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Add The Frontier, a second setting, and a picker to choose between them

Browse Source 
Cold Fork is a freight yard: 29 events across two stages, a four-day cycle, and
its own relationship and skill vocabulary. src/engine/ was not touched. Adding it
needed three changes outside the engine: one save slot per pack, app.js holding
the current pack, and turn.js no longer naming the mailroom (DECISIONS #34).
build.js now handles imports wrapped across lines. A conformance suite runs over
every registered pack. DECISIONS #35 records three calls on open questions.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01RxdJFbLq1rBKsUeticGV1g
This commit is contained in:
JesseMarkowitz
2026-09-12 21:03:50 -04:00
co-authored by Claude Opus 5
parent 4957c24e31
commit 7f20be83e8
25 changed files with 3015 additions and 300 deletions
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content/frontier/events/deputy.js
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// The second rung: the marshal's office.
//
// `rounds`, `office_day` and `the_cells` are the floor here — no conditions,
// no cooldown, no `once` — so this stage can never run dry. The pay is real
// and the days are worse, which is the trade the offer did not mention.
export const deputy = [
{
id: 'rounds',
stage: 'deputy',
weight: 100,
description:
'The evening round: the length of the street, the back of the store, ' +
'the yard gate, and the Cordwood twice. Mostly it is a walk. The ' +
'difference between the nights it is a walk and the nights it is not ' +
'announces itself late.',
options: [
{
id: 'walk_it',
label: 'Walk it properly, both ends.',
result:
'Two doors unlocked that should not have been, and the storekeeper ' +
'hears about both from you rather than from a stranger.',
effects: [
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 2 },
{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 1 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 2 },
],
},
{
id: 'sit_the_cordwood',
label: 'Do it from a chair at the Cordwood.',
result:
'You hear more in two hours than the street gives up in a week, and ' +
'everybody in the room adjusts what they say in front of you.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.trade', op: 'add', value: 2 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -2 },
{ path: 'relationships.dutch.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 2 },
],
},
{
id: 'walk_the_yard',
label: 'Take the long way past Vane’s yard.',
result:
'The office light is on at eleven and Vane does not come to the ' +
'window. He knows the sound of the round by now.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 2 },
{ path: 'relationships.hollis.wary_of_you', op: 'add', value: 4 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 3 },
],
},
],
},
{
id: 'office_day',
stage: 'deputy',
weight: 100,
description:
'Paper. The county wants its returns, Ward has not filed since March, ' +
'and the stove is the only warm thing in the building.',
options: [
{
id: 'do_the_returns',
label: 'Do the returns.',
result:
'Four hours and a hand that will not straighten. The county sends a ' +
'letter of acknowledgement, which Ward pins up, which is the most ' +
'sentimental act you have seen from him.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.trade', op: 'add', value: 3 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 5 },
],
},
{
id: 'read_the_paper',
label: 'Read six months of the county paper instead.',
result:
'Three names in it you have loaded freight for, and one of them ' +
'twice. You start a list of your own.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.trade', op: 'add', value: 2 },
{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 1 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 1 },
],
},
{
id: 'ride_out',
label: 'Leave the paper and ride out to the Ridge camp.',
result:
'Nothing is wrong at the Ridge camp. Being seen there when nothing ' +
'is wrong turns out to be most of the job.',
effects: [
{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -2 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 4 },
{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 2 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: -2 },
],
},
],
},
{
id: 'the_cells',
stage: 'deputy',
weight: 100,
description:
'One cell, one occupant, and eleven hours until the county wagon. He ' +
'has been talking since six and has not yet said anything about why he ' +
'is in there.',
options: [
{
id: 'let_him_talk',
label: 'Let him talk.',
result:
'By the ninth hour he has told you about a horse sold twice in ' +
'Bitter Wells, and does not appear to notice that he has.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.trade', op: 'add', value: 3 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 4 },
],
},
{
id: 'feed_him_proper',
label: 'Buy him a proper dinner out of your own pocket.',
result:
'Two dollars forty. He is quiet afterwards, and the county wagon ' +
'takes a man who is not angry, which the driver notices.',
