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Add chance and a cast that changes between runs, and a pack to try them

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An option used to do exactly what it said. Now it may carry a check: one of
four attributes (Nerve, Wits, Charm, Resolve) against a set difficulty or
against a named person's own attribute, leaning on how they regard you, with a
success and a failure. The player sees only the odds in words ("a long shot",
"likely"), never a number. The roll is one draw from the run's generator, so a
run still replays exactly from its seed and choices.

A character may be a role with several authored candidates, one drawn per run,
or a group of two to four drawn into numbered slots. Everyone carries a name, a
description and the same four attributes as the player, so a replayed pack
meets a different office. Text names people as {partner} or {clerk}, and an
event about "a clerk" binds one present clerk for the turn. The draw and the
binding are saved with the run, and a save from before a pack drew a cast gets
the same one every time it is loaded.

All of it is generic and optional: Corporate Ladder and the Frontier use none
of it and play as before. The Counting House, a one-stage office about 1910
built from the story-to-pack catalogue, exercises it, and was tuned against the
conformance suite by measurement. DECISIONS #41. Version 0.4.0.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_018MhABSrqkwTdcybXmheDPr
This commit is contained in:
JesseMarkowitz
2026-09-23 22:12:26 -04:00
co-authored by Claude Opus 5.5
parent 112e558dbb
commit 3108319a2b
25 changed files with 2257 additions and 77 deletions
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content/countinghouse/characters.js
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// Harrow & Pike's counting house, as it might be staffed.
//
// Nobody here is fixed. Each role has several people who could fill it, and a
// run draws one partner, one chief clerk and two to four clerks from them
// (DECISIONS #41), so a second career in the same pack meets a different
// office. Every candidate carries the same four attributes the player does,
// and a description that should agree with them: a partner written as sharp
// has the wits to see through a bluff, and one written as easily flattered
// does not.
//
// Descriptions may name another role in braces, filled from whoever was drawn
// into it, so a nephew can be the nephew of whichever partner this run has.
export const characters = [
{
id: 'partner',
role_type: 'boss',
title: 'Senior Partner',
candidates: [
{
name: 'Josiah Crane',
description:
'Built the house from one room and a borrowed desk. Remembers every figure ' +
'he has ever been shown, and forgives very few of them.',
attributes: { nerve: 7, wits: 8, charm: 3, resolve: 8 },
startingRelationship: { trust: 40 },
},
{
name: 'Harriet Voss',
description:
'Took over the firm when her husband died and has doubled it since. ' +
'Listens to everything and says about a fifth of it.',
attributes: { nerve: 6, wits: 9, charm: 5, resolve: 7 },
},
{
name: 'Lionel Ashby',
description:
'Inherited the chair and would rather be at his club. Easily flattered, ' +
'easily bored, and sharper than he lets anyone see.',
attributes: { nerve: 4, wits: 6, charm: 7, resolve: 3 },
startingRelationship: { regard: 55 },
},
],
},
{
id: 'chief',
role_type: 'supervisor',
title: 'Chief Clerk',
candidates: [
{
name: 'Silas Pruett',
description:
'Thirty years at the same high desk. Counts the pen nibs on Fridays and ' +
'knows to the penny what the stationery cupboard should hold.',
attributes: { nerve: 5, wits: 6, charm: 2, resolve: 9 },
},
{
name: 'Ada Kemble',
description:
'Runs the floor with a pencil behind her ear and a list, kept in the ' +
'same pencil, of everybody\'s lapses.',
attributes: { nerve: 6, wits: 7, charm: 4, resolve: 7 },
startingRelationship: { trust: 40 },
},
{
name: 'Horace Lumb',
description:
'Wanted your desk for somebody else\'s nephew and has not forgotten it. ' +
'Polite to your face, in a way that takes some effort.',
attributes: { nerve: 4, wits: 5, charm: 5, resolve: 6 },
startingRelationship: { regard: 35 },
},
],
},
{
id: 'clerk',
role_type: 'peer',
title: 'Clerk',
count: [2, 4],
candidates: [
{
name: 'Tom Bassett',
description: 'Cheerful, generous with other people\'s time, and a borrower of small sums he means to repay.',
attributes: { nerve: 5, wits: 4, charm: 7, resolve: 3 },
},
{
name: 'Nell Farrow',
description: 'The quickest pen on the floor and does not mind who knows it. Wants the next desk up, and soon.',
attributes: { nerve: 5, wits: 8, charm: 5, resolve: 6 },
startingRelationship: { regard: 40 },
},
{
name: 'Arthur Quill',
description: 'Timid, exact, and never wrong about a column of figures. Apologises to doors.',
attributes: { nerve: 2, wits: 7, charm: 3, resolve: 7 },
},
{
name: 'Joe Madden',
description: 'The loudest laugh in the building and most of the jokes, not all of them kind.',
attributes: { nerve: 7, wits: 4, charm: 6, resolve: 3 },
},
{
name: 'Lottie Swain',
description: 'Types the partner\'s letters and so knows everything a week early. Tells almost none of it.',
attributes: { nerve: 4, wits: 7, charm: 7, resolve: 5 },
},
{
name: 'Percy Dyer',
description: 'A nephew of {partner}\'s, sent to learn the business. Has so far learned where the kettle is.',
attributes: { nerve: 3, wits: 3, charm: 6, resolve: 2 },
startingRelationship: { trust: 40 },
},
{
name: 'Walt Rudge',
description: 'Twenty years a clerk and content with it. The one everyone asks, and the last to be thanked.',
attributes: { nerve: 6, wits: 6, charm: 4, resolve: 8 },
},
],
},
];
export default characters;
content/countinghouse/events.js
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// A clerk's days at Harrow & Pike.
