Too Many Chefs
Introduction
Grifter, Hacker, Hitter, Mastermind, Thief. The classic
Crew gets the job done; that’s why it’s classic. You can
hit from all angles. That’s great when you’ve got it. But
what about when you don’t? You’re going to run your
own Crew one of these days, and you have to plan for
every possibility. One of those possibilities is a Crew
with some overlap.
The first thing I tell a new Mastermind is “ABC,” or
“always be cultivating.” You can have the best Hacker in
the world, but if she’s cornered by a couple of security
guards, she’s done for if you haven’t trained her to handle
herself in a fight. Your Hitter won’t do you a lick of good
if he can’t get past the security systems. Usually, you can
arrange strong teams to handle the challenges of the Job.
But you can’t plan for everything, and you can’t expect
everything to fall into place perfectly. Tell me you how
your plan works that first time Crew drama takes over,
and one of your people walks away. In short: diversify
your Crew.
Second thing I tell them is that we can’t all be as lucky
as the great Nathan Ford. The top names in the game
handed him a perfect Crew; he just had to turn the con
around and recruit them. Everyone comes to the game
thinking the Mastermind’s job is to plan, then sit back
and run interference. It’s that, but it’s a lot more. My
first Crew was an exercise in butting heads. I ran with
two Hitters and two Grifters and it was hard enough
shutting them down when they argued about who got
to do what part of the Job. Then, I had to rein them in
when they’d turn the Jobs into competitions. There were
times I felt the Mark was the least of our worries. Once
we learned (read: I taught them) to work together, we
were unstoppable.
Third thing I tell them is that I’ve worked in a
restaurant that had too many chefs. You know what
happened? Sometimes, the chefs got to take a day off.
You think about that for a bit. I’ve got a Job to do.
ii
You’re sitting around your table. You’re running
through The Recruitment Job with four friends, enjoying
the pizza from that little hole-in-the-wall place that
makes you think of your home city. You’re the Fixer.
One of your friends has her sights set on Mastermind.
Another wants to be the Thief. As the night progresses,
two of your friends realize their Crewmembers are
Grifters, through and through. What are they supposed
to do if you throw a tech problem into the mix? What if
there’s a fight? Should you tell them they need to shift
Roles to diversify? Should you upturn the table and all
that wonderful pizza, potentially ruining carpets and
appetites in one fell swoop? No. Don’t worry, we’ve got
you covered.
First, we’re going to talk about games where you
have two of one Role. We’ll offer some advice on how
to set up your plots, how to manage rivalries, and how
to make sure the duplicate Roles both shine. Then, we’ll
bring it all together with Talents to emphasize this
style of play.
Next, we’ll address a Crew where everyone is one
Role, with maybe one Mastermind in the mix. We’ll
offer advice and rules ideas to diversify those Roles,
how to take advantage of the weaker Roles’ parts in the
story, and how to just let the Crew run wild with one or
two Role approaches. Like before, we’ll close out with
Talents to make it work, and work well.
Then, we’ll finish up with example Crews. We’ve got
a whole, playable Crew ready to roll out. As well, we
provide ideas for numerous combinations.
By the time we’re done here, you’re going to see why
sometimes there’s no such thing as too many chefs.
Two-of-a-Kind
When you have two or more of the
same Role in a Crew, things can
get tricky. Here are a few ways to
make such a Crew work.
 Shifting Responsibility
If you have two of one Role, you’re almost guaranteed
to be missing at least one Role. The easiest answer is
to encourage the overlapped Roles to take the missing
Roles as their secondary (d8) Roles. If you have two
Hitters, a Thief, and a Mastermind, the Hitters and
Thief could take Grifter and Hacker as d8 Roles. The
difference between a d8 and a d10 is not that significant,
and they can rely on Specialties and Distinctions to add
a little kick to those secondary Roles. Most important
tip: communicate. Discuss around the table what Roles
are needed, and what people are interested in playing.
Don’t assume someone will want to fill a gap just because
it exists.
These options all reflect mechanical game elements.
If they aren’t reflected in the fiction of your game, it’s
all a waste of time and effort. This means some work on
part of the Fixer, so the right challenges are posed for the
right Crewmembers. It’s best to address the multitasking
during The Recruitment Job, or through a discussion
between players. Then, instead of saying, “I’m playing the
Grifter/Hacker,” just play the Grifter, and everyone knows
that when the Job calls for a Hacker, you’ll be right there
ready. Be careful; it’s easy to give one Crewmember twice
the screen time if they’re very diversified, which can be
frustrating for players that opted not to play jacks-of-all-
trades.
Don’t get so caught up in multitasking that you
neglect primary Roles. A Hitter that takes Distinctions,
Specialties, and Signature Assets to help her as a Thief
runs the risk of not being a very compelling Hitter.
Suggestions for making a diverse Crewmember:
