PRESSURE is what the crew does. An operation aimed at one faction’s ability to operate in one territory.

INFLUENCE is what it costs them. Influence is a faction’s practical ability to do five things in a specific place: enforce, conceal, supply, command and legitimise itself. Damage one of those for real and the faction loses a point of Influence there.

RETALIATION is what they do about it. A faction that loses ground comes back at the crew — with violence, with exposure, or by cutting off the money. Which is to say: with pressure of its own.

That’s the loop closing. Their retaliation is the next thing the crew has to answer, and answering it is the next operation.

The crew decides. Not the GM.

You choose the faction. Open the atlas, read who runs what, and pick whose grip you want. A street gang holding an oasis. A corporation drawing its water. A militia taxing a road. Nobody assigns you a target.

You choose the pressure. Data, Profit or Blood — how you intend to hurt them. The same faction can be hit three completely different ways, and the choice is yours every time.

You choose the mission. Eleven procedures. Rob them, walk in wearing someone else’s name, expose them, set their rivals on them, or take their ground outright.

The GM runs the world you’re pushing against. The world answers honestly and hard — but it never picks your fights for you.

The seven steps of an operation

Then the crew picks the next target, one rung higher than the last.

How this book is organised

The chapters follow the loop in order.

Data takes away a faction’s ability to conceal itself and to be believed. It’s the quietest pressure and the slowest to be noticed, which is its value: a crew can be three jobs deep before anyone starts reading backwards through a log.

Missions: Agora Heist · Infiltration · Exposure · Data Operation

Profit takes away a faction’s ability to supply itself and to pay the people who keep it strong. It’s the pressure that builds a crew, because what you take, you usually keep.

Missions: Physical Heist · Social Pressure · Sabotage

Also resolved in Zine 3: resources, fabrication and assets.

Blood takes away a faction’s ability to enforce. It’s the loudest pressure and the easiest to overuse. Reach for it when the crew wants everyone to know who did this, and let the cost be exactly that: everyone knows.

Missions: Raid · Proxy Conflict · Territorial Pressure · Protection

The people on the other side are in Zine 4.

Reading a mission

Each one gives you four things: what it takes in a line, recommended steps in the order that usually works, a worked example from Alexandria, Tripoli or the Agora, and a GM Reference.

The Skills listed are suggestions, not requirements. Outside combat, any Skill a player can justify for what they’re actually doing is a legitimate approach, and a crew that solves a step a way the book didn’t anticipate has played well. The listed Skills tell the GM what rank the step is pitched at.

The steps are an order, not a checklist. Skip one and you’ve made a choice with a price: a crew that doesn’t case the place walks in without knowing where the second badge reader is.

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

This is how a crew reaches a corporation’s mainframe. The data sits behind a corporate seat in the Agora, and the heist is getting to it with your standing intact.

Recommended steps

• 1. Pick the data, and know why losing it hurts them
  Investigation, Cyber Operations — or any Skill that gets you the answer
  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 it gone
  Investigation, Electronic Surveillance, Cyber Operations, Contacts
  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, Electronic Surveillance, Status
  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 first
  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 — or Ghost Talents where the architecture has to give
  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’d normally leave.

The Agora rewards patience in a way a street job doesn’t. 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.

A heist where the thing you take is access. You’re not breaking in; you’re being let in, and the whole job is making that welcome hold. It works the same way in a clinic as in a corporate seat in the Agora.

Recommended steps

• 1. Decide who you’re 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 the story
  Spin for the story · Fabrication for credentials · Cyber Operations for records · Status or Contacts for a vouch
  Example. A Papermaker in 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
  Spin, Sell, Status
  Example. Arrive at a shift change. 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 doubts 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 whatever the objective needs
  Example. Suspicion is survivable. Proof is not. Go while they still only have a feeling.

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

Recommended steps

• 1. Decide what the truth is and who has to believe it
  Investigation, Spin, Status
  Example. That Sentinel drones in Alexandria are logging faces for a client that doesn’t exist. The public will shrug. A regulator won’t.
• 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 won’t — but they’ll 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 can’t be quietly pulled
  Spin, Cyber Operations, Contacts
  Example. Put it in three places at once. One takedown shouldn’t 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 doesn’t exist.

Against a corporation this begins in the Agora: their mainframe answers from their seat there and nowhere else.

Recommended steps

• 1. Decide what you need out of the system
  Investigation, Cyber Operations
  Example. A Blue Harp relay carries corporate session traffic. You want one client’s records, not the whole stream.
• 2. Find the way in that’s actually open
  Cyber Operations, Electronic Surveillance, Investigation
  Example. Most systems aren’t broken into. They’re walked into on someone else’s credentials.
• 3. Get credentials, or an unwatched route
  Cyber Operations, Spin, Contacts, Status
  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, Spin
  Example. Behave like the account you’re wearing. Accounts that act out of character get reviewed.
• 5. Take, copy, alter or plant what you came for
  Cyber Operations plus the domain Skill — or Ghost Talents where the system has to behave impossibly
  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 can’t chase what they haven’t noticed.

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’s gone. Everything you do is aimed at that last person.

Recommended steps

• 1. Pick what you’re stealing, and why losing it hurts them
  Investigation, plus the 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, Contacts
  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 costs.
• 3. Go and look at the place, and at the people moving through it
  Shadowing, Electronic Surveillance
  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 first
  Spin, Fabrication, Cyber Operations, Piloting, Contacts
  Example. A Grey Fixer like Yara “Bolt” Khalil can supply bonded paperwork that gets a truck through the gate. She’ll want something later.
• 5. Get past what protects it, then take, copy, swap or break it
  Whatever Skill matches the defence in front of you
  Example. You don’t 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 you.

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

Recommended steps

• 1. Decide whose decision you need changed
  Investigation, Status
  Example. A Registry Office clerk in Sharq decides which properties get inspected. That’s 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 more than agreeing, you’ve 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.

Breaking a thing is easy. The job is making the failure look like the kind that happens anyway: a worn bearing, a bad batch, a fault that was always going to show up eventually. Do it well and the faction spends weeks blaming its own people.

Recommended steps

• 1. Pick the part whose failure costs the most
  Investigation, Fabrication, Cyber Operations
  Example. Not the pumps. The one valve assembly the whole line runs through, and that takes eleven weeks to replace.
• 2. Learn how it normally fails on its own
  Investigation, Fabrication, Contacts
  Example. Ask a maintenance hand what breaks. Then break it that way.
• 3. Find your way to it — and your reason for being near it
  Spin, Shadowing, Status, Cyber Operations
  Example. Contractors touch that machine every week. One more is nobody.
• 4. Make the failure, and make it ordinary
  Fabrication, Demolitions, Cyber Operations
  Example. Contamination beats a charge. Fire draws investigators; a bad batch draws an argument with the supplier.
• 5. Leave nothing behind that was obviously yours
  Fabrication, Cyber Operations, Shadowing
  Example. Take your tools. Put the panel back the way the last technician left it, down to the wrong screw.
• 6. Let them find the answer you planted
  Spin, Contacts, Leverage
  Example. If the supplier gets blamed, the faction fights its own supply chain for a month and never looks at you.

Sabotage is the pressure that keeps paying. A broken machine is one job. A faction that no longer trusts its own maintenance records is a season.

