4 Commits
Author SHA1 Message Date
slaguru666andClaude Opus 5 99e78f440a "Somebody you knew" costs one point, not two
At two, the closing beat of a hard case broke four agents in five at the same
moment. A whole party freezing or bolting on the final scene reads as arithmetic
rather than grief, which is the opposite of what the trigger is for. Found by
playing THROUGH TRAIN end to end.

Replayed the same beat from the same party state — Holloway 3, Okonkwo 2,
Bhattacharya 4, Nkemdirim 3, Finch 2 — with the new cost: one agent breaks, the
rest carry it at 3 and 4 with the penalties that implies. That is the shape it
wanted.

"It said your name" stays at two, and is now the only two-point trigger in the
list, which is right — it should be the singular worst thing that can happen to
somebody.

The rules journal and the player primer both generate their trigger tables from
PANIC_TRIGGERS, so both already print the new number.

Version 1.4.2.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-18 22:38:45 +01:00
slaguru666andClaude Opus 5 c05d488b9d Play THROUGH TRAIN end to end; fix three scenes the dice could not reach
Ran the whole case with five agents — briefing, kit swap, Mercy Draw, the
crossing, Cordera, the water tower, the four minutes, the locomotive, the
brakes, the register. It completed, and it exposed one serious defect and two
smaller ones. All three are the same shape: the scenario put dice in front of
things the fiction says should simply happen.

  1. THE ENDING WAS UNREACHABLE. Convincing Kell to stop was gated on Persuade
     or Status. Only THREE of the ten duty-roster agents have either trained —
     the Field Lead has Persuade 15 and Status 15. Three separate attempts on
     him all failed and the scenario had no way to end; I narrated it as working
     because otherwise there was no ending, which is exactly the improvisation a
     scenario is supposed to prevent.

     It now takes NO ROLL if the party can tell Kell one true thing about his own
     train — the coal, the four minutes, the north bench. He has waited a
     hundred and forty-five years for somebody who knows what is wrong to say
     so. Only a party that knows nothing rolls, at average, and a failure costs
     a pass rather than the ending.

  2. THE PAPERS NEEDED PERSUADE. Showing one side the other's document is the
     move the scenario is proudest of, and it sat behind Persuade at −30%:
     15% became 1%. Both men WANT their paper read — Merritt is proud of his
     letter, Ambrose's whole grievance is that nobody has looked at his writ.
     No roll, between passes.

  3. THE BOARDING SORTED ITSELF BADLY. Athletics runs 25–60% across the roster.
     Putting all five on the water tower left the doctor and the Registry officer
     missing twice each, carried across on the department's plank, passengers in
     their own set-piece, two passes gone. The text now names which route suits
     whom before they choose.

What worked, and is worth recording: the automatic clues absorbed two failed
rolls in Act One without the trail stalling; Standing Order 9 caught Okonkwo
checking a wristwatch in an 1881 street and cost a Coherence and a clock tick;
the fumble-is-a-fall rule fired on a 100 at the tower for five damage; the
exposure table held — one hit across the whole fight, on the agent who left
cover to work on Doyle; and the reset landed exactly as intended, with Doyle
standing up at the top of the car and Nkemdirim's hit staying where it was.

Version 1.4.1.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-18 22:34:23 +01:00
slaguru666andClaude Opus 5 391c6a3679 Rebuild packs cleanly
LevelDB LOG timestamps only — no content change. Committed so the tree matches a
build made with Foundry stopped, which is the state the published archive should
carry.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-18 22:27:52 +01:00
slaguru666andClaude Opus 5 5bc46879c7 THROUGH TRAIN: put the gunfight inside the loop
The loop is no longer just a train going round. It is FOUR MINUTES with a
gunfight in it, and those four minutes have run about two million times.

Two sides, and neither is the villain. Cass Merritt and three hired men have a
signed letter of engagement from the company telling them to surrender the
payroll to nobody "upon any pretext whatsoever, including the presentation of
any paper". Josiah Ambrose and four Cordera miners have a sealed writ of
attachment from a territorial judge naming that same payroll against eleven
weeks of unpaid wages. Both documents are genuine. Neither man has seen the
other's. The company sold the same money twice and is not aboard. Both are
handouts now, and they only mean anything held in the same hand.

