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# Station Master — Card Reference
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The per-card catalogue: what is printed on every card. This is the specification the rules engine
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instantiates from and that any print-and-play layout renders. It says *what each card says*, not how
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it looks.
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Derived from [`rules-v0.2.md`](rules-v0.2.md) §12 and the Gap 10 decisions in
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[`open-questions.md`](open-questions.md#gap-10--card-face-specifications).
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*All values provisional — calibration targets to retune after play.*
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---
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## 1. The Home Office deck — 52 cards
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| Category | Cards | §12.1 |
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| --- | ---: | --- |
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| [Timetabled Trains](#3-train-cards) | 12 | one each, 1–12 |
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| [Extra Trains](#3-train-cards) | 4 | X9–X12 |
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| [Office upgrades](#4-office-cards) | 9 | Depot ×4, Station ×3, Terminal ×2 |
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| [Freight Facilities](#2-freight-facility-cards) | 10 | 5 types × 2 |
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| [Modifier Facilities](#5-modifier-cards) | 5 | one each |
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| [Plain track](#6-track-cards) | 12 | turnout ×6, straight ×3, run-around ×3 |
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| **Total** | **52** | |
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---
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## 2. Freight Facility cards
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Ten cards, **five types in identical pairs**. Every freight facility card carries: a track with the
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Operational Rail wheel icon, an industry track of the stated length, Laborer icons, the
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`MEN | AT | WORK` three-box turn track, and its green Outbound and/or red Inbound boxes.
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| Facility | Car type | Direction | Laborers | Outbound | Inbound | Industry track | Copies |
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| --- | --- | --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
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| Mine Tipple | Hopper | Outbound only | 3 | 3 | — | 4 | 2 |
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| Produce Shed | Reefer | Outbound only | 2 | 2 | — | 3 | 2 |
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| Grocer's Warehouse | Boxcar | Both | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
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| Oil Refinery | Tank car | Both | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
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| Power Plant | Hopper | Inbound only | 3 | — | 3 | 4 | 2 |
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Directions follow the commodity: coal originates at a Mine Tipple and is consumed at a Power Plant;
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produce ships out; a warehouse and a refinery do both. This gives §9 all three of its cases —
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outbound-only, inbound-only, and both.
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**"Freight House"** (§9.3, Appendix A) is not a card. It is the collective term for a freight facility
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that loads *and* unloads — the Grocer's Warehouse and the Oil Refinery. §9.3's "Passenger Facilities
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and Freight Houses permit cars to move each direction" therefore names exactly those two.
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### Throughput — why these Laborer counts
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A complete freight load takes **four Laborer-actions** (§9.3): Green → MEN → AT → WORK → onto the
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car. Laborers are usable once each per Stage.
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**`MEN | AT | WORK` is a pipeline, not a queue.** §9.1 allows one Load on each of its three boxes, so
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up to three loads are in flight at once and each Laborer advances one of them per Stage. This is the
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key to reading the numbers: **Laborer count is throughput, not latency.**
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```
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single load, 2 Laborers → completes in 2 Stages
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single load, 3 Laborers → completes in 2 Stages (no faster!)
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pipeline full, 3 Laborers → one load completes EVERY Stage
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```
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The extra Laborer buys nothing on one load and triples output on a full pipeline.
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**And the pipeline can only be fed one load per Stage**, because stocking the green box costs a whole
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Local Operations action (§6.3). So a 3-Laborer facility is exactly balanced against the feed rate —
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it completes loads as fast as a player can possibly supply them. The 2-Laborer facilities are the
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deliberately slower industries, unable to quite keep up with a dedicated player.
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That is why Laborer counts track Outbound capacity: Mine Tipple 3/3, Power Plant 3/3, Produce Shed
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2/2, Grocer's Warehouse 2/2. The numbers are derived from the action budget, not chosen freely.
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The Oil Refinery is the exception at 3 Laborers against 2+2 capacity, and deliberately so: it serves
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two flows through one three-box pipeline, so its pipeline stays fuller than a one-way facility's and
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the third Laborer is earning its keep.
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Even so, Laborers are rarely what limits a player — spotting the empty car and hauling the loaded one
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away both cost switching actions from the same budget. See §7.
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---
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## 3. Train cards
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Sixteen cards. Each carries its number, a direction from the card image, the consist specification,
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and the required order: **engine at the front, revenue cars, caboose last where required**.
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Odd numbers run westbound, even eastbound. Pairs are sister trains under the optional rule (Appendix
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B). Seniority runs passenger-first — low numbers are the varnish, high numbers the drags and locals.
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| Trains | Class | Consist | Direction |
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| --- | --- | --- | --- |
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| 1 / 2 | Limited | 4 coaches, no caboose | W / E |
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| 3 / 4 | Mail-Express | 3 coaches, no caboose | W / E |
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| 5 / 6 | Manifest Freight | 3 boxcars or reefers + caboose | W / E |
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| 7 / 8 | Coal Drag | 3 hoppers + caboose | W / E |
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| 9 / 10 | Oil Train | 3 tank cars + caboose | W / E |
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| 11 / 12 | Way Freight | 3 cars of any type + caboose | W / E |
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| X9, X10, X11, X12 | Extra | Any 3 cars + caboose, player's choice | Head-on — player chooses |
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A Crew Tray holds at most **four** Rolling Stock and a caboose counts toward that four (§A.4), which
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is why no caboose train carries more than three revenue cars.
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Only trains 1–4 carry coaches, so passenger work at any Office depends on those four trains' visits.
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---
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## 4. Office cards
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Nine upgrade cards in the deck (Depot ×4, Station ×3, Terminal ×2 — the pyramid Gap 3b requires).
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Whistle Posts are a fixed supply outside the deck (§12.2).
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| Office | Control Point | Passenger Facility | A/D tracks | Porters | Green slots | Red slots | In deck |
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| --- | :---: | :---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
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| Whistle Post | no | no | 1 | — | — | — | supply |
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| Depot | yes | yes | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
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| Station | yes | yes | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
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| Terminal | yes | yes | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
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**Slot capacity deliberately exceeds Porter count.** Only trains 1–4 carry coaches, so an Office needs
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somewhere to bank boarding passengers between visits and room to absorb a whole trainload of
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arrivals. Slot counts mirror the A/D track progression.
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**All four tiers carry identical track geometry** (§11.3): a through track plus a plain junction stub
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above and below. Upgrades are drop-in and must never disturb a connection.
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---
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## 5. Modifier cards
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Five cards, one each. A Modifier is **not track**. It is placed adjacent to a Facility, on any of the
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nine nearby spots, and if adjacent to two Facilities its effect may be used on only one per Stage
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(§9).
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| Card | Effect | Applies to |
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| --- | --- | --- |
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| Team Track | +1 car on the industry track | Freight |
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| Loading Dock | +1 green Outbound capacity | Freight |
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| Storage Shed | +1 red Inbound capacity | Freight |
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| Extra Platform | +1 green **and** +1 red slot | Passenger |
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| Section Gang | +1 Laborer **or** +1 Porter | Either |
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Capacity modifiers matter more than they sound: banking room, not worker count, is what limits
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output. Section Gang is the only way to speed a facility up, and is deliberately the sole
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worker-adding card.
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---
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## 6. Track cards
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Twelve plain track cards. Every one carries the Operational Rail wheel icon **except turnouts**, which
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a train may pass through but not stop on (§A.1).
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| Geometry | Count | Notes |
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| --- | ---: | --- |
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| Turnout | 6 | Enter from A → B or C; enter from B or C → A only. Not Operational Rail. |
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| Straight | 3 | Operational Rail |
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| Run-around | 3 | Operational Rail. Required for the facing-point move of §A.5. |
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Turnout-heavy because turnouts are how Secondary Track branches onward once the Office card's own
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junction stubs are built out (§11.3).
