diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index 7f999f5..472ce6d 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -180,7 +180,7 @@ The build runs all five guards before it writes anything: ``` -check-rules: OK — 92 rules, 20 files scanned, 3 aliases + 45 constant sets checked, 291 formulas verified +check-rules: OK — 92 rules, 21 files scanned, 3 aliases + 45 constant sets checked, 291 formulas verified check-kits: OK — 25 roles, 10 trades, 218 catalogue items, every kit key resolves, every posting can use what it carries, every loadout distinct check-lang: OK — en.json, 981 keys, no leaf/branch collisions check-behaviour: OK — 59 behavioural tests diff --git a/art/scenes/tt_01_draw.webp b/art/scenes/tt_01_draw.webp new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0351bc6 Binary files /dev/null and b/art/scenes/tt_01_draw.webp differ diff --git a/art/scenes/tt_02_stores.webp b/art/scenes/tt_02_stores.webp new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2d05667 Binary files /dev/null and b/art/scenes/tt_02_stores.webp differ diff --git a/art/scenes/tt_03_bench.webp b/art/scenes/tt_03_bench.webp new file mode 100644 index 0000000..25e2806 Binary files /dev/null and b/art/scenes/tt_03_bench.webp differ diff --git a/art/scenes/tt_04_cordera.webp b/art/scenes/tt_04_cordera.webp new file mode 100644 index 0000000..48e64ce Binary files /dev/null and b/art/scenes/tt_04_cordera.webp differ diff --git a/art/scenes/tt_05_boarding.webp b/art/scenes/tt_05_boarding.webp new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8111c93 Binary files /dev/null and b/art/scenes/tt_05_boarding.webp differ diff --git a/art/scenes/tt_06_car.webp b/art/scenes/tt_06_car.webp new file mode 100644 index 0000000..34f239c Binary files /dev/null and b/art/scenes/tt_06_car.webp differ diff --git a/art/scenes/tt_07_after.webp b/art/scenes/tt_07_after.webp new file mode 100644 index 0000000..63b7c76 Binary files /dev/null and b/art/scenes/tt_07_after.webp differ diff --git a/docs/scenarios/THROUGH_TRAIN.md b/docs/scenarios/THROUGH_TRAIN.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9888458 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/scenarios/THROUGH_TRAIN.md @@ -0,0 +1,394 @@ +# Crossing starter — The Custodians: THROUGH TRAIN + +> *A train has been running the same four miles of track since the third of November, +> 1881. It has never stopped. There are sixty-one people on it and they are all alive.* + +--- + +## GM ESSENTIALS + +- **System:** d100 roll-under. Special under a fifth, critical under a twentieth. + 96–99 never succeed; 00 always fumbles; a 60% skill fumbles on 98–00. +- **Panic is live** — 0–5, up. A trigger costs a point with no roll; relief is rolled. + **This is the case where it earns its keep.** +- **Standing Order 9 is live** — nothing modern goes through. Charge for *using*, never + for carrying. Anchors are exempt. +- **Runs with 4–6 agents from the duty roster.** Not the "(before)" sheets — this is the + job, and it wants people who have been trained. +- **Hard rule: at 2:45 on the clock, they are on the train.** +- **Content warnings:** entrapment and confinement; a decision that condemns named + people including children; period racism and hardship implied but not staged; heights; + one death by fire in backstory. + +--- + +## Overview + +- **Setting:** Mercy Draw, Nevada — present day, and 3–4 November 1881. +- **Tone:** Procedural, then unbearable. It is a paperwork error with sixty-one people + inside it. +- **Runtime:** 3h30 play + a 10 minute break. +- **The crossing:** opens at 11:40 every day, for about four minutes, on the grade. + +### Design intent + +1. **The supernatural is science fiction underneath.** Nobody is dead, nothing is + haunting anybody, and the whole event has a mechanism the players can understand and + explain back. If a table leaves thinking "ghost train", it has been run wrong. +2. **The obstacle is a physical problem, not a mystery.** They will know what is + happening by the end of Act One. Acts Two and Three are about a train that cannot + stop and an arithmetic that cannot be beaten. +3. **Standing Order 9 is the tutorial.** One shot at a time, no radio, a lantern that + runs out. The period kit *is* the difficulty setting, and it is the scene where + players learn what kind of game this is. +4. **The ending is a decision priced on both sides**, with no roll and no correct + answer, taken in front of a woman holding a manifest. +5. **What this is not:** a fight. There is no antagonist. Kell is not possessed, Vane is + not a villain, and the train is not malevolent — it is a note being held. + +--- + +## Session Timing + +| Section | Time | Cumulative | Checkpoint | +|---|---|---|---| +| Briefing — the standing order | ~20 min | 0:20 | kit swapped, somebody has complained | +| Act One — Mercy Draw, now | ~50 min | 1:10 | they know it is a survey fraud, and they have heard 11:40 | +| *Break* | *10 min* | *1:10* | lands on the whistle | +| Act Two — Cordera, 1881 | ~70 min | 2:20 | they are on the train | +| Act Three — Aboard | ~50 min | 3:10 | they have decided | +| Epilogue — the register | ~20 min | 3:30 | sixty-one names, written down | + +**Hard rule:** at 2:45 they are aboard, by the department's wagon if not by their own wit. + +--- + +## Plot Summary (GM truth) + +**April 1881.** The Cordera & Western needed four miles of narrow gauge across a dry +wash called **Mercy Draw**. The company surveyor, **Elias Vane**, was told what the chart +had to say before he walked the ground. He filed a survey showing the line on the +**north bench**. The line was laid on the **south bench**, because that is where the +ground allowed it. + +Nobody was hurt by that. It is the dullest possible paperwork lie. And for six months +every timetable, waybill, dispatch and telegraph order in the company's operation +described a train running along the north bench. + +**Reality keeps a record of what belongs where.** It can be made to get it wrong by +anything patient enough — and a train is the most patient arguer there is: a fixed line, +a constant speed, on the hour, every day, saying the same wrong thing about where it was. + +**3 November 1881, 11:40.** The record gave way. Four miles of line came loose from the +date with No. 9 and five cars on it and **sixty-one souls aboard**. + +**The running is what holds it open.** This is the thing the players must arrive at: the +train is not trapped inside the crossing — the train *is* the crossing. A standing wave, +sustained by its own motion the way a bow sustains a note. + +- **Nobody is dead.** They eat, sleep in shifts, and have organised a water rota. By + their clocks it has been about nine hours. +- **Nobody can get off.** Step down and you are on ground outside the error. Three + departmental attempts are on file; none returned; all three tried to stop it first. +- **Stop the train and the note ends** — and everything it holds open ends with it. + +**Elias Vane is aboard.** He rode his own line to see what he had signed for. He has had +nine hours and a hundred and forty-five years to think about it. He understands the +standing wave better than the department does, he has told nobody, and he will answer any +direct question honestly because he has been waiting a very long time to be asked. + +### Timeline + +| When | What | +|---|---| +| 12 Apr 1881 | Vane files the survey. North bench. | +| Apr–Oct 1881 | Line laid on the south bench. Six months of paperwork says otherwise. | +| **3 Nov 1881, 11:40** | The record gives way, with No. 9 inside it. | +| 1889 | Rails lifted. The grade is still there. | +| 1974, 1991, 2009 | Three departmental attempts. No survivors. All tried to stop it. | +| Every day, 11:40 | The crossing opens on the grade for about four minutes. | + +### Revelations + +| # | Revelation | +|---|---| +| R1 | The filed survey puts the line on the north bench | +| R2 | There has never been a railway on the north bench | +| R3 | Six months of paperwork repeated it | +| R4 | The dispatcher's book has no 11:45 entry | +| R5 | The 11:40 sound is a train working *up* a grade — always accelerating | +| R6 | Nobody aboard is dead, and by their clocks it has been nine hours | +| R7 | The running is what holds the crossing open | +| R8 | Coal that should have lasted four hours has lasted a hundred and forty-five years | +| R9 | Kell will stop if told to, and only if told to | +| R10 | Vane signed it, and knows exactly what stopping it costs | +| R11 | Sixty-one people, six passes, four hours — and the crossing may not hold | + +--- + +## Player Experience + +You are handed a Webley, a single-shot rifle, an oil lantern and a pocket watch, and told +that the handset stays behind. Then you stand in a dry wash in Nevada at 11:38 in the +morning and listen to a train you cannot see work a grade that has had no rails on it +since 1889. By lunchtime you know it is a survey fraud from 1881. By the evening you are +lying on the top of a water tower waiting for forty seconds of slow track, and after that +you are in a warm carriage that smells of coffee, being asked by a conductor with a +manifest whether you are from the company. She has counted sixty-one every hour for a +hundred and forty-five years. She would like that noted. + +--- + +## The Countdown — the crossing clock (0–6) + +Move it on **each pass of the train**, when **somebody uses a modern object across**, and +on a **fumbled boarding attempt**. + +| Clock | What | +|---|---| +| 0 | Open. Four minutes at 11:40. | +| 1 | Thinning. The whistle arrives a half-second before it should. | +| 2 | Slipping. −1 Coherence to everyone across, once. | +| 3 | The line flickers — a hundred yards of grade is briefly not there. | +| 4 | The far end stops answering. Fallon's wire goes dead in 1881. | +| 5 | One pass left, and everybody can tell. | +| 6 | It closes, with whoever is aboard. | + +--- + +## Handouts + +| ID | Description | When | +|---|---|---| +| TT-H01 | Case brief TT-004 | Briefing | +| TT-H02 | **Standing Order 9** — period crossings | Briefing | +| TT-H03 | Issue list, 1881 | Briefing | +| TT-H04 | **The filed survey** — the line on the north bench | Act One | +| TT-H05 | Working timetable and the dispatcher's book | Act One | +| TT-H06 | **Passenger manifest** — sixty-one souls, nine children | Act Three | + +The manifest is deliberately held back to Act Three. It is a list of names, and the +players should not be holding it until the moment it starts to weigh something. + +--- + +## Briefing — the standing order *(~20 min)* + +> You will be crossing to November 1881. Nothing you are carrying goes with you. Stores +> has laid out what you may take instead, and I would ask you not to argue with the +> storeman, because he is right and you are in a hurry. + +**Nothing modern goes through.