Structured Play

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.

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.

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.

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.