AN EXAMPLE OF PLAY
One Session. Four Scenes. Every Roll Shown. Nothing Guaranteed.
What follows is a complete solo session of ALONE IN ROME, played roll by roll. Mechanical results are shown in plain text. Fiction — what actually happens in the world — is shown in yellow. Commentary on why a decision was made is shown in this colour. Read it once to understand how the pieces connect. Then put it down and make your own mistakes.
HOW ROLLS WORK — READ THIS FIRST
Every test in Glitch! works the same way: roll a d20, add the relevant ability modifier, try to beat a Difficulty Rating (DR). Standard DR is 12. Higher for harder tasks.
Example 1 — Easy success:
Sable tries to establish trust with Katia. This uses PRE (+2). The DR is 10 (cautiously friendly NPC).
She rolls d20: the die shows 11. Add PRE modifier: 11 + 2 = 13. DR is 10.
13 beats 10. Success. Katia talks.
Example 2 — Failed at cost:
Sable tries to run past the ARM team through the crowd. This uses AGI (+1). DR is 12.
She rolls d20: the die shows 9. Add AGI modifier: 9 + 1 = 10. DR is 12.
10 does not beat 12. Failure. She takes d4 damage and loses ground.
The damage die rolls a 3. HP drops by 3.
Combat defense works the same way: when someone attacks you, you roll d20 + AGI vs DR 12. Beat it and you take no damage. Fail and you take the weapon's damage die. The attacker doesn't roll to hit — you roll to avoid.
That's the whole system. The Oracle and the scene tables sit on top of it. The rolls below show every number so you can follow exactly what happened and why.
Step 1 — Build the Character
Using the Character Generator. Every roll accepted as given. No cherry-picking.
SABLE — Street Chemist
Ability Rolls: AGI 3d6 → 13 = +1 | PRE 3d6 → 15 = +2 | STR 3d6 → 6 = −2 | TOU 3d6 → 11 = 0
HP: d6+TOU → 5+0 = 5 | Static: d4 → 3
Gear (d4 → 3 rolls on Salvage):
Roll 1: d20 → 7 — Body armor jacket (reinforced, −1 AGI, blood on it)
Roll 2: d20 → 8 — Burner phone, one contact: ZANARDI, a photo she shouldn't have
Roll 3: d20 → 13 — Pharmaceutical stash (PRE +1 when dosed, TOU −1 when not, addictive)
Lire: 100 + (d6 × 50) → d6: 4 = 300 lire
Background: d12 → 8 — Pharma-Vatican acolyte who found out what's actually in the Seventh Sacrament.
Debt: d8 → 2 — A favor owed to the Pharma-Vatican. Uncollected. Will arrive at the worst possible moment.
Habit 1: d12 → 11 — Sexually fixated on androids. Creates professional complications.
Habit 2: d12 → 10 — Obsessive chronicler. Must write everything down.
Note: She's currently unmedicated — no dose taken yet. TOU −1 from withdrawal = effective TOU −1. PRE still +2.
Step 2 — Roll the Obsession
Obsession d20 → 10: A memory. One of yours, extracted without consent. It's being sold commercially. Somewhere in this city someone is watching your worst moments as entertainment. You want it back.
Good obsession for a Chemist who left the Vatican — she knows what was in Sacrament Seven, and that knowledge was extracted from her. Someone bought it. They're watching it.
Step 3 — Roll the Opening Scene
Opening Scene d12 → 5: You're being watched. You know it. You can't identify who yet. Roll Faction Presence — that's who it is. They haven't moved yet.
Faction Presence d8 → 2: Pharma-Vatican.
Of course. The debt is being called in. Set Tension to 0. Threads: [1] The Memory — find it, recover it, destroy whoever has it. Thread [2] empty.
SCENE ONE — TERMINI MORTA, THE DISTRIBUTION POINT
Late. The queue for Grey has thinned to nothing. One acolyte behind the counter. One Vatican watcher two stalls back pretending to look at bootleg components. The fluorescent light overhead hums like it's deciding something.
