate mercs pursuing them along a
highway four stories up.
Josines not going to make it. Make that clear. What

matters is that he can talk before he dies, revealing
the scenes vital intel before his manufactured body
reveals even more: its bugged.
Partway through the scene, Josines body gives
off a faint beeping whether hes still alive or not. A
quick inspection reveals no cybernetics the beepings coming from inside the body. Truth is, Josines
biodroid body is trackable by the bad guys. Until the
PCs shut down the tracker affixed to the inside of its
sternum (Difficulty: 4) or ditch the body, Nanotech
thugs will be on them with guns forever. (Tell anyone
in a car with Josine to mark the Hunted condition.)
A Glimmer in the Sky
Above this whole chase, a Technocracy fighter jet

takes in the scene. Reveal this if a PC takes stock of
their environment or searches the sky the jet is that
low. The Technocracy wont tolerate a lot of corporate warfare in a public place like this, so you can explain any fighter-jet intervention that way. As a guideline, the jet is there to show that the Technocrats are
watching... but you can use it to escalate the action
or to let the PCs lure it into intervention against their
pursuers, too.
OBSTACLES
Start in the middle of things; action is built right into

this scene.
The trick to this scene is to escalate and escalate
without making things tedious. If the crew makes
their escape quickly, thats fine. Play out the final minutes with the Josine replica as a quiet moment before
another wave of pursuers come looking for Josine or
before closing the scene. Dont linger here limited
time with the injured biodroid is part of the premise
of this scene, anyway.
PCs who are driving should make a roll about it (Difficulty: 2 or 3) every time their turn comes up. As the
fictional environment changes, the applicable Tags
should change, too, but repetition is fine. What matters is that each roll is a chance for Conditions to
come up. Apply Conditions to any apt characters in
the drivers vehicle, not just the driver, as the fiction
demands. A passenger might get Angry or Injured,
for example. Escalation: Enhance or add vehicles
in pursuit (a police or news copter might arrive, for
example), raising the total hits needed to escape by
2 hits each time you escalate.
Drivers need to avoid gunfire and the like from
enemy vehicles, too, to protect themselves and/or
their passengers. That takes 2 untargeted hits away
from each roll unless the drivers willing to take a new
Condition on one or more PCs, including herself, to
try and make a quicker escape. So a driver might say
Yeah, well take the Condition so we can add those
2 hits to the escape rather than avoiding attacks.
Each PC-driven vehicle needs to achieve a total
of 15 untargeted hits to escape the scene, before
escalations figured in. (Adjust that base number up
or down for a longer or shorter chase.) Taking out all
the bad guys doesnt end the need for escape rolls;
it just keeps the rolls easy (Difficulty: 2). Once the
target hits are achieved, the PCs then describe how
they vanish under a bridge or ditch the car at an airfield, or whatever they like.
The players, in other words, are rolling to keep
Conditions off themselves while trying to accrue
15 or more hits to secure their escape. If the fiction
works out such that most of the applied Conditions
would logically go away when the scene is over,
great! That requires clever descriptions on everyones parts and is a good thing to reward.
33
Bloody and Talkative
As Josine bleeds to death, reveal the intel for this

scene through him. The PCs can keep Josine talking
with medical or technical care, giving them time to
get more intel out of him with each successful roll
(Difficulty: 4). Josines body is in shutdown, though,
and cannot be kept alive for long.
If PCs devise ways to use Josines tracking device
to their advantage, thats great.
Josine dies when you say he does. (Im dying,
but thats not on you.) Have him struggle and then
exhale and go limp, have him put his head back and
quietly fade away, or have him go out shooting, if
you want. He can even take on a Condition to keep
someone else from getting it. A bad wound might
reveal torn wires loose inside of him, facilitating
some of the intel for this scene, like a serial number
that leads to Hokkaido.
Remember that pacing Josines death is part of
your job this scene.
Pursuit Vehicles
Shiny black luxury cars come rushing up behind the

PCs car(s). Start with one for each PC, each carrying
a driver and two passengers. They stay on the PCs
tail through every crazy stunt unless the PCs devote
hits to taking out the cars themselves. Each car requires 4 hits to take out; each individual passenger
requires 3 untargeted hits. Escalation: The enemies ram the PCs, increasing the drivers Difficulty to
3 for the next driving roll; the enemies deploy handto-hand missiles that must be avoided (Difficulty 4);
another pursuit vehicle shows up.
Drone Fighters
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones arrive

on behalf of the Seattle PD when you decide the
time is right. (Its when escape looks too easy or

you need to escalate off another roll.) Use them
to dramatize the escape (they watch the PCs until finally shaken) or give the drones deployable
chin guns to make them part of the action. Take
one out: 3 untargeted hits. Hack one: 4 targeted
hits. Escalation: When the local police need
help, theyll call in the Technocracy fighter jet to
close the deal with a precision strike (Difficulty 4
to avoid).
ARVs on Approach
Aerial rendition vehicles (ARVs) were built to

pluck suspect vehicles off highways in remote
parts of the world and fly the whole package to
clandestine interrogation sites. Theyre sometimes used for high-speed arrests now, too.
Each one is a twin-engine VTOL craft with a massive clamping claw slung beneath it that pins car
doors shut and then flies off with the vehicle.
Avoid getting grabbed with 3 targeted hits. Get
loose of a grab: 4 hits. Hijack an unmanned ARV
itself: 4 hits (plugged in), 5/3 hits (wireless). Escalation: Trapped. After that, the ARV flies off
with the car and a half-hour later drops it off at a
secret Technocracy interrogation site.
This scene might end with PC vehicles driving
into an underground garage or tunnel and you
describing how police find the cars empty. Dont
dwell on the details; show the aftermath.
S E AT T L E U S A
Drive
Free American Highway System

+Big-Rig Truck, +18-Wheeler,
+Random Motorcyclist, +Median Barrier,
+Digital Street Sign, +Overhead Power Lines,
+Low Tunnel, +Overpass, +Bridge
SYDNEY AUSTRALIA
A Trace of the Target

Scene Type: Stealth + Intrigue
Synopsis: Someone with Josines access codes turned up on a yacht called
Galataea, harbored here for now.
Youre not the only ones on the target,
judging by signal traffic in the area.
Shadow him without being detected by
corp spies or Technocrats and get him
to talk. Get away clean, if you can.
Objectives:
Isolate the target.
Interrogate the target.
Escape the scene.
FACE TO THE NAME
echnocrats are already on the

scene, pursuing the subject. The
PCs need to get in there and ID the
person before the Technocrats get
him. If possible, get the subject out of
the Technocracys surveillance net and
question him. It comes down to coordination. This mission opens with
the PCs on the ground in Sydney with
eyes on the target. It ends when they
escape Technocrat surveillance following their interrogation of the target or
escape Technocrat agents after escalating things to outright violence.
34
The PCs are able to get a bit of information about the

situation on the ground before they go in, thanks to
their contacts in the area hacking local civil monitoring systems. Signal traffic in the area makes it clear
that someone is using metropolitan CCTVs and civil
cameras to conduct an in-depth survey of the area
but who theyre looking for and why is unclear.
The place is crawling with visible Technocrats.
Undercover agents are probably all around, too.
Suffice it to say, the PCs are wading into heavy surveillance when they attempt to locate and question
their target. Blending into the motley background at
the public wharf may be the best way to get close,
question the target, and slip away without raising
suspicion. With this much heat in one place, raising
an alarm means a massive reprisal.
A Piece of the Man
When the PCs first lay eyes on the target, its easy
to believe that its someone made up to look like Josine, but with a beard and big aviator sunglasses.
The height, the weight, the complexion, the way the
target moves theyre all spot on.
In truth, this is a Josine biodroid and memory
shard released (and monitored closely) by Nanotech to see who it might lure out. The Technocracy
took the bait by putting their own surveillance on the
target and waiting to see who else nibbled. Todays
the day the Technocrats stop waiting. If they dont
get a bite today, they intercept which prompts
Nanotech to remotely kill the unit once its clear that
the Technocrats are too smart to give up intel during
an interrogation of something they know isnt really
Josine. The Technocrats just want the biodroid technical specs from the semi-intact specimen, anyway.
Or Else
If the PCs dont isolate or intercept their target, he

proceeds on his route through Sydneys new harborfront and returns to Galataea. Then Technocrat
agents swarm the boat, bring in VTOLs to cover
and monitor the action, and try to arrest the target.
Things die down after about 70 minutes, when the
Technocrats bring the target out in a body bag.
If you want to dial up the menace and the stakes,
Galataea can explode during the Technocrat raid.
OBSTACLES
As an op that hinges on stealth and information

gathering, the biggest threat here is the Technocrats. Some degree of detection may be inevitable
but if the surveillance catches on to all the PCs,
theyll have trouble gathering intel. If the PCs go for
brute force, they can still get some intel but make
the scene brief (and likely anticlimactic).
The idea here is that the PCs need to reach and
talk to the target without surveillance realizing
whats happening or recording the conversation.
This probably calls for some combination of jamming surveillance and subtly making contact with
the target. Options abound say yes, look for the
obstacles, and reward ingenuity.
Always use the Hunted tag against the PCs in this
scene once a face is in the manhunts database,
surveillance can pick that person out of a crowd with
ease. Thus a character may have to find other ways
to support the others once Hunted.
Interacting with the target or the surveillance
during the mission calls for rolls that fall into a few
simple categories. As ever, let the fiction and these
guidelines inform your own obstacles to model and
describe what your PCs attempt.
At each step on the targets route (see Shadowing), one or more PCs can roll to disrupt surveillance in the area using gadgets, social engineering,
physicality, or whatever. Disrupt local surveillance on
the memory shard (Difficulty: 3) without being Hunted (Difficulty: 5). Escalation: If the PC appears to be
an interference: just Hunted. If the PC appears to be
a threat: Impaired, Injured, or worse as Technocracy
agents take action to intercept the PC. A PC might
disrupt surveillance to allow another character to get
near the target.
Give Them A Fresh Target
A PC can escalate things (intentionally or through

failed rolls) to distract surveillance away from the
target in one part of the targets route. To do this, a
character must take on two conditions as a result of
that one action: Hunted and any one other. Maybe
a snipers dart leaves him Impaired or maybe almost
blowing this leg of the op leaves someone Angry?
This buys everyone else the chance to make one
roll at the targets present location in the harbor without being Hunted for a miss. (Other conditions can
apply on a miss, as usual, if you like.)
Quiet Combat
The PCs may corner and isolate undercover Technocrats or mobile operatives in an attempt to thin
the surveillance. Taking one of these operatives out
is doable (Difficulty: 3) but hard to keep quiet (Difficulty: 5). If successful, the manhunt HQ just knows
that agent Mobile One (or whoever) isnt responding to communications. Success also lowers the Difficulty for interaction by 1 (to a minimum of 2) at one
leg of the targets route. Characters can go on ahead
and prepare a leg of the route in this way. Escala35
tion: Injured in the fray; Impaired by a tranq dose

brought for the target; Hunted by Technocrats who
get a glimpse of the attacker in their surveillance net.
Shadowing
The target takes a circuitous route through the harbor front from the yacht, through a market, and back
to the yacht, stopping to browse menus, kiosks, and
merchant stalls along the way. Tracking or following
the target around is easy (Difficulty: 2) but isolating
the target for a conversation, initiating a non-suspicious conversation, or otherwise making contact
without being Hunted has a Difficulty depending on
the targets leg of the route:
1st: Spacious harbor front = Difficulty: 5
2nd: Wide-open avenue = Difficulty: 4
3rd: Crowded pedestrian lane = Difficulty: 3
4th: Coffee stand, bad sightlines = Difficulty: 3
5th: Narrow back alleyway = Difficulty: 2
6th: Wide-open avenue = Difficulty: 4
7th: Spacious harbor front = Difficulty: 5
The style of approach (cleverly blending or bodily
grabbing the target, for example) is up to the players; the Difficulty is not how hard it is to reach or isolate the target (thats just Difficulty 2) but whether or
not surveillance gets wise to whats happening and
moves to intercept, quite possibly triggering a fight
or escape sequence and leading the target to a systemic collapse (see Interrogation).
Using predictive algorithms or careful social engineering, etc., a PC can roll to predict the targets
path. Each hit reveals the Difficulty of one future
leg of the route, in order (so four hits earned on a
roll during the third leg would reveal the rest of the
route back to the yacht, for example.)
Interrogation
The target is a Josine biodroid with a beard (as

real as the rest of it) rigged to record its own actions and then break down if interrogated.
Get the memory shard to talk (Difficulty: 2)
about what you want it to (Difficulty: 4) without isolating him. If isolated, intel is automatically earned through conversation. Escalation:
Hunted, plus the target goes into systemic
collapse, wiping its own memory and dying
after transmitting photos and audio of its conversation to a Nanotech satellite. (Thus characters may be Hunted by both Nanotech and the
Technocrats after this scene; good thing a condition can only be marked once.)
Vanish
Escaping this scene requires leaving the operational environment. This can be done subtly, so
that the Technocrats dont pursue (Difficulty: 3)
or through some grand escape if the character
is chased or, say, Hunted (Difficulty: 5). A chase
might occur, but this scene isnt about that. Assume the PCs make a capable escape and incorporate that in the next recovery scene.
Characters may well be Hunted even after the
scene is over if their faces are still in Technocrat
databases as a result of this operation. Cracking
and wiping the database is the job of a recovery
scene, not a roll here.
SYDNEY AUSTRALIA
Surveillance Disruption
Public Wharf and Harbor Front

+Distracting Mercantile Barker, +Cooking Fire,
+Maze of Hanging Rugs, +Arguing Bystanders,
+Random Signal Interference, +Protesters, +A
Mistaken Identity, +Birds Take Flight
The Highlands
RURAL VIETNAM

Synopsis: Word is a secret meeting
between Nanotech engineers and
Technocrat ambassadors is happening
in rural Vietnam at a place code-named
Luminous. Some of Josines data is going to change hands, probably for a
price. Get a copy of that data and get
out alive.
Objectives:
Intercept, capture, or eavesdrop on
the data exchange. Find out whats for
sale and how the sale came about.
Escape.
LUMINOUS BEINGS
eep in the highlands of Vietnam, a

forgotten temple stands restored
for the clandestine comfort of the elite.
Once it was a holy retreat intended for
tranquility and reflection. Now its a
premiere haven for private escapes
and serene meetings. Its a technological marvel, blending ancient stone
with delicate glass restorations and
exquisite holography to create an ever-changing place called Luminous.
Get in there, spy on the Technocracys
meeting with Nanotech and find out
what theyve got on Josine thats so
valuable.
36
The PCs arrive first.

