TheLadder/content/frontier/events/hard-times.js

// Running out of money.
//
// No game over and no failure mode in the engine — these are ordinary events
// whose conditions happen to be about money, weighted heavily enough to crowd
// out an ordinary day. Neither declares a stage: being broke follows you up
// the ladder rather than vanishing when you take the star.
//
// The arithmetic that matters, and the one Corporate Ladder got wrong once:
// `every_run` pays 30 against a room-and-board cycle of 20 and a fully-loaded
// store charge of 10, so there is always a way out that is worth more than the
// hole is deep. Change either number and re-derive the other.

export const hardTimes = [
  {
    id: 'store_cut_off',
    // Heavy, but on a cooldown: being broke should colour a run, not become
    // the run. Corporate Ladder learned this the expensive way at weight 5000
    // with no cooldown.
    weight: 900,
    cooldown: 3,
    requires: [{ path: 'money', op: '<', value: 0 }],
    description:
      'The storekeeper turns the book round on the counter so you can see ' +
      'your own line in it, and does not say anything at all, which is worse ' +
      'than the several things he could have said.',
    options: [
      {
        id: 'on_the_book',
        label: 'Ask him to carry you a while longer.',
        // He stops eventually. Past that, the ways out cost standing and
        // favours rather than interest, which is where the spiral gets real.
        requires: [{ path: 'owed', op: '<', value: 120 }],
        result:
          'He turns the book back round and writes it. The figure at the ' +
          'bottom of your line is now larger than a month of runs.',
        effects: [
          { path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 30 },
          { path: 'owed', op: 'add', value: 32 },
          { path: 'flags.owes_the_store', op: 'set', value: true },
          { path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -2 },
          { path: 'notable', op: 'push', value: 'Went further into the book at the store.' },
        ],
      },
      {
        id: 'ask_dutch',
        label: 'Ask Dutch to settle a line of his own.',
        requires: [{ path: 'relationships.dutch.owes_you', op: '>=', value: 20 }],
        result:
          'He pays it without a word and crosses it out of the book in front ' +
          'of you, and afterwards you are a man he has settled with rather ' +
          'than a man he owes.',
        effects: [
          { path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 18 },
          { path: 'relationships.dutch.owes_you', op: 'add', value: -20 },
          { path: 'relationships.dutch.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: -3 },
          { path: 'notable', op: 'push', value: 'Called in what Dutch owed.' },
        ],
      },
      {
        id: 'ask_hollis',
        label: 'Ask Vane for the smith’s money back.',
        requires: [{ path: 'relationships.hollis.owes_you', op: '>=', value: 20 }],
        result:
          'He pays in the doorway, in full, and finds a reason not to look at ' +
          'you for the rest of the week.',
        effects: [
          { path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 22 },
          { path: 'relationships.hollis.owes_you', op: 'add', value: -20 },
          { path: 'relationships.hollis.trusts_you', op: 'add', value: -4 },
        ],
      },
      {
        id: 'every_run',
        label: 'Take every run going.',
        // Has to be worth more than a cycle of room and board plus the fully
        // stepped-up store charge, or it is not a way out — it is the hole
        // with extra hours in it.
        result:
          'Eleven days without one off. The Ridge road stops being a road ' +
          'after a while and becomes a sequence of turns you take.',
        effects: [
          { path: 'money', op: 'add', value: 30 },
          { path: 'skills.nerve', op: 'add', value: 2 },
          { path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -1 },
        ],
      },
    ],
  },

  {
    id: 'the_book_called',
    // Often enough to matter. At weight 25 Corporate Ladder's equivalent
    // appeared six times in 262 turns and debt became a one-way ratchet.
    weight: 45,
    cooldown: 4,
    requires: [{ path: 'owed', op: '>', value: 0 }],
    description:
      'The storekeeper has written to the county about three lines in his ' +
      'book and yours is one of them. He mentions this to you in the street, ' +
      'in daylight, in front of two other people.',
    options: [
      {
        id: 'pay_chunk',
        label: 'Pay a real piece of it down.',
        requires: [{ path: 'money', op: '>=', value: 45 }],
        result: 'He rules a line through most of it and is disappointed about it.',
        effects: [
          { path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -45 },
          { path: 'owed', op: 'add', value: -45 },
          { path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: 2 },
        ],
      },
      {
        id: 'pay_minimum',
        label: 'Pay what you have on you.',
        requires: [{ path: 'money', op: '>=', value: 12 }],
        result: 'Twelve dollars, ten of which is the line and two of which is coffee.',
        effects: [
          { path: 'money', op: 'add', value: -12 },
          { path: 'owed', op: 'add', value: -10 },
        ],
      },
      {
        id: 'stall',
        label: 'Tell him after the next stage.',
        result:
          'He says after the next stage. The two other people in the street ' +
          'say nothing, and repeat all of it by evening.',
        effects: [
          { path: 'owed', op: 'add', value: 4 },
          { path: 'standing', op: 'add', value: -3 },
          { path: 'relationships.ward.wary_of_you', op: 'add', value: 4 },
        ],
      },
    ],
  },
];

export default hardTimes;