effects: [
{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -3 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 3 },
{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 1 },
],
},
{
id: 'shut_him_up',
label: 'Tell him to be quiet.',
result:
'He is quiet. Eleven hours is a long time in a building with two ' +
'rooms in it and one of you able to leave.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 2 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -2 },
],
},
],
},
{
id: 'saloon_trouble',
stage: 'deputy',
weight: 70,
cooldown: 4,
description:
'Something has gone wrong at the Cordwood and the noise of it reaches ' +
'the office before anybody does. Ward is at the county seat until ' +
'Thursday.',
options: [
{
id: 'wade_in',
label: 'Go in and take hold of the nearest one.',
result:
'It stops. Your sleeve does not survive it and neither does a ' +
'table, and the whole street knows by morning which it was.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 4 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 4 },
{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -4 },
],
},
{
id: 'wait_outside',
label: 'Stand in the doorway and wait for it to come to you.',
result:
'It comes to you, in ones, which is the entire trick and takes a ' +
'nerve you did not have a year ago.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 2 },
{ path: 'skills.trade', op: 'add', value: 2 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 6 },
],
},
{
id: 'send_for_dutch',
label: 'Send for Dutch.',
requires: [{ path: 'relationships.dutch.owes_you', op: '>=', value: 25 }],
result:
'He arrives inside four minutes, takes one man out by the collar, ' +
'and says afterwards that the book is square now. It is not, and ' +
'both of you let that stand.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.trade', op: 'add', value: 2 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 3 },
{ path: 'relationships.dutch.owes_you', op: 'add', value: -20 },
{ path: 'relationships.dutch.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 5 },
],
},
],
},
{
id: 'vane_across_the_street',
stage: 'deputy',
weight: 55,
cooldown: 6,
description:
'Vane has a load going out that the manifest describes as agricultural ' +
'implements, and it is going out at four in the morning, which no ' +
'agricultural implement in the county has ever needed to do.',
options: [
{
id: 'stop_it',
label: 'Be at the yard gate at four.',
result:
'He does not argue and he does not open the crate. He turns the ' +
'wagon round in front of you and takes it back inside, and that is ' +
'the last civil word between you.',
effects: [
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 7 },
{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 3 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 8 },
{ path: 'relationships.hollis.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: -18 },
{ path: 'relationships.hollis.wary_of_you', op: 'add', value: 15 },
{ path: 'notable', op: 'push', value: 'Stood at Vane’s gate at four in the morning.' },
],
},
{
id: 'let_it_go',
label: 'Be somewhere else at four.',
result:
'The wagon goes. Nothing comes of it, which is the part that stays ' +
'with you, because nothing coming of it means nothing was ever ' +
'going to.',
effects: [
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -5 },
{ path: 'skills.trade', op: 'add', value: 1 },
{ path: 'relationships.hollis.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 10 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: -8 },
],
},
{
id: 'go_and_ask',
label: 'Go to the office at nine and ask him straight out.',
requires: [{ path: 'skills.trade', op: '>=', value: 32 }],
result:
'He tells you, in the doorway, the same as he told you about the ' +
'crate. Then he asks whether the star has changed what you intend ' +
'to do about it. It has, and you say so.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.trade', op: 'add', value: 4 },
{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 3 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 5 },
{ path: 'relationships.hollis.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: -4 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 6 },
{ path: 'notable', op: 'push', value: 'Asked Vane straight out, wearing the star.' },
],
},
],
},
{
id: 'ward_tired',
stage: 'deputy',
weight: 45,
cooldown: 8,
requires: [{ path: 'flags.sworn_in', op: '==', value: true }],
description:
'Ward has been six years retiring and today he says the word out loud ' +
'for the first time, sitting on the office step with his boots off.',
options: [
{
id: 'talk_him_round',
label: 'Tell him the town is not ready.',
result:
'He says the town is never ready and that is not a reason. He stays ' +
'anyway, for now, which both of you understand is a favour to you ' +
'and not to the town.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.trade', op: 'add', value: 2 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 6 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.owes_you', op: 'add', value: 5 },
