How Verdictris works from first seat to final verdict.

What you are trying to do

Each seat receives a hidden role, one of three broad alignments, and a win plan. Common Good players generally protect the city, investigate credible leads, and remove dangerous actors without sacrificing helpful seats. Evil players benefit from successful criminal action, fractured trust, and false conclusions. Neutral players pursue role-specific goals such as survival, contracts, leverage, or a particular end-state; they are not automatically a team. The Hitman, for example, is always an unaffiliated neutral freelancer rather than a member of an Evil ally network.

You rarely receive perfect information. The important skill is to separate what the city publicly knows from what your own role has privately learned, then choose actions and arguments that advance your objective without inventing certainty. A quiet player is not guilty merely for being quiet, and a failed action is not proof that its actor lied.

Setup: read your seat before reading the room

Choose a mode and player count, then read the role card shown to your seat. Classic Balanced includes the broadest baseline mix of stances, trace evidence, forensics, case files, the black market, district control, bystander reports, and political trial chat. Other presets may switch systems off or change their emphasis, so the live phase panel is always the authority for the current match.

Before the first decision, pick one modest goal: preserve a useful ability, investigate a claim you can later explain, create a safe map route, or earn enough cash for a planned purchase. A concrete goal produces more useful information than clicking the most dramatic option available.

Every phase in a Verdictris cycle

The engine tracks the phases below individually. Players can understand them as six connected groups. Optional systems may make a phase brief or skip its player choice, but the sequence preserves a fair declaration, resolution, and courtroom order.

1. Seat and information: Lobby, then Meeting

   Lobby prepares the match, seats, mode, and roster. Meeting is the information window: read the current city state, recent public events, private notices, resources, and the questions your role can answer before you commit an action.

2. Day planning: Day Action Declare and Stance Select

   In Day Action Declare, eligible daytime actions are chosen and resolved. Stance Select sets your posture for the coming night: options such as Lay Low, Hustle, Hunt, Blend In, Relocate, or Prepare for Work alter risk, economy, stealth, or follow-up timing. Relocate is queued: the chosen destination resolves at the start of the next cycle's day rather than teleporting you immediately. You walk up to 3 cells; a Bike from the Black Market stretches that to 6, and a Car drives you to any cell the same night.

3. Resources and declarations: Black Market, Offense, Defense

   Black Market presents legal listings, bids, and eligible buy-now choices when the mode enables it. Offensive Declare locks attacks, investigations, disruptions, control actions, and other proactive night choices. Defense Declare follows, allowing protection choices without revealing the final result early. Every seat, whatever its role, also has one counterplay reaction: Brace against lethal attacks, ready Return Fire, Resist control, or Keep an Alibi against planted evidence. While stances are on, the stance you commit to carries it — Lay Low braces, Hunt readies Return Fire, Blend In resists, and Hustle keeps an alibi — and with stances turned off, the Defense menu offers the four directly. Each costs something, and none guarantees safety.

4. Resolution: Outcome Loading, Outcome, and Trace Check

   Outcome Loading gives the engine and connected seats a synchronized boundary before results appear. Outcome replays the night's effects in the dedicated Outcome Feed. Trace Check then verifies trace pressure and aftermath that can affect whether a trial is warranted. The ordinary Event Log is not a substitute for the staged Outcome Feed.

   The feed folds what you would read once. A run of similar reports, such as one stage's anonymous intel passes, arrives as a single card that counts them and says how they went in that kind's own terms: an intel pass found something or came back empty, a patrol held or left gaps. Open Full record and the reports are sorted under those outcomes, beneath a count of each hint about who was behind them; remember that about one hint in five is a decoy. A street fight is one bubble with one sound, whether it began as a standoff or as two players crossing paths, and it runs from the first look to who was hurt. Beneath it a small night-street card shows the two people facing each other: you as yourself, an opponent you have already identified as themselves, and anyone else as a dark outline with a question mark. Watching someone else's fight, you see two outlines, because the picture never tells an onlooker who fought; the one exception is a fatal fight's victim, whom the death has already named. A shot you fire, or one fired at you, gets the same card, and whoever attacked you stays in shadow. The same card turns up for more than violence. Someone cuffed or locked up is shown at the front of the precinct; a medic at work is shown in a clinic doorway, where a small heart trace says whether the treatment took; a body found with no killer named, or a crime scene being worked, is shown in an alley behind police tape, with one marker per clue the scene gave up. Being on the receiving end changes what you are shown: cuffed, jailed or treated, you see yourself and a shadow, never the officer or the medic, and a death card holds only the person who died. Your own detective work gets the same treatment in place of the little figure that used to sit beside it: a stakeout from a rooftop with binoculars trained on a lit window, a wiretap from the back of a van, a file read under a desk lamp with a mugshot pinned to the board, a conversation across an interview table, a tail down a dark street, or a search by flashlight. The person you were looking into stays a shadow until you have actually identified them, and the picture never gives away what you learned; the message does that. If someone dies, the death follows in a bubble of its own, and what it set off comes after it there: the plans it cancelled, a dying declaration, a note left on the map, the word sent to their allies. A hidden move aimed at you leaves its evidence on you directly under its report, so being the target costs you no extra turns. Standoffs that broke up before anyone swung share one quiet card, since nothing landed. With a screen reader on, each new turn is read aloud as it appears, so you hear the night at the same pace as everyone watching.