//
// Every situation here comes from the story-to-pack catalogue (tools/
// story-to-pack/probe/catalogue/v3), where it recurred across public-domain
// office fiction: Torchy's door, Keefe's pay talk, Pooter's cheeky juniors,
// Lorimer's hard boss. The id names the catalogue entry where one fits.
//
// This pack exists to try checks and a drawn cast (DECISIONS #41). Most options
// test one of the four attributes, against a named person or against a set
// difficulty, and say what happens either way; the player sees only the odds
// in words. Names are written as `{partner}`, `{chief}` and `{clerk}` and filled
// from whoever this run drew. An event about "a clerk" lists `clerk` in
// `involves`, and the engine picks one present clerk for the turn.
const moment = (text) => ({ path: 'notable', op: 'push', value: text });
export const events = [
{
id: 'first_day',
stage: 'desk',
weight: 1000,
once: true,
involves: ['clerk'],
description:
'Your first morning at Harrow & Pike. {chief} shows you a stool, a pen, a ' +
'blotter and the clock, in that order, and leaves you to draw your own ' +
'conclusions about which matters most.',
options: [
{
id: 'before_the_clock',
label: 'Be on the stool before the clock is.',
result: '{chief} notices, and writes something down. It may even be good.',
effects: [
{ path: 'relationships.chief.regard', op: 'add', value: 4 },
moment('Began at Harrow & Pike, early.'),
],
},
{
id: 'meet_the_floor',
label: 'Go round and introduce yourself to {clerk}.',
result: '{clerk} shakes your hand and tells you which of the pens leak.',
effects: [
{ path: 'relationships.{clerk}.regard', op: 'add', value: 5 },
moment('Began at Harrow & Pike, and met {clerk} first.'),
],
},
],
},
// The floor: the one event nothing can exclude.
{
id: 'the_ledgers',
stage: 'desk',
weight: 40,
description:
'The ledgers are the same as last week\'s, only longer. {chief} has left a ' +
'note on your blotter about the width of your margins.',
options: [
{
id: 'head_down',
label: 'Keep your head down and work.',
result: 'The day goes into the columns, as days here do.',
effects: [
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 1 },
{ path: 'relationships.chief.trust', op: 'add', value: 1 },
],
},
{
id: 'stay_late',
label: 'Stay on after six to finish the day book.',
result: 'Overtime is paid, at the rate the firm thinks overtime is worth.',
effects: [
{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 2 },
{ path: 'relationships.chief.regard', op: 'add', value: 1 },
],
},
{
id: 'ease_off',
label: 'Make the day last.',
result: 'Nobody notices, today.',
effects: [{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -1 }],
},
],
},
{
id: 'ask_for_more',
stage: 'desk',
weight: 25,
cooldown: 12,
requires: [
{ path: 'turn', op: '>=', value: 10 },
{ path: 'rises', op: '<', value: 3 },
],
description:
'You have been at the desk long enough to know what the work is worth, and ' +
'your lodgings have not got any cheaper. {partner} is in, and alone.',
options: [
{
id: 'ask',
label: 'Knock, and ask {partner} for a rise.',
check: { attribute: 'charm', against: 'partner', opposedBy: 'wits', relationship: 'trust' },
success: {
result: '{partner} looks at you for a long moment and says the firm can manage something.',
effects: [
{ path: 'rises', op: 'add', value: 1 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 3 },
moment('Asked {partner} for a rise, and got it.'),
],
},
failure: {
result: '{partner} asks whether you have any idea what a clerk is worth. You find you do not.',
effects: [
{ path: 'relationships.partner.trust', op: 'add', value: -5 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -2 },
],
},
},
{
id: 'hint',
label: 'Say nothing directly; mention the price of lodgings.',
check: { attribute: 'wits', difficulty: 5 },
success: {
result: '{partner} takes the point and, better, thinks it was a delicate one.',
effects: [{ path: 'relationships.partner.regard', op: 'add', value: 4 }],
},
failure: {
result: '{partner} agrees that lodgings are very dear and goes back to the post.',
effects: [],
},
},
{
id: 'not_yet',
label: 'Wait for a better moment.',