The mission is restated everywhere it appears — briefing page, case brief, GM
essentials: CLOSE IT. Closing the crossing does not kill anybody, it lets them
go. The loop ends, 3 November 1881 resumes from 11:44, and everyone aboard walks
forward into the life they would have had — including Ambrose and a miner named
Doyle, who did not survive the real four minutes. The agents are not choosing
who lives; they are choosing to stop holding history still, having met the
people it lands on.

The standing order is louder in three places: NOTHING MODERN GOES THROUGH.

Two things the playtest found, both now written into the text:

  - THE FIGHT WAS A TPK GENERATOR. Modelled with all nine shooters firing at the
    party it wiped them 171 times in 200. The model was wrong — the two sides
    are shooting at EACH OTHER — so the scenario now carries a measured exposure
    table: head down draws nothing, acting from cover costs half a party member
    and no wipes over 300 runs, moving in the open costs one, and going for the
    payroll box wipes more than half of all parties. The GM is told to say that
    last row out loud BEFORE anybody commits to it.

  - THE LOOP RESETS AND THE AGENTS DO NOT. Everyone who belongs to 1881 is back
    up unhurt on the next pass. The agents keep their wounds. Nothing said so,
    and a player who assumes otherwise takes risks that kill them. It is now
    stated in capitals in both documents, with the played pass that prompted it
    — two of four down at 0 hit points, one untouched because he stayed on the
    floor.

Nine cast members, eight handouts, ten plates.