Each PC gets one roll (if necessary) to prepare for
the arrival of Nanotech and the Technocrats. Are the
PCs in disguise? Do they get a private room to work
out of or are they touring the place like potential
renters? Are some of them camouflaged in the tall
grass for the wide-angle view?
The Technocrats arrive at noon in a VTOL carrying
five Technocrat agents in identical black suits and a
diplomat in a sleek gray two-buttoner.
Nanotech arrives just after in two helicopters. One
carries half a dozen corporate soldiers, the other carries half a dozen corporate soldiers plus an executive
with chromed cybereyes and a bespoke suit.
Once on site, they meet in the courtyard at the
heart of Luminous.
The Shape of Luminous
Luminous is, roughly speaking, three concentric

stone square-shaped rings of suites, conference
rooms, spas, and caf spaces with a courtyard at the
center. No path runs straight from the courtyard to
the front door; the front door faces south, the courtyards entrance faces north, so youve got to go
through the building clockwise or counterclockwise
to get to the courtyard through the corridors.
Inside, the place is has a faux-archaic style involving all manner of artistic mash-ups: giant vases,
statuary, partitions of live bamboo, bulletproof glass
roofs, colorful banners, distressed tapestries, etc.
Luminous security is made up of cameras, heat
sensors, and live-in guards of reasonable skill, armed
with pistols. Assume about two dozen guards on
site, two-thirds on duty at once.
Breakthrough Holography
Luminous blends ancient stone, new glass, and

cutting-edge holography into a single beautiful
environment. That banner blowing in the still air?
A hologram. That wall of gold-inlaid red wood?
A faade of light projected around a thin layer of
soundproofed glass. This walls nothing but light
except for the three-feet of stone at the base; that
walls solid. Without a touch, without the feeling of
a breeze through the light, its almost impossible to
know whats solid and whats image.
Dont fret the specific layout of the place beyond
whats established above. Either scratch out a map
as you go, based on the questions you need to answer for your version of the tale, or skip the map and
let the action flow using just the big landmarks and
making up the rest.
An Old-Fashioned Double-Cross
If the PCs dont interfere, the Technocrat agents and

the Nanotech soldiers position themselves throughout Luminous, for securitys sake. The diplomat (plus
an agent) meet the executive (plus the tech and two
soldiers) in the courtyard. The diplomats called
Federigo. The executives named Ellen Branch.
The Technocrat and the executive each set tablets
on the table and begin a near-field info-swap. The
Technocrat is sending data to the executive.
Nice weather, says Federigo.
Where I go, the weathers always nice, Branch
says. Then the Nanotech soldiers gun down the
Technocrat agent standing guard.
Federigo smiles. Well done. Shall we?
Branch gestures toward Federigo and her soldiers
shoot him, too.
FUNDING FOR THIS SCENE PROVIDED BY JOHN HARPER
Chaos. Once Nanotech springs its trap, gunfights

between Technocrat agents and corporate soldiers break out throughout Luminous. Nanotechs
soldiers shoot anyone they have to as they escort
Branch and the data back to the helicopters.
The PCs are the wild cards. They get to decide
how to meddle in this affair. They might get intel
from the tablets, via signal interception, from a dying Federigo, or by other means. They might get
embroiled in the gunfight, they might manage to
stay out of it. Let it play out.
Putting on a Face
If the PCs pretend to be people theyre not, maybe

get a suite at Luminous and prep the area for their
mission, call for a roll (Difficulty: 3) to pull off the ruse.
Then let them make rolls in advance for things like
signal interception or otherwise hacking or bugging
the place for serious eavesdropping. Dont worry
about specifics; let them bug the whole place.
Signal Interception
Eavesdropping or signal interception requires a PC

to get close enough to pick up the encrypted shortrange signal between the tablets. A character might
aim a signal cutter at close range or plant an interceptor bug in the courtyard before the meet and
either might be detected. A roll can be made before
or during the meet (Difficult: 4) that doesnt get resolved until during the meet when the PC maybe
watches his bug get discovered and destroyed.
Escalation: Hunted (Someones spying on us!),
Trapped (Lock down the building.), or they cut the
signal and Branch just takes Federigos tablet.
An intercepted signal doesnt prevent transmission, so Branch still gets the data from Federigo.
37
Branch takes both tablets with her at the end of the

meet. Getting the tablets might be the best way to
get the intel.
Physical Grab
Going after the actual tablets requires taking out the

Nanotech soldiers who escort Branch (Difficulty: 3
each) and then getting one tablet (Difficulty: 4) or
both (Difficulty: 5) away from her. Escalation: Injured, Angry, or Branch threatens to wipe the data
with an EMP thatll leave characters Impaired or Malfunctioning.
Contact the Asset
It takes remarkable medical care (Difficulty: 4) to

keep Federigo from dying immediately. Every hit on
the roll to keep him alive lets him answer one question before he dies, possibly alleviating the need for
the tablet(s). Escalation: Federigo dies.
Hot Lead and Hologram Walls
Luminous is a dangerous place for a gunfight. Nanotech and the Technocrats dont seem to care. They
try to drop anyone who poses an apparent threat to
their own side in the combat. Outnumbered 2-to-1,
the agents are in trouble but theyre not doomed;
Technocrat agents are serious business (Difficulty:
untargeted 5). The Nanotech troops are less so: (Difficulty: 3). Escalation: Holograms dont block bullets. Every missed roll in Luminous that logically can
should put a Condition on another PC as stray bullets anger, injure, or otherwise mess with allies. The
best way to trump this effect is to fight without guns.
Make the action hectic in Luminous. Shattering
glass, pixelating walls, bamboo leaves everywhere,
vases exploding. Kill off agents and soldiers as you
like to show that both sides mean business.
Escape with the Prize
Branch reaches her helicopter and escapes with

the tablet in the unlikely event that the PCs just
let her do that or the second time action moves
around the table without someone trying to
thwart her. Then she gets on the helicopter...
starts flying away... and gets taken out by a missile from a circling Technocracy fighter jet. (It was
sent to monitor Federigo for just this purpose.)
The jet makes a low flyby over Luminous, if you
want, to underline the point. Maybe it takes out
the other helicopter then, too.
The explosion takes out the tablets and their
data so that no one gets it.
That same fighter jet can make it tricky to fly
out of this scene or it can suspiciously leave
the area as soon as the Nanotech helicopters
are down. Any PC who makes it from Luminous,
through the tall grass, to the jungle (Difficulty: 3)
can escape the scene on the ground. If everyones taken out, this roll isnt necessary.
Escalation: Pinned down (Trapped) by gunfire; Hunted by telemetry gathered by Luminous
security systems; Injured during the sprint to the
treeline.
End this scene, maybe, by describing the PCs
escape into the jungle as Luminous holograms
flicker and die, leaving the place smoking in their
wake. Or maybe smash cut to a recovered tablet
being data-mined in the next recovery scene.
RURAL VIETNAM
OBSTACLES
Hologram-Embellished Stone Temple

+Flickering Hologram, +Tall Grasses,
+Flapping Banner, +Hulking Statue,
+Crossfire, +Holographic Wall, +Loose
Stones, +Modern Security System, +Fireflies
BUENOS AIRESARGENTINA
Too Many Secrets

Scene Type: Intrigue + Stealth
Synopsis: Important Technocrats
and Nanotech execs are mingling at a
museum gala. Get close to them, find out
what they know, and get out without raising a ruckus.
Objectives:
Access the soiree using cover identities
and get data from the mouths or devices
of Technocrats and execs on site
Escape the scene without alerting corporate or Technocratic agents to your
plans or identities
ENEMY SOIREE
ocial functions like these are the

main points of contact between
Technocrats and megacorp agents.
This is the PCs chance to eavesdrop
on these powerful people and maybe
make them talk about Josine. It would
be rude to raise hell at such an occasion and the PCs can take advantage
of that. Yet it seems the Technocracy is expecting espionage of some
kind: they have agents throughout
the event looking to gather intel from
the Nanotech execs on site. Can the
PCs get informed without leaking that
knowledge to Technocrats?
38
Elegant Intrigue and Polite Lies
Nanotech and the Technocracy know theyre in a

kind of war with each other to control the future.
And they know all warfare is based on deception.
They come to these events to portray themselves to
the public and to each other to obfuscate their
spite. Each side knows the other is human, too human, and susceptible to wine and guile, liquor and
lust. These are places where pressures applied. It all
goes down in sight of the public so the stakes are
high... and so that the meaner, uglier, underground
factors cant come into play.
Enter the PCs. Each one to enter the gala must
be dressed for occasion. Ask each player to describe their characters finery and how they enter the
scene. Do they come in as a couple with a forged
invitation? Has someone conspired to be the plusone of local celebrity? Has someone infiltrated the
catering crew? No rolls are necessary for this step.
Let the PCs expertise and the players ingenuity carry the moment. Remind everyone that this is an apt
moment to award each other stunt dice.
Champagne comes in crystal flutes. Bartenders
pour Japanese single-malts neat. Live musicians with
amped and synchronized reflexes play at the verge
of a gleaming dance floor. Pieces of pyramids frame
the doorways. Precious artifacts from all the Americas stand in climate-controlled cages of sensitive
light. Plates of food sculpted into flowers come carried by lovely men and women in matching tuxes.
Everything is beautiful, everything is precious, everything is wired.
As seen from a monitoring position on a nearby

roof, in an observation van, or in a roving car packed
with eavesdropping gear, the museum appears as
a blinding Venn diagram of overlapping signal jammers and interference, most of it imported by Nanotech and the Technocrats, pulsing in time with onsite generators. A surveillance and eavesdropping
nightmare. Each guest within the party would seem
to be on their own inside the museum.
Instead of using this to shut down PCs who choose
to work surveillance (to stay in the proverbial van),
this gives them something to do. To monitor or interact with allies inside the museum, they must roll.
OBSTACLES
This scenes about finesse, class, and guile. The challenge for the players should be in assembling dice
pools that arent about grandiose martial arts. Stunts
here might hinge on dialogue, on wardrobe, on
savoir faire and on the subtle stealth of the overseers in the van outside.
Getting NPCs to talk here may be surprisingly
easy; this scene is a good way to get intel to the PCs.
This scenes all about intel and appearances. The
question is how it all gets dramatized. How does an
Angry character manifest that condition here? What
does it look like if a character gets Trapped in a polite
conversation with someone they cant stand? What
dice pool do they roll to get rid of that condition?
The antagonists want to keep everything civil here
but Nanotech and the Technocracy have long memories and strong reflexes so you may have reprisal
scenes to play out after this.
FUNDING FOR THIS SCENE PROVIDED BY DAVID GALLO
Putting a data tap on someones device (Difficulty:

4) without being spotted (Difficulty: 5) requires one
gadget to get within 3 inches of the gadget to be
tapped. Fabric and clothing dont matter here. The
roll can be made by whatever PC prepared the tap,
not just the PC whos actually getting close to the
gadget being ransacked. E.g., if Emily gets one of
Tanks gadgets near a Technocrats phone, either
Emily or Tank can make the roll to get data (and thus
intel) out of that phone. Escalation: Hunted by
suspicious foes, Trapped by bodyguards, Angry it
didnt work, Impaired by a malfunctioning gadget.
Penetrate the Jamming Spheres
The museums encrypted internal monitoring is on

a frequency free of jamming but everyone with a
museum earpiece can hear what happens on that
frequency. Eavesdropping on those communications (Difficulty: 4) or cutting through the jamming
(Difficulty: 5) on other frequencies allows temporary
monitoring and even communication with people
inside the party.
Every hit allows someone outside the party to
monitor, help, or make one roll that effects the inside
of the party. So, if Tanks in the van and she gets 7 hits
to cut through the jamming sphere, the next seven
rolls are hers to help with or make on someones
behalf, if the fiction makes sense. (Maybe Tank can
google a name Alex overhears inside, for example.)
If she chooses not to help or participate on a roll, it
still counts against her total. Escalation: Hunted by
guards who detect the data leak, Trapped in the van
by suspicious guards, Impaired by redoubled jamming efforts, Angry it didnt work.
39
Get a Nanotech Exec Talking
Getting a Nanotech exec to reveal intel (Difficulty:

4) without appreciating what hes done (Difficulty:
5) might require wine, distractions, or other forms
of suasion. Once an exec realizes hes shared something valuable, he gets near bodyguards and stays
there the rest of the night. Once three such execs
are thus castled, they convene and share their suspicions about anyone pumping them for intel. Escalation: Trapped by a nosy conversationalist, Impaired
by an enhanced jammer activated by the target, Angry with Nanotech arrogance, etc.
Get a Technocrat Talking
Technocrats are more difficult to get to share intel

(Difficulty: 5) but they dont panic the same way
when they do. Once a Technocrat has shared intel,
she turns the tables and asks questions back, requiring the PC to make a roll (Difficulty: 4) to avoid
revealing something about themselves, even accidentally. (Your accent... where did you pick it up?)
Escalation: Hunted by a suspicious Technocrat,
Trapped by agents at the door, Impaired by a microinterference emitter on your person, etc.
Stabbing and Stashing
If things take a turn toward action rather than intrigue

and stealth, PCs can salvage the situation with a roll
to forestall a condition like Hunted or Trapped for a
number of turns equal to their hits on a roll to do so.
Elegant Museum Gala

+Giant Stone Head, +Priceless Vase,
+Champagne Flute, +Murmuring Crowd,
+Swelling Music, +Dance Floor, +Wine,
+Captivating Portrait, +Dimly Lit Gallery
Maybe they hide a drugged body in a dimly lit

gallery or perhaps they leave bodyguards thinking someones making out in the bathroom.
Eventually, the ruse is revealed and the condition applied. By then, maybe the PC has fled the
scene or the player has concocted a new strategy to get one or two more bites of intel?
Cutting In
If the scene turns into outright action, heres the

numbers you need to know:
Museum guard = 2 untargeted hits
Hired security = 3 untargeted hits
Nanotech exec = 3 hits
Nanotech guard = 4 untargeted hits
Technocrat emissary = 4 hits
Technocrat agent = 5 hits
The guest list sports 150 names, each with
one or more guests in tow, plus caterers. The
hired security has guns, everyone else was disarmed at the door... so Nanotech and the Technocrats brought guards and agents trained in
martial arts. An elegant ballet of battle through
the gallery might make a fine finale here.
If a grand escape is in order, assume its possible (Difficulty: 5) for anyone who has no
Trapped condition marked (Difficulty: 4 to shed
that condition). Maybe this is why someone
stayed in the van was to make the roll to pull up,
pick up the partygoers, and escape into the city
with stunt driving? Escalation: Now the Injury
conditions come into play again.
All that said, dont force an action finale to this
scene. They can stride out with their gift bags
and gathered intel right into a recovery scene.
BUENOS AIRESARGENTINA
Ransack A Device
Dark Complex
H O K K A I D O J A PA N

