Signal Bleed

Player reference
Sheet 1 of 8 · v0.1
Keep this where everyone can see it

The core roll

When a move tells you to, roll 2d6 + a stat. Never otherwise.

10+You do it. Clean.
7–9You do it, but — a cost, a complication, a choice.
6−The GM says what happens instead. It's worse than you thought.

You don't roll to see if something is interesting. You roll to see what it costs.

The stats

EDGE — speed, violence, nerve.
WIRE — machines, systems, intrusion.

FACE — reading people, leverage, lying well.
VEIL — the part of you that notices what shouldn't be there.

Basic moves

Push Through (+EDGE)
Act with force, speed or nerve under real threat.
10+You do it, and you're clear. 7–9You do it, but choose one: you take Harm · you leave something behind · someone sees you do it.
Read the Wire (+WIRE or +VEIL)
Study a place, a system, or a person for what's underneath. Say which stat and why.
10+Ask two. 7–9Ask one. 6−Ask one anyway — then the GM asks what you're now afraid of, and you answer honestly.
What here is a lie?
What's about to go wrong?
Where is it hiding?
Who has already been here?
What here doesn't belong to this world?
Concrete and unexplained? Take a Clue.
Work Someone (+FACE)
Lean on them with leverage, charm, or a very good lie.
10+They give you what you want. 7–9Most of it, and one: they want something first · they'll remember this · they tell someone. 6−They were already working you.
Jack In (+WIRE +STATIC)
Interface with a system that shouldn't exist.
10+You get what you came for. Take a Clue. 7–9You get it, but choose one: mark Static · something on the other side knows your name now · advance the Bleed. 6−Mark Static. The GM says what came back through with you.
Commune (+VEIL +STATIC)
Open yourself deliberately. Once per scene, no more.
10+Take a Clue and ask one question from Read the Wire. 7–9Take a Clue. Mark Static. 6−Mark Static, and it answers a question you didn't ask.
Theorize (+Clues − Depth)
Name what's really happening. Anyone can build the theory; one person rolls.
10+Your theory is true. It is now what happened. 7–9True, but you were wrong about one thing — and it's the thing that matters. Everyone marks Static. 6−Wrong, and the truth is worse. The Bleed fills. Theorize again later with new Clues.
THE OFFER. Anyone at the table can offer a specific complication for +1 to a roll about to happen. Take it or refuse it, freely. If you take it, the complication happens whether you succeed or not.
"+1 if the cameras get your face."
"+1 if you have to leave her behind."

End of session

Did we learn something true about the Bleed? Everyone marks XP. · Did someone act on their Dark Secret in the open? They mark XP. · Did anyone burn a Bond? They mark XP.

Three XP: raise a stat by +1 (max +3) · take a move from another playbook · heal a burned Bond by making it about someone new.

Signal Bleed · player referenceNothing in this game explains itself
The Deck-Runner
Personnel record ·
Playbook · Sheet 2 of 8

You went deeper than the job required, and something down there was arranged. Not built. Arranged.

Name / handle
Look — pick or invent
sleepless · surgically neat · borrowed clothes · too still
Stats — suggested spread
EDGE
+1
WIRE
+2
FACE
0
VEIL
+1
Static — starts at 0. It only goes up.
5 = claimed

Add Static to VEIL rolls and to anything that touches the other side. Take a Symptom each mark. Unlock a Static Move at 1, 3 and 5.

Harm
Winded Wounded Wasted

You may always mark Static instead of Harm. Say what your body does that a body shouldn't.

XP

Moves — take both

Deep Dive
When you go somewhere in the network nobody is supposed to reach, take a Clue automatically before you roll Jack In.
Cold Hands
When you're working and something horrifying happens, you may ignore it entirely for one exchange. Then it's worse.

Static moves

Unlocks at Static 1
Pattern Recognition
Once per session, ask the GM "Where have I seen this before?" They answer truthfully, even if the answer is impossible.
Unlocks at Static 3
Backdoor
You have already been inside any system you can name. Say when you put the door in. Mark Static.
Unlocks at Static 5
Resident
You do not need a deck anymore.

Dark secret — GM reads this privately

What did you take out of the deep net that you never reported? Who is looking for it?

Bonds — two. Burning one stops a Static mark. Once each.

______ has seen my hands shake and said nothing.
I have read ______'s private files. They don't know.
Signal Bleed · the deck-runnerArranged. Not built.
The Fixer
Personnel record ·
Playbook · Sheet 3 of 8

You know where the bodies are buried because you filed the paperwork.