],
},
{
id: 'tell_him_go',
label: 'Tell him to go.',
result:
'He looks at you for a while. Then he laughs, once, and puts his ' +
'boots back on, and does not mention it again for a month.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 4 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 3 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 10 },
{ path: 'notable', op: 'push', value: 'Told Ward to go and retire.' },
],
},
{
id: 'say_nothing_ward',
label: 'Let him sit.',
result: 'You sit on the step with him until it gets dark.',
effects: [
{ path: 'relationships.ward.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 4 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.wary_of_you', op: 'add', value: -5 },
{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 1 },
],
},
],
},
{
id: 'county_wagon',
stage: 'deputy',
weight: 50,
cooldown: 5,
description:
'The county wagon is a day late, there are two men in one cell who ' +
'should not be in one cell, and the second cell has never had a lock ' +
'that works.',
options: [
{
id: 'sit_up_with_them',
label: 'Sit up all night in the office.',
result:
'Nothing happens, twice, at two and at four. In the morning the ' +
'wagon comes and you have been awake for thirty hours.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 3 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 5 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 2 },
],
},
{
id: 'fix_the_lock',
label: 'Spend the afternoon making the second lock work.',
result:
'It works. It has not worked since before Ward came, and he stands ' +
'in the doorway turning the key for longer than the job took.',
effects: [
{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -5 },
{ path: 'skills.trade', op: 'add', value: 3 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 7 },
],
},
{
id: 'release_one',
label: 'Turn the quieter one loose on his word.',
requires: [{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: '>=', value: 32 }],
result:
'He comes back at eight in the morning, as he said he would, and ' +
'the county never knows there was a decision in it.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 3 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 6 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.wary_of_you', op: 'add', value: 8 },
{ path: 'notable', op: 'push', value: 'Turned a man loose on his word, and was right.' },
],
},
],
},
{
id: 'dutch_in_the_cells',
stage: 'deputy',
weight: 40,
cooldown: 10,
requires: [{ path: 'turn', op: '>=', value: 12 }],
description:
'Dutch is in the cell. It is the Cordwood and a table and nobody hurt, ' +
'and it is also the third time this season, and the storekeeper has ' +
'started using the word "again."',
options: [
{
id: 'let_him_out',
label: 'Let him out in the morning and say nothing to the county.',
result:
'He goes to work. Neither of you refers to it, then or later, and ' +
'the storekeeper notices that neither of you did.',
effects: [
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -4 },
{ path: 'relationships.dutch.owes_you', op: 'add', value: 20 },
{ path: 'relationships.dutch.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 8 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.wary_of_you', op: 'add', value: 6 },
],
},
{
id: 'book_him',
label: 'Book him properly.',
result:
'Eight dollars and a night, and his name on a county return with ' +
'your hand on it. He pays the eight dollars. He reads the return ' +
'twice.',
effects: [
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 5 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 6 },
{ path: 'relationships.dutch.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: -18 },
{ path: 'relationships.dutch.wary_of_you', op: 'add', value: 14 },
{ path: 'notable', op: 'push', value: 'Booked Dutch on a county return.' },
],
},
{
id: 'talk_to_him',
label: 'Sit outside the cell until he says what it is about.',
requires: [{ path: 'relationships.dutch.trusts_you', op: '>=', value: 50 }],
result:
'It is about two years on the Ridge road and a book with nobody ' +
'else’s name in it. He gets most of the way to saying so.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.trade', op: 'add', value: 3 },
{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 2 },
{ path: 'relationships.dutch.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 12 },
{ path: 'relationships.dutch.wary_of_you', op: 'add', value: -10 },
{ path: 'notable', op: 'push', value: 'Sat outside the cell with Dutch until he talked.' },
],
},
],
},
{
id: 'the_ridge_camp_dispute',
stage: 'deputy',
weight: 45,
cooldown: 7,
description:
'Two men at the Ridge camp both hold paper on the same claim and one of ' +
'them has a brother in Bitter Wells. The camp has asked for the marshal ' +
'and the marshal has sent you.',
options: [
{
id: 'read_the_paper_claim',
label: 'Read both papers all the way through.',
result:
'Both are good. Both were issued by the same clerk eleven days ' +
