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Reference sheet Pressure Trackers

Billing

Billing is where a PC sits on the ENDS call sheet, the mechanical handle for how the camera treats a toon under contract. It is a Season-scoped status with four states: Top Billed, Featured, Supporting, and In the Back. Every PC has one, everyone starts at Featured when the Season premieres, and Billing shifts only at the Season finale (see How Billing Changes, below).

Each tier is a different job with its own rhythm at the table, and each has a reason to stay as well as a reason to climb.

The Four Billing States

Top Billed

Your name is on the marquee and your face is on the lunchbox.

• Camera follows you. The GM is encouraged to open each episode on you if a stronger hook does not present itself. You get the cold open more often than anyone.
• First in the eyeline. When the GM must pick a PC for a network-level complication (a note from the Executive, a Standards flag, a press ambush), Top Billed is the default target unless someone else’s Want points elsewhere.
• Season-arc anchor. Your Want drives at least one Season-arc beat. The writers’ room (you and the GM) should know what the Top Billed PC is chasing this Season by the second episode, and the GM should build episode premises around that Want when planning.

Featured

The stable middle: solid scene presence, regular involvement, no special obligation either way. Most PCs spend most of their careers here.

• No mechanical bonuses or penalties. This is the baseline.
• Most flexible. A Featured PC can step toward the camera or step away from it on any given episode without anyone rewriting the call sheet. In episode planning, give a Featured PC a reliable supporting role and a solid scene budget.

Supporting

The backbone of the ensemble: the setup, the straight man, the echo.

• Ensemble bonus. When a Supporting PC spends a Gag Token to assist another PC (via an applicable Bit, a Bond-triggered play, or a narrative framing the GM accepts), they gain one free Gag Token back at the end of the scene.
• Sidekick privileges. Supporting PCs may flag any other PC as the week’s lead for an episode and gain a +1 Boon die on any roll that directly sets up that lead’s spotlight moment. Flagging the lead is a free action at the start of the episode. Plan at least one scene per episode around a Supporting PC’s Bond with a spotlighted PC.

In the Back

Third from left on the poster, if you’re on the poster at all.

• Underdog bonus. Start each session with one extra Gag Token that does not stack into Session 2 if unspent.
• Camera comes to you. Once per episode, you may declare a scene a B-plot and pull the camera to whatever you are doing. The GM runs a short scene on your terms: the gag you want, the NPC you want, the location you want. Other PCs may join or not; the scene is yours. Reserve one B-plot window per episode, usually in the second act.
• No arc obligation. In the Back PCs do not owe the Season arc anything. You are free to chase a weekly bit that has nothing to do with the main plot; if the bit happens to tie in, treat that as a bonus.

How Billing Changes

Billing shifts only at the Season finale, once the final episode has been played out. At the end of the Season, the GM tallies the Audience Favor each PC earned over the whole Season; Favor counts toward the tally whether or not it was later spent. The simplest tally is one tick per Favor-earning moment in the GM’s notes; tables that track Favor on a sheet can just read the total.

At the finale:

• The PC with the most Audience Favor earned moves up one Billing state (if not already Top Billed).
• The PC with the least Audience Favor earned moves down one Billing state (if not already In the Back).
• Ties do not move.
• No PC ever moves more than one state per Season.

There is no mid-Season demotion, no network cancellation, no sudden drop from Top Billed to In the Back because a big shoot went wrong.

What Does Not Reduce Billing

Treat the following as explicit, on-the-page rules:

• Being Wiped Out does not reduce Billing.
• Failing a roll does not reduce Billing.
• A spectacular failure that lands as a gag can increase Audience Reaction and earn Audience Favor, which is the only lever that moves Billing.
• Losing a fight does not reduce Billing. Bugs loses to Daffy sometimes. Billing cares whether the audience was entertained, not whether the toon won.

The only way to drop a Billing tier is to end a Season with less earned Audience Favor than anyone else, and earning Favor means landing bits, committing to the Shtick, playing the Fourth Wall, honoring Bonds, and taking dramatic risks.