5. Economy and court gate: Payout, Trial Gate, and Gathering

   Payout settles income and cycle economy. Trial Gate evaluates qualifying pressure rather than forcing a courtroom every cycle. Enough living players can also co-sign a citizen petition during the day, each spending one Influence or $2, to force a sitting. If the gate opens, Gathering assembles and synchronizes the courtroom; if no trial qualifies, the cycle proceeds to private Analytics.

6. Courtroom and reset: Trial through Game Over

   Trial opens nominations and public argument. Trial Defense gives the selected nominee a final defense and supports lawyer or plea decisions. Deliberation resolves final ballots, and Trial Outcome presents the verdict and sentence. Cleanup finishes courtroom consequences. Analytics provides the private cycle review before the next Day Action Declare. When a win condition is resolved, Game Over replaces the next cycle.

Dice contests: Good Luck minus Bad Luck

A Verdictris roll uses two six-sided dice. The Good Luck die is positive and the Bad Luck die is negative, so a roll of Good Luck 5 and Bad Luck 2 produces +3. Both sides of a contest roll this way. Situational modifiers are applied, then the actor's total is compared with the opponent's total. A tie is neutral; a winning margin of 1–2 is Standard, 3–4 is Strong, and 5 or more is Critical. Negative final roll bands include Setback and, at −5 or worse, Botch. The particular action decides what each margin means.

Position, stance, role rules, contracts, equipment, protection, target state, and other conditions can contribute modifiers. Stacked situational bonuses have diminishing returns beyond the first few points, while certain signature bonuses are handled separately. Use the displayed breakdown as the authoritative explanation instead of trying to infer a hidden guarantee from one item or stance.

What a point is worth, as the chance to beat an opponent who adds nothing: −2 → 24% • −1 → 34% • ±0 → 44% • +1 → 56% • +2 → 66% • +3 → 76% • +4 → 84%. Near the middle each effective point is worth about ten points of odds, and less toward the edges, so stacked bonuses never reach certainty. A real contest has an opposing modifier you cannot see.

Learned the hard way: fail two contests in a row in the same kind of ability — reads, guards, covert jobs, persuasions — and your next attempt there gets +1. Once per match. Attacks never earn it, and it waits if your stance passive already gives +1 or more.

Push: once a cycle, from cycle 2, you can push a night ability you have declared. It adds +1 to that roll unless your stance passive, a follow-up or a lesson already gives +1, and you pay 1 Heat only when it lifts the roll. A pushed attack also leaves you Spotted.

Scars: the wound that leaves you on your last life heals, when the cycle closes, into a trait for the rest of the match. A leg wound leaves a Limp (+1 Defense, −1 Stealth), an arm an Unsteady Hand (+1 Perception, −1 Offense), a head wound a Thousand-Yard Stare (+1 Stealth, −1 Perception) and a body wound Nothing to Lose (+1 Offense, −1 Defense). One per match.

Look back: when someone slips past you on the map, the Perception you chose — Hunting, a Perception accessory, a scar — gives you a chance to catch one detail about them for your suspect board, 15% a point and at most 45%, less in a crowd. They learn that someone looked back, never who.

Evidence is not the same as suspicion

Evidence is a recorded clue or supported observation: scene residue, witness information, a financial trail, body evidence, trace evidence, a dossier, or a timeline connection. Evidence can vary in confidence, can be disputed or tampered with, and may grow more useful when independent channels corroborate one another. Case files reward coherent material, integrity, and cross-cycle or cross-channel support rather than raw quantity alone.

Suspicion is a conclusion players draw from evidence, public behavior, voting, timing, and motive. It helps you decide whom to question, watch, or nominate, but it is not proof by itself. Proximity is a good example: sharing a map area with an incident can create a lead, yet it may also describe a witness, protector, investigator, or unlucky bystander.

Stat glossary: the numbers and tags on your sheet

Most of these are read-outs, not automatic dice bonuses. A value only joins a roll when the action or defense says it applies; the displayed breakdown at resolution is always the authoritative explanation.

