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

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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
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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/people.js
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// The three people in Cold Fork who have an opinion about you.
//
// Relationship-gated content, and the counterweight to the yard: the runs pay
// the room, but Dutch's book, Vane's ledger and Ward's slow appraisal are what
// decide whether the star is ever offered.
export const people = [
{
id: 'dutch_book',
stage: 'hand',
weight: 70,
cooldown: 5,
description:
'Dutch has his tally book open on the tailgate and is working through ' +
'who took which run this month. He has arrived at a number he does not ' +
'like and is now looking for somewhere to put it.',
options: [
{
id: 'let_him_talk',
label: 'Let him get all the way to the end of it.',
result:
'It takes twenty minutes. By the end he has talked himself into ' +
'thinking it was about the weather, which suits both of you.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.trade', op: 'add', value: 2 },
{ path: 'relationships.dutch.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 6 },
{ path: 'relationships.dutch.wary_of_you', op: 'add', value: -4 },
],
},
{
id: 'check_the_book',
label: 'Ask to see the book.',
result:
'The tally is right and his arithmetic is wrong by two runs, in his ' +
'own favour. You say so quietly. He does not thank you and does not ' +
'forget it either.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.trade', op: 'add', value: 3 },
{ path: 'relationships.dutch.wary_of_you', op: 'add', value: 7 },
{ path: 'relationships.dutch.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 3 },
],
},
{
id: 'trade_a_run',
label: 'Offer him the next Ridge run to square it.',
requires: [{ path: 'relationships.dutch.trusts_you', op: '>=', value: 45 }],
result:
'He takes it, and the book gets a line in it on your side for the ' +
'first time. Dutch settles his lines.',
effects: [
{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -6 },
{ path: 'skills.trade', op: 'add', value: 2 },
{ path: 'relationships.dutch.owes_you', op: 'add', value: 18 },
{ path: 'relationships.dutch.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 5 },
],
},
],
},
{
id: 'dutch_drunk',
stage: 'hand',
weight: 40,
cooldown: 9,
requires: [{ path: 'turn', op: '>=', value: 12 }],
description:
'Dutch did not come in for the morning run and the morning run is ' +
'loaded. He is at the Cordwood, upright, and in no condition to be ' +
'within thirty feet of a horse.',
options: [
{
id: 'cover',
label: 'Take his run and say nothing about it.',
result:
'Vane never learns. Dutch learns, in the afternoon, from the state ' +
'of the harness, and comes and stands near you for a while without ' +
'saying anything.',
effects: [
{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 7 },
{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 2 },
{ path: 'flags.covered_for_dutch', op: 'set', value: true },
{ path: 'relationships.dutch.owes_you', op: 'add', value: 25 },
{ path: 'relationships.dutch.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 8 },
{ path: 'notable', op: 'push', value: 'Covered Dutch’s run and never mentioned it.' },
],
},
{
id: 'tell_vane',
label: 'Tell Vane the run needs a driver.',
result:
'Vane takes it out himself at fifty-one years of age and says one ' +
'sentence to Dutch on his return. Dutch works the rest of the month ' +
'like a man being watched, because he is.',
effects: [
{ path: 'relationships.hollis.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 7 },
{ path: 'relationships.dutch.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: -15 },
{ path: 'relationships.dutch.wary_of_you', op: 'add', value: 12 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -2 },
],
},
{
id: 'sober_him',
label: 'Walk him round the yard until he can stand up to it.',
requires: [{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: '>=', value: 12 }],
result:
'Four circuits and a bucket. He drives it badly but he drives it, ' +
'and that distinction is the entire point.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 2 },
{ path: 'relationships.dutch.owes_you', op: 'add', value: 14 },
{ path: 'relationships.dutch.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 10 },
{ path: 'relationships.dutch.wary_of_you', op: 'add', value: -6 },
],
},
],
},
{
id: 'vane_ledger',
stage: 'hand',
weight: 50,
cooldown: 7,
description:
'The office door is open for once. Vane has the ledger out and the look ' +
'of a man who has added a column twice and got two answers.',
options: [
{
id: 'offer_help',
label: 'Offer to run the column.',
result:
'You find it in ten minutes: a freight bill entered twice in March. ' +