Using Billing at the Table

At the start of each Season, every PC writes their Billing state on the sheet, and the GM references it when planning episodes; the planning notes under each state above cover what to give each tier.

Billing is a GM tool as much as a player tool. If a Season has drifted toward one PC hogging camera time, Billing is the quiet lever that brings another PC forward next Season without anyone having to have an awkward out-of-character conversation.

Consequences Without Death

Toons do not die (see Chapter Two), but consequences still have teeth: professional, social, contractual, and audience-facing, the things a working toon can actually lose.

Use the following pressure tracks when the table wants failure to matter across episodes.

Episode Structure

Most sessions run best as a single Episode. An Episode is the cartoon-industry equivalent of a session: roughly three hours, roughly one arc, roughly one satisfying gag payoff.

Cold Open (0–20 min)

A short scene, usually silent or near-silent, that establishes the week’s gag premise before the table has fully settled in. Classic cold opens: a character running from something we do not yet see, a phone ringing at the wrong moment; the d12 Cold-Open Starter table at the end of this chapter has more. The cold open rewards energy over plot; do not spend a full scene on setup here.

Act One (40–50 min)

Introduce the episode’s goal. The PCs learn about the job, the threat, the rumor, the anvil. This is where the episode’s question gets asked. End Act One with the PCs committed.

Act Two (40–60 min)

Complication. Things get worse. A rival arrives. A scene gets more complicated than planned. A gadget breaks at the wrong moment. This is the longest act, and the one that most rewards GM improvisation, by this point the table has its own momentum.

Act Three (30–40 min)

Climax and payoff. Pie fight, chase scene, confrontation, or all three. The episode’s central gag lands (or detonates the whole set and lands anyway). Resolution is usually short once the main gag has popped.

The Sting (2–5 min)

A final gag after the “credits.” One joke, one image, one reaction. Classic stings: a character who was quietly missing during the episode shows up now holding the object everyone was fighting over; the Executive is watching the whole thing from a limo; a second anvil drops.

Season Structure

A Season is a run of four to eight Episodes played across a stretch of real-world time, ideally a rough number of sessions agreed on at the start so every table knows when the Season finale is coming.

Three structural beats to plan for:

• Premiere. Establish the Season’s status quo. If Billings are set, lock them here. If anyone is starting a new Shtick, introduce the arc.
• Mid-Season spotlight. At roughly the midpoint, run one Episode centered on a single PC, typically either the Top Billed PC or a Featured PC with a strong Want. This is the character arc episode.
• Season Finale. A single Episode that resolves the Season arc and contains one permanent off-set change. Someone moves apartments. Someone gets a new Bond. Someone’s Want finally resolves and a new one takes its place.

Between Seasons is Hiatus, bookkeeping time, not played. PCs may retrain, swap one Bit, pick up a new Talent per the Core Rules’ advancement pace, or roll into a new Shtick if one has been brewing. Billing is also recalculated at the end of the finale, per How Billing Changes above.

Season Building Worksheet

Use this before a Season starts, or during Hiatus when the table is deciding what the next run is about.

Six-Episode Season Template

Season Pressure Menu

Pick one primary pressure and one secondary pressure. Do not use all of them at once.

Locations

The lot is a working studio, and the chapters of a campaign will spend more time in five or six rooms than in any other setting. The locations below are stock, drop them in whenever the episode calls for them.

Stage 7

The main ENDS soundstage. Big, drafty, full of rolling set pieces and forgotten props. Whatever set the PCs need this week is up on Stage 7 by Monday morning: a diner, a rocket ship interior, a mountaintop, a haunted house.

Notable NPCs: Paulie “Two Takes” Dubinski, stage manager, chronically annoyed; Ginger Hopsalot, on-set continuity toon who remembers everything. Hooks: A set element keeps showing up that nobody built. Last week’s set was never struck and is bleeding into this week’s. Someone has been sleeping inside the saloon facade.

