Arc Anatomy

Each arc consists of 4 beats and follows a narrative structure similar to kishōtenketsu of introduction, development, crescendo, and resolution:

• Introduction is your opportunity to set the scene for the arc and show why this is important to your spacer
• Development is your spacer diving into the arc and pulling the rest of the crew into the story
• Crescendo is where things blow up on your spacer and the crew, causing rifts or putting people in danger
• Resolution is everyone coming together to see the story through, fix what the crescendo broke, or make amends

Arcs will often pile penalties on your spacer or the crew, including:

• Harm to yourself or a crewmate
• Conflict pips
  Most of these drawbacks will be cleared by an arc's Resolution beat, but when the whole crew is trying to progress their stories at the same time, you will need to work together and coordinate with your fellow players to stop these penalties from overflowing and putting the crew in a dire situation.

Invoking a Beat

If you would like to invoke a beat during downtime, simply pay the cost of the beat, mark one of your downtime actions, and play the beat out.

If you want to invoke a beat during a job (e.g. build a job around an ambition beat, or clear some tension in a hurry with a tension or crew beat), explain to the table how you plan to invoke the beat. If the GM and other players agree, you can pay the cost of the beat and play it out, then the GM decides what affect the beat has on the job.

Example?