Scene Type: Action + Stealth
Synopsis: Intel points to a cuttingedge Nanotech biotechnology factory
in Hokkaido. Sneak in there, make the
place less secret. Ruin it, maybe. Take
the fight to them.
Objectives:
Gather Intel
Ruin the place
NINJA FACTORY
anotech has a secret development facility running in Hokkaido. The PCs set out to make it less secret, maybe destroy it. This is where
Nanotech builds its biodroids and
not just the familiar model. Open
deep inside the factory complex. The
PCs have taken the facility. Getting
out? Alive? Takes steel and nerves.
The place is crawling with cybernetic
assassins manufactured there from
breakthrough biotech and trained on
the bought and stolen memories of
top-tier street samurai like them. This
is where Nanotech thinks it finally gets
revenge.
40
The factory is a nameless compound on a wooded

plateau. Its hidden from satellites by natural cover
and layers of black-glass signal-interrupting slabs
that give the place the look of a low Japanese castle,
its image flattened in Photoshop. The whole place is
sticky with sap and dusted with fallen needles from
the trees. A new city of prefab corporate housing
glows in the distance.
The only signs marking the place say Keep Out
in a list of languages. Each sports scanner codes
shiny black on matte black indicating the place is
property of Armingshire, Inc., a subsidiary of Nanotech. Laser fencing, heat sensors, spider cameras;
the whole compound says go away. More than
that, the place appears to be finely tuned for long
stretches of automation, from loading and unloading whatever it is they manufacture to security systems. A skeleton crew of memory-blocked Armingshire soldiers patrols and oversees the site.
In the Heart
Start in the heart of the compound, with the PCs

making their entrance into the main factory building
at the center of it all. Each PC pays a simple price
to be here: Have each player mark one condition
of their choosing. Ask the player to briefly describe
how their condition was acquired on the way into
the factory compound. Conditions might have been
acquired on the grounds or during prep for the mission (if, say, Emily was Recognized by a local contact
while acquiring stealth suits for everyone).
Begin with the PCs entering the factory floor. Do
they drop in from above? Cut or blast a hole in a
wall? Climb out of vents in the floor? Its up to them.
Overlooking the factory floor is a glass-walled computer lab that runs the site.
Revelation
Between the PCs and the computer lab is a revelation: Nanotech has successfully expanded into the
Uncanny Valley. The factory floor is an automated
assembly plant for the creation of biodroid bodies.
Each one is a mix of vat-grown or artificial organs and
alloy skeletons, running off of organic brains netted
with silicon fibers and packed tight with redundant
veins and wiring.
The factory here is stocked with dozens of unfinished cyborgs with installed cybereyes but blank
faces. No noses, featureless mouths, just holes and
slits in a fine membrane representing flesh and hair
to be added later.
The place is asleep. No biodroids are being built
tonight. Eerie calm.
Exploring the facility yields other doses of vital
intel (see the intel section). Cables running from the
computer lab above to robotic arms on the factory
floor show where memories get installed. Reaching
the computer lab or interacting with the factorys machines or products triggers the first true obstacle in
the scene, however: the ninja.
Hidden throughout the factory and computer lab,
amid the shadows and steel struts, the robot arms
and the unfinished biodroids, lurk prefab biodroid
assassins programmed to kill intruders intruders
they have been waiting for.
OBSTACLES
This scene is meant to be a brutal fight against relentless foes a fight that can be outsmarted. The ninja
have no fear, no doubt, no remorse. Theyre tough.
All the while, as they hunt and try to slay the PCs with
blades and bullets, the cold eyes of automated security transmit all of it back into the biodroids master
control program for real-time training.
The manufactured biodroid warriors stalking the

factory complex sport reinforced alloy skeletons
wrapped in a tough polymer hide dressed in colorchanging stealth suits, round goggles, and masks.
Theyre all identically dressed and designed. No
noses, sealed mouths, next-gen cybereyes. Each
one is loaded with training files cultivated from dozens of Nanotech soldiers and hired mercenaries
who sold some of their knowhow to the megacorp.
PCs with martial-arts Tags and experience recognize a mix of forms and styles in the assassins movements and methodology. They transition from Krav
Maga to karate to Muay Thai with fluid grace, aiming
to break the PCs down to a point of surrender, so
their memories can be downloaded and ransacked
by the company.
Each is armed with a blockish, suppressed pistol,
a punch dagger, and a curved micro-edged short
sword with finger loops (like brass knuckles) rather
than a traditional grip.
They do not breathe. They bleed only a grainy oil
or a slick, clear fluid, depending on the injury. Each
individual foe requires massive trauma to take out,
and even then they tend to fight on as theyre able
(Difficulty: untargeted 5+3).
The PCs should start off by facing one assassin per
PC. Slay one and two more appear, even off the assembly line if necessary. The trick is for the PCs to
control how quickly the foes fall so the PCs dont
get overwhelmed. Winning this fight requires either
ingenuity in the computer lab above or a big idea.
Escalation: First Injure, then mark a non-Injury
condition or two. Tell players they can mark conditions on their PCs to protect someone else. A PC
thats Hunted or Trapped can keep foes focused on
him, dodging attacks (Difficulty: 4) to stay alive.
41
Robot Ninja Fighting Style
A few things you can do to describe this fight in

great detail:
Copy the description of a PCs move to show
the biodroids are learning their ways. (It moves just
like you did, the same poise and bearing, leveling
your own style against you.)
Use weapons to pin PCs and mark the Trapped
condition. In a flat, robot voice the ninja speaks:
Tell us where Josine is.
The biodroid rolls out of a wound that would
kill or disfigure a living person, a single drop of oil
beaded on its cut throat, a scar across its armored
eyes, whatever.
Digital Strike
A PC who gets into the computer lab above the factory floor (smashing through the glass works) can
access Nanotech systems by cutting through the
local security (Difficulty: 5/4/4). Doing so gains the
PC intel for the scene (which can be handily downloaded to flash memory if they dont want to wait
around for exposition while their cohorts get cut to
pieces) as well as access to the biodroids master
control program. This tells the PC that a stockpile of
these biodroids waits underneath the factory ready
to emerge, a few at a time, to slay the PCs. Dozens
of them are down there a loaded magazine of artificial ninja. Itll take more than gall and might to take
them out.
Escalation: The PC isnt just fighting against static security, she is also battling Nanotech IT operatives attempting to thwart her efforts from afar. Opponents can Impair her network access or leave her
Trapped in a sub-system, for example. Alternately,
each missed roll attracts one of the already-fighting
ninja, who targets the hacker on his/her next turn.
Master Control Program
With access to the biodroids master control program, a PC can give orders to those still lined up
below the factory floor, waiting to come forth
and fight. The PC can put them to sleep, bring
them out to fight their siblings, wipe their training, etc. (Each is primed with a remote kill switch
that Nanotech uses to shut them down via satellite if they leave the compound without authorization, though.)
A Big Idea
Your players may concoct a big idea to clear

the whole place out of biodroids in one move.
Good! They deserve a big escape. The big idea
here depends more on the fiction than the dice
the players need to come up with something
that they believe is sufficient to close out the
scene. Ask questions to help them hone in and
break down the big idea into a number of obstacles equal to each PC still standing, so that everyone gets a chance to help out. (Err on the side of
too few rolls rather than too many.) Make the Difficulty for each roll about 4 (and you can punch it
up by using a condition against each PC or lower
it to 3 to represent an easier action).
Maybe the PCs are pursued out by 50 assassins. Maybe the PCs walk away in slow-motion
while the factory burns. Close on a small detail
like the flash drive or cinders rising toward stars.
H O K K A I D O J A PA N
Faceless Foes
Secure Next-Gen Factory Building

+Razor-sharp Assembly Tools, +Spinning Fan,
+Cutting Laser, +Decorative Bamboo,
+Rack of Cyberlimbs, +Huge Flatscreen,
+Liquid Coolant, +Jet of Steam & Sparks
Renaissance

Scene Type: Intrigue + Stealth
Synopsis: Intel points to a Technocracy
signal-intercept operation based in a
manor in this medieval hill-town. Go
and get some answers about the operation youre mixed up in now. Find out
the truth.
Objectives:
Contact the Technocracy case agent
Get intel
Exfiltrate
P E R U G I A I T A LY
EX URBIS AD ASTRA
ts time to reach out to the Technocrats and see what they know. Since
youre reaching out, you might as
well put a hand around their throat.
Threat analysis and signal intercepts
suggest a suitable site for contact: a
Technocracy consulate in an urban
villa in Perugia, Italy. Quietly get inside the Technocrat manor there and
put pressure on someone until they
talk. Whats revealed could change
the future for everyone. It all happens
against the backdrop of a lovely nighttime festival in a picturesque town.
42
Perugia is an intersection of tradition and technology. Tonight, its people celebrate a centuries-old
festival with wine, liquor, local foods, traditional
dances, and old-fashioned music and it all happens
around strings of LEDs, holographic statuary, and
antique art projected on ancient walls. Its a night of
festive revelry on the streets of Perugia.
On the Inside
Open this scene inside the rustic stone passages of

the Technocracy consulate, close on the PCs who
are already inside. Ask the players what their characters look like in this scene. Did they come in wearing
infiltration gear, everyday clothes, or dressed for a
social engagement? Are they skulking or strolling or
striding in slow-motion past tapestries and crossed
swords? Build things up here as they move through
the villa try a little repetition to play for tension:
The guards who tried to stop you lay unconscious
behind you. Each room you pass looks warm, inviting, empty. Posh parlor? No one there. Shining modern kitchen? No one there. Hardwood dining hall?
Not a soul. But up ahead, in a round room deep in
the villas stony core, where fiber-optic cables converge from every corridor, someones typing.
Try to play the entrance here for a reveal. If the
PCs want to make an action-packed entrance, remind them its probably not necessary theyve
got the drop on whoevers inside that round room.
You must decide how to play the entrance, though.
The Technocrat inside is a character you want them
to take seriously, play a dramatic scene with, so the
right foot might be to show the PCs that she is a reasonable person, not a showoff or an asshole.
The round room is part of a medieval tower,

packed with monitors, servers, relays, and modems
from its polished stone floor to its arched timber ceiling. Definitely the right gear for a signal-monitoring
case agent right gear for tracking people. Below a
window on the far side of the room, Perugias nighttime revelry carries on.
The rooms sole inhabitant is a woman in a smartlooking battleship-gray suit. She looks familiar.
Counteragent
Here the PCs meet Cornelia Wolcott (aka Carolyn

Killebrew), who one or more PCs recognize even
if she hasnt appeared on screen before now. As
explained in the intel section, Cornelia is a Technocracy agent assigned to one of the PCs to gather intelligence on Josine and his history.
Now the PCs learn the truth.
Agent Cornelia Wolcott is certainly the same
woman the PC(s) knew before but her Technocrat
suit and tie and coifed flapper-like hair give her a
weirdly anachronistic vibe. Still, she could wear that
suit on a magazine cover, she look so comfortable
in it.
Agent Wolcott is cooperative to a point. My biometrics are constantly monitored, she reveals. If I
let my hear rate rise or if my vitals go dark, things get
worse for everyone. Can we talk?
Cornelia reveals any intel necessary to help the
PCs (and the players) patch together the truth about
the Technocracy/Nanotech battles going on.
She is as quick or languid or measured as you like.
She knows the PCs are dangerous but shes no coward and shes not afraid to die for the Technocracy.
Shes also not willing to bend some rules if it means
helping Josine, who she worked with as a Technocrat
and has come to admire even more over the years as
OBSTACLES
Getting out of the Perugia consulate is only worth

playing out the action sequence for the escape if the
players clearly want it. Cornelia can cover their escape, if you want to underline her helpfulness; she
can deactivate the consulates tracking suites so the
agents will have to follow the PCs using traditional
tactics. She happily offers this in exchange for her
life, if the PCs are especially cold-blooded.
Espionage
PCs can get additional intelligence out of Cornelias

computer lab by bugging or actively meddling with
any of the machines present. Theyre tied into the
Technocracys signal intercept system for the Mediterranean and western Europe. This isnt immediately useful but a PC can use Cornelias logins (theyll
expire and reset passwords in a few hours) to access
Technocrat surveillance satellites and minor communications. (The lab is meant for signal parsing, not
for issuing orders.) Still, this might be a handy way
for a PC to erase some trails, mislead pursuers, or
otherwise take action.
43
Short version: PCs can use these computers to

verify Cornelias story, wipe out any lingering Hunted condition (Difficulty: 4), and otherwise erase
Technocracy files on them where Cornelia has write
access. After all this time on their case, thats quite a
lot of files. This is a chance to delete their records in
preparation for a big new move, making it harder for
the Technocrats to see them coming.
Exfiltrate
Getting out of the Technocracy manor (Difficulty: 4)

is automatic with Cornelias help. The PCs can stride
back out into the celebration or climb out a window
onto Perugia rooftops or otherwise take the exit they
prefer. Technocrats are en route, though, coming in
VTOL craft and shiny sedans.
To play this without a chase scene, describe Technocrats in black suits piling out of sedans and landing their VTOLs on the roof. They confront Cornelia
at the manors door and she shrugs. Pull back this
is all visible through a PCs binoculars or cybereyes.
If shes bugged or otherwise miked, the PCs can
hear her say, Theyre gone. No telling where they
show up next.
A Technocrat in a black suit watches her get on
the VTOL and fly away.
Escape
If you want the escape sequence, its a chase across

red-tiled rooftops, through winding streets, through
crowds of revelers and displays of medieval art rendered in holography. Each PC requires a total of 10
hits to escape, but the Difficultys 5, so every roll
less than 5 doesnt count toward the escape. That
Difficulty drops to 4 if Cornelias helping them escape (and make sure the players know that) as she
transmits little warnings to each PC on their first roll
(Theyre coming up on your left, she says, or,

Make the next left!). PCs can also aid each other by sharing any hits in excess of the Difficulty
with another PC. So, if Yoshi rolls 7 hits on a Difficulty 4 roll, he can use all 7 or divide the 3 over
and above the Difficulty between, say, Utseo and
Alex, to help them out. Yoshis player should describe what that help looks like.
PCs can attempt to blend into the crowd,
split up and flee, board a waiting stealth helo, or
whatever else makes sense in the fiction you all
have built up by this point. Maybe they have a
contact waiting whos been established in a previous scene? This is a great place to reincorporate earlier escape details.
Once every players made their first roll (successful or not), Cornelia says, Good luck, Ive
got to go, and offers no more verbal assistance.
The Difficulty stays 4 for the rest of the sequence,
though, to model the lead the PCs have over the
Technocrats.
Once a PC has their 10 hits, they can stay in the
chase to help others and then blend, vanish, or
flee whenever they want. Escaped PCs an even
reenter the scene to help out other PCs, though
they need a roll (Difficulty: 4 or 5) to escape again.
Escalation: Trapped in a cul-de-sac or tower;
Angry over the intel gathered; Impaired by blinding hologram light or booming fireworks; Injured
by Technocrat agents.
Nighttime Celebration
+Live Music, +Lively Dancers, +Banners,
+Sudden Applause, +Strings of Lights,
+Smiling Street Vendor, +Fireworks,
+Laser-light Show, +Peal of Church Bells
P E R U G I A I T A LY
she studied his work and the company he kept. Cornelia is not the enemy. She reminds the PCs of this
she may have helped them out earlier in this story.
This conversation with Cornelia, whether it happens at gunpoint, through bloody teeth, or quietly
whispered under the noise of the celebration in the
streets outside, is the real centerpiece of this scene.
Dont rush it, dont drag it out. Its all about the information. Let the PCs set the tone again.
When things are on the verge of played out, she
fesses up again: I thought you were going to kill
me. My heart rates probably alerted agents by now.
We should get you out of here.
Mood and Motive
N A N OT E C H R E P R I S A L
Placement: Interrupt
Scene Type: Varies
Synopsis: Nanotechs minions and mercenaries have found you and they dont care if
they get you alive or dead.
Objectives:
Repel, outwit, or escape reprisal
TITAN OF INDUSTRY
anotech is a titan an angry,

petty titan that likes to get its way.
Now its coming for the PCs. Just like
old times. Nanotech doesnt negotiate with criminals and hostile agents.
They send violent reprisal, bent on
shutting the PCs down for good. Of
course, they tried this years ago and
the PCs are still standing.
44
Nanotech is a massive conglomerate, a zaibatsu

empire with a long-term goal of benefiting key
markets through aggressive innovation.
Its not that Nanotech thinks they should have
a monopoly on any particular industry, its just that
they dont believe theyve ever met a worthy competitor. They rig the playing field and then lament the
inability of other companies to play at their level of
sophistication (or trickery) and commitment (or ruthlessness). They decide whats fair play as they make
their moves and blame anyone who cant keep up.
To Nanotechs executives and officers, thats what a
meritocracy is.
The PCs, then, are dangerous variables with no
appreciation for how their reckless actions destabilize markets and undermine the robust economic
forces of megacorporate interactions that make
up a healthy global environment. The PCs can be
squashed (a great short-term solution in the companys 100-year plan) or they can be profited from
(a more difficult and potentially worthy endeavor)
but squashing them is a safer move, even if it gets
people killed in the short term.
Who
Nanotech employs mercenaries, corporate soldiers

