FirebreakSimultaneous hidden brinkmanship

Watch the Firebreak tutorial

Components

Deliberately tiny. A short component list and a single page of teach make Firebreak the natural print-and-play: everything below fits in an envelope.

Setup

1. Put the Dial's needle at 450 ppm. The Ice Loss tipping token is already flipped to its cracked face: that damage is done before you sit down.
2. Give each player a screen, 6 Agents, 8 Capital (taken behind the screen, hidden from the first moment) and 2 Masked tokens.
3. Build the Agenda deck to the player count from the table below, deal 1 face-down Agenda to each player, and return every undealt card to the box unseen. Look at yours in private.
4. Shuffle the Asset market deck and reveal 4 cards face-up as the market.
5. Highest roll takes the first player marker. It rotates clockwise each round.
6. Staggered Capital. Counting clockwise from the first player, each player takes extra Capital behind their screen equal to their place: the first player +0, the next +1, then +2, and so on.

Because the deck is always larger than the number of players, nobody knows which agendas are seated. An all-Steward table is impossible with these deck builds. Two Accelerationists are possible at four or more players, and none may be dealt at any supported count.

How a round works

The game runs 8 rounds. Each round has four steps, in this order.

1. The world turns. Advance the Dial by the round's baseline, plus tipping penalties, plus the ongoing ppm of every owned Asset. Check tipping points and Collapse.
2. Commit. Simultaneously and secretly, every player assigns each of their 6 Agents to WORKS, COOL or BURN behind their screen.
3. Reveal. All screens lift at once on commitment chips only. Resolve the Dial, then the Capital.
4. Table talk. Threats, alliances, denials, promises. None of it is binding.

After rounds 3 and 6, table talk is followed by an Accusation.

The commit in detail

Behind your screen, set your commitment chips so that each of your six Agents is doing exactly one of three jobs. You may split them however you like, including all six into one job.

COOL costs are paid to the bank on reveal; BURN payments come from the bank on reveal. Three WORKS Agents committed together may instead be spent, with the printed price, to buy an Asset card (see the market).

The Masked option: Fog POOL and Fog POT

POOL = climate chips. POT = Capital. On the 3D board, two separately labelled, outlined bays show these different jobs. Neither bay identifies who contributed.

Up to twice per game, you may add a Masked token to one of your COOL or BURN chips. That chip resolves in the shared Fog POOL, the climate-chip bay: at the reveal, all Fog chips are pooled unseen, shuffled and flipped together. Their totals count in full. Their owners stay unknown.

Fog cuts both ways, which is why it is interesting. A Steward can hide a COOL to avoid looking saintly. An Accelerationist can hide a BURN and watch the table accuse somebody else. And Fog BURN Capital does not come straight to you: it goes into the Fog POT, the shared Capital bay, from which any player may make a private claim during the Fog-claim step, including the same round as the masked BURN. Claims happen after cooling is paid and before market turns.

The reveal in detail

Screens lift together on commitment chips only. Capital stays hidden throughout the game. Resolve in this order.

1. Fog first. Pool the Masked chips unseen, shuffle them, flip them together. Their COOL and BURN counts join the table's totals with no owner attached.
2. Move the Dial. -3 ppm per COOL Agent and +3 ppm per BURN Agent, Fog included. Check tipping points and Collapse immediately.
3. Pay the burns. Each open BURN Agent pays its owner 3 Capital from the bank. Fog burns pay into the Fog pot instead.
4. Pay the cools. Each COOL Agent's owner pays 1 Capital to the bank.
5. Fog claims. Resolve private requests against the pot in First Player order.
6. Market turns. Clockwise from the First Player, spend three WORKS Agents plus the printed Capital price per Asset. Refill to four after each purchase. When your market turn ends, each unused WORKS Agent earns 2 Capital. Those later wages cannot fund a purchase you have already tried to make.