The Commissary

The canteen. Every toon on the lot eats here at least three times a week, and every grudge, rumor, and rivalry on the lot gets aired over cheap coffee and meat-loaf day.

Notable NPCs: Mabel Crumley, the cook, knows everything; Sergio Buffalanti, head busboy, an informant for at least three factions. Hooks: A closed booth in the corner is where deals get cut. The soup is different this week. Bitsy Malone was spotted here, which is unusual because she works across town now.

The Prop Department

Old Murgatroyd’s warehouse. See Chapter Six for the catalog; see this location for the atmosphere. Dusty, cavernous, stacked to the rafters with anvils, fake mustaches, and things that should not exist.

Notable NPCs: Old Murgatroyd himself; his three apprentices, each of whom believes they will inherit the department one day; the Voice in the Back, which signs for inventory and may or may not be corporeal. Hooks: Something on the shelves should not be there. Something on the shelves has gone missing. Old Murgatroyd wants the PCs to make a delivery and is willing to waive a chunk of the Tab.

The Writers’ Trailer

Where the week’s script gets argued into shape. Four writers, one table, a whiteboard covered in arrows, and a coffeepot that has not been washed since the Studio opened.

Notable NPCs: Hallie Zane, head writer, reads the room; Barry Spector, veteran gag writer, bitter; two junior writers who rotate every Season and are always furious about something. Hooks: The script for this week has been rewritten overnight, by whom? The writers are on strike. One of the writers is writing the PCs’ Season arc wrong and needs to be convinced.

The Censor’s Office

J. Lemington Crust’s domain. Mahogany. Framed cease-and-desist letters on the walls. A single red pen on the desk that has redlined more careers than anyone wants to count.

Notable NPCs: Crust himself; his secretary Miss Abernathy, sympathetic but powerless; his assistant censors, junior Standards Board toons angling for promotion. Hooks: A flag has been raised against a PC and must be answered in person. Crust wants information about a rival. Crust is being investigated by his own board and is quietly, terrifyingly, asking for help.

The Roof

Notable NPCs: Usually empty. Sometimes a single toon staring out at the Hollywood hills. Sometimes two. Hooks: Someone the PC does not expect is already up there. The Audience can hear the Roof more clearly than any other location. A prop has landed up here that did not come from the studio.

The Warped Bros. Lot

Enemy territory. Forty minutes across town, or two cuts away by cartoon geography. Guarded. Branded. Louder. If the episode takes the PCs across town, this is where.

Notable NPCs: Pie Squad toons in uniform; Bitsy Malone, if she is in; a new Warped Bros. contract toon who has never met ENDS talent before and does not yet know they are supposed to hate them. Hooks: A prop has to be retrieved. A defector wants to come home. Bitsy has sent a formal invitation, which is a trap and worth accepting anyway.

Episode Hooks

Twenty short premises. Roll, pick, or steal. Each is a one-sentence logline, expand as needed.

1. The anvils have gone on strike. The Prop Warehouse is locked. The gag cannot proceed.
2. The Executive’s nephew has been cast in this week’s episode and is, it turns out, terrible.
3. A love letter addressed to a PC has been published in the studio gossip column. No one remembers writing it.
4. The commissary’s coffee has been replaced overnight with something noticeably better. Who is sabotaging morale by raising it?
5. A classic ENDS gag, one the toons have performed a hundred times, does not work this week. It just does not land. Why?
6. A Warped Bros. toon has defected and is hiding in the PCs’ dressing rooms, terrified and unwilling to say who is after them.
7. The Censor’s Office has flagged a bit that has not happened yet.
8. Old Murgatroyd has been replaced by a younger, more efficient quartermaster. Old Murgatroyd is nowhere to be found.
9. A prop, specifically an anvil, has begun moving on its own.
10. The Studio is throwing a gala. Attendance is mandatory. A PC’s Shtick is not gala-appropriate.
11. A script has leaked to the press. The script reveals a secret about a PC that the PC did not know themselves.
12. The Cataclysm Kid has crossed the lot line and is, for reasons known only to him, sitting in the commissary, waiting.
13. A voice has started speaking to a PC from the Fourth Wall. It knows things it should not know.
14. Bitsy Malone has requested a meeting. She is asking nicely. This is worse than if she were demanding.
15. A short from fifty years ago has resurfaced in the archives and is being re-released. It stars a PC. The PC does not remember making it.
16. The soundstage has developed a leak, and whatever is dripping is not water.
17. A pie has been thrown. It has not yet landed. It has been airborne for four days.
18. The Executive is having an affair. With whom is less important than that the PCs have accidentally been given photographic evidence.
19. The Season’s finale has been moved up a week. The writers’ trailer is empty. The PCs will have to ad-lib.
20. A fan has found their way onto the lot and is following a PC, filming everything, and refusing to leave. They are holding a clipboard labeled CONTRACTS.

