3
imperial mandate
When the Grand Adjudicator of the High Office of Justice ascertains a potential
threat to the Imperium itself, the Emperor’s Inner Council is summoned to assess
the situation and issue an Imperial Mandate to address the crisis.
The goal of an Imperial Mandate is to expunge a problem before it fully manifests,
according to the principle known as “Preemptive Justice” in Imperial law. As
such a tool, a Mandate falls outside of standard law enforcement practices and
prescriptions, and is given wide latitude to pursue the elimination of the threat.
Each Mandate is issued to two individuals who are responsible for its successful
completion: the Lord Governor of the city in which the Mandate is to be executed,
and the Inspector assigned to execute it. In addition, it’s traditional for the City
Council to assign representatives of the City Watch to assist the Inspector in
their duties—in practice, however, the dire political consequences for failure to
achieve a Mandate mean that the Council limits their responsibility as much as
possible, assigning as few Bluecoats as they can to the Mandate.
Within the byzantine legal systems of the Shattered Isles, the Mandate acts as a
variety of lawful powers including:
Warrant to arrest and detain any subject deemed pertinent to the Mandate.
Authorization to use force to achieve the Mandate.
Authorization to seize funds, property, and holdings to achieve the Mandate.
Authorization to offer leniency or rewards as incentives to provoke compliance
or assistance with the Mandate.
In practical application, the Mandate is seen as a nuisance to the regular workings
of local law, disrupting political operations and factional “arrangements.” The
elite with enough clout (and coin) will arrange to make themselves conveniently
out of reach if they believe the Mandate threatens their freedom or prosperity. As
a result, Inspectors are advised against wanton or flagrant use of the Mandate’s
authority—though not all heed such cautions.
THE MANDATE IN PLAY
For game play purposes, the Mandate acts as a focus for players to achieve a
concrete goal. Rather than running day-to-day police patrol operations, or a
mystery-solving investigation, the Mandate is instead an organized and targeted
problem, which can be approached from a variety of angles and creative solutions
to achieve its ends.
Much like an underworld crew, the agents of the Mandate are free to pick their
targets and go after them as they see fit—the action of the game is always player-
driven, not doled out as a series of clues to follow from the Game Master. The
characters have actions and abilities designed to allow them to cut through the
unknown and mysterious, to jump into who they will pursue and why.
Playing the Mandate is more fun when the discovery of the involved subjects
is simple, but what to do about them is hard. Despite the “police procedural”
trappings, the Mandate is not a crime to be solved, but rather a threatening
situation about to explode into a crisis. It’s a problem entangled in the local
landscape of factions and citizens in a messy way, so that striking at any part of
it will disrupt lives and create interesting consequences, leading to more action
and hard choices.
The Mandate grid replaces the Claims grid from standard Blades. Rather than
turf and assets, each box on the Mandate grid represents progress on the case,
either in the form of Evidence (physical or testimonial) to support the Mandate
in court, or a Subject (a perpetrator) whose apprehension or cooperation will
advance the case. The players choose which paths to take as they work their way
from the bottom of the grid to the top, eventually closing in on the Primary
Subject who's behind it all.
No Mandate can be executed cleanly, and that’s a big part of the fun. Who will
the players choose to destroy, who will they turn to their cause, who will be
helped, who will suffer? Nothing is set in stone and the responsibility is in the
player’s hands to pursue their course. Can they achieve anything good when
the powers-that-be oppose them at every turn? Can justice actually be done in
a system so corrupted, or can they only hold off this catastrophe for now? What
do the characters really believe in? What matters most? Play to find out!
STARTING THE MANDATE
Each Mandate begins with a warrant issued by the Grand Adjudicator (acting
on behalf of the Emperor). This warrant will name the individual selected by the
High Office of Justice as immediately culpable for the troubles assoicated with
the Mandate (usually someone from a lower Tier faction, less protected from
Imperial legal scrutiny).
The warrant is the central, bottom box on the Mandate grid, connected to a box
on either side representing the first choice the Inspector (and their team) must
make: Will they collect Evidence or apprehend a Subject as their first move?
WORKING THE CASE
Rather than running Scores as in standard Blades, the Inspector and their Bluecoat
team pursue Operations. The system is the same as running a score: choose an
Operation type (Capture, Legwork, Patrol, Raid, Stakeout, or Undercover),
provide the detail, then make an engagement roll and kick off the action.