2 Too Many Chefs
 Take your primary Role at d10, like normal.
Likewise, take your secondary Role at d8. For
example, if you’re playing a Hitter that moonlights as
a Thief, you may take Hitter at d10, and Thief at d8.
 You get two Specialties. Focus one on what you feel
your Crewmember would be doing most in their
secondary Role. While you could do something
completely different for your other Specialty,
consider using it to emphasize your primary Role, to
avoid excessive diversification. For our example, you
might choose Bareknuckle Brawling (Hitter) and
Breaking and Entering (Thief).
 You get two Distinctions. Again, take one to
emphasize each Role, or at least one for the
secondary Role, and one to make your Crewmember
unique and interesting. For our Hitter/Thief
example, you may take Like Butter to emphasize
her Thief abilities, and Functional Alcoholic
as a personal quirk, or Thuggish to emphasize her
Hitter skills.
 When selecting Talents, choose one from each Role,
both primary and secondary. For our example,
you might choose Only Suckers Fight Fair and
Safecracker.
 Through play, use Signature Assets to bring the Roles
closer together. In our example, you might take
Angela’s Security Firm to reflect her knowledge
with both intrusion and combat. This is particularly
useful because it occurs after the first game
session, once you’ve gotten a feel for just how your
Crewmember reconciles those two Roles.
The One-Two Punch
So, you have two of a Role, and they’ve done
everything they could to fill all the necessary gaps. But
what about their primary Roles? Who gets the glory
when something needs doing? Well, both Crewmembers
deserve some time in the spotlight, but the best answer
is to let both of them shine together most of the time.
Employ the One-Two Punch.
The One-Two Punch is a minor rules modification
for the standard Fight Action. We already have rules for
when Supporting Characters gang up on the Crew. By
default, the Crew can’t really gang up in return. But with
this rule, two Crewmembers with the same primary Role
can back each other up.
When one Crewmember finds herself up against a
wall, with a roll that can’t quite match the opposition,
the other Crewmember can come in for the One-Two
Punch, raising the stakes. The first player abandons all
her dice, except for the highest die rolled. That is added
to the second player’s roll, raising the stakes against the
opposition.
Example: Hacker Backup
Jenna and Kieron are both Hackers. Jenna is running
a hack against a major corporation that’s been wielding
its lawyers against widows seeking recompense for their
spouses’ deaths. Jenna’s player rolls 4, 3, 2, and 6.
Her highest die was a d10. That’s 15 at very best after
spending Plot Points, and the Fixer rolled an 8 and 10.
The Fixer announces that the chief of security has a trace
on Jenna’s IP address. “Not so fast…,” Keiron’s player
says. “Jenna was running a distraction pass. Keiron was
just waiting for the security chief to shift his attention.”
He calls for a One-Two Punch. He raises the stakes,
taking and rerolling Jenna’s d10. That die results in a 9.
He rolls Keiron’s traits, getting a 10, an 8, and a 2. He
counts his 10 and the 9 from Jenna’s die, giving him 19.
The Fixer concedes, and the hack goes as planned; the
security chief gets a fake, rerouted IP address and some
egg on his face. Both Crewmembers participated in the
final plan.
Two-of-a-Kind 3
 The Rivals: Seizing the Moment
The One-Two Punch works well if the two
Example: Bump, Set, Spike
Crewmembers can work well together. What if they’re
Duke and Sarah are both Hitters. They’re going after
jealous of each other’s abilities? What if they’re vying
Mad Mike, the Murderer of Milan. In addition to some
for the Mastermind’s favor? It stands to reason that the
difficulty saying Mike’s name, Duke is having trouble
world’s greatest criminal minds would have competitive
taking him down. Duke’s player rolled 1, 11, 3, and 4.
streaks. This could break a lesser Crew, but with a smart
The Fixer gives him a Plot Point for that 1 and takes a
Mastermind, competition can be a huge asset.
Complication, then rolls for Mike. Mike hits back with
Just like with a One-Two Punch, this rule comes into
a whopping 19. The Fixer is just about to describe the
effect when there are two Crewmembers with the same
beating Duke took when Sarah’s player steps in to Seize
Role, and one has just been one-upped by the opposition
the Moment. She gives Duke a Plot Point, takes his 11,
during a Fight Action. In these cases, the player of the
and rolls her own dice. She gets a 10, an 8, and a 2.
other Crewmember can call to Seize the Moment.
She claims Duke’s 11, and her 10, and hits back at Mad
That player gives the first a Plot Point, and interjects her
Mike with a 21. Mike and Duke both groan on the floor,
Crewmember into the scene. She takes the highest result
while Sarah reports back to her Mastermind.
from the first player’s dice, and rolls her own dice with
that result added. The difference between Seizing the
Moment and One-Two Punch is that the second player
can take the highest die result, not the die itself. She does
not need to reroll that die and potentially get something
worse. But Seize the Moment takes a Plot Point; One-
Two Punch does not. Opportunism pays, until it’s time
for payback.