Starter Adventure: The Anvil at 10 AM

A three-hour adventure for three to five PCs at first-episode experience level. Designed to showcase the Shtick economy, the Fourth Wall, and the Gag Token system in a single sitting.

Premise

A Prop Department requisition form has been misrouted to the PCs’ dressing room. The form requests one (1) anvil, standard weight, drop delivery, to be released above Soundstage 4 at 10:00 AM sharp. Soundstage 4 is where the Executive is scheduled to give a stakeholders’ address at 10:00 AM.

The PCs have until 10:00 AM to decide what to do.

Scene One, The Misrouted Memo (Cold Open + Act One)

The session opens on the PCs in their dressing rooms, post-breakfast, pre-call. The memo is on the dressing-room floor under the door. Whoever picks it up reads it aloud. It is signed with a stamp, not a name.

Brief investigation in the dressing-room area turns up three possibilities for where to go next: the Prop Department (to verify the form), the Writers’ Trailer (to find out who is scripting this week’s episode), or Soundstage 4 itself (to confirm the Executive is actually speaking there). The PCs may split up or move together.

Ending the scene: the scene ends when the PCs commit to an investigation path. The GM should let them choose, and then sprint.

Scene Two, Three Stories (Act Two, Part A)

Whichever path they take, the NPCs they meet tell different stories about the memo.

Old Murgatroyd says the requisition is real, was signed off by someone he does not want to name, and the anvil is already on the rigging.

Hallie Zane (head writer) says she did not write an anvil drop into this week’s script. She suspects the Writers’ Trailer has been compromised.

Soundstage 4 is not set up for an anvil drop. The rigging there is for a podium and a backdrop. If an anvil comes in, it will not come in from above, it will come in from somewhere unauthorized.

The PCs now have conflicting information. Encourage them to chase down a second source, and build time pressure into the scene: it is now 9:15.

Scene Three, The Flour Trail (Act Two, Part B)

A physical clue surfaces, someone has been sneaking around the back of the lot, and has left a trail. Footprints in the Prop Department dust. A wrong-colored uniform in the commissary security footage. A misplaced crate behind Stage 7.

Running down the trail takes the PCs across the lot, through at least one cameo from the Cataclysm Kid (who is, unhelpfully, hanging out at the lot line and watching), past the Commissary (where Sergio the busboy can be bribed, threatened, or flirted with for a useful tip), and into the Prop Department back entrance, where a Warped Bros. Pie Squad uniform has been stuffed into a locker.

The trail leads to a single conclusion: a Warped Bros. operative is on the lot, and the anvil drop is sabotage aimed at the Executive.

Ending the scene: it is 9:45.

Scene Four, 10:00 AM (Act Three)

The climax. The PCs arrive at Soundstage 4 at 9:50 or later. The Executive is already on the podium, rehearsing. The anvil is rigged, the GM confirms where it is hanging, and how it is triggered.