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---
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## 7. Economy summary
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**Local Operations actions are the main currency.** One per Stage, twelve per Day, and each is
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exclusive — switch, *or* draw, *or* work the Freight Agent (§6).
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| Revenue source | Local Ops cost |
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| --- | --- |
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| Freight load **out** | 1 to stock the green box, plus amortized switching |
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| Freight **unload** | **none up front** — 1 later, only once the red box fills |
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| Passenger boarding | 1 to stock a loaded coach |
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| Passenger de-training | **none up front** — 1 later to clear the slot |
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> **⚠ Corrected against simulation.** An earlier version of this section claimed every Revenue point
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> costs about one action, giving a ceiling of 12/Day. **That is wrong**, and the error is
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> instructive: the two *inbound* operations need no Local Ops action at all at the moment they
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> score. A loaded car arrives on a train, per-Stage Laborers walk it off, and the point is earned
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> using only free per-Stage resources. The action is spent later, and only when a box actually
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> fills.
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>
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> That earlier correction was itself measured against a **scoring bug** — unloads were paying a full
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> Revenue point after one Laborer action instead of four. With the pipeline corrected, simulation
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> gives **~0.9 Revenue/player/Day and a 0% win rate** against these targets.
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>
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> **Treat the 5–6/Day figure as unfounded.** It was derived from the mistaken model above and has not
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> been re-derived. The measured cost of one freight point is four Laborer actions plus a stocking
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> action plus the switching to spot a car. See `open-questions.md` Gap 12.
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### The development ramp
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Players open with a Whistle Post — not a Passenger Facility — and no freight facilities at all. The
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timetable also starts empty, so no trains run until someone draws and plays a train card.
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```
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Day 1 ~0 no facilities, no trains yet
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Day 2 ~2 first facility placed, first train running
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Day 3 ~5 developed
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Day 4+ ~6 steady state
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cumulative: 3 Days ≈ 7 5 Days ≈ 19 10 Days ≈ 49
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```
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The §3 victory targets (10 / 20 / 45) are set just under these cumulative figures, so a game is
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winnable by a player running well and missed by one who is not. The Competitive collective floor of
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`3 × players × Days` is about half of expected output and is comfortably met by a functioning
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Division.
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---
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## 8. Fixed supplies (outside the deck)
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| Component | Count |
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| --- | --- |
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| Mainline cards (tarot, 2 regions each) | N + 1 for N players |
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| Division Point cards | 2 (East, West) |
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| Whistle Post cards | N + spares |
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| Limits cards | 2N + spares |
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| Crew Trays and engines | player count + 3 |
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| Number Boards | 12, numbered 1–12 |
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| Red Flag cards | 1 per player *(optional rule only; removed from game when played)* |
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| Fedora | 1 |
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| Pocket Watch | 1 |
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| D12 | 1 |
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### Rolling Stock — 62 pieces
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| Type | Loaded | Empty |
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| --- | ---: | ---: |
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| Coaches (blue) | 8 | 8 |
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| Boxcars (brown) | 6 | 6 |
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| Hoppers (brown) | 6 | 6 |
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| Reefers (brown) | 4 | 4 |
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| Tank cars (brown) | 4 | 4 |
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| Cabooses (red) | 6 | — |
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| **Total** | | **62** |
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**Supply check against facility demand.** Worst case is every copy of every facility in play at once
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with all boxes full:
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| Car | Facility demand | Supply | Headroom |
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| --- | ---: | ---: | --- |
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| Hopper | Mine Tipple 3×2 + Power Plant 3×2 = 12 | 12 | exactly met |
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| Tank | Oil Refinery (2+2)×2 = 8 | 8 | exactly met |
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| Boxcar | Grocer's (2+2)×2 = 8 | 12 | 4 spare |
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| Reefer | Produce Shed 2×2 = 4 | 8 | 4 spare |
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| Coach | Terminal 4+4, per Office | 16 | scales with Office count |
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Hoppers and tank cars are exactly met in the theoretical worst case, which cannot occur in practice —
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only 10 freight facility cards exist across a 52-card deck shared by all players, and the §2.2
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Classification Yard recycle returns stock to the Division Yard whenever it empties. Both are worth
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watching in playtesting.
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# Station Master — Glossary
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Every defined term, alphabetized for lookup. The core comes from the Definitions section of
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`rules-v0.1.md` (§2); terms introduced by gap decisions carry their `rules-v0.2.md` section. The
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"Where" column points at the defining section.
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| Term | Definition | Where |
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| --- | --- | --- |
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| **A/D (Arrival/Departure) Track** | Short sidings in front of your office where trains arrive and depart from. A train at an Office occupies one A/D track. If a train arrives and no A/D track is available, it is a collision. | §2.1, §8.3 |
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| **Caboose** | Red rolling stock, for the conductor and switch crews. Returns directly to the Division Yard when used. Counts toward the Crew Tray's four-piece limit. | §2.2, §A.4 |
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| **Classification Yard** | Where used Rolling Stock is placed. When the Division Yard empties, everything here moves back to it. | §2.2 |
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| **Coach** | Passenger rolling stock (blue = loaded, white = empty). | §2.2 |
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| **Consist** | A collection of Rolling Stock (cars) in a Crew Tray. Order is significant. | §2.2, §A.3 |
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| **Control Point** | An Office where trains are reported in to the distant (NPC) dispatcher — Division Points, Depots, Stations, Terminals. Whistle Posts are not Control Points. Denoted by a train order signal on the card. | §2.1 |
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| **Crew Tray** | The canoe-shaped holder containing the train pieces. Must always hold an engine; may hold at most four Rolling Stock, cabooses included. | §2.2, §A.4 |
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| **Day** | A series of twelve Stages. | §2.4 |
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| **Departments** | Three face-up slots beside the Home Office deck from which cards may be drawn and to which they may be discarded. Fed from the one deck, not decks of their own. | §2.6 |
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| **Dispatcher** | The imaginary (NPC) person running the railroad and granting rights to trains to operate. | §2.6 |
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| **Division** | Your company's tracks connecting the Eastern and Western Division Points. May represent hundreds of miles and several Offices. | §2.1 |
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| **Division Point** | Where your railroad ties into other railroads. There is an Eastern and a Western Division Point. | §2.1 |
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| **Division Yard** | A table-top pile of Rolling Stock. Cars for cargo, passengers, or trains are selected from here. | §2.2 |
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| **East** | The player's right. | §2.4 |