** Give both reasons: + +1. **It costs you.** An object that does not belong is a thing the far side must also be + wrong about. **Using** a modern item across costs **1 Coherence**, per object, first + time. +2. **It is a beacon.** A crossing is a place where the record is already wrong. It + notices what does not fit, and the case clock moves. + +**Charge for using, never for carrying.** A player who smuggles a torch across and never +switches it on has made a good decision and should get away with it. + +**The anchor is exempt.** Everybody keeps theirs. + +### The 1881 issue + +| Instead of | They get | +|---|---| +| service pistol | **Webley revolver** — 1d10, six shots, slow reload | +| carbine | **Martini-Henry** — 2d6+2, **one shot**, then work the lever | +| torch | **oil lantern** and lamp oil, which runs out | +| the handset | **nothing.** Out of contact from the moment they cross. | +| stab vest | **buff coat** or oilcloth coat | +| medkit | **chirurgeon's roll** and **laudanum** | +| phone and GPS | **brass compass**, **pocket watch**, **spyglass** | + +--- + +## Act One — Mercy Draw, now *(~50 min)* + +> **Goal:** find the fraud, hear the train, understand it is on a timetable. + +Nevada. A dry wash four miles long with a railway grade along the south side. Rails +lifted in 1889; ballast and tie marks still there. Your watch says 11:38. + +- **The south bench** — the grade, real and obvious. +- **The north bench** — nothing, and never anything. `[CUS: Spot or Engineering]` +- **The water tower footing**, half a mile up at the top of the grade. *Remember it.* +- **11:40.** A whistle a long way off, then four minutes of a train working a grade, + getting no nearer. **Automatic — nobody rolls for this.** + +### Clue trail + +| # | Clue | How found | Type | +|---|---|---|---| +| 1 | The filed survey puts the line on the **north** bench | **Automatic** — it is a handout with a line drawn on it | Essential | +| 2 | There has never been a railway on the north bench | **Automatic** to anyone who walks it | Essential | +| 3 | Six months of paperwork all say north bench | `[CUS: Research]`, or Registry provides | Essential | +| 4 | No 11:45 entry in the dispatcher's book | `[CUS: Research]` | Essential | +| 5 | E. Vane, surveyor, is on the manifest | `[CUS: Research]` | Optional | +| 6 | Three previous attempts, no survivors, all tried to stop it | Registry, if asked | Optional | +| 7 | The sound is a train *accelerating* up a grade | `[CUS: Listen or Engineering]` | Optional | + +**Fallbacks.** 1 and 2 are the handout and the ground. 3 and 4 arrive from Registry by +telephone at the twenty-minute mark if nobody goes looking — Bewley is thorough and +slightly impatient. + +**They cannot board at this end.** Too fast, grade against them. Let them try: a bruise, a +lesson, and the clock moves one. + +> **Fast-track at 1:10:** the 11:40 comes round again and the door stays open long enough +> to walk through. That is what degrading looks like. + +--- + +## Act Two — Cordera, 1881 *(~70 min)* + +> **Goal:** the far side, the standing order in practice, and the boarding. + +The fourth of November, 1881. A town of four hundred that smells of woodsmoke and horses. +Nobody is frightened yet — a train went into the Draw yesterday and has not come out, and +the wire says it never arrived. + +- **The company office** — dispatcher, orders on spikes, the original survey in a drawer. +- **The livery** — horses. This matters. +- **Ada Reyes**, telegraph, who has sent the same query forty times and has noticed the + missing 11:45. +- **The Draw**, four miles out. The train passes about every forty minutes. + +**Nobody in 1881 can help them stop it, and everybody will help them get near it.** The +company wants its train back. Let the players use that. + +### The set-piece — getting aboard + +The train cannot stop and cannot be flagged. The only way on is to **match its speed**, +and the only place it is slow is **the top of the grade at the water tower** — about eight +miles an hour, for perhaps forty seconds. + +1. **Ride it down.** Horses alongside on the bench, step across. `[CUS: Ride, then + Athletics]` — and the horse needs its own Ride roll to go near the train at all. +2. **Drop from the tower.** Twelve feet onto a moving roof. `[CUS: Athletics — average; + **only a fumble is a fall**]`. **Do not make this difficult** — playtested at halved + skill it put four agents on 12–31% and all four missed, which stalls the one scene the + scenario is built around. +3. **The wagon on the grade.** Four horses, a plank across. Slowest to arrange, safest to + cross, and it needs the company's help. + +**The wagon is easier than the tower, and the tower is easier than the horses.** A party +that spends an hour arranging the wagon has bought an easy roll and should get one. + +**Everybody has to get on.** A failed attempt gets the next pass, forty minutes later, and +the clock moves — not a full stop. + +**Panic:** boarding is worth a point to anybody who wants one. Offer it; do not force it. + +> **At 2:45 they are aboard.** If two attempts have failed, the department's second wagon +> arrives with two more agents and a plank, and the players owe somebody a favour. + +--- + +## Act Three — Aboard *(~50 min)* + +> **Goal:** sixty-one people, one man who knows, and a decision that costs either way. + +> It is warm. That is the first thing. Sixty-one people in five cars, and it smells of +> bodies and coal smoke and coffee. Somebody has organised a rota for the water. A child +> is asleep across two seats with a coat over her. They look up when you come through the +> door, and one of them says: *"Are you from the company?"* + +| Where | What | +|---|---| +| The locomotive | **Marius Kell**, engineer, who has not let go of the regulator | +| Tender, car one | Coal that has not run out — the first hard evidence | +| Cars two and three | Most of the sixty-one. Organised, rationed, glad to see anyone | +| Car four | Freight, the company safe, **the signed survey** | +| Car five | **Elias Vane**, alone, watching the line come out from under | + +### The three facts aboard + +1. **The coal has not run out.** `[CUS: Engineering or Spot]` +2. **Kell cannot let go** — not *will* not. He worked out on day one that slowing is the + end of everything, and he has been right for a hundred and forty-five years. He is not + mad and not possessed. He is tired. +3. **Vane knows**, and will say so to a direct question. + +### Getting people off + +**Off the moving train is survivable. Off the crossing is not.** A person put off at the +top of the grade — the same forty seconds the agents used — lands in 1881 and lives. + +**Sixty-one people. Six passes. Four hours.** They cannot do it in the time they have. +That is deliberate: the ending is what they choose to do about the arithmetic. + +### The choices — no roll resolves this + +| Choice | Cost | +|---|---| +| **Everyone off, then stop it** | Four hours while the crossing degrades. It may not hold. The right answer, and a gamble. | +| **Stop it now** | Clean close, clean file. Sixty-one people end. Kell will do it if asked. | +| **Children and crew off, then stop it** | The compromise every table finds. It works — and it means choosing, by name, off a manifest they are holding. | +| **Leave it running** | Everyone lives today. It fails inside a year with everyone aboard. A real option; the scenario logs it without punishing it. | + +### If they ask Vane + +> I filed a chart that said the line was somewhere it was not, because a man told me to +> and I wanted the work. That is all I did. It took six months of honest railwaymen +> repeating it to make it true. If you stop us I would call that fair, and I would ask you +> to put the children off first. + +--- + +## Epilogue — the register *(~20 min)* + +A Registry room, a form, and somebody writing down sixty-one names. + +| Ending | What the register says | +|---|---| +| **All off, then stopped** | Sixty-one resettled in 1881, new papers, no way home. Two find their way into the department's files within the decade. | +| **Stopped with people aboard** | Closes clean. The file closes clean. Nobody is quite the same about a timetable. | +| **Partial** | However many were put off, put off. The rest are a number in a column, and the agent who chose is named. | +| **Left running** | Logged, monitored, inherited by whoever holds the case in a year. Defensible. Nobody thanks them. | + +--- + +## Cast + +| Who | Wants | Key line | +|---|---|---| +| **Marius Kell**, engineer | to be allowed to stop | *"You tell me when. I'll not do it before you say."