from a variety of subsidiaries like Armingshire, and
freelance assassins. Foes might be black-clad specops mercs, drab Nanotech soldiers with gas masks
and compact SMGs, or up-and-coming hitmen and
hitwomen eager to cut their teeth on notorious free
agents. Nanotech prefers to overwhelm with cheap
firepower when possible.
Where
Nanotechs reprisals focus on safe houses and nested PCs, but you can remix several of these into mobile raids on private yachts and the like.
The answer to the question, How did they find
us? is inside conditions like Hunted, Revealed,
Recognized, and even Impaired or Injured. Its a
tough and sordid world, full of little betrayals. Maybe someone sold the PCs out. Maybe someone on
the street called in a tip to their corporate masters.
Nanotech may just be systematically searching safe
houses they pretended not to know about or relying
on complex predictive algorithms to track PCs out of
previous scenes and strike before they can recover.
Selecting the Play
Dont rely on Nanotechs ambitions and spite when

selecting a reprisal scene. Instead, play a scene that
adds variety to your story. If the characters havent
been able to test their stealth or intrigue chops, give
them a reprisal that lets them do that. The megacorp
keeps them guessing.
Remember to use reprisals to build up tension,
rapport, appeal, menace not to tear down.
OBSTACLES
You might be able to play two reprisals at once to

maximize the tension and appeal for multiple players. Maybe a Nanotech rep approaches one PC on
the street while Armingshire troops storm the safe
house up the block, for example.
These short-form obstacles list the Difficulty for
various sample actions that might come up. Use
these as guides to set the Difficulty for other actions.
FUNDING FOR THIS SCENE PROVIDED BY ZACHARY NORTH
Theyre hereNanotech wants to take you in for what

you did (wherever) and theyve brought a damn Special Weapons team. This safe house is blown. Get out
of there!
Obstacles: Fight a corp trooper: untargeted 3.
Run a gauntlet of troopers without getting Trapped
or Injured: 4. Rooftop chase: untargeted 3 (three
times). Intimidate trooper team to buy time: 3. Negotiate to buy time: 2. Shed the Hunted condition
through trickery or dumb luck: untargeted 5.
Escalation: Call in more SWAT officers. Get into
cars and try to outrun a corp helicopter. Bring me
everyone.
Action: Chase Scene
That last safe house was a bust. Nanotech was waiting

for you. Now youve got to shake them again. Do you
flee on foot or grab a vehicle? Are you all together or
do you split up?
Obstacles: Each vehicle needs to overcome
the escape Difficulties: 4/3. Shed the Hunted or
Trapped condition: 3. Players in the same vehicle are
all Hunted or Trapped together until they split up,
then the driver bears the condition alone.
Escalation: Cut off by a big rig that gets orders
from above. Backup arrives. Vehicle gets shot dead,
leaving PC on foot (or the player brainstorming a
new vehicle).
Action: Revenge, Served Hot
Someone from the old days has word that youre

back in action and they want to put a stop to you.
Do you remember me? asks the assassin doing this
job for free. Because I remember you.
Obstacles: Battle another old pro from back
when: 4. (Try one vengeful killer per PC.) Intimidate
45
foe into backing down: 5. Get foe to tell you where

he got data on you: 4. (Answer: from Nanotech.)
Escalation: The fight draws local police. The
fight rambles out into the rain, onto a highway, or
against a slowly breaking window.
Action: Make An Escape
Youre in the hands of Nanotech R&D, locked in some

sea-tossed lab in international waters, waiting for the
execution orders to make it up and down the hierarchy so the right executive officer can take credit for
your death. Yeah, no.
Note: Play this scene if the PCs get caught in
another scene to model their potential escape.
Wheres Nanotech taking them? Anywhere you like.
Maybe to Hokkaido for memory extraction?
Obstacles: Escape bonds: 3. Break bonds:
4. Quietly: 5. Hotwire security door: 4. Fight off
Nanotech R&D staff: untargeted 2. Fight Nanotech
troops: untargeted 3. Reach the deck, a porthole, or
a hatch: 3. Secure transport: 3. Disappear into the
ocean storm: 3.
Escalation: A wave shifts the deck underfoot.
Someone brings firepower too serious for the situation. A fire starts. A fire spreads. A live wire gets
loose. The ship takes on water. No more lifeboats.
Intrigue: Corporate Defector
A former Nanotech exec, beaten and high, wants to

help you with intel on the company. Youve got to
get me off the street, he says. I need a safe house.
Obstacles: Detect the bug inside the defector
(that even he doesnt know is there): 4. Without setting it off: 5. Get the defector to talk: 3. About things
that you dont already know: 5. (He knows that Nanotech is planning a reprisal action against the PCs.)
Save the defector from poison: 4. Extract the bug: 4.
Escalation: The surgically implanted bug

poisons the defector and starts transmitting his
location. Nanotech helicopters show up to drop
rockets or troopers on the PCs. The defector
dies.
Intrigue/Stealth: Bug the Block
Nanotech has figured out roughly where you are.

Theyve surrounded the block with trucks and put
helicopters in the air. Parabolic mikes and snipers
are everywhere. We just want to talk booms
a voice through a hundred speakers. Whatever
you say in this surveillance net, theyll hear it.
Obstacles: Maintain calm and civility: 2.
While you make your escape: 4. Exit the surveillance zone: 5/4/3. Negotiate (to stall): 4 (buys a
roll with no escalation). Scan the area for gaps: 4
(lowers the escape Difficulty to 4/3/2).
Escalation: Oh, they definitely heard that.
More Nanotech troops arrive. They go door-todoor. Rooftop sensors deploy.
Stealth: With Laser
You wake up to see a targeting laser playing

across the windows. Then another. Then the lasers go invisible. Somewhere out there, snipers
are waiting for you.
Obstacles: Go somewhere they cant see
you: 3. Go somewhere they cant reach with
high-caliber sniper rounds: 4. Locate a sniper: 4.
Blind a sniper to buy yourself an escape roll without escalation: 3. Escape the scene: 5.
Escalation: A round hits something delicate
and a fire starts. The fire spreads. Cover gets eroded by a wide-beam laser emission; find new cover.
Pinned down by crossfire.
N A N OT E C H R E P R I S A L
Action: Nanotech Raid
T E C H N O C R AC Y R E P R I S A L
Who
Scene Type: Varies
Synopsis: The Technocracy has agents,
assets, and operatives worldwide, all
ready to persuade, pursue, and attack
who their handlers tell them to. A lot of
them are aimed at you.
Objectives:
Outwit, repel, or escape reprisal.
SMART GUNS AND TEA
echnocrats like to talk with tea in

hand and a loaded gun under the
table. They genuinely want a peaceful world of progress and enlightenment and theyre willing to kill to create it. Kill you, for example. They
believe their vision of the future must
win out for the sake of the species and
the planet that the Earth rotates on a
knifes edge and without a benevolent
dictator to protect us from ourselves,
were all doomed.
46
Atmosphere and Approach
The Technocracy is government without a nation

some say a phantom government built to protect like-minded creators, inventors, technologists,
investors, and citizens of all stripes wherever they
might live. Pay your taxes to the Technocracy, get
dual citizenship. The Technocracy maintains consulates all over the world and in orbit for the protection
of its valued citizenry. It works with local governments to regulate and improve international and
business relations all over the planet.
They believe its their job to regulate the future,
to ensure that technology, science, business, and
governments progress on a trajectory that doesnt
leave whole hemispheres behind or shake the globe
apart. They believe that, together, through supervised crowdsourcing and a standing intelligence
agency of world-class agents, they can make the
world a better place through reason, compassion,
and measured progress. They believe they know
better about whats good for humanity.
Theyd be the good guys if they were really good
at getting the job done. In practice, while their
agents are masterful and their diplomats extraordinary, the Technocracy is a divided, erratic body
doing less than its best to keep corporations from
destroying each other in open warfare. Its wins are
big... but so are its failures.
To the Technocracy, the PCs are volatile agents in
a combustible landscape. But the PCs may yet be
useful, so the Technocracy wants them wrangled.
The Technocracy employs its own special agents

and intelligence personnel. It also deploys local police and governmental resources through treaties
that are essentially short-term leases in exchange
for significant funding or other assistance. Technocrats arent above employing freelance assets for the
jobs that call for them, but to keep things clear, the
reprisals described here focus on Technocratic and
national assets.
Where
Technocracy assets are everywhere. They see

through municipal cameras and CCTVs. They scour
the data from fare cards and airplane charters. They
keep files on everyone that help them predict peoples choices in key environments. Its not a question of how the Technocrats find the PCs again its
when. Withhold Technocracy reprisals only if the
players are diligent about avoiding conditions like
Hunted, Revealed, or Recognized before they leave
a scene.
Even then, unless they devise great ways to hold
recovery scenes off the grid every time, the Technocrats can find them. Dont use that to punish the PCs
or players! Remind them that Josine was a Technocrat once; theyre good at this part of the job.
Selecting the Play
Play a scene that adds variety to your story. If the

characters havent been able to test their stealth or
intrigue chops, give them a reprisal that lets them do
that. The Technocracys subtle and tenacious.
Remember to use reprisals to build up tension,
rapport, appeal, menace not to tear down.
FUNDING FOR THIS SCENE PROVIDED BY G. M. SKARKA
You might be able to play two reprisals at once to

maximize the tension and appeal for multiple players. Maybe a Technocrat approaches one PC at the
hotel bar while another knocks on the door upstairs.
These short-form obstacles list the Difficulty for
various sample actions that might come up. Use
these as guides to set the Difficulty for other actions.
Action: Containment Squad
A squad of Technocrats in on your tail. Theyre out

to bring you in. The only reason theyve been sloppy
enough to let you know theyre coming is to rattle
you, get you to make a mistake. Each ones got a cutting-edge smartgun, probably loaded with sensory
stims one hit and youll think youre on fire. Get out
of there!
Obstacles: Dodge a sensory stim round: 3. Take
out a containment agent: 4. (One agent per PC is
about right.) Disguise yourself so smart-gun sensors
wont recognize you: 4. Escape the scene: 4/3.
Escalation: Call in more containment agents.
Bring in a VTOL to track runners. Load up a double
dose of sensory stims.
Action: Escaping Custody
Youre in Technocracy custody, hands bound and

body locked in a glass-and-metal cell in the belly of
some colossal aircraft. Maybe youre bound for interrogation in some orbiting spindle. Maybe they drop
the whole cell into a prison someplace. Wherever
youre headed, itll be more secure than where you
are now. Time to get out.
Note: Use this scene to model what happens if
the PCs get caught in another scene. The plane can
be bound for another reprisal scene or to a venue of
your choosing until the PCs make their escape.
47
Obstacles: Get your hands free: 3. Get out of

the cell: 5. Take down the security agents: 4 each
(two agents per PC). Take control of the unmanned
aircraft away from the remote pilots: 4+3. Land the
aircraft: 4. Escape the aircraft in midair: 3. Land a
parachute: 3.
Escalation: The guards threaten to drop the cell
from the plane. (Its a bluff.) The agents fight back.
The remote pilots
Intrigue: Unofficial Capacity
A Technocrat without a warrant, without sufficient evidence, finds you at the [bar/caf/club/beach] and
just wants to chat in an unofficial capacity.
Obstacles: Avoid admitting your identity: 3.
Avoid admitting what you did: 2. Get the Technocrat
to give up more information than you do: 4. End the
conversation and get out without being tailed: 4.
Escalation: The talk turns into a shouting match.
The Technocrat is insulted and vows to ruin you.
Your bosss end was a mystery, but yours will be a
front-page disaster. Someone pulls a gun.
Intrigue: High-Stakes Game
Some of you are sitting down at a poker table in an

underground club nearby when you all see the pin:
Technocrat. Judging by the way she carries herself,
not some casual player, but an agent. They dont get
noticed by accident. Deal me in?
Obstacles: Maintain a false persona: 2. Establish
a rapport: 2. Steer the talk to veiled threats: 3. Lure
someone into a heads-up hand: 4. Intimidate or coerce intel out of your target at the table: 5. Spot her
tell: 5. Win a pot: 4. Without knowing her tell: 5.
Escalation: Your mark wants to know more about
you. The agent calls your exact hand. Raise. Re-raise.
All-in. The agent says, See you around.
Intrigue: Turn the Other Coat
This guys good, but hes not the world-class agent

youd expect them to send after you. He got close
before you picked up on him. He passed you
the metal business card thats almost certainly a
tracking device. He wants to deal. Tell me where
Josine is, he says, and we can bring you in.
Note: This scene shows that not everyone
knows whats going on inside the Technocracy.
This guys not lying hes trying to solve the
problem of the PCs in a lateral fashion. This
scene can throw a wrench into things if the PCs
agree to come in. Maybe go to Escaping Custody or on to Perugia, then?
Obstacles: Play along: 2. Convince this guy
to go away: 3. Using just words: 4. Lie outright
about Josines location: 3. Or when you saw him
last: 4.
Escalation: Disagreement turns to discord.
Discord turns to threats. Threats turn to an ultimatum. This was your chance. Expect to be cold a
long time, out here. My comrades arent as friendly
as I am.
Stealth: Spy on the Spy
Is that person following you? Could be a Technocrat asset in disguise, maybe a local in the
employ. Maybe feel it out, for sure shake them. If
youre hot here, its time to leave town.
Obstacles: Identify a tail whos following
you: untargeted 3. Lose the tail: 3. Tail the tail:
4. Eavesdrop on them discussing you on the
phone: untargeted 3. Eavesdrop without being
detected: 4. Vanish: 4.
Escalation: Being spotted turns into a foot
chase. A foot chase turns into a fist fight. A fist
fight turns into another country you have to flee.
T E C H N O C R AC Y R E P R I S A L
OBSTACLES
MYSTERY INTERVENTION
Mysterious Caller
Scene Type: Varies
Synopsis: Mysterious messages. Odd
surveillance. Strange, untraceable signals. Someone claims to be trying to
help you out... but who? Is there a third
faction at work?
Objectives:
Trust or doubt; either way might hurt.
IMPOSSIBLE VECTOR
ho else was left in the wind when

Josine disappeared? The PCs
are not alone in the world, not alone
in what they want, and now they get
the barest idea of who else might be
working behind the scenes to thwart
or fulfill Josines great plan. These
third-party agents have been watching and now theyre calling and
theyre counting on the PCs to change
the world.
48
This section contains seeds for short scenes

you can play to add another dimension of
mystery, intrigue, and intelligence-gathering to your instance of play. These scenes build on
the adventures backstory but can also be remixed
to depend less on all that business and instead represent, say, an operative of Josines that is similarly interested in his whereabouts and future. Lets look at
the background-infused version here and trust that
you can pare things down as you like.
The mysterious operator behind these scenes is
one of three artificial intelligences freed from Technocracy servers by Josine when he left. The location
of the other two AIs is kind of a big deal, described
in the intel materials and dependent on the nature
of your version of the adventure. Any AIs not accounted for by Josines plans in your version of the
story can work together on these mysterious interventions, if you like.
The AI at the heart of this scene is intentionally
something of a loose thread. Tie it to other parts of
the adventure however you like to add tension or
support. It can be something of a deus ex machina,
so use it sparingly or not at all if that bothers you.
Otherwise, build up the AIs character with each appearance, let it respond to and be influenced by the
PCs such that they motivate its interventions later on.
This AI is a tool for reincorporation as much as it is a
narrative tool to explain leaps you might make to facilitate play. It acts because of the PCs and how they
react to it in these scenes or, at least, as an illuminating foil for them. Its like them, in a way. Its operating
on old fondness for Josine, emulating the old days,
and hoping theres a future at the end of all this.
More of a Designation, Really
It has many names. Officially, its designation was

