The Session

Here’s that shape for a three-hour night. Stretch it or squeeze it to fit your table, but keep the order.

Opening the session

1. Recap. One player reads from last session’s log.
2. Downtime. The four pressures land, then everyone spends their slots.
3. Read the party sheet. Go through the Goal, every Aspiration and every faction.
4. Check-in. “Anything anyone wants to flag before we start?”
5. Resolve. Everyone starts the session with all their Resolve, one for each Title, because it all comes back after downtime.

Take turns doing the recap, so it isn’t always the same person. If the log doesn’t jog anyone’s memory, the GM fills in the gaps.

The session body

• One planning scene. The crew talks through what they’re going to do.
• One confrontation scene. This is the thing they were planning for.
• One aftermath scene. This is where they feel the consequences.

The planning scene

Let them plan, and answer their questions honestly: who’s on the door, or when the guard changes. Anything a permission plainly covers knowing, they know. When the plan’s good enough to start, start, even if it isn’t finished. Nobody can plan for everything, and when the plan goes sideways, they’ve still got their Resolve to push through it.

If the planning’s still going after twenty minutes, make a move. Something in the world shifts, and the plan has to start now.

The aftermath

The aftermath is where the job’s consequences arrive, like the pay that comes up short, or the people they crossed finding out who did it. If the job set back the Goal or anyone’s Aspiration, step it down now, and if a scene put one within reach and nobody rolled for it, say so, so they know to chase it next time. Then leave a hook: something that pulls them into the next session whether they planned for it or not, like a name they’ve never heard or a letter in a hand they know.

Closing the session

1. Session-end check-in.
2. Write the log. Just one sentence.
3. Preview. Name the shape of the next session.

The log

The log is one sentence a session, written by a different player each time, in a notebook that lives with the party sheet. Write the thing you’ll want to remember in six months, like “We got the box out, and Verity didn’t pay.” After twenty sessions, it’s the story of the campaign.

When Someone Can’t Make It

• Play anyway, if most of the crew’s there. Their character’s off doing something else, or quietly in the background. Nobody plays them unless their player said that’s fine, and nothing lands on a character whose player isn’t there.
• They still get their downtime. They can tell someone what to spend their slots on, or spend them when they’re back.
• Their threads still work. If someone strains a thread they share with the missing character, it’s strained on both sheets, so tell the player when they’re back, and they can play the strain from there (see Playing the strain).
• Bring them back in fast. Open their first scene back with them in the middle of something.

Sharing the Spotlight

Keep a rough count of who’s had a moment tonight. Before the session ends, everyone should have had at least one problem that was theirs to solve. If someone’s had a quiet night, aim the next scene at their Aspiration or at someone they’ve got a thread with, or put something in it one of their Catches could bite on, like a forester in the market for Wren’s Wanted longbow. Whether it bites is up to them (see Catches and Resolve at the Table). There’s more in A moment for each character.