result: 'There will be one. There usually is.',
effects: [],
},
],
},
{
id: 'called_in',
stage: 'desk',
weight: 30,
cooldown: 8,
involves: ['clerk'],
description:
'{chief} has found a column that does not add up, and it is in your hand. You ' +
'are to explain it, standing, in front of the high desk.',
options: [
{
id: 'own_up',
label: 'Say plainly that it was your mistake.',
check: { attribute: 'resolve', difficulty: 4 },
success: {
result: 'It is noted, and then, which is rarer, it is let go.',
effects: [
{ path: 'relationships.partner.trust', op: 'add', value: 4 },
{ path: 'attributes.resolve', op: 'add', value: 1 },
],
},
failure: {
result: 'You start well and finish apologising for the weather.',
effects: [{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -2 }],
},
},
{
id: 'argue',
label: 'Argue that the figures were right.',
check: { attribute: 'wits', against: 'chief' },
success: {
result: 'They were. {chief} checks twice and hands the page back without a word.',
effects: [
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 3 },
{ path: 'relationships.chief.regard', op: 'add', value: -4 },
],
},
failure: {
result: 'They were not, and now everybody knows you thought they were.',
effects: [
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -4 },
{ path: 'relationships.partner.trust', op: 'add', value: -3 },
],
},
},
{
id: 'blame',
label: 'Say the figures came from {clerk}\'s desk.',
check: { attribute: 'wits', against: 'chief' },
success: {
result: '{chief} goes to find {clerk}. You do not watch.',
effects: [
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 1 },
{ path: 'relationships.{clerk}.trust', op: 'add', value: -8 },
],
},
failure: {
result: '{chief} has the day book open at your page before you finish the sentence.',
effects: [
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -5 },
{ path: 'relationships.{clerk}.trust', op: 'add', value: -10 },
{ path: 'relationships.partner.trust', op: 'add', value: -5 },
moment('Tried to put a mistake on {clerk}, and was found out.'),
],
},
},
],
},
{
id: 'the_door',
stage: 'desk',
weight: 30,
cooldown: 6,
description:
'A caller in a good coat wants {partner} and will not give his name. You ' +
'were told the partner was not to be disturbed before three.',
options: [
{
id: 'turn_away',
label: 'Tell him the partner is out.',
check: { attribute: 'nerve', difficulty: 5 },
success: {
result: 'He goes. {partner} hears of it later and approves of the lie.',
effects: [{ path: 'relationships.partner.trust', op: 'add', value: 3 }],
},
failure: {
result: 'He sits down to wait, and {partner} comes out at a quarter past and finds him there.',
effects: [
{ path: 'relationships.partner.regard', op: 'add', value: -3 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -1 },
],
},
},
{
id: 'size_him_up',
label: 'Size him up and decide for yourself.',
check: { attribute: 'wits', difficulty: 6 },
success: {
result: 'You read him right. He mattered, and he got in, and {partner} knows who let him.',
effects: [
{ path: 'relationships.partner.trust', op: 'add', value: 5 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 2 },
moment('Judged a caller at the door, and judged him right.'),
],
},
failure: {
result: 'He was selling encyclopaedias, and {partner} bought one to get rid of him.',
effects: [{ path: 'relationships.partner.trust', op: 'add', value: -4 }],
},
},
{
id: 'pass_it_on',
label: 'Fetch {chief} and let it be somebody else\'s decision.',
result: '{chief} deals with it, and with you, briefly.',
effects: [{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -1 }],
},
],
},
{
id: 'needled',
stage: 'desk',
weight: 40,
cooldown: 4,
involves: ['clerk'],
description:
'{clerk} reads your last letter aloud in a voice meant to be yours, and the ' +
'floor laughs, and keeps laughing longer than it deserves.',
options: [
{
id: 'let_it_go',
label: 'Let it pass.',
result: 'It passes. They will remember that you let it.',
effects: [
{ path: 'relationships.{clerk}.regard', op: 'add', value: 1 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -1 },
],
},
{
id: 'retort',
label: 'Answer {clerk} back, with the floor listening.',
