slaguru666andClaude Opus 5
973b4a53aa
Act One is now an induction at the Bureau, Act Two puts the players through the crossing and makes them find the train, Act Three is a town-side obstacle, Act Four is the boarding, Act Five is the four minutes. 4h00 in five acts, was 3h30 in three. The restructure earns one thing the old shape could not: THE CROSSING OPENS WHERE THE RECORD SAYS THE LINE IS, which is an empty bench of scrub on the wrong side of the wash. The agents arrive where the paperwork put the railway, not where the railway is, so the fraud is the ground under their feet and finding the train is real work. Registry's file has this wrong and Bewley believes the file. - Act Three: Rance Doyle and five unpaid miners take the agents for company detectives, and they are not wrong to. Resolves on what the players SAY - no roll makes it go away, no roll makes it a fight. Losing costs them the 1881 issue, not their lives. His brother Tom is aboard and dies at minute two of every pass, which is the wiring between the acts - new cast: Bewley, Prosser, Rance Doyle, Shard, Tom Doyle, Cordera man - new handouts: the company notice, and the six names in Ambrose's hand - 8 GM pages, 10 handouts, 15 actors, 13 plates MEASURED, 400 runs each: the Act Three standoff is 0.4/4 hurt from cover and 1.25/4 in the open, both ending early - but FOUGHT TO A FINISH it puts 1.75 of 4 down and wipes the party in 24% of runs. The early stop is what makes the act survivable, not the miners being weak. My first draft of that table was guessed and wrong in all three rows. FOUND AND FIXED: there is no Ride skill in this game and never has been. The boarding set-piece has asked for "[CUS: Ride, then Athletics]" since it was written, through a playtest, which is an instruction to roll a thing nobody has. Horses are now handled by a local and the agent rolls Athletics. NEW GUARD: check-scenarios resolves every [CUS: Skill] tag in every scenario against SKILL_CATALOGUE and fails the build on a skill that does not exist. Verified it fails on the real bug before wiring it in. Sixth guard. NOTE: the three new plates (Bureau, north bench, standoff) are placeholders in this commit - Midjourney is still rendering them. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
1131 lines
76 KiB
JavaScript
1131 lines
76 KiB
JavaScript
/**
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* THROUGH TRAIN — the crossing starter, as data.
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*
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* "Through train" is the railway term for a service that passes without stopping. It is
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* also the department's case name, and it is the problem: the players must get aboard a
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* train that cannot stop, because the running is what holds the crossing open.
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*
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* The supernatural here is science fiction underneath. Nobody aboard is dead and nothing
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* is haunting anybody. In 1881 a railway company laid track to a filed survey rather than
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* to the ground, then described the resulting line ten thousand times — timetables,
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* waybills, dispatches, telegraph orders — as being somewhere it was not. Reality keeps a
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* record of what belongs where, and an argument made at a constant speed on a fixed line
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* for six months is the most patient argument there is. On 3 November 1881 the record
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* gave way, and the train that was inside it at 11:40 has been running ever since.
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*
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* It is a standing wave. The motion sustains the error the way a bow sustains a note.
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*
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* What repeats is not just the train. At 11:40 on 3 November 1881 there was a GUNFIGHT
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* aboard over the payroll, and the four minutes that contains it is what the loop is
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* made of. It runs again on every pass, the same four minutes, and it has run about two
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* million times.
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*
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* TWO SIDES AND NEITHER OF THEM IS THE VILLAIN. The company's paid guards are protecting
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* a payroll they were hired to protect. The men who boarded at the water stop are owed
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* that payroll and are carrying a court writ that says so. Both have paper. Both believe
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* the others are thieves. The company sold the same money twice and is not aboard.
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*
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* Closing the crossing does not kill anybody. It RELEASES them: the loop ends, 3 November
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* 1881 resumes, and every person aboard goes on to live the life they would have lived —
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* including the ones who, on the real third of November, did not survive the next four
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* minutes. That is the weight of the ending, and it is a much better weight than the one
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* this scenario carried before.
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*
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* This is also the scenario that teaches the standing order on period crossings: NOTHING
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* MODERN GOES THROUGH. The catalogue already carries the 1881 issue — Webley, Martini-
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* Henry, oil lantern, brass compass, pocket watch — so the constraint costs the GM
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* nothing to enforce and gives the players something to feel.
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*
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* Full GM document: docs/scenarios/THROUGH_TRAIN.md.
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*/
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const P = s => `<p>${s}</p>`;
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const H = (n, s) => `<h${n}>${s}</h${n}>`;
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const UL = xs => `<ul>${xs.map(x => `<li>${x}</li>`).join("")}</ul>`;
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const OL = xs => `<ol>${xs.map(x => `<li>${x}</li>`).join("")}</ol>`;
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const TABLE = (head, rows) =>
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`<table><thead><tr>${head.map(h => `<th>${h}</th>`).join("")}</tr></thead><tbody>`
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+ rows.map(r => `<tr>${r.map(c => `<td>${c}</td>`).join("")}</tr>`).join("")
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+ `</tbody></table>`;
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const READ = s => `<blockquote class="rb-readaloud">${s}</blockquote>`;
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const ART = (id, alt) =>
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`<figure class="rb-plate"><img src="systems/ringbrp/art/scenes/${id}.webp" alt="${alt}"/></figure>`;
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/* ---------------------------------------------------------------- */
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export const TT_PAGES = [
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{ name: "1 · Run this first", content:
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ART("tt_01_draw", "Mercy Draw, and the line that should not be there")
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+ P("<strong>THROUGH TRAIN</strong> is the crossing starter: the case where the "
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+ "department sends the agents ACROSS for the first time. It runs in "
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+ "<strong>four hours</strong> across five acts, and it opens with its own "
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+ "induction, so it does not need a prologue in front of it.")
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+ H(2, "The shape of it")
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+ TABLE(["Act", "Time", "What happens"], [
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["<strong>One</strong> — The Bureau", "~35 min", "Where they work. The standing order. The kit swap."],
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["<strong>Two</strong> — Cordera", "~50 min", "Through the crossing, and an investigation to find the train"],
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["<strong>Three</strong> — Rance Doyle's men", "~35 min", "A town-side obstacle with a surname in it"],
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["<strong>Four</strong> — Getting aboard", "~45 min", "Forty seconds of slow track at the water tower"],
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["<strong>Five</strong> — The four minutes", "~50 min", "The gunfight, the papers, and the brakes"],
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["Epilogue", "~15 min", "Sixty-one names, written down"]
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])
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+ P("<strong>Hard rule: at 2:55 on the clock they are aboard</strong>, by the "
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+ "department's wagon if not by their own wit.")
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+ H(2, "The five things to get right")
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+ OL([
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"<strong>Nobody aboard is dead and nothing is haunting anybody.</strong> This is "
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+ "science fiction with a paperwork cause. If a table leaves thinking “ghost "
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+ "train”, it has been run wrong.",
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"<strong>They arrive in the wrong place on purpose.</strong> The crossing opens "
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+ "where the RECORD says the line is — an empty bench of scrub. That is the "
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+ "case stated as geography, and it is why Act Two is an investigation.",
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"<strong>Standing Order 9 is the difficulty setting.</strong> Nothing modern goes "
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+ "through. Charge for USING, never for carrying. Anchors are exempt.",
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"<strong>There is no villain anywhere in this case.</strong> Not in the town, not "
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+ "on the train. Everyone the agents fight has a reason you would accept.",
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"<strong>Closing the crossing does not kill anybody — it lets them go</strong>, "
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+ "including the two men who did not survive the real four minutes."
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])
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+ H(2, "Run it with")
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+ P("<strong>Four to six agents from the duty roster.</strong> Not the "
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+ "“(before)” sheets — this is the job, and it wants people who "
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+ "have been trained.")
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+ H(2, "Content warnings")
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+ P("Gun violence at close quarters, repeatedly; entrapment and confinement; "
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+ "bystanders wounded on screen; a decision that lets named people die; period "
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+ "hardship and labour exploitation; heights; a sibling present at a death.") },
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{ name: "2 · What is actually happening", content:
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H(2, "The lie")
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+ P("<strong>April 1881.</strong> The Cordera & Western needed four miles of narrow "
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+ "gauge across a dry wash called <strong>Mercy Draw</strong>. The company surveyor, "
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+ "<strong>Elias Vane</strong>, was told what the chart had to say before he walked "
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+ "the ground. He filed a survey showing the line on the <strong>north bench</strong>. "
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+ "The line was laid on the <strong>south bench</strong>, because that is where the "
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+ "ground allowed it.")
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+ P("Nobody was hurt by that. It is the dullest possible paperwork lie. And for six "
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+ "months every timetable, waybill, dispatch and telegraph order in the company's "
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+ "operation described a train running along the north bench.")
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+ P("<strong>Reality keeps a record of what belongs where.</strong> It can be made to "
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+ "get it wrong by anything patient enough — and a train is the most patient "
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+ "arguer there is: a fixed line, a constant speed, on the hour, every day, saying the "
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+ "same wrong thing about where it was.")
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+ P("<strong>3 November 1881, 11:40.</strong> The record gave way. Four miles of line "
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+ "came loose from the date with No. 9 and five cars on it, <strong>sixty-one souls "
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+ "aboard</strong>, and a <strong>gunfight already three seconds old</strong>.")
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+ H(2, "Why the agents arrive in the wrong place")
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+ P("<strong>The crossing opens where the record says the line is: the north bench.</strong> "
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+ "It has to — that is the wrongness it is made of. Agents step off a real grade "
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+ "in the present and step out onto a bench of empty scrub in 1881, with no rails, no "
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+ "ballast and no Draw in front of them.")
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+ P("This is not a trick played on them. <strong>It is the case, stated as "
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+ "geography</strong>, and a party that works out why they came out where they did has "
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+ "solved half of Act Two.")