4 Too Many Chefs

 Two-Of-A-Kind Crew Talents
One solution for multiple instances of the same Role
is to use Talents to differentiate the Crewmembers. We’ve
He’s Weak In The Gut
provided a number of Talents for just this reason. The You might not be the best fighter in the world, but

following Talents require a second Crewmember to you’re great on the back end. You can pinpoint just what

share the same primary Role. If they don’t list a Role, they you did wrong, and how someone else can do better.

can be used by any Crewmember. Many use the One- Role: Hitter

Two Punch and Seize the Moment rules from above. Activation: You’re Taken Down.

If Crewmembers take a Talent that requires a second Effect: If another Hitter Seizes the Moment, or fights

Crewmember with the same primary Role, allow them the same opponent later, they gain a d6 Asset. You or

to swap the Talent out if the other Crewmember leaves they may spend a Plot Point to make it a d8.

play for whatever reason. Useless Talents are boring.

I Make You Look Good
Coming From Left Field You’re great at taking the fall gracefully.

You’ve got a way with surprising a distracted Mark. Activation: Another Crewmember Seizes the Moment

Activation: When Seizing the Moment or giving a from your Crewmember.

One-Two Punch in a Fight Action with a Mark, spend Effect: Take an Asset that lasts for the remainder

a Plot Point. of the Job. This usually reflects a lesson learned, a

Effect: Ignore the lowest die the Mark counts toward sympathetic injury, or other direct result of the Fight

the stakes. The Fixer may choose to apply another die Action.

in its place.
Incorrigible Flirt
Dishing Up The Combo When you want attention, you get it. You get enough

You’re all about the follow-through. that your Crewmembers can slip through without

Activation: Follow up an ally with a One-Two Punch. scrutiny.

Effect: Take a Plot Point. Role: Grifter

Activation: In a Fight Action, you score an
Fall Guy/Gal Extraordinary Success.
Effect: Another Grifter may spend a Plot Point and
Role: Thief
forgo rolling another Fight Action. Consider that
You’re great at getting caught—on your terms. You get
action an Extraordinary Success as well.
caught, and you escape, all the while your Crew can
do the Job and not get caught.
Activation: Taken Down in a Fight Action. Spend a
Plot Point.
Effect: You planned it. You’re out of the scene due to
a timely escape. Ignore any Complications from that
Fight Action. A Crewmember Seizing the Moment
or One-Two Punching gets the normal benefits, and
gets your Alertness die.