check: { attribute: 'wits', against: '{clerk}', relationship: 'regard' },
success: {
result: 'It gets a bigger laugh than the letter did, and {clerk} laughs too.',
effects: [
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 2 },
{ path: 'relationships.{clerk}.regard', op: 'add', value: 3 },
],
},
failure: {
result: 'It comes out too sharp, and the laugh turns on you.',
effects: [
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -2 },
{ path: 'relationships.{clerk}.regard', op: 'add', value: -3 },
],
},
},
{
id: 'report',
label: 'Mention it to {chief}.',
result: '{chief} has a word. {clerk} knows where it came from.',
effects: [
{ path: 'relationships.chief.trust', op: 'add', value: 2 },
{ path: 'relationships.{clerk}.trust', op: 'add', value: -6 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -1 },
],
},
],
},
{
id: 'red_ink',
stage: 'desk',
weight: 30,
cooldown: 6,
description:
'{chief} has gone over your morning\'s work in red ink, and left the page ' +
'open on the high desk where the whole floor can see it.',
options: [
{
id: 'swallow_it',
label: 'Take it, and do the page again.',
result: 'You do it again. {chief} initials it without looking up.',
effects: [
{ path: 'relationships.chief.regard', op: 'add', value: 2 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -1 },
],
},
{
id: 'answer_back',
label: 'Point out that the red ink is wrong.',
check: { attribute: 'wits', against: 'chief' },
success: {
result: 'It is, in two places. {chief} says nothing, which from {chief.first} is a concession.',
effects: [
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 2 },
{ path: 'relationships.chief.regard', op: 'add', value: 3 },
],
},
failure: {
result: 'The red ink is right. It usually is.',
effects: [
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -2 },
{ path: 'relationships.chief.regard', op: 'add', value: -5 },
],
},
},
{
id: 'over_the_head',
label: 'Take the page to {partner}.',
check: { attribute: 'charm', against: 'partner', opposedBy: 'resolve', relationship: 'trust' },
success: {
result: '{partner} reads it, and has a word with {chief}, and {chief} has one with you.',
effects: [
{ path: 'relationships.partner.trust', op: 'add', value: 3 },
{ path: 'relationships.chief.regard', op: 'add', value: -8 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 2 },
moment('Went over {chief}\'s head, and it worked.'),
],
},
failure: {
result: '{partner} says the chief clerk runs the floor, and asks whether there was anything else.',
effects: [
{ path: 'relationships.partner.trust', op: 'add', value: -4 },
{ path: 'relationships.chief.regard', op: 'add', value: -8 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -3 },
],
},
},
],
},
{
id: 'sure_thing',
stage: 'desk',
weight: 15,
cooldown: 20,
description:
'A pleasant man at the chop-house has a share in a tramway in Brazil going ' +
'begging. Twelve dollars today, he says, will be forty by Christmas.',
options: [
{
id: 'buy_in',
label: 'Put in twelve dollars.',
effects: [{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -12 }],
check: { attribute: 'wits', difficulty: 7 },
success: {
result: 'Against every expectation, including his, it pays.',
effects: [{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 30 }, moment('Bought a share in a tramway, and it paid.')],
},
failure: {
result: 'There is no tramway. There is, briefly, a man.',
effects: [moment('Bought a share in a tramway that did not exist.')],
},
},
{
id: 'see_through',
label: 'Ask him the one question he cannot answer.',
check: { attribute: 'wits', difficulty: 6 },
success: {
result: 'He finds he has an appointment. You find you are sharper than you were.',
effects: [{ path: 'attributes.wits', op: 'add', value: 1 }, moment('Saw through a tramway in Brazil.')],
},
failure: {
result: 'He answers it smoothly, and you are left not knowing.',
effects: [],
},
},
{
id: 'decline',
label: 'Keep your money in your pocket.',
result: 'He is sorry for you, he says, and goes to find someone less careful.',
effects: [],
},
],
},
{
id: 'the_round',
stage: 'desk',
weight: 30,
cooldown: 5,
involves: ['clerk'],
description:
