Replay the scene with the fumble rule; expose panicReliefFor

Ran the east corridor again with fresh dice and every relief attempt routed through easePanic, fumbles included. The rule did not fire this time. All three attempts failed cleanly — Psychology 58 against 40, and two POW×5 rolls at 66 and 76 — so nobody was punished for trying. That is worth reporting as loudly as a hit would have been: two play-throughs in and a fumbled relief has come up once, which is about right for something meant to be a memorable disaster rather than a tax. Braithwaite still broke at 5 on "it said your name" and fled. Marrow went down in a single round to a special with the entry bar — 19 through armour — against the 4.5-round average the thirty-run tuning gave, so that was dice, not balance. Then the question the rule actually raises. Relief rolls are made at your own panic penalty, so the worse you are the worse your odds AND the wider your fumble range — and now a fumble adds a point. That is a feedback loop, so I measured it rather than trusting it, 300 runs per row: from 2, POW×5 60% 280 calm · 0 broke from 3, POW×5 60% 227 calm · 2 broke from 4, POW×5 60% 138 calm · 31 broke from 4, POW×5 50% 96 calm · 35 broke from 4, POW×5 85% 267 calm · 5 broke Recovery dominates everywhere. The worst case — overwhelmed, weak POW, no help — spirals into breaking about one time in eight, which is a bad night rather than a trap. No change needed. Also: panicReliefFor and panicAfter were missing from the API, which I only noticed because measuring the loop needed them and the alternative was re-implementing the rule in the test — the exact duplication check-rules exists to forbid. Both exposed. Version 1.1.3. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
A fumbled relief attempt puts a point on
2026-08-17 23:31:35 +01:00 · 2026-08-17 23:25:46 +01:00 · 2026-08-17 21:58:30 +01:00 · 2026-08-12 22:55:11 +01:00
150 changed files with 535 additions and 136 deletions
@@ -65,13 +65,13 @@ changing underneath a running server.
 | **Postings** | 25, each with a key characteristic, trained skills, talents and its own kit |
 | **Trades** | 10 ordinary jobs the department recruits from, plus induction |
 | **Catalogue** | 236 items — 123 gear, 62 weapons, 32 armour, 19 vehicles |
-| **Skills / talents** | 59 skills, 19 talents |
+| **Skills / talents** | 62 skills, 19 talents |
 | **Bestiary** | 21 statblocks across folklore, horror and the far side |
 | **Eras** | modern, antique, future, anomalous — the agency is old and never abolishes anything |
 | **Icons** | 292, all generated from `tools/icons.mjs`; no external art |
 | **Starter scenario** | **BLACK PLATFORM**, a six-player action starter, importable as a single Adventure |
 | **Compendia** | pregens, NPCs, skills, weapons, armour, gear, vehicles, powers, tables, rules, the starter |
-| **Rules journal** | 12 pages, generated from `rules.mjs` so the book cannot drift from the code |
+| **Rules journal** | 13 pages, generated from `rules.mjs` so the book cannot drift from the code |
 <!-- box:end -->

 ---
@@ -180,9 +180,9 @@ The build runs all five guards before it writes anything:

 <!-- guards:start -->
 ```
-check-rules: OK — 87 rules, 20 files scanned, 3 aliases + 41 constant sets checked, 275 formulas verified
+check-rules: OK — 92 rules, 20 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, 945 keys, no leaf/branch collisions
-check-behaviour: OK — 46 behavioural tests
+check-lang: OK — en.json, 977 keys, no leaf/branch collisions
+check-behaviour: OK — 57 behavioural tests
 ```
 <!-- guards:end -->
@@ -943,5 +943,37 @@
  "RINGBRP.Item.ArtRating": "Rating",
  "RINGBRP.Item.PushCost": "Push cost",
  "RINGBRP.Item.PushRule": "What pushing does",
-  "RINGBRP.Item.Origin": "Where it came from"
+  "RINGBRP.Item.Origin": "Where it came from",
+  "RINGBRP.Panic.Label": "Panic",
+  "RINGBRP.Panic.Steady": "Steady",
+  "RINGBRP.Panic.SteadyNote": "You are all right. You are doing the job.",
+  "RINGBRP.Panic.Rattled": "Rattled",
+  "RINGBRP.Panic.RattledNote": "Your hands are not quite steady. No penalty — the first one is free.",
+  "RINGBRP.Panic.Shaken": "Shaken",
+  "RINGBRP.Panic.ShakenNote": "−5% to everything. You keep checking the way you came in.",
+  "RINGBRP.Panic.Losing": "Losing it",
+  "RINGBRP.Panic.LosingNote": "−10% to everything. You are talking too fast and not hearing answers.",
+  "RINGBRP.Panic.Overwhelmed": "Overwhelmed",
+  "RINGBRP.Panic.OverwhelmedNote": "−20% to everything. One more and you go.",
+  "RINGBRP.Panic.Broken": "Broken",
+  "RINGBRP.Panic.BrokenNote": "You freeze, run, or go at it. Choose one, take it, and come back at 3.",
+  "RINGBRP.Panic.Trig.WrongThing": "Something that should not be there",
+  "RINGBRP.Panic.Trig.Touched": "It touched you",
