Every rule in this book resolves through one of two rolls. Learn these first; everything after this chapter assumes them.

THE POWER ROLL

Roll 2d10 and add the relevant Attribute. Compare the total to the Result Tier table, then apply the Tier printed on the Talent, action, or effect you are using.

The five Attributes are Power, Reflex, Logic, Awareness, and Presence. The action being taken names which one applies.

EDGE AND BANE

Edges and Banes cancel one-for-one and never exceed Double Edge or Double Bane.

THE SKILL CHECK

Skills use a d100 roll-under check against the Skill's Rank threshold. Skill Checks resolve capability outside combat resolution; Power Rolls resolve Talents, attacks, and contested effects.

MODIFYING A SAVE

Edge and Bane apply to a Save only when they come from a piece of equipment or a Maneuver. Circumstance alone never grants Edge or Bane on a Save.

When a rule changes a Save for situational reasons — size, footing, leverage — it adjusts the roll by a stated number instead.

INFLUENCE

Influence is a faction's practical ability to shape outcomes in a specific territory. It is local control, not general reputation.

A faction uses Influence to enforce, conceal, supply, command, and persuade. Damage to any of those is what Pressure is for.

SCENE TRACKER SIZES

• 4 Boxes - short, exposed, or unstable operation.
• 6 Boxes - standard professional operation.
• 8 Boxes - layered, hardened, or strategically important operation.

WHAT A MARK MEANS

• Time: the response arrives sooner or an opportunity closes.
• Evidence: the target gains footage, identity fragments, signatures, or witnesses.
• Access: a route, credential, node, service, or ally becomes unavailable.
• Position: opposition gains a better location, initiative, or control point.
• Resource: gear, ammunition, money, transport, or a Contact is strained.
• Exposure: the crew, objective, or method becomes more legible.

MARKING PROCEDURE

1. A failed roll does not automatically mark the tracker.

2. Mark only when the target gains useful certainty, evidence, position, access, or response capacity.

3. Choose one concrete Mark Outcome and describe it immediately.

4. At half full, activate a meaningful countermeasure.

5. At one Box remaining, show the crew what full escalation will look like.

6. When full, trigger the declared response; do not erase prior success.

ESCALATION BY TRACKER

• 4-Box: Mark 1 warning; Mark 2 active countermeasure; Mark 3 imminent containment; Mark 4 full response.
• 6-Box: Marks 1-2 suspicion; Mark 3 countermeasure; Marks 4-5 containment; Mark 6 full response.
• 8-Box: Marks 1-2 anomaly; Marks 3-4 investigation; Marks 5-6 active response; Mark 7 imminent containment; Mark 8 full response.

OUTCOME RULE

A Scene Tracker measures the target's response, not the crew's progress. The crew succeeds by completing the operation's objective. A full tracker changes the conditions, escalates the opposition, or forces a new scene.

INFLUENCE

FRAMING THE CHANGE (optional). The Influence Test above is the only test. These five questions are a way to narrate its result, not a second procedure. After an operation, you may answer:

• What did the faction control before the operation?
• What did the crew attack?
• What changed permanently or until repaired?
• Can the faction still enforce, conceal, supply, command, or legitimize?
• Did another group gain practical freedom because of the operation?

If at least three answers demonstrate real loss, reduce Influence by 1. At the end of every operation, the GM writes one sentence: Because the crew did X, faction Y can no longer reliably do Z in territory A.

Example: Because the crew exposed Khepri’s illegal patient trials, Khepri can no longer quietly recruit test subjects in the western medical district.

Influence recovery procedures A faction should only recover Influence through play by:

• restoring the damaged system;
• defeating the group benefiting from the loss;
• regaining legitimacy;
• replacing leadership;
• retaking territory;
• exposing the crew;
• or completing a retaliation objective.

The physical world. Take something so the people who own it cannot use it any more.

A Profit heist is about a thing that exists. It has weight, an owner, a shelf it normally sits on, and somebody whose job it is to notice when it is gone. Everything the crew does is aimed at that last person.

