A first campaign for two sessions
The day starts normal: the familiar glow of your phone, the low hum of a city that never asks permission to measure you. Then one small glitch: A notification you do not remember signing up for:
SIGNAL™ HOUSING: Access Token Update Your residence cluster has been optimized for safety.
Some access privileges may change without notice.
A minute later, a message from someone you know: Mara Vela, friend, neighbor, colleague, ex, cousin, patient, bandmate, client, old classmate. The table decides.
No emojis. No small talk. Just this:
"If I disappear, don't trust the building. Tune 88.3 FM at 01:10.
Bring something that doesn't track you."
That evening, Mara's door does not open. Not for her keycode. Not for the building's helpful customer service bot. Not for the polite concierge who keeps saying, "Let me just refresh the system," while never touching the screen.
Her name vanishes from the tenant directory as if she never existed. In the hallway, the air smells faintly of disinfectant and warm plastic, like a device that has been running too long.
Downstairs, the concierge smiles like a person who has not slept in weeks and says:
"Maintenance already handled it."
This is a campaign about ordinary people discovering that the systems around them are not merely unfair, automated or cruel. They are coordinated.
The players begin as normal residents of a Signal™-managed city. By the end of the second session, they should understand four truths:
Corporate horror with absurd comedy.
The enemy should be terrifying, but its language should be ridiculous. A Field Agent does not say "We are here to arrest you."
They say: "We are here to support your transition into a safer compliance pathway."
| Plain language | Church of Signal™ language |
|---|---|
| Prison transport | "Mobile Human Continuity Unit" |
| Interrogation room | "Reflection Suite" |
| Disappearance | "Voluntary Reassignment — Social Contribution Path" |
| Weapon | "Peace tool" |
This campaign (and this is something that you might want to use in most of your campaigns)uses a simple shared pressure track. Signal Attention starts at 0.
Increase it by 1 when players: trigger cameras, access locked systems, fight in public, use their phones carelessly, ask too many official questions, fail loudly, or leave evidence.
| Attention | Effect |
|---|---|
| 3 | Payments, transport or building access begin to glitch. |
| 5 | A Field Agent team is assigned. |
| 7 | Identities flagged for "temporary review." Cannot rely on official services. |
| 9 | Actively hunted. Session 2 becomes a chase. |
The infrastructure. The backbone. The platform. The invisible thing that makes every other system work. Most people still talk about it like a service: "Signal is down." "Signal approved me." "Signal says I can't enter." But in practice, Signal™ is the nervous system of the city.
The ideological layer around Signal™. The Church does not always look religious — sometimes it is a corporate doctrine, a motivational program, an AI-generated lifestyle philosophy, a civic partnership, or a wellness initiative.
A pilot program hidden inside healthcare, housing and access systems. LITANY listens through comfort.
It uses devices people voluntarily accept — air filters, smart speakers, wellness apps, sleep trackers, building sensors, clinic kiosks, delivery lockers, door locks, childcare apps — to predict who is likely to resist. Then it nudges, isolates, discredits, delays, relocates or erases them before they become dangerous.
Private enforcement. They may appear as maintenance workers, delivery drivers, health auditors, security consultants, clinic compliance staff, transit inspectors, housing contractors, or insurance investigators. Some wear black corporate uniforms during escalated operations. Most do not.
High INSIGHT players may notice them by: wrong shoes, synchronized movement, identical earpieces, too-clean tools, private security posture hidden under customer service smiles.
Not one organization. A loose network of off-grid farmers, urban squatters, old radio enthusiasts, union organizers, artists, hackers, medics, smugglers, teachers, couriers, and tired people who finally had enough.
They use FM radio, paper, old game consoles, pre-Signal laptops, mesh networks, bicycles, printed zines, face-to-face trust, food, music, and bad coffee.
They are brave, suspicious and often broke.
Mara should feel real. Ask the table how they know her, then choose or combine from these options.
Mara the Neighbor — She always helped people carry groceries and knew exactly which cameras were fake.
Mara the Nurse — She worked at a Signal™ partner clinic and noticed patients being quietly deprioritized.
Mara the Programmer — She maintained part of a housing system and found a hidden integration with LITANY.
Mara the Artist — Her work was labeled "potentially destabilizing" after it became popular in underground channels.