Two-of-a-Kind 5
 Let Me Show You How Righteous Hack
It’s Done Sometimes, you’ve got to do the hack just because it’s
there, and you’ve got witnesses.
You clean up other people’s messes.
Role: Hacker
Activation: Seize the Moment from another
Activation: Taken Down in a Fight Action to hack a
Crewmember.
system. Spend a Plot Point.
Effect: Take a free Asset for the remainder of the Job.
Effect: Add your Willpower die to the roll, and count
This should reflect the one-upmanship exhibited in
it toward your result. You’re still Taken Down, but if
the Fight Action.
you raise the stakes above the Fixer, gain a d8 Asset

Perfect Bait for the remainder of the Job due to a crucial piece of
data, or an elaborate and impressive prank.
You’ve got that kind of face that someone wants to
punch, or you’re just great at setting yourself up as a Too Many Chefs?
prime target.
You’ve grown accustomed to working alongside
Activation: A Crewmember follows up your Fight
another Mastermind. You complement each other,
Action with a One-Two Punch
pointing out the weaknesses in each other’s plans.
Effect: Take a Plot Point.
Role: Mastermind
Activation: Fixer raises the stakes during a Wrap-Up
Flashback. Spend a Plot Point.
Effect: The second Mastermind can roll in an attempt to
raise the stakes. This roll uses the same Assets the first
Mastermind used, but with the second Mastermind’s
traits. If the second Mastermind raises the stakes,
the Fixer gets one final roll for the Mark to raise the
stakes once more.