Version 1.4.0.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-18 22:20:00 +01:00
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@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
# Crossing starter — The Custodians: THROUGH TRAIN # Crossing starter — The Custodians: THROUGH TRAIN
> *A train has been running the same four miles of track since the third of November, > *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.* > 1881. It has never stopped. There are sixty-one people on it, nine of them are shooting
> at each other, and the same four minutes has run about two million times.*
--- ---
@@ -15,10 +16,15 @@
for carrying. Anchors are exempt. for carrying. Anchors are exempt.
- **Runs with 4–6 agents from the duty roster.** Not the "(before)" sheets — this is the - **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. job, and it wants people who have been trained.
- **The four minutes are lethal.** Webley 1d10, Martini-Henry 2d6+2, against 11–16 hit
points. **Use the exposure table** — unrestricted fire from all nine wipes the party
five times in six.
- **The mission is to CLOSE it**, which releases everyone aboard into their own history —
including the two men who did not survive the real four minutes.
- **Hard rule: at 2:45 on the clock, they are on the train.** - **Hard rule: at 2:45 on the clock, they are on the train.**
- **Content warnings:** entrapment and confinement; a decision that condemns named - **Content warnings:** gun violence at close quarters, repeatedly; entrapment and
people including children; period racism and hardship implied but not staged; heights; confinement; bystanders wounded on screen; a decision that lets named people die;
one death by fire in backstory. period hardship and labour exploitation; heights.
--- ---
@@ -43,8 +49,9 @@
players learn what kind of game this is. players learn what kind of game this is.
4. **The ending is a decision priced on both sides**, with no roll and no correct 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. 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 5. **There is a fight, and there is no villain in it.** Two armed parties, both with
not a villain, and the train is not malevolent — it is a note being held. genuine paper, both convinced the others are robbers. The players can survive it,
shape it and pull people out of it. They cannot end it — only the brakes end it.
--- ---
@@ -80,7 +87,23 @@ anything patient enough — and a train is the most patient arguer there is: a f
a constant speed, on the hour, every day, saying the same wrong thing about where it was. 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 **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**. date with No. 9 and five cars on it, **sixty-one souls aboard**, and a **gunfight already
three seconds old**.
**The loop is four minutes long and the fight is inside it.** The crossing did not capture
a train; it captured four minutes, and those four minutes contain two armed parties
shooting the length of car three. It has run about two million times.
### The two sides — and neither is the villain
| | Who | What they have | What they believe |
|---|---|---|---|
| **The coats** | Four men hired by the company to see the payroll to Fallon, led by **Cass Merritt** | A signed letter of engagement, and the key to the box | That men who board at a water stop are robbers |
| **The writ men** | Five Cordera miners, eleven weeks unpaid, led by **Josiah Ambrose** | A sealed writ of attachment from a territorial judge, naming that payroll | That they are lawfully seizing wages and being shot at for it |
**The company sold the same money twice and is not aboard.** Both papers are genuine.
Neither man has seen the other's. Nobody in car three is lying and nobody is wrong.
**Do not adjudicate it.** The players can learn enough to see there is nothing to settle.
**The running is what holds it open.** This is the thing the players must arrive at: the **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, train is not trapped inside the crossing — the train *is* the crossing. A standing wave,
@@ -88,9 +111,29 @@ 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 - **Nobody is dead.** They eat, sleep in shifts, and have organised a water rota. By
their clocks it has been about nine hours. their clocks it has been about nine hours.
- **Nobody can get off.** Step down and you are on ground outside the error. Three - **Nobody can get off while it runs.** Three departmental attempts are on file; none
departmental attempts are on file; none returned; all three tried to stop it first. returned.
- **Stop the train and the note ends** — and everything it holds open ends with it. - **Stop the train and the loop ends.** This is the mission, and it is not a mercy killing.
### What closing it actually does — read this twice
**Closing the crossing does not kill anybody. It lets them go.** The loop ends, the third
of November 1881 resumes from 11:44, and every person aboard walks forward into the life
they would have had.
**Including the ones who did not survive the real four minutes.** History resumes as
history: Josiah Ambrose and a miner named Doyle died in that gunfight, and when the loop
lets go they die in it. Not because the agents killed them — because that is what
happened, and it has been prevented from happening for a hundred and forty-five years.
**That is the weight of this ending and it is the whole point.** The agents are not
choosing who lives. They are choosing to stop holding history still, and they will have