+  "RINGBRP.Panic.Trig.Body": "A body",
+  "RINGBRP.Panic.Trig.Known": "Somebody you knew",
+  "RINGBRP.Panic.Trig.Dark": "The lights went",
+  "RINGBRP.Panic.Trig.Wounded": "A major wound",
+  "RINGBRP.Panic.Trig.Named": "It said your name",
+  "RINGBRP.Panic.Relief.Steady": "Steady yourself (POW×5)",
+  "RINGBRP.Panic.Relief.Religion": "Religion — something older than the department",
+  "RINGBRP.Panic.Relief.Psychology": "Psychology — talk somebody else down",
+  "RINGBRP.Panic.Relief.Occult": "Occult — name it, out loud, for everyone who can hear",
+  "RINGBRP.Panic.Relief.Anchor": "Your anchor, once per case",
+  "RINGBRP.Panic.Gained": "{name} — panic {from} → {to}",
+  "RINGBRP.Panic.Eased": "{name} — panic {from} → {to}",
+  "RINGBRP.Panic.Breaks": "BREAKS — freeze, flee, or fixate. Choose, take it, come back at 3.",
+  "RINGBRP.Panic.NoChange": "No change.",
+  "RINGBRP.Flavour.Panicking": "panicking ({mod}%)",
+  "RINGBRP.Chat.ToEverything": "to everything",
+  "RINGBRP.Panic.Backfired": "Fumbled —"
 }
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-2026/08/12-22:44:48.920895 172817000 Recovering log #3
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-2026/08/12-22:44:48.921223 172817000 Level-0 table #5: 4591 bytes OK
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-2026/08/12-22:44:48.946788 17382f000 Level-0 table #5: 4129 bytes OK
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-2026/08/12-22:44:48.923621 173023000 Level-0 table #5: 31614 bytes OK
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-2026/08/12-22:44:48.937794 17200b000 Level-0 table #5: 45532 bytes OK
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-2026/08/12-22:44:48.917794 172817000 Level-0 table #5: 3295 bytes OK
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-2026/08/12-22:44:48.896053 17200b000 Recovering log #3
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-2026/08/12-22:44:48.902279 17200b000 Level-0 table #5: 545293 bytes OK
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--- a/Show More
+++ b/Show More
Author	SHA1	Message	Date
slaguru666andClaude Opus 5	7ec7efd29b	Replay the scene with the fumble rule; expose panicReliefFor Ran the east corridor again with fresh dice and every relief attempt routed through easePanic, fumbles included. The rule did not fire this time. All three attempts failed cleanly — Psychology 58 against 40, and two POW×5 rolls at 66 and 76 — so nobody was punished for trying. That is worth reporting as loudly as a hit would have been: two play-throughs in and a fumbled relief has come up once, which is about right for something meant to be a memorable disaster rather than a tax. Braithwaite still broke at 5 on "it said your name" and fled. Marrow went down in a single round to a special with the entry bar — 19 through armour — against the 4.5-round average the thirty-run tuning gave, so that was dice, not balance. Then the question the rule actually raises. Relief rolls are made at your own panic penalty, so the worse you are the worse your odds AND the wider your fumble range — and now a fumble adds a point. That is a feedback loop, so I measured it rather than trusting it, 300 runs per row: from 2, POW×5 60% 280 calm · 0 broke from 3, POW×5 60% 227 calm · 2 broke from 4, POW×5 60% 138 calm · 31 broke from 4, POW×5 50% 96 calm · 35 broke from 4, POW×5 85% 267 calm · 5 broke Recovery dominates everywhere. The worst case — overwhelmed, weak POW, no help — spirals into breaking about one time in eight, which is a bad night rather than a trap. No change needed. Also: panicReliefFor and panicAfter were missing from the API, which I only noticed because measuring the loop needed them and the alternative was re-implementing the rule in the test — the exact duplication check-rules exists to forbid. Both exposed. Version 1.1.3. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>	2026-08-17 23:31:35 +01:00
slaguru666andClaude Opus 5	5aaae186e0	A fumbled relief attempt puts a point on Trying to steady somebody and making it worse is the most familiar thing on that list, and until now it was the only outcome that cost nothing. Done as a NEGATIVE relief rather than a second code path: panicReliefFor returns -1 on a fumble, and easePanic already subtracts what it is given, so subtracting a negative raises the track. One number, one direction, no branch that could drift from the other. The clamp still holds — fumbling at 5 stays at 5. The chat card had to be told, because otherwise it prints the word "Psychology" over a number that has just gone UP and the table reads that as a bug rather than as the rule. It now leads with a red FUMBLED tag. Guarded three ways: a spot-check in check-rules for the -1 itself, and two behaviour tests — one that the sign survives easePanic's subtraction and actually raises the track, one that it cannot push past the top. A test on the constant alone would have passed even if easePanic had healed on a fumble. Verified live: 2 → fumble → 3 → success → 2 → special → 0, and a fumble at 5 staying at 5, with the cards reading correctly. Version 1.1.2. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>	2026-08-17 23:25:46 +01:00