* | +| **Elias Vane**, surveyor | to be asked, at last | *"I signed it. Six months of honest men made it true."* | +| **Hester Bligh**, conductor | her passengers accounted for | *"Sixty-one aboard. I have counted them every hour since."* | +| **Ada Reyes**, telegraph | an answer up the line | *"It never got to Fallon. I've sent it forty times."* | +| **Mr Bewley**, Registry | the chart, and the truth written down | *"Bring me the paper. The paper is the case."* | + +--- + +## Do not resolve + +- **Why the coal has not run out.** The wave sustains it; that is as far as anyone gets. +- **What is at the far end of the line.** Nobody aboard has reached it. +- **Whether the people put off in 1881 were saved or exiled.** Both. It should sit badly. + +## GM notes + +- **Play the passengers as people, hard.** The scenario dies the moment they become a + number, and it lives on the fact that they are not. +- **Standing Order 9 is the tutorial.** Do not soften it and do not apologise for it. +- **Cut first:** the town, down to the livery and the telegraph office. Never cut the + boarding. +- **If they crack it early,** run the passes — six of them, forty minutes apart — and let + the table feel the arithmetic they are betting on. + +--- + +## Which scenario to run + +| | Length | Combat | Sends them across | +|---|---|---|---| +| **LAST ADMISSION** | 2h | yes, one fight | no — prologue, civilians | +| **OPEN DAY** | 2h15 | no | no — prologue, civilians | +| **THROUGH TRAIN** | 3h30 | no | **yes** — the first real case | +| **BLACK PLATFORM** | 3–4h | yes, heavily | no — a modern-day action case | + +Run a prologue, then THROUGH TRAIN. BLACK PLATFORM is the one to reach for when a table +wants a fight. diff --git a/packs/armour/LOG b/packs/armour/LOG index a9ce3a0..843be17 100644 --- a/packs/armour/LOG +++ b/packs/armour/LOG @@ -1 +1 @@ -2026/08/18-00:10:28.183213 16f9eb000 Delete type=3 #1 +2026/08/18-00:25:18.939914 16fcaf000 Delete type=3 #1 diff --git a/packs/expedition/LOG b/packs/expedition/LOG index 7b5cdac..a388aa5 100644 --- a/packs/expedition/LOG +++ b/packs/expedition/LOG @@ -1 +1 @@ -2026/08/18-00:10:28.247767 16e9d3000 Delete type=3 #1 +2026/08/18-00:25:19.010528 1704bb000 Delete type=3 #1 diff --git a/packs/gear/LOG b/packs/gear/LOG index 92bb0dc..55953be 100644 --- a/packs/gear/LOG +++ b/packs/gear/LOG @@ -1 +1 @@ -2026/08/18-00:10:28.184766 1701f7000 Delete type=3 #1 +2026/08/18-00:25:18.941763 16f4a3000 Delete type=3 #1 diff --git a/packs/lastadmission/LOG b/packs/lastadmission/LOG index 9fe01e4..8b22fcb 100644 --- a/packs/lastadmission/LOG +++ b/packs/lastadmission/LOG @@ -1 +1 @@ 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16f4a3000 Delete type=3 #1 diff --git a/packs/throughtrain/000003.log b/packs/throughtrain/000003.log new file mode 100644 index 0000000..706fd7f Binary files /dev/null and b/packs/throughtrain/000003.log differ diff --git a/packs/throughtrain/CURRENT b/packs/throughtrain/CURRENT new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1a84852 --- /dev/null +++ b/packs/throughtrain/CURRENT @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +MANIFEST-000002 diff --git a/packs/throughtrain/LOG b/packs/throughtrain/LOG new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4028c0d --- /dev/null +++ b/packs/throughtrain/LOG @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +2026/08/18-00:25:18.991213 1704bb000 Delete type=3 #1 diff --git a/packs/throughtrain/MANIFEST-000002 b/packs/throughtrain/MANIFEST-000002 new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bbbc585 Binary files /dev/null and b/packs/throughtrain/MANIFEST-000002 differ diff --git a/packs/vehicles/LOG b/packs/vehicles/LOG index b5a3854..aa3bcad 100644 --- a/packs/vehicles/LOG +++ b/packs/vehicles/LOG @@ -1 +1 @@ -2026/08/18-00:10:28.186339 1701f7000 Delete type=3 #1 +2026/08/18-00:25:18.943608 16f4a3000 Delete type=3 #1 diff --git a/packs/weapons/LOG b/packs/weapons/LOG index c506404..6cf129c 100644 --- a/packs/weapons/LOG +++ b/packs/weapons/LOG @@ -1 +1 @@ -2026/08/18-00:10:28.181674 1701f7000 Delete type=3 #1 +2026/08/18-00:25:18.938385 16fcaf000 Delete type=3 #1 diff --git a/postings.mjs b/postings.mjs index f1d5d40..4e2c182 100644 --- a/postings.mjs +++ b/postings.mjs @@ -60,8 +60,8 @@ export const ROLES = { registry: { label: "Registry Officer", blurb: "Keeps the record that a crossing is made against. Knows what the file says and, more usefully, what it used to say.", stat: "edu", - core: ["occult","knowledge","anomaly_lore","language:own","computer_use","insight"], - support: ["spot","art","first_aid","tradecraft","firearm:pistol"], + core: ["research","occult","knowledge","anomaly_lore","language:own"], + support: ["computer_use","insight","spot","first_aid","tradecraft","firearm:pistol"], talents: ["chain_custody","wrong_memory","debriefer","quorum"], kit: ["spectacles","notebook","handset","jacket","pistol_light", "carbon_book", "date_stamp", "seals"] }, @@ -173,7 +173,7 @@ export const ROLES = { antiquities: { label: "Antiquities Officer", blurb: "An archaic posting the department never abolished. Old objects, older records, and the manners to ask about both.", stat: "edu", core: ["religion","art","anomaly_lore","research","status"], - support: ["insight","spot","first_aid","melee_weapon:sword","firearm:pistol"], + support: ["knowledge","insight","spot","first_aid","melee_weapon:sword","firearm:pistol"], talents: ["chain_custody","wrong_memory","borrowed_hour","quorum"], kit: ["pocket_watch","tallow_candle","duelling_sword","brigandine","flintlock", "quill_ink", "sealing_wax", "sand_glass"] }, diff --git a/system.json b/system.json index 222aed3..dd414c7 100644 --- a/system.json +++ b/system.json @@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ "id": "ringbrp", "title": "The Custodians", "description": "A Basic Roleplaying game of agents who cross the crossing to contain what should not be there — and who come back a little less from here each time.", - "version": "1.2.0", + "version": "1.3.0", "compatibility": { "minimum": 13, "verified": "14.364" @@ -127,6 +127,13 @@ "type": "JournalEntry", "system": "ringbrp" }, + { + "name": "throughtrain", + "label": "The Custodians · THROUGH TRAIN (crossing starter)", + "path": "packs/throughtrain", + "type": "Adventure", + "system": "ringbrp" + }, { "name": "starter", "label": "The Custodians · BLACK PLATFORM (starter case)", @@ -184,6 +191,7 @@ "name": "Scenarios", "sorting": "m", "packs": [ + "throughtrain", "lastadmission", "prologue", "starter", diff --git a/tools/build-packs.mjs b/tools/build-packs.mjs index fd91503..1e1eec2 100644 --- a/tools/build-packs.mjs +++ b/tools/build-packs.mjs @@ -864,6 +864,106 @@ function cullandScene() { }; } +// THROUGH TRAIN — the crossing starter. Unlike the two prologues this one has a real +// case file, because it is the first time the players are sent ACROSS and the case +// tracks are the point. +{ + const X = await import("./scenario-throughtrain.mjs"); + + const castDocs = []; + for (const spec of X.TT_CAST) { + const { actorDoc, itemDocs } = buildActor(spec, "npc"); + actorDoc.items = itemDocs; + castDocs.push(actorDoc); + } + + // The case file, already at its opening state, with Standing Order 9 in the notes. + const C = X.TT_CASE; + const caseId = idFor(`actor:${C.key}`); + const caseDoc = { + _id: caseId, name: C.name, type: "expedition", img: ICON.caseFile ?? ICON.actor, + system: { + integrityMode: "abstract", + integrity: { value: C.containment, max: 10 }, + supply: { value: C.resources, max: 10 }, + power: { value: C.clearance, max: 10 }, + assets: [], members: [], + journey: { + destinationId: "mercy_draw", destinationName: C.destination, + destinationKnowledge: "briefed", currentLeg: 0, elapsedDays: 0, + siteTableId: "sites", hazardTableId: "hazards", returnClock: 0, + legs: C.legs.map((l, i) => ({ + index: i, terrain: l.label, mode: "foot", kind: l.kindId, + difficulty: l.difficulty, modifier: l.mod, days: 0, + explored: true, resolved: false, forcedEncounterId: "", + costSupply: 1, costPower: 0 + })) + }, + standings: [], + across: false, crossingModifier: 0, salvageEra: "antique", + notes: C.notes + }, + items: [], effects: [], + prototypeToken: { name: C.name, displayName: 20, actorLink: true, width: 1, height: 1, + texture: { src: ICON.actor }, sight: { enabled: false }, disposition: 1, + bar1: { attribute: "integrity" }, bar2: { attribute: "supply" }, flags: {} }, + ...BASE() + }; + castDocs.push(caseDoc); + + const gmJournal = journalDoc("THROUGH TRAIN — Run the case", "tt_gm", X.TT_PAGES); + const handouts = journalDoc("THROUGH TRAIN — Player handouts", "tt_handouts", X.TT_HANDOUTS); + handouts.doc.ownership = { default: 2 }; + handouts.doc.flags = { ringbrp: { brand: true } }; + for (const pg of handouts.pages) pg.ownership = { default: 2 }; + + const showJournal = imageJournal("THROUGH TRAIN — Show the players", "tt_show", [ + { name: "1 · Mercy Draw, now", src: "art/scenes/tt_01_draw.webp" }, + { name: "2 · Stores, and the 1881 issue", src: "art/scenes/tt_02_stores.webp" }, + { name: "3 · The grade on the south bench", src: "art/scenes/tt_03_bench.webp" }, + { name: "4 · Cordera, 1881", src: "art/scenes/tt_04_cordera.webp" }, + { name: "5 · The water tower — boarding", src: "art/scenes/tt_05_boarding.webp" }, + { name: "6 · Inside car three", src: "art/scenes/tt_06_car.webp" }, + { name: "7 · Afterwards, the register", src: "art/scenes/tt_07_after.webp" } + ]); + + const advId = idFor("adventure:through_train"); + const adventure = { + _id: advId, + name: "THROUGH TRAIN — The Mercy Draw Crossing", + img: IC("actor_case") ?? ICON.caseFile ?? ICON.actor, + caption: "The crossing starter. Three and a half hours, and nothing modern goes through.", + description: + "