Which stat your ability rolls

Each ability rolls the stat that names its skill. Attacks, arrests and other control, and crime-economy operations roll Offense; investigations roll Perception; guards, intercepts, rescues, treatments and getaways roll Defense; covert work rolls Stealth; persuasion rolls your Influence standing; sabotage rolls Offense and Stealth together. So Hunt sharpens an attack or a read, Lay Low steadies a guard, and Blend In covers a quiet job. The Known Factors line on each ability names the stat before you commit.

Offense and Defense

Contest modifiers, not stored points. Offense is your roll on attacks, control, sabotage and crime-economy operations, including the contested gate when one participant tries to force a proximity fight. Defense is your roll on every protection ability, resists those attacks, and also resists proximity TALK pressure, reducing the chance that another participant can force a slip. Your stance shifts them — Hunt gives +1 Offense and Lay Low gives +1 Defense. An equipped accessory adds its listed +1 bonuses to the same modifier paths.

Income

The fixed contribution to your nightly cash payout. Economy, stance, profession, district, and an equipped Income accessory combine before Double Economy multiplication. Income is not a contest modifier.

Stealth

A derived covert modifier: your roll on covert abilities (with Offense on sabotage), and it hides movement. When opposing players cross paths, each has a bounded chance to slip by: 8% base, plus 10% per Stealth, minus 8% per Reveal and 5% per the other passer's Perception, clamped from 2% to 55%. A successful evader avoids the normal encounter and receives one anonymous characteristic/profile lead in their private log and suspect board; the public log identifies neither passer. Blend In gives +1 Stealth, so its ordinary path-pass chance is 18% before Reveal or opposing Perception. Equipped Stealth accessories use the same bounded formulas.

Reveal and Perception

The counterweights to Stealth. Reveal comes from loud, aggressive, or already-spotted posture and makes you easier to notice and harder to slip past unnoticed. Perception describes how sharply the observer reads the street: investigator roles and a watching posture notice others more often, connect suspect profiles faster, and reduce the other passer's avoidance chance. The Perception you choose — a watching Hunt posture and an equipped Perception accessory — is also your roll on every investigation ability; a role's observer training sharpens it as a witness but does not join that roll. These values never expose hidden roles by themselves.

Heat

Your exposure. Crime raises it while laying low or relocating lowers it. Heat is not added to your rolls; it is read at fixed thresholds. At 3 or more, your crime-economy operations face +1 resistance and a Quick Draw braces you for +3 Defense instead of +2. At 4 or more, a tip-line, crime-lab or freelancer headline can name you the top suspect, which adds 1 more Heat.

Influence

Active social standing and a spendable resource. Every successful influence-profile action grants +1 Influence once after resolution, capped at 5. Undermine Influence is excluded, so sabotage cannot farm or transfer standing. The Mayor, Police Chief, Judge and Governor also earn it from office: each contest their abilities win pays 1, 2 on a Strong result and 3 on a Critical, until they hold 9, the most any roll counts. Stored Influence gives small bounded social, civic, courtroom, and proximity TALK benefits, and it is the stat every persuasion ability rolls. A TALK participant uses the same bounded influence-profile contribution (influence ÷ 4, floored and capped), improving the chance to win the exchange and reach the Strong/Critical margins that make the other participant slip; the other participant's Defense resists that pressure. Public arguments weigh 1.00x at zero, rising 0.05x per point to 1.25x at five. Influence never makes evidence truer or changes raw vote counts. The shared Undermine Influence day action removes at most 2 points in one cycle and transfers nothing.

Cash and Lives

Cash funds black-market bids, equipment, contracts, and paid actions. Lives are your survival counter — reaching zero eliminates you, and your role sets the maximum.

Accessories

You have one Accessory equipment slot. Each Black Market accessory grants two permanent +1 character-sheet bonuses while equipped. Acquiring another replaces the current accessory, so the market shows the swap before you bid and asks you to confirm it.

Reputation

Your public standing with the city and the jury. Acting in line with your objective and staying clean in court raises it; betrayals, wrong accusations, and exposed crimes lower it (it cannot be driven to an unrecoverable low). It colors how much your courtroom words carry, lends a small, bounded edge for or against your overt civic day actions, and is tallied on the end-of-match report.

Pressure and persuasion

Two related read-outs. In a trial, the persuasion outlook (jury pulse) shows which way the room is leaning before the vote, moving only with public evidence, claims, and support. Across the city, criminal pressure is how much successful crime is squeezing the economy that cycle.

Law and Criminal tags

Investigations usually reveal a role tag category rather than the exact role. LAW marks order-keeping roles; CRIME (criminal) marks offenders. Other tags include MEDICAL, INFLUENCE, STEALTH, VIOLENCE, CONTROL, and INTEL. A tag narrows suspicion; it is not a confession.