6 Too Many Chefs

The Professionals
Sometimes, a Crew will consist of
members with only one Role, with maybe
a Mastermind in there for good measure.
Where these Crews fall short in diversity,
they make up with massive talent in one
area. Here’s a few ways to make it work.
 Typically, a Crew like this will have history together.
After all, how would the world’s five best Hackers not
know one another? We encourage you to feature multiple
Crewmembers during Establishment Flashbacks. Use
these and other Flashback Actions to show rivalries
(often long-since abandoned), romantic pasts, and
previous Crews.
It’s worth discussing the focus everyone wants.
We’ve provided two main focuses: diversifying and
hyper-specializing. A diversified game looks more like
a traditional Leverage story. Specialized games will
look more like tight, pointed crime caper fiction. For
example, Ocean’s Eleven could be a group of Grifters.
They accomplish other tasks throughout the story, but
they mostly use confidence scams, disguise, cleverness,
and distraction to get the job done.
Focus and Marks
Usually, a single-Role game is far more focused than
a traditional series. The stories tend toward cohesion.
This can be good and bad. It’s good, because the stories
are easy to tell, and don’t require much in the way of
motivation to get them running. It’s bad, because the
stories can easily fall into repetitive patterns.
If you’re the Fixer for a game with one Role, use this
as a starting point for Mark design. It’s easy to have
the Mark fill the same Role, but this can also frustrate
players, since it’ll seem that the Mark is easily better than
any given one of them in their area of expertise. And if
you’re using a new Mark for each Job, it will quickly break
down the suspension of disbelief if the Crewmembers
continually run into more strangers that are masters in
their field. Typically, Roles have only so many important
names. Most of the time, your Crewmembers will know
the key players within their Roles.
8 Too Many Chefs
Instead of keeping the Mark in the same Role as the
Crew, just keep their Role in mind when appointing the
Mark’s Role. Ask yourself, “How could the Crew’s Role
interact with this character?” Don’t introduce that Mark
until you can clearly answer that question. If you can’t
answer it, chances are, your players can’t either.
Diversifying
This isn’t too different from the “Shifting
Responsibility” section, above. Use the same guidelines,
but discuss ahead of time what secondary Roles everyone
wants to take to fill all necessary gaps.
As Fixer, this requires little additional work on
your part. Just guide the game in the way you would
otherwise; all the Roles are filled. The only consideration
you need to give is to showcase the Crew’s primary Role.
Otherwise, it’s just another Leverage Crew, with slightly
smaller Role dice. If it’s an all-Hitter Crew, make sure
the Jobs are geared toward fighting. If it’s all-Hackers,
cybercrime should be at the forefront. Just because each
Crewmember can take other Roles doesn’t mean that
should be the primary focus of the game.
In a typical Job, everyone should have at least one
part to play. Consider that balance. Know that you’ll
need at least twice the conflicts reflecting the primary
Role, and that’s with Crewmembers picking up slack
elsewhere. To help guide this, use Complications. Any
time you get a Complication, introduce it as something
confronting that Role. If your Crew is all Hackers, don’t
use Complications to add snipers, unless you make
it explicitly clear they’re communicating through the
Mark’s radio systems, for example.
 Hyper-Specialization
When you have a hammer, everything looks like a
nail. Sometimes when you have a Crew full of one Role,
instead of diversifying, the Crew just looks for ways to
attack every problem with that Role. This is a logical
approach; it’s what they’re best at, so why not use it to
excel?
As a Fixer, this takes a bit of work. You’ll want to
avoid Marks that are particularly resistant to the focus
Role. A survivalist that eschews technology and modern
convenience just isn’t the right Mark for an all-Hacker
Crew. As Hardison said, “Look, you know what I can do?
I can re-task a satellite. I can get a level-3 NSA security
clearance. I can’t hack a hick.” Those Jobs can act as a
solid contrast to the normal Job, but you need to establish
those normal Jobs first.
To make this work, everything you bring to the table
should reflect that primary Role. It’s inevitable that the
players will use their secondary Roles every now and
again.
As a player, consider how your Crewmember’s
secondary Role complements the primary Role, not
replaces it. A good way to do this is to conceptualize your
two main Roles with a statement using “but,” or “and
then.” For example, “As a Hacker, Jason can remotely
disable any security system, and then he’s great at getting
to the scene with his Thief training,” or, “Scarlett’s a
Grifter, but she’s good at getting in too deep. So she’s
trained as a Hitter for those last-minute escapes.”
Here’s an idea for how the different Roles can play
well as secondary:
Grifter
Grifting as a secondary Role is all about finding
weakness. It can mean turning an impossible Job into
a difficult Job. When hacking a password might take
