Scenes, Acts, and Missions
Play is organized into a simple hierarchy. Each level nests inside the next.
A scene is a single situation in a single place. The crew argues over a plan in the briefing room. That's a scene. A firefight breaks out in a cargo bay. That's a scene. When the situation resolves, the characters leave, or the GM cuts to something new, the scene ends and the next one begins.
An act is a stretch of connected scenes building toward the same goal. The crew researches a target, meets a contact, gears up for the job. That's an act. When the characters hit a natural pause — transit, rest, regrouping — the act ends. A short mission might be a single act — the crew gets the call, does the job, and wraps it up in one stretch. Longer missions might have three, four, or more acts with breathers in between. Between acts, characters recover, regroup, and prepare. Willpower regenerates between acts.
A mission is one complete objective from start to finish. Get the briefing, do the job, deal with the fallout. A mission contains one or more acts and will often span multiple sessions. Between missions, characters fully recover, earn XP, and advance.
A campaign is the whole story — every mission, every character arc, from the first session to the last.
Most of the time, you don't need to think about this structure. The GM will naturally frame scenes, and the breaks between acts will feel obvious — the moment where everyone exhales and the tension drops. That's the act break.
Two Modes of Play
Within any scene, the game operates in one of two modes.
Free play is the default. The GM describes the situation, players say what their characters do, and dice come out when the outcome is uncertain or interesting. There is no turn order. Conversation flows naturally. Most of the game lives here.
Structured scenes engage when the situation is dangerous, unstable, or time-sensitive enough that who-goes-when matters. The GM activates Momentum, turns are tracked, and the scene has a mechanical pulse — a shared measure of how well things are going for the players. A structured scene can be a gunfight, a chase, a boarding action, a tense negotiation with a ticking clock, or anything else where pressure is sustained and things could swing either direction.
The transition is fluid. Free play can snap into a structured scene the moment someone draws a weapon. A structured scene drops back to free play when the Momentum thresholds end it or the danger passes. The GM calls the transition both ways.
Momentum
Momentum exists only during structured scenes. It measures how well the players are controlling the situation: leverage, breathing room, and initiative. Not progress toward a specific goal.
The Momentum Pool
The GM sets a full Momentum value for the scene. The recommended default is:
Full Momentum = (3 × number of player characters) + 1
Tables that prefer shorter scenes can reduce this. Tables that prefer longer ones can increase it. The GM may also adjust for especially large or important scenes.
Players typically begin a Structured Scene with 1 Momentum per player character. The GM adjusts this starting value based on the fiction: higher if the players begin with an advantage, lower if they begin on the back foot.
Surprise and Ambush
Surprise is not a separate mechanic. It is reflected in starting Momentum. A team that sets an ambush begins with high Momentum, well above half. They have initiative, they control the tempo, and they can press hard before the other side recovers. A team that gets ambushed begins with low Momentum, below half. The GM's side acts first, and the players are fighting uphill from the start.
The GM sets the starting Momentum to match the fiction. A perfectly executed ambush might start the players at or near full Momentum. Being caught completely off guard might start them at 0 — one bad roll from the GM ending the scene against them.
Same crew of four PCs, same Full Momentum of 13. Two scenes, two starting positions.
The setup. The crew has spent three sessions tracking a Confederate gun-runner to a freighter dock. They have schematics, timing, and a clean angle of approach. The GM sets starting Momentum at 10 — well above half. They act first. They have room to push hard before the runner's people recover.
The reverse. Cut to a different scene. The crew steps off a transit pod onto what looks like a quiet platform. It is not. A League extraction team has been waiting an hour. The GM sets starting Momentum at 2 — below half. The GM's side acts first. One bad roll closes the scene against them. They are fighting uphill from the moment their boots hit the deck.
Same Full Momentum, same dice, same characters. The starting number is what changes — and it is the table's first read on who controls the situation.
Thresholds
Full Momentum. When the players reach full Momentum, they may choose to spend all of it to end the scene in their favor. This is optional. If they prefer to keep playing, they may continue and spend Momentum normally.
Zero Momentum. When the players reach 0 Momentum, the GM may choose to end the scene against them. This does not mean death or total defeat. It means the players have lost control of the situation badly enough for the GM to close it on unfavorable terms. The target escapes. The alarm spreads. The ship takes critical damage. The negotiation collapses.
Neither threshold can end the scene until every player character has taken at least one turn. No instant victories. No immediate collapses.
Initiative
Each round, one side acts first and the other acts second. Both sides always act. Initiative determines who leads and who reacts.