Mara the Union Organizer — She was building a tenant/workers' alliance across several housing clusters.
Mara the Ex — She once told a player: "You think systems are boring because they haven't killed anyone you love yet."
Mara discovered a LITANY test in the players' housing cluster. The building's air quality filters, door locks, concierge desk, elevators, maintenance drones and clinic scheduling system are connected. The system is identifying residents who show signs of "collective refusal potential."
Mara copied part of the data to an analog device hidden inside an FM radio. Then she was flagged for Voluntary Reassignment.
She is not dead. Yet.
By the end of Session 1, the players should:
Morning arrives with the pale blue light of your phone.
Your sleep app tells you that your rest quality was "socially adequate."
Your work dashboard suggests three unpaid learning modules to increase your resilience.
Your housing app displays a cheerful banner:
GOOD NEWS. Your residence cluster has been selected for a safety optimization pilot.
Then the second message arrives.
Mara Vela.
"If I disappear, don't trust the building. Tune 88.3 FM at 01:10. Bring something that doesn't track you."
By evening, Mara's name is gone. Her door does not open. The building remembers everyone except her.
The players are trying to answer:
The players may investigate in any order. The GM does not need to force every scene — use whichever the players pursue.
Mara's door lock flashes: TOKEN INVALID. A tiny sticker under the peephole reads SAFETY AUDIT COMPLETE. The corridor camera lens looks freshly cleaned. The door frame has no visible damage, but the screws around the lock are newer than the others. A cleaning drone waits at the end of the corridor, motionless, facing them.
| Action | Roll |
|---|---|
| Spot that the audit sticker is slightly misaligned and the lock casing has residue from a recent swap | INSIGHT 6 |
| Force entry through a window latch, service panel or old mechanical weakness without too much noise | GRIT 6 |
| Force the door quickly before anyone arrives | GRIT 8 |
| Bypass the lock without logging a normal access attempt | INSIGHT 8 |
| Convince a neighbor to create a distraction or lend a maintenance badge | CONNECTION 6 |
On a Miss: Signal Attention +1 / the building logs a tamper event / a player's Access Tier glitches / a cleaning drone politely follows them / the concierge receives an alert and calls them by name over the hallway speaker.
The apartment feels too clean. Not cleaned like a home. Cleaned like evidence.
| Action | Result |
|---|---|
| Search carefully (INSIGHT 6) | Finds a microSD card taped inside the analog radio's battery compartment |
| Search deeply (INSIGHT 8) | Reveals the card is a decoy with corrupted tenant data and one clear phrase: "Do not open this on anything connected." |
| Strong Hit | Also finds pencil marks on the wall behind Mara's desk: 88.3 / 01:10 / UNDER THE LAUNDRY HUM |
The radio is modified. At exactly 01:10, if tuned to 88.3 FM near the building laundry room or basement, it can receive a short encoded Resistance transmission. If players try it early, they hear only static and fragments of corporate worship audio: "Comfort is a civic virtue." / "Optimization begins at home." / "Your building loves you."
Dark circles under his eyes. A smile that switches on half a second too late. He says things like: "Let me refresh the tenant environment." / "Safety audits are designed to reduce uncertainty." / "Sometimes the most caring answer is not the most immediate one."
| Action | Roll |
|---|---|
| Catch the human underneath — he slips and says "Field—" before correcting himself | CONNECTION 6 |
| Notice a second earpiece; someone is listening in | INSIGHT 6 |
| Persuade him to mute his desk microphone for thirty seconds | CONNECTION 8 |
| Notice his hand hovering near a panic button he does not want to press | INSIGHT 8 |
| Intimidate him | GRIT 6, but it damages him and raises Signal Attention |
If the players get through to him, he reveals: a service corridor entry used by auditors, basement level, behind the laundry machines. On a strong hit, he writes a name on a paper cup:
Then he whispers: "Please don't make me remember this."
On a Miss: Elian panics and triggers a silent alert / a voice in his earpiece tells him to end the conversation / the players are offered a "free wellness check" / the lobby doors lock for "cleaning" / Signal Attention +1.