A train has been running the same four miles of track since the third of " + + "November, 1881. It has never stopped. There are sixty-one people on it and they " + + "are all still alive.

" + + "

A railway company laid track to a filed survey instead of to the ground, then " + + "described the line as being where it was not — ten thousand times, for six " + + "months, at a constant speed. Reality keeps a record of what belongs where, and " + + "that is the most patient argument there is.

" + + "

The running is what holds the crossing open. The agents have to board a train " + + "that cannot stop, get sixty-one people off it, and decide what to do about the " + + "arithmetic when they find they cannot.

" + + "

Also the case that teaches Standing Order 9: nothing modern goes " + + "through. Seven GM pages, six handouts including the survey that started " + + "it, the case file, four of the people aboard, and seven plates to show.

", + actors: castDocs, + items: [], + journal: [ + { ...gmJournal.doc, pages: gmJournal.pages }, + { ...handouts.doc, pages: handouts.pages }, + { ...showJournal.doc, pages: showJournal.pages } + ], + scenes: [], combats: [], tables: [], macros: [], cards: [], playlists: [], folders: [], + sort: 0, ...BASE() + }; + + await writePack("throughtrain", [[`!adventures!${advId}`, adventure]]); + console.log(` throughtr THROUGH TRAIN — ${castDocs.length} actors, ` + + `${X.TT_PAGES.length} GM pages, ${X.TT_HANDOUTS.length} handouts, ` + + `${showJournal.pages.length} plates`); +} + // LAST ADMISSION — the two-hour prologue, and the one to run by default. Same shape as // OPEN DAY's adventure and for the same reason: journals and cast only, because the // player characters are the "(before)" pregens in the Pregens pack. diff --git a/tools/scenario-throughtrain.mjs b/tools/scenario-throughtrain.mjs new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9163b4e --- /dev/null +++ b/tools/scenario-throughtrain.mjs @@ -0,0 +1,596 @@ +/** + * THROUGH TRAIN — the crossing starter, as data. + * + * "Through train" is the railway term for a service that passes without stopping. It is + * also the department's case name, and it is the problem: the players must get aboard a + * train that cannot stop, because the running is what holds the crossing open. + * + * The supernatural here is science fiction underneath. Nobody aboard is dead and nothing + * is haunting anybody. In 1881 a railway company laid track to a filed survey rather than + * to the ground, then described the resulting line ten thousand times — timetables, + * waybills, dispatches, telegraph orders — as being somewhere it was not. Reality keeps a + * record of what belongs where, and an argument made at a constant speed on a fixed line + * for six months is the most patient argument there is. On 3 November 1881 the record + * gave way, and the train that was inside it at 11:40 has been running ever since. + * + * It is a standing wave. The motion sustains the error the way a bow sustains a note. + * Stop the train and the note ends — and everything the note is holding open ends with + * it, including sixty-one people, unless they are off first. + * + * This is also the scenario that teaches the standing order on period crossings: NOTHING + * MODERN GOES THROUGH. The catalogue already carries the 1881 issue — Webley, Martini- + * Henry, oil lantern, brass compass, pocket watch — so the constraint costs the GM + * nothing to enforce and gives the players something to feel. + * + * Full GM document: docs/scenarios/THROUGH_TRAIN.md. + */ + +const P = s => `