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| **Engine** | The engine piece. May pull cars, push cars, or both. Has couplers on the front end. | §2.2, §A.3 |
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| **Extra Platform** | Modifier card: +1 green and +1 red slot at a Passenger Facility. | §12.5 |
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| **Extra Train** | A one-and-done train; its card returns to the Salvage Yard on completion. Head-on card image, so the drawing player picks its direction. Numbered with an "X" prefix; the following number gives its seniority, and it yields to the Timetabled train of that number. | §2.3, §8 |
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| **Facility** | A business which loads/unloads cargo and freight. | §2.5 |
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| **Freight Facility** | Mine Tipples, Produce Sheds, Grocer's Warehouses, Oil Refineries, Power Plants. Some allow only outbound, some only inbound, some both. Per-card values in §12.5. | §9, §12.5 |
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| **Freight House** | Not a card — the collective term for a freight facility permitting both directions, namely the Grocer's Warehouse and the Oil Refinery. | §9.3, §12.5 |
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| **Highball** | When a train holding at an Office automatically departs. | §2.4 |
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| **Home Office** | The primary face-down deck cards are drawn from. 52 cards. | §2.6, §12.1 |
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| **Hopper** | Coal rolling stock (brown = loaded, white = empty). | §2.2 |
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| **Inbound box** | A red box holding all just-unloaded freight/passengers of the designated type. | §2.5 |
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| **Junction stub** | The diverging connection printed above and below every Office card's track, allowing Secondary Track to branch from the opening Stage. A plain connection — §A.1's turnout directionality does not apply. | §11.3 |
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| **Laborer** | A blue man-icon; works cargo. Usable once each per Stage. Four Laborer-actions complete one load. | §2.5, §9.1, §9.3 |
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| **Limits** | The sign east and west of your Office that denotes the limit of your control area. Moves outwards as your Running Track expands. | §2.1, §11.2 |
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| **Loading Dock** | Modifier card: +1 green Outbound capacity at a Freight Facility. | §12.5 |
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| **Mainline Card** | Tarot-sized cards representing roughly the hundred miles of track between train offices. Each has two regions. | §2.1 |
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| **MEN \| AT \| WORK** | A blue three-box turn track tracking how quickly freight cars are loaded/unloaded. Only one Load per box. While any load sits on it, the industry's track loses Operational Rail status. | §2.5, §9.3 |
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| **Modifier Facility** | A card placed adjacent to a Facility (any of the nine nearby spots) that increases its capacities or workers. If adjacent to two Facilities, it may only be used on one per Stage. | §2.5, §9, §12.5 |
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| **Move** | A Crew Tray moving from one Operational Rail card to another, regardless of distance, without changing direction. | §2.4, §A |
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| **Number board** | Small tiles numbered 1-12 recording which Stage (hour) a train departs. | §2.3 |
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| **Office** | The location the Station Master sits at. A Whistle Post, Depot, Station or Terminal. All four share identical track geometry. | §2.1, §11.1, §11.3 |
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| **Operational Rail** | Any track (Running or Secondary) on which a train may sit, change direction, and drop or pick up cars. Marked with a wheel icon. | §2.1 |
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| **Outbound box** | A green box holding all to-be-loaded freight/passengers of the indicated type. | §2.5 |
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| **Passenger Facility** | Depots, Stations and Terminals — any Office above Whistle Post. Always allow both loading and unloading. | §9, §11.1 |
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| **Phase** | An operational component of a Stage. | §2.4 |
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| **Porter** | A black man-icon; assists passengers. Usable once each per Stage. One Porter-action earns one Revenue. | §2.5, §9.1, §9.2 |
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| **Reefer** | Refrigerated rolling stock for field produce (brown = loaded, white = empty). | §2.2 |
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| **Revenue** | Points gained and lost to determine victory. +1 per load/unload operation, −5 per collision. | §2.4, §10 |
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| **Rolling stock** | The non-engine pieces representing rail cars, either in a Crew Tray or sitting on an Operational Rail card. A colored car is loaded; a white car is empty. | §2.2 |
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| **Running Track** | The "Mainline" running horizontally between your Limits, including your Office — the horizontal row of cards, Limit-to-Limit. | §2.1 |
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| **Salvage Yard** | Where used cards are placed, face up, so no card that shouldn't be discarded is. | §2.6 |
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| **Secondary Track** | All track inside your Limits that is not the Running Track. | §2.1 |
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| **Section Gang** | Modifier card: +1 Laborer or +1 Porter. The only worker-adding Modifier. | §12.5 |
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| **Stage** | A two-hour section of time. Twelve make a Day. Each player gets one Local Operations action per Stage. | §2.4, §6 |
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| **Storage Shed** | Modifier card: +1 red Inbound capacity at a Freight Facility. | §12.5 |
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| **Subdivision** | The Mainline track between the Limits of opposing Control Points. Whistle Posts are not Control Points and sit inside a Subdivision like ordinary Mainline. | §2.1 |
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| **Superintendent** | The Dispatcher's right-hand-man, managing the division. The role passes player to player; a shift is six hours (three Stages). Marked by the Fedora piece. Rules on following-train clearances. | §2.6, §8.1 |
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| **Tank car** | Oil rolling stock (brown = loaded, white = empty). | §2.2 |
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| **Team Track** | Modifier card: +1 car on a Freight Facility's industry track. | §12.5 |
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| **Timetabled Train** | A train scheduled to run every day at the same time, marked by a Number Board on the turn chart. Numbered 1-12; odd westbound, even eastbound. Lower numbers hold greater seniority, and all outrank Extras. | §2.3, §8 |
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| **Turnout** | A drawn track card where a train entering from "A" may proceed to B or C, but one entering from B or C may only proceed to A. Not Operational Rail, so no stopping. Distinct from the Office card's junction stubs, which carry no directional restriction. | §A.1, §11.3 |
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| **West** | The player's left. | §2.4 |
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| **Whistle Post** | The most basic Office — "a shack in the middle of nowhere". Not a Control Point and not a Passenger Facility, so a Whistle Post player has no passenger business. | §2.1, §11.1 |
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@@ -0,0 +1,972 @@
|
||||
# Station Master — Open Questions
|
||||
|
||||
Live tracker for gaps in the prototype rules. Each entry records the problem, the options
|
||||
considered, the decision, and why. Decided entries feed `rules-v0.2.md`; anything still open blocks
|
||||
implementation of the systems it touches.
|
||||
|
||||
**Status key:** `OPEN` — not yet discussed · `DECIDED` — settled, in v0.2 · `DEFERRED` — knowingly
|
||||
left open, with the consequence noted.
|
||||
|
||||
| # | Gap | Status |
|
||||
| - | --- | ------ |
|
||||
| 1 | Phase resolution order | **DECIDED** |
|
||||
| 2 | Collision resolution (and the Whistle Post highball condition) | **DECIDED** |
|
||||
| 3 | Office upgrades | **DECIDED** |
|
||||
| 4 | Component manifest and deck composition | **DECIDED** |
|
||||
| 5 | Extra-train seniority ties | **DECIDED** |
|
||||
| 6 | Victory conditions | **DECIDED** |
|
||||
| 7 | Terminology errata | **DECIDED** |
|
||||
| 8 | First placement into an empty Office Area | **DECIDED** — found during verification |
|
||||
| 9 | Consist length scales with player count | **DECIDED** — found during verification |
|
||||
| 10 | Card face specifications | **DECIDED** — revised the Gap 6 targets |
|
||||
| 11 | Track card orientation | **DECIDED** — orientation chosen on placement |
|
||||
| 12 | Balance targets | OPEN — targets unreachable once scoring was corrected |
|
||||
| 13 | Deck scaling by player count | OPEN — measured, recommendation ready |
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Gap 1 — Phase resolution order
|
||||
|
||||
**Status:** DECIDED — phase-major, strict player order.
|
||||
|
||||
**The problem.** §5 says "In each Stage of the day the players perform Phases, one at a time in
|
||||
order from the Superintendent through the players in order to his left." This admits two readings:
|
||||
|
||||
- **(a) Player-major** — each player performs all four Phases, then the next player does.
|
||||
- **(b) Phase-major** — every player performs Local Operations, then every player performs New
|
||||
Train, and so on.
|
||||
|
||||
Reading (b) is supported by the Mainline Phase (§8), which is described as global and automatic —
|
||||
trains move in train-number order across the whole Division, not per player — and by the New Train
|
||||
Phase (§7), where "starting with the superintendent and working left, each player may place ONE
|
||||
car" describes a single round inside one phase. Reading (a) would make both of those incoherent.
|
||||
|
||||
**Why it matters.** This is the server's entire turn state machine. Every other timing question
|
||||
(when Laborer/Porter usage resets, when a collision is evaluated, what a player sees while waiting)
|
||||
depends on it.