Name / handle
Look
expensive coat · four phones · never sits with their back to a door
Stats — suggested spread
EDGE
+1
WIRE
+1
FACE
+2
VEIL
0
Static — starts at 0
5 = claimed
Harm
Winded Wounded Wasted
XP
Who owes you
Who you owe

Moves — take both

I Know a Guy
Once per session, declare that you know someone here and what they owe you. It's true. The GM decides what you owe them.
Paper Trail
When you dig through records, corporate or criminal, roll +FACE instead of +WIRE for Read the Wire.

Static moves

Unlocks at Static 1
The Other Ledger
You can see what a person is most afraid of losing. You cannot turn this off.
Unlocks at Static 3
Leverage
+1 ongoing to Work Someone against anyone whose secret you learned this session. The knowledge sits in you badly.
Unlocks at Static 5
Broker
You may negotiate directly with it. It listens.

Dark secret

Which corp still has a file open on you, and what's in it?

Bonds

I got ______ out of something and never told them what it cost.
______ is the only person I've never lied to. Yet.
Signal Bleed · the fixerEverything is owned by someone
The Medium
Personnel record ·
Playbook · Sheet 4 of 8

The dead don't speak. But something using their voice does, and it's getting better at the impression.

Name / handle
Look
dead person's coat · hands always occupied · listens to the wrong side of the room
Stats — suggested spread
EDGE
+1
WIRE
0
FACE
+1
VEIL
+2
Static — you start at 1
5 = claimed

You begin the game already able to use your first Static Move.

Harm
Winded Wounded Wasted
XP
Voices you've heard, and whose they were

Moves — take both

The Dead Line
You can Commune with anything that held a person's data — an implant, a phone, a chair they sat in for twenty years.
Second Sight
When you first enter a place, the GM tells you one thing about it that isn't visible.

Static moves

Unlocks at Static 1 — you have this now
Carry
When someone else would mark Static, you may take it instead. Describe what you pull out of them.
Unlocks at Static 3
Ask It
Once per session, ask the other side one direct question. It answers. It always answers.
Unlocks at Static 5
Channel
You are the door now.

Dark secret

Who speaks to you most often, and what did you do to them?

Bonds

______ doesn't believe me and I need them not to.
I have heard ______'s voice on the other side, and they are still alive.
Signal Bleed · the mediumIt always answers
The Chrome Priest
Personnel record ·
Playbook · Sheet 5 of 8

Your implants are not upgrades. They're relics. You did not buy them; you were given them.

Name / handle
Look
visible seams · devotional scarring · moves like it costs something
Stats — suggested spread
EDGE
+2
WIRE
+1
FACE
0
VEIL
+1
Static — starts at 0
5 = claimed
Harm
Winded Wounded Wasted

Consecrated: trade Harm for Static freely — and take +1 forward when you do.

XP
Your relics — what they are, what they were

Moves — take both

Consecrated
You may always trade Harm for Static, and when you do, take +1 forward.
Rite
When you perform a ritual over a machine — cleaning, blessing, breaking — treat it as Commune, and you may do it twice in a scene.

Static moves

Unlocks at Static 1
The Flesh Is Weak
Ignore one Harm box permanently. Something inside you takes over the job.
Unlocks at Static 3
Laying On of Hands
Clear all Harm from another person. You mark Static. They dream about you afterward.
Unlocks at Static 5
Icon
You are no longer a person. You are a site.

Dark secret

Who installed the first one, and what did they make you promise?

Bonds

______ has seen what's under the plating.
I am keeping ______ alive with something I shouldn't have.
Signal Bleed · the chrome priestYou were given them
The Badge
Personnel record ·
Playbook · Sheet 6 of 8

You closed the case. The case did not close.

Name / handle
Look
still dresses like it · one thing they never got rid of · tired in a specific way
Stats — generalist, or swap to +2/+1/+1/0
EDGE
+1
WIRE
+1
FACE
+1
VEIL
+1
Static — starts at 0
5 = claimed
Harm
Winded Wounded Wasted
XP
The first case — what you know, what you buried

Moves — take both

The File
You worked a case like this before. Once per session, state one thing you learned then. It's true now.
Pressure
When you interrogate someone who is more afraid of you than of what they're hiding, take +1 to Work Someone. Judging that correctly is the hard part.

Static moves

Unlocks at Static 1
It Follows
You always know when you're being watched. Now you also know by what.
Unlocks at Static 3
Reopen
Name a Clue the group discarded. It's back, and it means something else.
Unlocks at Static 5
Closed
You finally understand the first case. You may not tell anyone.