hours, and you have minutes before a plane crashes, a
bit of creative social engineering can get that password
in seconds.
Hacker
Hacking as a secondary Role is all about game theory.
When you can manipulate the numbers, anything can
look like a reward or a penalty, a carrot or a stick. This
maneuvers a Mark into a more convenient position.
While a Hitter’s no good in a crowd, get the Mark into a
“private investment meeting” and fists can fly.
Hitter
Being a secondary Hitter gives you the Perfect Plan
B. Some people just cannot be dealt with. Some will not
fall for your ruse (or you might have been found out).
They may not care about losing. In those cases, a fist to
the face is a language anyone can understand.
Mastermind
A secondary Mastermind is all about the Perfect
Plan G. When a Crew is hyper-specialized, and their
specialty fails, what’s left? The answer is, “Whatever you
were truly planning all along.” Everyone expects a Thief
to steal what they want. That means all attention’s on the
doors and ventilation shafts. A good Mastermind would
know to walk right through the front door.
Thief
Secondary focus on Thief skills is all about access.
All the technical skill in the world doesn’t matter if you
can’t get where you need to use it. Do you need to get
a Mark’s cellphone to install tracking software? Do you
need a secretive vantage point to get the drop on a group
of mercenaries?
The Professionals 9
 Screwing Up
With diversification and hyper-specialization, we’ve
been talking a lot about how the Crew can win, how
they can accomplish the Job, and how they can do things
just as well as a traditional Crew. But groups with heavy
Role specialization will fail more often than traditional
Crews. You’ll see more members Taken Down. You’ll see
more Complications. This is a good thing; it allows for
strong comebacks due to the extreme talent in one area.
As a Fixer, consider treating any action with a
secondary Role as a failure if the Crew fails to raise
the stakes. Usually in Leverage, the Crew can still get
what they want, despite being Taken Down. Play up the
10 Too Many Chefs
mistakes. Give the Mark a stark upper hand. Motivate
the Crew to come back harder, using what they’re best at.
If you want to play around with the rules a bit, any
time a secondary Role results in a Complication, start
the Complication at d8. For the primary Role, start
Complications at d4. This way, when the group trips up
with their field of expertise, it’s almost an advantage for
them, since they’re so used to handling the common
problems. On the other hand, problems during their
weaker moments are much more dramatic, and are best
handled by resorting back to the primary Role.
 Professional Crew Talents
Talents are a perfect way to customize Crewmembers
in a single-Role Crew. It helps to keep Crewmembers
special, and give them particular areas of expertise, even
within the scope of their Role. They can help the Crew to
work efficiently together, and they can help to diversify
their secondary abilities.
Many of these Talents list Roles. These assume a
Crew with only that Role. A single-Role Crew with a
lone Mastermind can also take these Talents. We’ve
included some that require a Crewmember not be of a
given Role. These allow a Crewmember with a secondary
Role to shine in that field, but they’re not really fitting for
someone with that Role primarily.
Alloys and Things With…
Molecular Structures Cons For Dummies,
You like science and math. After all, you post pictures First Printing 2012
of Neil deGrasse Tyson on your social media profiles,
and own an “Age of the Geek” T-shirt. You’re a dabbler.
It’s gotten you in trouble almost as often as it’s helped
the Crew.
Role: Not Hacker (Hacker Secondary)
Activation: Any action using your Hacker die.
Effect: Take a Complication and add a d4 to your roll
in order to count a third die toward your result.
The Buddhist Palm
Technique
As you watch everyone around you falter, you get
stronger. Maybe it’s an ancient martial arts technique,
maybe you can just harness your anger. But if you hit
last, you hit hardest.
Role: Hitter
Activation: A Crewmember is Taken Down during a
Fight Action using their Hitter die.
Effect: The first time during the Job, gain a d6 Asset.
Each subsequent time, step that Asset up once. This
Asset may only be used when you’re using your
Hitter die.
You’ve watched a solid Mastermind in action.
You are not that Mastermind, but you can fake it until
you make it.
Role: Not Mastermind (Mastermind Secondary)
Activation: Any action using your Mastermind die.
Effect: Take a Complication and add a d4 to your roll
in order to count a third die toward your result.
The Professionals 11
 Hacking the Gibson
The hardest hacks only work when you’ve got people
to run interference. Fortunately, you’ve got that team.
Role: Hacker
Activation: Take the Wrap-Up Flashback at the end of
a Job. Spend a Plot Point.
Effect: You may use your Hacker die in lieu of the
normal Mastermind die. Any added Assets start at
d8; anyone that steps up an Asset does so twice. If
this would bring an Asset above d12, add a new d8
Asset instead.
He May Look Like a
Geek
You don’t look the part, but you can kick ass with the
best of them.
Role: Not Hitter (Hitter Secondary)
Activation: Fight Action using your Hitter die. Spend