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision.** Reading (b), **phase-major**, with strict sequential player order:
|
||||
|
||||
```
|
||||
STAGE N
|
||||
├─ 1. Local Operations P(super) → P(+1) → P(+2) … one at a time
|
||||
├─ 2. New Train per train: super → left, ONE car each
|
||||
├─ 3. Mainline ALL trains move, train-number order (global)
|
||||
├─ 4. Load / Unload P(super) → P(+1) → P(+2) … one at a time
|
||||
└─ 5. Shift Change Stages 3, 6, 9, 12 only
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
"One at a time in order from the Superintendent through the players to his left" describes ordering
|
||||
*within* a phase, not the phase loop.
|
||||
|
||||
**Rationale.** New Train's shared car-placement round (one train, each player adds one car in
|
||||
Superintendent-then-left order) and Mainline's global lowest-train-number-first ordering are both
|
||||
incoherent under player-major; phase-major is the only reading where the rules as written function.
|
||||
|
||||
Simultaneous resolution of the two player-local phases was considered and rejected for now: Local
|
||||
Operations and Load/Unload touch shared piles (Division Yard, Home Office deck, the three face-up
|
||||
Department decks), so concurrency would turn draw order into a race and change the game. It stays
|
||||
available as a possible later "fast mode" but is not the rule.
|
||||
|
||||
**Consequences for implementation.** The server holds a single current-actor pointer — exactly one
|
||||
player may act at any moment. Every other client is in a spectating state. Per-Stage resources
|
||||
(Laborer and Porter usage) reset at the start of each Stage, not each phase.
|
||||
|
||||
The Mainline Phase is the exception to the pointer, in both directions: it is automatic, so no player
|
||||
acts in turn order — but §8.1's fourth condition interrupts it to ask the **Superintendent** whether a
|
||||
following train may safely depart. That decision arrives out of turn order and may concern another
|
||||
player's train. It is the one point in the game where a player acts during someone else's traffic,
|
||||
and Gap 2 deliberately made the *consequences* automatic so that this decision carries full weight.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Gap 2 — Collision resolution
|
||||
|
||||
**Status:** DECIDED — collisions are automatic.
|
||||
|
||||
**The problem.** §8.2 gives three collision triggers and each says a collision "**may** occur":
|
||||
|
||||
- cars or trains sitting on the Running Track between the Limits and the Office,
|
||||
- no room at the station (every A/D track occupied),
|
||||
- a train ready to Highball with the track between it and the Limits occupied.
|
||||
|
||||
§10 gives the consequence (−5 Revenue, both trains removed, timetabled trains rerun next day) and
|
||||
assigns fault. But nothing says whether "may" means automatic, a die roll, or a judgment call. A
|
||||
server needs a deterministic rule.
|
||||
|
||||
Note §A.4 states flatly that cars encountered by a train during the Mainline Phase "result in a
|
||||
collision" — no "may". That suggests the triggers are in fact automatic and "may" is loose writing,
|
||||
but this needs confirming rather than assuming.
|
||||
|
||||
**Sub-question 2b — the Whistle Post highball condition.** §8.1's final bullet reads: "If the
|
||||
Subdivision contains a Whistle Post (i.e. a non-Control Point) yet a train is occupying Secondary
|
||||
Track there (i.e. clear of the Running Track), the superintendent *must* Highball the train." It is
|
||||
unclear which train "the train" refers to — the one being considered for departure, or the one
|
||||
sitting on Secondary Track. Read as the former, it is a permission (a train parked clear of the
|
||||
Running Track doesn't block the Subdivision). That reading fits the surrounding list, but the
|
||||
sentence doesn't say so.
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision (2b) — "the train" is the train being considered for departure.** A train parked on
|
||||
Secondary Track at a Whistle Post does not foul the Running Track, so it does not count as occupying
|
||||
the Subdivision, and the Superintendent has no grounds to withhold clearance from the departing
|
||||
train — hence "must".
|
||||
|
||||
*Rationale.* The definition of Highball settles it. §2.4 defines it as "when a train holding at an
|
||||
Office automatically departs", and §8.1's first bullet requires that a train "must be sitting on the
|
||||
A/D track before the Office or at a Division Point" to be cleared. A train on Secondary Track fails
|
||||
that condition and is therefore not highball-eligible at all, so the word cannot be referring to it.
|
||||
|
||||
The bullet is a clarifying exception to bullets 3 and 4, not a new power: those say a train in the
|
||||
next Subdivision blocks or complicates departure, and this one carves out the case where that train
|
||||
is stabled clear of the Running Track. The alternative reading also has a destructive side effect —
|
||||
if the Superintendent could force a parked train back onto the mainline, any player mid-way through
|
||||
a six-Move switching sequence could have their train ejected, gutting the local switching game.
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision (2a) — collisions are automatic.** If a trigger condition holds at the moment the train
|
||||
moves, the collision occurs. There is no die roll and no judgment call. "May occur" is descriptive
|
||||
prose about risk, not a resolution mechanic.
|
||||
|
||||
*Rationale.* §A.4 states the identical situation without any hedge ("Any cars encountered by such
|
||||
trains result in a collision"). The Superintendent's discretion is already spent earlier, at §8.1,
|
||||
deciding whether to clear a following train — randomizing the outcome afterwards would blunt that
|
||||
decision, which is the game's central tension. And the Emergency Toolbox optional rule exists so
|
||||
collisions "can be avoided", which is most meaningful when they are otherwise certain.
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision (2c) — a train striking loose cars is a full collision.** §10's "both trains are removed"
|
||||
assumes two trains; triggers 1 and 3 can involve a moving train striking uncoupled Rolling Stock. In
|
||||
that case the train *and* the struck cars are destroyed and the responsible player loses 5 Revenue —
|
||||
the same penalty as a train-on-train wreck.
|
||||
|
||||
*Disposition of destroyed pieces* (following §2.2): engines and cabooses return to the Division Yard;
|
||||
all other Rolling Stock goes to the Classification Yard. Timetabled train cards return to their
|
||||
timetable slot and run again the next Day; Extra train cards go to the Salvage Yard.
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision (2d) — no room at the station is a collision.** A train arriving at an Office where every
|
||||
A/D track is occupied collides. Fault is the Office's player under §10 (it occurs inside his Limits),
|
||||
costing 5 Revenue, and the train is removed.
|
||||
|
||||
*Rationale.* Harsh, but it makes A/D capacity a constraint the player must actively plan around and
|
||||
gives Office upgrades (Gap 3) real value. The gentler alternative — holding the train short in the
|
||||
Subdivision — was rejected because a blocked Subdivision cascades into later Stages and is arguably
|
||||
the harsher punishment anyway, while costing more server state to evaluate.
|
||||
|
||||
**Consequences for implementation.** Collision evaluation is a pure function of board state at each
|
||||
train movement step in the Mainline Phase, with no player input and no RNG. The only interrupt is a
|
||||
Red Flag card (Emergency Toolbox optional rule), which means the Mainline Phase is automatic but not
|
||||
necessarily uninterruptible — see Gap 4 for what Red Flag actually does.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Gap 3 — Office upgrades
|
||||
|
||||
**Status:** DECIDED — cards played from hand, strict sequence, 1/2/3/4 A/D tracks.
|
||||
|
||||
**The problem.** The rules depend on Offices changing type but never say how. §8 notes "Updating
|
||||
Offices with the Control Point icon split the Subdivision in two at that point," §2.1 lists Whistle
|
||||
Post / depot / station / terminal as Office types, and §A.4 says the Office track "has the number of
|
||||
A/D tracks listed" — implying the count varies by type. Setup (§4) starts everyone on a Whistle
|
||||
Post. Nothing states what card or action performs the upgrade, what each type costs, or what A/D
|
||||
counts each type has.
|
||||
|
||||
**Why it matters.** Control Point placement determines Subdivision boundaries, which determine
|
||||
highball legality, which is the core of the Mainline Phase. It also gates what card types must exist
|
||||
in the Home Office deck, so it precedes Gap 4.
|
||||
|
||||
**What the upgrade is worth.** Three benefits arrive together, which is why it needs no additional
|
||||
price: passenger revenue (a Whistle Post is not a Passenger Facility, so a Whistle Post player is
|
||||
restricted to freight entirely), A/D capacity (and after Gap 2, running out of A/D tracks is a −5
|
||||
collision), and Subdivision splitting (which raises traffic capacity for the whole Division, not
|
||||
just the upgrading player).