'{clerk} and the others are going to the chop-house after work, and they ' +
'have kept you a place. The round there is not cheap.',
options: [
{
id: 'go',
label: 'Go, and stand your round.',
result: 'A good evening, and a dear one.',
effects: [
{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -5 },
{ path: 'relationships.{clerk}.regard', op: 'add', value: 4 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 1 },
],
},
{
id: 'talk_your_way',
label: 'Go, and talk your way out of the round.',
check: { attribute: 'charm', against: '{clerk}', opposedBy: 'wits' },
success: {
result: 'Nobody notices you never reached for your purse, and {clerk} laughs at all your jokes.',
effects: [{ path: 'relationships.{clerk}.regard', op: 'add', value: 3 }],
},
failure: {
result: '{clerk} notices, and says so, and you pay for the round and the remark.',
effects: [
{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -5 },
{ path: 'relationships.{clerk}.regard', op: 'add', value: -2 },
],
},
},
{
id: 'excuse',
label: 'Make an excuse and go home.',
result: 'They go without you. They will ask again, perhaps.',
effects: [{ path: 'relationships.{clerk}.regard', op: 'add', value: -2 }],
},
],
},
{
id: 'night_school',
stage: 'desk',
weight: 25,
cooldown: 5,
requires: [{ path: 'money', op: '>=', value: 3 }],
description:
'A card in the tram window: evening classes in bookkeeping, in the art of ' +
'address, and at the boxing club behind the Institute. Three dollars a course.',
options: [
{
id: 'bookkeeping',
label: 'Take the bookkeeping course.',
result: 'Double entry, twice a week. Your columns begin to add up before you do.',
effects: [{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -3 }, { path: 'attributes.wits', op: 'add', value: 1 }],
},
{
id: 'address',
label: 'Take the art of address.',
result: 'You learn when to say nothing, which is most of it.',
effects: [{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -3 }, { path: 'attributes.charm', op: 'add', value: 1 }],
},
{
id: 'boxing',
label: 'Join the boxing club.',
result: 'You are hit in the face by a draper. It does you a world of good.',
effects: [{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -3 }, { path: 'attributes.nerve', op: 'add', value: 1 }],
},
{
id: 'not_this_term',
label: 'Not this term.',
result: 'The card is still there next week.',
effects: [],
},
],
},
{
id: 'stand_in',
stage: 'desk',
weight: 15,
cooldown: 10,
requires: [{ path: 'standing', op: '>=', value: 45 }],
description:
'{partner} is laid up and sends you, of all people, to sit in on the meeting ' +
'with the shipping agents. You are to listen, and to say as little as possible.',
options: [
{
id: 'listen',
label: 'Listen, and take good notes.',
result: 'Your notes are better than the minutes. {partner} keeps them.',
effects: [
{ path: 'relationships.partner.trust', op: 'add', value: 2 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 1 },
],
},
{
id: 'speak_up',
label: 'Say the thing you noticed in their figures.',
check: { attribute: 'wits', difficulty: 7 },
success: {
result: 'You were right, the agents know it, and so, by the afternoon, does {partner}.',
effects: [
{ path: 'relationships.partner.trust', op: 'add', value: 6 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 5 },
moment('Spoke up at the agents\' meeting in {partner}\'s place, and was right.'),
],
},
failure: {
result: 'You were wrong in front of people who were paid to be right.',
effects: [
{ path: 'relationships.partner.trust', op: 'add', value: -4 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -3 },
],
},
},
{
id: 'charm_them',
label: 'Charm the agents over lunch.',
check: { attribute: 'charm', difficulty: 6 },
success: {
result: 'They like you. They say so to {partner}, which is the point.',
effects: [
{ path: 'relationships.partner.regard', op: 'add', value: 5 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 3 },
],
},
failure: {
result: 'The lunch is long, and you pay for it.',
effects: [
{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -4 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -1 },
],
},
},
],
},
{
id: 'lost_bill',
stage: 'desk',
weight: 20,