Momentum determines initiative. If the players have half or more of their full Momentum, they act first. If they have less than half, the GM's side acts first. No separate roll, no tracking. Just read the Momentum pool.
Every character on a side must act once before any character acts again.
This means every shift in Momentum is potentially a shift in tempo. A Critical Success that pushes Momentum above the halfway mark hands the players initiative next round. A Critical Failure that drops it below gives the GM control.
The GM may also seize initiative as a consequence of a Critical Failure. When a player critically fails, the GM can declare that the enemy capitalizes — the GM's side acts first next round, regardless of the current Momentum level. This is a narrative consequence, not an automatic rule. The GM chooses it when it makes sense in the fiction, just as they would choose any other consequence of a critical failure.
A four-PC crew starts a boarding action. Full Momentum is (3 × 4) + 1 = 13. The GM starts them at 4 Momentum — the breach is clean but contested.
Round 1. 4 is below half (6.5). GM acts first. The hostiles open up. A player returns fire and rolls a Critical Success. Momentum → 5.
Round 2. Still below half. GM leads again. The medic burns a Willpower upgrade and nails another Critical Success on suppressing fire. Momentum → 6.
Round 3. Another Critical Success pushes Momentum to 7 — just over half. Initiative flips. The players act first next round.
Round 4. Players lead. They press the corridor. A reckless maneuver critically fails — −1 Momentum, back to 6. GM leads next round. The advantage was real but fragile.
Momentum is the scene's pulse. It is not a health bar. It measures who is in control, and it shifts with the big swings.
When it is your side's turn, characters can act in any order. There are two ways to handle this at the table:
Group picks. The group decides together who goes next. Simple, fast, and works well for coordinated teams. Good for tables that prefer collaborative tactical planning.
Handoff. The character who just finished their turn picks who goes next on their side. This creates moment-to-moment tactical decisions and keeps everyone engaged. You never know when you will be called on. It also lets the fiction drive the order: the XO finishes barking an order and points to the pilot, the pilot finishes the evasive maneuver and hands off to the gunner. Handoff is the recommended style for most tables.
Gaining and Losing Momentum
Momentum moves when the situation meaningfully swings, not on every roll.
By default:
- A Critical Success grants +1 Momentum.
- A Critical Failure inflicts −1 Momentum.
The GM may also adjust Momentum when the fiction demands it: a plan comes together, an advantage lands, the ambush gets blown, something goes sideways.
Spending Momentum
Players have four options for spending Momentum during Structured Scenes. Unless a rule says otherwise, each may be used once per roll by the rolling player, except Seize, which can be called at the end of any enemy turn.
Press (Step 4: Modify the Pool). Take +1 Risk to gain +1 Momentum. The character overcommits or takes a dangerous chance to improve the group's position.
Brace (Step 4: Modify the Pool). Spend 2 Momentum to remove 1 Risk. The group spends its advantage to make the next move safer. This is expensive by design. Reducing danger costs real leverage.
Correct (Step 6: Modify the Roll). Spend 1 Momentum to reroll the entire pool. Last-second correction, sudden clarity, or sheer refusal to let the moment go bad.
Seize (end of any enemy turn). Spend 1 Momentum to take initiative for this round. The player side acts next, regardless of the current Momentum level. This does not change the Momentum total. It overrides initiative for the current round only.
Two rounds into a corridor fight on a hostile boarding action. Momentum sits at 5 of a Full 13.
Press. Hanako is suppressing the corridor with her sidearm so Angus can flank. The roll is normally Risk 2, but Hanako wants the shot to count. She takes +1 Risk to gain +1 Momentum. Risk goes to 3, Momentum goes to 6. She rolls and lands a Success. The corridor is contested but holding. Momentum is now sitting just under half.
Brace. Next round, Priya is racing across that same corridor to hit the bulkhead controls. The GM calls Risk 4 — fire from both ends, no cover, mortal peril. The crew can't afford a Critical Failure. They spend 2 Momentum to remove 1 Risk, dropping Priya's roll to Risk 3. Momentum is now 4 — under half, and the GM's side will lead next round.
Press buys position by accepting more danger. Brace buys safety by spending the position you already have. Neither is free, and neither is supposed to be.
Social Encounters
Most social interactions are handled in free play — the conversation flows naturally, dice come out when the outcome is uncertain, and the scene resolves when the situation does. This is the default for negotiations, interrogations, persuasion attempts, and anything where the characters are talking rather than fighting.