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision (3a) — upgrades are cards played from hand, at no Revenue cost.** Depot, Station and
|
||||
Terminal are card types in the Home Office deck. A player plays one during the "Draw a card" option
|
||||
of the Local Operations Phase (§6.2); it replaces the current Office card, and the replaced card
|
||||
goes to the Salvage Yard. The Office card carries the Control Point signal, the A/D track count, and
|
||||
the Passenger Facility icons (Porters and loading/unloading boxes — exact counts in Gap 4).
|
||||
|
||||
*Rationale.* Playing a card from hand is the only "play" verb the rules define. The cost is already
|
||||
real without adding Revenue: one of three hand slots, plus a whole Local Operations action, which is
|
||||
mutually exclusive with switching your trains or working freight that Stage.
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision (3b) — strict sequence: Whistle Post → Depot → Station → Terminal.** Each tier must be
|
||||
built in order; no skipping.
|
||||
|
||||
*Two consequences accepted with this choice.* First, a Terminal or Station drawn early is a dead
|
||||
card occupying one of only three hand slots — the player must either sit on it or discard it face-up
|
||||
onto a Department deck, where an opponent may take it. This turns the Department decks into an
|
||||
informal market for high-tier Office cards and is a genuine strategic wrinkle, not a defect.
|
||||
Second, it constrains Gap 4: the deck must contain Office cards in a **pyramid** (more Depots than
|
||||
Stations, more Stations than Terminals), or the strict chain will stall players who cannot find the
|
||||
next rung.
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision (3c) — A/D track counts are 1 / 2 / 3 / 4** for Whistle Post / Depot / Station /
|
||||
Terminal. A Whistle Post holds exactly one train, which makes the opening genuinely tense given that
|
||||
overflow is an automatic collision (Gap 2d); 4 matches the maximum consist length (§A.4).
|
||||
|
||||
**Deferred to Gap 4.** §2.1 says Limits "may be moved outwards" as controlled track expands, which
|
||||
implies separate track-expansion cards adding Secondary Track. That is a component question, not an
|
||||
Office-type question.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Gap 4 — Component manifest and deck composition
|
||||
|
||||
**Status:** OPEN
|
||||
|
||||
**The problem.** No quantities are specified anywhere. Unknown:
|
||||
|
||||
- **Home Office deck contents** — what card types exist and in what proportion (Facilities,
|
||||
Modifiers, track/turnout cards, Timetabled Train cards, Extra Train cards, Office upgrades, Red
|
||||
Flag, anything else).
|
||||
- **Track cards** — how many Whistle Posts and Limits per player, how many Mainline cards, what
|
||||
track geometries exist (straight, turnout, crossover/run-around).
|
||||
- **Train cards** — 12 timetabled trains are implied by the 1-12 numbering, but how many Extras, and
|
||||
what consist criteria does each train card carry.
|
||||
- **Pieces** — how many Crew Trays and engines (§7 says the number is limited and it matters, since
|
||||
trains are held when none are free), how much Rolling Stock of each type, how many Number Boards.
|
||||
|
||||
**Why it matters.** The largest gap. Deck composition drives the whole economy; Crew Tray scarcity
|
||||
is an explicit mechanic that can't be tuned without a number.
|
||||
|
||||
**Approach.** Break into sub-discussions: (4a) card types and deck composition, (4b) piece counts,
|
||||
(4c) train card consist criteria.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
### 4a — Card types and deck composition · DECIDED
|
||||
|
||||
**Three structural findings, derived from the rules rather than chosen.**
|
||||
|
||||
1. **The Home Office deck is a single deck containing every card type.** §4.5–4.6 shuffles one deck,
|
||||
deals three cards to each player, then turns three cards face-up beside it as the Department
|
||||
decks. §6.2's reshuffle sweeps the Salvage Yard *and* all three Department decks back into it. The
|
||||
Departments are therefore three face-up market slots fed from the one deck, not decks with their
|
||||
own contents.
|
||||
2. **A player's Office area is a card grid, not a row.** §9 permits a Modifier "adjacent (on any of
|
||||
the nine nearby spots)" — a 3×3 neighbourhood. Appendix A's diagrams show a 2×3 grid: bottom row
|
||||
D/E/F is the Running Track with the Depot as Office at E, top row A/B/C is Secondary Track with a
|
||||
Freighthouse at C. Setup deals only three cards (§4.1), so the grid demonstrably grows in play.
|
||||
3. **Facility cards are themselves track cards.** In the same diagrams the Freighthouse and Depot
|
||||
both have rails drawn across them and trains move onto them. Placing a Facility places track.
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision — the play area grows by playing track cards.** Plain track, turnouts and Facilities are
|
||||
all played from hand into an empty adjacent grid spot and must connect to existing track. One
|
||||
uniform placement rule covers every card with rails on it.
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision — the Running Track may be extended, moving the Limits outward.** §2.1's "the sign may be
|
||||
moved outwards" is given effect: extending the Running Track horizontally pushes that player's
|
||||
Limits out. Growth is uncapped for the prototype. A longer Running Track is also more track to keep
|
||||
clear, so it carries its own collision risk.
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision — 52-card deck for the prototype.** Chosen partly so the prototype can be built from a
|
||||
standard deck. **Provisional:** likely to need retuning by player count once the game is played.
|
||||
|
||||
| Category | Count | Detail |
|
||||
| --- | ---: | --- |
|
||||
| Timetabled Trains | 12 | One each, numbered 1–12 |
|
||||
| Extra Trains | 4 | X9, X10, X11, X12 |
|
||||
| Office upgrades | 9 | Depot ×4, Station ×3, Terminal ×2 — the pyramid Gap 3b requires |
|
||||
| Freight Facilities | 10 | 5 types × 2 (Mine Tipple, Produce Shed, Grocer's Warehouse, Oil Refinery, Power Plant) |
|
||||
| Modifier Facilities | 5 | |
|
||||
| Plain track / turnouts | 12 | Turnout ×6, straight ×3, run-around ×3 — see below |
|
||||
| **Total** | **52** | |
|
||||
|
||||
**Track mix (decided alongside Gap 8): turnout 6 / straight 3 / run-around 3.** Turnout-heavy because
|
||||
turnouts are how Secondary Track branches onward once the Office card's own junction stubs (Gap 8)
|
||||
are used up — a player who cannot draw one cannot develop past the first ring of cards. Run-arounds
|
||||
are commoner than they might otherwise be, which makes the facing-point switching move of §A.5 a
|
||||
normal tool rather than a rare prize.
|
||||
|
||||
All twelve Timetabled Trains must be in the deck: §4 starts the Division with no trains running, and
|
||||
§7 creates a scheduled train only when a player draws and plays its card. That fixed 12-card block is
|
||||
23% of a 52-card deck, which is what makes the composition tight.
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision — Extra Trains carry high numbers (X9–X12), i.e. low seniority.** They yield to nearly all
|
||||
scheduled traffic, making an Extra safe filler a player can slot in without upsetting the timetable,
|
||||
rather than a disruption that cuts ahead of everyone. Ties against Timetabled trains 9–12 remain
|
||||
possible and are Gap 5's problem.