a Plot Point.
Effect: Add the highest die the Fixer has available to
your pool. Also add a d4 if that die is a d6 or d8. Add
two d4 if that die is a d10.
12 Too Many Chefs
Maltese Falcon
You’re the best with replicas. Well, good with replicas.
Maybe passable with replicas? Okay, so papier-mâché
probably wasn’t the best replacement for The Thinker,
but it sure kept the museum attendants scratching their
heads for a while.
Role: Not Thief (Thief Secondary)
Activation: Any action using your Thief die.
Effect: Take a Complication and add a d4 to your
roll in order to count a third die toward your result.
Totally Method
You failed out of film school. But it was discrimination!
The professors just couldn’t understand your vision. It
had nothing to do with the scathing reviews of your
terrible performances. Now, you get by with confidence,
even though it causes trouble.
Role: Not Grifter (Grifter Secondary)
Activation: Any action using your Grifter die.
Effect: Step up your Grifter die once, and add a d6.
Take an additional Complication, on top of whatever
you roll.
Sample Crews
Here are a few sample Crew ideas for various
one-Role Crews. Use these as examples of the
types of focuses you might use. They also show
how the Crewmembers in one Role can diversify
their talents through secondary Roles. You could
even flesh them out to use at your table.
 The Upstanding Citizens: An
All-Grifter Crew
The Upstanding Citizens work out of a comedy club.
By day, they recruit, foster, and promote up-and-coming
comedians. Once or twice a week, they hold sketch shows
to bring an audience. They spend many nights taking
down the most corrupt elements of the entertainment
business. That is, with jokes. On the other nights, they
do it literally.
Jake North leads the Crew. He’s a Grifter/Mastermind.
He managed plays on shoestring budgets for years, and
if you know entertainment, it’s not that different than
managing a heist. He works alongside Erica Mitchell,
a Grifter/Thief contortionist and performance artist.
There’s no place she can’t squeeze her way into, and
luckily, Rachel Thompson is there to bail her out. Rachel
is a Grifter/Hitter; she worked as a stunt double in
numerous films because of her knowledge of Jeet Kune
Do. Now, she plays the tough girl in all the Upstanding
Citizen sketches. They round it all out with Nicholas
Wells, a Grifter/Hacker. He plays all the nerdy roles, and
he’s getting quite the following. He’s also a long-time stage
hand, who knows the tech and effects side of theater like
nothing else. He famously made a full lighting and SFX
rig out of parts he took from a foreclosed pet store.
|_ 3 @ | 0 |\|: An All-
Hacker Crew
The Legion, as they call themselves around n00bs,
is a trio of Hackers. They differ from most Crews in
that they’re not centrally-located. Each member lives
in a different major city, and they handle most of their
dealings by teleconference and satellite cellular networks.
Sometimes, they’ll come together for a sensitive Job,
but usually, one member leads the in-person part of a
given heist, using local friends and associates. Most
importantly, they never use their real names with
Crewmembers. Anonymity ensures security, in case one
member gets caught.
14 Too Many Chefs
Assemblage is the leader, if you had to choose one.
She’s a Hacker/Thief from Moscow. She guides the group
since she’s been in the game the longest. She’s been
running scams since “long distance” was a thing, and you
could get it for free with a tape recorder. P|nk|eP|e is a
Hacker/Grifter from London. He’s made millions from
chain email confidence scams. He now forges emails and
mimics phone voices to strike the movers and shakers
of the world. 99 Problems is a Hacker/Hitter. She runs a
clique out of New York, a bunch of cyberpunk hoodlums
that terrorize Wall Street sharks, on paper, and on the
streets.
Vanguard Securities: An
All-Hitter Crew
Vanguard Securities picks up where attorneys leave
off. Government corruption has destroyed lives for
the bottom line, and there’s no better examples than
those that occur in the periphery of the armed forces.
Vanguard is a group of former United States military,
and military contractors. On the books, they consult for
corporations and certain individuals. In actuality, they
investigate corruption in government defense affairs,
identify those responsible, and shake them until justice
falls out. This is often literal.
Michelle “Chelle”Ariaga leads, as a Hitter/Mastermind.
She led a long career both in public and private military
service. She rose in the army ranks to sergeant before
taking a lucrative position as a field commander for a
private contractor. She lost her job because she tried to
out her superior officer for defrauding the government.
When she left, she took John Dickson with her. John was
her lieutenant, a Hitter/Hacker communications officer.
Now, he keeps everyone connected on the field, while
operating alongside Chelle on the front line. Monica
Masters is their sniper and intrusion specialist, a Hacker/
Thief. She controls crowds, minimizes damage, and
maximizes results. Eric Washington handles the red tape.
Since they’re not on the books with security clearance,
Washington, a Hitter/Grifter, fast-talks his way into the
right places.
The Brain Trust: An All-