'He does not say thank you. He leaves the door open after that.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.trade', op: 'add', value: 4 },
{ path: 'relationships.hollis.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 9 },
],
},
{
id: 'ask_for_more',
label: 'Ask him what the good runs pay.',
requires: [{ path: 'skills.trade', op: '>=', value: 22 }],
result:
'Twenty-two, and he has been giving them to Dutch for two years ' +
'because Dutch asked in his first month. Nobody had told you that ' +
'asking was the mechanism.',
effects: [
{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 22 },
{ path: 'skills.trade', op: 'add', value: 3 },
{ path: 'relationships.hollis.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 3 },
{ path: 'relationships.dutch.wary_of_you', op: 'add', value: 6 },
{ path: 'notable', op: 'push', value: 'Asked Vane for the good runs.' },
],
},
{
id: 'call_in_the_debt',
label: 'Mention the smith’s bill you stood for.',
requires: [{ path: 'relationships.hollis.owes_you', op: '>=', value: 20 }],
result:
'He pays it back to the cent, in front of Dutch, and is short with ' +
'you for two days afterwards for having had to.',
effects: [
{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 24 },
{ path: 'relationships.hollis.owes_you', op: 'add', value: -20 },
{ path: 'relationships.hollis.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: -4 },
],
},
{
id: 'leave_him_to_it',
label: 'Leave him to it.',
result: 'The door is shut again within the hour.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 1 },
],
},
],
},
{
id: 'ward_asks',
stage: 'hand',
weight: 45,
cooldown: 6,
requires: [{ path: 'turn', op: '>=', value: 6 }],
description:
'Marshal Ward is leaning on the yard gate with no particular business ' +
'there. He asks, eventually and as though it has just occurred to him, ' +
'what came in on the stage.',
options: [
{
id: 'tell_him',
label: 'Tell him what came in on the stage.',
result:
'Hinges, nails, and a crate consigned to a name nobody in Cold Fork ' +
'has heard of. He writes none of it down and remembers all of it.',
effects: [
{ path: 'relationships.ward.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 8 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.wary_of_you', op: 'add', value: -4 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -1 },
],
},
{
id: 'say_nothing',
label: 'Say that is Vane’s business and not yours.',
result:
'He agrees that it is, pleasantly, and stays leaning on the gate for ' +
'another twenty minutes.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 2 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.wary_of_you', op: 'add', value: 6 },
{ path: 'relationships.hollis.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 5 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 2 },
],
},
{
id: 'ask_him_back',
label: 'Ask him what he is actually looking for.',
requires: [{ path: 'skills.trade', op: '>=', value: 12 }],
result:
'He tells you, which surprises both of you. A crate a month, six ' +
'months running, and no consignee that exists.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.trade', op: 'add', value: 3 },
{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 2 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 10 },
],
},
],
},
{
id: 'ward_deputizes',
stage: 'hand',
weight: 35,
cooldown: 10,
requires: [
{ path: 'turn', op: '>=', value: 18 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.trusts_you', op: '>=', value: 45 },
],
description:
'There is a man in the one cell who needs moving to the county seat and ' +
'Ward cannot leave the town without somebody in it. He is not offering ' +
'you a job. He is offering you two days.',
options: [
{
id: 'ride_along',
label: 'Ride along.',
result:
'Two days out and two back, and the prisoner talks for all four. ' +
'Ward does not, which turns out to be the instruction.',
effects: [
{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 12 },
{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 4 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 5 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 12 },
{ path: 'relationships.hollis.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: -4 },
{ path: 'notable', op: 'push', value: 'Rode to the county seat with Ward and a prisoner.' },
],
},
{
id: 'mind_the_town',
label: 'Offer to mind the town instead.',
requires: [{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: '>=', value: 22 }],
result:
'Two days with the keys and nothing whatever happens, which you ' +
'later understand was the test.',
effects: [
{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 12 },
{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 3 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 8 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 15 },
{ path: 'notable', op: 'push', value: 'Held the town for two days while Ward was gone.' },
],
},
{
id: 'decline_ward',