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision — Red Flag cards are a separate supply, one per player,** dealt at setup outside the 52
|
||||
under the Emergency Toolbox optional rule, and **removed from the game when played** rather than
|
||||
reshuffled. This keeps the 52-card deck identical whether or not the optional rule is in use, and
|
||||
makes each player's flag a single precious escape.
|
||||
|
||||
**Card recirculation.** Office cards recycle: upgrading Depot → Station sends the Depot to the
|
||||
Salvage Yard, and it returns on the next reshuffle. Only Whistle Posts, Limits, Mainline cards and
|
||||
Division Point cards sit permanently outside the deck as fixed supplies.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
### 4b — Piece counts · DECIDED
|
||||
|
||||
**Mainline card regions turned out to set the pace of the whole game.** §8.2 requires a train to move
|
||||
one region (vertical bar) per Stage, and each Office costs one further Stage (arrive, stop for
|
||||
orders, highball on the next Mainline Phase). With N players there are N+1 Mainline cards, so for
|
||||
3 players:
|
||||
|
||||
| Regions per card | Stages to cross the Division |
|
||||
| ---: | ---: |
|
||||
| 1 | 4 + 3 = 7 |
|
||||
| **2** | **8 + 3 = 11** |
|
||||
| 3 | 12 + 3 = 15 |
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision — 2 regions per Mainline card.** A Day is 12 Stages, so a train crosses the Division in
|
||||
just under a Day, completes its run, and frees its Crew Tray. Three regions would leave trains still
|
||||
on the road when the next Day began, locking trays permanently.
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision — Crew Trays and engines = player count + 3** (3 players → 6, 4 → 7, 5 → 8). Comfortable
|
||||
early while few trains are scheduled, and a real bottleneck once the timetable fills — which is the
|
||||
arc §7 describes. Note the end state: a full 12-slot timetable launches roughly one train per Stage
|
||||
and each occupies a tray for about a Day, so a saturated Division would want ~12 trays. Anything less
|
||||
is deliberate pressure, and this number is a prime candidate for retuning after play.
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision — Rolling Stock supply ≈ 62 pieces.** Loaded and empty counts are paired because loading
|
||||
swaps a white car for a coloured one (§9.3).
|
||||
|
||||
| Type | Loaded | Empty |
|
||||
| --- | ---: | ---: |
|
||||
| Coaches (blue) | 8 | 8 |
|
||||
| Boxcars (brown) | 6 | 6 |
|
||||
| Hoppers (brown) | 6 | 6 |
|
||||
| Reefers (brown) | 4 | 4 |
|
||||
| Tank cars (brown) | 4 | 4 |
|
||||
| Cabooses (red) | 6 | — |
|
||||
| **Total** | | **62** |
|
||||
|
||||
**Fixed supplies, derived from the rules rather than chosen.**
|
||||
|
||||
| Component | Count | Source |
|
||||
| --- | --- | --- |
|
||||
| Mainline cards (tarot) | N + 1 for N players | §4.2, plus one beyond each end Division Point |
|
||||
| Division Point cards | 2 (East, West) | §4.3 |
|
||||
| Whistle Post cards | N + spares | §4.1 — "all remaining … are set aside" |
|
||||
| Limits cards | 2N + spares | §4.1; the same card moves outward as the Running Track extends (4a) |
|
||||
| Number Boards | 12, numbered 1–12 | §2.3 — one per Timetabled Train |
|
||||
| Fedora | 1 | §4.4 — marks the Superintendent |
|
||||
| Pocket Watch | 1 | §4.4 — marks the current Stage |
|
||||
| D12 | 1 | §4.3, §4.4, §7 |
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
### 4c — Train card consist criteria · DECIDED
|
||||
|
||||
**What a train card carries**, from §7 and §8.1: its number, its direction (from the card image), the
|
||||
car types it accepts, the maximum consist, and whether a caboose is required — plus the required
|
||||
**order**, since §8.1 blocks a highball unless the consist is "in correct order listed on the train's
|
||||
card." A train may depart short (§8.1 explicitly permits fewer Rolling Stock than listed); it may not
|
||||
depart out of order.
|
||||
|
||||
**The four-slot constraint.** §A.4 caps a Crew Tray at four Rolling Stock, and §2.2 lists cabooses as
|
||||
Rolling Stock. A caboose therefore consumes one of the four slots, so any train requiring a caboose
|
||||
carries at most **three** revenue cars. This is easy to get wrong and is baked into the table below.
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision — six paired classes**, odd westbound and even eastbound, arranged so the pairs work as
|
||||
sister trains under the optional rule. Seniority runs passenger-first, matching real practice: low
|
||||
numbers are the varnish, high numbers the drags and locals.
|
||||
|
||||
| Trains | Class | Consist |
|
||||
| --- | --- | --- |
|
||||
| 1 / 2 | Limited | 4 coaches, no caboose |
|
||||
| 3 / 4 | Mail-Express | 3 coaches, no caboose |
|
||||
| 5 / 6 | Manifest Freight | 3 boxcars or reefers + caboose |
|
||||
| 7 / 8 | Coal Drag | 3 hoppers + caboose |
|
||||
| 9 / 10 | Oil Train | 3 tank cars + caboose |
|
||||
| 11 / 12 | Way Freight | 3 cars of any type + caboose |
|
||||
|
||||
Order in every case is engine at the front, revenue cars, caboose last where required.
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision — Extra Trains (X9–X12) list flexible criteria: any 3 cars + caboose.** §7 lets the player
|
||||
who played the Extra load it "as he chooses, subject to the listed criteria", so keeping the criteria
|
||||
loose is what gives an Extra its purpose — a train tailored to whatever cargo that player actually
|
||||
needs moved, rather than a duplicate of a scheduled train.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Gap 5 — Extra-train seniority ties
|
||||
|
||||
**Status:** DECIDED — Timetabled trains always outrank Extras.
|
||||
|
||||
**The problem.** §8 orders Mainline movement by train number, lowest first, and says to "remove the
|
||||
'X' from extras to determine their true number." So Extra X7 resolves to 7 and can tie Timetabled
|
||||
Train 7 in the same Mainline Phase. No tiebreak is given. Multiple Extras sharing a number is also
|
||||
possible depending on how many Extra cards exist (Gap 4).
|
||||
|
||||
Gap 4a settled the Extras at X9, X10, X11 and X12 — one card each — so Extras never tie *each other*.
|
||||
The only tie is an Extra against the Timetabled train of the same number.
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision — the Timetabled train moves first; Extras yield to every scheduled train.**
|
||||
|
||||
*Rationale.* This is how it actually worked: extras carried no timetable authority and ran only on
|
||||
train orders, inferior to all regular trains. It also reinforces the Gap 4a choice of high X-numbers,
|
||||
which made Extras deliberately low-seniority filler rather than disruptions. Leaving the tiebreak to
|
||||
the Superintendent was rejected — it would reintroduce a judgment call into a Mainline Phase that
|
||||
Gap 2 made fully automatic.
|
||||
|
||||
**Ordering rule for implementation.** Sort Mainline Phase movement by `(number, isExtra)` ascending,
|
||||
where `isExtra` is false before true. Numbers are the train's own for Timetabled trains and the
|
||||
X-number stripped of its "X" for Extras.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Gap 6 — Victory conditions
|
||||
|
||||
**Status:** DECIDED — mode × victory-condition matrix, with shared failure floors.
|
||||
|
||||
**The problem.** §3 says goals are "a specific total Revenue Points or highest Revenue within a
|
||||
specific number of Days" and, separately, Co-Op where "multiple players work to achieve a shared
|
||||
goal." No numbers for either, and no statement of what the Co-Op goal is. Revenue is earned at +1
|
||||
per load/unload operation and lost at −5 per collision; no other sources are defined, so the scoring
|
||||
range is narrow and target numbers need to be grounded in expected per-Day earnings.
|
||||
|
||||
**Expected earning rate, used to calibrate every number below.** §9.3 requires four separate
|
||||
Laborer-actions to complete one freight load — Green Slot → MEN → AT → WORK → onto the car — for a
|
||||
single Revenue point, so a Facility with 2 Laborers needs two full Stages to score once. §9.2 gives a
|
||||
Porter a point for one action, but passenger work is gated on a train actually standing at the A/D
|
||||
track. Netting out, a developed player earns roughly **5–8 Revenue per Day**, which makes a −5
|
||||
collision cost about a full Day's work.