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+ H(2, "The two sides aboard — and neither is the villain")
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+ TABLE(["", "Who", "What they have", "What they believe"], [
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["<strong>The coats</strong>",
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"Four men hired by the company to see the payroll to Fallon, led by <strong>Cass Merritt</strong>",
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"A signed letter of engagement, and the key to the box",
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"That men who board at a water stop are robbers"],
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["<strong>The writ men</strong>",
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"Five Cordera miners, eleven weeks unpaid, led by <strong>Josiah Ambrose</strong>",
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"A sealed writ of attachment from a territorial judge, naming that payroll",
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"That they are lawfully seizing wages and being shot at for it"]
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])
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+ P("<strong>The company sold the same money twice and is not aboard.</strong> Both "
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+ "papers are genuine. Neither man has seen the other's. Nobody in car three is lying "
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+ "and nobody is wrong. <strong>Do not adjudicate it.</strong>")
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+ H(2, "The running is what holds it open")
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+ P("The train is not trapped inside the crossing — the train <em>is</em> the "
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+ "crossing. A standing wave, sustained by its own motion the way a bow sustains a "
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+ "note.")
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+ UL([
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"<strong>Nobody is dead.</strong> They eat, sleep in shifts, and have organised a "
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+ "water rota. By their clocks it has been about nine hours.",
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"<strong>Nobody can get off while it runs.</strong> Three departmental attempts are "
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+ "on file; none returned.",
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"<strong>Stop the train and the loop ends.</strong> This is the mission, and it is "
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+ "not a mercy killing."
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])
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+ H(2, "What closing it actually does — read this twice")
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+ P("<strong>Closing the crossing does not kill anybody. It lets them go.</strong> The "
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+ "loop ends, the third of November 1881 resumes from 11:44, and every person aboard "
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+ "walks forward into the life they would have had.")
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+ P("<strong>Including the ones who did not survive the real four minutes.</strong> "
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+ "History resumes as history: Josiah Ambrose and a miner named <strong>Tom Doyle</strong> "
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+ "died in that gunfight, and when the loop lets go they die in it. Not because the "
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+ "agents killed them — because that is what happened, and it has been prevented "
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+ "from happening for a hundred and forty-five years.")
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+ P("<strong>The agents are not choosing who lives.</strong> They are choosing to stop "
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+ "holding history still, and they will have met the people it lands on — and, "
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+ "if Act Three went a certain way, the brother of one of them.")
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+ P("The department's position is unambiguous: <strong>close it</strong>. A crossing "
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+ "held open by a repeating event degrades, and when it fails on its own — "
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+ "Registry's read is within a year — everyone inside is lost outright rather "
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+ "than returned. <strong>Waiting is the only option that is definitely worse.</strong>")
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+ H(2, "The crossing clock (0–6)")
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+ P("Move it on <strong>each pass the agents watch go by</strong>, when <strong>somebody "
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+ "uses a modern object across</strong>, and on a <strong>fumbled boarding "
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+ "attempt</strong>. <strong>Act Three does not move it</strong> — that happens "
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+ "in a town four miles away and the crossing does not care.")
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+ TABLE(["Clock", "What"], [
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["0", "Open. Four minutes at 11:40."],
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["1", "Thinning. The whistle arrives a half-second before it should."],
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["2", "Slipping. −1 Coherence to everyone across, once."],
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["3", "The line flickers — a hundred yards of grade is briefly not there."],
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["4", "The far end stops answering. Fallon's wire goes dead in 1881."],
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["5", "One pass left, and everybody can tell."],
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["6", "It closes, with whoever is aboard."]
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]) },
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{ name: "3 · Act One — The Bureau", content:
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ART("tt_11_bureau", "The Bureau — a corridor, a counter, a ledger")
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+ P("<strong>Goal:</strong> they learn where they work, what an anchor is, why the "
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+ "phone stays behind, and what the case is. <strong>~35 minutes.</strong>")
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+ READ("The building has no sign on it. It has a commissionaire, a lift that only goes "
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+ "to four of the six floors, and a smell of floor polish and old paper that you will "
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+ "come to know very well. Somebody has left a birthday card going round the third "
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+ "floor for a woman in Accounts. You are here because a train has been missing since "
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+ "1881, and it is Tuesday.")
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+ P("<strong>Play this as an ordinary morning at an ordinary job.</strong> The horror in "
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+ "this game is that the paperwork is real. Nobody is portentous. Nobody explains that "
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+ "the world is stranger than they know.")
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+ H(2, "The four stops")
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+ P("Run these as four short beats. Let the players wander between them; do not queue "
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+ "them up.")
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+ TABLE(["Stop", "Who", "What happens"], [
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["<strong>The desk</strong>", "a commissionaire with a ledger",
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"They sign in. Names, times, and their <strong>anchor numbers</strong>. He will not be hurried."],
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["<strong>Registry</strong>", "<strong>Mr Bewley</strong>",
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"The case. The survey. The three previous attempts."],
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["<strong>Stores</strong>", "<strong>Mr Prosser</strong>", "The kit swap, and the argument."],
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["<strong>Medical</strong>", "a nurse, briskly",
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"Anchors issued. Two minutes. Do not make a scene of it."]
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])
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+ H(2, "Registry — the briefing")
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+ P("Give <strong>TT-H01</strong> (case brief) and <strong>TT-H04</strong> (the filed "
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+ "survey) and let them ask. What Bewley will say:")
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+ UL([
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"<strong>The crossing opens on the grade at Mercy Draw, Nevada, at 11:40, for about "
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+ "four minutes.</strong> Every day, for as long as the department has watched it.",
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"<strong>A train is inside it.</strong> Cordera & Western No. 9, five cars, out "
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+ "of Cordera on 3 November 1881, never arrived at Fallon.",
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"<strong>Sixty-one people, by the manifest.</strong> He will not hand the manifest "
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+ "over yet: <em>“You will read it aboard. It reads differently there.”</em>",
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"<strong>Three attempts are on file</strong> — 1974, 1991, 2009. <strong>No "
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+ "survivors. All three tried to stop it.</strong> He does not know why that failed "
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+ "and he says so.",
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"<strong>The order is to close it.</strong> When it fails on its own — within "
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+ "the year — everyone inside is lost outright.",
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"<strong>The survey is the case.</strong> <em>“Bring me the paper. The paper is "
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+ "the case.”</em>"
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])
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+ P("<strong>The one thing Bewley gets wrong.</strong> He believes the crossing puts you "
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+ "on the grade. Every previous team went in expecting to arrive beside the line. "
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+ "<strong>DO NOT CORRECT THIS.</strong> It is on the file wrong, and the file is what "
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+ "they have.")
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+ P("<em>[CUS: Research or Insight]</em> on the file: the three previous attempts all "
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+ "logged their last position as <em>“the north bench”</em>, which nobody "
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+ "has ever queried because nobody has ever come back to be asked about it. "
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+ "<strong>Optional. It is a very good catch and it should feel like one.</strong>")
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+ H(2, "Stores — Standing Order 9")
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+ ART("tt_02_stores", "Stores, and the 1881 issue")
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+ P("Give <strong>TT-H02</strong> and <strong>TT-H03</strong>. Mr Prosser has laid the "
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+ "kit out on a counter and he is not interested in negotiation.")
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+ READ("Nothing you are carrying goes with you. I have laid out what you may take "
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+ "instead. You may argue with me if you like, but I have been doing this for nineteen "
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+ "years and you have been doing it since Thursday.")
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+ P("<strong>Nothing modern goes through.</strong> Give both reasons:")
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+ OL([
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"<strong>It costs you.</strong> An object that does not belong is a thing the far "
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+ "side must also be wrong about. <strong>Using</strong> a modern item across costs "
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+ "<strong>1 Coherence</strong>, per object, first time.",
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"<strong>It is a beacon.</strong> A crossing is a place where the record is already "
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+ "wrong. It notices what does not fit, and the case clock moves."
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])
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+ P("<strong>Charge for using, never for carrying.</strong> A player who smuggles a "
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+ "torch across and never switches it on has made a good decision and should get away "
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+ "with it. <strong>The anchor is exempt.</strong>")
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+ P("If nobody asks what an anchor is, the nurse tells them: <em>it is the department's "
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+ "record that you exist and belong here, and it is the reason you can come back.</em>")
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+ TABLE(["Instead of", "They get"], [
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["service pistol", "<strong>Webley revolver</strong> — 1d10, six shots, slow reload"],
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["carbine", "<strong>Martini-Henry</strong> — 2d6+2, <strong>one shot</strong>, then work the lever"],
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["torch", "<strong>oil lantern</strong> and lamp oil, which runs out"],
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["the handset", "<strong>nothing.</strong> Out of contact from the moment they cross."],
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["stab vest", "<strong>buff coat</strong> or oilcloth coat"],
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["medkit", "<strong>chirurgeon's roll</strong> and <strong>laudanum</strong>"],
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["phone and GPS", "<strong>brass compass</strong>, <strong>pocket watch</strong>, <strong>spyglass</strong>"]
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])
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+ P("Plus <strong>period coin</strong>, which will matter in Cordera, and <strong>iron "
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+ "manacles</strong>, which will not.")
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+ H(2, "Failure case")
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+ P("<strong>There isn't one.</strong> Nobody can fail the Bureau. If the table is "
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+ "quiet, cut to Prosser taking somebody's phone out of their hand and move on. "
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+ "<strong>If it is running long at 35 minutes, stop it</strong> — the case is on "
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+ "the handouts and they can read on the drive.")