label: 'Say the yard cannot spare you.',
result:
'It can. Both of you know it can. He takes the storekeeper instead ' +
'and the storekeeper tells the story for a year.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.trade', op: 'add', value: 2 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: -8 },
{ path: 'relationships.hollis.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 6 },
],
},
],
},
{
id: 'saturday_night',
stage: 'hand',
weight: 55,
cooldown: 5,
description:
'The Cordwood on a Rest night: Dutch at the long table, half the yard ' +
'with him, and a game of cards that everybody present knows the ' +
'storekeeper’s nephew cannot afford to be in.',
options: [
{
id: 'sit_in',
label: 'Sit in.',
result:
'You come out four dollars ahead and the nephew comes out eleven ' +
'behind. Nobody says anything about it, then or afterwards.',
effects: [
{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 4 },
{ path: 'skills.trade', op: 'add', value: 2 },
{ path: 'relationships.dutch.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 5 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -2 },
],
},
{
id: 'buy_the_table',
label: 'Buy the table a round and stay out of the game.',
result:
'Six dollars, and for the rest of the month you are a man who bought ' +
'the table a round, which in Cold Fork is a kind of address.',
effects: [
{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -6 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 5 },
{ path: 'relationships.dutch.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 4 },
{ path: 'relationships.dutch.wary_of_you', op: 'add', value: -3 },
],
},
{
id: 'walk_the_nephew_out',
label: 'Get the nephew out of the game.',
requires: [{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: '>=', value: 12 }],
result:
'You do it badly and in front of everyone, and it works. The ' +
'storekeeper hears about it before you are back at the yard.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 3 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 7 },
{ path: 'relationships.dutch.wary_of_you', op: 'add', value: 5 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 5 },
{ path: 'notable', op: 'push', value: 'Pulled the storekeeper’s nephew out of a card game.' },
],
},
{
id: 'early_night',
label: 'Go up early.',
result: 'The ceiling of a room at the Cordwood, at nine at night.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.trade', op: 'add', value: 1 },
{ path: 'relationships.dutch.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: -2 },
],
},
],
},
{
id: 'the_consignee',
stage: 'hand',
weight: 25,
cooldown: 12,
requires: [
{ path: 'turn', op: '>=', value: 24 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.trusts_you', op: '>=', value: 50 },
],
description:
'The crate with no consignee is on the platform again, and this month ' +
'the manifest has Vane’s own hand on it. Ward is not at the gate today, ' +
'which is itself a decision somebody made.',
options: [
{
id: 'load_it',
label: 'Load it and drive it out to the Ridge like any other crate.',
result:
'It is heavier than hinges. Vane pays you eighteen dollars for a ' +
'nine dollar run and neither of you mentions the difference.',
effects: [
{ path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 18 },
{ path: 'relationships.hollis.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 10 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: -12 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -3 },
{ path: 'notable', op: 'push', value: 'Ran the unmarked crate out to the Ridge for Vane.' },
],
},
{
id: 'tell_ward',
label: 'Go and find Ward.',
result:
'He looks at the manifest for a long time and then puts it back on ' +
'the platform exactly as he found it. Nothing happens for eleven ' +
'days, and then a great deal happens at once.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 4 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 6 },
{ path: 'relationships.ward.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 20 },
{ path: 'relationships.hollis.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: -14 },
{ path: 'notable', op: 'push', value: 'Took Vane’s manifest to Marshal Ward.' },
],
},
{
id: 'ask_vane_direct',
label: 'Ask Vane what is in it.',
requires: [{ path: 'skills.trade', op: '>=', value: 22 }],
result:
'He tells you, standing in the doorway of the office as always, and ' +
'then asks what you intend to do about it. It is the first real ' +
'question anybody in Cold Fork has asked you.',
effects: [
{ path: 'skills.trade', op: 'add', value: 4 },
{ path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 3 },
{ path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 2 },
{ path: 'relationships.hollis.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: 6 },
{ path: 'notable', op: 'push', value: 'Asked Vane what was in the crate, and got an answer.' },
],
},
],
},
];
export default people;