cooldown: 12,
involves: ['clerk'],
description:
'{clerk} has lost a bill of lading, and {chief} is talking about a letter to ' +
'the partner. {clerk} has not looked up from the desk all morning.',
options: [
{
id: 'speak_for',
label: 'Put {clerk}\'s case to {partner} yourself.',
check: { attribute: 'charm', against: 'partner', opposedBy: 'resolve', relationship: 'trust' },
success: {
result: '{partner} hears you out and lets it go. {clerk} does not forget who spoke.',
effects: [
{ path: 'relationships.{clerk}.trust', op: 'add', value: 10 },
{ path: 'relationships.partner.regard', op: 'add', value: 2 },
moment('Spoke up for {clerk}, and it held.'),
],
},
failure: {
result: '{partner} asks whether you would like to share the letter.',
effects: [
{ path: 'relationships.partner.trust', op: 'add', value: -3 },
{ path: 'relationships.{clerk}.trust', op: 'add', value: 4 },
],
},
},
{
id: 'help_look',
label: 'Stay late and help look for it.',
check: { attribute: 'resolve', difficulty: 5 },
success: {
result: 'It is in the wrong drawer, under the right one. You find it at nine.',
effects: [
{ path: 'relationships.{clerk}.trust', op: 'add', value: 8 },
{ path: 'relationships.{clerk}.regard', op: 'add', value: 4 },
],
},
failure: {
result: 'It is not found, but {clerk} saw you look.',
effects: [{ path: 'relationships.{clerk}.regard', op: 'add', value: 2 }],
},
},
{
id: 'keep_out',
label: 'Keep out of it.',
result: 'The letter goes. So, very nearly, does {clerk}.',
effects: [{ path: 'relationships.{clerk}.trust', op: 'add', value: -3 }],
},
],
},
{
id: 'the_butt',
stage: 'desk',
weight: 20,
cooldown: 8,
involves: ['clerk'],
description:
'Somebody has pinned a card to your back, and you have walked the length of ' +
'the floor to {chief}\'s desk wearing it. {clerk} cannot keep a straight face.',
options: [
{
id: 'laugh_along',
label: 'Laugh louder than anybody.',
check: { attribute: 'charm', difficulty: 4 },
success: {
result: 'It becomes your joke instead of theirs.',
effects: [
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 1 },
{ path: 'relationships.{clerk}.regard', op: 'add', value: 3 },
],
},
failure: {
result: 'The laugh comes out wrong, and everyone hears that it did.',
effects: [{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -2 }],
},
},
{
id: 'dignity',
label: 'Take it off and say nothing at all.',
check: { attribute: 'resolve', difficulty: 4 },
success: {
result: 'It is not funny for long, when nobody is laughing at the front.',
effects: [{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 1 }],
},
failure: {
result: 'Your ears give you away.',
effects: [
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -1 },
{ path: 'relationships.{clerk}.regard', op: 'add', value: -2 },
],
},
},
{
id: 'get_even',
label: 'Resolve to do something about {clerk} tomorrow.',
result: 'You do. It is not as funny, and {clerk} knows exactly who it was.',
effects: [
{ path: 'relationships.{clerk}.regard', op: 'add', value: -2 },
{ path: 'relationships.{clerk}.trust', op: 'add', value: -3 },
],
},
],
},
{
id: 'saturday',
stage: 'desk',
weight: 60,
cooldown: 5,
requires: [{ path: 'calendar.name', op: '==', value: 'Saturday' }],
description:
'Saturday, and the office shuts at one. The pay envelope is in your inside ' +
'pocket, and the whole of the afternoon is in front of you.',
options: [
{
id: 'new_collar',
label: 'Buy the collar the senior clerks wear.',
result: 'It pinches, and it is noticed.',
effects: [
{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -5 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 2 },
],
},
{
id: 'good_dinner',
label: 'Dine somewhere with a tablecloth.',
result: 'A dinner you will describe, later, to people who were not there.',
effects: [{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -4 }],
},
{
id: 'pay_back',
label: 'Pay back what you owe the floor.',
requires: [{ path: 'owed', op: '>', value: 0 }],
whenLocked: 'hide',
result: 'Squared, or nearer it. It is a better feeling than the dinner would have been.',
// The money is read from the balance before either moves, so a small
// debt costs what it is and no more (DECISIONS #38).