A social interaction becomes a Structured Scene when the stakes are high enough, the opposition is active enough, and the back-and-forth is sustained enough that tracking Momentum matters. A tense negotiation with a hostile faction leader where every concession costs leverage. A trial where the prosecution and defense are both player-controlled. A diplomatic summit where the balance of power shifts with every round of conversation.
When to Use Structured Social Scenes
The GM should switch to a Structured Scene when:
- Both sides have clear, opposed goals.
- The outcome affects the campaign significantly.
- The interaction involves multiple exchanges, not a single check.
- Time pressure or external factors create urgency.
How Social Structured Scenes Work
A social Structured Scene runs on the same rules as any other — Momentum, initiative, thresholds, turn order, all of it. What changes is what the rolls represent and how the swings land in the fiction.
- Exchanges are active contests. When two characters push against each other — one pressing, the other resisting — resolve it as an active contest at Risk 0, using the relevant Ability + Influence (or Savvy, Leadership, or whatever the fiction calls for). Remaining Successes win the exchange.
- Momentum is the scene's pulse. Criticals swing it by the normal rules. When the fiction demands it — a plan coming together, a major concession, a reversal — the GM adjusts Momentum, exactly as in any other Structured Scene.
- Thresholds end the scene. At full Momentum the players close it on their terms — the other side folds, signs, breaks, or agrees. At 0 Momentum the GM closes it against them — the deal collapses, the target walks, the alliance shatters.
- Costly Success is the main dramatic beat. Every Costly Success is a concession that matters. A tipped hand. Leverage burned. A promise the character cannot keep. A piece of the truth given up to get a piece back. The GM defines the cost, and it should change the situation, not just flavor it.
- Losing an active contest has teeth. Ground lost in one exchange shapes the next. A character whose position keeps collapsing is running out of room to maneuver. Eventually they concede, stall for time, or storm out, resolved narratively or by a Momentum swing large enough to end the scene.
No damage track, no Wounds, no physical consequences. The pressure lives in Momentum and in the choices each side is forced to make. When the scene ends, Momentum resets for whatever comes next.
A League diplomatic team and a Confederate negotiating party are three hours into a contested treaty session. The clock is running, every concession matters, and tempers are short. The GM calls Structured Scene.
Four PCs, Full Momentum 13. The League team came prepared and leveraged — the GM sets starting Momentum at 9.
Round 1. Hanako leads with a tightly framed proposal — Presence 3, Influence 3 (Persuasion), active contest at Risk 0 against the Confederate lead's Will + Insight. She wins the exchange. No Momentum swing on a clean Success, but the fiction tilts: the Confederates have to respond on her ground.
Round 2. The Confederate envoy threatens naval movements they say they can guarantee. Venlyn calls the bluff — Perception 3, Savvy 2 — and lands a Critical Success. Momentum → 10. The table feels it: the Confederates flinched first.
Round 3. The Confederates push back. Hanako's counter-roll comes up a Costly Success. She holds the ground but tips a piece of intel she shouldn't have mentioned. The GM marks it for later. Momentum stays at 10.
Round 4. Venlyn reads a tell, Hanako reframes, and the Confederate lead concedes the point that mattered. The swing is too big to ignore. The GM moves Momentum +3 by fiat — fiction demands it. Momentum → 13. Full Momentum reached. The League spends it to end the scene in their favor. The treaty is signed.
No Wounds, no damage, no shots fired. The pulse lived entirely in Momentum and in what each side was willing to give up to keep it. The intel Hanako tipped in Round 3 will land somewhere next mission — that is how Costly Success carries into the long arc.
Pure Momentum is the default. It is not the only way. Tables that want a different texture can try any of these:
- Use Wounds. Treat serious social blows — a public humiliation, a relationship broken, a reputation shredded — as Wounds against the character's Strength + Will capacity. The vocabulary stays unified; the consequences carry across scenes until addressed.
- Run it purely narratively. Skip any mechanical accumulation and let the fiction carry the weight. Rolls still happen when outcomes are uncertain, but the scene ends when it ends — when someone concedes, walks out, or gets what they came for. Good for short, intimate scenes where mechanics get in the way.
- Use a goal counter. Each side declares their objective and tallies successes toward it. First side to hit their goal total (set by the GM based on scale) wins the scene. Useful for extended campaigns of influence — a slow political fight, a drawn-out courtship, a steady erosion of an enemy's allies.
The combat module offers its own overlay — the Condition Track, Demoralize, and Inspiring Rhetoric — for tables that want granular round-by-round pressure. See Social in Structured Scenes.