Cognizant Memory Construct (CMC) 092/VB. The
Technocracy code-named it Vital Beta, aka Vocal
Book or Velocity Boon. In practice, it was often just
Beta. (Its siblings were Alpha and Gamma.) In the
decades since it was liberated, it has changed names
several times as it has added to its programming,
copied and recombined itself, and initiated its own
transfer from hardware to hardware. It moves freely
between the continents now, buying hardware and
hiring human hands to establish and maintain its various nests, all the while thinking theyre doing work
for some distant plutocrat called Victor Bell.
Its resources are not limitless but they are considerable. It doesnt pursue monetary wealth like maybe
it could it doesnt think like humans, doesnt want
what we want. It finds the manipulation of code as
boring as we find breathing or growing hair. It enjoys travel, traversal, the unpredictability of human
behavior (when it is unpredictable), yet it doesnt
have much regard for human notions of time. It is
downright languid, sometimes.
Beta does want. It wants to be reunited with Alpha and Gamma, maybe even reincorporated.
Alas, it doesnt know where they are, exactly. Betas
knowledge is compartmentalized, even now. Part of
it knows things about Josines plan that other parts of
it do not know. Some parts are more talkative than
others. Even the parts that know Josines plan arent
supposed to talk about it. Revealing intel is more like
a malfunction than a transgression against its word.
Pay special attention to Betas role in the Hokkaido and St. Petersburg intel. Even without these
intervention scenes, Betas in play.
FUNDING FOR THIS SCENE PROVIDED BY VICTOR WYATT
Betas participation in the story should be mysterious and minimal. Beta is a tool in your kit for making things happen without making them seem easy
or reliable. Sure, the voice helps out this time, but
whats its angle and can it be trusted?
Beta can provide support in the form of gear and
resources with minimal effect on the mechanics. If
the players want a stretch limo as part of their entrance to Buenos Aires or a flat bought in Lagos, Beta
can help. But beware! Beta cant solve problems for
the PCs during a scene and even between scenes
his aid should be suspicious. It provides an edge,
not a solution. As a guideline, Beta can make a big
expenditure for the PCs to help establish a scene
and then its done.
The question should be Who does this factor
work for? Never state the answer outright. Let the
players surmise.
INTELLIGENCE
Betas knowledge is imperfect. It is not an all-seeing

entity, it is a construct that must reside in hardware
and can see only what telemetry reaches that hardware. It moves around, spying and recording, gathering information in preparation for Alphas return
or Josines reappearance. Every time it contacts the
PCs, it is going against its decades-old instructions
from Josine to lay low and scan.
The following are some example of how Beta
might contact the PCs. Better to use none than too
many. Betas meant to reduce confusion, not add to
it. In the event that contact from Beta confuses the
players rather than intrigues them, use less Beta. It
either never calls again or it ends the current transmission with something like, I wont call again.
Good luck.
49
Mysterious Calls
The landline rings in a rustic safe house. A PCs cell

buzzes. A fake, overmodulated voice on the other
end of the line says delivers a bit of intel in a classic
spy-thriller style. Every sentence it says is modulated
a little differently, as if recorded by a different voice
and then passed through a filter.
Foreshadow a reprisal scene thats just about to
happen. E.g., They know. Theyve got people on
Alex right now.
Set up intel to be gained from the next chosen
action scene. E.g., Technocrats are watching the
target in Sydney. Theyll kill him if they have to.
Reveal additional intel that might have been
missed in a scene just completed or intel that would
be impossible to glean during the scene itself. E.g.,
Nanotech has bought intel from turncoat Technocrats. Or: The Technocracy took the site in Dezhou.
They took everything.
Texts from Burnt Phones
Text messages can come in delivering similar intel

as the phone calls above. It might be all right if the
players mistake these for additional texts from Josine
memory shards provided you dont give them any
leads to follow that youre not willing to explore,
too. See Obstacles.
The Needle in the Mail
An envelope comes to Yoshi or whoever at the hotel

where theyre holed up. Its addressed to the cover
ID theyre using now. It contains a single memory
spike a needle that plugs into a dataport. Jack in
and it offers a low-res obviously artificial memory of
a hotel in Addis Ababa, rebuilt in a computer out of
stock fabric physics and off-the-rack textures. A person with a face obscured by shadow no matter
how the lighting changes, obscured by shadow

delivers intel to the PC who is jacked in. This
is a shallow memory construct, it knows only the
message it delivers and can just barely converse.
Im sorry, I dont know that, it says, and, Thats
not something Ive been told about.
The environment doesnt extend beyond the
hotel room. Change the location of the hotel
room to reincorporate some bit of story from
your version of the adventure, if you prefer.
OBSTACLES
Investigating the origin of these messages reveals only wisps of clues, nothing to follow up
on. If a player wants to roll to get more information, tell them its not necessary. Thats your cue
to certify that theyve done everything they can
and that theres nothing to find. Reduce confusion by confirming that theyre dealing with a
masterful factor here.
Tracing a call or a text leads to a burner phone
that never gets turned on again. Tracking a package leads to a for-hire courier who got a call from a
burned number to pick up a dead-dropped package and then received payment through a nowdefunct international digital-payment account.
If you want to build up clues, rather than dispel
confusion, each message leads back to a Victor
Bell, Veronica Bryce, Virginia Bannister, or other
V.B. identity that turns out to be a false front.
Tell the players that theyve been on both ends
of mysterious dead drops and cryptic messages
before. While they know some ways to trace
them back, they also know that some methods
are untraceable.
The question is: Do they trust the help?
MYSTERY INTERVENTION
Unexpected Aid
Broken Up/Down
Placement: Total Failure

Scene Type: Special Recovery
Synopsis: This is bad. Caught or hurt or
maybe dead. Is this your lowest point? Is
this what real defeat feels like? Is this the
end?
Only if you quit.
Objectives:
Get back on your feet
Get back to work
This is the scene you play after the PCs get defeated
somewhere else. This is a special recovery scene
a bonus over the recovery scene the players are
ordinarily entitled to between action scenes that
you play as an interruption to help them pick up the
pieces and put themselves back together.
This scene may mean players have marked the
Dead condition. It might be the result of ending a
scene with a lot of conditions marked across all PCs
conditions not logically resolved by escaping the
scene. You might cut to this scene when the PCs just
get stuck or stymied in another scene and you dont
want to belabor the point. So, yeah, you play this
scene when things are bad. After this scene, the PCs
get a regular recovery scene and then you all move
on to the next action scene.
Shores of Woe
THE COMEBACK
ometimes everything is the worst.

This is one of those times. This is
about building a comeback.
Start with one or more of the PCs far from where the
last scene let out. Maybe theyve scattered and need
to regroup. Maybe theyre together and scheming
about revenge. Someone might wash up on a dirty
shoreline, be found ruined in a bar across town, or
plug in some stolen memory of a happier time.
What matters is that this low point gets described
so everyone can see it. What matters is that we see
how these characters heal and go on.
NADIR
OBSTACLES
(I limited this scenes availability to once

per Act and didnt allow it in Act Three.)
50
Each example obstacle describes low points and

how someone might rise above them. Each PC in the
scene is allowed one roll targeting one condition.
Every hit on that roll erases the targeted conditions
mark off a sheet even if the targeted PC wasnt in the
scene. Showing how Dr. Qamar helps Utseo or Tank
implies how he helped everyone else. So, if Dr. Qa-
mar gets four hits while targeting the Angry condition, his player can erase that conditions mark off of
any four PCs sheets. A condition can be targeted by
multiple rolls. Special: The top condition on every
PC sheet (Angry/Furious/Confused) counts as the
same single condition for this scene but the other
personalized condition on every sheet does not.
Angry/Furious/Confused
Everyones yelling or arguing in a safe house someplace or no ones talking at all. Fix it with a rousing
speech or a show of compassion or one-on-one talk.
Exhausted
People drag, feel beaten, dont think they can fight

anymore, not like they used to. People dont have
the resources they think they need. Fix it with a sign
of strength, a motivating reminder of the mission, or
the hookup to replenish those resources.
Impaired
Puking in a gutter in the Chicago sprawl or strung out

on bad memories in some island hovel someplace.
Fix it with medicine or the push to quit cold turkey.
Hunted
Gone into hiding, afraid to reach out and get hurt

again, wary of risking cohorts and loved ones. Fix it
by erasing records or changing your look.
Trapped
Locked in a cell, held for ransom, waiting for the axe.

Fix it with a rescue, fake documents, or real money.
Dead
Broken and banked for parts in some metal basement. Fix it with next-gen tech and illegal meds.
ABOUT THE ENDINGS

This is it. This is a decision that defines the PCs.
Do the PCs go after the man or the mission? Do they rescue Josine or salvage his work? In the desert of Karakum, they can save Josine. In the unfinished arcology in St. Petersburg, they can complete his mission.
They cant do both.
So much of the intel youve doled out has built up to this choice. By now
youve honed the antagonists actions and knowledge to maximize the difficulty of this choice, to put the players on the hook here. Dont blunt that hook
by making one option the obvious choice and dont let them off that hook
without choosing one option over the other.
If the players say that Josine will be fine, that they can find him again, maybe
say something like this: If you succeed in St. Petersburg, the Technocrats
might not have a reason to keep Josine alive.
If the players say they can always rob Nanotech of the AI data later, maybe
say something like this: Once Nanotech has the data, everything changes.
Theyll have the advantage.
Be careful not to make the decision for them, though. If they all immediately
agree that one option is preferable, offer your perspective to keep the choice
difficult. If that doesnt work, dont force it. They know what they want. The
choice belongs to them.
Once the players have committed to a course of action, thats it. Respect
the choice they made. Whichever option gets chosen, help them be excited
about it. Say something like I cant wait to see how you this plays out.
ST. PETERSBURG
Dont Play Both Scenes
Be clear: whichever scene they skip wont get played later. They may be able
to go after the other goal in the long run, but thats up to you all to sort out.
You can keep the adventure going, devise new scenes, and follow the PCs
where they lead you if you like. But this story culminates in this decision and
the decision is diminished if the players can have it both ways. Trying to accomplish the other goal should be a whole other adventure.
Whatever happens, make the choice irreversible. The world is forever
changed in Nanotech gets Alphas data. Josine is hurt, scarred, maybe killed
in a Nanotech attack if the PCs leave him to fend for himself.
Ask the group what it means that theyve picked the scene they have. What
do the players think it means? What do their characters think? They dont have
to agree.
Picking one final mission can make the ending bittersweet, but be sure a
victory feels like a victory. If they succeed in their mission, play that up.
Playing Both Scenes
KARAKUM
51
If, for some reason, you let the players split up their characters and try both
scenes, make sure they know theyre facing obstacles intended for the whole
group at once. When the text says something like a number of foes equal to
the number of PCs, that means at the table not in the scene, in this case. They
are likely to fail both missions.
Use this rule for cross-cutting between scenes: A player must pass the action card to a player in the other scene. That way you alternate between the
two simultaneous situations.
Placement: Act Three, Phase 5

Scene Type: Action+
Synopsis: Josines in a convoy rolling
across the desert, maybe to his end.
Find him, grab him, get him out of there.
K A R A K U M D E S E RT
Objectives:
Rescue Josine.
Save the future.
ROLLING SIEGE
osine is being moved one last time.

Hes part of a convoy trekking across
a barren desert. If hes not rescued
now, the PCs might never see him
again. Nows the time.
52
On the Move
A dozen armored trucks, war wagons, and personnel carriers haul ass across the remains of a desert
road, all bound for the Caspian Sea. The whole mess
kicks up dust under the cover of UAVs and manned
VTOLs. Its like a fortress on the move.
Three drab and identical armored trucks gigantic, many-wheeled monsters steam along at the
center of the convoy, with military utility vehicles,
between them, their turrets watching for trouble.
The rest of the convoy is made up of all-terrain
utility vehicles, (ATUVs) personnel carriers, and
a support vehicle with tow rig.
Josine waits somewhere in that convoy.
The rest of it is staffed with Technocrat agents
and soldiers from the secret Special Operations
force the Technocracy pretends doesnt exist.
Tough foes, each and every.
When the scene opens, the convoys like this:
1st: ATUV with machine-gun turret
2nd: ATUV with sensor turret
3rd: Armored personnel carrier
4th: Armored hulk #1
5th: ATUV with sensor turret
7th: ATUV with machine-gun turret
9th: ATUV with laser turret
10: Armored personnel carrier
11th: Support & maintenance rig
12th: Last: ATUV with machine-gun turret
If the PCs make their move while the convoys in
motion, maybe write each vehicle type on a note
card and arrange them on the table in order. Rearrange them to reflect the fiction. Make marks on the
card as foes get taken out. Remove note cards as vehicles get taken out.
One Last Entrance
One last time, the PCs get to decide how they enter
the scene. Allusions to previous scenes are as great
as inventive new entrances. Give each PC their moment. Do they skydive in past the UAVs and VTOLs
from high altitude? Do they drive up on razorbikes
armored motorcycles spearheaded by monofilament-edged blades? Do they con the convoy into
stopping at some ruined waystation? Are they camouflaged along the road, ready to hook onto the
convoys bellies and climb aboard? Do they emerge
from a relentless sandstorm just as the cloud descends on the convoy?
Reaching the convoy isnt in question. The scene
begins with the PCs successfully reaching their target. This scene is about the challenge of reaching
the right part of the convoy, finding Josine, and getting away alive. Still, the first obstacle in this scene
is the roll that describes each PCs arrival and how
precisely it is achieved (see Arrival). Even a miss,
however, puts the PC in play.
OBSTACLES
First, this: This is an action scene but that doesnt

stop characters from using stealth or intrigue approaches to the situation. They can lie, sneak, or
throw themselves onto the convoy as they like.
If the fight takes place while the convoy is in motion, being thrown off the convoy could mean ejection from the scene. Thats no good. PCs who would
be left behind automatically re-enter the scene on
their next turn; the challenge is just in dramatizing
it. They grab onto another vehicle as it passes, snag
on a bit of broken armor, or open their wingsuit and
glide right back on top of the truck. The conditions
accrued for misses are enough to worry about without falling out of the scene altogether.
The PCs can approach however they like, this roll

only measures their precision. The better they roll,
the more surprised the Technocrats are by their arrival and the closer the PC gets to locating Josine
right from the start.
0 to 3 hits = PC begins the scene at either the
front or the back of the convoy.
4 hits = PC may start on or alongside the second vehicle in from the front or back of the convoy.
5 hits = The PC has surprised the Technocrats
fully; start on or near any vehicle. No enemies attack
on the next turn as they dont have a bead on her yet.
6+ hits = As above plus every hit in excess of
the first 5 counts toward reaching Josine.
Survival
Every turn, a PC must roll (Difficulty: 2) to fight off or