The crime map and black market turn plans into trails

Crime map decisions

The map records city cells, districts, movement, action locations, and encounter opportunities. Nearby players may talk, pass, or engage when a live encounter calls for a response. Bystanders and taverns can produce private, limited observations; tavern rumors are deliberately anonymous and private rather than public proof. Death locations can also retain unconsumed loot. Treat the map as a source of testable routes and timing, not a role scanner.

Hideouts

An ally network can take over one building as its hideout. A member posts set up base and a cell in ally chat, and only that network votes on it, for fifteen seconds, while the rest of the city waits. An approved base belongs to that network alone: its members within two cells gain +1 Defense and +1 Stealth, and can ride there by car without leaving a route. A different network on the same side, such as Civic Leadership next to the Police Department, gets none of that and may raise a base of its own. A rival who stands on the cell finds it and can try to burn it down.

Black market decisions

Market access is mode-dependent. Listings can support auctions, and some weapons may have an eligible buy-now path. Role restrictions, cash, equipment slots, remaining uses, and settlement affordability all matter. Bid for the job you need an item to perform, not for its dramatic name. Spending all your cash on a duplicate slot or a tool with no legal target can be worse than making no bid.

Before committing cash, answer three questions: Which reachable action does this unlock? In which coming phase will I use it? What public or forensic trail might that use leave? A purchase that has no two-cycle plan is usually an impulse purchase.

Trials, final defense, verdicts, and plea bargains

When the Trial Gate opens, players nominate eligible suspects and argue in the public trial channel. A useful accusation names the event, the evidence source, the connection to the nominee, at least one plausible alternative, and the cost of waiting. A useful defense answers that same structure with a better timeline; it does not rely on volume or a last-second role claim alone.

Whispers are restricted to the trial channel and use /w <name> <message>. A whisper is private coordination, not public evidence. If the room needs a fact to judge the case, state a visibility-safe version in public rather than claiming that an unseen private message proves it.

Your first-match checklist

1. Read the whole role card. Note the win condition, legal targets, costs, cooldowns, passive effects, and what is safe to reveal.
2. Choose one two-cycle plan. Decide what you want to learn or protect now and what the next cycle should confirm.
3. Check the current phase panel. Do not wait for Offense to discover that your action belonged in Day Action or required a map cell.
4. Read both sides of a dice contest. Compare final totals and modifiers; a positive personal roll can still lose.
5. Separate feeds. Use the Outcome Feed for staged aftermath, the Event Log for ordinary public history, and private notices only for decisions your seat is entitled to make.
6. Write down one fact and one theory. Keeping those categories separate prevents a hunch from becoming a false memory.
7. Enter trial with a timeline. Be ready to explain what happened, where the clue came from, and what else could fit.
8. Let the final result finish. Pleas, counsel, detention, cleanup, and win checks can change what the votes alone appeared to promise.

Ready to move beyond the rules? Read the role guide for the complete roster, then use the strategy guide to turn these mechanics into faction-specific plans. Focus on one system with the trial handbook, evidence guide, black-market guide, or dice guide.

Frequently asked questions

Revision history

Dated changes to this guide, newest first.

1. October 26, 2026 — Added the precinct, clinic and alley versions of the Outcome Feed card for arrests, jailings, treatments, deaths with no named killer and crime scenes, the six detective scenes that replace the small figure on your own intel reports, and who each keeps in shadow.
2. October 25, 2026 — Described the street card drawn under a fight or an attack in the Outcome Feed: who appears as themselves, and why an onlooker only ever sees outlines.
3. October 20, 2026 — Added an on-screen observation exercise for tracing one real Outcome Feed report to map and courtroom evidence without inventing a match transcript.
4. October 19, 2026 — Explained how the Outcome Feed folds look-alike reports into one card and tells a street fight in one bubble, and how an opened fold sorts its reports by outcome.
5. October 18, 2026 — Added Hideouts: a base serves only the network that voted it in, and each network may hold its own.
6. October 13, 2026 — Corrected how counterplay reactions are chosen: while stances are on, the stance you commit to carries your reaction, and the Defense menu offers them only when stances are off.
7. October 11, 2026 — Added Push, Scars, and Look back, and clarified that a scar comes from the wound that leaves a seat on its last life.
8. October 8, 2026 — Added Learned the hard way, the once-per-match +1 after two failed contests in one kind of ability.
9. October 6, 2026 — Printed what one modifier point is worth and what Heat does at each threshold.
10. October 5, 2026 — Each ability now rolls the stat its lane names, and office holders stop earning Influence at 9.
11. September 28, 2026 — Relocation now walks three cells; a Bike stretches it to six, and a Car drives to any cell the same night.
12. September 26, 2026 — Added the universal counterplay reactions, the custody appeal, the citizen petition, and the Double Vote challenge.