met the people it lands on.
The department's position is unambiguous: **close it.** A crossing held open by a
repeating event degrades, and when it fails on its own — Registry's read is within a
year — everyone inside is lost outright rather than returned. Waiting is the only option
that is definitely worse.
**Elias Vane is aboard.** He rode his own line to see what he had signed for. He has had **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 nine hours and a hundred and forty-five years to think about it. He understands the
@@ -120,9 +163,11 @@ direct question honestly because he has been waiting a very long time to be aske
| R6 | Nobody aboard is dead, and by their clocks it has been nine hours | | R6 | Nobody aboard is dead, and by their clocks it has been nine hours |
| R7 | The running is what holds the crossing open | | 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 | | 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 | | R9 | Kell will stop if told to, out loud, to his face — and only then |
| R10 | Vane signed it, and knows exactly what stopping it costs | | 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 | | R11 | The four minutes contain a gunfight, and it repeats exactly |
| R12 | Both sides have genuine paper, and the company sold the money twice |
| R13 | Closing it releases everyone into their own history — including the two who die in it |
--- ---
@@ -166,6 +211,11 @@ on a **fumbled boarding attempt**.
| TT-H04 | **The filed survey** — the line on the north bench | Act One | | 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-H05 | Working timetable and the dispatcher's book | Act One |
| TT-H06 | **Passenger manifest** — sixty-one souls, nine children | Act Three | | TT-H06 | **Passenger manifest** — sixty-one souls, nine children | Act Three |
| TT-H07 | **Letter of engagement** — found on Merritt | Act Three, when searched |
| TT-H08 | **Writ of attachment** — found on Ambrose | Act Three, when searched |
The two papers are the ambiguity, and they only mean anything **held in the same hand**.
Give them separately and let the table put them together.
The manifest is deliberately held back to Act Three. It is a list of names, and the 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. players should not be holding it until the moment it starts to weigh something.
@@ -277,6 +327,13 @@ miles an hour, for perhaps forty seconds.
**The wagon is easier than the tower, and the tower is easier than the horses.** A party **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. that spends an hour arranging the wagon has bought an easy roll and should get one.
**Say which route suits whom, out loud, before they choose.** Athletics on a duty-roster
sheet runs from about 25% to 60%, and the split is not subtle: the Containment officer and
the criminal take the tower, the Field Lead can, and **the doctor and the Registry officer
should be on the wagon**. Playtested by putting all five on the tower: two missed twice,
had to be carried across on the department's plank, and became passengers in their own
set-piece — at a cost of two passes on the clock.
**Everybody has to get on.** A failed attempt gets the next pass, forty minutes later, and **Everybody has to get on.** A failed attempt gets the next pass, forty minutes later, and
the clock moves — not a full stop. the clock moves — not a full stop.
@@ -287,54 +344,135 @@ the clock moves — not a full stop.
--- ---
## Act Three — Aboard *(~50 min)* ## Act Three — Aboard, and the four minutes *(~50 min)*
> **Goal:** sixty-one people, one man who knows, and a decision that costs either way. > **Goal:** survive a gunfight nobody started for their benefit, work out that it repeats,
> and close the crossing anyway.
> It is warm. That is the first thing. Sixty-one people in five cars, and it smells of > 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 > 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 > 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?"* > door, and one of them says: *"You want to be somewhere else in about six minutes."*
| Where | What | | Where | What |
|---|---| |---|---|
| The locomotive | **Marius Kell**, engineer, who has not let go of the regulator | | The locomotive | **Marius Kell**, who has not let go of the regulator |
| Tender, car one | Coal that has not run out — the first hard evidence | | 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 two | Most of the passengers. They lie down before it starts. They have a drill. |
| Car four | Freight, the company safe, **the signed survey** | | **Car three** | **Where the fight happens.** Overturned seats at both ends. |
| Car four | Freight, the payroll box bolted down, the signed survey in the satchel |
| Car five | **Elias Vane**, alone, watching the line come out from under | | Car five | **Elias Vane**, alone, watching the line come out from under |
### The three facts aboard ### The four minutes
1. **The coal has not run out.** `[CUS: Engineering or Spot]` Starts on the whistle for the grade. Run it in rounds. **It is the same four minutes every
2. **Kell cannot let go** — not *will* not. He worked out on day one that slowing is the time** — same men, same shots, same two passengers hit in the second minute.
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 | Minute | What happens if nobody interferes |
|---|---|
| 1 | Ambrose's five come forward from car four. Merritt's four are at the front of car three. Somebody shouts *put it down*; both sides think they said it. |