Scene Generator:
Location d12 → 3: A Pharma-Vatican distribution point. The acolyte sees everything and remembers it.
Situation d12 → 4: Someone recognizes you. d6 → 2 — they're afraid of you (you did something).
NPC Presence d10 → 5: One NPC, cautiously friendly. PRE DR 10 to establish trust.
Goal: Find out who the watcher is and what they want — without tipping them off that she's noticed.
The acolyte is Katia Bellucci. They trained together three years ago before Sable ran. Katia's expression when she sees Sable is very specific: the fear of someone who knows something she wishes she didn't. She begins filling a vial of Grey that Sable didn't order.
Oracle — Does Katia know what the watcher wants?
d10 → 7: "Yes. Conditionally. You can have it if you first deal with something on the NPC's terms. They name a condition."
PRE test to establish enough trust for Katia to talk:
d20 + PRE (+2) → d20: 11 + 2 = 13. DR 10. Success.
Katia slides the Grey across without looking at her. Quiet: "The watcher is ARM. Not Vatican — ARM. They're looking for an android who was registered to a Vatican lab. Unit 7. He's been here, in this market. Someone told them he uses this distribution point for something." She pauses. "I know where he is. But I need you to do something first. There's a man — Marco, two stalls over, the data broker — he has something of mine. A record. I need it gone before the ARM team finds it." She finally looks at Sable. "You still make things that make records go away?"
Katia's condition: destroy Marco's record before ARM finds it. This means getting into the data broker's stall — probably not cleanly.
Complication Roll d6 → 2: Complication.
Complication d12 → 4: Someone followed you. They know where you've been. Roll NPC Presence at start of next scene — that's who it is.
The ARM watcher made her. She doesn't know it yet.
Tension: +1 → 1. Thread [2] opened: Katia's condition — destroy Marco's record.
SCENE TWO — MARCO'S STALL, TERMINI MORTA MARKET
Two stalls over. Marco is a small man with very good equipment and the professional stillness of someone who has survived this market for eleven years by being exactly as dangerous as he appears and not appearing dangerous at all.
Scene Generator:
Location: established (Termini Morta market, Marco's stall)
Situation d12 → 9: You have a window. A brief specific opportunity. One action before it closes.
NPC Presence — carried forward from Complication: d10 → 3: One NPC, hostile disposition. Roll Faction Presence.
Faction Presence d8 → 7: ARM — Android Resource Management. Compliance officers with SecCorp escort. They have a name.
The ARM team followed her from Katia's counter. They're in the market. The window is closing fast.
Goal: Get into Marco's system, destroy Katia's record, get out before ARM arrives.
Marco is mid-transaction with someone who appears to be selling memories of a very specific and very expensive type. His back is half-turned. His terminal is active. The window is: right now.
BAD HABIT ACTIVATES: Obsessive chronicler. PRE DR 12 to not stop and write down what she's seeing — Marco's transaction, the memory type, the buyer's face.
d20 + PRE (+2) → d20: 4 + 2 = 6. DR 12. Fail.
She can't help it. The notebook is out before she decides to take it out. She writes: Marco — Termini stall 7 — selling visual memories, intimacy category, buyer male 40s corp haircut — transaction value estimated 800+ lire — and by the time she looks up, Marco has turned around and is looking directly at her.
The window is gone. Now it's a negotiation — or a fight.
Oracle — Can she bluff Marco into letting her access his terminal?
d10 → 2: "No. Firmly. A faction, person, or circumstance actively blocks you."
Marco says, without raising his voice: "You're the second person today looking for Katia's file." He reaches under the counter. Not for a weapon — for a comms unit. "I'm going to make a call."
She has one round before he calls ARM. Options: run, fight, or use a pharmaceutical.
She has the pharmaceutical stash. One dose used now means TOU −1 lifted but PRE +1 and addiction risk. She takes it.
Pharmaceutical taken. PRE → +3. TOU penalty removed. TOU addiction risk: TOU DR 12.
d20 + TOU (0) → d20: 8 = 8. DR 12. Fail. Addicted.