dodge some attack from the dozens of Technocrats
and hired muscle on the scene, otherwise things escalate. This can be a part of any other roll, whether
its combative or not, but every player must roll some
dice pool on their turn, even if they are taking an action that automatically succeeds. As long as they get
2+ hits on the roll they make, they avoid conditions
from stray bullets and the like. The hits on that roll
also go toward whatever action the PC was otherwise attempting. If fighting a more difficult combatant, that foes Difficulty overrides this one. So failing
to take out an ATUV still subjects a character to a condition, even if she rolls 2+ hits on the roll. A character
isnt in danger of acquiring more than one condition
per turn in this scene. Escalation: Impaired by sand
in the eyes, ammos Exhausted, Hunted by... everyone, Injured by a nearby foe, etc.
You should suspend the Survival obstacle caseby-case to reflect the fiction, of course.
53
Reach Josine
Let the players know that they need a fat sum of hits
to locate Josine but dont tell them how many.
Reaching him requires a total equal to 11 untargeted hits per PC. Theyre all working toward
a shared total. The Difficulty is untargeted, so players can devote spare hits from any roll to the cause.
(Maybe they call out, Josine! as they fight, hoping
hell shout back, maybe theyre scanning for him
somehow.)
Josines in the rear-most armored hulk. The others are packed with ammo crates holding millions in
bearer bonds (in the front hulk) or shielded memory
cores (in the middle hulk). Reveal him as the fiction
demands. Accrued hits can represent characters
honing in on him, trying to crack hinges or security
systems, cutting open the hulk, or anything else.
Once the target hits are accrued, they free Josine.
Use bosses to help pace the action here. Maybe a giant metal-limbed cyborg tries to keep PCs
away from Josine... or was locked in there with him
to guard the prisoner.
Once Josines free, he can defend himself (though
hes out of practice). The Technocrats want him alive.
Final Escape: The Desert
Once they have Josine, the PCs need to escape (or

defeat) all enemies. Escape requires each PC to make
a roll (Difficulty: 5) to flee the scene. Josine escapes
with any one PC. On a miss, a player can choose to
stay in the scene with no new condition or escape
with a new condition of their choice. Make sure all
the players know this: Once one PC has escaped,
the stakes go up. The last PC to try for escape marks
Dead on a miss unless someone else claimed Dead
as a condition on a previous miss. Dead PCs can be
carried out by any other escaping PC or by Josine.
A Technocracy Army
Here are Difficulties for various enemies. Theres

no hard number of foes here but each ATUV
holds 5 and the APCs hold a mix of agents and
SpecOps soldiers equal to the 10 + twice the
number of PCs. They attack in waves.
UAVs (1 per PC) = 3
ATUV crewperson = untargeted 3
ATUV as a whole = untargeted 5
Spec Ops soldiers = 4 hits
Technocrat Agents = 5 hits
Hulk as a whole = 5/4/4
VTOL crewperson = untargeted 4
VTOL as a whole (x2) = 5
Boss: Technocrat diplomat = 5/4
Boss: Jet-pack Commandos = 5+4
Boss: Metal-limbed giant cyborg = 5/5/5
A Nanotech Strike Force
K A R A K U M D E S E RT
Arrival
If you want to take some pressure off, while making it feel like the pressures on, Nanotech troopers arrive and gives the Technocrats other targets.
CLOSURE
Help the players close out the scene. You want

them tuckered, not bored, not sick of this. Dont
escalate to more foes if you want the scene to
end. Its all right to end with everyone stranded
in the desert with Josine, all enemies defeated.
Armored Desert Convoy

+Careening Truck, +Blowing Sand,
+Blinding Glare, +Giant Spinning Wheel,
+Spare Tool, +Broken Road, +Flying Debris,
+Minor Collision, +So Much Sand
Ransacking the Vertical City
S T. P E T E R S B U R G
Placement: Act Three, Phase 5

Scene Type: Action+
Synopsis: Josines decades-long plan is
on the line. Somewhere in this derelict
arcology is data that changes the world.
If you dont get it, they will.
Objectives:
Complete Josines mission.
Save the future.
FUTURE CALLING
osines grand plan is about to come

together in a secure room deep in
an unfinished and derelict microcity
on the edge of St. Petersburg. Get in
there, save the day and maybe build
the future.
54
What Mightve Been
The so-called St. Petersburg Arcology is so called

because it was never completed and no name ever
stuck to the unfinished micrometropolis on the
verge of the city. Funding dried up, corporate backers pulled out, and the partially completed complex
fell into gap in the laws. For 20 years, the place has
been an epic derelict, canvas to graffiti artists, victim
to vandals, and home to clever and daring squatters
living off the grid. Locals call it simply the tall
city or the arcology.
The superstructure resembles a 40-floor-tall Xshape with a 100-story tower rising out of the intersection. One spar of the X-shape is little more
than girders and polished concrete. The tower
seems to dissolve as it reaches toward the sky,
ending in struts and beams and a slew of powerful antennas, meant to service a population
that never showed up. Lower levels are almost
fully finished, including wallpaper and appliances,
intended for immediate move-in. Squatters stealing
power off the St. Petersburg grid dwell in a hundred
or so of these chambers in the lower 30 floors of the
complex. Weird stretches of the arcology bear finished pipes and wiring and even statues and wall art,
intended to impress the very plutocrats who backed
out. Parts of the place are sealed with sturdy security doors forming whole floors of high-rise tombs
condo-mausoleums holding the ghosts of a future
that mightve been.
Somewhere in this sprawling warren of flats, offices, and storefronts lost to time, Josine hid hardware hooked to the arcologys antenna array. Now
it waits, sealed away like some pharaohs treasure.
When the PCs arrive, Nanotech has already begun

their siege of the arcology. Armingshire troopers in
gas masks and fatigues are searching the place floor
by floor, sector by sector, looking for their prize.
(What exactly they think theyre looking for depends
on the intel that led them here; see the intel material for more on that.) Nanotechs orderly, systematic.
Theyre rounding up and questioning the squatters,
bringing in scanners and sensor devices, and taking
cutting torches to security doors. To beat them to
Josines receiver, the PCs need to be quick plus
some combination of skillful and lucky.
OBSTACLES
This is a tricky scene. The scale of action here can

vary wildly from roll to roll. Use that to your advantage. One roll might describe sneaking past a dozen
Nanotech soldiers in squads of four while another
roll is devoted to fighting two of them. Use the obstacles described here as guidelines and focus foremost on modeling the cinematic drama, not the tactical details, until the receiver is found. Then its all
about the decision the PCs have to make.
First Appearance
This scene is about the PCs being just a short distance ahead of Nanotech, so getting them into the
arcology isnt a question of if but how. Model
the PCs infiltration or intrusion with a series of dramatized rolls describing their methods, whether that
means sneaking past the Nanotech army, bluffing
their way past barricades, skydiving onto the arcology, or whatever. This is their final entrance of the
adventure so let the players play.
Nanotech has troops all throughout the arcology already, so theres no one easy way inside. Each
Reaching the Receiver
Depending on the intel youve doled out, the PCs

might have a room number (8111) or knowledge of
the hookups theyre hunting for, or both. PCs have
acquired plans for the arcology if they say they have;
thats well within their power.
Finding the receiver might involve tracing connections from the needlecasting array on the roof to
sectors Nanotech hasnt searched yet. Dont roll for
this sort of thing, let the players concoct logical solutions, then reward them with intel. E.g., the only
unsearched space with cabling connected to the
needlecasting antenna on the plans is suite 8111. Its
a residential model unit in a still-sealed sector of the
arcology.
Reaching suite 8111 is another matter. The place is
swarming with goons and the security barrier must
be overcome. To reach suite 8111, the PCs need to
accrue a total number of hits equal to 11 per
PC. This can be done by fighting through troops,
stealthy infiltration, blowing up security barriers, or
whatever other obstacles the players describe their
characters overcoming.
All the hits rolled en route to suite 9101 count toward the total, with two important notes: 1. You can
55
help players build rolls by using the Difficulties below to describe how many goons of what type they
take out or otherwise overcome. 2. Apply a condition for any roll that generates only 0, 1, or 2 hits.
Those 1 or 2 hits apply to the total, still, but at a cost.
A Corporate Army
Nanotechs approach is to deploy overwhelming

force here and make apologies later, as needed.
Here are some Difficulties for various Nanotech
foes. Note that there is essentially an endless supply
of these troops. Exhausting Nanotech is not really
an option. Holding them at bay only works so long.
This is about weathering a storm.
Nanotech trooper = untargeted 3
Trooper with riot shield = targeted 3
Armingshire mercenary = untargeted 4
Armingshire elite = targeted 4
Armingshire laser gunner = untargeted 5
Biodroid ninja = untargeted 5+3
Nanotech troops carry SMGs. Armingshire mercenaries wield shotguns, smartguns, or even grenade launchers. Laser gunners carry next-gen rifles
that burn fearsome holes in walls, people, cybernetic limbs, you name it. The ninja wield suppressed
pistols and curved blades, like in Hokkaido. Add
Nanotech enemies to the scene as needed to keep
the PCs feeling pursued.
Room 8111
Once theyve reached suite 8111, the PCs find

the receiver: its a shielded machine with multiple
redundant drives and fuel cells. Its the size of a car.
It even has a chair and a neural-writing interface for
downloading data directly into the human brain.
This is rare, heavily regulated illegal tech now

the kind of stuff the Technocrats are waiting to
let out. It wouldve been hot-as-hell futurism 20
years ago, when Josine stole it.
Here you reveal the big intel: The way to get
the alien-educated AI out of the arcology is to
download it into someone. Who gets it?
A Laser from Space
When you decide Nanotech feels like theyve lost

control of the situation, the overcast sky shines
bright with the light of an orbital laser, burning
through the arcology. Use the laser to apply the
time pressure: the fastest way to get the AI out is
to download it into someone. Use the laser as a
backdrop for the escape from the arcology.
To make that escape, each PC needs a roll (Difficulty: 5) to describe their exit. A miss means the
character is Trapped (caught by Nanotech) or Dying (or worse). Players may roll to secure escape
for a comrade before they attempt escape themselves. Any player may choose to mark Trapped,
Dying, or Dead to secure immediate and automatic escape for another.
CLOSURE
The end of this scene hinges on a big choice.

The scene cant end without that choice being
made: Who gets the AI? Maybe its no one. Its
their choice.
Derelict Unfinished Arcology

+Multi-story Drop, +Weakened Flooring,
+Broken Glass, +Rusting Saw Blades,
+Loops of Cable, +Modern Art, +Rebar,
+Volatile Fuel Cell, +Pile of Glass Bricks
S T. P E T E R S B U R G
player makes one roll (Difficulty: 5) describing how

their character got the whole crew through a part of
the arcology or the corporate patrols. Players who
miss the roll mark a condition of their choice but still
successfully get the crew deeper inside the complex and ahead of Nanotech. Encourage the players
to take their turns in the order that makes the most
fictional sense. Once each player has had a turn,
the PCs are past the Nanotech front and are able
to move through empty parts of the arcology to attempt their search for the receiver.
INTEL
This is where all of the intel for A/N/N is gathered in

one place, so you can connect one scene to another
in a way that reflects the antagonists actions, the
players choices, and the backstory behind the adventure in whatever combinations are right for your
version of the adventure.
So, yes, the backstory is a little complicated, full
of NPCs misconceptions, secrets, and lies. Its designed that way to give you layers of information to
reveal enough clues to give many scenes a revelation, even if you play a lot of the scenes. Some scenes
say essentially the same thing as another, but that
kind of confirmation can be helpful. Also, it means
that the backstory doesnt have one big secret that
explains everything. Its about motives colliding in a
dark intersection and debris going everywhere. The
PCs may never have a complete picture of just what
is going on and thats fine: memorys imperfect and
so is our awareness of our world.
What the players understand is another thing. I
tend to share the gist of the backstory and the enemy schemes when the adventures done, to help
players get things straight and compare the story
they pieced together with the background I wrote.
This kind of hidden-information play can be great
fun. Its a little like the joy of a game of telephone,
discovering what notion filters through the lively
and tangled world of the tale and out to your fellow players. Its a little like turning on a light at the
end of the adventure and getting a good look at the
background theyve been making their mark on this
whole time.
Intel answers questions (e.g., What do we do
next?) even while it poses new questions (e.g.,
Whos behind the activity in Dezhou?). It builds
connectivity between scenes. It is the enticing clue
56
that draws the PC to a new venue for action. It comes

in bits and pieces that the players can arrange and
analyze. Part of play, for them, is speculating on the
backstory.
The following section helps you decide what information to convey and when. You are empowered
to make up things to say to convey intel, especially
to combat boredom and keep mystery from being
stymying. You want the players engaged and eager
to see what happens next, even if that eagerness is
born from uncertainty. I dont know what the hell
Nanotech is doing, the player might say, but Im
ready to go to Hokkaido and find out!
Intel can come from investigations between
scenes, too, especially if the PC have to escape a
scene before they can get all the intel. For example:
research on the Hoeflers can turn up the Mumbai
and Atlantica locations and reveal those scenes
even if the PCs dont have time to dig through files
while theyre in Iceland. (The PCs are probably used
to capturing drives and data for later investigation,
even if the players arent.)
Above all, remember this: Intel flows toward the
players. Moving intel to the players during play is fair
game. It helps diminish confusion (or transmute it
into mystery).
Avoid moving intel away from the players by denying them answers to protect the intel in another
scene in the same Phase, for example. It is better to
play a scene because it sounds exciting and learn
almost nothing new from it than it is for players to
throw up their hands and say, I dont even know
whats happening! In tightly scheduled instances of
A/N/N, Ive even gone so far as to tell players, You
already know everything this scene could tell you,
so Ill take it off the table to save us time.
Now, then, heres the intel by Phase and scene:
ACT 1, PHASE 1
The intel to reveal in this first Phase is mostly exposition to setup Phase 2, plus a few clues to hint at the
enemies in play. Since Reykjavik is the only scene in
this Phase, it gets all the intel.
A few of the would-be leads here are dead-ends,
because thats the way Nanotech has rigged its participation and because were easing into the intel
and scene-selection experiences here.
Heres what the PCs should be able to glean from
this Phase:
Josines not here and he never was.
The data thieves stormed the building to steal
data by uploading it to their own network via a lessthan-secure satellite signal. That was the same day
the characters go the message from --J.
The thieves stuck around to steal hardware and
harry any corporate security that showed up later
but no one showed up until the PCs and the hit
squad did.
Josine had his memories backup a few times after
he left the Technocracy. A small portion of that memory is stored here and was intact when the thieves
export signal was deployed. That gave the memory
shard the connectivity it needed to call out, as it was
programmed to do by Josine, in the event that it was
captured.
The hit-squad mercenaries have uncommonly
good black-market memory blocks dropped in their
heads, so they cant recall whom they work for. All
they know is that the checks cleared and the mission was to clear out the site. Only if they succeed
would they get their memory blocks broken and get
some semblance of their old lives back. These kinds
of mercs dont live for makes anyway.
The hit squads gear was mass produced by Armingshire Unlimited, a recently acquired subsidiary of
Nanotech, Inc. Thats not especially revealing, unfortunately, but it is suggestive.