Mastermind Crew
When corporations see falling profits, some will
resort to whatever it takes to recover those margins.
Since government regulations limit their legal options
for exploitation, some of these corporations have hired
Crews of the brightest young criminal minds to work
their magic and bring in the millions. While most
corporate suits have grown numb to these sorts of
dealings, a handful have banded together and decided
to fight back. This Brain Trust of Masterminds works to
curb the criminal Crews, and to guarantee the corporate
criminals get what’s coming to them. The Brain Trust
acts as the biggest and smartest school of sharks in a pool
full of predators. They use the absolute worst corporate
tactics because the corporations own all legal avenues of
action.
Stefan Ackerman managed human resources for
one such firm. He signed employment agreements
for criminals that never worked a day in their lives.
That ended when he founded The Brain Trust. He’s
pure Mastermind, a leader among leaders. His partner,
Alisa Nichols, worked acquisitions for a major media
conglomerate. A Mastermind/Grifter, she left when the
company put the pressure on to take more predatory
approaches in acquiring small companies. Now, she acts
as a liaison for some of those companies, brokering the
right deals to make sure ethical companies rise to success.
They work together with Tyler Burns, a Mastermind/
Hitter. He founded a renowned fitness center chain, but
was ousted from his position by the board of directors
with doctored photos of an extramarital affair. Now, he
looks forward to the days when he’ll meet each and every
one of that board in dark alleys.
The Guild: An All-Thief
Crew
The Guild started out as a group of aristocrats with
similar interests, a Hellfire Club of sorts. They kept
to their own circles, completely inconsiderate of the
Queen’s law. “If it wasn’t hurting anyone,” was their
mantra. The members would play pranks and participate
in wide-scale debauchery. Some would jokingly rob
others’ homes, only to give back the fruits of those
conquests. They called it genteel robbery. At least, that’s
how it started. Before long, this network of the privileged
began to see inherent advantages in their associations,
and used those networks to wring every last drop from
the working class.
As the club went corrupt, its nobler members broke
off and formed The Guild. The Guild fought back, using
the skills learned in these dark circles to fight back at
their teachers. The Guild was led by Jane Stockton, a
Thief/Mastermind. She organized the original games,
directing each criminal to their target. Through this, she
learned the city inside and out. She knew London by
gaslight better than most knew it by sunlight. Edward
Bellingham stood as the club’s chief of security, a Thief/
Hitter. He left with Stockton. During his time with the
club, he organized watches and thugs to maintain the
utmost privacy for their meetings. Now, he finds holes
in security, and removes the more violent elements
from The Guild’s Jobs. They work with Lydia Chadwick,
daughter to a former pauper. Her father rose to
prominence through all manner of malfeasance, and
Lydia, a Thief/Hacker, learned every trick in the book
to defend their ill-gotten aristocratic name. She edited
books. She forged census rolls. She even set up machines
to simulate the presence of servants in their windows
at night. Lastly, gentleman-upon-town Stewart Stafford
maintains diplomatic ties with the Guild’s former
organization, along with the Queen’s courts. His skill as
a Thief/Grifter keeps Scotland Yard from striking down
on their enterprise.
Sample Crews 15
 Credits
Writing: Photography:
David A. Hill Jr. Page i: The crew after another job well done © 2012
Leverage 5 Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Editing: Page 1: Chaos and Haridson are relieved their time
Sally Christensen working together is over! © 2011 Leverage 4
Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Development:
Page 3: Nate and Hardison at the control panel for the
Cam Banks
virtual dream world © 2012 Leverage 5 Holdings,
Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Layout & Production:
Daniel Solis Page 4: Sister Lupe (played by Sofia Pernas) proves that
she is on Nate’s side. © 2011 Leverage 4 Holdings,
Based on the LEVERAGE Roleplaying Game by Cam Banks, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Rob Donoghue, and Clark Valentine with Tiara Lynn Agresta, Page 7: Olivia and Nate face off in the tournament’s final
Matt Forbeck, Stephanie Ford, Laura Anne Gilman, Fred Hicks, © 2011 Leverage 4 Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
and Ryan Macklin Page 10: Hardison is having a tough day © 2011 Leverage 4
Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Page 13: Parker, Tara and Sophie survey the situation ©

2011 Leverage 4 Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

M A R G A R E T

WEIS
PRODUCTIONS, ltd.

Margaret Weis Productions, the Cortex System, Cortex Plus, and the Cortex Plus logo © 2012 Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd.
© Leverage Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
TNT logo and key art ™ & © Turner Network Television, A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved.