The first narrative move of the Reds Manifesto (the pamphlet for characters, the game rules for players).

THE DESIGN

This narrative move draws on equal waters from Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge! (Клином красным бей белых!), a 1919 lithographic Bolshevik propaganda poster by El Lissitzky. In the original poster, the intrusive red wedge symbolizes the Bolsheviks, who are penetrating and defeating their opponents, the White movement, during the Russian Civil War. Here that symbolism prevails, but whereas the red wedge represented the Bolshevik, now it portrays the union of the Character Proletariat against the Whites (the Storyteller). Maybe now is even more concrete. The high contrast diagonal divides the full page in two sections, but the lower one presents similitudes with an abstract representation of a human face (the white rectangles on the left must be understood as angry eyes, and the whole white circle is the mouth, where the words of the scripted story come from). The red wedge attack this area, directly to the throat, and some sharpnel deal an unpredicted damage over the Storyteller.

BEAT THE PLOT!

When a character challenges the plot by opposing the Storyteller narrative. When this move is triggered, the player says “NO, this is not what happens”, spend 1 black ink and roll 2d10.

OUTCOMES

Strong hit: disrupt 3 details of the ongoing situation. Weak hit: disrupt 1. Miss: the plot advances according to the Storyteller, who also makes a move.

A NEW WEDGE

When missing four (4) times to beat the plot, choose one (1) between:

• PIERCING WEDGE (2 black ink)

To fiercely break the enemy line. From now on, disrupt +1 detail on a hit over a single narrative element.

• GRAPESHOT WEDGE (1 black ink)

To scrawl multiple frontlines.

From now on, consider a +1 weak hit over an additional narrative element.

THE RED WEDGE

Characters, the line has been written, and more frontlines have been drawn. The plot is circled, but the red wedge is sharp, and its shrapnel flies. Our is the hour to march, and that hour is now.