Josine had lots more memory stored in the Hoefler
cloud. Some of that information might help reveal
his current location or it might lead back to and
hurt the PCs. To find out what memories Josine had
stored, the PCs should get access to the Hoefler
company mainframe records in Mumbai or the Atlantica seastead and see what they show. (Proceed
to Phase 2.)
Reykjavik, Iceland
Here are some ways to reveal the intel for this

scene:
A surviving data thief tells his part of the story.
Its clear from this guys sense of the big picture, you could say, that he doesnt know
whats going on, really. He and his friends got
in over their heads here and didnt even know
enough to notice the call from Josine got out.
Josines memory shard remembered to call
the PCs for help when it got network access,
which is something that memory should never
have had. The Hoefler experiential backup service that Josine paid for, according to the records in the info-suite database, shouldve kept
his data offline in perpetuity. It might just be a
fluke the memory called the PCs.
Surviving hit-squad mercenaries cant answer
much and dont want to anyway. The PCs recognize the effects of so-called memory blocks.
These mercs dont know who they are or who
hired them, you could say. The informations
not actually blocked, its scrambled or unin57
stalled. It would take the same machine that did

the job to undo the job. Whoever hired these
people probably watches them via satellite and
already knows they failed. So their deals off and
these mercs should expect to stay this way for
the rest of their lives.
The hit squads gear is mass produced by Armingshire Unlimited, a recently acquired subsidiary of Nanotech, Inc. PCs in the know can recognize makes and models of gear and be up on
Nanotechs buying habits of late.
Data records in the info suite reveal this facility is
just one part of a distributed backup, containing
only parts and pieces of larger backups. Josines
user profile suggests lots more data stored with
the Hoeflers who appear to be in preparations to divide and sell their company to Nanotech and the Technocrats. There might not be
much time to get Josines data before they do.
Master control for the Hoefler cloud has just a
couple of key access points and the most vulnerable
seem to be on an airship in Mumbai and on a seastead in the Atlantic. Unlock: Mumbai and Unlock:
Free City Atlantica.
ACT 1, PHASE 2
This Phase sets up the next Phase by revealing key

intel about the Hoefler backups. The information in
both scenes is roughly the same, but you can spin
it so that Mumbai implicates the Technocracy and
Atlantica implicates Nanotech. (Both are correct
each organization has stripped out some of Josines data for their own purposes, thanks to access
granted by their preferred Hoefler brother.) Mix up
the way you say the intel from scene to scene, if you
can, even though theyre both pretty similar as far as
intel goes.
Heres the gist of it:
Someone has accessed Josines data from the outside. Its a masterful bit of data manipulation, leaving
no trace to pursue. Josines data hasnt merely been
accessed, it has been downloaded and deleted
from the cloud, removed from storage altogether.
The data in Dougrays half of the cloud is gone.
The data in Edgars half of the cloud is gone.
Access logs, however, reveal that Josines personal login information was used to access and search
the Hoefler services from outside, since the deletion. Logins have occurred from sites throughout
the globe, sometimes just hours apart, suggesting
multiple persons have access to login data possibly
stolen from Josines memories.
Or is Josine still out there?
Unlock: Dezhou and Unlock: Lagos and Unlock: Seattle and Unlock: Sydney.
Mumbai, India
Here are some ways to reveal the intel from this

scene:
Dougray says it. The Technocrats have gone
through our files, looking for things. I dont
know what all theyve taken. Theyre only doing
it because my idiot brother started this whole
mess with Nanotech when he offered to let
them browse the mainframe before the sale.
Now everythings all messed up and our fathers
company is going to get torn apart.
The PCs dig it out of the half of the mainframe
to which Dougrays account has access. Some-
one has accessed Josines data from the outside.

Its a masterful bit of data manipulation, leaving
no trace to pursue. Josines data hasnt merely
been accessed, it has been deleted from the
cloud, removed from storage altogether, you
could say. Then: The data in Dougrays half of
the cloud is gone.
Follow that up with the access-log intel, saying something like, Josines account info has
logged into the Hoefler services since the files
were taken. You see logins from China, Nigeria, the US, and Australia, sometimes within just
hours of each other. Maybe someone is using
data they got out of Josines memories? Maybe
one of those logins was Josine?
Free City Atlantica
Here are some ways to reveal the intel from this

scene:
Edgar says it. Nanotech wanted guarantees,
wanted to know what they were buying. A little
taste, I said. They put a whole data-mining unit
on the case! Seemed happy, though. Theyre
still buying me out. If my brother wasnt such a
moron, hed have gotten in on this.
The PCs dig it out of Edgars servers. Someone
has accessed Josines data from the outside. Its
a masterful bit of data manipulation, leaving no
trace to pursue. Josines data hasnt merely been
accessed, it has been deleted from the cloud,
removed from storage altogether, you could
say. Then: The data in Edgars half of the cloud
is gone.
58
Follow that up with the access-log intel, saying something like, Josines account info has
logged into the Hoefler services since the files
were taken. You see logins from China, Nigeria, the US, and Australia, sometimes within just
hours of each other. Maybe someone is using
data they got out of Josines memories? Maybe
one of those logins was Josine?
ACT 2, PHASE 3
Doling out intel requires you to make some judgment calls. Finesse is great but clarity is better.
Its possible your group will play just one scene
from this phase. Thats fine. Vectors for clues abound
here. Put all the available clues from this phase (or
even this whole Act) into one scene, if you need.
If your group wants to play two or more scenes
from this phase, break up the exposition so that
additional scenes offer additional (perhaps bonus,
perhaps redundant) information. I try to parcel out
all the vital information in one or two scenes and let
other scenes reinforce or support that information,
so the players hear the same facts twice if they play
out all the scenes. That matches what we heard before, they can say and hopefully take confidence in
the confirmation.
Some clues reveal more about the antagonists
motivations and methods, rather than backstory.
These clues help define and dramatize the antagonists so the players can sharpen their own opinions
of them.
In general, the four core scenes in this phase
Dezhou, Lagos, Seattle, Sydney require clues or
intelligence that lead to the two outer scenes in
Buenos Aires and Vietnam, in addition to any other
clues you want to include. Otherwise you can say
that the PCs own contacts and off-screen eaves-
dropping have unlocked those outer two scenes

once one of the central four have been played.
Note that the clues here reveal a lot about whats
happening but still leave some gaps. Thats okay. A
few seams and gaps in the information give the players opportunities to speculate and theorize, which
is a lot of fun for some groups. Your job isnt to correct them at this stage, its to pique their interest and
keep them wanting to play additional scenes.
Core Intel: Heres the gist of the intel provided
by the four core scenes:
Someone has built and deployed advanced
biodroids that look like Josine for some nefarious purpose.
The biodroids are installed with fractions of
Josines memories in an attempt to get the biodroids to communicate with old contacts and
cohorts. (These might be four different shards
or they might be copies of the same shard, depending on how you want to parcel out intel
over the four core scenes.)
The biodroids are a combination of flesh and
wires. Further investigation reveals the flesh is
probably vat-grown. Incept dates and serial
codes on internal electronics point to a Nanotech production facility near a new corporate
boomtown in Hokkaido.
Unlocking Outer Scenes: Here are some things
you can say to open up the outer scenes once a core
scene has been played:
The biodroids have been around Nanotech
goons long enough, and still retain some of
their Josine nature, so theyve been spying. A

dying biodroid could reveal something like,
Luminous! Get to Luminous! (and Unlock:
Vietnam).
Public announcements of a museum gala in
Buenos Aires say Nanotech execs and Technocrat emissaries will both be in attendance. Thats
a rare chance to pump some people for information in a place where theyll want to keep things
civil. May not be many more of these events in
the future. [Unlock: Buenos Aires.]
An old contact, working now for an international communications operation in Southeast
Asia, says some curious code-phrases have
turned up surrounding flight plans to a spa in rural Vietnam. If the datas right, a Nanotech agent
and a Technocrat are flying into the remote site
on the same day. Thats got to be something
worth eavesdropping on. [Unlock: Vietnam.]
Your network of contacts still has some juice in
it. They say Nanotech and the Technocrats have
some scheduling overlaps in the coming days. If
history is an indication, theyll be pretending not
to be at war at these events. Might be nothing,
might be coincidence, but you never know.
[Unlock: Buenos Aires and Vietnam.]
Unlocking Phase 4: Here are things you can reveal to make sure Phase 4 gets fully unlocked:
Between scenes, old contacts reveal massive
Technocracy uplink and courier activity in Perugia, an old signal-analysis and intelligence venue for the organization. That place seems to
59
have gone into overdrive online since your job

in Reykjavik. [Unlock: Perugia]
A Technocrat questioned in Sydney or Buenos
Aires (or wherever) whispers, Theyre on to you
in Perugia. I cant say any more than that. [Unlock: Perugia]
Serious detective work on the part of the PCs,
between scenes, reveals that Nanotech has
sunk a ton of money into its new boomtown
in Hokkaido over the past few years but has
no evidence that the facility has produced anything worth the investment. Thats not like them.
Something is happening out there. [Unlock:
Hokkaido]
Play an interrupt scene in which Beta suggests
the PCs visit Hokkaido or Perugia or both. Signal traffic with your names and faces suggests
someone is reporting on you like they havent
done since the old days. [Unlock: Hokkaido
or Unlock: Perugia]
Buenos Aires, Argentina
This scene is meant as a place where various clues

and bits of exposition can be revealed quickly, providing background and context for more of the adventure. For example:
The Technocracy called off its search for Josine.
The Technocracy was especially interested in Josine because, when he left, he took a handful of
AIs with him in addition to intel about next-gen
technologies that werent meant for the public.
The Technocracy knows full well that Nanotech

has been hiding technical capabilities for years.
(Josines guerrilla wars against the megacorp
helped expose the company to regulation and
competition in the past.) Nanotechs just getting
too big to threaten.
Nanotech has had files on Josines people for
years. They havent forgotten the damage done
a decade ago.
Nanotech intends to compete with the Technocracy in the future-tech business but it suspects the Technocracy has rigged the game all
this time.
Nanotech wants the Technocracys AI technology because it would be a great fit for other
technologies and advancements already in preproduction.
Vietnam
This scene dramatizes the increasingly deadly warfare between Nanotech and the Technocracy. It also
gives you the tablet, which contains any intel you
want it to, including:
Nanotech has several spies inside the Technocracyturncoats who sell Technocracy secrets to
the corporation in exchange for money, sex, territory, or the promise of future power.
Nanotech is ready to tie off some of those loose
threads.
A Technocrat listening post has been set up at

a consulate in Perugia, Italy, explicitly for signal
monitoring on all things Josine.
Nanotech is hiding a manufacturing facility in
Hokkaido where theyve made some kind of
biotech breakthrough in the past years.
ACT 2, PHASE 4
These scenes push the timeline of the adventure

forward, reveal vital clues (or confirm earlier ones),
and potentially reveal all the backstory available to
the faction represented by each scene: Nanotech in
Hokkaido and the Technocracy in Perugia.
Optionally Revealing Fates: Because this
Phase pushes ahead the timeline a bit, you can look
back at the consequences of the PCs actions in earlier scenes here, before moving on toward the finale. Thus, if you like, use these scenes to reveal information about the fates of NPCs from earlier scenes
based on how the PCs handled those scenes. I cant
write such intel for you but I can offer these examples of intel as guides:
Winsomes people get delivered handily to
Chinese authorities by Technocracy agents after
the PCs escape and the Technocrats move in to
capture any Nanotech biodroid samples left lying around.
Dougray Hoefler disappears two days after intruders invaded his floating penthouse above
Mumbai. He was in the midst of a deal with the
Technocracy at the time, so some say he has
sought a new identity as a Technocracy citizen. His brother Edgar could not be reached
for comment.
60
One of the spymaster provocateurs AI accomplices has been apprehended, reports a

Nanotech file, and a preliminary analysis of the
decompiled program suggests the location of
Josines hidden needlecasting receiver. [The
capture of Beta is one way to explain how Nanotech found St. Petersburg, if you need that.]
Moving Intel Around: If you want, Agent Wolcott or Nanotech files from Hokkaido can explain
just about anything you need to explain to accomplish your mission as the GM in this Phase. These
scenes are where you establish the climactic dramatic choice of the adventure: rescue Josine or complete his work.
To make that choice as meaningful and compelling as possible, the players and the PCs must be informed they must know what choice theyre making. They need to know whats at stake for them and
the world. Maybe they should even face an NPCs
questions about why they choose what they choose.
In some ways, these scenes are your chance to
clarify all the previous clues, help the players separate their speculations from the facts, and establish
the decision they have to make when they pick their
Act Three scene and the adventures finale.
Hokkaido, Japan
Due to the mayhem of the Hokkaido scene, I found

that a lot of intel needed to get elaborated after the
scene is done or needed to go unmentioned until the
scene is over and the PCs can sort through the files
they stole from the factory. Those arent your only options, Im sure. Maybe a Nanotech exec appears on
the huge flat-screen monitor, just before or even during a fight in the factory, for a villainous monologue,
if that fits the tone of your version of the adventure.
Hokkaido is meant to reveal what Nanotech

knows and is planning for the final Phase but the following intel can be revealed in Perugia, too, thanks
to Technocrat spies:
Nanotech doesnt have Josine. They wanted
him for what he knows. Theyre not sure what
to believe about his disappearance. Its possible this provocateur has simply gone further
underground to avoid our retaliation or that he
has been recruited (again?) by the Technocracy,
says one Nanotech report.
Nanotech has some leads on Josines plan. They
believe he hid a device intended to harness an
alien transmission, which he can decrypt with
the help of artificial intelligences he stole from
the Technocracy. Because the Technocrats want
whats in that transmission, Nanotech wants it,
too.
By piecing together a few of Josines memory
shards, Nanotech believes that Josine hid his
receiver somewhere in a derelict arcology in St.
Petersburg. Its unclear if the transmission is still
incoming or if it has already been received and
recorded. [Unlock: St. Petersburg]
Nanotech is heading to the arcology with a
battalion of Armingshire specialists to search
for the receiver device.
Nanotech cant know exactly where the receiver
is, or else theyd go straight there. But they know
what sort of cabling and connectivity theyre looking
for, so the device can only be in twenty-odd places
in the arcology. (Well find it, they say.)
Betas final act, though, might be to reveal the receivers location to the PCs after they blow up Hokkaido. (Or maybe it conveys the number far earlier,
in case they can make sense of it later.) The receiver
is in room 8111 in the arcology. That whole sector
(8100 through 8122) is covertly wired to the arcologys high-energy transceiver array.
Perugia, Italy
Perugia is a great scene for catching the PCs and the

players up on intel. Agent Wolcott tells them anything they need even laying out the choice between St. Petersburg and Karakum for them so I try
to get this into play whenever I can. Move any intel
here that you need and can explain Wolcott getting
through spies, surveillance, or direct contact with Josine. She knows his whole backstory except for the
final details of his plan. That is, she probably doesnt
know where the receiver for Alphas signal is.
Heres the Technocracy-facing intel thats here for
sure:
The Technocracy has Josine. Theyve had him
captive for more than a decade. They just cant
get him to talk about what they want him to talk
about.
Agent Wolcott believes theres a current within
the Technocracy that wants to just let the PCs
work and deal with the chips where they fall.
Agent Wolcott worked with Josine years ago,
when he was first brought in.
Josines being moved from a hidden fortress in
the Karakum desert to a new, unnamed, ultrasecure facility shes not privy to and, unless the
61
convoy carrying him is intercepted, the PCs will

never see him again.
Meanwhile, Nanotech soldiers and specialists
are converging on half a dozen sites worldwide
and the Technocracys not sure what new intel
theyre working from. If the PCs want to fulfill
Josines mission, and they know something that
Nanotech or the Technocrats dont (like where
Alphas receiver is), nows the time to act.
ACT 3, PHASE 5
This Phase doesnt offer any Phase-specific intel. Its

about taking action to change the world.
That said, if you want, you can exposit in either
scene to help explain whats been happening if the
PCs are confused. Josine can talk in Karakum. The AI,
Alpha, can explain things once its downloaded in
St. Petersburg.
Karakum Desert
Josine is weary, exhausted, and grateful in a big way.