| 2 | First volley. **Two passengers are hit** — a miner named Doyle, and Mrs Danforth's arm. Every time. |
| 3 | Merritt falls back to the car four door and holds it. Ambrose takes the overturned seats. Everybody reloads: a Webley is six, a Martini is one. |
| 4 | Ambrose reaches the box. Merritt shoots him through the door. The whistle sounds, and it resets. |
**Off the moving train is survivable. Off the crossing is not.** A person put off at the ### HOW MUCH FIRE THE AGENTS DRAW — read before running it
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. **The two sides are shooting at each other, not at the agents.** Getting this wrong turns
That is deliberate: the ending is what they choose to do about the arithmetic. the scene into a massacre. Work out what each agent is *doing* and give them that much
fire and no more.
| The agent is | Shooters | Cover | Measured over 300 runs |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Head down, not acting** | none | — | Untouched. A legitimate choice for a pass. |
| **Acting from cover** | 1 | −30% | **2 of 4 hurt, half a party member down, no wipes.** The intended shape. |
| **Moving in the open** | 2 | −30% | 3 of 4 hurt, one down. One party in 300 wiped. |
| **Going for the payroll box** | 2 | none | **3½ of 4 down. More than half of all parties wiped.** |
**Tell them the last row before they commit, not after.** Everything else is survivable.
**Nobody rolls to hide** — taking cover is a decision, and it works.
### THE LOOP RESETS. THE AGENTS DO NOT.
Everybody who belongs to 1881 is back on their feet at the next pass, unhurt, with no
memory of having been shot. **The agents are not part of the loop and their wounds are
permanent.** Say this before the first volley — a player who thinks the reset will heal
them will take risks that kill them.
A downed agent is *down*, not dead: the dying rules apply, and the only medicine aboard is
a chirurgeon's roll and a bottle of laudanum. First Aid is the whole answer, and somebody
has to stop shooting to give it.
*A playtested pass, four agents all acting from cover: two down at 0 hit points, one on a
quarter, one untouched because he stayed on the floor. That is a bad pass rather than a
typical one — the average is half a party member — but it is possible on the first one.*
### What the players will try
| They try | What it does |
|---|---|
| Shout, show a warrant card, take charge | Nothing. No authority aboard is recognised. `[CUS: Persuade at −30% on the first pass; easier later as they learn names]` |
| Shoot one side | It works, and changes nothing. Everyone is back next pass. **Let that land in silence.** |
| Get the passengers down | Genuinely useful. Doyle and Mrs Danforth can be pulled clear before minute two. |
| Get to the payroll box | The obvious idea, and the one that kills them. See the table. |
| Show one side the other's paper | **The good move.** It does not stop the fight; it is how they learn what they are looking at. |
| Get to the locomotive | Through car two and the tender, under fire in the gap. This is the route to the ending. |
### The paper — the ambiguity, made findable
**Merritt** carries a letter of engagement from the company: see the box to Fallon,
surrender it to no one *upon any pretext whatsoever, including the presentation of any
paper*. **Ambrose** carries a sealed writ of attachment naming that same payroll against
eleven weeks of unpaid wages.
**Both genuine. Neither man has seen the other's.** An agent holding both has the whole
truth: the company sold the same money twice, then put nine armed men on a train with it.
**NO ROLL IS NEEDED TO SEE EITHER PAPER.** Between passes Merritt shows his letter to
anybody who asks — he is proud of it, it is his authority, and he has had a hundred and
forty-five years with nobody to show it to. Ambrose shows the writ to anybody not
currently shooting at him, because having it read is the entire thing he wants. **Do not
put Persuade in front of this.** Playtested with a real team, the Field Lead's Persuade
was 15% and fell to 1% under the crowd penalty — which turned the scene the scenario is
proudest of into an impossible roll.
**It does not stop the fight.** Merritt will not stand down for a judge he has never heard
of while being shot at, and Ambrose has eleven weeks of nothing behind him.
### Closing it
**Kell will stop the train if a person he believes has authority tells him to, out loud,
to his face.** He has waited a hundred and forty-five years to be told. Not on a note, not
shouted from the tender. Getting there means the gap between the cars — `[CUS: Athletics]`.
**Convincing him takes NO ROLL if they can tell him one true thing about his own train.**
That the coal has not run out. That it is the same four minutes. That the line was never
on the north bench. Any of it. The moment somebody who knows what is wrong says so, he
asks them to say when.
**Only a party that can tell him nothing has to roll** — Persuade or Status at average, and
a failure means he wants another pass to think. **Do not gate the ending on Persuade.**
Seven of the ten duty-roster agents have neither Persuade nor Status trained; playtested,
three separate attempts on Kell all failed and the scenario had no way to end.
**When the brakes go on, the loop lets go.** Four minutes finish for the first time since
1881. Doyle and Ambrose do not get up. They never did.
### The choices — no roll resolves this ### The choices — no roll resolves this
| Choice | Cost | | Choice | What it costs |
|---|---| |---|---|