Dark secret

What did you bury to make the first case go away, and who paid for it?

Bonds

I have a file on ______.
______ knows what I did and hasn't used it.
Signal Bleed · the badgeThe case did not close
The Hollow
Personnel record · · deceased
Playbook · Sheet 7 of 8 · optional

You died. The insurance covered a restore. Something came back in the gap.

Name / handle
Look
correct but unconvincing · blinks on a schedule · the scar the restore didn't copy
Stats — suggested spread
EDGE
+1
WIRE
+1
FACE
0
VEIL
+2
Static — you start at 2
5 = claimed

You are already halfway there. Play like someone who knows it.

Harm
Winded Wounded Wasted
XP
Things you remember that haven't happened

Moves — take both

Backed Up
The first time you'd be Wasted in a session, you aren't. You wake up somewhere else, wrong. Mark Static.
The Gap
You remember things that haven't happened. Once per session, describe one, and the GM works it in.

Static moves

Unlocks at Static 1 — you have this now
Not All of Me
You may leave part of yourself somewhere. It keeps watching. You keep receiving.
Unlocks at Static 3
Recall
Ask the GM what you were doing during the time you were dead. They answer.
Unlocks at Static 5
Restored
The right one comes back this time.

Dark secret

Who paid for the restore, and what did they ask you to do about it?

Bonds

______ was there when I came back.
______ treats me like I'm the same person. I let them.
Signal Bleed · the hollowSomething came back in the gap

GM Screen

Signal Bleed
Sheet 8 of 8 · v0.1
You do not know the answer either. Keep it that way.

Agenda

  • Make the city feel bought and sold.
  • Make the unknown genuinely unknown — including to you.
  • Be a fan of these people, right up until they're gone.
  • Play to find out what it costs them.

Principles

  • Ask questions and build on the answers.
  • Address the character, not the player.
  • Sensory detail over exposition. Never explain the horror — describe what it does to a room.
  • Name every NPC and give them one want.
  • Never decide what's really happening. Decide what's strange.
  • When they ask what it is, show them what it did.
  • Everything is owned by someone.

Your moves

On a 6−, or whenever they look at you.

  • Reveal an unwelcome truth.
  • Show a sign of the Bleed.
  • Take something away — a contact, a safehouse, a body part.
  • Put someone innocent in it.
  • Make an Offer.
  • Advance a corp clock, and say how they noticed.
  • Have it acknowledge them. By name.
  • Announce off-screen badness.

Signs of the Bleed (d6)

1Lights flicker in a rhythm that is almost a language.
2A stranger repeats a thought you had thirty seconds ago, word for word.
3Chrome has grown, like tissue, into something never meant to hold it.
4Someone you trust is briefly a stranger — and then isn't.
5The map is wrong. Everyone else's map agrees with yours.
6You remember a place clearly. It does not exist and never did.

The five rings

You cannot advance a Ring until you've landed at least one Terror and one Temptation in it.

1 · NormalA job. Money, a client, a deadline. Exactly one detail is wrong, and nobody comments on it.
2 · First SignThe wrong detail isn't isolated. Something is repeating.
3 · EscalationPeople start lying to them specifically. Something is now interested in the group.
4 · RevelationThe rules are visibly broken. Theorize usually happens here.
5 · DissolutionConsequences. Who is claimed. What the city doesn't remember by morning.

The Bleed clock

Advance on: a missed roll that touched the other side · a 7–9 choice that says so · moving into a new Ring · any hard move you want made visible.

When it fills, it arrives. Not a monster — an event. The rules of the scene change. Something becomes true that cannot be untrue. Decide what, and don't hedge.

Writing clues

A Clue is a hole in the world, not a piece of a puzzle you've already solved. Concrete, strange, non-explaining. Eight to twelve per case, on cards, face up on the table.

GOOD — The building's water usage tripled six months ago. It has no tenants.

BAD — The cult has been living in the basement. (explains itself)

GOOD — Her last message was sent four minutes after the crash. It's a photo of the crash.

BAD — She had precognitive abilities. (that's a theory, not a clue)

Prep, twenty minutes maximum

  • A job — who's hiring, the deliverable, the deadline.
  • One wrong detail. Never explain it.
  • Four or five locations: a name, a smell, one person there.
  • Five to seven NPCs: name, want, secret. Two are lying about unrelated things.
  • Eight to twelve Clues on cards.
  • Depth 3.
  • No solution. If you have one in your head, throw it out — you'll steer toward it.
Signal Bleed · gm screenDecide what's strange, not what's true