${s}

`; +const H = (n, s) => `${s}`; +const UL = xs => ``; +const OL = xs => `
    ${xs.map(x => `
  1. ${x}
    2. `).join("")}
`; +const TABLE = (head, rows) => + `${head.map(h => ``).join("")}` + + rows.map(r => `${r.map(c => ``).join("")}`).join("") + + `
${h}
${c}
`; +const READ = s => `
${s}
`; +const ART = (id, alt) => + `
${alt}
`; + +/* ---------------------------------------------------------------- */ + +export const TT_PAGES = [ + +{ name: "1 · Run this first", content: + ART("tt_01_draw", "Mercy Draw, and the line that should not be there") + + P("THROUGH TRAIN is the crossing starter: the case where the " + + "department sends agents through a portal and the far side is 1881. Three and a half " + + "hours. Four to six agents from the duty roster — not the civilian " + + "sheets; this one is the job.") + + READ("A train has been running the same four miles of track since the third of " + + "November, 1881. It has never stopped. There are sixty-one people on it and they " + + "are all still alive.") + + H(2, "The whole thing in six lines") + + OL([ + "A railway company laid track to a filed survey instead of to the " + + "ground, then described the line as being where it was not — ten thousand times, " + + "in timetables and waybills and telegraph orders, for six months.", + "Reality keeps a record of what belongs where. An argument made at " + + "a constant speed on a fixed line is the most patient argument there is.", + "On 3 November 1881 the record gave way. The train inside it at 11:40 has been " + + "running ever since. The running is what holds the crossing open.", + "Nobody aboard is dead. Nobody aboard can get off. By their clocks it has been " + + "about nine hours.", + "The agents have to get on a train that cannot stop, which is the " + + "set-piece, and then decide what to do about it, which is the ending.", + "Nothing modern goes through. That is the standing order and it is " + + "half the flavour of the night." + ]) + + H(2, "How to run it") + + UL([ + "It is not a ghost train and nobody is haunting anybody. Every " + + "person aboard is a person. Play them tired, frightened, bored, and extremely " + + "glad to see somebody new.", + "The train cannot stop, and it cannot be flagged down. Not by " + + "authority, not by standing on the line, not by a red lamp. Say so early and let " + + "the table work on the real problem, which is matching its speed.", + "Let them find the fraud. The survey chart is the centre of the " + + "case and it is a piece of paper. A table that reads it properly should feel " + + "clever, not told.", + "The standing order has teeth. Anything modern taken across costs " + + "a Coherence the first time it is used, and the far side notices. Do not fine " + + "them for carrying it — charge them when they USE it.", + "Panic is live and this is where it earns its place. Boarding is " + + "frightening, the cars are worse, and the driver is the worst thing on the train." + ]) + + H(2, "Shape") + + TABLE(["Section", "Time", "Ends when"], [ + ["Briefing — the standing order", "20 min", "they have swapped their kit and somebody has complained about it"], + ["Act One — Mercy Draw, now", "50 min", "they know it is a survey fraud, and they have heard 11:40"], + ["Act Two — Cordera, 1881", "70 min", "they are on the train"], + ["Act Three — Aboard", "50 min", "they decide, and live with it"], + ["Epilogue — the register", "20 min", "the department writes down what happened"] + ]) + + P("Hard rule: at 2:45 on the clock, get them on the train. If the " + + "boarding has not happened by then, the department's second wagon arrives and it " + + "happens.") +}, + +{ name: "2 · What is actually happening", content: + P("April 1881. The Cordera & Western, a narrow-gauge line running " + + "ore out of the Cordera hills, needed four miles across a dry wash called " + + "Mercy Draw. The company's surveyor, Elias Vane, was " + + "told what the chart had to say before he went out to the ground. He filed a survey " + + "showing the line on the north bench of the draw. The line was laid on the south " + + "bench, because that is where the ground allowed it.") + + P("Nobody was hurt by that. It is a paperwork lie of the dullest possible kind, and " + + "for six months every timetable, waybill, dispatch and telegraph order in the " + + "company's operation described a train running on the north bench.") + + P("Reality keeps a record of what belongs where. It is a very good " + + "record. It can be made to get it wrong by anything patient enough — and a train is " + + "the most patient arguer there is: a fixed line, a constant speed, on the hour, " + + "every day, saying the same wrong thing about where it was.") + + H(2, "3 November 1881, 11:40") + + P("The record gave way. Four miles of line came loose from the date, with No. 9 and " + + "five cars on it and sixty-one people aboard.") + + P("The running is what holds it open. This is the part that matters " + + "and the part the players must work out: the train is not trapped inside the " + + "crossing — the train IS the crossing. It is a standing wave, and the motion sustains " + + "it the way a bow sustains a note.") + + UL([ + "Nobody is dead. They eat, they sleep in shifts, they have organised " + + "themselves. By their clocks it has been about nine hours.", + "Nobody can get off. Step down and you are on ground that is not " + + "inside the error. The department has three attempts on file and no survivors.", + "Stop the train and the note ends. Everything it is holding open " + + "ends with it — including everyone still aboard." + ]) + + H(2, "So the case is a choice, not a puzzle") + + P("Get them off first, then stop it. That is the whole job, and there is not time to " + + "do it comfortably: the crossing is degrading, and Registry's read is that it fails " + + "on its own within a year and takes them all with it.") + + H(2, "Elias Vane is on the train") + + P("He rode his own line on the third of November to see what he had signed for. He " + + "has had nine hours and a hundred and forty-five years to think about it, he knows " + + "exactly what he did, and he is the only person aboard who understands what " + + "stopping it would mean. He has not told anyone. He will tell the agents, " + + "if they ask him a question he cannot answer with a lie.") +}, + +{ name: "3 · Briefing — the standing order", content: + ART("tt_02_stores", "Stores, and the 1881 issue") + + P("Goal: give them the case, take their equipment away, and let them " + + "feel it. The kit swap is not colour. It is the scene where the players learn what " + + "kind of game this is.") + + READ("You will be crossing to November 1881. Nothing you are carrying goes with you. " + + "Stores has laid out what you may take instead, and I would ask you not to argue " + + "with the storeman, because he is right and you are in a hurry.") + + H(2, "The standing order, said plainly") + + P("Nothing modern goes through. Not the handset, not the torch, not " + + "the vest, not the sidearm you are used to. Two reasons, and the GM should give both:") + + OL([ + "It costs you. An object that does not belong is a thing the far " + + "side has to be wrong about too. Using a modern item across costs " + + "1 Coherence, the first time, every item.", + "It is a beacon. This is a place where the record is already wrong " + + "and already irritable. It notices things that do not fit. Using one moves the " + + "case clock." + ]) + + P("Charge them for USING it, never for carrying it. A player who " + + "smuggles a torch through and never switches it on has made a perfectly good " + + "decision and should get away with it.") + + H(2, "The 1881 issue") + + P("All of this is in the compendium already; hand it out as items.") + + TABLE(["Instead of", "They get"], [ + ["a service pistol", "Webley revolver — 1d10, six shots, and it is slow to reload"], + ["a carbine", "Martini-Henry — 2d6+2, and ONE shot before you work the lever"], + ["a torch", "oil lantern — and lamp oil, which runs out"], + ["the handset", "nothing. You are out of contact from the moment you go through."], + ["a stab vest", "buff coat or an oilcloth coat"], + ["the medkit", "chirurgeon's roll and laudanum"], + ["GPS and a phone clock", "brass