This is an open scene. There is no single correct answer. The PCs may:

• Redirect the anvil (Hard Gag-Craft check, Hard Craft check, or creative improvisation). It lands somewhere harmless, or better yet, somewhere funny.
• Let the anvil fall and catch the saboteur instead (Average Perception check to spot the operative in time; Hard opposed check to grab them).
• Get the Executive off the podium (Hard Charm check, Hard Deception to fake an emergency; Hard Athletics to just pick him up and run).
• Let it happen. This is a valid choice. The Executive is a toon. He bounces. See what the fallout is.

At 10:00 AM exactly, the anvil drops. Whatever the PCs did shapes the result.

Scene Five, The Sting

After the dust settles, one final scene:

• If the PCs saved the Executive, he is grateful in a vague, corporate way. The Tab is reduced by 100 PC. The Pie Squad saboteur is in custody.
• If the PCs let it drop and the Executive is Wiped Out, he returns next scene, unharmed but deeply rattled. He is in no mood to deal with the PCs. A Season-long plot hook opens: the Executive now knows the PCs saw the memo and did nothing.
• If the PCs caught the saboteur but let the anvil land on someone else on purpose, the Audience Favor reward is larger and the Studio is quietly impressed.

Close with a single sting: a second envelope has been misrouted under the dressing-room door. A different date. A different stage. A different prop.

GM Notes

• This adventure rewards investigation plus improvisation. Do not railroad the PCs to Soundstage 4: let them get there late, let them miss the anvil, let the Executive get splattered. That is a valid ending.
• Every NPC named here can be lifted from Chapter Nine or reskinned from this chapter’s Locations.
• If the table has five PCs, promote the Pie Squad saboteur from a Minion to an Elite using the Chapter Nine scaling guidance.
• The memo is the entire MacGuffin. If the table asks whether it is real, the answer is that they have three hours to find out.

Second Adventure: The Pie at Lunch

A direct sequel to The Anvil at 10 AM, slotting in as the Episode 2: Want Hook in the Six-Episode Season Template. Three hours, three to five PCs, written for a table that played the first adventure but workable as a standalone if the GM rebuilds the cold open.

Premise

The second envelope from the Anvil at 10 AM sting opens with a typed memo, a stamped seal, and a single-line address: “Stage 12 Commissary Annex, 12:47 PM, DO NOT BE LATE.” The memo is for a delivery. Item: one (1) Comedy Anvil Pie. Recipient: redacted. The Comedy Anvil Pie is a Mice House signature prop: heavier than a normal pie, banded with a glittering ribbon, contains a real anvil under a thin pastry shell, and is not in the ENDS catalog.

The PCs have until lunch to figure out (a) who is the recipient, (b) why a Mice House prop is on the ENDS lot, and (c) whether to intervene, deliver, or replace the pie with something funnier.

This is the Want Hook episode. The GM should select one PC’s Want from character creation and bend the day’s events to brush against it. If a PC’s Want is “prove small plans beat big muscles,” Penny Periwinkle’s lawyers should arrive in person and treat that PC as too small to bother negotiating with, which is the bait. This Episode puts the Want under pressure; resolution waits for later in the Season.

Cast

• Penny Periwinkle (Nemesis, off-camera). Penny does not appear in person. Her presence is felt through paperwork, lawyers, and a single lunchtime phone call.
• Mice House Studio Lawyer Team (Minion group, see Chapter Nine).
• Marcus Vell, Network Sponsor Liaison (Elite, Non-Toon, see Chapter Nine). Attending lunch on Stage 12. Coffee in hand.
• A Pie Squad delivery driver (Pie Squad Minion, single, separated from the squad).
• Old Murgatroyd, who is, at minimum, suspicious about why his name was forged on a delivery slip.

Scene One, Where the Pie Is From (Cold Open + Act One)

The session opens with the second envelope already on the dressing-room floor and the PCs reading it together. A short investigation reveals: the delivery slip carries Old Murgatroyd’s stamp, but Murgatroyd swears he did not sign it. The pie is being held in a refrigerated locker behind Stage 12. The locker is branded Mice House in small print along its base.

Establishing the stakes: this pie is legally a Mice House prop. ENDS does not own it. ENDS cannot lawfully use it. If it lands in the wrong place, Penny Periwinkle’s office will be on the phone within the hour.

Ending the scene: the PCs commit to investigation, sabotage, or interception.

Scene Two, Lunch on Stage 12 (Act Two, Part A)

The Stage 12 Commissary Annex at 12:30 PM. Tables. Lighting rigs. A lunch crowd of writers, stagehands, and one Marcus Vell at the corner table reading a spreadsheet. The Pie Squad delivery driver enters at 12:42 carrying an oversized pie box.

This is a Cartoon Chase opportunity. If the PCs intervene physically (grabbing the box, knocking the driver over, painting a fake door on the loading-bay wall), the chase begins immediately; run with the Lead Track from Chapter Seven. If the PCs intervene socially, run an Audience Reaction tracker (the lunch crowd is the audience) and let Performance and Charm carry the scene.

Marcus Vell does not engage with the gag. He watches. He writes one sentence in his portfolio. Each round he is on-camera, the GM may use his Real Money ability to declare any prop in scene “off-brand.” This is the Episode’s per-round pressure: a witness who bills.

Ending the scene: the pie is delivered, intercepted, swapped for a real ENDS pie, or destroyed. Audience Reaction at this point determines whether the PCs are visibly on the right side of the bit.

Scene Three, The Phone Call (Act Two, Part B)

At 12:55 PM, the on-set phone rings. It is for the PC most directly involved in whatever happened on Stage 12.

The caller is Penny Periwinkle. Not a representative. Penny herself, off-camera, in person, on the line. Her tone is warm. Her phrasing is exact. She would love to discuss the Stage 12 situation, and she has prepared a contract that resolves the entire matter favorably for everyone involved. She invokes The Periwinkle Settlement (see Chapter Nine): the PC may drop the pursuit and gain 1 Gag Token, in exchange for adding 1 to their Standards Watch tally and shifting their Bond with Penny by −1.

MICE HOUSE ENTERTAINMENT — OFFICE OF P. PERIWINKLE

Settlement Memorandum · Voluntary Resolution · One-Page Form

WHEREAS, certain on-set events at ENDS Studios on or about (today’s date) have come to the attention of MICE HOUSE ENTERTAINMENT;

AND WHEREAS, MICE HOUSE finds that a continued pursuit of the matter is not in the spirit of the studios’ shared affection for the audience;

NOW, THEREFORE, the undersigned toon agrees, gladly, to the following:

1. The undersigned shall discontinue any further inquiry into the matter.
2. The undersigned shall receive one (1) Gag Token, presented in good faith, with no admission of fault by either party.
3. The undersigned acknowledges one (1) tally on their Standards Watch, recorded by the Standards Board as a courtesy.
4. The undersigned’s Bond with Penelope Periwinkle shifts by −1, reflecting the gentle disappointment of all involved.
5. This settlement is final, friendly, and ironclad.

Signed in good faith and warmth,

________________________ (Toon’s signature)

________________________ Penelope Periwinkle, Esq. (signed in advance, in periwinkle ink)

Footer: “Thank you for your continued partnership. We are looking forward to many more bright productions together.”

This is a Bond moment. The PC’s table-Bond with Penny is established here, regardless of whether the PC accepts. A PC who hangs up has set a Bond at −1 with Penny by default. A PC who signs has set it at 0 with the strong hint of future leverage. A PC who negotiates may shift it as far as +1 (Penny respects an interesting negotiator) or as far as −2 (Penny does not respect a rude one). Note the result on the PC’s Bond track.

Ending the scene: the call ends. The PCs have a settlement, a refusal, or a counter-offer. Either way, lunch is over.

Scene Four, The Sting Lands Where It Lands (Act Three)

The pie still has to go somewhere. Resolution by branch:

• Pie redirected to a harmless target. Audience Reaction +1, Tab unchanged, Standards Board does not notice. Earn 1 Audience Favor for the PC who set up the redirect.

• Pie redirected to Marcus Vell. Marcus does not bounce. He is Drenched, suffers 3 Strain, takes no Wounds (it is a cartoon-coded prop). His Real Money ability does not function for the rest of the episode. The GM may use The Note at session end as a Tab Crisis nudge.

• Pie delivered to its intended recipient (revealed only here: J. Lemington Crust). Crust is hit, the Standards Board files an immediate complaint against ENDS, and every PC takes 1 Standards Watch tick. Audience Reaction +2. This is the funniest outcome and also the most expensive.

• Pie destroyed before delivery. Penny Periwinkle’s lawyers arrive within the scene. A Studio Lawyer Team Minion group (Chapter Nine) demands compensation. Tab increases by 200 PC distributed across the involved PCs.

• Pie ends up on a PC. That PC is Drenched, recovers 2 Strain (Big Hug logic, the pie is, after all, a pie), gains 1 Audience Favor, and the Episode ends on their face.

Scene Five, The Sting

A second sting, parallel to the first. The PCs return to their dressing rooms. Under the door is a third envelope. The address line reads simply: “Soundstage 7, Friday’s Performance, Final Curtain, see attached schedule.” No prop, no time, no signature. Inside, a folded one-page script for an episode that has not been written yet, starring a PC by name. Roll credits.

SHOOTING SCRIPT — DRAFT — DO NOT DISTRIBUTE

EPISODE: Untitled / pending approval STAGE: Soundstage 7 SHOOT DATE: Friday SCENE 1 OF 1 - FINAL CURTAIN

FADE IN.

INT. STAGE 7 - DAY.

[PC NAME] stands center frame. The lights come up. The audience holds its breath.

[PC NAME] looks at the camera.

[PAGE TORN, REMAINDER OF SCRIPT MISSING]

END OF SCRIPT.

Footer in small print: “This material is the property of MICE HOUSE ENTERTAINMENT, prepared in cooperation with ENDS Studios. All rights reserved. Disposition pending counsel review.”

A second slip is paper-clipped to the back: “Please confirm availability for table read by Wednesday EOD. (P.P.)”

GM Notes

• The Pie at Lunch deliberately splits physical and legal threat: Stage 12 is the Cartoon Chase / Audience Reaction beat; the phone call is the Bond / Standards beat. Tables that hate one of those modes can lean into the other, but try to give both at least one full scene.
• Want activation. Pick the Want before the table sits down. Build the lawyers, the lunch crowd, and the phone call to bend toward that Want once each. The PC should leave Episode 2 with the Want feeling closer than it did at start.
• The Comedy Anvil Pie is a Mice House prop on purpose: it gives Penny Periwinkle a legitimate complaint regardless of how the PCs handle it; every outcome carries some cost.
• If the table has five PCs, run the Stage 12 lunch as a B-plot split: two PCs handle the chase, three handle a parallel scene with Marcus Vell across the room.
• This adventure also accepts a Bitsy Malone cameo: Bitsy may appear at lunch as a deliberately distracting feint, drawing one PC into a side scene while the pie-driver delivery happens elsewhere.

Episode 3 Skeleton: The Bond That Broke

The Bond Stress episode in the Six-Episode Season Template. One scene-by-scene outline; the GM dresses it for their table.

Premise

A miscommunication during last week’s shoot has put two PCs at odds. The misunderstanding is real (a memo, a clip, an editing room mix-up) and it has been amplified by Penny Periwinkle’s office, which sent a press packet to a friendly trade-paper journalist showing the two PCs in apparent conflict. The journalist wants a quote. ENDS wants the conflict denied. The two PCs may not actually be in conflict. They are now expected to be in conflict, on-camera, for the audience that has read the press.