'apart. The problem is in Bitter Wells and not on the Ridge, and ' +
'saying so ends it.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.trade', op: 'add', value: 4 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 5 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 5 },
],
},
{
id: 'stand_between',
label: 'Stand between them until the county can rule.',
result:
'Six weeks of standing between them, in instalments. Nobody is shot ' +
'and nobody is satisfied, which Ward says is the job described.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 4 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 2 },
{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 4 },
],
},
{
id: 'take_a_side',
label: 'Decide it yourself, on the spot.',
result:
'You are probably right. The brother from Bitter Wells arrives on ' +
'Thursday to find out how right, and stays four days.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 3 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -3 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.wary_of_you', op: 'add', value: 10 },
{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 8 },
],
},
],
},
{
id: 'the_star_and_the_yard',
stage: 'deputy',
weight: 30,
cooldown: 14,
requires: [
{ path: 'turn', op: '>=', value: 20 },
{ path: 'relationships.hollis.trusts_you', op: '<=', value: 30 },
],
description:
'Vane & Co. has a note falling due and the bank in Bitter Wells has ' +
'declined it. Vane is fifty-one and has not asked anybody in Cold Fork ' +
'for anything in nineteen years, and is standing in the office doorway ' +
'across the street looking at your building.',
options: [
{
id: 'go_over',
label: 'Cross the street.',
result:
'He does not ask. You do not offer. The two of you stand in the ' +
'doorway of the office for a while, which is where every ' +
'conversation you have ever had with him has happened.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 3 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 3 },
{ path: 'relationships.hollis.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 12 },
{ path: 'notable', op: 'push', value: 'Crossed the street to Vane when the note fell due.' },
],
},
{
id: 'lend_him',
label: 'Put your own money into the note.',
requires: [{ path: 'money', op: '>=', value: 60 }],
result:
'Sixty dollars, and the outfit keeps its animals. He pays it back ' +
'over a year, in the doorway, in instalments, never once in front ' +
'of Dutch.',
effects: [
{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -60 },
{ path: 'relationships.hollis.owes_you', op: 'add', value: 40 },
{ path: 'relationships.hollis.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 25 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 4 },
{ path: 'notable', op: 'push', value: 'Put sixty dollars of your own into Vane’s note.' },
],
},
{
id: 'stay_put',
label: 'Stay on your own side of the street.',
result:
'The note goes. The yard is sold in the spring and the new outfit ' +
'brings its own men, and the Ridge road is driven by somebody you ' +
'do not know.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 1 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -2 },
{ path: 'relationships.hollis.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: -10 },
{ path: 'relationships.dutch.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: -8 },
{ path: 'notable', op: 'push', value: 'Stayed on your own side of the street.' },
],
},
],
},
{
id: 'quiet_week',
stage: 'deputy',
weight: 60,
cooldown: 4,
description:
'Nothing. Four days of nothing. The stove, the returns, the length of ' +
'the street twice a night, and a town that does not need you at all ' +
'this week and might not next week either.',
options: [
{
id: 'learn_the_law',
label: 'Read the county statutes properly.',
result:
'Most of it is fees. Some of it is not, and the part that is not is ' +
'the part nobody in Cold Fork has ever read.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.trade', op: 'add', value: 3 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 3 },
],
},
{
id: 'work_the_yard_again',
label: 'Go and load freight for a day, for the money.',
result:
'Vane pays you the hand’s rate without comment. Dutch says one ' +
'thing about the star and then works alongside you all afternoon.',
effects: [
{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 9 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -3 },
{ path: 'relationships.hollis.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 5 },
{ path: 'relationships.dutch.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 5 },
],
},
{
id: 'ride_the_county',
label: 'Ride the county line and look at it.',
result:
'Two days out. Nobody sends for you and nothing needs you, and you ' +
'come back having decided something you do not tell anybody.',
effects: [
{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -3 },
{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 3 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 1 },
],
},
],
},
];
export default deputy;