|
||||
|
||||
### Structure
|
||||
|
||||
Setup selects a **mode** and a **victory condition** independently, plus a **length**.
|
||||
|
||||
| Length | Target | Days |
|
||||
| --- | ---: | ---: |
|
||||
| Short | ~~15~~ **10** | 3 |
|
||||
| Standard | ~~30~~ **20** | 5 |
|
||||
| Campaign | ~~60~~ **45** | 10 |
|
||||
|
||||
Co-op targets are the same figures **multiplied by player count**, since Co-op scores a pooled total.
|
||||
|
||||
> **Superseded by [Gap 10e](#10e--revenueday-revalidated-and-the-gap-6-targets-revised).** The
|
||||
> struck-through figures were set here against an estimate that assumed steady-state earning from Day
|
||||
> 1. Once the card faces were specified, the development ramp made them roughly 1.5× too high. The
|
||||
> structure, floors and mode matrix below all stand as decided — only these three numbers moved.
|
||||
|
||||
### The matrix
|
||||
|
||||
| Mode | First to Revenue target | Highest Revenue after N Days |
|
||||
| --- | --- | --- |
|
||||
| **Solitaire** | Reach the target → win | Must reach the target by the end of N Days, else **lose**. Above it, the final score stands as the result. |
|
||||
| **Competitive** | First player to reach the target wins | All players' Revenue **combined** must reach `3 × players × Days`, else **everyone loses**. Otherwise highest individual Revenue wins. |
|
||||
| **Co-op** | Pooled Revenue reaches `target × players` → team wins | Pooled Revenue must reach `target × players` by the end of N Days, else **lose**. Above it, the final pooled score stands as the result. |
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision — "Highest Revenue" becomes a threshold in Solitaire and Co-op.** A comparison between
|
||||
players is meaningless with one player and self-defeating among cooperating ones, so in those modes
|
||||
the timed format is pass/fail against the same target figure: below it you lose regardless of score;
|
||||
above it your score stands and is what players compare between sessions.
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision — Competitive carries a collision floor: three collisions within a single Day and every
|
||||
player loses.** Counted Division-wide across all players and the Superintendent, and **the counter
|
||||
resets at the start of each Day**. Applies to Competitive only, under both victory conditions;
|
||||
Solitaire and Co-op have no collision limit.
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision — Competitive timed games also carry a collective Revenue floor** of
|
||||
`3 × players × Days` — about half the expected output of a functioning Division, so it is comfortably
|
||||
met by a railroad that works and missed by one crippled with wrecks and blocked Subdivisions.
|
||||
|
||||
| Players | Days | Floor |
|
||||
| ---: | ---: | ---: |
|
||||
| 3 | 3 | 27 |
|
||||
| 3 | 5 | 45 |
|
||||
| 4 | 5 | 60 |
|
||||
| 4 | 10 | 120 |
|
||||
|
||||
**Why this matters beyond scoring.** The two floors make Competitive play *partly cooperative*:
|
||||
players race each other inside a railroad they all need to keep functioning. It is the mechanical
|
||||
expression of the game's premise — the railroad depends on you.
|
||||
|
||||
**Known failure mode, accepted.** A player who is clearly losing can deliberately wreck trains to
|
||||
trip the collision floor and deny the leader a win. Because the saboteur loses too, it is mutually
|
||||
assured destruction rather than a free grief, and the per-Day reset means three wrecks must land
|
||||
inside a single Day. Flagged in the rules rather than designed around.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Gap 7 — Terminology errata
|
||||
|
||||
**Status:** DECIDED — all four fixes adopted.
|
||||
|
||||
Small wording inconsistencies, settled in one pass:
|
||||
|
||||
1. **"Cargo phase" vs "Load/Unload Phase."** §5.1 lists the fourth phase as "Cargo phase"; the
|
||||
section heading (§9) and the turn chart both call it "Load / Unload". Pick one.
|
||||
2. **"the day ends" vs "the Stage ends."** §5 says "Once all the Phases for that Stage are complete,
|
||||
the day ends." A Day is twelve Stages (§2.4), so this should almost certainly read "the Stage
|
||||
ends."
|
||||
3. **"Scrap Yard" vs "Salvage Yard."** §2.3 sends completed Extra Train cards to "the Scrap Yard
|
||||
deck"; §2.6 and §6.2 define and use "Salvage Yard". Presumed the same pile under two names.
|
||||
4. **"turn" vs "Stage."** Several passages use "turn" where "Stage" is meant (§4.4 "his shift runs
|
||||
three turns", §8.2 "must move one region every turn", §9 Modifier "only be used on one Facility
|
||||
in a turn"). Worth normalizing so timing rules read unambiguously.
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision — all four adopted in v0.2.**
|
||||
|
||||
| Original | v0.2 | Where |
|
||||
| --- | --- | --- |
|
||||
| "Cargo phase" | **Load/Unload Phase** | §5.1 — the outlier against both the §9 heading and the printed turn chart |
|
||||
| "the day ends" | **the Stage ends** | §5 |
|
||||
| "Scrap Yard" | **Salvage Yard** | §2.3 |
|
||||
| "turn" (meaning a Stage) | **Stage** | §4.4, §8.2, §9 |
|
||||
|
||||
The phase name follows the turn chart because the chart is a printed component players read every
|
||||
Stage; renaming it would mean reprinting it to match a single line of prose.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Gap 8 — First placement into an empty Office Area
|
||||
|
||||
**Status:** DECIDED — Office cards carry junction stubs above and below.
|
||||
|
||||
**The problem.** Gap 4a established that track cards must **connect to existing track** when placed.
|
||||
But a player begins with exactly three cards in a horizontal row: Limits, Whistle Post, Limits (§4.2).
|
||||
If those three carry only straight-through rails, nothing can ever be placed above or below them —
|
||||
there is no diverging connection to attach to. The Office Area could never leave its opening row, and
|
||||
Appendix A's whole switching game would be unreachable.
|
||||
|
||||
Appendix A's diagrams show the Running Track row (D, E, F) carrying turnout geometry that curves up to
|
||||
the Secondary row (A, B, C), so turnouts clearly live *in* the Running Track. The question is how the
|
||||
first one gets there.
|
||||
|
||||
**Candidate readings.**
|
||||
|
||||
- **(a) The first build must extend the Running Track.** A player's first placement can only be a
|
||||
card played into the Running Track row, east or west of the Office, which moves the Limits outward
|
||||
(Gap 4a). Once that card is a turnout, Secondary Track can branch from it. Consequence: every
|
||||
player's opening development follows the same forced shape — widen first, then build up.
|
||||
- **(b) The starting cards carry turnout stubs.** The Whistle Post and/or Limits cards are printed
|
||||
with diverging connections, so Secondary Track can be placed immediately. Consequence: no forced
|
||||
opening, but it means the starting cards are a specific printed geometry that has to be designed.
|
||||
- **(c) Connection is not required for the first card.** A player may seed one disconnected card
|
||||
adjacent to their Office and connect it later. Consequence: simplest to implement, but permits
|
||||
orphaned track that trains cannot reach, which is a state the rules never contemplate.