slaguru666andClaude Opus 5	20306d83d9	Play a scene with panic; tighten one reference row Ran LAST ADMISSION's east corridor with the six civilians and real dice. The track works end to end and, more importantly, the penalty REACHES things: Ferriby at panic 3 swung at Old Marrow with Brawl 25% printed and 15% effective, while Sharrock at panic 1 rolled his full 58%. That is the whole point of the track and it is the part that is usually decoration. The arc played well. Lights out took four of them to 1. The body took Braithwaite and Ferriby to 2. Enderby counting took three of them again. Braithwaite fumbled his Psychology roll trying to talk Colin down, then it said his name — 5, broke, fled, came back at 3. Renshaw steadied herself on POW×5 and dropped to 1. One thing I got wrong and one thing worth knowing: - I flagged a 99 grading as a fumble as a bug. It is not. A 58% skill fumbles on 98-00, and both the primer and the rules page say so in those words. The "96-99 never succeed / 00 always fumbles" pair are floor rules, not the whole fumble range. Only the quick-reference row was ambiguous — it now says "never succeeds ... and is a fumble if it is inside your fumble range". - The civilians cannot use two of the three new skills. Occult, Religion and Psychology sit at 5% on the "(before)" sheets, so in the prologue the only relief that works is POW×5 at 50-85%. That is correct — a site foreman is not an occultist — but it means the skills are an AGENT'S tools, and the prologue is deliberately the game without them. The agents have them where they should: Bhattacharya Occult 63, Lindqvist 58, Renshaw Psychology 40, Braithwaite Religion 35. Version 1.1.1. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>	2026-08-17 21:58:30 +01:00
slaguru666andClaude Opus 5	cbad87ba98	Add Occult, Religion and Psychology, and the Panic track From the first game's list. The three skills are not decoration — they are the levers on the new track, which is why they arrived together. PANIC, 0 to 5, up. It is the other half of Coherence and the rules page says so in the first line, because a table that confuses them will make the wrong call at the worst moment: Coherence what knowing has cost you weeks 10-0, down Panic what is happening to you NOW minutes 0-5, up A trigger gives a point with NO ROLL. Asking for a die to find out whether you are frightened slows the scene and tells the player how to feel; the die is for getting rid of it, which is the interesting direction. 0 steady · 1 rattled · 2 shaken -5% · 3 losing it -10% 4 overwhelmed -20% · 5 broken The first point is free on purpose, so the opening shock of a scene costs the table nothing. At 5 you break — freeze, flee or fixate, choose fast — and come back at 3, not at 0, because breaking is not a rest. Relief is where the skills come in. A success takes one point, a special takes two. Psychology is the only thing that steadies somebody who is NOT you. Religion steadies you alone and does not care whether you are right. Occult is the odd one: naming a thing correctly, out loud, helps everybody who can hear — the department's actual work, and the only relief that reaches a room. Plus POW×5 to steady yourself, and your anchor object once per case, which is what that briefing scene was for. The three skills are placed in six registers rather than left floating: Occult to the professor and to Registry, Psychology to the doctor and to Interview, Religion to Antiquities and Pathology. Guards, because a track nothing reads is this project's oldest failure: the five new rules carry spot-checks in check-rules, and check-behaviour gains nine tests — the free first point, monotonic penalties, only 5 breaking, clamping at both ends, breaking not clearing the track, special taking two, every band/trigger/ relief having a label, and every relief naming a skill the catalogue actually has. Verified in a live game: penalty reaches the roll (58 → 58 → 53 → 48 → 38 for panic 0-4, criticals and specials recomputed with it), the full arc runs 0 → 2 → 4 → eased to 2 → pushed to 5 → breaks → 3 with no errors, the sheet shows the band, and the rules journal has a Panic page generated from the same tables. Version 1.1.0. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>	2026-08-12 22:55:11 +01:00
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