Mara had a standing appointment. Now the clinic claims she does not exist. The waiting room is full of people staring at numbers that decide how much pain they are allowed to have. A screen says: "CARE IS A FLOW. PLEASE DO NOT BLOCK THE FLOW." Another says: LITANY PARTNER PROGRAM: Early Intervention Through Listening Infrastructure.
The reception bot: "I cannot locate that patient." / "Perhaps your memory is using an outdated identity model." / "Would you like to report confusion symptoms?"
Exhausted, angry and afraid. Cannot say much while cameras are active.
| Action | Roll |
|---|---|
| Get Ivo to check unofficially | CONNECTION 6 |
| Get Ivo to print something | CONNECTION 8 |
| Read the waiting room signage and spot that LITANY is a healthcare pilot | INSIGHT 6 |
| Use a clinic kiosk to access a cached record without logging in as yourself | INSIGHT 8 |
| Create a physical distraction | GRIT 6 |
Mara's file has been replaced by a template: VOLUNTARY REASSIGNMENT — SOCIAL CONTRIBUTION PATH.
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| 02:44 | Her Health Risk Profile was changed |
| 02:51 | Her housing access was revoked |
| 02:52 | Her employment profile was suspended |
| 02:53 | Her emergency contacts were "confidence reduced" |
| 03:03 | Her clinic record was overwritten |
The order matters. The system erased her socially before moving her physically.
Strong Hit: Ivo prints a partial transfer destination: CONTINUITY SITE 7 / FORMER CIVIC ARCHIVE / NORTH SERVICE RING. Then the printer deletes itself from the network.
Entry through behind laundry machines, the parking garage, a maintenance stairwell, or an air filter emergency override. The corridor is concrete, pipes, blinking sensors and locked metal doors. It feels older than Signal™. For a few meters, the players are in a place the system did not design, only colonized.
| Action | Roll |
|---|---|
| Read the maintenance tablet — learn that Mara's unit was visited by an "Air Quality Team" | INSIGHT 6 |
| Find a hidden secondary device inside an air filter | INSIGHT 8 |
| Open a jammed service door | GRIT 6 |
| Hold the freight elevator doors while the system tries to close them | GRIT 8 |
| Talk down a maintenance worker who walks in at the wrong moment | CONNECTION 6 |
The air filters are not just filters. They contain microphones, chemical sensors, sleep disruption monitors, stress pattern readers, and local wireless sniffers. A label reads:
Searching the cart: INSIGHT 6 finds a discarded badge: G. HARKER / BACKBONE COMPLIANCE / TEMPORARY AUTHORITY GRANTED. INSIGHT 8 finds a route map showing three stops: Mara's unit, clinic partner site, Continuity Site 7.
On a Miss: A maintenance drone activates — not lethal, but annoying and loud. "PLEASE REMAIN STILL FOR ENVIRONMENTAL REASSURANCE." If they destroy it: Signal Attention +1, but it feels great.
Signal™ keeps trying to move him to "assisted community housing," which he calls "The drawer." He remembers Mara, but his tenant directory does not. His photos with Mara have automatically blurred her face. His messages from her now show as: UNKNOWN LOW-CONFIDENCE CONTACT.
At 03:17, three maintenance workers entered Mara's apartment. One was too clean. One had a gun under his jacket. One kept saying "the forecast was accurate." They carried out a sealed white box, Mara's analog radio, a rolled-up poster — and Mara herself, walking but not walking right.
Santi says: "She looked awake, but she was following instructions from somewhere else."
| Action | Roll |
|---|---|
| Calm him enough to talk | CONNECTION 6 |
| Notice that his old doorbell camera is pre-Signal and may still have footage | INSIGHT 6 |
| Recover the footage without uploading it | INSIGHT 8 |
| Climb outside to reach his old camera after he admits the cable snapped | GRIT 6 |
The footage shows Field Agent G. Harker, who says: "Package responsive. LITANY confirmed pre-event resistance pattern." Then Mara looks directly at the camera:
"Don't rescue only me."
Useful if players look for "something that doesn't track you." The shop is called DEAD MEDIA. It sells vinyl records, paper maps, FM radios, broken cameras, old laptops, DVD players, cassette tapes, typewriters, books with pages, and a toaster labeled "NO WIFI, NO GODS."