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+ P("<strong>Panic:</strong> no triggers in Act One. Say the word once, explain the "
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+ "track in two sentences, and leave it.") },
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{ name: "4 · Act Two — Cordera, and where the train went", content:
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ART("tt_12_northbench", "The north bench, 1881 — where the paperwork says the railway is")
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+ P("<strong>Goal:</strong> find out where the line actually is, that something still "
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+ "passes it, and when. <strong>~50 minutes.</strong>")
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+ H(2, "The crossing")
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+ P("Mercy Draw, Nevada, 11:38. The grade runs along the <strong>south</strong> side "
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+ "— ballast and tie marks, rails lifted in 1889. <strong>The crossing does not "
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+ "open there.</strong> It opens on the <strong>north bench</strong>: a strip of empty "
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+ "scrub on the wrong side of the wash, where no railway has ever been.")
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+ READ("The air over the north bench goes wrong at 11:40 — not shimmering, "
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+ "<em>creased</em>, like a page folded and opened again. Somewhere behind it a whistle "
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+ "sounds, a long way off, and a locomotive starts working a grade. You cannot see it. "
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+ "It does not get any nearer.")
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+ P("<strong>Everybody crosses. Nobody rolls for it.</strong>")
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+ P("<strong>THE FOUR MINUTES IS THE DOOR, NOT THE VISIT.</strong> The crossing is "
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+ "<em>openable</em> for four minutes at 11:40 — that is the window to step "
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+ "through. Once across, the agents are in 1881 for as long as the crossing clock "
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+ "holds, which is an afternoon and an evening. Say this the moment somebody starts "
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+ "counting seconds. <strong>The clock at 6 is the deadline, and it is measured in "
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+ "passes of the train, not in minutes.</strong>")
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+ READ("The other side is the fourth of November, 1881, at about four in the afternoon, "
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+ "and it is twenty degrees colder. You are standing on a bench of scrub and sage on "
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+ "the north side of a dry wash. There is no railway here. There is no railway anywhere "
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+ "you can see.")
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+ P("<strong>R2 is automatic and it should land hard.</strong> They came out where the "
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+ "chart said the railway was, and the chart is in their hands. <em>[CUS: Navigate or "
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+ "Engineering]</em> confirms in one roll that nothing has ever been built here.")
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+ P("<strong>Cordera is visible</strong>, about three miles south-west: smoke, a water "
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+ "tank, a grid of roofs.")
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+ H(2, "Cordera")
|
||
+ ART("tt_04_cordera", "Cordera, Nevada Territory, 1881")
|
||
+ P("<strong>A railroad and mining town of about eighteen hundred.</strong> Woodsmoke, "
|
||
+ "horses, coal dust, and mud that freezes at night. Nobody is frightened yet. A train "
|
||
+ "went missing yesterday and the town is treating it as a company problem, which is to "
|
||
+ "say somebody else's.")
|
||
+ P("<strong>Nobody here can help them stop it, and almost everybody will help them get "
|
||
+ "near it.</strong> The company wants its train back. Let the players use that.")
|
||
+ TABLE(["Location", "Who", "What is here"], [
|
||
["<strong>The company office</strong>", "a harried dispatcher",
|
||
"Orders on spikes, the working timetable, <strong>the original survey in a drawer</strong>"],
|
||
["<strong>The telegraph office</strong>", "<strong>Ada Reyes</strong>",
|
||
"The dispatcher's book, and the only person in town who is ahead of it"],
|
||
["<strong>The roundhouse</strong>", "fitters, a foreman",
|
||
"Men who know the road. One of them walked the Draw this morning and will not go back."],
|
||
["<strong>The Bullion</strong> (saloon)", "everybody",
|
||
"Talk, and the wrong kind of attention. <strong>This is where Act Three finds them.</strong>"],
|
||
["<strong>The livery</strong>", "a liveryman who wants paying", "Horses. This matters in Act Four."],
|
||
["<strong>The assay office</strong>", "a clerk", "The company's notice, and the reward."]
|
||
])
|
||
+ H(2, "Clue trail")
|
||
+ TABLE(["#", "Clue", "How found", "Type"], [
|
||
["1", "There is no railway on the north bench, and never has been",
|
||
"<strong>Automatic</strong> — they are standing on it", "Essential"],
|
||
["2", "The line is on the <strong>south</strong> bench, four miles out",
|
||
"Anyone in town, for the asking. <strong>Automatic to a single question.</strong>", "Essential"],
|
||
["3", "No. 9 left Cordera 3 Nov and never reached Fallon",
|
||
"<strong>Automatic</strong> — the talk of the town, and on <strong>TT-H05</strong>", "Essential"],
|
||
["4", "The filed survey and the built line disagree",
|
||
"Compare <strong>TT-H04</strong> with the ground — <em>[CUS: Engineering]</em>, or automatic if they simply look", "Essential"],
|
||
["5", "Six months of orders all say north bench",
|
||
"<em>[CUS: Research]</em> at the company office, on the spiked orders", "Essential"],
|
||
["6", "<strong>Something still passes the Draw, roughly every forty minutes</strong>",
|
||
"The roundhouse man, or <em>[CUS: Listen]</em> within a mile of the wash", "<strong>Essential</strong>"],
|
||
["7", "No 11:45 entry in the dispatcher's book",
|
||
"<em>[CUS: Research]</em>, or Ada Reyes volunteers it if treated civilly", "Optional"],
|
||
["8", "Ada has sent the same query up the line forty times", "Talk to her", "Optional"],
|
||
["9", "E. Vane, surveyor, was aboard", "<em>[CUS: Research]</em> on the waybills", "Optional"],
|
||
["10", "Six men went out yesterday to serve a paper on the train",
|
||
"The saloon, <em>[CUS: Insight]</em> or buying a drink", "Optional — <strong>the hook into Act Three</strong>"]
|
||
])
|
||
+ P("<strong>Clue 6 is the one the act exists for.</strong> If they have not got it by "
|
||
+ "1:15, the roundhouse foreman comes and finds <em>them</em>: a section hand called "
|
||
+ "<strong>Tobin Cray</strong> walked out to the Draw at first light to look for No. 9, "
|
||
+ "heard it coming, and came back without looking.")
|
||
+ READ("I heard her working the grade, mister. Steam and rods and all of it, close enough "
|
||
+ "to throw a stone at. There's nothing on that line. I stood there till it came round "
|
||
+ "again and then I stopped standing there.")
|
||
+ P("<strong>Fallbacks.</strong> Clues 1 and 3 cannot be missed. Clue 2 is one question "
|
||
+ "to one person. If the party stalls on 4 or 5, the dispatcher — who wants his "
|
||
+ "train found — puts the filed survey in their hands himself and asks them what "
|
||
+ "they make of it.")
|
||
+ P("<strong>Money.</strong> Period coin buys drinks, a room, a liveryman's goodwill and "
|
||
+ "a roundhouse man's hour. <strong>A party that tries to pay with anything else has "
|
||
+ "used a modern object across:</strong> 1 Coherence, and the clock moves.")
|
||
+ H(2, "Panic triggers")
|
||
+ UL([
|
||
"<strong>Arriving on ground that should have a railway on it and does not</strong> "
|
||
+ "— 1 point, if a player wants it. Offer; do not force.",
|
||
"<strong>Hearing the train pass with nothing on the line</strong> — 1 point, "
|
||
+ "and this one is not optional for anyone who goes and listens."
|
||
])
|
||
+ H(2, "Failure case")
|
||
+ P("<strong>They cannot fail to find the Draw</strong> — the town will tell them "
|
||
+ "where the line is. What they can fail to do is find out that something still runs on "
|
||
+ "it, and the roundhouse fallback covers that. If Act Two overruns, cut the assay "
|
||
+ "office and the saloon talk and let Act Three come to them.") },
|
||
|
||
{ name: "5 · Act Three — Rance Doyle's men", content:
|
||
ART("tt_13_standoff", "Six men across a muddy street")
|
||
+ P("<strong>Goal:</strong> a town-side obstacle with the same shape as the one on the "
|
||
+ "train, and a name the players will meet again. <strong>~35 minutes.</strong>")
|
||
+ P("<strong>One-line essence: Rance Doyle wants his brother back, and the agents look "
|
||
+ "exactly like the people who took him.</strong>")
|
||
+ H(2, "What is actually going on")
|
||
+ P("Eleven weeks ago the Cordera & Western stopped paying the mine. Nine days ago "
|
||
+ "<strong>Josiah Ambrose</strong> got a writ of attachment out of a territorial judge "
|
||
+ "in Fallon against the company payroll. <strong>On 3 November he and five men went "
|
||
+ "out to serve it on No. 9</strong>, and none of them came back — because the "
|
||
+ "train did not come back.")
|
||
+ P("The company posted a <strong>notice</strong> (<strong>TT-H05</strong>) calling No. 9 "
|
||
+ "overdue, offering a reward, and naming Ambrose's six as wanted for interfering with "
|
||
+ "company property. There is a <strong>company detective in town</strong>, "
|
||
+ "<strong>Mr Shard</strong>, buying drinks and asking who was friendly with the writ "
|
||
+ "men.")
|
||
+ P("<strong>Then five strangers arrive in coats that do not fit, with money, asking "
|
||
+ "about the train.</strong> Rance Doyle is not stupid and he is not wrong to draw the "
|
||
+ "conclusion he draws.")
|
||
+ H(2, "The confrontation")
|
||
+ P("<strong>Where:</strong> the street outside The Bullion, or the livery, or wherever "
|
||
+ "the party is when the act needs to start. <strong>Six men</strong>, Rance at the "
|
||
+ "front, two with revolvers, one with a shotgun, three with what was to hand.")
|
||
+ READ("There are six of them and they have arranged themselves across the street in the "
|
||
+ "way men do when they have talked about it first. The one at the front has a face "
|
||
+ "like his brother's, which you have no way of knowing yet. He says: <em>“You've "
|
||
+ "been asking after the train. So've we. Ours went out on it.”</em>")
|
||
+ P("<strong>Rance wants three things, in this order:</strong> to know where his brother "
|
||
+ "is, to know whether the agents are Shard's, and to be taken seriously.")