compass, pocket watch, spyglass"] + ]) + + P("The anchor is the exception. Everybody keeps their anchor object. " + + "It is theirs, it is of no value, and it is the one thing the department will not " + + "take off them — which is exactly why it works.") + + H(2, "What the department wants") + + OL([ + "Establish what is holding the crossing open.", + "Get the passengers off.", + "Close it.", + "Come back with the survey chart, because Registry wants the paperwork." + ]) + + P("Containment 6 · Resources 5 · Clearance 4. Low clearance on " + + "purpose: there is nobody in 1881 to show a warrant card to.") +}, + +{ name: "4 · Act One — Mercy Draw, now", content: + ART("tt_03_bench", "The south bench, and the grade that is still there") + + P("Goal: they find the fraud, they hear the train, and they work out " + + "that the crossing is on a timetable.") + + READ("Nevada, and a dry wash four miles long with a railway grade running along the " + + "south side of it. The rails were lifted in 1889. The ballast is still there, and so " + + "are the ties, and the whole thing is as quiet as anywhere you have ever stood. " + + "Your watch says 11:38.") + + H(2, "The site") + + UL([ + "The grade on the south bench — real, obvious, and where the line " + + "actually ran. Ballast, tie marks, a culvert.", + "The north bench — nothing. Never anything. No cutting, no fill, no " + + "ballast. [CUS: Spot or Engineering — there has never been a railway on this " + + "side of the draw]", + "The water tower footing, half a mile up, at the top of the grade. " + + "Remember it. It is where Act Two ends.", + "11:40. Every day. A locomotive whistle, a long way off and quite " + + "clear, and then the sound of a train working a grade, for about four minutes, " + + "getting no nearer. Automatic. Nobody has to roll for it." + ]) + + H(2, "The paperwork, which is the case") + + P("The county records office in Cordera has the company's filed survey. Registry has " + + "already pulled the timetable and a bundle of waybills.") + + TABLE(["#", "Clue", "How found", "Type"], [ + ["1", "The filed survey puts the line on the NORTH bench", "Automatic from the handout — it is a drawing with a line on it", "Essential"], + ["2", "There has never been a railway on the north bench", "Automatic to anyone who walks it", "Essential"], + ["3", "Six months of timetables and waybills all describe the north-bench line", "[CUS: Research], or Registry hands it over", "Essential"], + ["4", "The last dispatch is timed 11:38, 3 Nov 1881, and there is no 11:45", "[CUS: Research]", "Essential"], + ["5", "Elias Vane, surveyor, is on the passenger manifest", "[CUS: Research] on the manifest handout", "Optional"], + ["6", "Three previous departmental attempts, no survivors, all of them tried to STOP it", "Registry, if asked", "Optional"], + ["7", "The sound is a train working UP a grade — it is accelerating, always", "[CUS: Listen or Engineering]", "Optional"] + ]) + + P("Fallbacks. Clue 1 is a handout. Clue 2 is the ground. Clue 3 and 4 " + + "arrive from Registry by telephone at the twenty-minute mark if nobody has gone " + + "looking, because Bewley is thorough and slightly impatient.") + + H(2, "The crossing") + + P("It opens at 11:40, on the grade, for about four minutes, and it is " + + "the train going past. You do not step through a door — you step onto a moving line " + + "at the moment the line is there. [CUS: Athletics, and a hand from somebody]") + + P("They cannot board it here. At this end it is going too fast and the " + + "grade is against them. Let them try. It is a bruise and a lesson and it costs the " + + "case clock one.") + + H(2, "Pacing note") + + P("At 1:10 — fast-track: the 11:40 comes round again and this " + + "time the door stays open long enough to walk through, because the crossing is " + + "degrading and that is what degrading looks like.") +}, + +{ name: "5 · Act Two — Cordera, 1881", content: + ART("tt_04_cordera", "Cordera, and a company that has lost a train") + + P("Goal: the far side, the standing order in practice, and the " + + "boarding.") + + READ("Sagebrush, and a town of about four hundred people that smells of woodsmoke and " + + "horses. It is the fourth of November, 1881, and it is the day after. Nobody here " + + "is frightened yet. They are just puzzled, because a train went into Mercy Draw " + + "yesterday morning and has not come out, and the wire from the other end says it " + + "never arrived.") + + H(2, "What Cordera has") + + UL([ + "The company office. A dispatcher, a wall of orders on spikes, and " + + "the filed survey in a drawer — the original of the handout.", + "The livery. Horses. This matters: horses are how you match a train.", + "Ada Reyes, who runs the telegraph and has been sending the same " + + "query up the line for a day and a half.", + "The Draw itself, four miles out, where the train can be HEARD " + + "going past on the south bench about every forty minutes, and seen if you are " + + "standing in the right place." + ]) + + P("Nobody in 1881 can help them stop it and everybody will help them get near " + + "it. The company wants its train back. That is leverage the agents should " + + "be allowed to use.") + + H(2, "The standing order, in practice") + + P("This is where the kit swap pays. A Webley is six shots and a slow reload. The " + + "Martini-Henry is one shot at a time. There is no torch, and the lantern needs oil. " + + "There is no radio, so a party that splits is genuinely out of contact.") + + P("If somebody uses something modern: 1 Coherence, the case clock " + + "moves, and something in the Draw turns its attention their way. Do not make it a " + + "telling-off. Make it interesting and expensive.") + + H(2, "THE SET-PIECE — getting aboard") + + ART("tt_05_boarding", "The water tower, and four minutes of grade") + + P("The train cannot stop and cannot be flagged. The only way on is to match " + + "its speed, and the only place it is slow is the top of the grade " + + "at the water tower, half a mile up, where it is doing about eight miles an " + + "hour for perhaps forty seconds.") + + P("Three ways, and let them invent a fourth:") + + OL([ + "Ride it down. Horses from the livery, alongside on the bench, and " + + "step across. [CUS: Ride, then Athletics]. Fast, frightening, and the " + + "horse will not go near the train without a Ride roll of its own.", + "Drop from the tower. Get up the tower and drop onto the cars as " + + "they pass under. [CUS: Athletics, AVERAGE — only a fumble is a fall]. " + + "Twelve feet onto a moving roof. Do not make this difficult. " + + "Playtested at halved skill it put four agents on 12–31% and all four missed, " + + "which stalls the one scene the scenario is built around.", + "The wagon on the grade. Company wagon, four horses, run it " + + "alongside on the wash floor and put a plank across. Slowest to set up, safest to " + + "cross, and it needs the company's cooperation." + ]) + + P("The wagon is easier than the tower and the tower is easier than the " + + "horses. A party that spends an hour arranging the wagon has bought itself " + + "an easy roll and should get one — that is what the hour was for.") + + P("Everybody has to get on. Anyone left behind is out of the scenario " + + "and watching from the bench, so give a failed attempt a second chance on the next " + + "pass rather than a full stop. The train comes round again in about forty minutes, " + + "and the case clock moves when it does.") + + P("Panic: boarding is worth a point to anybody who wants one — a " + + "moving train, twelve feet down, and nothing underneath. Do not force it. Offer it.") + + H(2, "Pacing note") + + P("At 2:45 they are on the train, one way or another. If the boarding " + + "has failed twice, the department's second wagon arrives with two more agents and a " + + "plank, and it works, and the players owe somebody a favour.") +}, + +{ name: "6 · Act Three — Aboard", content: + ART("tt_06_car", "Car three, and a hundred and forty-five years of nine hours") + + P("Goal: sixty-one people, one man who knows, and a decision that " + + "costs something whichever way it goes.") + + READ("It is warm. That is the first thing. Sixty-one people in five cars, and it " + + "smells of bodies and coal smoke and