Shaved head, ten rings, the patience of someone who has survived three failed revolutions and one very stupid startup. Accepts: cash, barter, or useful secrets. No Signal payments.
| Action | Roll |
|---|---|
| Convince Nura they are not bait | CONNECTION 6 |
| Get her to introduce them to Resistance contact protocols | CONNECTION 8 |
| Spot that the shop has an old mesh node hidden in a speaker | INSIGHT 6 |
| Help move heavy shelves to reveal a back exit when Field Agents arrive | GRIT 6 |
Nura says: "88.3 is not a station. It's a doorbell." / "At 01:10, someone will ask a question. If you answer wrong, they vanish. If you answer right, they might still vanish, but more politely."
On a strong hit, she adds: "If they mention a hymn, run. That means the Church is already on the frequency."
On a Miss: Nura thinks they are compromised and gives them the wrong response: "Only what we can afford." — This will make the Resistance suspicious later.
The climax of Session 1. The players need: an analog FM radio, a place "under the laundry hum" or another low-surveillance location, and something that does not track them.
At 01:10, the radio wakes. Static. A burst of old music. Then a voice:
"What does comfort cost?"
A second voice interrupts: "Do not come. They seeded the channel." Then screaming static. Then a final signal: "Continuity Site 7. Former Civic Archive. Harker moving her at 09:00."
If they answer incorrectly: The voice goes silent. Then: "Unauthorized anxiety detected. Please remain where you are. Help is approaching." Signal Attention +2. Field Agents arrive within minutes.
If they do not answer: On the third silence: "Mara said you might be afraid. Good. Fear means you still belong to yourself." Then half the clue: "North service ring. Former Civic Archive."
At some point after the transmission, the housing system speaks through the laundry room speaker:
"We apologize for any distress caused by recent comfort adjustments. To restore trust, all residents present have been granted one complimentary beverage credit."
A vending machine lights up. If anyone uses it, their location is confirmed and Signal Attention +1.
If Signal Attention is 5 or higher, or if the players made a lot of noise, three Field Agents arrive in maintenance uniforms. Their tool bags are too light. Their shoes are identical. One says: "We are not police. Police are a legacy interface."
| Approach | Roll |
|---|---|
| Hide in service spaces | INSIGHT or GRIT 6 |
| Talk past them | CONNECTION 8 |
| Create a false fire or air quality emergency | INSIGHT 8 |
| Fight one agent | GRIT 8 |
| Fight three agents directly | GRIT 12 — dangerous |
| Use neighbors as a crowd shield | CONNECTION 6 if trusted, 8 if not |
| Harm | Health & Stress |
|---|---|
| Punch, shove, stun baton graze | -2 |
| Baton hit or hard fall | -4 |
| Close-range gun | Target is out unless something interferes |
End with one of these:
The players escape with the radio. A Resistance courier on a bicycle pulls up beside them: "You're late. Also, you're glowing on every system in six blocks. Get on."
They reach the north service ring. The former Civic Archive is dark. Then every window lights up at once. A voice says: "Welcome, friends of Mara Vela. Your concern has been recorded."
They access the microSD safely. It contains a list of 400 names. The players' names are on it.
Their phone, despite being off, lights up. A video plays. Mara, pale and shaking: "If you are seeing this, LITANY has predicted you. That means you still have time to surprise it." Then the feed cuts.
Ask the players:
By the end of Session 2, the players should:
The city before sunrise looks less like a city and more like a machine pretending to sleep.
Delivery drones move through empty streets. Glass towers breathe soft advertisements into the dark.
Your phone wants to know if you are safe. Your bank wants to know if you are you. Your housing app wants to know why you are outside.
Somewhere in the north service ring, Mara Vela is being processed by a system that insists it does not have prisoners.
Formerly the Civic Archive. Now a "temporary social contribution assessment and continuity center." Not visible on current maps.
A hybrid detention, data cleansing and behavioral prediction site. The Archive contains pre-Signal records — paper records, contradictions, proof that people existed before Signal™ said they did.