Player Steps

• 1. Pick what you are stealing, and why losing it hurts them
  Investigation R1-4; domain Skill
  Example. Blackforge Ironworks in Tajura ships weapon mounts every Thursday. Take the shipment and their buyers go a month without.
• 2. Find out who owns it, when it moves, and who guards it
  Investigation, Shadowing, Electronic Surveillance, Cyber Operations at target Rank
  Example. Tajura Rivers work that yard as a Scrap Claim. One of their people will sell you the loading schedule for less than a corporate bribe.
• 3. Go look at the place, and at the people who move through it
  Shadowing or Electronic Surveillance at target Rank
  Example. Sit on the yard for two nights. Count the guards. Notice the night shift is thinner, because The Arsenal pays it to be.
• 4. Get your cover, tools, transport and way out ready before you start
  Spin, Fabrication, Cyber Operations, Piloting, Contacts
  Example. A Grey Fixer like Yara “Bolt” Khalil can supply the bonded paperwork that gets a truck through the gate. She will want something later.
• 5. Get past what protects it, then take, copy, swap or break it
  Skill matching each defense at target Rank
  Example. You do not have to carry the mounts out. Swapping the serial plates means the shipment arrives and is still useless.
• 6. Leave, and make the loss hard to trace back to you
  Piloting, Shadowing, Spin, Leverage
  Example. If Blackforge thinks a rival gang took it, their Retaliation lands on Tajura Rivers instead of on you.

Let the crew win the theft and lose the quiet. A heist that succeeds cleanly is a payday. A heist that succeeds while leaving one face on a camera is a campaign.

The Agora. Take a thing that only exists as information, in a place that only exists as light.

Run the Agora as a place, not a screen. Describe marble, crowds, the sound of the forum. Your players should forget they are describing code until the moment it matters — and then it should matter a great deal.

Player Steps

• 1. Pick the data you are taking, and why losing it hurts them
  Investigation R1-4; Cyber Operations
  Example. The Great Library quarter holds Khepri's trial records. Take them and Khepri's next approval is delayed by a year.
• 2. Find out who holds it, who visits it, and who would notice
  Investigation, Electronic Surveillance, Cyber Operations at target Rank
  Example. A Handle Market crew in Kerameikos rents identities with standing. One of theirs has visited the archive eleven times this month.
• 3. Walk the quarter and watch how it actually behaves
  Shadowing or Electronic Surveillance at target Rank
  Example. The archive has a public reading floor and a sealed stack. The stack opens twice a day, for staff, through a gate that reads standing rather than a key.
• 4. Get your handle, your standing and your way out ready before you start
  Spin, Cyber Operations, Contacts, Fabrication
  Example. Buy an aged handle rather than forge a new one. New handles are the first thing a gate looks at.
• 5. Get past what protects it, then take, copy, alter or corrupt it
  Cyber Operations matching each defense at target Rank
  Example. Copying the records leaves them intact and leaves Khepri confident. Altering three figures leaves them confident and wrong.
• 6. Log out clean, and leave the record looking ordinary
  Cyber Operations, Spin, Shadowing
  Example. In the physical world you run. Here you walk out through the gate you came in by, at the hour you would normally leave.

The Agora rewards patience in a way a street job does not. Nobody hears an alarm here. They notice, later, that a number is wrong — and then they start reading backwards through the visitor log. Give your crew that quiet, and let them decide how much of it to spend.

Walk in as someone who belongs, do the job, and walk out before anyone is sure.

Infiltration is a Heist where the thing you take is access. The crew is not breaking in; they are being let in, and the whole job is spent making that welcome hold.

Player Steps

• 1. Decide who you are pretending to be
  Spin, Status, Sell, Leverage
  Example. A Khepri clinic in Wassat sees dozens of contractors a week. A maintenance crew gets further than a visitor ever will.
• 2. Build the proof that backs up the story
  Spin for story; Fabrication for physical credentials; Cyber Operations for records; Status or Contacts for a vouch
  Example. A Papermaker inside the local Underworld can put your name in the contractor list. It only has to survive one check at the desk.
• 3. Walk in the way the staff expect, and act like you have a reason to be there
  Spin or Sell at target Rank
  Example. Arrive when the shift changes. Carry something. People challenge idle strangers, not busy ones.
• 4. Watch how the place actually runs
  Shadowing, Investigation, Electronic Surveillance, Status
  Example. Who signs for deliveries. Which doors need a second badge. Which nurse has stopped caring.
• 5. When someone starts to doubt you, give them an easier answer
  Spin, Sell, Leverage, Status
  Example. “I was told to report to the third floor.” Most people would rather send you upstairs than start an incident.
• 6. Do what you came for and leave before anyone is certain
  Shadowing plus objective Skill
  Example. Suspicion is survivable. Proof is not. Go while the clinic still only has a feeling.