|
||
+ H(2, "How this resolves")
|
||
+ P("<strong>There is no roll that makes this go away, and there is no roll that makes "
|
||
+ "it a fight.</strong> It resolves on what the players say.")
|
||
+ TABLE(["They do", "What happens"], [
|
||
["<strong>Tell him the truth</strong> — the train is still out there, still running, and they are going to it",
|
||
"<strong>It works. No roll.</strong> He believes them, because it matches what Cray said and nothing else has. He wants to come."],
|
||
["<strong>Show him TT-H04 or explain the survey</strong>",
|
||
"Works as well as the truth, and faster. He cannot read a chart, but he can tell when somebody is not performing."],
|
||
["Deny everything, stonewall, pull rank",
|
||
"<em>[CUS: Fast Talk or Persuade — difficult]</em>. Success buys an exit, not an ally. Failure goes to the standoff."],
|
||
["<strong>Claim to be from the company, or get caught lying</strong>",
|
||
"Straight to the standoff, and Rance's men mean it"],
|
||
["Draw first", "The standoff, immediately, and the agents started it"]
|
||
])
|
||
+ H(2, "The standoff — and what losing costs")
|
||
+ P("<strong>Rance's men are not trying to kill anybody.</strong> They intend to take the "
|
||
+ "agents somewhere quiet and find out what they know. <strong>Run it as a fight that "
|
||
+ "stops early.</strong>")
|
||
+ UL([
|
||
"<strong>Rance calls it off the moment one of his men goes down</strong>, or one of "
|
||
+ "the agents does. He has already lost a brother this week.",
|
||
"<strong>A downed agent is captured, not killed.</strong> The dying rules apply and "
|
||
+ "Rance's men will fetch a doctor, because they are not murderers and they know "
|
||
+ "what a murder charge does to a strike."
|
||
])
|
||
+ P("<strong>MEASURED, 400 runs each, four duty-roster agents against the six:</strong>")
|
||
+ TABLE(["The agents", "Result"], [
|
||
["<strong>From cover, and Rance folds early</strong>", "0.4 of 4 hurt, effectively nobody down, over in about 2 rounds"],
|
||
["<strong>In the open, and Rance folds early</strong>", "1.25 of 4 hurt, one party in eight loses somebody to the floor"],
|
||
["<strong>Shoot to kill — fought to the finish</strong>", "<strong>1.75 of 4 down, ten rounds, and the party is wiped in 24% of runs</strong>"]
|
||
])
|
||
+ P("<strong>The early stop is what makes this act survivable, not the miners being "
|
||
+ "weak.</strong> Six armed men fought to a finish are as dangerous as the payroll box "
|
||
+ "in Act Five — nearly one party in four does not walk out of the street. "
|
||
+ "<strong>If the agents start executing people, do not quietly soften it.</strong>")
|
||
+ P("<strong>Losing the standoff costs them the 1881 issue.</strong> Rance's men take the "
|
||
+ "Webleys, the Martini, the spyglass and the coin, and hold the agents in a back room "
|
||
+ "for two hours. <strong>Nobody dies and nothing is unrecoverable</strong> — but "
|
||
+ "Act Four now starts with an unarmed party, and Act Five is a gunfight. <strong>Say "
|
||
+ "this cost out loud before the first shot.</strong>")
|
||
+ P("<strong>Getting the kit back:</strong> ask Rance for it, once they have told him the "
|
||
+ "truth. He returns it, minus the coin, which has been spent.")
|
||
+ H(2, "Rance wants to come")
|
||
+ P("<strong>This is the important part of the act and it is easy to miss.</strong> Once "
|
||
+ "he believes them, Rance asks to come to the Draw, and he will follow at a distance "
|
||
+ "if refused. He is a fit, angry, useful man with a horse and no idea what he is "
|
||
+ "walking towards.")
|
||
+ TABLE(["The players", "What it buys, what it costs"], [
|
||
["<strong>Take him as far as the Draw</strong>",
|
||
"The default. He knows the ground, he gets them horses, and he stands on the bench and watches."],
|
||
["<strong>Take him aboard</strong>",
|
||
"He is competent in the four minutes — and <strong>he is in car three when his brother is shot, every pass.</strong> Then they have to tell him what closing it does. <strong>Only run it if the table can hold it.</strong>"],
|
||
["<strong>Refuse him</strong>", "He follows anyway, arrives late, and is on the bench at the end."],
|
||
["<strong>Never tell him anything</strong>", "He is in the crowd at the epilogue asking a Registry man questions nobody will answer."]
|
||
])
|
||
+ P("<strong>Give TT-H07 here</strong> — the list of six names in Ambrose's hand, "
|
||
+ "which Rance has carried in his coat since Thursday. <strong>Do not explain it.</strong> "
|
||
+ "In Act Five they will be standing in a car with all six.")
|
||
+ H(2, "Panic triggers")
|
||
+ P("Being taken and held — 1 point to anyone disarmed and locked in. "
|
||
+ "<strong>Nothing else.</strong> This act is meant to be a hard hour in an ordinary "
|
||
+ "world, not a supernatural one.")
|
||
+ H(2, "Failure case")
|
||
+ P("<strong>If the table talks its way out in five minutes, that is a win and you have "
|
||
+ "thirty minutes back</strong> — spend them on Act Four, which always wants "
|
||
+ "more. If it goes to a fight and stalls, Shard's arrival with two hired men breaks it "
|
||
+ "up: everybody scatters, and now the agents owe Rance nothing and know nothing.") },
|
||
|
||
{ name: "6 · Act Four — Getting aboard", content:
|
||
ART("tt_03_bench", "The grade on the south bench")
|
||
+ P("<strong>Goal:</strong> the Draw, the arithmetic of a train that cannot stop, and "
|
||
+ "forty seconds of slow track. <strong>~45 minutes.</strong>")
|
||
+ READ("The Draw is a dry wash a quarter-mile across with a made grade running the length "
|
||
+ "of the south side. There is nothing on the line. At eleven minutes past the hour you "
|
||
+ "hear a whistle, and then a locomotive working hard up the grade towards you, and the "
|
||
+ "sound goes past at about thirty miles an hour, and there is nothing there.")
|
||
+ P("<strong>It passes roughly every forty minutes.</strong> Let them watch two passes "
|
||
+ "before they commit to anything. <strong>Each pass they watch moves the crossing "
|
||
+ "clock one.</strong>")
|
||
+ P("<strong>R9 — the sound is a train ACCELERATING, always</strong> — is "
|
||
+ "<em>[CUS: Listen or Engineering]</em>, or free to anybody who was at the roundhouse.")
|
||
+ H(2, "What they are up against")
|
||
+ P("<strong>The train cannot stop and cannot be flagged.</strong> Thirty miles an hour "
|
||
+ "on the level, and the only place it is slow is <strong>the top of the grade at the "
|
||
+ "water tower</strong> — about eight miles an hour, for perhaps forty seconds.")
|
||
+ P("<strong>The water tower is half a mile up the grade</strong> and it is still "
|
||
+ "standing in 1881, which it will not be in the present day. Anybody who looks at the "
|
||
+ "ground sees the answer.")
|
||
+ H(2, "The three routes")
|
||
+ ART("tt_05_boarding", "The water tower, and forty seconds of slow track")
|
||
+ P("<strong>Say which route suits whom, out loud, before they choose.</strong>")
|
||
+ TABLE(["Route", "Roll", "Suits"], [
|
||
["<strong>Drop from the tower</strong> — twelve feet onto a moving roof",
|
||
"<em>[CUS: Athletics — average; <strong>only a fumble is a fall</strong>]</em>",
|
||
"Containment, the criminal, the Field Lead"],
|
||
["<strong>Ride it down</strong> — horses alongside on the bench, step across",
|
||
"<em>[CUS: Athletics — difficult]</em>. <strong>A local does the riding</strong> — Rance, one of his men, or the liveryman.",
|
||
"Nobody, really. It is the fast option and the worst one."],
|
||
["<strong>The wagon on the grade</strong> — four horses, a plank across",
|
||
"<em>[CUS: Athletics — easy]</em>, slowest to arrange, needs the company's or Rance's help",
|
||
"<strong>The doctor and the Registry officer</strong>"]
|
||
])
|
||
+ P("<strong>THERE IS NO RIDE SKILL IN THIS GAME</strong> and the agents do not have "
|
||
+ "one. Any horse work is done by a local who is doing the players a favour, and the "
|
||
+ "agent's roll is only for the step across. Say so the moment somebody suggests "
|
||
+ "horses.")
|
||
+ P("<strong>The wagon is easier than the tower, and the tower is easier than the "
|
||
+ "horses.</strong> A party that spends twenty minutes arranging the wagon has bought "
|
||
+ "an easy roll and should get one.")
|
||
+ P("<strong>DO NOT MAKE THE TOWER DIFFICULT.</strong> 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. Playtested with 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.")
|
||
+ P("<strong>Everybody has to get on.</strong> A failed attempt gets the next pass, forty "
|
||
+ "minutes later, and the clock moves — not a full stop.")
|
||
+ P("<strong>Panic:</strong> boarding is worth a point to anybody who wants one. Offer "
|
||
+ "it; do not force it.")
|
||
+ P("<strong>At 2:55 they are aboard.</strong> 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.")