LITANY uses the site to compare old identity records against current Signal™ identity models. People who cannot be smoothly integrated are "reconciled": some released with modified records, some relocated, some turned into informants, some erased.
| Path | Approach |
|---|---|
| Path 1: Resistance Route | Meet the Resistance and infiltrate with help |
| Path 2: Official Route | Pretend to comply, using bureaucracy as a weapon |
| Path 3: Direct Route | Break in through infrastructure |
| Path 4: Public Route | Make Mara's disappearance visible |
| Path 5: Bargain Route | Contact Harker or another insider |
All paths lead to the same core locations: the Outer Ring, the Reflection Lobby, the Archive Stacks, the LITANY Chamber, the Holding Rooms, the Broadcast Choice, and the Confrontation with Harker.
Not a cartoon villain. Worse: calm, tired and convinced they are preventing chaos.
"Freedom is a beautiful word for unmanaged harm."
"We do not erase people. We reduce volatility."
"Mara Vela was not punished. She was forecast."
"I envy your moral simplicity. It must be very comfortable."
Weakness: Needs the LITANY pilot to succeed. If the players create public uncertainty, corrupt the data, or force contradictory records into the system, Harker's authority weakens.
Exhausted, frightened, angry and still funny. Has been forced through Reflection Sessions designed to make her accept her reassignment. Has not broken. But she has learned something worse: LITANY did not predict only her.
"I thought I found a bug. It's not a bug. It's a recruitment list, a kill list and a prophecy, depending on who reads it."
Arrives on a cargo bike full of vegetables, batteries and illegal radio parts. "I'm your rescue package. Sorry about the smell. That's cabbage and fear." Can guide players to a Resistance entrance but does not fully trust them.
Started as a true believer. Now quietly sabotaging LITANY because the system flagged their own child as "future noncompliant." Can help if convinced the players have a real plan.
Continuity Site 7 sits behind layered security: a polite outer gate, a drone canopy, a biometric turnstile, a delivery bay, an old archive basement, and a public lobby for "family reassurance appointments."
The old stone inscription still visible beneath the corporate signage:
CIVIC ARCHIVE
THE PUBLIC MEMORY BELONGS TO THE PEOPLE
Over it, a new sign:
| Approach | Roll |
|---|---|
| Identify delivery patterns / sneak through the delivery bay | INSIGHT 6, then GRIT 6 |
| Spoof a delivery code | INSIGHT 8 |
| Enter as concerned friends / get into the public lobby | CONNECTION 6 |
| Get a temporary visitor badge | CONNECTION 8 |
| Create a public disturbance | CONNECTION 6, then GRIT 6; make it look like a system error: INSIGHT 8 |
| Find the old archive basement on a paper map | INSIGHT 6, then open it: GRIT 8 |
| Walk in and surrender | No roll — dangerous but valid |
Soft chairs. Warm lights. Plants that are probably real but look guilty. A wall display showing smiling people in community gardens.
"YOU ARE MORE THAN YOUR CURRENT RESISTANCE PATTERN."
"REASSIGNMENT IS NOT FAILURE."
"THE SYSTEM CANNOT HELP THE PERSON YOU PRETEND TO BE."
A schedule screen shows: 09:00 — M. Vela — Final Forecast Review — LITANY Chamber B
| Action | Roll |
|---|---|
| Convince reception they belong | CONNECTION 6 |
| Read the lobby flow and identify where detainees are moved | INSIGHT 6 |
| Hack or confuse a self-service kiosk | INSIGHT 8 |
| Cause a physical distraction | GRIT 6 |
| Pose as consultants, family, lawyers, clergy, contractors or media | CONNECTION 8 |
"You children discovered fascism has paperwork? Congratulations. Grab a box."
Can help find: Mara's records, records of other erased tenants, the original public contract that allowed Signal™ to manage the Archive, and a buried clause requiring "public continuity of identity records." That clause can become a weapon.
The Archive contains proof: proof Mara existed, proof other erased people existed, proof Signal™ changed records, proof LITANY is built on illegal predictive profiling.
| Action | Roll |
|---|---|
| Find Mara's original civic records | INSIGHT 6 |
| Find the discrepancy between old paper and current Signal™ identity | INSIGHT 8 |
| Convince an archive worker to help | CONNECTION 6 |
| Create a contradiction bomb that forces Signal™ to reconcile thousands of old records publicly | INSIGHT 12 |
Strong Hit: They find a paper file labeled:
Inside are names. The players' names. Santi's name. Nura's name. Nurse Ivo's name. Dozens of others. Not everyone listed has resisted. That is the point.