| **Everyone off, then stop it** | Four hours while the crossing degrades. It may not hold. The right answer, and a gamble. | | **Close it as ordered** | The mission, done. Fifty-nine released into their own century. Two men die of wounds taken in 1881, in 1881. |
| **Stop it now** | Clean close, clean file. Sixty-one people end. Kell will do it if asked. | | **Close it, having pulled Doyle and Mrs Danforth clear** | Works for those two. Nobody can save Ambrose — only stopping the train stops Merritt shooting him, and stopping the train is what kills him. |
| **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. | | **Try to end the fight first** | Admirable, probably impossible. Every pass spent trying moves the crossing clock; at 6 it closes with everyone inside. |
| **Leave it running** | Everyone lives today. It fails inside a year with everyone aboard. A real option; the scenario logs it without punishing it. | | **Refuse, leave it running** | Everyone lives, for a value of living four minutes long. It fails inside a year and then nobody is released at all. |
### If they ask Vane ### If they ask Vane
> I filed a chart that said the line was somewhere it was not, because a man told me to > 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 > and I wanted the work. Six months of honest railwaymen repeating it made it true. Now —
> repeating it to make it true. If you stop us I would call that fair, and I would ask you > you have seen the middle of the car. Two of those men do not get up when it stops. They
> to put the children off first. > have not got up two million times and they will not get up now. I would still stop it.
> It is not our place to hold a thing still because we have grown fond of it.
--- ---
@@ -344,10 +482,14 @@ A Registry room, a form, and somebody writing down sixty-one names.
| Ending | What the register says | | 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. | | **Closed as ordered** | Fifty-nine walk forward into their own century. Ambrose and Doyle die of wounds taken on 3 November 1881, four minutes after they took them. Registry counts it a success and it is one. |
| **Stopped with people aboard** | Closes clean. The file closes clean. Nobody is quite the same about a timetable. | | **Closed, the two passengers pulled clear first** | As above, and Mrs Danforth keeps her arm. |
| **Partial** | However many were put off, put off. The rest are a number in a column, and the agent who chose is named. | | **Closed late** | The same ending, more expensively. If the clock reached 6 first, add the agents to the list. |
| **Left running** | Logged, monitored, inherited by whoever holds the case in a year. Defensible. Nobody thanks them. | | **Left running** | Logged, monitored, inherited. Sixty-one people continue to live four minutes. When it fails, nobody is released at all. |
**Registry's note on any ending:** *"The department did not cause these deaths. It ceased
to prevent them. The distinction matters to the file and it is not expected to matter to
the agents."*
--- ---
@@ -355,6 +497,8 @@ A Registry room, a form, and somebody writing down sixty-one names.
| Who | Wants | Key line | | Who | Wants | Key line |
|---|---|---| |---|---|---|
| **Cass Merritt**, hired guard | to see the box to Fallon, as engaged | *"I have a letter. Whatever you have, I have a letter."* |
| **Josiah Ambrose**, miner | eleven weeks of wages, lawfully | *"There is a judge's seal on this. Read it and then shoot me."* |
| **Marius Kell**, engineer | to be allowed to stop | *"You tell me when. I'll not do it before you say."* | | **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."* | | **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."* | | **Hester Bligh**, conductor | her passengers accounted for | *"Sixty-one aboard. I have counted them every hour since."* |
@@ -365,14 +509,19 @@ A Registry room, a form, and somebody writing down sixty-one names.
## Do not resolve ## Do not resolve
- **Who was in the right.** Both papers are genuine, the company sold the money twice,
and the company is not aboard to answer for it. If a player asks the GM to adjudicate,
do not.
- **Why the coal has not run out.** The wave sustains it; that is as far as anyone gets. - **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. - **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. - **Whether closing it was a rescue.** Fifty-nine people say yes. Two men do not get to
say.
## GM notes ## GM notes
- **Play the passengers as people, hard.** The scenario dies the moment they become a - **Play the passengers as people, hard** — and the nine men in the fight hardest of all.
number, and it lives on the fact that they are not. - **Never let the players win the fight.** They can survive it, shape it, and pull people
out of it. They cannot end it. Only the brakes end it.
- **Standing Order 9 is the tutorial.** Do not soften it and do not apologise for it. - **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 - **Cut first:** the town, down to the livery and the telegraph office. Never cut the
boarding. boarding.
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2026/08/18-00:25:18.939914 16fcaf000 Delete type=3 #1 2026/08/18-22:37:32.799186 176b97000 Recovering log #3
2026/08/18-22:37:32.799323 176b97000 Level-0 table #5: started
2026/08/18-22:37:32.799504 176b97000 Level-0 table #5: 4591 bytes OK
2026/08/18-22:37:32.799868 176b97000 Delete type=0 #3
2026/08/18-22:37:32.799916 176b97000 Delete type=3 #2
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2026/08/18-22:37:15.356757 172877000 Delete type=3 #1