|
||
+ H(2, "Failure case")
|
||
+ P("<strong>They cannot fail this act, only pay for it.</strong> Every failure is forty "
|
||
+ "minutes and a click of the clock. If the clock reaches 5 during Act Four, tell them "
|
||
+ "plainly: <strong>one pass left.</strong>") },
|
||
|
||
{ name: "7 · Act Five — The four minutes", content:
|
||
ART("tt_06_car", "Car three, between passes")
|
||
+ P("<strong>Goal:</strong> survive a gunfight nobody started for their benefit, work out "
|
||
+ "that it repeats, and close the crossing anyway. <strong>~50 minutes.</strong>")
|
||
+ 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, and 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: <em>“You want to be somewhere "
|
||
+ "else in about six minutes.”</em>")
|
||
+ TABLE(["Where", "What"], [
|
||
["The locomotive", "<strong>Marius Kell</strong>, who has not let go of the regulator"],
|
||
["Tender, car one", "Coal that has not run out — the first hard evidence"],
|
||
["Car two", "Most of the passengers. They lie down before it starts. They have a drill."],
|
||
["<strong>Car three</strong>", "<strong>Where the fight happens.</strong> Overturned seats at both ends."],
|
||
["Car four", "Freight, the payroll box bolted down, the signed survey in the satchel"],
|
||
["Car five", "<strong>Elias Vane</strong>, alone, watching the line come out from under"]
|
||
])
|
||
+ P("<strong>Give TT-H08, the manifest, when Hester Bligh first speaks to them.</strong>")
|
||
+ H(2, "The four minutes")
|
||
+ ART("tt_08_gunfight", "The four minutes")
|
||
+ P("Starts on the whistle for the grade. Run it in rounds. <strong>It is the same four "
|
||
+ "minutes every time</strong> — same men, same shots, same two passengers hit in "
|
||
+ "the second minute.")
|
||
+ TABLE(["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 <em>put it down</em>; both sides think they said it."],
|
||
["2", "First volley. <strong>Two passengers are hit</strong> — <strong>Tom Doyle</strong>, 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."]
|
||
])
|
||
+ P("<strong>If Rance came aboard</strong>, he is in car three from minute one and he has "
|
||
+ "seen his brother. He will go to him. He cannot be talked out of it. <strong>He is "
|
||
+ "not part of the loop, so he CAN be shot</strong>, and the exposure table applies to "
|
||
+ "him as to any agent. Play him as a man with no interest at all in the mission.")
|
||
+ H(2, "HOW MUCH FIRE THE AGENTS DRAW — read before running it")
|
||
+ P("<strong>The two sides are shooting at each other, not at the agents.</strong> "
|
||
+ "Getting this wrong turns the scene into a massacre. Work out what each agent is "
|
||
+ "<em>doing</em> and give them that much fire and no more.")
|
||
+ TABLE(["The agent is", "Shooters", "Cover", "Measured over 300 runs"], [
|
||
["<strong>Head down, not acting</strong>", "none", "—", "Untouched. A legitimate choice for a pass."],
|
||
["<strong>Acting from cover</strong>", "1", "−30%", "<strong>2 of 4 hurt, half a party member down, no wipes.</strong> The intended shape."],
|
||
["<strong>Moving in the open</strong>", "2", "−30%", "3 of 4 hurt, one down. One party in 300 wiped."],
|
||
["<strong>Going for the payroll box</strong>", "2", "none", "<strong>3½ of 4 down. More than half of all parties wiped.</strong>"]
|
||
])
|
||
+ P("<strong>Tell them the last row before they commit, not after.</strong> Everything "
|
||
+ "else is survivable. <strong>Nobody rolls to hide</strong> — taking cover is a "
|
||
+ "decision, and it works.")
|
||
+ H(2, "THE LOOP RESETS. THE AGENTS DO NOT.")
|
||
+ P("Everybody who belongs to 1881 is back on their feet at the next pass, unhurt, with "
|
||
+ "no memory of having been shot. <strong>The agents are not part of the loop and their "
|
||
+ "wounds are permanent.</strong> Say this before the first volley — a player who "
|
||
+ "thinks the reset will heal them will take risks that kill them.")
|
||
+ P("A downed agent is <em>down</em>, 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.")
|
||
+ H(2, "What the players will try")
|
||
+ TABLE(["They try", "What it does"], [
|
||
["Shout, show a warrant card, take charge", "Nothing. No authority aboard is recognised. <em>[CUS: Persuade at −30% on the first pass]</em>"],
|
||
["Shoot one side", "It works, and changes nothing. Everyone is back next pass. <strong>Let that land in silence.</strong>"],
|
||
["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", "<strong>The good move.</strong> 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."]
|
||
])
|
||
+ H(2, "The paper — the ambiguity, made findable")
|
||
+ ART("tt_09_payroll", "The payroll box, car four")
|
||
+ P("<strong>Merritt</strong> carries a letter of engagement from the company: see the "
|
||
+ "box to Fallon, surrender it to no one <em>upon any pretext whatsoever, including the "
|
||
+ "presentation of any paper</em>. <strong>Ambrose</strong> carries a sealed writ of "
|
||
+ "attachment naming that same payroll against eleven weeks of unpaid wages.")
|
||
+ P("<strong>Both genuine. Neither man has seen the other's.</strong> 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.")
|
||
+ P("<strong>NO ROLL IS NEEDED TO SEE EITHER PAPER.</strong> Between passes Merritt shows "
|
||
+ "his letter to anybody who asks — he is proud of it, 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. "
|
||
+ "<strong>Do not put Persuade in front of this.</strong> Playtested with a real team, "
|
||
+ "the Field Lead's Persuade was 15% and fell to 1% under the crowd penalty.")
|
||
+ H(2, "Closing it")
|
||
+ ART("tt_10_couple", "The gap between the cars")
|
||
+ P("<strong>Kell will stop the train if a person he believes has authority tells him to, "
|
||
+ "out loud, to his face.</strong> Not on a note, not shouted from the tender. Getting "
|
||
+ "there means the gap between the cars — <em>[CUS: Athletics]</em>.")
|
||
+ P("<strong>Convincing him takes NO ROLL if they can tell him one true thing about his "
|
||
+ "own train.</strong> That the coal has not run out. That it is the same four minutes. "
|
||
+ "That the line was never on the north bench. The moment somebody who knows what is "
|
||
+ "wrong says so, he asks them to say when.")
|
||
+ P("<strong>Only a party that can tell him nothing has to roll</strong> — Persuade "
|
||
+ "or Status at average, and a failure means he wants another pass to think. "
|
||
+ "<strong>Do not gate the ending on Persuade.</strong> Seven of the ten duty-roster "
|
||
+ "agents have neither trained; playtested, three separate attempts on Kell all failed "
|
||
+ "and the scenario had no way to end.")
|
||
+ P("<strong>When the brakes go on, the loop lets go.</strong> Four minutes finish for "
|
||
+ "the first time since 1881. Tom Doyle and Josiah Ambrose do not get up. They never "
|
||
+ "did.")
|
||
+ H(2, "The choices — no roll resolves this")
|
||
+ TABLE(["Choice", "What it costs"], [
|
||
["<strong>Close it as ordered</strong>", "The mission, done. Fifty-nine released into their own century. Two men die of wounds taken in 1881, in 1881."],
|
||
["<strong>Close it, having pulled the passengers clear</strong>",
|
||
"Works for Mrs Danforth. <strong>It does not save Tom Doyle</strong> — he is shot again on every pass they spend arranging it, and the wound that kills him is the one from the pass they stop on. Nobody can save Ambrose: only stopping the train stops Merritt shooting him, and stopping the train is what kills him."],
|
||
["<strong>Try to end the fight first</strong>", "Admirable, probably impossible. Every pass moves the crossing clock; at 6 it closes with everyone inside."],
|
||
["<strong>Refuse, leave it running</strong>", "Everyone lives, for a value of living four minutes long. It fails inside a year and then nobody is released at all."]
|
||
])
|
||
+ H(2, "If they ask Vane")
|
||
+ 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. Six months of honest railwaymen repeating it made it "
|
||
+ "true. Now — you have seen the middle of the car. Two of those men do not get "
|
||
+ "up when it stops. They 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.") },
|
||
|
||
{ name: "8 · Epilogue, cast, and what not to resolve", content:
|
||
ART("tt_07_after", "Afterwards, the register")
|
||
+ P("<strong>~15 minutes.</strong> A Registry room, a form, and somebody writing down "
|
||
+ "sixty-one names.")
|
||
+ TABLE(["Ending", "What the register says"], [
|
||
["<strong>Closed as ordered</strong>", "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."],
|
||
["<strong>Closed, Mrs Danforth pulled clear first</strong>", "As above, and she keeps her arm."],
|
||
["<strong>Closed late</strong>", "The same ending, more expensively. If the clock reached 6 first, add the agents to the list."],
|
||
["<strong>Left running</strong>", "Logged, monitored, inherited. Sixty-one people continue to live four minutes. When it fails, nobody is released at all."]
|
||
])
|
||
+ P("<strong>If Rance was aboard:</strong> he is in the Registry corridor, and nobody has "
|
||
+ "told him he cannot be. He wants to know why a government he has never heard of "
|
||
+ "decided his brother should die on schedule. <strong>Let a player answer him. Do not "
|
||
+ "answer for them.</strong>")
|
||
+ P("<strong>If Rance was not aboard:</strong> he is on the north bench at dusk with six "
|
||
+ "horses and no riders coming back, and he is still there when the crossing closes.")