The holding area does not look like a prison. It looks like coworking. Small glass rooms, a hydration station, inspirational wall text, soft music. No handles on the inside of doors. People sit alone with tablets, answering questions: "When did your distrust of comfort begin?" / "Who benefits from your refusal?" / "Are you willing to accept a future where you are less harmful?"
Possible detainees: Rafi (delivery rider, flagged after organizing a work stoppage), Elna (teacher, flagged after refusing AI curriculum scripts), Mo (teenager, flagged after building an offline neighborhood network), Tomas (accountant, flagged for finding financial inconsistencies), or someone the players know.
From the detainees: Mara was moved to LITANY Chamber B. She told them: "If strangers come for me, ask them what they are willing to lose. If they say nothing, don't trust them."
A former records digitization room. Servers, listening equipment, projection walls, a chair with medical restraints, a circle of smart speakers, a wall of live city feeds.
Mara is there. Pale, wired to monitors, but awake.
Harker stands nearby with two Field Agents and Dr. Sel.
If the players were careful, they may enter unseen, overhear, plan and act. If they were loud, Harker expected them: "There you are. The forecast was early by seven minutes, but otherwise excellent."
LITANY is not mind control. It gathers housing behavior, medical delays, payment stress, sleep disruption, movement patterns, message timing, voice stress, media consumption, work ratings, complaint histories, social proximity, old public records, and device comfort settings — to predict who will resist, who will help them, who can be isolated, scared, bought, or erased without public cost.
Key idea: LITANY predicts optimized self-interest. It struggles with solidarity, absurdity, sacrifice, humor, forgiveness, and people doing things that make no measurable sense.
| Approach | Roll |
|---|---|
| Disable or overpower one Field Agent | GRIT 8 |
| Overpower the room directly | GRIT 12 |
| Detach Mara safely from basic monitors | INSIGHT 6 |
| Detach Mara without triggering sedation | INSIGHT 8 |
| Make Harker hesitate | CONNECTION 8 |
| Force Harker to admit doubt in front of LITANY | CONNECTION 12 |
| Appeal to Dr. Sel's guilt | CONNECTION 6 |
| Convince Sel to actively sabotage the chamber | CONNECTION 8 |
| Feed contradictory Archive records into LITANY | INSIGHT 8 |
| Create a public contradiction bomb | INSIGHT 12 |
| Patch into old FM broadcast equipment | INSIGHT 8 |
| Make a live appeal people will actually share | CONNECTION 8 |
| Hold the door while the broadcast runs | GRIT 6 |
On a Strong Hit convincing Sel, they gain the shutdown phrase:
"Manual continuity override: public memory belongs to the people."
If LITANY is corrupted successfully, screens flash:
Encourage players to think beyond obvious tactics:
| Action type | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Clever and plausible | 6 |
| Dangerous and bold | 8 |
| Nearly impossible but perfect | 12 |
At some point, Harker offers a deal. To one player: "Walk away now. Your profile can be corrected." To the group: "Mara Vela is one person. The city is millions. Do not confuse affection with ethics." To a low-Health player: "You are tired. The Resistance will spend you. We will treat you."
If a player accepts, they may become an inside witness, betray Harker later, protect another player, or genuinely walk away. The GM should ask: "What do we see on your face when you say yes?"
Alarms begin. But not normal alarms. Soft chimes. A calm voice says: "We are experiencing an empathy routing issue." The lights change color. Doors open and close at random. The system prints apology letters to people it erased. A vending machine dispenses 84 bottles of Focus Water.
A speaker plays an AI-generated hymn:
"Blessed are the compliant,
for they shall inherit convenience."
Then the FM radio in someone's bag screams with Resistance voices: "Whatever you're doing, keep doing it."
The players have a few rounds to choose what matters most.
Offer these choices — do not let them do everything unless they earned it brilliantly:
They get Mara out. The Resistance gains a living witness. Mara becomes a major Resistance figure. Evidence may remain incomplete. Signal™ denies everything.
Mara sees the sunrise from the back of a cargo bike and says:
"I used to hate mornings. That was before I had to steal one."
They expose LITANY. Players become wanted. The public reaction is mixed — some call it fake, some protest, some finally understand.