Let suspicion build before proof does. A crew that is questioned twice and talks its way through both is having a better night than one nobody notices at all.

Player Steps

Take something so the people who own it cannot use it any more.

• 1. Pick what you are stealing, and why losing it hurts them
  Investigation R1-4; domain Skill
  Example. Blackforge Ironworks in Tajura ships weapon mounts every Thursday. Take the shipment and their buyers go a month without.
• 2. Find out who owns it, when it moves, and who guards it
  Investigation, Shadowing, Electronic Surveillance, Cyber Operations at target Rank
  Example. Tajura Rivers work that yard as a Scrap Claim. One of their people will sell you the loading schedule for less than a corporate bribe.
• 3. Go look at the place, and at the people who move through it
  Shadowing or Electronic Surveillance at target Rank
  Example. Sit on the yard for two nights. Count the guards. Notice that the night shift is thinner because The Arsenal pays them to be.
• 4. Get your cover, tools, transport and way out ready before you start
  Spin, Fabrication, Cyber Operations, Piloting, Contacts
  Example. A Grey Fixer like Yara “Bolt” Khalil can supply the bonded paperwork that gets a truck through the gate. She will want something later.
• 5. Get past what protects it, then take, copy, swap or break it
  Skill matching each defense at target Rank
  Example. You do not have to carry the mounts out. Swapping the serial plates means the shipment arrives and is still useless.
• 6. Leave, and make the loss hard to trace back to you
  Piloting, Shadowing, Spin, Leverage
  Example. If Blackforge thinks a rival gang took it, their Retaliation lands on Tajura Rivers instead of on you.

Player Steps

Make something public that someone needs kept quiet.

• 1. Decide what the truth is and who has to believe it
  Investigation, Spin
  Example. That Sentinel drones in Alexandria are logging faces for a client that does not exist. The public will shrug. A regulator will not.
• 2. Get proof that survives being denied
  Investigation, Cyber Operations, Electronic Surveillance
  Example. One document is a rumour. A document plus a name plus a date is a problem.
• 3. Find someone who can carry it and be believed
  Contacts, Status, Sell
  Example. A Public Narrative Officer will bury it. An investigative reporter will not, but they will want protection you may not be able to give.
• 4. Protect whoever hands it over
  Shadowing, Leverage, Protect
  Example. If your source is identified in a week, nobody sources you again.
• 5. Release it where it cannot be quietly pulled
  Spin, Cyber Operations, Contacts
  Example. Put it in three places at once. One takedown should not end it.
• 6. Hold the story while they try to kill it
  Spin, Leverage, Status
  Example. Expect the counter-story within a day: your source is a liar, a criminal, or does not exist.

Player Steps

Hit a place hard and fast, take or break what matters, and be gone before the response arrives.

• 1. Pick the target and what leaving looks like
  Investigation, domain Skill
  Example. A Red Lantern tank farm in Markaz. You are not holding it. You are there for four minutes.
• 2. Learn what defends it and how fast help comes
  Investigation, Shadowing, Electronic Surveillance
  Example. Corporate security is contracted. Contracted security waits for instructions. That is your four minutes.
• 3. Choose your way in and your way out, and have a second one
  Piloting, Shadowing, Fabrication
  Example. The Tunnel Rats know a service way under the tank farm. They will sell it once, and to whoever asks next as well.
• 4. Get in and take control of the space
  Combat Skills at target Rank
  Example. Speed is the whole plan. A raid that turns into a fight has already gone wrong.
• 5. Take, break or burn what you came for
  Demolitions, Fabrication, domain Skill
  Example. You do not need the whole farm. One pumping station stops the site for a week.
• 6. Get out before the response lands
  Piloting, Shadowing
  Example. Leave on your own clock, not theirs.

Player Steps

Get into a system, take or change what is inside, and leave the log looking ordinary.

• 1. Decide what you need out of the system
  Investigation, Cyber Operations
  Example. A Blue Harp relay in the Agora carries corporate session traffic. You want one client's records, not the whole stream.
• 2. Find the way in that is actually open
  Cyber Operations, Electronic Surveillance, Investigation
  Example. Most systems are not broken into. They are walked into on someone else's credentials.
• 3. Get credentials or an unwatched route
  Cyber Operations, Spin, Contacts
  Example. A Handle Market crew rents identities that already have standing. Cheaper than cracking the front door and far quieter.
• 4. Go in and stay inside your cover
  Cyber Operations at target Rank
  Example. Behave like the account you are wearing. Accounts that act out of character get reviewed.
• 5. Take, copy, alter or plant what you came for
  Cyber Operations plus domain Skill
  Example. Changing one record is often worth more than copying a thousand.
• 6. Leave the log looking like nothing happened
  Cyber Operations, Spin
  Example. A clean exit is worth more than the take. They cannot chase what they have not noticed.