|
||
+ P("<strong>Registry's note on any ending:</strong> <em>“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.”</em>")
|
||
+ H(2, "NPC roster")
|
||
+ TABLE(["Who", "Essence", "Key line"], [
|
||
["<strong>Mr Bewley</strong>, Registry", "wants the chart and the truth written down", "<em>“Bring me the paper. The paper is the case.”</em>"],
|
||
["<strong>Mr Prosser</strong>, Stores", "nineteen years of this, and will not be argued with", "<em>“You may argue. I have laid out what you may take.”</em>"],
|
||
["<strong>Ada Reyes</strong>, telegraph", "an answer up the line", "<em>“It never got to Fallon. I've sent it forty times.”</em>"],
|
||
["<strong>Tobin Cray</strong>, section hand", "to not go back out there", "<em>“There's nothing on that line. I stopped standing there.”</em>"],
|
||
["<strong>Rance Doyle</strong>, miner", "his brother back, and to be taken seriously", "<em>“You've been asking after the train. So've we.”</em>"],
|
||
["<strong>Mr Shard</strong>, company detective", "names, and the reward money", "<em>“Who drank with them? That's all.”</em>"],
|
||
["<strong>Marius Kell</strong>, engineer", "to be allowed to stop", "<em>“You tell me when. I'll not do it before you say.”</em>"],
|
||
["<strong>Hester Bligh</strong>, conductor", "her passengers accounted for", "<em>“Sixty-one aboard. I have counted them every hour since.”</em>"],
|
||
["<strong>Cass Merritt</strong>, hired guard", "to see the box to Fallon, as engaged", "<em>“I have a letter. Whatever you have, I have a letter.”</em>"],
|
||
["<strong>Josiah Ambrose</strong>, miner", "eleven weeks of wages, lawfully", "<em>“There is a judge's seal on this. Read it and then shoot me.”</em>"],
|
||
["<strong>Tom Doyle</strong>, miner", "to go home. Dies at minute two, every time.", "<em>“Rance said don't. I should've listened to Rance.”</em>"],
|
||
["<strong>Elias Vane</strong>, surveyor", "to be asked, at last", "<em>“I signed it. Six months of honest men made it true.”</em>"]
|
||
])
|
||
+ H(2, "Do not resolve")
|
||
+ UL([
|
||
"<strong>Who was in the right.</strong> Both papers are genuine and the company is "
|
||
+ "not aboard to answer for it. If a player asks the GM to adjudicate, do not.",
|
||
"<strong>Why the coal has not run out.</strong> The wave sustains it; that is as far "
|
||
+ "as anyone gets.",
|
||
"<strong>What is at the far end of the line.</strong> Nobody aboard has reached it.",
|
||
"<strong>Whether closing it was a rescue.</strong> Fifty-nine people say yes. Two men "
|
||
+ "do not get to say.",
|
||
"<strong>Whether Rance forgives them.</strong> He does not say, and Registry does not ask."
|
||
])
|
||
+ H(2, "GM notes")
|
||
+ UL([
|
||
"<strong>Act One is not a briefing, it is a workplace.</strong> The birthday card "
|
||
+ "going round Accounts is doing as much work as the case file.",
|
||
"<strong>Play the passengers as people, hard</strong> — and the nine men in the "
|
||
+ "fight hardest of all.",
|
||
"<strong>Never let the players win the fight.</strong> They can survive it, shape it, "
|
||
+ "and pull people out of it. Only the brakes end it.",
|
||
"<strong>Rance is the emotional wiring of the whole case.</strong> He turns a number "
|
||
+ "into a surname.",
|
||
"<strong>Cut first:</strong> the assay office, the saloon talk, and the Act Three "
|
||
+ "fight. <strong>Never cut the boarding.</strong>"
|
||
]) }
|
||
|
||
];
|
||
|
||
/* ---------------------------------------------------------------- */
|
||
|
||
export const TT_HANDOUTS = [
|
||
|
||
{ name: "1 · Case brief", content:
|
||
P("<strong>DEPARTMENTAL CUSTODY SERVICE</strong><br>"
|
||
+ "<strong>CASE:</strong> TT-004 / MERCY DRAW<br>"
|
||
+ "<strong>CLASSIFICATION:</strong> ACROSS — PERIOD<br>"
|
||
+ "<strong>FAR SIDE:</strong> 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("<strong>Sixty-one people are aboard. They are alive.</strong> By their reckoning it "
|
||
+ "has been about nine hours.")
|
||
+ P("<strong>There is an armed exchange in progress aboard.</strong> Two parties, four "
|
||
+ "minutes, and it repeats on every pass. It has repeated approximately two million "
|
||
+ "times. Both parties are armed with period weapons and both are lethal.")
|
||
+ H(2, "Orders")
|
||
+ OL(["Establish what holds the crossing open.",
|
||
"<strong>Close it.</strong> The people aboard are then released into their own "
|
||
+ "time to live out the remainder of their lives — or not to, exactly as "
|
||
+ "they would have done had this department never existed. That is the objective. "
|
||
+ "It is not a rescue and it is not an execution.",
|
||
"Recover the filed survey. Registry wants the paper.",
|
||
"<strong>Be off it when it closes.</strong>"])
|
||
+ P("<strong>You are not authorised to prevent any death that would have occurred on 3 "
|
||
+ "November 1881.</strong> You are authorised to stop preventing them.")
|
||
+ P("<strong>Containment 6 · Resources 5 · Clearance 4</strong>")
|
||
+ P("<em>Three previous attempts are on file. None returned. All three tried to stop "
|
||
+ "the train first.</em>")
|
||
},
|
||
|
||
{ name: "2 · Standing Order 9 — period crossings", content:
|
||
P("<strong>STANDING ORDER 9</strong><br>CROSSINGS TO A DATED FAR SIDE")
|
||
+ P("<strong>NOTHING MODERN GOES THROUGH.</strong> No exceptions are granted for "
|
||
+ "convenience, and none has ever been granted for safety. You will be shot at with "
|
||
+ "1881 weapons and you will answer with 1881 weapons.")
|
||
+ OL([
|
||
"An object that does not belong to the far side is a thing the far side must also "
|
||
+ "be wrong about. <strong>Using such an object across costs one Coherence, per "
|
||
+ "object, the first time.</strong>",
|
||
"It is also a beacon. A crossing is a place where the record is already wrong. It "
|
||
+ "notices what does not fit.",
|
||
"<strong>Carrying is not using.</strong> The department does not search you. It "
|
||
+ "simply advises you that the cost falls when the thing is switched on, drawn, "
|
||
+ "worn or fired.",
|
||
"<strong>Your anchor is exempt.</strong> 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("<em>Signed for Registry. This order is older than everyone who has to obey it.</em>")
|
||
},
|
||
|
||
{ name: "3 · Issue list — 1881", content:
|
||
P("<strong>STORES · ISSUE AGAINST CASE TT-004</strong><br>"
|
||
+ "<em>Sign for each item. Sign again when you bring it back.</em>")
|
||
+ TABLE(["Item", "Note"], [
|
||
["<strong>Webley revolver</strong>", "1d10 · six shots · reloading takes a round you will not have"],
|
||
["<strong>Martini-Henry rifle</strong>", "2d6+2 · <strong>one shot</strong>, then work the lever"],
|
||
["<strong>Oil lantern</strong> + lamp oil", "it goes out, and it can be seen from a long way off"],
|
||
["<strong>Brass compass · pocket watch · spyglass</strong>", "there is nothing else to navigate or time by"],
|
||
["<strong>Buff coat</strong> or oilcloth coat", "in place of the vest"],
|
||
["<strong>Chirurgeon's roll · laudanum</strong>", "in place of the medkit"],
|
||
["<strong>Iron manacles · sealing wax · quill and ink</strong>", "you will need to write things down and lock things up"],
|
||
["<strong>Period coin</strong>", "the company will want paying and so will the livery"]
|
||
])
|
||
+ P("<strong>NOT ISSUED:</strong> handset, torch, stab vest, service pistol, medkit, "
|
||
+ "field slate, scanner, anything with a battery in it.")
|
||
+ P("<strong>KEEP:</strong> your anchor.")
|
||
},
|
||
|
||
{ name: "4 · The filed survey", content:
|
||
P("<strong>CORDERA & WESTERN RAIL ROAD CO.</strong><br>"
|
||
+ "SURVEY OF LINE — MERCY DRAW SECTION — FILED 12 APRIL 1881")
|
||
+ P("<em>A drawing. A dry wash running roughly east to west, benches marked on both "
|
||
+ "sides, and the proposed line drawn firmly along the <strong>NORTH</strong> "
|
||
+ "bench, with levels and chainages written along it in a neat hand.</em>")
|
||
+ P("<strong>Certified a true survey of the ground:</strong><br>"
|
||
+ "<strong>E. VANE</strong>, Surveyor to the Company")
|
||
+ P("<em>Countersigned, in a different and much faster hand, by a company officer whose "
|
||
+ "signature is not legible.</em>")
|
||
+ P("<strong>The line was laid on the south bench.</strong> It is still there. You have "
|
||
+ "walked on it.")
|
||
},
|
||
|
||
{ name: "5 · Company notice — No. 9 overdue", content:
|
||
P("<strong>CORDERA & WESTERN RAIL ROAD COMPANY</strong><br>"
|
||
+ "<strong>NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC</strong><br>Cordera, 4th November 1881")
|
||
+ P("<strong>TRAIN NO. 9</strong>, being the scheduled service of the 3rd instant from "
|
||
+ "Cordera to Fallon, five cars, is <strong>OVERDUE AND UNACCOUNTED</strong>. The said "
|
||
+ "train did not arrive at Fallon and has not been reported upon any portion of the "
|
||
+ "line.")
|
||
+ P("<strong>ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS REWARD</strong> is offered for information leading to "
|
||
+ "the recovery of the said train and the property aboard her.")
|
||
+ P("<strong>WANTED FOR INTERFERENCE WITH COMPANY PROPERTY:</strong> J. AMBROSE, and "
|
||
+ "five men in his company, believed to have boarded the said train at the water stop "
|
||
+ "upon a pretended paper. Any person harbouring or assisting the same will be "
|
||
+ "prosecuted to the full extent.")