The Beats

GM Guidance

• The Bond shift is the entire mechanical point. Track Bonds before and after.
• The “free” Periwinkle Settlement is narratively the worst option; make sure the PCs see what it costs.
• If the table only has one Bond pair worth pressuring, focus there. If multiple, pick the Bond closest to a threshold (+1 or −1) and aim the Episode at that pair specifically.
• This is a low-combat Episode. The threats are social, contractual, and reputational. Lean on Charm, Negotiation, Fourth-Wall, and Performance.

THE STAGE WHISPERER — Inside the Lot

Vol. LVI · No. 14 · TRADE EDITION · 25¢

“TROUBLE ON STAGE 7?”

Sources Close to the Production Say the Beloved ENDS Ensemble May Not Be So Beloved Behind the Scenes

By a Staff Reporter

Industry insiders confirm what audiences have long suspected: not every smile in the cartoon shorts is the smile of friendship. Sources close to ENDS Studios, sources who declined to be named because of the climate, describe an “increasingly tense” relationship between two of the studio’s brightest lights.

“It’s been awkward,” one source told this reporter, off the record. “You don’t see it on camera. But it’s there.”

(continues, page 4 →)

A spokesperson for MICE HOUSE ENTERTAINMENT (who reached out to this paper unprompted) offered, in a statement, that “Mice House is, of course, deeply concerned for the wellbeing of every working toon, and stands ready to extend a friendly hand to any ENDS talent who finds themselves in need of a fresh creative environment.”

ENDS Studios did not return requests for comment by deadline.

Photo caption: Two ENDS toons, photographed mid-take last week. The composition has been adjusted. The angle is unflattering. The headline writer was paid extra.

END OF ARTICLE EXCERPT, The Stage Whisperer, this week’s edition.

Episode 4 Skeleton: Spotlight, Center Frame

The Mid-Season Spotlight episode. Centers on one PC, typically the Top Billed PC, or the Featured PC most overdue for a focus episode.

Premise

The Network has greenlit a one-toon special focused on the chosen PC. The special is a real opportunity: Audience Favor at twice the normal rate, possible Billing shift at Season finale, a chance to land a long-pursued Want. It is also a real trap. The special is being co-produced with Mice House as part of a “studio-friendly” cross-promotion. Penny Periwinkle is the executive producer. The script has been pre-cleared by the Standards Board, which means it is not funny.

The chosen PC has to perform, on-camera, in a special that has been engineered to make them look like an acquisition target. Their ensemble can either help them break the mold inside the special, sabotage the special from outside, or sit it out and watch the spotlight sour.

The Beats

GM Guidance

• Hand the spotlight PC a separate one-page script at the table, written in the GM’s voice, deliberately too clean. Let them physically reject it on-camera if they choose.
• Use the B-plot mechanic from the In the Back Billing state (Chapter Ten) to run the off-call PCs’ interference. Cut between A-plot and B-plot; do not run them sequentially.
• The Mid-Season Spotlight is the Episode where Wants meaningfully advance (not resolve). Pick the spotlight PC’s Want and let one beat of it move forward. They get a feather. They do not catch the bird.
• This Episode lays groundwork for the Episode 5 Consequence Episode and the Episode 6 Finale: whatever Penny gets out of this special is the ammunition she will use later in the Season.

Season Guidance: Episodes 5 and 6

Briefer skeletons for the rest of the Season. The Season Pressure Menu (above) tells the GM which arc tone to lean on.

A complete first Season using these skeletons takes the table from the Anvil at 10 AM through the Pie at Lunch, into a Bond stress test, a spotlight episode, a consequence episode, and a finale featuring Penny Periwinkle in person.

Random Tables

Break-glass tools. Roll when stuck, or pick when inspired.

d10 Guest-Star Toon

d20 Episode Premise

d10 Complication

d8 Contract Rider Demand (for cameo or guest toons)

d12 Cold-Open Starter

d10 Standards Board Flag

d10 Rumor Around the Lot

d8 Prop Department Overstock (cheap this week)