effects: [
{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: { from: 'owed', times: -1, cap: 10 } },
{ path: 'owed', op: 'add', value: { from: 'owed', times: -1, cap: 10 } },
],
},
{
id: 'straight_home',
label: 'Straight home, envelope sealed.',
result: 'The envelope is lighter than it was in your imagination, but it is all there.',
effects: [],
},
],
},
{
id: 'family_errand',
stage: 'desk',
weight: 20,
cooldown: 8,
involves: ['clerk'],
description:
'A parcel for {partner}\'s sister has to cross the city before four, in the ' +
'rain, and {partner} has asked for you by name. It is not in the job.',
options: [
{
id: 'take_it',
label: 'Take it yourself, and pay your own tram.',
result: 'The sister gives you tea, and a message for {partner} that is more about you than the parcel.',
effects: [
{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -1 },
{ path: 'relationships.partner.regard', op: 'add', value: 4 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -1 },
],
},
{
id: 'make_an_impression',
label: 'Take it, and make yourself agreeable when you get there.',
check: { attribute: 'charm', difficulty: 5 },
success: {
result: 'The sister writes to {partner} that evening. You are mentioned warmly.',
effects: [
{ path: 'relationships.partner.regard', op: 'add', value: 6 },
{ path: 'relationships.partner.trust', op: 'add', value: 2 },
moment('Carried a parcel for {partner}\'s sister, and made a friend of her.'),
],
},
failure: {
result: 'You drip on the carpet and say something about the weather twice.',
effects: [{ path: 'relationships.partner.regard', op: 'add', value: 1 }],
},
},
{
id: 'hand_it_on',
label: 'Hand it on to {clerk}, who is going that way.',
result: '{clerk} goes, and gets the tea, and does not say whose errand it was.',
effects: [
{ path: 'relationships.{clerk}.regard', op: 'add', value: -3 },
{ path: 'relationships.partner.regard', op: 'add', value: -2 },
],
},
],
},
{
id: 'window_desk',
stage: 'desk',
weight: 20,
cooldown: 10,
involves: ['clerk'],
description:
'The desk by the window has come free. {chief} says it will go to whoever ' +
'deserves it, and {clerk} has been in before the clock all week.',
options: [
{
id: 'outwork',
label: 'Come in earlier than {clerk} does.',
check: { attribute: 'resolve', against: '{clerk}' },
success: {
result: 'You are there before the cleaners. The desk is yours, and so is the draught.',
effects: [
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 4 },
{ path: 'relationships.{clerk}.regard', op: 'add', value: -3 },
moment('Won the desk by the window from {clerk}.'),
],
},
failure: {
result: '{clerk} was there before you, every morning, and has the desk.',
effects: [{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -1 }],
},
},
{
id: 'word_with_chief',
label: 'Have a quiet word with {chief}.',
check: { attribute: 'charm', against: 'chief', opposedBy: 'wits', relationship: 'regard' },
success: {
result: '{chief} decides the matter in your favour, and makes sure {clerk} knows why.',
effects: [
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 3 },
{ path: 'relationships.{clerk}.trust', op: 'add', value: -6 },
],
},
failure: {
result: '{chief} writes your name down, next to the word "canvassing".',
effects: [
{ path: 'relationships.chief.trust', op: 'add', value: -4 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -2 },
],
},
},
{
id: 'let_them_have_it',
label: 'Let {clerk} have it.',
result: '{clerk} takes the desk and, to your surprise, remembers who did not fight for it.',
effects: [
{ path: 'relationships.{clerk}.regard', op: 'add', value: 5 },
{ path: 'relationships.{clerk}.trust', op: 'add', value: 3 },
],
},
],
},
{
id: 'hard_times',
stage: 'desk',
weight: 400,
cooldown: 2,
requires: [{ path: 'money', op: '<', value: 0 }],
involves: ['clerk'],
description:
'The landlady has knocked twice about the week, and the purse under your ' +
'pillow is empty. It is a long walk to Saturday.',
options: [
{
id: 'copying',
label: 'Take in copying work to do at night.',
result: 'Law papers, by lamp, at a halfpenny a folio. It keeps the landlady quiet.',
effects: [
{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 8 },
{ path: 'attributes.resolve', op: 'add', value: 1 },
],
},
{
id: 'borrow',
label: 'Ask {clerk} for the loan of ten dollars.',
check: { attribute: 'charm', against: '{clerk}', opposedBy: 'resolve', relationship: 'trust' },
success: {
result: '{clerk} lends it, and tells you not to mention it, and you will not forget.',
effects: [
{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 10 },
{ path: 'owed', op: 'add', value: 10 },
{ path: 'relationships.{clerk}.trust', op: 'add', value: -2 },
],
},
failure: {
result: '{clerk} is short too, but finds you three, and makes a face about it.',
effects: [
{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 3 },
{ path: 'owed', op: 'add', value: 3 },
{ path: 'relationships.{clerk}.regard', op: 'add', value: -3 },
],
},
},
{
id: 'pawn_the_watch',
label: 'Pawn your father\'s watch.',
requires: [{ path: 'flags.pawned_watch', op: '==', value: false }],
whenLocked: 'hide',
result: 'Twelve dollars and a ticket. You will get it back. Everybody says that.',
effects: [
{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 12 },
{ path: 'flags.pawned_watch', op: 'set', value: true },
moment('Pawned your father\'s watch to pay the landlady.'),
],
},
],
},
];
export default events;
content/countinghouse/index.js
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// The Counting House — a prototype pack for checks and a drawn cast.
//
// Harrow & Pike, a trading firm's counting house, somewhere about 1910. You
// are the newest clerk. The situations are the ones public-domain office
// fiction kept returning to (tools/story-to-pack, catalogue v3); the people are
// drawn fresh each run from several candidates per role, two to four clerks
// among them; and most choices are a check, shown to the player only as odds
// in words. See DECISIONS #41.