|
||
+ P("<em>Inquiries to Mr SHARD, at the Bullion.</em>")
|
||
+ P("<strong>BY ORDER</strong>, the Superintendent.")
|
||
},
|
||
|
||
{ name: "6 · Working timetable and last dispatch", content:
|
||
P("<strong>CORDERA & WESTERN · WORKING TIMETABLE No. 14</strong><br>"
|
||
+ "<em>In effect 1 October 1881</em>")
|
||
+ TABLE(["Train", "Cordera", "Mercy Draw (north bench)", "Fallon"], [
|
||
["No. 9 · mixed", "10:55", "<strong>11:40</strong>", "13:20"],
|
||
["No. 4 · ore", "14:10", "14:55", "16:35"],
|
||
["No. 9 · return", "18:00", "18:45", "20:25"]
|
||
])
|
||
+ P("<em>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.</em>")
|
||
+ H(2, "Dispatcher's book · 3 November 1881")
|
||
+ P("<code>11:31 No.9 out of Cordera, on time, 61 souls and mixed freight</code><br>"
|
||
+ "<code>11:38 No.9 entering the Draw. Whistle heard. Clear road to Fallon</code><br>"
|
||
+ "<code>11:45 —</code><br>"
|
||
+ "<code>11:52 Fallon asks after No.9</code><br>"
|
||
+ "<code>12:20 Fallon says No.9 has not arrived. Line walked. Nothing found</code><br>"
|
||
+ "<code>14:00 Line walked again, both benches. Nothing found</code>")
|
||
+ P("<strong>There is no 11:45 entry.</strong> The page is not torn and nothing is "
|
||
+ "crossed out. The clerk simply had nothing to write.")
|
||
},
|
||
|
||
{ name: "7 · The writ men — six names", content:
|
||
P("<em>A leaf torn from a pocket book. Pencil, in a careful hand that is not used to "
|
||
+ "writing much. Rance Doyle has carried it since Thursday.</em>")
|
||
+ P("<strong>Went out 3rd Nov. to serve the paper on No. 9:</strong>")
|
||
+ UL(["<strong>Josiah Ambrose</strong> — has the writ",
|
||
"<strong>Tom Doyle</strong>",
|
||
"Wm. Sennett",
|
||
"P. Garrity",
|
||
"Halloran",
|
||
"the Swede — <em>Nilsson</em>"])
|
||
+ P("<em>Underneath, in the same pencil, pressed harder:</em>")
|
||
+ P("<strong>“Tom said he would be back Friday.”</strong>")
|
||
},
|
||
|
||
{ name: "8 · Passenger manifest", content:
|
||
P("<strong>No. 9 · 3 NOVEMBER 1881 · SIXTY-ONE SOULS</strong><br>"
|
||
+ "<em>Kept by H. Bligh, Conductor. Counted hourly since.</em>")
|
||
+ P("<strong>Crew (4):</strong> M. Kell, engineer · J. Doss, fireman · H. Bligh, "
|
||
+ "conductor · T. Ruiz, brakeman")
|
||
+ P("<strong>Passengers (57), in part:</strong> 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 · <strong>four unnamed, entered only as "
|
||
+ "“working passage”</strong>")
|
||
+ P("<strong>Children aboard: nine.</strong>")
|
||
+ P("<em>The conductor's count has never once come out wrong. She would like that "
|
||
+ "noted.</em>")
|
||
+ P("<strong>Nine of the sixty-one are aboard for the payroll.</strong> Four in company "
|
||
+ "coats. Five miners of the Cordera works. They are not listed together, because "
|
||
+ "nobody knew.")
|
||
},
|
||
|
||
{ name: "9 · Letter of engagement — found on Merritt", content:
|
||
P("<em>Good paper. Company letterhead, a wax seal, and a hand that has written a "
|
||
+ "thousand of these.</em>")
|
||
+ P("<strong>CORDERA & WESTERN RAIL ROAD CO.</strong><br>"
|
||
+ "Cordera, Nevada Territory · 29 October 1881")
|
||
+ P("Mr C. MERRITT,")
|
||
+ P("You are engaged by this Company, with three men of your choosing, to attend the "
|
||
+ "payroll consignment aboard No. 9 on the third proximo and to see it safe to the "
|
||
+ "Company's agent at Fallon.")
|
||
+ P("You are to admit no person to the freight car and to surrender the box to no "
|
||
+ "person save the said agent, <strong>upon any pretext whatsoever</strong>, "
|
||
+ "including the presentation of any paper, order or instrument. The Company will "
|
||
+ "answer for any such paper in its own courts and not upon its own train.")
|
||
+ P("Your fee is fixed at the sum agreed. The key travels with you.")
|
||
+ P("<em>Signed for the Company</em> — <strong>and the signature is not "
|
||
+ "legible.</strong>")
|
||
},
|
||
|
||
{ name: "10 · Writ of attachment — found on Ambrose", content:
|
||
P("<em>Cheaper paper, folded small and carried a long time. A court seal, pressed "
|
||
+ "properly, and a judge's hand.</em>")
|
||
+ P("<strong>IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE TERRITORY OF NEVADA</strong><br>"
|
||
+ "IN THE MATTER OF <strong>AMBROSE AND OTHERS</strong> against "
|
||
+ "<strong>THE CORDERA & WESTERN RAIL ROAD CO.</strong>")
|
||
+ P("Upon the sworn complaint of Josiah Ambrose and forty-one others, labourers of the "
|
||
+ "Cordera works, that wages for eleven weeks stand unpaid;")
|
||
+ P("<strong>IT IS ORDERED</strong> that the sum of the payroll consignment now carried "
|
||
+ "by the said Company be <strong>ATTACHED</strong> to the satisfaction of the said "
|
||
+ "wages, and that the complainants or their nominees may take and hold the same "
|
||
+ "against the accounting of this Court.")
|
||
+ P("Dated at Fallon this 1st day of November, 1881.")
|
||
+ P("<em>Sealed and signed by the Judge.</em>")
|
||
+ P("<strong>Both of these are genuine. Neither man has seen the other's.</strong>")
|
||
}
|
||
];
|
||
|
||
/* ---------------------------------------------------------------- */
|
||
|
||
export const TT_CAST = [
|
||
|
||
{ key: "tt_bewley", name: "Mr Bewley",
|
||
role: "BUREAU, present day. Registry. Holds the case file and signs for the agents.",
|
||
chosenStyle: "deliberate", naturalArmour: 0, species: "baseline",
|
||
ch: { str: 9, siz: 11, con: 11, int: 16, pow: 14, dex: 10, cha: 12, edu: 17 },
|
||
skills: [{ fam: "research", spec: "", val: 75 },
|
||
{ fam: "knowledge", spec: "", val: 65 },
|
||
{ fam: "anomaly_lore", spec: "", val: 60 },
|
||
{ fam: "insight", spec: "", val: 50 }],
|
||
weapons: ["punch"],
|
||
tactics: "Sixties, cardigan, reading glasses pushed up. He is NOT mysterious and he is "
|
||
+ "NOT withholding: he answers every question he can answer and says plainly when he "
|
||
+ "cannot. HE IS WRONG ABOUT ONE THING and does not know it — he believes the crossing "
|
||
+ "puts you on the grade, because the three teams who found out otherwise never came "
|
||
+ "back to correct the file. Do not have him hedge about it. He is confident and he is "
|
||
+ "mistaken, and that is the whole trick of Act One." },
|
||
|
||
{ key: "tt_prosser", name: "Mr Prosser",
|
||
role: "BUREAU, present day. Stores. Takes the modern kit off them.",
|
||
chosenStyle: "deliberate", naturalArmour: 0, species: "baseline",
|
||
ch: { str: 12, siz: 12, con: 13, int: 12, pow: 13, dex: 11, cha: 10, edu: 11 },
|
||
skills: [{ fam: "knowledge", spec: "", val: 55 },
|
||
{ fam: "repair", spec: "mechanical", val: 50 },
|
||
{ fam: "bargain", spec: "", val: 45 }],
|
||
weapons: ["punch"],
|
||
tactics: "Nineteen years behind that counter and entirely immovable. He does not "
|
||
+ "threaten and he does not explain twice. If a player argues, he waits until they "
|
||
+ "have finished and then says the same thing again. He is the scenario's way of "
|
||
+ "teaching Standing Order 9 without a lecture, so let him win every exchange. If "
|
||
+ "asked whether people smuggle things through: 'Constantly. It costs them.'" },
|
||
|
||
{ key: "tt_rance", name: "Rance Doyle",
|
||
role: "1881, Cordera. Miner. His brother Tom went out on No. 9 and did not come back.",
|
||
chosenStyle: "reflex", naturalArmour: 0, species: "baseline",
|
||
ch: { str: 15, siz: 14, con: 15, int: 12, pow: 15, dex: 13, cha: 13, edu: 6 },
|
||
skills: [{ fam: "firearm", spec: "rifle", val: 45 },
|
||
{ fam: "brawl", spec: "", val: 55 },
|
||
{ fam: "insight", spec: "", val: 50 },
|
||
{ fam: "navigate", spec: "", val: 45 },
|
||
{ fam: "athletics", spec: "", val: 50 }],
|
||
weapons: ["punch", "martini"],
|
||
tactics: "THE EMOTIONAL WIRING OF THE WHOLE CASE. Thirties, hard hands, eleven weeks "
|
||
+ "unpaid, and his brother has been missing for a day. He takes the agents for company "
|
||
+ "detectives and he is NOT WRONG TO. He can be talked round with the truth and ONLY "
|
||
+ "with the truth — no roll needed, and no roll saves a lie. He calls off his men the "
|
||
+ "moment anybody goes down, because he has already lost enough this week. If taken "
|
||
+ "aboard he is in car three when Tom is shot, every pass, and he is not part of the "
|
||
+ "loop, so he can be killed. He has no interest at all in the mission." },