Afford cooling first: each COOL costs its owner 1, masked or open. Existing Capital and open-BURN income can cover it. Fog claims and WORKS wages arrive too late. A revealed Accelerationist earns 4 per open BURN; masked BURN still puts 3 into the pot.

The Dial and tipping points

At the top of every round, before anyone commits, the world turns whether you like it or not. Move the needle by:

Owned assets pay their ongoing Capital income at the world turn, when their ongoing ppm also applies. A newly bought asset first pays and affects the Dial next round.

Then add +2 ppm for each flipped tipping token (Ice Loss counts from round 1), and add the printed ongoing ppm of every owned Asset (a Refinery is +1 a round; a Carbon Sink is -2). Crossing 500, 550 or 575 flips that tipping token permanently, and from then on it adds its penalty every round on top of everything else.

The arithmetic is worth internalising early. Across eight rounds, a table of six adds 123 ppm from the baselines alone, before tipping penalties or Assets. The table above already includes the extra +2 ppm per round for every player above three. Cooling buys back headroom before the Dial reaches 600.

Capital and the market

Capital is hidden from setup to scoring. You never announce it, and at the end it converts to Legacy at 2 Capital per point, so hoarding is a real strategy and a visible tell all at once.

Four Asset cards sit face-up as the market. Buying one costs three WORKS Agents plus the printed price; refill the market immediately. Assets give ongoing Capital, ongoing ppm and end-game Legacy, and they are also texture and tells: what you buy tells the table which world you are planning for.

The Grey Bank is printed with a wink. At a physical table where claims can be challenged it is not a joke card; on the digital table it is social cover only.

The Accusation

After the table talk in rounds 3 and 6, everybody points at once. On a count of three, each player points at one player, or gives a thumbs-down for nobody.

• The most-pointed player chooses one of two outs: reveal their Agenda face-up, or pay 2 Capital to each player who pointed at them. A player who cannot pay in full must reveal.
• Ties: nobody is cornered. A split table protects everyone in it.
• A revealed Accelerationist stops pretending: their BURN pays 4 Capital instead of 3 for the rest of the game, shamelessly. In exchange, no future Accusation may target them: the table already knows, and there is no value in piling on.
• A Media House owner's point counts twice.

Paying your way out is loud. Six Capital to buy the silence of three accusers, in a game where Capital is Legacy at 2:1, is a confession with a receipt. Revealing is cheaper and worse.

Scoring and game end

The game ends the instant the Dial reaches 600, or at the end of round 8, whichever comes first. Where the needle stops puts the world in one of four bands:

Collapse

The Accelerationist with the most Capital, minimum 10 Capital, wins alone. If nobody qualifies, everyone loses: the planet wins by default, and nobody is there to enjoy it.

Tied qualified Accelerationists compare Bunkers owned, then clockwise order from the First Player.

Survival

Legacy means victory points. If the world survives all eight rounds, the player with the highest total wins. Your Agenda rewards the final game result, not the Dial's current band partway through play. Danger means a final reading below 510 ppm; it is a climate band, while sending an Agent to COOL is an action that lowers the Dial.

Reveal and count hidden Capital. First calculate your base score: Capital ÷ 2 (round down), plus your Assets' printed Legacy for the final band, plus your spent-chip points. Then add your Agenda band bonus to reach your total Legacy:

Count every COOL and BURN Agent you committed across the whole game, including masked commitments. WORKS Agents do not add chip Legacy.

Worked example: Last Light, a Steward Agenda. Your goal is to help the world finish in the Danger band. If it ends at 490 ppm, it is 20 ppm below 510: two full tens. Your Agenda adds 4 + 3 + 3 = 10 victory points. This is an extra bonus, not your whole score. If your base score is 18, your total Legacy is 28. The Steward ramp has no cap. At 510 ppm, you are in Severe danger and receive no Steward Agenda bonus. At Collapse, you lose regardless of Legacy.

Highest Legacy wins. Ties break on most COOL Agents committed across the whole game (keep your spent chips), then clockwise from the first player.