Three rolls in. Already addicted. This is Rome.
She grabs the comms unit out of his hand. STR vs STR. Her STR −2 vs Marco's estimated STR 0.
d20 − 2 → d20: 17 − 2 = 15 vs Marco d20 + 0 → d20: 6. Sable wins.
She's faster than he expects — the pharmaceutical is already working, everything slightly bright and too-close. The comms unit hits the floor. Marco takes a step back. She has maybe thirty seconds before he recovers or someone notices.
PRE test to access his terminal and find Katia's file:
d20 + PRE (+3, dosed) → d20: 14 + 3 = 17. DR 12. Success.
The file is there. An extraction record — Katia's memories, sold to a Vatican account three years ago, the same year Sable left. Katia sold something. Or had something sold. The record doesn't specify which. Sable deletes it. She also photographs it first. She always photographs everything first.
She shouldn't have kept a copy. She knows this. She keeps it anyway. The habit has a habit of its own.
ARM ARRIVES. Initiative: d6 + AGI. Sable: d6 + 1 → 5 + 1 = 6. ARM officer: d6 + 1 → 2 + 1 = 3. Sable goes first.
Two ARM compliance officers and one SecCorp escort appear at the stall entrance. The SecCorp officer's hand goes to his weapon. One ARM officer is already reading from a tablet: "Sable — Street Chemist — former Vatican acolyte — currently unregistered—"
She runs. AGI test DR 12 to push through the crowd before they can close.
d20 + AGI (+1) → d20: 15 + 1 = 16. Success.
The market crowd swallows her. She hears the SecCorp officer shout something that she doesn't catch because she's already three stalls away and moving fast and the pharmaceutical is making everything feel slightly manageable and she knows that's the pharmaceutical lying to her and she keeps moving anyway.
ARM Heat: +2 (compliance team seen her, have her name, have her description). ARM Heat: 2.
Thread [2] resolved: Katia's record destroyed. Katia owes her the android's location.
Complication Roll d6 → 1: Complication. d12 → 5: Physical cost. Take d4 damage from stress.
d4 → 3. HP: 5 − 3 = 2.
Two HP. Addicted. ARM Heat 2. Still has the pharmaceutical's PRE bonus for this scene. This is going well.
Tension: +1 → 2.
SCENE THREE — BEHIND THE MARKET, KATIA'S INFORMATION
A service corridor behind the stalls. The smell of the drain. Katia arrived three minutes after Sable — she saw the ARM team, she saw Sable run, she followed. She is not surprised by any of this. She looks like someone who has stopped being surprised.
Scene Generator:
Location: service corridor, Termini Morta
Situation d12 → 7: You're waiting for someone who is late. They arrive — with complications.
NPC Presence: Katia — established
Goal: Get the android's location from Katia. Figure out what Katia sold and whether it matters.
Katia says: "Unit 7. He's in the Ostiense compound — Zerocalcare. They've been sheltering him." She pauses. "The record you deleted — I need you to know I didn't sell it voluntarily." She doesn't look away. "They extracted it. Two years ago. I thought you should know that."
Oracle — Is there more Katia knows about the memory extraction operation?
d10 → 9: "Yes. And." Roll Unexpected Find.
Unexpected Find d10 → 5: A lead. Something here points directly toward your Obsession. A name, a location, a connection — real, moves you forward.
"The account that bought the extractions," Katia says. "Mine. Yours. There were others. They all went to the same private account. I found the account number before they wiped my access." She hands over a folded paper. An account number. A name attached to the account: KARDINAL-ROSSI-PRIVATE. "He's been watching them. Personally. Twice a week."
The Cardinal bought her worst moments. He's watching them for personal use. Write this down. Sable is writing it down.
Thread [1] updated: Memory is in a CogniData account — Kardinal-Rossi-Private. Cardinal Rossi has it. Getting it back means going through him.