|
||
|
||
{ key: "tt_shard", name: "Mr Shard",
|
||
role: "1881, Cordera. Company detective. Buying drinks and collecting names.",
|
||
chosenStyle: "reflex", naturalArmour: 0, species: "baseline",
|
||
ch: { str: 12, siz: 12, con: 12, int: 14, pow: 13, dex: 13, cha: 14, edu: 10 },
|
||
skills: [{ fam: "firearm", spec: "pistol", val: 55 },
|
||
{ fam: "insight", spec: "", val: 60 },
|
||
{ fam: "fast_talk", spec: "", val: 55 },
|
||
{ fam: "spot", spec: "", val: 50 }],
|
||
weapons: ["punch", "webley"],
|
||
tactics: "Pleasant, patient, and paid by the day. He wants the six names and he does not "
|
||
+ "much mind how he gets them. USE HIM AS PRESSURE, NOT AS A FIGHT: he is the reason "
|
||
+ "Rance is jumpy and the reason strangers asking about the train are a problem. If Act "
|
||
+ "Three stalls into a brawl, Shard arriving with two hired men is the button that "
|
||
+ "breaks it up. He will offer the agents money for what they know." },
|
||
|
||
{ key: "tt_cordera_man", name: "Cordera man (town)",
|
||
role: "1881. One of Rance's five in the street. Use for all of them.",
|
||
chosenStyle: "reflex", naturalArmour: 0, species: "baseline",
|
||
ch: { str: 14, siz: 13, con: 13, int: 10, pow: 11, dex: 11, cha: 10, edu: 5 },
|
||
skills: [{ fam: "firearm", spec: "pistol", val: 35 },
|
||
{ fam: "brawl", spec: "", val: 45 },
|
||
{ fam: "dodge", spec: "", val: 30 }],
|
||
weapons: ["punch", "webley"],
|
||
tactics: "NOT TRYING TO KILL ANYBODY. These are unpaid miners who want to take the "
|
||
+ "strangers somewhere quiet and ask them questions. They aim for legs, they close to "
|
||
+ "grapple, and they stop the instant Rance says stop. A downed agent is captured and "
|
||
+ "a doctor is fetched. If the agents shoot to kill, these men die easily and the town "
|
||
+ "closes to the party for good." },
|
||
|
||
{ key: "tt_tom_doyle", name: "Tom Doyle",
|
||
role: "1881, aboard. Rance's brother. Shot at minute two of every pass.",
|
||
chosenStyle: "reflex", naturalArmour: 0, species: "baseline",
|
||
ch: { str: 13, siz: 12, con: 13, int: 11, pow: 12, dex: 12, cha: 12, edu: 6 },
|
||
skills: [{ fam: "firearm", spec: "rifle", val: 35 },
|
||
{ fam: "brawl", spec: "", val: 45 },
|
||
{ fam: "dodge", spec: "", val: 30 }],
|
||
weapons: ["punch", "martini"],
|
||
tactics: "Twenty-four, and the youngest man in the car. He is hit in the second minute "
|
||
+ "of every pass and he has been hit two million times. Between passes he is friendly, "
|
||
+ "embarrassed, and asks after the road home. HE DIES WHEN THE LOOP LETS GO. The agents "
|
||
+ "can pull him clear of the volley on any given pass and it changes nothing — the "
|
||
+ "wound that kills him is the one from the pass they stop on. If Rance is aboard, "
|
||
+ "these two find each other, and that is the scene the act is really for." },
|
||
|
||
|
||
{ 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." },
|
||
|
||
{ key: "tt_merritt", name: "Cass Merritt",
|
||
role: "1881. Hired guard, the coats. Has the company's letter and the key to the box.",
|
||
chosenStyle: "reflex", naturalArmour: 1, species: "baseline",
|
||
ch: { str: 13, siz: 13, con: 14, int: 12, pow: 13, dex: 14, cha: 12, edu: 9 },
|
||
skills: [{ fam: "firearm", spec: "pistol", val: 65 },
|
||
{ fam: "brawl", spec: "", val: 50 },
|
||
{ fam: "spot", spec: "", val: 50 },
|
||
{ fam: "dodge", spec: "", val: 40 }],
|
||
weapons: ["punch", "webley"],
|
||
tactics: "Forties, a good long coat, entirely unexcited. He was hired to see the payroll "
|
||
+ "to Fallon and he has a signed letter saying so. HE IS NOT A VILLAIN and he is not "
|
||
+ "greedy — he is a competent man doing the job he was paid for against men he has "
|
||
+ "every reason to think are robbers. Falls back to the car four door at minute three "
|
||
+ "and holds it. Shoots Ambrose through that door at minute four, every time. He will "
|
||
+ "not stand down for a judge's paper he has never seen while he is being shot at, and "
|
||
+ "he will listen afterwards, which is too late and is the point." },
|
||
|
||
{ key: "tt_ambrose", name: "Josiah Ambrose",
|
||
role: "1881. Miner, the writ men. Carries a court order for the payroll. Dies at minute four.",
|
||
chosenStyle: "reflex", naturalArmour: 0, species: "baseline",
|
||
ch: { str: 15, siz: 14, con: 15, int: 13, pow: 15, dex: 12, cha: 14, edu: 8 },
|
||
skills: [{ fam: "firearm", spec: "pistol", val: 45 },
|
||
{ fam: "brawl", spec: "", val: 55 },
|
||
{ fam: "persuade", spec: "", val: 50 },
|
||
{ fam: "status", spec: "", val: 40 }],
|
||
weapons: ["punch", "webley"],
|
||
tactics: "Eleven weeks unpaid, five men behind him, and a writ of attachment from a "
|
||
+ "territorial judge in his coat. He believes — correctly — that he is lawfully seizing "
|
||
+ "money owed to him and being shot at for it. He gets to the payroll box at minute "
|
||
+ "four and Merritt shoots him through the door. HE DIES WHEN THE LOOP LETS GO, and "
|
||
+ "nothing the agents do in the four minutes prevents it; only closing the crossing "
|
||
+ "does, and closing the crossing is what kills him. Sit with that before you run him." },
|
||
|
||
{ key: "tt_coat", name: "Company guard",
|
||
role: "1881. One of Merritt's three. Use for all of them.",
|
||
chosenStyle: "reflex", naturalArmour: 1, species: "baseline",
|
||
ch: { str: 12, siz: 12, con: 12, int: 10, pow: 11, dex: 12, cha: 10, edu: 8 },
|
||
skills: [{ fam: "firearm", spec: "pistol", val: 45 },
|
||
{ fam: "brawl", spec: "", val: 40 },
|
||
{ fam: "dodge", spec: "", val: 30 }],
|
||
weapons: ["punch", "webley"],
|
||
tactics: "Webley, 1d10, six shots and a slow reload. Fires down the length of car three "
|
||
+ "and takes cover behind the seat backs. WILL SHOOT AN AGENT who crosses the aisle or "
|
||
+ "moves toward the box, because from where he is standing that is what a robber's "
|
||
+ "friend looks like. Withdraws to the car four door with Merritt at minute three." },
|
||
|
||
{ key: "tt_writman", name: "Cordera miner",
|
||
role: "1881. One of Ambrose's four. Use for all of them.",
|
||
chosenStyle: "reflex", naturalArmour: 0, species: "baseline",
|
||
ch: { str: 14, siz: 13, con: 14, int: 10, pow: 12, dex: 11, cha: 11, edu: 6 },
|
||
skills: [{ fam: "firearm", spec: "rifle", val: 40 },
|
||
{ fam: "brawl", spec: "", val: 50 },
|
||
{ fam: "dodge", spec: "", val: 30 }],
|
||
weapons: ["punch", "martini"],
|
||
tactics: "Martini-Henry, 2d6+2, ONE SHOT then work the lever — which is why the fight "
|
||
+ "has the rhythm it has. Not a soldier. Frightened, angry, owed money, and shooting "
|
||
+ "at men who are shooting at him. Takes the overturned seats at minute three. Will "
|
||
+ "shoot an agent who moves toward Merritt's end of the car." }
|
||
];
|
||
|
||
export const TT_CASE = {
|
||
key: "tt_case",
|
||
name: "TT-004 · Mercy Draw",
|
||
containment: 6, resources: 5, clearance: 4,
|
||
destination: "Mercy Draw, Nevada Territory, 4 November 1881",
|
||
standings: [],
|
||
notes:
|
||
"<p><strong>Crossing clock 0 / 6.</strong> Move it on each pass of the train, when "
|
||
+ "somebody uses a modern object across, and on a fumbled attempt to board.</p>"
|
||
+ "<p>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.</p>"
|
||
+ "<p><strong>The crossing opens on the NORTH bench</strong> — where the record says "
|
||
+ "the line is, not where it is. Registry's file has this wrong and Bewley believes "
|
||
+ "the file.</p>"
|
||
+ "<p><strong>Standing Order 9 is live:</strong> using any modern item across costs 1 "
|
||
+ "Coherence the first time and moves this clock. Carrying costs nothing. Anchors "
|
||
+ "are exempt.</p>"
|
||
+ "<p><strong>Issued for this case:</strong> 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.</p>",
|
||
legs: [
|
||
{ label: "Act Two — across, and find the line", kindId: "approach", difficulty: "average", mod: 0 },
|
||
{ label: "Act Three — Cordera, and Rance Doyle's men", kindId: "cordon", difficulty: "average", mod: -5 },
|
||
{ label: "Act Four — board the train", kindId: "containment", difficulty: "difficult", mod: -10 },
|
||
{ label: "Act Five — the four minutes, and out", kindId: "extraction", difficulty: "average", mod: -10 }
|
||
]
|
||
};
|