Recommended steps

• 1. Pick the target, and know what leaving looks like
  Investigation, plus the domain Skill
  Example. A Red Lantern tank farm in Markaz. You’re not holding it. You’re 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’s your four minutes.
• 3. Choose your way in and your way out, and have a second one
  Piloting, Shadowing, Fabrication, Contacts
  Example. The Tunnel Rats know a service way under the tank farm. They’ll sell it once — and to whoever asks next.
• 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, the domain Skill
  Example. You don’t 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.

Recommended steps

• 1. Pick two who already dislike each other
  Investigation, Status, Contacts
  Example. Dahra Cobras and Vipers share a border and a grudge. You don’t need to invent the tension, only aim it.
• 2. Work out what would actually set them off
  Investigation, Leverage
  Example. Cobras won’t move over insults. They’ll 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’re busy
  Whatever the objective needs, at target Rank
  Example. While The Hand settles its own crews, nobody is watching the warehouse it protects.
• 6. Get clear before either works out who aimed them
  Shadowing, Spin, Leverage
  Example. They’ll compare notes eventually. Be a rumour by then.

The most direct operation in the game, and the slowest. You aren’t taking a thing from them — you’re taking a place, which means taking it from the people who live there too. They were paying someone for something. If the crew can’t replace it, they’ll want the old arrangement back.

Recommended steps

• 1. Pick the ground, and know what it’s worth to them
  Investigation, Status, Contacts
  Example. A single block of the Souk al-Juma’a. Not for the rent — because every delivery into the quarter crosses it.
• 2. Find out what their hold actually rests on
  Investigation, Shadowing, Contacts
  Example. Three enforcers, a cousin in the licensing office, and the fact that nobody has ever tried.
• 3. Give the locals a reason to prefer you
  Sell, Status, Leverage, Contacts
  Example. Whatever the old crew was selling — protection, water, work — somebody still needs it tomorrow.
• 4. Break the hold where it’s thinnest
  Combat Skills, Leverage, or the domain Skill at target Rank
  Example. You don’t have to beat the faction. You have to beat the three people who show up on the block.
• 5. Be there when they come back
  Combat Skills, Shadowing, Protect
  Example. Taking ground takes a night. Holding it is the operation.
• 6. Make the change look permanent to everyone watching
  Status, Spin, Leverage
  Example. The district isn’t choosing between you and them. It’s guessing who’ll still be standing next month. Answer that.

Ground is the only pressure that can’t be done quietly. Everyone sees it, which is the point and the price: the faction has to answer or admit it’s finished there.

The only operation where the crew doesn’t choose the timing. Someone else does, and the job is being ready when they move.

Recommended steps

• 1. Be clear what you’re 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’d take it
  Investigation, Shadowing, Electronic Surveillance
  Example. A Corridor Syndicate doesn’t 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 can’t cover everything. Cover the place they have to come through.
• 5. Handle the attempt when it comes
  Combat or the domain Skill, at target Rank
  Example. Winning is the convoy arriving. That’s not the same as winning a fight.
• 6. Work out who sent them, and make it public or make it costly
  Investigation, Leverage, Spin
  Example. A defence that ends when the attempt ends invites a second attempt.

CYBERSTEEL CREW TIER

Personal advancement tracks what an operator can do. Crew Tier tracks what the crew has become.

A crew begins at Street. Every operation that changes a faction's Influence, wins a Crew Claim, or earns a high-value Contact moves the crew closer to Underworld, then Corporate, then Government. Crew Tier is not spent — it only rises. It changes what the world assumes about the crew before a single word is spoken.

CREW TIER STAGES

EARNING CREW TIER POINTS (CTP)

Award CTP during the Operation Consequence Procedure. Every source already exists on a faction, Claim, or Contact in front of you — do not create a separate tracker.

Tier 1-2 Contacts award no CTP. They are baseline access, not escalation.

WHAT CHANGES AT EACH TIER

Tier 1 — Street. The crew is known to one neighborhood, one Grey Fixer, one Street-tier faction. No corporation or authority has taken note. Missions are offered, not requested.

Tier 2 — Underworld. At least one faction has resolved a Retaliation against the crew — they are a known quantity, not a rumor. Underworld and Grey Fixer Contacts above Tier 2 become available for the first time. Factions begin opening with an offer instead of a demand.

Tier 3 — Corporate. A Corporate-tier faction's Influence has been altered by the crew at least once. Tier 4 Contacts become available. Corporations begin initiating contact — hiring, monitoring, or retaliating — without being approached first. Crew Claims can now be held across more than one district.

Tier 4 — Government. A DND-tagged or Government faction's Influence has changed because of the crew. The crew can choose to back, break, or replace a faction rather than simply be hired by one. Mission offers at this Tier can affect regional infrastructure, corporate power, or Nexus-adjacent outcomes.

A crew's Tier is a ceiling on what the world assumes, not a ceiling on what a GM may offer early. A Tier 1 crew can still stumble into a Government-scale problem — Crew Tier governs how the world treats them going in, not what dangers exist.

CYBERSTEEL OPERATION CONSEQUENCE PROCEDURE

Run this after every significant operation. An operation that ends without this procedure has not finished.

GM Note: Step 4 is the step every location book skipped before this procedure existed. Do not skip it. A crew that has just crossed a threshold should know it before the next session begins — announce the new Tier at the table, in the fiction, the same session it happens.

How physical reality, operational AR, and the VR Agora shape ordinary life.

THE THREE LAYERS

Physical World: Bodies, buildings, terrain, machines, distance, injury, material access, and irreversible consequences. The Physical World is where people move, fight, build, break, survive, and suffer the lasting results of every operation.

The Noise Overlay: The augmented-reality layer projected through the DND Harmonia Integration Network (HIN). The Noise Overlay identifies connected objects, displays live information, manages local civic infrastructure, and links people to nearby businesses and services. The Noise Overlay is immediate and local. It places digital information and controls directly over the Physical World. Through the Noise Overlay, operators may interact with:

• doors, cameras, vehicles, drones, and machinery;
• transit, utilities, traffic, emergency systems, and public services;
• shops, clinics, offices, entertainment venues, and local commercial networks;
• Access IDs, directions, warnings, advertisements, permissions, and live environmental data.

The Agora: The immersive virtual-reality form of the Noise Overlay. The Agora connects regional institutions, corporations, governments, markets, schools, research networks, and social spaces inside a persistent shared VR environment. Within the Agora, people store, verify, and negotiate:

• identity and Access;
• finance and ownership;
• contracts and employment;
• licensing and professional authority;
• education and certification;
• research and protected data;
• institutional decisions;
• corporate and government services.

WHEN THE NOISE SLIPS

• Doors validate late or refuse authorized people.
• Permits, payments, and Access IDs return incompatible results.
• Transit, medical, and emergency systems lose synchronization.
• Weapons, drones, or machinery hesitate because permissions disagree.
• Surveillance systems produce incompatible versions of the same event.
• Ghosting can create Pressure by making a system disagree with itself rather than simply destroying it.

LOCAL CONTROL

• Municipal HINs operate utilities, transit, emergency services, and public infrastructure.
• Corporate HINs operate factories, laboratories, warehouses, fleets, and proprietary systems.
• Failures remain localized. A traffic breach does not reveal regional banking; an Agora theft does not automatically control a power grid.

ILLEGAL ACCESS ECONOMY

• Forged Access IDs, illegal neural hardware, stolen subscriptions, rented credentials, and tolerated backdoors keep excluded districts connected.
• Grey Fixers, identity forgers, corporate insiders, and information brokers turn access into currency.
• In some neighborhoods, corruption is not a defect in infrastructure. It is the infrastructure.

