TheLadder/content/countinghouse/index.js

// 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;