AGENT INTELLIGENCE
What Is an Agent Dossier?
Your Agent dossier is the evolving operational record created by the decisions you make throughout Dead Load: The Visual Novel Game.
You don’t control Nick Stello or alter his story. You study the same evidence, make your call before Nick makes his, and discover how your decision compares with his.
But matching Nick is only part of the mission.
Your decisions also reveal how you observe, analyze, evaluate, and act. As evidence accumulates across chapters and missions, your dossier develops an ASSET Profile and identifies the types of missions for which your demonstrated abilities may be best suited.
Your Dossier Begins with Your First Mission
When you enter the game, you establish your Agent identity and receive a unique identification number. From that point forward, designated mission decisions become part of your personal record.
Your dossier tracks:
- Missions and chapters completed
- Decisions recorded
- How often your decisions align with Nick’s
- Evidence gathered across five ASSET dimensions
- Emerging operational strengths
- Mission types that may suit your demonstrated capabilities
Your dossier develops over time. No single decision defines you.
Nick-Alignment
Nick-alignment measures how often you anticipate the decision Nick ultimately makes.
It is not a grade, and Nick’s choice is not automatically the only defensible choice. Alignment simply answers one of the game’s central questions:
How often do you think like Nick Stello?
A decision that differs from Nick’s may still demonstrate valuable operational ability. That evidence becomes part of your ASSET Profile.
Your ASSET Profile
ASSET measures five capabilities demonstrated through your mission decisions:
Attention
Do you notice details, inconsistencies, changes, and potential clues that others might overlook?
Synthesis
Can you connect separate pieces of information and recognize the larger pattern they form?
Strategy
Can you anticipate consequences, sequence actions, and choose an approach suited to the larger objective?
Evaluation
Can you weigh competing explanations, risks, tradeoffs, and the reliability of available evidence?
Targeting
Can you identify the decisive threat, opportunity, objective, or action within a complex situation?
Together, these five Assets create a developing picture of how you operate under pressure.
From Capability to Mission Qualification
As your record grows, your dossier begins identifying the kinds of missions for which your demonstrated strengths may be particularly useful.
These may include:
- Investigation and intelligence analysis
- Pattern-recognition assignments
- Time-sensitive decision-making
- Strategic planning and leadership
- High-stakes judgment and moral dilemmas
Mission qualification is not a pass-or-fail grade. It is a developing recommendation based on both the strengths you demonstrate and the amount of evidence available.
An early dossier may identify emerging capabilities. A more developed dossier can make stronger mission recommendations because it contains evidence from more situations and more types of decisions.
Your Profile Is Never Finished
Your Agent dossier is not a personality test or a permanent label. It records demonstrated capabilities within the missions you encounter.
As you complete additional chapters and books:
- New evidence strengthens or changes your profile
- Previously hidden capabilities may emerge
- Mission recommendations may expand
- Your operational alignment may become clearer
- New dossier classifications may be unlocked
Your dossier grows as you do—one decision at a time.
Begin Building Your Dossier
Dead Load: The Visual Novel Game is currently undergoing invitation-only alpha testing.
Become a Founding Agent to receive development updates and be notified when the game enters its next phase. All Founding Agents are eligible to be selected for beta testing. Because access will be limited, Founding Agent status does not guarantee a Beta Test invitation.
[BECOME A FOUNDING AGENT]
Read the mission. Study the evidence. Make your call.
What will your dossier reveal?