AR AS LIVED REALITY

• Menus, prices, reservations, rent, jobs, queues, transit delays, and hazard warnings.

• Directions, public permits, service eligibility, credentials, and emergency

instructions.

• Machine status, maintenance procedures, cargo manifests, diagnostics, and work

orders.

ACCESS IS SOCIAL CLASS

A complete player procedure for Ghosting in Operational AR and the Agora.

WHO CAN GHOST

• Any character with the required Cyber Operations Rank and Neural Link can perform basic Ghosting.
• The Ghost archetype is built to remain fully effective in VR, sustain multiple objectives, and act under escalating Detection.

CHOOSE THE ENVIRONMENT

NEURAL LINK REQUIREMENTS

Without the required Neural Link, the operator cannot enter that embodied Domain. They may still use approved AR controls, external terminals, or indirect access if the system permits it.

PLAYER PROCEDURE

1. State the Ghosting objective in physical or institutional terms.

2. Choose the environment and entry location.

3. Choose credentials, sponsorship, stolen access, backdoor, physical terminal, or forced breach.

4. Remove remaining Firewall Layers with Ghosting Breach Checks.

5. Enter the functional location that controls the objective.

6. Identify the relevant Anchor.

7. Choose Observe, Manipulate, or Dominate. Confirm the required Cyber Operations Rank. Spend the listed Main Action or Maneuver.

8. Resolve the action, apply the result, and mark Detection when required. Roll d100 under final Cyber Operations only when uncertainty and consequence exist. Apply the effect, duration, failure, and Detection result.

9. Maintain sustained effects and decide whether to push deeper or exit.

10. Choose a clean exit, false route, transferred tether, or emergency disconnect.

FIREWALLS

Firewall Tier measures security layers and time. Cyber Operations Rank determines which Ghosting actions the operator can perform. Each successful Ghosting Breach Check removes one remaining Firewall Layer. Failure marks Detection; prior successes remain.

WHO PROTECTS WHAT

• Local governments protect municipal AR, utilities, transit, emergency services, and public infrastructure.
• Corporations protect facilities, fleets, laboratories, and proprietary Operational Nodes.
• DND maintains Agora standards, identity validation, regional continuity, and cross-jurisdiction response.

DEFENDERS

DEFENDER ACTIONS

• Challenge: demand authentication or revoke one credential.
• Trace: strengthen the Data Tether or identify the physical access point.
• Isolate: close one route, location, or Anchor.
• Counter-Ghost: attack a Ghost, ongoing objective, or implanted payload.
• Restore: rebuild one Firewall Layer at Detection 3 or higher.
• Escalate: call a stronger defender or physical response.

PRIVACY

UNIFIED DETECTION 0-4

WHEN DETECTION MARKS

• A failed Ghosting Breach Check always marks one Box.
• Other failures mark only when defenders gain usable evidence, stronger trace, closed access, confirmed intrusion, or response capacity.
• Crash and Seize create Detection exactly as listed in their actions.
• Detection is shared across one coordinated Ghosting environment.

WHAT A DETECTION MARK LOOKS LIKE

• Identity challenge or verification delay.
• Closed route, revoked credential, or sealed Anchor.
• False data, altered topology, or redirected traffic.
• SENTINEL or Corporate Ghost Team enters the environment.
• Data Tether becomes clearer.
• Physical security approaches the Ghost's access point.

DISCONNECTING

0-1: clean exit is normally possible.

2: exit requires breaking trace or accepting persistent evidence.

3: exit is contested by a defender, locked route, or physical response.

4: disconnection ends virtual exposure but leaves the access point, Access ID, or Data Tether actively targeted.

A complete GM procedure for preparing, running, and roleplaying Ghosting environments.

GM BUILD PROCEDURE

1. Choose environment type: Operational Node, Combat HIN Domain, or Agora Compound.

2. Choose Tier and physical or institutional scope.

3. Name the owner and real-world purpose.

4. Choose 3-5 functional locations: Sense, Act, Store, Command, Government.

5. Place four readable Anchors in each location.

6. Place the objective and at least three clues or routes to it.

7. Choose Firewall Tier and legitimate bypass methods.

8. Set Warning, Investigation, Intervention, and Lockdown responses.

9. Choose active defenders and their duties.

10. Define the entry point, exit routes, and what the Data Tether reveals.

11. Connect every Ghosting effect to a physical, financial, identity, informational, or authority consequence.

FUNCTIONAL LOCATIONS

THREE-CLUE RULE

Give at least three clues, routes, or opportunities to every conclusion required for success. No single failed check should make the objective impossible.

GM PREPARATION RECORD

• Owner, type, Tier, real-world function, and visual metaphor.
• Objective, entry point, Firewall, bypasses, and exit routes.
• Locations, Anchors, clues, defenders, and Detection responses.
• Data Tether consequence and physical or institutional outcomes.

HOW TO PORTRAY THE HIN

1. Describe what the Ghost sees.

2. State what real system that image represents.

3. Show what each Anchor controls.

4. Describe ordinary activity before the Ghost interferes.

5. Change the environment visibly as Detection rises.

6. Move defenders according to their duties and information.

7. Describe every Ghosting result twice: virtual effect, then real-world effect.

GIVE THE HIN AN IDENTITY

• Owner: corporation, government, district, institution, or individual.
• Purpose: what must this environment accomplish every day?
• Metaphor: foundry, citadel, market, hospital, archive, harbor, tribunal, or another functional place.
• Behavior: welcoming, clinical, bureaucratic, military, commercial, suspicious, or alien.
• Priority: what does it protect first - people, continuity, secrecy, ownership, authority, or evidence?

DETECTION CHANGES THE PLACE

0 Guidance: ordinary routines continue; the HIN barely acknowledges the Ghost.

1 Warning: glances, verification prompts, small delays, and subtle route changes.

2 Investigation: architecture narrows, permissions harden, and defenders compare contradictions.

3 Intervention: barriers activate, defenders pursue, and physical response begins.

4 Lockdown: the entire environment isolates the objective and turns against the Ghost.

Observe, Manipulate, Dominate, and exit under pressure.

OBSERVE

MANIPULATE

DOMINATE

EXIT CHOICES

Clean Exit: release objectives and leave through the original route.

False Route: redirect trace toward another system or Access ID.

Transferred Tether: hand the route to a prepared relay, Contact, or device.

Emergency Disconnect: end virtual exposure immediately but accept the current Data Tether and physical consequences.

THE TWO JACK INSTALLS

Jacking a machine requires a neural install. There are two, and every Steeljack begins play with the first.

SERIES I — REMOTE JACK

• Included in the Steeljack's starting Cyberware Kit at Level 1.
• Command one machine or Machine Group at a time through an authorized link, Remote Link, Hard Link, or a forced Ghosting breach.
• All Steeljack Talents operate normally. Vehicles and mechs the operator is riding or driving are controlled directly, with no jack required.
• The operator remains in their own body. Sensory input is read from instruments, not felt.
• Cannot enter Machine Embodiment.

SERIES III — FULL JACK

A Full Jack requires Khepri SERIES III — Noise Neural Integration. The Neural Interface Lattice, HIN Synchronization Node, and Cortical Signal Processor allow the Steeljack to experience a compatible machine or Machine Group as an embodied extension of the nervous system.

• Sense the machine's environment directly rather than through instruments.
• Act with the machine's full movement and weapon systems as though they were your own.
• Damage to the machine is felt. Catastrophic loss risks feedback injury.

SERIES III does not bypass Firewalls, ownership, Detection, or opposing Ghosts. The machine's access Tier and authorization still determine whether the operator can enter its Combat HIN Domain.

Ghosting the HINs of drones, vehicles, mechs, turrets, and machine networks.

WHAT STEELJACKING IS

Steeljacking is Ghosting directed at machines. A Ghost enters a HIN to change information, identity, or authority. A Steeljack enters the same HIN structure to make machinery sense, move, coordinate, or fight. The digital procedure is the same; the result occurs in physical space.

SERIES III REQUIREMENT

• A Full Jack requires Khepri SERIES III - NOISE NEURAL INTEGRATION. The Neural Interface Lattice, HIN Synchronization Node, and Cortical Signal Processor allow the Steeljack to experience a compatible machine or machine group as an embodied extension of the nervous system.
• Without Series III, an operator may use ordinary controls, legal remote commands, or a Steeljack Deck, but cannot enter Machine Embodiment.
• The machine's access Tier and authorization still determine whether the operator can enter its Combat HIN Domain.
• Series III does not bypass Firewalls, ownership, Detection, or opposing Ghosts.

CONNECTION MODES

MACHINE GROUPS

A Machine Group is the unit a Steeljack commands as one objective.

• One vehicle, mech, or major turret system is one Machine Group.
• A Drone Swarm of 2-6 compatible drones is one Machine Group.
• A Convoy of 2-4 compatible vehicles following one route and order is one Machine Group.
• Machines with different objectives, routes, or combat roles are separate groups.

HOW TO STEELJACK

1. State the physical objective: scout, escort, intercept, transport, suppress, breach, seize, or extract.

2. Identify the machine's environment: Operational Node for ordinary machinery or Combat HIN Domain for advanced vehicles, drones, and mechs.

3. Connect by authorized link, Remote Link, Hard Link, or forced Ghosting breach.

4. Remove remaining Firewall Layers using Ghosting Breach Checks.

5. Enter Sense, Act, Command, or Government and identify the Anchor controlling the objective.

6. Observe to learn sensors, movement systems, weapons, autonomy, orders, and fallback behavior.

7. Manipulate with Override, Redirect, Loop, Inject, or Hijack for temporary machine control.

8. Dominate with Seize for administrative control or Crash to disable a named subsystem.

9. Choose Routine Command, Guided Control, or Full Jack.

10. Maintain the link, watch Detection and EW, then release, hand off, or exit.

CONTROL STATES

Action Type: Physical - Digital - Machine Movement: change physical position, move to Node Location, reposition machine Maneuver: Aim, interact, hide, scan, maintain, tag target, hold, monitor Action: attack, breach, negotiate, override, loop, seize, drive, fire, deploy

SKILL DIVISION

• Cyber Operations: breach, Observe, Hijack, Seize, protect authority, and contest control.
• Piloting: dangerous movement, chases, evasive maneuvers, ramming, precision positioning, and unstable terrain.
• Electronic Surveillance: detect, intercept, Jam, Spoof, or protect the signal environment.
• Machine attacks use the machine's mounted weapon or Talent rules; a Skill Check does not replace a combat Power Roll.

LOST LINK AND FALLBACK

When a link ends, the machine follows its written fallback: hold position, return home, continue route, protect designated target, emergency stop, or independent AKS behavior. The GM must declare fallback behavior before it becomes relevant.

Rules for drones, swarms, convoys, mechs, multiple vehicles, and contested control.

DRONES AND DRONE SWARMS

• A single specialist, heavy, or unique drone is one Machine Group.
• Two to six compatible small drones may form one Drone Swarm and act from one shared order.
• A swarm uses one movement plan and one objective. Individual drones may spread within the area needed to perform that order.
• Recon swarms Observe; security swarms patrol and intercept; combat swarms attack or suppress; utility swarms repair, carry, relay, or breach.
• Damage or disruption may remove individual drones without ending the swarm.
• The swarm ends when too few drones remain to perform its declared function.

VEHICLES AND CONVOYS

• One actively maneuvering vehicle is one Machine Group.
• Two to four compatible vehicles may form a Convoy when they share one route, spacing plan, and objective.
• A Convoy uses Routine or Guided Control for navigation, access timing, and formation. Full Jack applies to one lead vehicle; the others follow the shared command plan.
• Breaking formation, assigning separate targets, or splitting routes turns each vehicle into a separate Machine Group.
• Human drivers may resist unsafe commands, take manual control, or become physical complications unless the Steeljack controls Government or Act.

MECHS AND HEAVY PLATFORMS

• A mech is always its own Machine Group.
• Full Jack is required for precise combat embodiment unless the platform has and
• authorized manual cockpit.
• Sense controls sensors and targeting; Act controls locomotion and weapons;
• command controls priorities and autonomous routines; Government controls pilot identity and ownership.
• Seizing one subsystem does not seize the whole mech. Name the target: locomotion, turret group, sensor array, flight system, or command authority.
• A destroyed or violently disconnected Full Jack may cause HIN Feedback according to the platform or Series III system.

MULTIPLE MACHINES IN PLAY

GM: BUILD A MACHINE HIN

1. Name the machine, owner, Tier, purpose, and legal controller.

2. Choose Operational Node or Combat HIN Domain.

3. Build Sense, Act, Command, and Government; add Store only when records or mission data matter.

4. Place readable Anchors: sensor mast, drive core, weapon router, autopilot, formation controller, identity seal, or emergency governor.

5. Choose Firewall Tier and authorized access methods.

6. Write the machine's autonomy and fallback behavior.

7. Define what Routine Command, Guided Control, and Full Jack look like for this machine.

8. Choose defenders: onboard AKS, SENTINEL, corporate Ghost Team, remote pilot, or opposing Steeljack.

9. Set Detection responses and what the Data Tether reveals.

10. Describe every result twice: change inside the HIN, then physical machine behavior.

PORTRAYING MACHINE EMBODIMENT

• Drone Swarm: a flock, chorus, constellation, or many-eyed hunting organism.
• Vehicle: a body of speed, traction, engine heat, blind angles, and route pressure.
• Convoy: a procession linked by timing, distance, and shared authority.
• Mech: a giant body whose limbs, armor, weapons, and sensors occupy separate functional locations.
• Industrial system: a foundry, port, crane forest, assembly organism, or mechanical city.

CONTESTED CONTROL

• When two operators issue incompatible commands, identify the Anchor being contested and make one opposed Cyber Operations check. The winner controls that Anchor until the end of the round or until the fiction changes. The loser retains any unrelated control.
• Government contest: who is recognized as controller.
• Command contest: route, formation, priority, or target assignment.
• Act contest: movement, doors, weapons, or machinery.
• Sense contest: sensors, tracking, visibility, or targeting information.

DETECTION AND PHYSICAL OUTCOMES

PLAYER DECISION

The Steeljack should always know what is at risk: control, secrecy, position, the machine itself, the physical crew, or the Data Tether. Completed movement and machine effects remain true even when Detection reaches Lockdown.

Use the Social Track when an NPC or faction has meaningful power, something important at stake, and a reason to resist. Routine requests, friendly exchanges, and obvious agreements should be resolved through roleplay without a roll.

THE THREE-STEP TRACK

STEP 0A - STATE THE PETITION

The player states: "I want ___ from ___ because ___."

• Name the exact person or faction.
• State the concrete concession, access, information, protection, or action desired.
• State why the NPC should agree now.

STEP 0B - GM STATES THE STAKES

Before any roll, the GM states what the NPC wants, fears, protects, or refuses to risk. The GM also identifies whether the request is possible through conversation alone.

DO NOT ROLL YET WHEN

• The player has not made a clear request.
• The NPC has no authority to provide it.
• The request is impossible under current circumstances.
• The NPC would agree automatically.
• The conversation has not introduced meaningful uncertainty.

STEP 1 - CHOOSE THE APPROACH

Sell, Spin, and Leverage can advance the Social Track. Status opens doors and establishes access but does not force agreement by itself.

ROLEPLAY BEFORE THE ROLL

1. The player states the Petition.

2. The player explains the chosen approach in character.

3. The GM identifies what part of the NPC's motive is being tested.

4. Roll only if the NPC has a real reason to resist.

ONE ROLL, ONE MEANINGFUL EXCHANGE

Each roll represents one complete social exchange: argument, counterargument, evidence, concession, threat, or demonstration. Do not roll repeatedly without changing the situation.

CHANGING APPROACHES

A player may change Skills between exchanges when the fiction changes. Repeating the same argument without new proof, leverage, concession, or insight does not create another roll.

STATUS ACCESS

• Success grants entry, recognition, a meeting, or permission to speak.
• Failure may create delay, scrutiny, a lesser audience, or a required sponsor.
• Status never advances Listening to Considering unless a Talent explicitly says so.

MAKING THE SOCIAL CHECK

Roll percentile dice using one die as tens and one as ones. Read the result from 00 to 99. A result equal to or under the final Skill percentage succeeds.

1. Start with the selected Social Skill percentage.

2. Apply no more than two relevant modifiers.

3. The total adjustment cannot exceed +10% or -10%.

4. Roll once for the complete exchange.

5. On success, advance the track one step unless that step is Job-Locked.

COMMON MODIFIERS

SUCCESS

• Listening to Considering: the NPC takes the request seriously and names what would secure agreement.
• Considering to Committed: the NPC agrees and states exactly what they will do.
• A successful exchange should change the NPC's words, demands, access, or behavior immediately.

FAILURE

Failure does not erase prior progress unless a rule says so. A repeated failed approach closes that approach for the scene. The GM chooses one consequence:

• The track does not advance.
• The NPC asks for proof, payment, leverage, or a concession.
• The NPC narrows the offer or introduces a deadline.
• The NPC exposes the crew to scrutiny, rivals, or political cost.

NPC MARK RATING

CONVERSATION VS JOB LOCK

A Job-Locked NPC can be persuaded that the crew is worth considering, but commitment requires proof through action.

JOBS THAT UNLOCK COMMITMENT

• data theft or exposure;
• sabotage or economic disruption;
• asset recovery or extraction;
• protection, rescue, or escort;
• public proof, political pressure, or fulfilled obligation;
• elimination of a named threat.

COMMITMENT TERMS

When the NPC becomes Committed, record the agreement in one sentence:

AGREEMENT STRENGTH

The GM may adjust strength based on leverage, cost, fulfilled promises, and the NPC's interests. Commitment is not mind control; the NPC acts within the recorded terms.

GM SOCIAL SCENE CHECKLIST

1. Confirm Petition and authority.

2. State NPC motive and resistance.

3. Set Mark and starting track position.

4. Hear the approach before calling for a roll.

5. Optional: Apply at most two modifiers.

6. Change the fiction after every roll.

7. Use a Job Lock for Mark 3-4 commitment.

8. Record the final agreement and its limits.

DURABILITY REFERENCE

Combat resolves against Rūḥ. These values are set at character creation and repeated here so the combat chapter stands on its own.

Set the scene, establish objectives, and prepare the shared physical/AR/VR battlefield.

ENCOUNTER SETUP CHECKLIST

1. State each side's objective: seize, defend, escort, escape, delay, extract, destroy, or survive.

2. Place combatants, Controlled Machines, Cover, hazards, terminals, HIN access points, and objective markers.

3. Establish awareness. A side that is unready is Surprised until the end of Round 1.

4. Each side rolls one d10. The higher side chooses which combatant acts first.

5. Sides alternate choosing one combatant who has not acted. Do not reroll each round unless a rule changes initiative.

MAP SCALE AND OCCUPIED SPACE

Play on a hex grid, on a table map or in a virtual tabletop. One hex is 5 feet, roughly 1.5 metres. Diagonal movement costs the same as orthogonal unless the table chooses measured distance.

Size decides how many hexes a combatant occupies.

COMBAT ROLES IN ONE TIMELINE

Physical combat, AR actions, VR Ghosting, Steeljacking, Electronic Warfare, drones, vehicles, and mechs all use the same round and alternating activation order.

CORE TURN ECONOMY

• No-Action: short speech, release an object, drop an item, or perform another trivial interaction.
• Simple interaction: draw a weapon, open an unlocked door, touch a terminal, or enter a vehicle as part of Movement or a Maneuver when reasonable.
• Triggered defenses and free strikes occur only when a rule or Talent explicitly grants them.

Turn Tempo:

1. A Player declares and executes the Move + Main Action together (shifting token + dice roll). Keep table pacing brisk, but real-world decision speed never grants a mechanical bonus or penalty (see Tempo Guidance).

2. A character must declare and execute their actions first before other characters can declare a Defensive Maneuver to affect the result. Defensive Maneuvers affect final outcomes. This is to not void out rolls.

SHARED MIXED-REALITY ACTION POOL

The operator may assign each turn component separately to their body, an AR/VR action, or any linked Controlled Machine Group within their attention limit. Each component is spent only once.

Example: the operator moves into Cover, a drone uses a Maneuver Talent to mark a target, and a mech spends the Main Action to fire. None receives another turn.

CONTROLLED VS AUTONOMOUS MACHINES

• Controlled Machines use the operator's shared action pool and never gain free attacks.
• A group without an assigned component follows its Routine Command or fallback only.
• Autonomous enemies and GM-controlled machines have their own turns.

Check conditions, links, and legal action users before spending the turn.

OPERATOR REVIEW CHECKLIST

1. Check Rūḥ, Recoveries, ongoing conditions, and whether the operator is Vulnerable, Dying, or Incapacitated.

2. Check linked Machine Groups, signal state, HIN access, Detection, and fallback orders.

3. Confirm which body or machine is Engaged, Prone, Grabbed, Hidden, or otherwise restricted.

4. State the turn's objective in plain language.

5. Assign Movement, Maneuver, and Main Action as each component is used.

MACHINE CONTROL STATES

Only one group can be Full Jacked at a time unless a Talent says otherwise. Other linked groups may still receive assigned components through Guided Control.

ATTENTION LIMIT

A Steeljack can maintain linked Machine Groups equal to at least 1 or Cyber Operations Rank, whichever is higher. Losing the limit forces excess groups into fallback.

AR AND VR MOVEMENT

• AR normally overlays the physical space and uses the operator's physical position.
• VR Movement is used only when virtual distance, hostile topology, or isolated routes matter.
• Moving between ordinary HIN locations normally requires no roll; crossing a hostile route, broken connection, or sealed Domain may require Movement or another listed action.

MACHINE STAT BLOCK LABELS

Every combat drone, vehicle, mech, or Machine Group must print:

• Occupied Size and Movement.
• Armor Tier, Énergeia, Stability, sensors, and traits.
• Basic Melee and Basic Ranged Attacks, or 'Unavailable.'
• Each Talent's action type: Movement, Maneuver, or Main Action.
• Required control: Routine, Guided, or Full Jack.
• Fallback order and whether the machine acts independently when uncontrolled.

TRIGGERED TIMING

POWER ROLLS

Roll 2d10 + the relevant Attribute. Resolve the printed Tier.

A natural 20 is always Tier 3 regardless of modifiers. After resolving an action that produced the Critical, immediately take one additional Main Action.

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

Resolve movement, engagement, terrain, universal positioning actions, and collisions.

Check perception, Hidden, range, Cover, Concealment, line of sight, and line of effect.

LINE OF SIGHT AND LINE OF EFFECT

• Line of Sight: perceive the target well enough to choose it.
• Line of Effect: an unobstructed path exists for the attack or effect.
• Cover can allow sight while imposing Bane.
• A sealed barrier blocks Line of Effect unless a Talent says otherwise.

COVER AND CONCEALMENT

Cover does not stack with itself. An unobstructed firing angle that bypasses Cover removes it. High ground grants only the benefits it physically creates.

HIDE - MANEUVER

You must be fully blocked from hostile observation by Cover, Concealment, darkness, or a Talent. If an observer could still track you through sound, sensors, or prior knowledge, make the listed d100 stealth-related Skill Check. On success, become Hidden. If no observer can perceive or track you, the GM may allow automatic success.

HIDDEN

• Hidden targets cannot be directly chosen, but area effects may include them.
• Attacking, entering open view, or creating obvious noise normally ends Hidden.
• Detect Hidden - Maneuver: make a d100 Awareness-related Skill Check against the hiding effect's difficulty. Success reveals the target to you until it hides again.

SEARCH - MANEUVER

Examine a nearby area, object, control, trap, route, or clue. Use the relevant d100 Skill Check only when uncertainty and consequence exist.

RANGE BANDS

• Ideal: no modifier.
• Close: no modifier for pistols, SMGs, and shotguns.
• Adjacent with a rifle, marksman rifle, or heavy weapon: Bane unless Compact.
• Beyond Ideal through Maximum: Bane.
• Beyond Maximum: no attack without a special Talent, scope, or emplacement.

FIRING WHILE ENGAGED

• Ranged attacks against nonadjacent targets take Bane.
• Pistols, SMGs, and Compact weapons attack the adjacent enemy normally.
• Long weapons take Bane against adjacent enemies unless Compact.

Choose one visible target. Your next ranged Power Roll against that target before the end of your turn gains Edge. Aim ends if the target leaves sight, you move more than 2 meters, or you change targets.

AREA ATTACKS

• The Talent states dimensions in meters and whether the origin is included.
• Make one Power Roll and apply the same Tier to every legal target.
• Check Line of Effect from the origin to each target space.

Apply Armor, ammunition, Edge/Bane, make one Power Roll, and resolve the printed Tier.

ATTACK CHECKLIST

1. Choose the acting body or machine, Talent, weapon, and target.

2. Confirm line of sight, line of effect, Range, Cover, Concealment, and engagement.

3. Apply Aim, ammunition, weapon traits, and situational Edge/Bane.

4. Compare Weapon Tier to Armor Tier.

5. Apply Resistance, Immunity, and Weakness.

6. Make one Power Roll.

7. Resolve the printed Tier: damage, forced movement, components, and conditions.

ARMOR

Armor Tier always equals Weapon Tier, and both equal the echelon. Levels 1–3 are Tier 1, 4–6 Tier 2, 7–9 Tier 3, Level 10 Tier 4. This is true of operators and Competitors alike \u2014 nobody wears armour out of step with what they carry.

Because both sides of the cross-reference rise together, the table below is really a Level gap. Fighting at your own Level is Normal. One echelon above is Bane. Two above and your weapons do not reach that armour at all. One below gives Edge, which is what makes Chaff feel like Chaff.

Weapon Tier does not set damage. It sets what a weapon can hurt. Cross-reference the attacker’s Weapon Tier against the target’s Armor Tier. No Effect means no Rūḥ or Énergeia is lost — movement, Suppression, control and component effects still resolve.

Armor Tier is the same scale used on every item in Zine 1. Tier 1 and Tier 2 Armor is worn. Tier 3 and Tier 4 Armor is a platform: a truck, a boat, an aircraft, a mech.

ADVERSARY WEAPON TIER

A Director-controlled combatant’s Weapon Tier equals their echelon: WT 1 at Levels 1–3, WT 2 at 4–6, WT 3 at 7–9, WT 4 at Level 10. The same rule the operators use.

This is why a crew inside an armored SUV is untouchable to Street opposition, and why the Government bringing out heavier weapons is a real escalation rather than a bigger number.

RESISTANCE, IMMUNITY, WEAKNESS

• Resistance X reduces matching damage by X after Armor.
• Immunity prevents the listed damage or condition entirely.
• Weakness X increases matching damage by X.
• These do not alter the Power Roll unless explicitly stated.

ADDING YOUR LEVEL TO DAMAGE

Add your Level to any damage a Talent or attack deals, on top of the printed number and your Attribute. A Level 5 operator whose Talent reads 9 + Reflex deals 9 + Reflex + 5. Director-controlled combatants add their Level the same way.

Gear arrives in jumps and Levels arrive one at a time. The Level bonus is what fills the gap between them, and it is the reason a fight at Level 9 takes about as long as a fight at Level 2 rather than half again as long.

BASIC ATTACKS

• Basic Melee - Main Action: choose an adjacent target and use the printed melee or unarmed Power Roll.
• Basic Ranged - Main Action: use the printed weapon Power Roll and Range Bands.
• Every operator and combat machine must print both basic attacks or state Unavailable.

SAVING THROWS

• Roll 1d10 at the end of the affected Turn. 6 or higher ends the effect; 5 or lower and it continues to the end of the next Turn. Edge/Bane never modifies a Save unless a rule says so, and where one does it is +2 or −2 on the d10.
• Save Ends means save at the end of each affected turn.

CONDITION DURATION

• Start of Turn: ends immediately before acting.
• End of Turn: ends after finishing the turn.
• Save Ends: save at the end of each affected turn.
• Until Repaired/Treated: remains until completed.
• Sustained: ends when upkeep stops or access is lost.

TRIGGERED DEFENSE TIMING

Declare a triggered defense after its trigger occurs but before the triggering action is fully resolved. A Talent can override this timing.

DAMAGE SEQUENCE

1. Apply Armor and damage-type interaction.

2. Apply Resistance or Weakness.

3. Reduce temporary Rūḥ/Énergeia, then normal durability.

4. Apply forced movement and collision.

5. Apply conditions and component effects.

6. Check the Vulnerable and Critical Zones, 0, the consequence roll, Dying, Disabled, or destroyed.

Use firearms, Suppression, Called Shots, occupants, drones, vehicles, mechs, Ghosting, and Steeljacking.

AMMUNITION

FIRE MODES AND RELOADING

Burst: within Ideal Range, gain Edge against one target; then gain Heat 1 or spend one Ammo use.

Automatic Fire is always a Talent defining targets, damage, Ammo, and Suppression.

Standard Ammo: no reload tracking in a normal encounter.

Limited Ammo: spend uses on listed high-output actions; reload at 0 as a Maneuver.

Single-Shot: reload as a Maneuver after each attack.

SUPPRESS - MAIN ACTION

• Choose a visible lane or zone within Ideal Range.
• Until your next turn, the first enemy crossing it must stop, become Exposed, or take one Basic Ranged free strike.
• This explicit trigger can occur once.

CALLED SHOT - MANEUVER + MAIN ACTION

• Choose a visible or revealed component. The attack takes Bane; Exposed cancels it.
• Tier 2 impairs.
• Tier 3 disables until repaired.

VEHICLE OCCUPANTS

Enclosed occupants cannot be targeted while the hull blocks Line of Effect.

Exposed occupants use their own Armor and any Cover from the vehicle.

Vehicle damage does not automatically damage occupants.

A violent crash or disablement forces the listed occupant save.

MIXED-REALITY MACHINE USE

A machine Talent spends the operator's matching turn component.

Different linked groups can use different components through Guided Control.

Only one group can be Full Jacked at a time.

A group without an assigned component cannot attack for free.

The acting machine uses its own Movement, attacks, defenses, sensors, Énergeia, and traits.

GHOSTING IN COMBAT

Ghosting actions use the operator's Maneuver or Main Action as printed.

Moving between ordinary HIN locations normally costs no action; hostile or isolated routes may require Movement.

Apply virtual and physical results immediately in the same initiative sequence.

At turn end resolve Detection, HIN defenders, ECM/ECCM, sustained effects, and Data Tethers.

REPAIR DEFAULTS

Field Repair - Main Action: adjacent operator with correct kit makes a d100 Technical Skill Check.

Tier 2 impairment: Normal difficulty; success ends it.

Tier 3 disablement: Hard difficulty and one Repair use; success restores it after the action.

Destroyed components require a shop, facility, or replacement part.

MIXED-REALITY EXAMPLE

Mara moves her body into Cover. Her drone spends the Maneuver on Mark Target. Her mech spends the Main Action on Rail Cannon. All three actions occur on Mara's turn; neither machine receives another action.

Resolve ongoing effects, recovery, Detection, machine fallback, death, disablement, and conditions.

END-OF-TURN CHECKLIST

1. Apply Bleeding, Burning, Shocked, environmental damage, and other end-of-turn effects.

2. Make Save Ends rolls.

3. End or maintain Sustained effects.

4. Resolve Detection, HIN defenders, ECM/ECCM, signal changes, and Data Tether consequences.

5. Confirm Routine Commands and fallback for linked machines.

6. Check Vulnerable, Dying, Stabilized, Disabled, destroyed, and encounter objectives.

RECOVERIES

• Each operator has the number of Recoveries printed for their Archetype in Zine 1 — 2 + Power for a Brawler or Veinrunner, 1 + Power for everyone else.
• Recovery Value is one third of maximum Rūḥ.
• Recoveries are the resource that decides how many fights a crew can afford in an operation. A standard encounter costs most of them. Plan to fight once.
• Catch a Breath — Maneuver: spend one Recovery and regain Rūḥ equal to your Recovery Value. Requires a Medical Kit.
• A Medical Kit may improve Catch Breath or enable additional effects as printed.
• Recoveries refresh only at the campaign's defined full-rest or operation-reset point.

FIRST AID AND HEALING

• First Aid - Main Action: adjacent ally with a Medical Kit treats Bleeding, stabilizes an injury, or grants a Dying target one immediate save with Edge.
• Heal Talents restore Rūḥ or conditions exactly as printed and do not automatically spend a Recovery.
• Field treatment stabilizes; surgery or facility care removes entries that require it.

DEATH AND STABILIZATION

• At 0 Rūḥ, become Incapacitated and Dying.
• A Dying character remains in initiative, takes no actions, and makes a Save at the end of their turn.
• Success marks one Stability; failure marks one Death.
• Three Stability marks stabilize at 0 Rūḥ. Three Death marks mean death.
• Damage while Dying marks one Death; a Critical marks two.

MACHINE DISABLEMENT

• At 0 Énergeia, a machine is Disabled unless its stat block says Destroyed.
• Disabled machines cannot act and may be repaired or salvaged.
• Further major damage, catastrophic failure, or a Tier 3 destructive effect may destroy them.

CRITICAL INJURY AND FAILURE

• A target in the Vulnerable Zone (half or less) rolls 1d10 on the appropriate chart whenever it takes further damage. Cap the result at 6.
• A target in the Critical Zone (a quarter or less) rolls the same 1d10 with no cap.
• Roll no more than once per target per round, however many times it is hit.
• Use the living chart for people, the mech / synth chart for mechs, synths, drones and androids, and the vehicle chart for anything that drives, flies or floats.
• A Tier 3 Called Shot that explicitly causes one, or reaching 0, rolls uncapped regardless of zone.
• Duplicate results worsen one step down this order: Kit or First Aid, then Shop or Surgery, then Facility, then permanent.

BEFORE COMBAT

1. State objectives and failure consequences.

2. Place combatants, Cover, hazards, HIN access, vehicles, and objective markers.

3. Record hidden units, machine autonomy, fallback, Detection, and signal states.

4. Determine Surprise and roll side initiative.

DURING EACH TURN

1. Confirm acting operator and available Movement, Maneuver, and Main Action.

2. Confirm which body, AR/VR action, or machine uses each component.

3. Check legal target, line of sight/effect, Range, Cover, Concealment, and engagement.

4. Apply Edge/Bane, WT vs AC, ammunition, Resistance, Immunity, and Weakness.

5. Resolve one Power Roll and all printed Tier effects.

6. Update position, durability, conditions, components, Detection, and objectives.

END OF EACH TURN

1. Resolve ongoing damage and saves.

2. Resolve HIN defenders, ECM/ECCM, and sustained effects.

3. Confirm machine fallback and Routine Commands.

4. Check Dying, Stabilized, Disabled, destroyed, or completed objectives.

END OF EACH ROUND

1. Confirm every combatant acted.

2. Refresh once-per-round free strikes and triggers.

3. Advance hazards, countdowns, and reinforcements.

4. Reassess enemy morale and objective.

5. Begin the next round without rerolling initiative.

PLAYER QUICK CHECKLIST

TEMPO GUIDANCE

Players should prepare actions during other turns, but real-world decision speed never grants a mechanical bonus or penalty.

DEFINITION PRIORITY

• A specific Talent overrides a universal rule.
• A stat block overrides a general scale or repair default.
• A condition applies only for its listed duration.
• When two effects conflict, the more specific effect wins; if equally specific, the newer effect applies.

RULES PRIORITY

COMPLETE ENCOUNTER LOOP

Use the numbered Operator Steps in order. Specific Talents and stat blocks override universal rules. When equally specific effects conflict, the newer effect applies.

Cybersteel runs four specialist procedures — Ghosting, Steeljacking, Mythos Operations, and the Social Track. Each belongs to one operator. Run any of them as an uninterrupted solo scene and the other players stop playing.

These four rules keep the whole crew in the operation. They use machinery already in this book; none of them adds a roll.

3. INTERLOCKS

Each specialist procedure hands the table something. Print these where the procedure runs and use them:

Player-facing procedures for Nexus zones, exposure, protection, and containment.

PLAYER KNOWLEDGE BOUNDARY

THREE SEPARATE MEASURES

Intensity creates risk. Exposure marks accumulate during an operation. Exposure Tier changes only through explicit advancement, campaign events, or a rule that says so.

EXPOSURE TIER

Character creation or the Archetype records starting Exposure Tier. Advancement options state when it increases. Anything beyond Tier 3 is an emergency classification; reliable public guidance ends there.

WHO TRACKS EXPOSURE

Each living operator and each significant Mythos-reactive machine, artifact, or object has its own three-box Exposure Track. Ordinary gear is tracked only when a rule specifically targets it.

EXPOSURE TRIGGERS

• First unprotected entry into an Intensity 3 zone.
• A Nexus surge, failed containment action, or direct contact with an uncontained object.
• Remaining beyond the zone's stated safe interval.
• A Talent or hazard that explicitly adds Exposure.

Do not mark Exposure every turn merely for remaining in the same zone. Additional marks require a new trigger.

EXPOSURE EVENT

At 3 marks, clear the track and resolve one Event. An Exposure Event does not cause permanent Divergence unless a specific rule says so.

NEXUS ZONE PROCEDURE

1. Identify visible signs, the source area, and the safest withdrawal route.

2. The GM announces Intensity, safe interval, surge timing, and known hazards.

3. Check protective gear, Mythos method, medical support, and containment tools.

4. Enter only long enough to complete the objective.

5. Track Exposure, Overload, containment progress, and escalation.

6. Withdraw when the objective is complete or the zone exceeds the crew's protection.

NEXUS INTENSITY

Talents use printed Nexus benefits only when they list them. If a Talent has no Nexus entry, Intensity does not increase its effect.

PROTECTIVE GEAR TAGS

When Intensity exceeds an item's Intensity Limit, its Exposure Shield and Channeling Edge cease until the user leaves the zone. A surge can also damage it when stated.

OPERATION

An operation begins when the crew leaves secure preparation and ends after returning to a secure location and completing full recovery. Scene changes, short rests, and vehicle travel do not reset Exposure Shield, Overload Used, or Mythos Tolerance.

STABILIZE NEXUS - MAIN ACTION

Use an appropriate technical, environmental, or Mythos Skill against the zone's listed d100 difficulty, or use a printed 2d10 Talent.

Success removes one escalation mark, prevents the next scheduled surge, or completes one containment segment.

Failure triggers the zone's listed consequence and may add Exposure.

A zone states how many segments are required and what increases Intensity.

GM NEXUS ZONE TEMPLATE

Use Mythos Talents through the normal Operator Steps, then resolve Overload, Burn, and treatment.

USE THE NORMAL TURN

Mythos Talents are used through the ordinary turn: one Movement, one Maneuver, one Main Action. There is no separate Mythos minigame and no extra action for channeling. What changes is what happens after the Talent resolves — Overload, Burn, and treatment.

CHANNELING PROCEDURE

1. Choose the Mythos Talent and legal targets.

2. Confirm method, tags, Focus, and current conditions.

3. Check Intensity, Exposure, Mythos Tolerance, and Overload Used.

4. Declare normal use or Overload before rolling.

5. Resolve the Talent with the normal Power Roll.

6. After resolution, add Overload Used, then apply Burn or any explicit Exposure effect.

MYTHOS TOLERANCE

Every Mythos-capable Archetype prints a fixed Mythos Tolerance, normally 1-4. Safe Overloads per operation equal that value. Only advancement, Cybersteel stabilization, or a specific rule increases it.

OVERLOAD

• Only a Talent with a printed Overload entry can be Overloaded.
• Apply the printed effect; never use a universal damage multiplier.
• After resolution, add 1 Overload Used, or 2 at Intensity 3.
• If Overload Used exceeds Tolerance, suffer one Burn from that Talent, maximum one unless the Talent says otherwise.
• Excess Overload causes Burn, not Exposure, unless the Talent explicitly causes both.

OVERLOAD EXAMPLE

Nara has Tolerance 2 and two Overloads Used. She Overloads at Intensity 3. The Talent resolves, then she adds two uses. She is above Tolerance and suffers one Burn; the single Talent cannot cause a second Burn unless stated.

TALENT AND SCHOOL FORMAT

Only exceptional Talents need individual Nexus overrides. This prevents repeated text across every Talent.

FOCUSES AND LEARNING

• A Focus is a printed relic, regulator, charm, bracelet, geometric tool, or anchor required by a Talent or School.
• A Focus grants only the benefit written on it: Channeling Edge, disruption protection, stored effect, or Overload access.
• New methods, Schools, Focuses, and Overloads are learned through advancement, instructors, ruins, temples, recovered records, relics, or campaign discoveries.

MYTHOS BURN

Burn is neurological injury caused by unsafe channeling, failed containment, or a specific effect. Resolve Burn after the Talent.

TREATMENT STATES

• First Aid can Stabilize Burn.
• A successful appropriate medical treatment can Field Treat it.
• Surgery, therapy, repair, replacement, or advanced care Removes it.

PLAYABLE DIVERGENCE

Divergence is a chosen or campaign-earned development. Its visible form and rules come from advancement options. One Exposure Event never forces permanent Divergence unless a specific campaign rule says so.

PUBLIC CONSEQUENCES AND EW BOUNDARY

• Visible Manifestation or Divergence can attract medical monitoring, corporate recruitment, state interest, religious interpretation, criminal exploitation, or fear.
• Electronic Warfare affects Mythos only when Cybersteel, HIN, AR/VR, cyberware, or a machine interface is involved. Pure biological channeling is not automatically electronic.

Table-ready player and GM checklists for exposure, containment, channeling, and recovery.

PLAYER NEXUS CHECKLIST

1. Read the announced Intensity, safe interval, and visible hazards.

2. Check Exposure Shield, Intensity Limit, Mythos Tolerance, and Overload Used.

3. Identify the objective, containment method, and withdrawal route.

4. Assign the normal Movement, Maneuver, and Main Action.

5. For a Mythos Talent, confirm method tags and declare Overload before rolling.

6. After resolution, add Overload Used and resolve Burn or explicit Exposure.

7. At 3 Exposure marks, clear the track and resolve one Exposure Event.

EXPOSURE QUICK REFERENCE

PROTECTIVE GEAR QUICK REFERENCE

TREATMENT QUICK REFERENCE

GM NEXUS ROUND CHECKLIST

1. State current Intensity and any change from the previous round.

2. Advance the zone's surge timer or hazard trigger.

3. Resolve operator movement, Mythos Talents, machines, and containment in normal initiative.

4. Apply Exposure only when a listed trigger occurs.

5. Track containment segments and escalation marks.

6. Describe biological, material, sensory, and HIN consequences without explaining their secret cause.

7. At scene end, record Burn, Exposure Events, altered equipment, and faction Attention.

NEXUS ZONE RECORD

CONTAINMENT RESOLUTION

Main Action: use the listed d100 Skill or printed 2d10 Talent.

Success: complete one segment, remove one escalation mark, or prevent the next surge.

Failure: trigger the listed consequence; mark Exposure only if the zone says so.

Completing all segments stabilizes, seals, redirects, or suppresses the zone as defined.

DISCLOSURE STANDARD

RULES PRIORITY

A specific Talent overrides this reference.

A School's shared Nexus rule applies before an individual Talent override.

A zone record overrides universal default timing.

Exposure and Burn are separate unless a rule explicitly causes both.

SHOW EVIDENCE, PRESERVE MYSTERY

Tell players what operators can see, measure, remember, and reasonably infer. Present conflicting scientific, religious, and cultural explanations. Do not reveal classified Rift evidence, hidden DND conclusions, or the ultimate endpoint of transformation unless discovered in play.