Across the city, smart speakers accidentally play the same leaked phrase:
"LITANY listens through comfort."
Then, from an apartment window, someone throws out an air filter. Then another. Then another.
Local pilot collapses. Central Signal™ survives. Evidence may be lost. For six city blocks, no one's phone knows who they are.
The servers burn with a smell like plastic and old prayers.
People look at each other in the street, terrified and free.
Use Archive records to force identity restoration. The system may begin a larger purge. The Resistance gains a list of the disappeared.
Santi's wall screen flickers. A blurred photo sharpens. Mara's face returns. Then hundreds more.
They escape with Ocho, Nura, Sel or Mara. Their Access Tiers collapse. They lose housing. They gain community, danger and purpose.
An off-grid room under a closed cinema. Bad coffee. A paper map. Names circled in red. The radio asks: "What does comfort cost?" Everyone answers: "Everything, if you pay monthly."
They survive but decide not to continue. Do not shame them. The point of the game is honest choice. They know the truth. They are watched. Signal™ offers them small comforts.
The building welcomes them home. The door opens. The lights adjust to their preferred warmth.
A notification appears: THANK YOU FOR HELPING RESTORE STABILITY.
Then, very quietly, from somewhere inside the wall: Static. 88.3 FM.
| Harker Outcome | Result |
|---|---|
| Exposed | Signal™ announces: "An isolated compliance leadership failure has been addressed." Harker becomes a scapegoat — or vanishes too. The system eats its priest. |
| Escapes | Sends a final message: "You have not escaped prediction. You have merely lengthened the model." Becomes a recurring villain. |
| Defects | Only possible after excellent roleplay or a Strong Hit at high difficulty. "I can get you seven minutes." Turns off the Field Agents' authorization. Seven minutes is enough. |
| Dies | Use carefully. This is not a power fantasy game. The system continues. The building calmly assigns another: "Audit Lead authority transferred." |
| Level | Result |
|---|---|
| Low Impact | A few people are saved. The Church continues. The Resistance gains allies. |
| Medium Impact | Local protests, tenant sabotage, clinic leaks, Field Agent exposure. Signal™ launches a narrative campaign. |
| High Impact | LITANY becomes a public scandal. Partner Administrations deny knowledge. Resistance cells coordinate. The players become symbols or targets. |
Each player answers:
After the campaign, each player may add one new Tag based on what happened, and may also change one existing Tag if the story transformed them.
| Difficulty | Example actions |
|---|---|
| 3 | Notice an obvious camera / Calm someone who trusts you / Find a public entrance / Break a cheap plastic device |
| 6 | Bypass a simple lock / Persuade a frightened worker / Hide from a casual patrol / Talk your way past a receptionist |
| 8 | Hack a secure kiosk / Lie convincingly to trained staff / Escape Field Agents / Turn an insider / Broadcast evidence |
| 12 | Fight an armed Field Agent directly / Break a central system / Convince Harker to defect / Escape while carrying Mara and the evidence |
Soft Costs
Hard Costs
Session 1
| 0:00–0:15 | Safety, character setup, relationship to Mara |
| 0:15–0:30 | Opening notification and Mara's vanished door |
| 0:30–1:30 | Investigation scenes: apartment, concierge, clinic, neighbor, service corridor |
| 1:30–2:15 | Analog shop or preparation for 88.3 FM |
| 2:15–2:50 | Radio contact and Field Agent pressure |
| 2:50–3:00 | Cliffhanger |
Session 2
| 0:00–0:15 | Recap and consequences |
| 0:15–0:45 | Choose approach to Continuity Site 7 |
| 0:45–1:30 | Infiltration: outer ring, lobby, archive or holding rooms |
| 1:30–2:20 | LITANY Chamber and Mara |
| 2:20–2:50 | Final choice: rescue, broadcast, destroy, restore, bargain or flee |
| 2:50–3:00 | Aftermath and new Tags |
Do not make the story about solving a puzzle perfectly.
Make it about what people do when every convenient system in their life asks them to abandon someone.
Mara's disappearance is the hook. LITANY is the horror. The Resistance is the possibility.
The real climax is not whether the players beat Signal™. They probably do not.
The climax is whether, for one impossible moment, they become unpredictable together.