This game has three phases.

1 Phase One: Establish Your Concerns
2 Phase Two: Deal with the Situation
3 Phase Three: Ride Out the Darkest Hour

Phase One: Establish Your Concerns

The Game World needs an Underlying Legend, a Historic Development and a Recent Event.
Underlying Legend
Historic Development
Recent Event

The Mystery needs three leads from each player: a Name, a Place and a Reference.
The Name
Write down a name on an index card and on your sheet. Rank it from 1 to 3.
(You may only use each rank once for all three Leads.
The most important is rank 3, the next important is rank 2 and the least is rank 1.)
The Place
Write down a place to visit in the game world on an index card and on your sheet.
Rank it from 1 to 3.
(You may only use each rank once for all three Leads.
The most important is rank 3, the next important is rank 2 and the least is rank 1.)
The Reference
Write down a reference in the game world on an index card and on your sheet.
A reference might be a book, a file or a newspaper article. Rank it from 1 to 3.
(You may only use each rank once for all three Leads.
The most important is rank 3, the next important is rank 2 and the least is rank 1.)

You (your Character) needs a Relationship, a Position and a Creation.
Your Relationship.
Your Position.
Your Creation.

The Team needs a Team Goal, a Team Resource and a Team Obstacle.
Team Goal
Team Resource
Team Obstacle

Phase Two: Deal with the Situation

During this phase, everyone takes turns, starting with the player who won the legend contest and proceeding counter clockwise (or clockwise, if you prefer.)

On your turn, you may take one action.
You must describe or play act out this action. Other players may help you do this (or might have to help, depending on the type of action you take.)

Different actions have different effects on the situation.

1 Make a Discovery
Turn over two lead cards and describe what you discovered that reveals them.
Did you solve a puzzle or notice a vital clue?
Have you noticed something which should have happened but didn't?
When you make a discovery, pick one other player.
That player, as their own character, an incidental
or a name (who you have already met)
must describe a new obstacle between you and the team goal.
(That player writes the obstacle out on a card
and also physically places it between you and the team goal.)

2 Follow up a Lead
Pick one of the leads that has already gotten itself revealed. Describe how you look into that lead (travel to the place on it, talk to the person it, look into the reference on it, etc.) The player with that lead on his or her sheet describes what you find out
and what trouble goes into you finding it out!
That player puts as many stepping stones into the pool as the rank of that lead
The more stepping stones the player puts into the pool,
The more trouble you get into following it up!
3 Express a Concern
Describe how you take some time to deal with your Relationship, Position or Creation.
How your character feels about something that just happened.
Embarrassed? Vengeful? Happy? Confused?
Add a stepping stone from the pool to that creation.
Depending on how you've acted so far, other players may
add one stepping stone each from the pool to any of your concerns
to reward and encourage you
they must explain why you're getting this reward as they do so

4 Make a Sacrifice
Describe a personal sacrifice you make in regards to one of your concerns
Move as many stepping stones from one of your concerns
as you feel represent the sacrifice you describe
onto the obstacles between you and the team goal and, after the obstacles get removed,
the goal itself
One stepping stone sufficiently removes any obstacle
But the team must vote to decide how many will remove the team goal
(When the team goal gets removed, the darkest hour begins)
5 Plunge into a Cliffhanger
Pick a lead to investigate.
Instead of having the player describe what you find, each other player, in turn,
describes something dangerous or bad that happens to you!
You may react to each description
But it will get worse and worse until you feel your character seems to perish
or has become otherwise doomed
Remove the lead and 1 obstacle of your choice. It need not be in front of you!
Add a stepping stone directly from the pool onto the team goal.

6 Entrust your character's emotional status to another.
Do you owe them something? Do you just like them?
Are your destinies linked? Do you need their help?
Reward?
Phase Three: Ride Out the Darkest Hour
During the Darkest Hour, everyone gets into trouble.
To survive this trouble, you must either:
Sacrifice your concern with the least stepping stones on it
(if all your concerns are balanced, you can sacrifice half your upcoming rewards, instead) Or accept any change to the world that another player wants to make
Alternately, you can sacrifice your character (your character perishes heroically)
In order to make any permanent changes to the game world that you want to make. You may make one change per player, including yourself!

Players go around in turn order, describing something bad
that happens to one another
Each player gets to react when something bad gets described
as happening to him or her
Until he or she chooses which sacrifice to make.

Once each player has made a sacrifice, the darkest hour ends
and the surviving players get one reward from each other player
You may sacrifice any of these rewards to make a permanent change to the game world

1. Trigger: "Priceless Museum Piece Stolen!"
2. Night at the Museum