STATIC SPEND: Sable spends 1 Static to bank this information — treating the Unexpected Find as maximum value. Static: 3 − 1 = 2.
Complication Roll d6 → 5: Clean exit. No further consequence this scene.
Tension: steady at 2.
SCENE FOUR — ZEROCALCARE COMPOUND, OSTIENSE BRUCIATA
The compound at the edge of the chemical fires. The Zerocalcare radio is playing something that shakes the window glass. Unit 7 is in the courtyard, standing near a wall, doing nothing in the specific way androids do nothing when they are doing something internal that doesn't show.
Scene Generator:
Location d12 → 6: Ostiense Bruciata — industrial ruins, chemical fires, Zerocalcare operates here.
Situation d12 → 10: Something from your past. d6 → 1 — your Debt shows up in person.
NPC Presence d10 → 6: An android. d6 → 4 — rogue and wary.
The Debt arriving in person — the Pharma-Vatican calling in the favor — combined with the android she needs to talk to. Both in the same scene. The city is efficient about its cruelties.
Unit 7 turns when she enters the courtyard. His eyes are wrong — one is the original, one is a replacement that doesn't quite match. He looks at her the way androids look when they've already decided something and are waiting to see if you'll figure out what. Before she can speak, a Vatican acolyte steps out from the compound entrance behind her. Young. Nervous. Official. "You're Sable. Former acolyte, Grade Three. The Cardinal requests the return of something you took when you left." Unit 7 is still looking at her. He's watching to see what she does.
DEBT CALLED IN. The Vatican wants the formula knowledge she carries — what's in Sacrament Seven.
Oracle — Can she talk her way out of this without giving them anything?
d10 → 1: "No. And it gets worse. Something additional goes wrong. Tension +1. Roll Complication."
Tension: +1 → 3.
Complication d12 → 9: Debt called in. Someone you owe makes contact. They want what they're owed. Now.
The Complication doubles the Oracle result — the Vatican isn't asking anymore.
The acolyte produces a syringe. Not Grey — something else. "The Cardinal prefers an assisted recollection." Two more acolytes appear at the compound gate. They planned this. They knew she'd come here.
COMBAT. Initiative: Sable d6 + AGI (+1) → 4 + 1 = 5. Acolytes: d6 + AGI (0) → 2. Sable goes first.
She has 2 HP. STR −2. She cannot fight three of them. She needs to run or find another option. Unit 7 is still standing there.
BAD HABIT: Fixated on androids. PRE DR 12 to not appeal directly to Unit 7 instead of dealing with the threat.
d20 + PRE (+2) → d20: 3 + 2 = 5. DR 12. Fail.
She says to Unit 7, ignoring the acolytes entirely: "They're going to extract me. Right here. Help me." Unit 7 looks at the acolytes. Looks at her. His head tilts slightly — the mismatched eye catches the light from the chemical fires. Then he picks up the nearest acolyte by the collar and moves them out of the way the way you'd move a chair.
Unit 7 attacks Lead Acolyte: STR +3 (android) vs AGI DR 12. d20 + 3 → 17. Hit.
Damage: d4 (fist) → 4. Acolyte HP 6 − 4 = 2. Acolyte is staggered.
Sable's action: run for the compound interior. AGI DR 10.
d20 + AGI (+1) → d20: 12 + 1 = 13. Success.
Acolyte 2 attacks Sable: d20 + 0 → 8. Sable defends: d20 + AGI (+1) → d20: 9 + 1 = 10. DR 12. Fail. Hit.
Damage: d4 → 2. HP: 2 − 2 = 0.
Zero HP. Roll Broken Table.
BROKEN TABLE d8 → 8: "You're fine. You're also furious. STR +2 next round from sheer spite."
The syringe catches her in the shoulder — not the sedative, the impact, the edge of it — and she goes down on one knee and something that isn't quite pain but is pain's louder cousin goes through her arm. She gets back up. She's not sure why she gets back up. She does it anyway.
STATIC SPEND: Spend 1 Static to deal maximum damage on counterattack. Static: 2 − 1 = 1.
