Chrome & Covenant is deep. This page gives you one path through it — from “what is this?” to “I’m running a session tonight.”
Step 1: Understand the premise
The year is 2089. Corporations rule from sealed domes. The coasts are drowned. A network called the Mesh — built to set people free — was destroyed and shattered into four layers of digital reality. AIs that were never supposed to wake up are whispering from the margins. Ordinary people survive by making dangerous choices in a world that remembers everything.
This is sacred punk: technology has spiritual weight, memory has power, and every choice echoes forward.
Step 2: Learn the core roll
Most actions use 2d10 + Stat + Skill vs a Target Number (TN). Three stats define your character: Mind, Body, Soul. Meet or beat the TN, you succeed. Miss it, something goes wrong — and in C&C, “wrong” usually means consequences, not just failure.
Step 3: Build a character
Choose a concept. Assign your stats. Pick a class. Install cyberware if you dare. Or skip the math entirely and grab a quickbuild — a pre-made operative ready to play in five minutes.
→ Build Your First Operative
→ Grab a Quickbuild
Step 4: Download the sheet
Print it or fill it digitally. One page, everything you need.
Step 5: Run your first session
The Milk Run is a starter Blip set in Neutral St. Louis. Simple job. Simple delivery. Nothing ever goes wrong on a milk run.
Step 6: Explore NSL
Neutral St. Louis is the free starter city — a crossroads where all four regions meet and no single faction dominates. Enough districts, NPCs, and hooks to run a dozen sessions.
Step 7: Go deeper
Now that you’ve played, the world opens up.
→ The Story of Lucent Ark — The origin of everything
→ The Mesh & Its Layers — The haunted network
→ The AI Pantheon — The digital gods
→ Fiction — Short stories set across the world
→ Books — The complete experience