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2026/08/18-00:25:19.010528 1704bb000 Delete type=3 #1 2026/08/18-22:37:32.827220 176b97000 Recovering log #3
2026/08/18-22:37:32.827303 176b97000 Level-0 table #5: started
2026/08/18-22:37:32.827422 176b97000 Level-0 table #5: 4129 bytes OK
2026/08/18-22:37:32.827654 176b97000 Delete type=0 #3
2026/08/18-22:37:32.827715 176b97000 Delete type=3 #2
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2026/08/18-22:37:15.433657 17388f000 Delete type=3 #1
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2026/08/18-00:25:18.941763 16f4a3000 Delete type=3 #1 2026/08/18-22:37:32.801021 17638b000 Recovering log #3
2026/08/18-22:37:32.801454 17638b000 Level-0 table #5: started
2026/08/18-22:37:32.801772 17638b000 Level-0 table #5: 31614 bytes OK
2026/08/18-22:37:32.802069 17638b000 Delete type=0 #3
2026/08/18-22:37:32.802111 17638b000 Delete type=3 #2
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2026/08/18-22:37:15.358422 17409b000 Delete type=3 #1
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2026/08/18-00:25:18.995451 16f4a3000 Delete type=3 #1 2026/08/18-22:37:32.818774 176b97000 Recovering log #3
2026/08/18-22:37:32.819665 176b97000 Level-0 table #5: started
2026/08/18-22:37:32.820075 176b97000 Level-0 table #5: 46857 bytes OK
2026/08/18-22:37:32.820335 176b97000 Delete type=0 #3
2026/08/18-22:37:32.820381 176b97000 Delete type=3 #2
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2026/08/18-22:37:15.417310 172877000 Delete type=3 #1
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2026/08/18-00:25:18.976255 16fcaf000 Delete type=3 #1 2026/08/18-22:37:32.784037 17638b000 Recovering log #3
2026/08/18-22:37:32.786085 17638b000 Level-0 table #5: started
2026/08/18-22:37:32.787900 17638b000 Level-0 table #5: 234672 bytes OK
2026/08/18-22:37:32.788307 17638b000 Delete type=0 #3
2026/08/18-22:37:32.788379 17638b000 Delete type=3 #2
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2026/08/18-22:37:15.394128 172877000 Delete type=3 #1
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2026/08/18-00:25:19.005331 16ec97000 Delete type=3 #1 2026/08/18-22:37:32.795533 176b97000 Recovering log #3
2026/08/18-22:37:32.795934 176b97000 Level-0 table #5: started
2026/08/18-22:37:32.796065 176b97000 Level-0 table #5: 3295 bytes OK
2026/08/18-22:37:32.796355 176b97000 Delete type=0 #3
2026/08/18-22:37:32.796392 176b97000 Delete type=3 #2
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2026/08/18-22:37:15.428065 173083000 Delete type=3 #1
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2026/08/18-00:25:18.961584 16ec97000 Delete type=3 #1 2026/08/18-22:37:32.768723 176b97000 Recovering log #3
2026/08/18-22:37:32.772081 176b97000 Level-0 table #5: started
2026/08/18-22:37:32.777725 176b97000 Level-0 table #5: 560581 bytes OK
2026/08/18-22:37:32.778401 176b97000 Delete type=0 #3
2026/08/18-22:37:32.778494 176b97000 Delete type=3 #2
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2026/08/18-22:37:15.379031 173083000 Delete type=3 #1
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2026/08/18-00:25:19.002226 16f4a3000 Delete type=3 #1 2026/08/18-22:37:32.804709 175b7f000 Recovering log #3
2026/08/18-22:37:32.804956 175b7f000 Level-0 table #5: started
2026/08/18-22:37:32.805208 175b7f000 Level-0 table #5: 23087 bytes OK
2026/08/18-22:37:32.805486 175b7f000 Delete type=0 #3
2026/08/18-22:37:32.805525 175b7f000 Delete type=3 #2
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2026/08/18-22:37:15.424767 17409b000 Delete type=3 #1
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2026/08/18-00:25:18.999210 16fcaf000 Delete type=3 #1 2026/08/18-22:37:32.821353 176b97000 Recovering log #3
2026/08/18-22:37:32.821969 176b97000 Level-0 table #5: started
2026/08/18-22:37:32.822328 176b97000 Level-0 table #5: 44887 bytes OK
2026/08/18-22:37:32.822647 176b97000 Delete type=0 #3
2026/08/18-22:37:32.822686 176b97000 Delete type=3 #2
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2026/08/18-00:25:19.008595 16f4a3000 Delete type=3 #1 2026/08/18-22:37:32.806477 1773a3000 Recovering log #3
2026/08/18-22:37:32.807016 1773a3000 Level-0 table #5: started
2026/08/18-22:37:32.807385 1773a3000 Level-0 table #5: 36532 bytes OK
2026/08/18-22:37:32.807654 1773a3000 Delete type=0 #3
2026/08/18-22:37:32.807690 1773a3000 Delete type=3 #2
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2026/08/18-22:37:15.432064 172877000 Delete type=3 #1
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2026/08/18-00:25:18.934271 16fcaf000 Delete type=3 #1 2026/08/18-22:37:32.791576 1773a3000 Recovering log #3
2026/08/18-22:37:32.791785 1773a3000 Level-0 table #5: started
2026/08/18-22:37:32.792018 1773a3000 Level-0 table #5: 7806 bytes OK
2026/08/18-22:37:32.792443 1773a3000 Delete type=0 #3
2026/08/18-22:37:32.792496 1773a3000 Delete type=3 #2
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2026/08/18-22:37:15.351270 17409b000 Delete type=3 #1
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2026/08/18-00:25:19.003783 16fcaf000 Delete type=3 #1 2026/08/18-22:37:32.823569 176b97000 Recovering log #3
2026/08/18-22:37:32.823738 176b97000 Level-0 table #5: started
2026/08/18-22:37:32.824004 176b97000 Level-0 table #5: 16902 bytes OK
2026/08/18-22:37:32.824268 176b97000 Delete type=0 #3
2026/08/18-22:37:32.824310 176b97000 Delete type=3 #2
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2026/08/18-22:37:15.426452 173083000 Delete type=3 #1
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