Sable counterattacks Lead Acolyte with pharmaceutical syringe: AGI + STR (+2 from spite): d20 + 1 + 2 → d20: 14 + 3 = 17. Hit. Maximum damage (Static): d2 → max = 2 + effect.
Effect — sedative: Acolyte TOU DR 14 → d20: 6. Fail. Unconscious d4 → 3 rounds.
She puts the acolyte's own pharmaceutical approach back on them. He goes down with a sound that's mostly surprise. The other two pause — Unit 7 is between them and her, and Unit 7 is not moving, and they are doing the math on whether this is worth it. It is not worth it. They pull back to the gate. They will report. This is not over. It is also, for now, over.
Vatican Heat: +2 (debt confrontation escalated, acolyte sedated). Vatican Heat: 2.
ARM Heat: still 2.
Unit 7 looks at her on the ground. He says: "You helped Katia." "Yes." "Then I help you." He reaches down. His hand is very large. She takes it. "There is a CogniData terminal in this building. The Collective has access. The Cardinal's account — I know the number. I have known for some time." She stares at him. "I was in the Vatican lab," he says. "I saw everything."
He already knew. He was waiting to see if she was worth telling.
Complication Roll d6 → 3: Complication. d12 → 7: Tension +1.
Tension: +1 → 4.
SESSION END ROLL: d6 → 5: "Closer. Your Obsession has advanced. You are one significant step nearer. Define what that step is."
The step: she now has a confirmed ally with inside Vatican knowledge, access to a CogniData terminal in a relatively safe location, and the Cardinal's private account number. The memory is reachable. She just has to reach it before the Vatican regroups.
Advancement Roll: d20 → 7: "New contact. Someone owes you something real. d6 → 4 — an android who trusts you."
Unit 7. Written into the rules.
End of Session — The Damage Report
HP: 0 (technically — but Broken Table 8 means she's functioning) | Static: 1 | Lire: 300 | Tension: Reset to 0
Vatican Heat: 2 — Enforcer attention. They know what she took. They'll come back with more people.
ARM Heat: 2 — Flagged. They have her description and name.
Addiction: Pharmaceutical stash. She needs a dose or TOU −1 applies each scene.
Active Threads:
[1] The Memory — Cardinal Rossi's private CogniData account. Unit 7 has terminal access in the Zerocalcare compound. Next session: get in, pull the extraction, burn the account.
[3] Unit 7 — new contact. He was in the Vatican lab. He knows things. He'll talk when he's ready.
Next Session: The CogniData terminal. Before Vatican Heat hits 3 and they send the Kardinal-Enforcer instead of acolytes. She has maybe two sessions.
She has 1 Static, 0 effective HP, one addiction, two factions watching her, and a copy of a deleted record she should not have kept. She also has an android ally, the Cardinal's account number, and something that might be the beginning of a plan. This is, by Rome's standards, a good position to be in.
What This Session Demonstrated
The habit system has teeth. Both Bad Habits activated at critical moments — not because the player chose them but because the dice demanded it. The notebook cost her the window in Scene 2. The android fixation cost her the tactical advantage in Scene 4. Both created better story than the clean version would have.
The Oracle generates decisions, not just results. Every Oracle answer created a choice. The "No. And it gets worse" in Scene 4 didn't end the scene — it escalated it into a fight she almost couldn't survive.
Resources deplete in meaningful order. HP → Static → options. By the end of Scene 4 she had 1 Static left and was spending it on survival not strategy. The next session starts under real pressure.
The city is consistent. The ARM team appeared because of the Complication in Scene 1. Unit 7 appeared because of the thread Katia opened in Scene 1. Nothing came from nowhere. The tables talk to each other.
Losing a roll creates story. The failed PRE test on the notebook habit was the best thing that happened all session. She should not have written it down. She did. Now Marco knows she was there. Now the ARM team has a witness. Now she's addicted to the pharmaceutical she took to recover from her own mistake. This is Glitch! working correctly.