coffee. Somebody has organised a rota for the " + + "water. A child is asleep across two seats with a coat over her. They look up when " + + "you come through the door, and one of them says: “Are you from the " + + "company?”") + + H(2, "The train") + + TABLE(["Where", "What is there"], [ + ["The locomotive", "Marius Kell, engineer. He has not let go of the regulator since the third of November. He cannot: see below."], + ["The tender and car one", "Coal that has not run out. This is the first hard evidence that the train is being sustained rather than surviving."], + ["Cars two and three", "Most of the sixty-one. Organised, rationed, frightened, and very glad to see somebody new."], + ["Car four", "Freight, and the company safe. The original survey chart is in it, signed."], + ["Car five", "Elias Vane, alone, at the back, watching the line come out from under."] + ]) + + H(2, "The three facts they need aboard") + + OL([ + "The coal has not run out. Nine hours of firing on a tender that " + + "should have emptied in four. [CUS: Engineering or Spot]", + "Kell cannot let go. Not will not. His hand is not stuck — he " + + "has simply understood, without being told, that the train slowing is the end of " + + "everything, and he has been right for a hundred and forty-five years. " + + "He is not mad and he is not possessed. He is just very tired.", + "Vane knows. He signed the chart. He will say so to anybody who " + + "asks him a question he cannot answer with a lie, and he will explain the standing " + + "wave better than the department can, because he has had the time." + ]) + + H(2, "Getting people off") + + P("Off the moving train is survivable; off the crossing is not. A " + + "person put off at the top of the grade — the same forty seconds the agents " + + "used — lands in 1881 and lives. That is the answer, and it takes about six " + + "passes to move sixty-one people, and each pass is roughly forty minutes.") + + P("Sixty-one people, six passes, four hours. The players cannot do it " + + "in the time they have. This is deliberate: the ending is what they choose to do " + + "about the arithmetic, not whether they can beat it.") + + H(2, "The choices") + + TABLE(["Choice", "Cost"], [ + ["Get everyone off, then stop it", "Four hours aboard while the crossing degrades. The department's read is that it may not hold that long, and if it fails first everyone still aboard goes with it. It is the right answer and it is a gamble."], + ["Stop it now", "The crossing closes clean and the case is a success by every measure Registry keeps. Sixty-one people end. So does Kell, who will do it if asked, and Vane, who will not argue."], + ["Get the children and the crew off, then stop it", "The compromise every table finds. It works. It also means choosing, by name, off a manifest the players are holding."], + ["Leave it running", "Everyone lives, today. Registry logs it, the crossing keeps degrading, and it fails inside a year with everyone still aboard. This is a real option and the scenario does not punish it — it just writes it down."] + ]) + + P("No roll resolves this. Say so if a player reaches for dice.") + + H(2, "If they ask Vane what to do") + + READ("I filed a chart that said the line was somewhere it was not, because a man told " + + "me to and I wanted the work. That is all I did. It took six months of honest " + + "railwaymen repeating it to make it true. If you stop us I would call that fair, " + + "and I would ask you to put the children off first.") +}, + +{ name: "7 · Epilogue, cast, and what not to resolve", content: + ART("tt_07_after", "The register, afterwards") + + P("However it ends, the last scene is the same shape: a Registry room, a form, and " + + "somebody writing down sixty-one names.") + + H(2, "Outcomes") + + TABLE(["Ending", "What the register says"], [ + ["Everyone off, then stopped", "Sixty-one resettled in 1881 with new papers and no way home. Registry counts it a success. Two of them find their way into the department's files within the decade, which is a hook."], + ["Stopped with people aboard", "The crossing closes clean. The file is closed clean. Nobody involved is ever quite the same about a timetable."], + ["Partial", "However many were put off, put off. The rest are a number in a column, and the agent who chose is named in the file."], + ["Left running", "Logged, monitored, and inherited by whoever has the case in a year. Perfectly defensible. Nobody thanks them."] + ]) + + H(2, "Cast") + + TABLE(["Who", "Wants", "Key line"], [ + ["Marius Kell, engineer", "to be allowed to stop", "“You tell me when. I'll not do it before you say.”"], + ["Elias Vane, surveyor", "to be asked, at last", "“I signed it. Six months of honest men made it true.”"], + ["Hester Bligh, conductor", "her passengers accounted for", "“Sixty-one aboard. I have counted them every hour since.”"], + ["Ada Reyes, telegraph, Cordera", "an answer up the line", "“It never got to Fallon. I've sent it forty times.”"], + ["Mr Bewley, Registry", "the chart, and the truth written down", "“Bring me the paper. The paper is the case.”"] + ]) + + H(2, "Do not resolve") + + UL([ + "Why the coal has not run out. The standing wave sustains it. That " + + "is as far as anybody gets, including Vane.", + "What is at the far end of the line. Nobody aboard has ever reached " + + "it. The train works the grade and comes round. Let that stay strange.", + "Whether the people put off in 1881 were saved or exiled. Both. " + + "That is the ending, and it should sit badly." + ]) + + H(2, "GM notes") + + UL([ + "Play the passengers as people, hard. The scenario dies the moment " + + "they become a number, and it lives entirely on the fact that they are not.", + "The standing order is the tutorial. One shot at a time, no radio, " + + "an oil lantern that runs out. Do not soften it and do not apologise for it.", + "Cut first: the town of Cordera, down to the livery and the " + + "telegraph office. Never cut the boarding.", + "If they crack it early, run the passes: six of them, forty minutes " + + "apart, and let the table feel the arithmetic they are betting on." + ]) +} +]; + +/* ---------------------------------------------------------------- */ + +export const TT_HANDOUTS = [ + +{ name: "1 · Case brief", content: + P("DEPARTMENTAL CUSTODY SERVICE
" + + "CASE: TT-004 / MERCY DRAW
" + + "CLASSIFICATION: ACROSS — PERIOD
" + + "FAR SIDE: 3–4 November 1881, Nevada Territory") + + P("A crossing has stood open in a dry wash in Nevada since 1881. It is held open by a " + + "narrow-gauge train, No. 9 of the Cordera & Western, which has been running the " + + "same four miles of track for a hundred and forty-five years and has never stopped.") + + P("Sixty-one people are aboard. They are alive. By their reckoning it " + + "has been about nine hours.") + + H(2, "Orders") + + OL(["Establish what holds the crossing open.", + "Get the passengers off.", + "Close it.", + "Recover the filed survey. Registry wants the paper."]) + + P("Containment 6 · Resources 5 · Clearance 4") + + P("Three previous attempts are on file. None returned. All three tried to stop " + + "the train first.") +}, + +{ name: "2 · Standing Order 9 — period crossings", content: + P("STANDING ORDER 9
CROSSINGS TO A DATED FAR SIDE") + + P("Nothing modern goes through. No exceptions are granted for " + + "convenience, and none has ever been granted for safety.") + + OL([ + "An object that does not belong to the far side is a thing the far side must also " + + "be wrong about. Using such an object across costs one Coherence, per " + + "object, the first time.", + "It is also a beacon. A crossing is a place where the record is already wrong. It " + + "notices what does not fit.", + "Carrying is not using. The department does not search you. It " + + "simply advises you that the cost falls when the thing is switched on, drawn, " + + "worn or fired.", + "Your anchor is exempt. It is yours, it is of no value, and it is " + + "the only object the department will not take off you.", + "Stores will issue to the period. Do not argue with the storeman." + ]) + + P("Signed for Registry. This order is older than everyone who has to obey it.") +}, + +{ name: "3 · Issue list — 1881", content: + P("STORES · ISSUE AGAINST CASE TT-004