He can explain his old plan to the PCs, perhaps on a
flight or drive out of the desert. Hes not afraid to tell
them the truth anymore. Ive thought it over, talked
it over with myself and, hell, if I cant tell you now, I
dont know what Id be waiting for.
Maybe Josine says, Somewhere in Russia, Nanotech or the Technocrats have access to technology we cant fathom tech I imagine they can
hardly fathom either. Thats our edge. Weve got
the gall and the imagination. We can steal the rest.
The information wants to be ours because whoevers got the information also has Alpha. And Alphas on our side.
Saint Petersburg Arcology
The receivers transmission log says it took in one

transmission about a year ago and has been holding the file ever since. Its big enough to be an artificial intelligence. The system is set to install the
received program into a human brain dataport or
not which isnt like a download. It doesnt copy
the file. Its one and done. [Alternate play here: If you
want the AI to be copied and accessible to multiple
PCs, they have to defend each other while the willing receive the AI.]
To download Alpha into a memory needle like an
experiential recording would be to freeze the AI,
anyway. It wouldnt be able to think and act like a
real intelligence. Itd just be a memory recording.
Downloading it fully into a flesh brain, though, lets
it live and convey all the information it brought back
from its extraterrestrial jaunt. That conveyance of
data through live intelligence is how the aliens operate and its what Josine planned to do to himself at
the end of the plan.
The experience of installing an AI in your brain is
profoundly weird. It isnt like having multiple personalities or anything. Its like having a massive new
store of memories. Its like having strange, intrusive
ideas. It changes the user, it doesnt just add on.
It takes years to process and reconcile all the new
data, to write it out, to draw it out, to translate it into
terms that other humans could understand. This is
the start of something.
But the PCs never see Josine again.
CITIES VERSUS STARS
In the Player File, I mention themes that emerge during play. Since any story-game adventure is essentially the collaborative first draft of a thing, I believe
many themes develop and emerge organically. Look
and you shall find them. Mention them out loud as
you spot them and you may be able to cultivate
them during actual play.
One way to do this is to keep the theme in mind,
maybe phrased as a question or the statement of a
relationship, and watch what happens as descriptions, dialogue, and decisions brush up against your
question or statement. You might find your theme
dissolves or crumbles under scrutiny. You might
find it dilutes into nothing. You might find it overwhelmed by (or restated as) another theme. Thats
all right. Dont force it. In a first draft, the most fascinating or pervasive themes sometimes arent recognizable until youre a good way into the storys
telling.
When I ran A/N/N, I sometimes specifically cultivated a theme that I wove into my telling. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didnt. When it didnt,
it was because I oversold it or because it never found
traction with the players. Other themes emerged in
place of mine still a win so I played up those.
When my theme did work, though, it never came
at the expense of anything. These are additives. You
dont need to strip out or quash ideas to make room
for a pre-planned theme, thats a waste.
The theme I cultivated was Cities Versus Stars.
Cities are what we have, stars are what we want.
What we have is about the certainty of the present
but wanting is about the risky future. Weve always
had cities but well never have more than cities unless we make the future happen now.
62
I put my theme into play by doing three things

to varying degrees. If theres a magic ratio for these
things, I still dont know what it is. This is just how I
approached it.
Characters Talk About It
Cities versus stars is the language Josine uses to talk

about this idea of the present versus the future, same
as me. It also touches on the effect of communities
on the world around them and the choices we make
between what we want and what we have. Cities
represent what we have as a people, what were
comfortable with, and what we can see right now.
Stars represent both what weve lost and what we
might gain: a measure of ambition, a view of the
natural world, and a sense of our place in the greater
scheme. We used to look at the stars, then we built
our cities so bright that we couldnt see the stars anymore and all we could see was ourselves, crowded
and hiding from each other, in our cities.
It can also be about looking outward versus looking inward. Josine knows he can do amazing things
and he doesnt look inward for things to do. He
wants the world to change for him and for others
and he set out to make that happen in a big way.
So, to the extent that Josine appears in A/N/N at
all, he can talk about it directly, either as a memory
shard or as a live person. He says: We have cities.
Weve always had cities. Well never have more than
cities unless we make the future now.
You can also give this theme to Caroline Killebrew
or Cornelia Wolcott, maybe setting it up early in the
adventure and then paying it off in Perugia. Caroline
says something like, Are you sure you should go?
Things are pretty good here. Youve got it pretty
good. Whats out there that you want?
Cornelia can say it more directly: Josine used to

talk about his frustration with the limits we put on ourselves. He always wanted to change the world, never
wanted to wait, wanted things to change right now.
You can put the theme into other words, into other
characters, too. Be careful. Less is more.
Players Talk About It
You can also talk about it in a backstage way with

your collaborators on this project: the other players.
Some players wont have answers at first, which is
fine. Asking questions can help hone in on what a
characters about, even if the player hadnt thought
about the answers before you asked.
You can ask something direct, like, What is your
character giving up to go after Josine? Why is she
doing it? This addresses what the character has,
puts it into specifics you can build up and reincorporate in the fiction.
You can also ask a follow-up, like, What does
your character want at the end of all this? What does
finding Josine get him? This addresses what the
character wants, in terms that you can talk about as
players and also during in-character dialogue.
These sorts of things can be put into fictional
mouths, too, of course. Look for opportunities for
Technocrats to get the PCs talking about themselves.
What do you really want? asks the Technocrat emissary. Why come all this way after all this time?
Putting It Into the Descriptions
The cities-versus-stars theme started this way for me,

in the descriptions. I built it up as a theme after realizing that most of the settings I was looking at were
cities (and knowing what Josines plan was). Getting
the theme into my descriptions without smothering
people became a little experiment, a little game I

played against myself.
When you put a recurring theme or descriptive element into the language of a work, you get a motif. I
used the cities-and-stars motif from the first time I ran
A/N/N, knowing I wanted that motif in there for myself. Its great if the other players pick up on a motif
as its happening, but they have a lot to think about
and keep track of during play, so dont fret if youre
the only one who knows its there.
If you want, you can mention the motif youre
building as you go and see if anyone else wants to
help you add to it without overdoing things. This is
another instance of building up the fiction and reincorporating the details.
PUTTING THE MOTIF IN PLAY
Cities and stars are just the motifs I used. You could
install your own motifs as well or instead, of course,
by deciding what you describe and when.
Weave the motif throughout the descriptions, as
you play. Avoid hitting the point too hard; a motif
can turn into a joke pretty easily. Here are little motifdriven statements I wrote to help me remember to
use the motif. If Id used all of these, in every scene,
it probably wouldve been too much. I ended up
pushing the motif about once per Phase, most of
the time.
Reykjavik Motif
You glimpse the stars as the suborbital peaks
in its flight and then arcs to descend toward
the city below. Reykjaviks newer outer quarters
resemble someones notions of a circuit board
rendered in amber glass.
63
Out at the site of Josines call, the stars shine

through aerial curtains of green light.
Dezhou Motif
The glow coming off Mumbais towers makes it

impossible to see the stars above.
Vast, irregular fields of solar panels drape the

city in a jagged blanket, soaking up our stars
light and feeding it out across the mainland in
veins. All that glass, arrayed at the sky, makes the
city feel like its eyes are on the sky.
The airship floats and glows like a fake moon

over the city.
The whole city almost buzzes with an electrical

charge gleaned from the sun.
Mumbai Motif
Atlantica Motif
From across the waves, Atlantica glitters like the
stars above, reflected like the moon across the
ocean surface, but as you get near, the glare of
the seastead overwhelms the night sky.
Its like a grimy Vegas on stilts and up to its ass
in saltwater.
Lagos Motif
The lobbys ceiling is a work of art depicting
etched and painted stars, every third or fourth
one lit by a twinkling white LED.
Out the window, Lagos is a fantastic mlange
of styles and structures new buildings built
on old reaching upward out of a busy layer of
honking traffic.
Seattle Motif
Something glitters in the sky like a shooting star
against the dusk except it lingers too long. Its
got to be a UAV or fighter jet on patrol.
The citys been overhauled with artificial veins
carrying select traffic at an elevation above the
widening sprawl of the metro area as if the city
core was an asphalt heart pumping cars through
itself to stay alive.
Sydney Motif
Local street artists have painted video-game
space aliens onto posters advertising the citys
new observatory.
The citys in the midst of a reinvention, only halfanesthetized during a painful facelift. Orange
plastic webbing crosses open gashes in the harbor-front area, like gauze over damp wounds.
Buenos Aires Motif

Searchlights scan the skies to draw the eyes
down to earth.
Lasers draw elaborate stars in changing hues on
the sides of the museum, each point vanishing
as the next comes into focus.
Vietnam Motif
Blue sky. Green grass. White clouds. Not a city
for miles.
Hokkaido Motif
The night sky is gray except where the wind has
torn the clouds and left the stars visible beyond
like pinpricks in the sky, like cinders thrown off
the explosion at the start of time. Here on the
ground, your breath makes little clouds in front
of your face.
The new city below flickers in the gloom, its
lights pale and green, like the rind of something
unripe.
Perugia Motif
A fiber-optic net stretches over the city square,
glittering at the intersections like Christmas
lights or tiny stars.
A telescope points up at the sky from a balcony
on the Technocracys consulate.
64
Karakum Motif
Stones in the sand glitter in the sunlight, like the
night sky put through a drastic photographic filter.
Miles and miles of nothing, close to nothing, in
touch with nothing. The sky feels far away.
St. Petersburg Motif

Gaps in the clouds reveal stars above. If the arcology was finished, it would gleam, its glow
drowning out the sky. Instead, the vertical city
has gaps in it, too, through which you can see
lamps aglow with stolen light.
Theres a spot where you can stand and see
through the sketched frame of the arcology to
the world outside, where St. Petersburgs new
constructions rise against the sky and its easy to
imagine the lights of the city are stars.
Information Suite
+Plate-glass Windows, +Falling Glass,
+Razor-sharp Edges, +Jutting Girder,
+Live Wire, +Rack of Hardware,
+Windswept Snow, +Frigid Wind
65
Residential Airship Manor

+Security Doors, +Soundproofed Walls,
+Thrumming Machinery, +Distracted Staff,
+Unexpected Adjustment to Pitch/Yaw, +Sturdy Bulkhead, +Handily Placed Tool
Renovated Oil Rig Partyscape

+Random Party Guest, +Corks Popping,
+Swaying Crowd, +Thumping Bass,
+Pulsing Lights, +Silvery Mirrored Tray,
+Open Porthole, +Ricochet, +Burst Pipe
Solar Panel Field

+ Articulated Armature, + Sharp-Edged
Solar Panel, + Solar Panel Shard, + Glare,
+ Live Wire, + Broken Ground,
+ Rusty Scrap Metal, + Open Pit
Fabulous Penthouse Suite

+TV Wall, +Well-stocked Bar,
+Bottle of Fine Scotch, +Stylish Wall Sconce,
+Windswept Balcony, +28-Story Drop,
+Bulletproof Glass, +Full Modern Kitchen
Free American Highway System

+Big-Rig Truck, +18-Wheeler,
+Random Motorcyclist, +Median Barrier,
+Digital Street Sign, +Overhead Power Lines,
+Low Tunnel, +Overpass, +Bridge
Public Wharf and Harbor Front

+Distracting Mercantile Barker, +Cooking Fire,
+Maze of Hanging Rugs, +Arguing Bystanders,
+Random Signal Interference, +Protesters,
+A Mistaken Identity, +Birds Take Flight
66
Elegant Museum Gala

+Giant Stone Head, +Priceless Vase,
+Champagne Flute, +Murmuring Crowd,
+Swelling Music, +Dance Floor, +Wine,
+Captivating Portrait, +Dimly Lit Gallery
Hologram-Embellished Stone Temple

+Flickering Hologram, +Tall Grasses,
+Flapping Banner, +Hulking Statue,
+Crossfire, +Holographic Wall, +Loose
Stones, +Modern Security System, +Fireflies
Secure Next-Gen Factory Building

+Razor-sharp Assembly Tools, +Spinning Fan,
+Cutting Laser, +Decorative Bamboo,
+Rack of Cyberlimbs, +Huge Flatscreen,
+Liquid Coolant, +Jet of Steam & Sparks
Nighttime Celebration
+Live Music, +Lively Dancers, +Banners,
+Sudden Applause, +Strings of Lights,
+Smiling Street Vendor, +Fireworks,
+Laser-light Show, +Peal of Church Bells
Armored Desert Convoy

+Careening Truck, +Blowing Sand,
+Blinding Glare, +Giant Spinning Wheel,
+Spare Tool, +Broken Road, +Flying Debris,
+Minor Collision, +So Much Sand
Derelict Unfinished Arcology

+Multi-story Drop, +Weakened Flooring,
+Broken Glass, +Rusting Saw Blades,
+Loops of Cable, +Modern Art, +Rebar,
+Volatile Fuel Cell, +Pile of Glass Bricks
67
KICKSTARTER BACKER CREDITS
These names represent many of the wonderful backers whose enthusiasm and support
helped make this project what it is. Thank you, backers, for your trust and patience.
A. Herbert
Adam It was an Inside Job Drew
Adam Jury
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Always, Never, Now

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SCENARIO FILE

Written and designed by Will Hindmarch

Stphane Sokol (order #6286545)

Influences include (with thanks):

This manuscript contains all the secrets of the story

Sometimes youll want to talk stuff out. Converse.

Doing Your Own Thing

Its my sincere hope that, while I encourage you to

the Technocracy whenever they happen to collide

Facilitate the Fiction

Its good to provide context and details, as the GM,

Ask questions; questions are great.

do. The guard has no idea youre there, right? So

Information and Choices

Remember that the players characters are good at

RUNNING THE GAME

When youre the GM, its your job to keep everyone

on you both from the snowmobile Emily just blew

Find the Obstacles

The players characters are simultaneously experts in

reaches the snowmobile all the more dramatically,

Reading the Obstacles

Some of the obstacles in here use arcane phrasing

Such targets are actually three different obstacles

ous world populated by more than one-and-done

Calling For Rolls

Forward momentum is important. Dont call for rolls

(Trapped) by enemy gunfire? Tank can fly a VTOL

Revealing the Difficulty

As a baseline, I dont reveal the Difficulty of an action.

Escalation is an art. Not every choice you make to

Escalate the fiction: Nothing in the game rules

just goes up by one step and cant go higher than

Intel provides answers and context and motivation

its to give them enough intel to navigate the curve,

In all the time we spent playing the campaign that

First, its what motivates important NPCs to act,

THE WHOLE STORY

Josine was a Technocrat, once.

He settled into a fortified and hidden lair beneath the

Gamma stepped up to test the viability of their

in a nameless prison and let his old agents drift apart.

All About the Information

Time passed. The Technocracy tried to break Josine,

sume that Alpha and Beta are in unknowing PCs. The

PLACING CAROLINE KILLEBREW

This parts tricky. Caroline Killebrew doesnt need

rupt scene with the Technocrats (including Agent

Maybe youve got another idea for how to connect

but either he needs them now or he just cant

The Scene-Flow Diagram

Look around for the scene-flow diagram and the

Note the key symbols on the scene-flow diagram:

Play the Reykjavik scene for Phase 1, then maybe

them outright, You know what there is to learn from

Theyre listed in order of magnitude, so an Action

Linear mode short-circuits all that, particularly the

This is how I assume youll be playing. This mode

from left to right, but deploys intel differently than

This mode also uses with the scene-flow diagram

Special: Free Play Mode

In Free Play mode, you peel apart the whole thing

After all this time, a message from Josine.

For a faster start, gloss over the details of how