Player Steps

Get two other powers fighting so the thing you want stops being guarded.

• 1. Pick the two who already dislike each other
  Investigation, Status
  Example. Dahra Cobras and Vipers share a border and a grudge. You do not need to invent the tension, only aim it.
• 2. Work out what would actually set them off
  Investigation, Leverage
  Example. Cobras will not move over insults. They will move over a stolen consignment.
• 3. Make it look like the other side started it
  Spin, Fabrication, Shadowing
  Example. Leave the right mark. Every gang has one, and everybody in the district can read it.
• 4. Feed the fight without being seen to
  Spin, Sell, Contacts
  Example. Sell to both. A Fence Yard that supplies both sides is doing the same thing for money.
• 5. Use the gap while they are busy
  domain Skill at target Rank
  Example. While The Hand is settling its own crews, nobody is watching the warehouse it protects.
• 6. Get clear before either works out who aimed them
  Shadowing, Spin, Leverage
  Example. Both of them will eventually compare notes. Be a rumour by then.

Player Steps

Change what people will do for someone, without ever touching them.

• 1. Decide whose decision you need changed
  Investigation, Status
  Example. A Registry Office clerk in Sharq decides which properties get inspected. That is the decision you want.
• 2. Find out what they actually care about
  Investigation, Shadowing, Contacts
  Example. Not what they say. Their sister's clinic access, their standing at work, a debt nobody knows about.
• 3. Find who they listen to
  Contacts, Status
  Example. People rarely change their minds because a stranger asked. They change because someone they respect asked.
• 4. Give them a reason that lets them save face
  Sell, Spin, Leverage
  Example. Nobody agrees to look corrupt. Everybody agrees to be reasonable.
• 5. Make the new position the easy one
  Sell, Status, Leverage
  Example. If refusing costs them more than agreeing, you have already won.
• 6. Leave them a way to keep doing it
  Spin, Contacts
  Example. Pressure that ends with a ruined person ends. Pressure that ends with a useful person continues.

Player Steps

Keep a person, place or shipment intact while somebody works to take it.

• 1. Be clear about what you are protecting and what counts as losing it
  Investigation, Status
  Example. A HelioSeal water convoy out of Abu Salim. Intact means the tankers arrive, not that everyone gets home.
• 2. Work out who wants it and how they would take it
  Investigation, Shadowing, Electronic Surveillance
  Example. A Corridor Syndicate does not ambush. It impounds. Your threat is paperwork, not gunfire.
• 3. Close the easy ways in
  Fabrication, Cyber Operations, Piloting
  Example. Change the route. Change the schedule. Most attempts fail because the plan was for last week.
• 4. Put your people where the attempt will happen
  Combat Skills, Shadowing
  Example. You cannot cover everything. Cover the place they have to come through.
• 5. Handle the attempt when it comes
  Combat or domain Skill at target Rank
  Example. Winning is the convoy arriving. It is not the same as winning a fight.
• 6. Work out who sent them, and make that public or make it costly
  Investigation, Leverage, Spin
WHEN A FACTION LOSES GROUND
Retaliation Charts
Retaliation is Pressure aimed back at the crew. A faction that loses Influence applies Blood, Data, or Profit against them — the same three pressures the crew uses, pointed the other way.
Before you start. Every faction has an order it reaches for. A street gang takes your money before it takes your teeth. A broker never throws a punch. A corporation escalates to violence only when somebody else can be billed for it. Low rolls are a faction acting in character. High rolls have pushed it into pressure it would normally avoid, and that is when factions become unpredictable.
Universal Retaliation Procedure
1. Confirm the faction lost Influence. No loss, no Retaliation.
2. Take the chart for its Power Layer and roll d10.
3. Read the Pressure type first. That is what the faction is doing to the crew.
4. Read the faction’s own printed Typical Retaliation and combine the two.
5. Aim it at something the crew chose — a Contact, a route, an asset, a Beat, or ground.
6. Apply any Scene Tracker marks the result calls for.
7. Scale it from what the faction has left, not from what it lost.