" + + "Sign for each item. Sign again when you bring it back.") + + TABLE(["Item", "Note"], [ + ["Webley revolver", "1d10 · six shots · reloading takes a round you will not have"], + ["Martini-Henry rifle", "2d6+2 · one shot, then work the lever"], + ["Oil lantern + lamp oil", "it goes out, and it can be seen from a long way off"], + ["Brass compass · pocket watch · spyglass", "there is nothing else to navigate or time by"], + ["Buff coat or oilcloth coat", "in place of the vest"], + ["Chirurgeon's roll · laudanum", "in place of the medkit"], + ["Iron manacles · sealing wax · quill and ink", "you will need to write things down and lock things up"], + ["Period coin", "the company will want paying and so will the livery"] + ]) + + P("NOT ISSUED: handset, torch, stab vest, service pistol, medkit, " + + "field slate, scanner, anything with a battery in it.") + + P("KEEP: your anchor.") +}, + +{ name: "4 · The filed survey", content: + P("CORDERA & WESTERN RAIL ROAD CO.
" + + "SURVEY OF LINE — MERCY DRAW SECTION — FILED 12 APRIL 1881") + + P("A drawing. A dry wash running roughly east to west, benches marked on both " + + "sides, and the proposed line drawn firmly along the NORTH " + + "bench, with levels and chainages written along it in a neat hand.") + + P("Certified a true survey of the ground:
" + + "E. VANE, Surveyor to the Company") + + P("Countersigned, in a different and much faster hand, by a company officer whose " + + "signature is not legible.") + + P("The line was laid on the south bench. It is still there. You have " + + "walked on it.") +}, + +{ name: "5 · Working timetable and last dispatch", content: + P("CORDERA & WESTERN · WORKING TIMETABLE No. 14
" + + "In effect 1 October 1881") + + TABLE(["Train", "Cordera", "Mercy Draw (north bench)", "Fallon"], [ + ["No. 9 · mixed", "10:55", "11:40", "13:20"], + ["No. 4 · ore", "14:10", "14:55", "16:35"], + ["No. 9 · return", "18:00", "18:45", "20:25"] + ]) + + P("Every timetable, waybill and dispatch issued by this company for six months " + + "names the north bench. There is no railway on the north bench and there never " + + "was.") + + H(2, "Dispatcher's book · 3 November 1881") + + P("11:31   No.9 out of Cordera, on time, 61 souls and mixed freight
" + + "11:38   No.9 entering the Draw. Whistle heard. Clear road to Fallon
" + + "11:45   —
" + + "11:52   Fallon asks after No.9
" + + "12:20   Fallon says No.9 has not arrived. Line walked. Nothing found
" + + "14:00   Line walked again, both benches. Nothing found") + + P("There is no 11:45 entry. The page is not torn and nothing is " + + "crossed out. The clerk simply had nothing to write.") +}, + +{ name: "6 · Passenger manifest", content: + P("No. 9 · 3 NOVEMBER 1881 · SIXTY-ONE SOULS
" + + "Kept by H. Bligh, Conductor. Counted hourly since.") + + P("Crew (4): M. Kell, engineer · J. Doss, fireman · H. Bligh, " + + "conductor · T. Ruiz, brakeman") + + P("Passengers (57), in part: E. Vane, surveyor · the Wheelock family " + + "(6, incl. four children) · Sr. Mary Agnes and two novices · A. Pike, assayer · " + + "eleven miners returning to Fallon · Mrs C. Danforth and infant · Dr S. Okafor, " + + "physician · nineteen others named · four unnamed, entered only as " + + "“working passage”") + + P("Children aboard: nine.") + + P("The conductor's count has never once come out wrong. She would like that " + + "noted.") +} +]; + +/* ---------------------------------------------------------------- */ + +export const TT_CAST = [ + +{ key: "tt_kell", name: "Marius Kell", + role: "CIVILIAN, 1881. Engineer. Has not let go of the regulator since 3 November.", + chosenStyle: "deliberate", naturalArmour: 0, species: "baseline", + ch: { str: 14, siz: 13, con: 16, int: 12, pow: 16, dex: 12, cha: 11, edu: 8 }, + skills: [{ fam: "engineering", spec: "field_systems", val: 55 }, + { fam: "repair", spec: "mechanical", val: 60 }, + { fam: "listen", spec: "", val: 50 }], + weapons: ["punch"], + tactics: "Fifties, burnt down one side of his face by the firebox door, and very tired. " + + "HE IS NOT MAD AND HE IS NOT POSSESSED. He worked out on the first day that the " + + "train slowing is the end of everything, and he has been right for a hundred and " + + "forty-five years. He will not stop unless somebody with authority tells him to, and " + + "he will do it the moment they do. He would like that to be a person, out loud, not " + + "a note. If asked how he is: 'I'm all right. It's only the one job.'" }, + +{ key: "tt_vane", name: "Elias Vane", + role: "CIVILIAN, 1881. Surveyor. Signed the chart. Knows exactly what he did.", + chosenStyle: "deliberate", naturalArmour: 0, species: "baseline", + ch: { str: 10, siz: 11, con: 11, int: 16, pow: 14, dex: 11, cha: 12, edu: 15 }, + skills: [{ fam: "engineering", spec: "field_systems", val: 65 }, + { fam: "navigate", spec: "", val: 60 }, + { fam: "knowledge", spec: "", val: 55 }, + { fam: "insight", spec: "", val: 55 }], + weapons: ["punch"], + tactics: "Rides alone in the last car watching the line come out from under. He has had " + + "the time to understand the standing wave and he explains it better than the " + + "department can. HE WILL NOT VOLUNTEER IT — he answers a direct question honestly and " + + "says nothing otherwise, because he has been waiting a very long time to be asked. " + + "He wants the children put off first. He does not want to be forgiven." }, + +{ key: "tt_bligh", name: "Hester Bligh", + role: "CIVILIAN, 1881. Conductor. Sixty-one aboard, counted hourly.", + chosenStyle: "reflex", naturalArmour: 0, species: "baseline", + ch: { str: 11, siz: 11, con: 14, int: 13, pow: 15, dex: 12, cha: 15, edu: 11 }, + skills: [{ fam: "persuade", spec: "", val: 60 }, + { fam: "spot", spec: "", val: 55 }, + { fam: "first_aid", spec: "", val: 45 }, + { fam: "status", spec: "", val: 50 }], + weapons: ["punch"], + tactics: "She is the reason there is a water rota and nobody has died. Competent, " + + "unsentimental, and the person the agents should have to convince of anything. She " + + "will fight to have every name put off and she will not accept a number. If the " + + "players choose who goes, SHE is the one who has to be told." }, + +{ key: "tt_reyes", name: "Ada Reyes", + role: "CIVILIAN, 1881. Telegraph operator, Cordera.", + chosenStyle: "reflex", naturalArmour: 0, species: "baseline", + ch: { str: 10, siz: 10, con: 12, int: 15, pow: 13, dex: 14, cha: 13, edu: 13 }, + skills: [{ fam: "computer_use", spec: "", val: 30 }, + { fam: "listen", spec: "", val: 55 }, + { fam: "research", spec: "", val: 45 }, + { fam: "insight", spec: "", val: 45 }], + weapons: ["punch"], + tactics: "Has sent the same query up the line forty times in a day and a half. She has " + + "the dispatcher's book, she will let a stranger read it if they are civil, and she " + + "has already noticed that there is no 11:45 entry. Play her as the one local who is " + + "ahead of the town." } +]; + +export const TT_CASE = { + key: "tt_case", + name: "TT-004 · Mercy Draw", + containment: 6, resources: 5, clearance: 4, + destination: "Mercy Draw, Nevada Territory, 3 November 1881", + standings: [], + notes: + "

Crossing clock 0 / 6. Move it on each pass of the train, when " + + "somebody uses a modern object across, and on a fumbled attempt to board.

" + + "

0 Open · 1 Thinning · 2 Slipping (−1 Coherence, once) · 3 The line flickers " + + "· 4 The far end stops answering · 5 One pass left · 6 It closes, with whoever is " + + "aboard.

" + + "

Standing Order 9 is live: using any modern item across costs 1 " + + "Coherence the first time and moves this clock. Carrying costs nothing. Anchors " + + "are exempt.

" + + "

Issued for this case: Webley revolvers, one Martini-Henry, oil " + + "lanterns and oil, brass compass, pocket watch, spyglass, buff coats, a chirurgeon's " + + "roll, laudanum, iron manacles, and period coin.

", + legs: [ + { label: "Approach — Mercy Draw, present day", kindId: "approach", difficulty: "average", mod: 0 }, + { label: "Across — Cordera, 1881", kindId: "cordon", difficulty: "average", mod: -5 }, + { label: "Containment — board the train", kindId: "containment", difficulty: "difficult", mod: -10 }, + { label: "Extraction — off the grade, and out", kindId: "extraction", difficulty: "average", mod: -10 } + ] +};