//
// One stage, deliberately: this pack exists to find out whether chance and a
// varying cast make the same situations worth replaying, before a whole career
// is built on them.
import { characters } from './characters.js';
import { events } from './events.js';
export const countingHouse = {
id: 'countinghouse',
name: 'The Counting House',
blurb:
'Harrow & Pike, about 1910: a stool, a pen, a chief clerk with red ink, and a ' +
'different office every time you start.',
version: '0.1.0',
turnUnit: 'day',
startingStage: 'desk',
peopleHeading: 'Harrow & Pike',
stages: {
desk: { label: 'The Desk', title: 'Junior Clerk' },
},
// A six-day week: the office shuts at one on Saturday, and that is pay day.
calendar: {
cycleLength: 6,
cycleName: 'Week',
unitNames: ['Monday', 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday', 'Thursday', 'Friday', 'Saturday'],
},
// The four attributes, the same for the player and for everyone in the cast.
// A pack may call them what it likes; these are the prototype's names.
attributes: {
nerve: { label: 'Nerve' },
wits: { label: 'Wits' },
charm: { label: 'Charm' },
resolve: { label: 'Resolve' },
},
// How attributes turn into chances. The player sees only the words.
// chance = 50 + 8 x (yours - theirs) + 0.4 x (their regard - 50), from 5 to 95
// A new clerk (3) against a sharp partner (8) is 10%, a long shot; against an
// ordinary task (4) it is 42%. Each point of training is worth eight.
checks: {
base: 50,
perPoint: 8,
unopposed: 4,
relationshipPerPoint: 0.4,
relationshipCentre: 50,
floor: 5,
ceiling: 95,
odds: [
{ upTo: 20, words: 'a long shot' },
{ upTo: 40, words: 'unlikely' },
{ upTo: 60, words: 'an even chance' },
{ upTo: 80, words: 'likely' },
{ upTo: 95, words: 'a safe bet' },
],
said: { success: 'and it came off.', failure: 'and it did not come off.' },
},
state: {
'money': { initial: 20, min: -200, max: 100000 },
'standing': { initial: 40, min: 0, max: 100 },
'attributes.nerve': { initial: 3, min: 0, max: 10 },
'attributes.wits': { initial: 3, min: 0, max: 10 },
'attributes.charm': { initial: 3, min: 0, max: 10 },
'attributes.resolve': { initial: 3, min: 0, max: 10 },
// Borrowed from the other clerks when times are hard, repaid on a Saturday.
'owed': { initial: 0, min: 0, max: 100000 },
// Rises won from the partner: each is a permanent addition to the wage.
'rises': { initial: 0, min: 0, max: 3 },
'flags.pawned_watch': { initial: false },
'notable': { initial: [] },
},
// Two axes, not one: whether they believe you, and what they think of you.
relationshipStats: {
trust: { label: 'Trusts you', initial: 50, min: 0, max: 100 },
regard: { label: 'Thinks well of you', initial: 50, min: 0, max: 100 },
},
characters,
events,
// Per six-day week: -12 board and lodging +16 wages = +4.
// Each rise adds four; a rise is earned, so it is outside the baseline.
upkeep: [
{ label: 'Board and lodging', effects: [{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -2 }] },
{
label: 'Wages from Harrow & Pike',
every: 6,
offset: 5,
effects: [{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 16 }],
},
...[1, 2, 3].map((n) => ({
label: n === 1 ? 'Your rise' : `Your rise (${n})`,
every: 6,
offset: 5,
requires: [{ path: 'rises', op: '>=', value: n }],
effects: [{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 4 }],
})),
],
tuning: {
baselinePerCycle: { desk: [0, 10] },
baselineExcludes: ['rises'],
},
display: {
'money': { label: 'Money', format: 'money', order: 1 },
'owed': { label: 'Owed to the floor', format: 'money', order: 2, hideWhenZero: true },
'standing': { label: 'Standing', format: 'meter', order: 2 },
'attributes.nerve': { label: 'Nerve', format: 'meter', order: 3 },
'attributes.wits': { label: 'Wits', format: 'meter', order: 4 },
'attributes.charm': { label: 'Charm', format: 'meter', order: 5 },
'attributes.resolve': { label: 'Resolve', format: 'meter', order: 6 },
'rises': { label: 'Rises', order: 7, hideWhenZero: true },
'notable': { hidden: true, inLedger: false },
'flags.pawned_watch': {
label: 'Your father\'s watch', hidden: true,
whenTrue: 'Your father\'s watch is at the pawnbroker\'s.',
whenFalse: 'You have your father\'s watch back.',
},
},
};
export default countingHouse;