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision — (b): the Office card is printed with a diverging connection above and below its
|
||||
track.** Both Secondary rows are reachable from turn one, so §9's 3×3 Modifier neighbourhood is
|
||||
usable immediately and players have real layout choices from the opening Stage.
|
||||
|
||||
```
|
||||
[ ][ ↓ ][ ]
|
||||
[Lim][Off][Lim]
|
||||
[ ][ ↑ ][ ]
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
**The stubs are plain junctions, not turnouts.** §A.1's directional rule — enter from A and you may
|
||||
proceed to B or C; enter from B or C and you may only proceed to A — applies to *drawn turnout
|
||||
cards*, not to the Office card. This keeps the Office card's Operational Rail status and its A/D
|
||||
track rules (§A.4) from tangling with turnout directionality, which would otherwise interact badly
|
||||
with §A.4's provision that trains may pass through the Office while free A/D tracks remain.
|
||||
|
||||
**All four Office tiers share identical track geometry** — Whistle Post, Depot, Station and Terminal
|
||||
are printed with the same stubs in the same places. This is load-bearing, not cosmetic: an upgrade
|
||||
replaces the card in place (§11.1), so any difference in geometry between tiers would strand the
|
||||
Secondary Track attached to the old card. The tiers differ only in Control Point status, Passenger
|
||||
Facility status, and A/D track count.
|
||||
|
||||
*Why not (a).* Requiring the first build to extend the Running Track needed no new art, but it forced
|
||||
every player through an identical opening — widen, then branch — and made vertical development
|
||||
hostage to drawing a turnout card early.
|
||||
|
||||
*Why not (c).* Permitting a disconnected first card allows orphaned track that no train can reach, a
|
||||
state the rules never contemplate and the engine would have to tolerate indefinitely.
|
||||
|
||||
**Component consequence.** Office cards are geometrically interchangeable. Any card art must place
|
||||
the stubs identically across all four tiers.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Gap 9 — Consist length scales with player count
|
||||
|
||||
**Status:** DECIDED — the make-up round repeats until the consist is full.
|
||||
|
||||
**The problem.** §7 makes up a train by having each player, "starting with the superintendent and
|
||||
working left," place **ONE car**. Read literally that is a single round, so the number of cars a
|
||||
train receives at make-up equals the number of players.
|
||||
|
||||
With the Gap 4c consist specs (4 coaches for a Limited, 3 + caboose for freights), that means:
|
||||
|
||||
| Players | Cars placed at make-up | Limited (wants 4) | Coal Drag (wants 3 + caboose) |
|
||||
| ---: | ---: | --- | --- |
|
||||
| 2 | 2 | half empty | no caboose possible |
|
||||
| 3 | 3 | short one coach | full only if someone places the caboose |
|
||||
| 4 | 4 | full | full |
|
||||
| 5+ | 5+ | over-full — round must stop early | over-full |
|
||||
|
||||
At two players every train leaves permanently short; at five the round overruns the consist and has
|
||||
to be cut off mid-way, which the rules do not describe.
|
||||
|
||||
§7 does provide a release valve — "Rolling stock might be added enroute to bring it to its maximum
|
||||
length" — so a short train is playable, and picking up cars along the line is arguably the intended
|
||||
texture. But it is very different at 2 players than at 4, and the rules never acknowledge it.
|
||||
|
||||
**Candidate readings.**
|
||||
|
||||
- **(a) One round, as written.** Trains at low player counts run short and fill enroute. Simple,
|
||||
faithful, and makes 2-player games a distinctly different experience.
|
||||
- **(b) Repeat the round until the consist is full** or no suitable cars remain in the Division Yard.
|
||||
Trains always leave properly made up regardless of table size; the make-up phase just takes more
|
||||
passes at low player counts.
|
||||
- **(c) One round, and cap consist specs at the player count.** Train cards specify a maximum, and the
|
||||
effective consist is `min(spec, players)`. Predictable, but it makes the printed train cards mean
|
||||
different things at different tables.
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision — (b): repeat the round.** Play continues around the table — Superintendent, then left —
|
||||
until the consist is full or no suitable cars remain in the Division Yard.
|
||||
|
||||
```
|
||||
4-coach Limited, 2 players
|
||||
round 1: P0 → coach P1 → coach
|
||||
round 2: P0 → coach P1 → coach
|
||||
full — departs with 4
|
||||
|
||||
5 players: round ends mid-way when the consist fills
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
*Rationale.* Trains look like trains at every table size, at the cost only of extra passes around a
|
||||
short table. §7's existing requirement that a player "make every effort to find a suitable car" is
|
||||
the natural stopping condition, so no new rule is needed to end the round. The 5+ player over-full
|
||||
case resolves for free: the round simply ends when the consist is full, and no player is left holding
|
||||
a car they cannot place.
|
||||
|
||||
*Why not (a).* Faithful to the literal text, but it makes a 4-coach Limited leave half empty at two
|
||||
players and still leaves the over-full case undefined.
|
||||
|
||||
*Why not (c).* Capping the consist at player count means a printed train card denotes different
|
||||
trains at different tables, which undermines the point of having consist specs on the cards at all.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Gap 10 — Card face specifications
|
||||
|
||||
**Status:** DECIDED. Full catalogue in [`card-reference.md`](card-reference.md).
|
||||
|
||||
**The problem.** The rules describe the *mechanism* of Laborers, Porters, capacities and Modifiers in
|
||||
detail (§9.1–§9.3), and Gap 4a fixed how many cards of each category exist — but no individual card
|
||||
ever received values. Nothing stated how many Laborers a Mine Tipple has, what capacity an Oil
|
||||
Refinery holds, which car types a Produce Shed accepts, or what a Modifier adds. The Modifier row in
|
||||
the §12.1 deck table was blank in its detail column.
|
||||
|
||||
This blocked every downstream path identically: the rules engine could not instantiate the `Facility`
|
||||
structure defined in `architecture/game-state.md` §5, print-and-play could not draw a card, and no
|
||||
balance work was possible.
|
||||
|
||||
### 10a — Freight facility profiles
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision.** Five types, moderate and varied by industry:
|
||||
|
||||
| Facility | Car | Direction | Laborers | Outbound | Inbound | Track |
|
||||
| --- | --- | --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
|
||||
| Mine Tipple | Hopper | Outbound | 3 | 3 | — | 4 |
|
||||
| Produce Shed | Reefer | Outbound | 2 | 2 | — | 3 |
|
||||
| Grocer's Warehouse | Boxcar | Both | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
|
||||
| Oil Refinery | Tank | Both | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
|
||||
| Power Plant | Hopper | Inbound | 3 | — | 3 | 4 |
|
||||
|
||||
*Rationale.* Directions follow the commodity and give §9 all three of its stated cases. Bulk
|
||||
industries get more Laborers and a 4-car track so the types feel distinct when choosing what to
|
||||
build — but the counts stay moderate because Laborers are **not** the binding constraint (see 10e),
|
||||
so raising them buys little beyond reducing idle time.
|
||||
|
||||
### 10b — Identical pairs
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision.** Both copies of each freight type carry the same values. Small/large variants were
|
||||
considered and rejected: they double the specification work and make balance harder to reason about,
|
||||
for texture the five distinct types already provide.
|
||||
|
||||
### 10c — Passenger facility profiles
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision.** Slot capacity deliberately exceeds Porter count:
|
||||
|
||||
| Office | Porters | Green slots | Red slots |
|
||||
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: |
|
||||
| Whistle Post | — | — | — |
|
||||
| Depot | 1 | 2 | 2 |
|
||||
| Station | 2 | 3 | 3 |
|
||||
| Terminal | 3 | 4 | 4 |
|
||||
|
||||
*Rationale.* Only trains 1–4 carry coaches, so an Office needs to bank boarding passengers between
|
||||
visits and absorb a whole trainload of arrivals. Matching slots to Porters one-for-one would leave a
|
||||
Depot idle whenever a train had not just arrived, and make a 4-coach Limited impossible to work
|
||||
fully. Slot counts mirror the A/D track progression already fixed in Gap 3c.
|
||||
|
||||
### 10d — Modifier cards
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision.** Five cards, mixing capacity and workers:
|
||||
|
||||
| Card | Effect | Applies to |
|
||||
| --- | --- | --- |
|
||||
| Team Track | +1 car on the industry track | Freight |
|
||||
| Loading Dock | +1 green Outbound capacity | Freight |
|
||||
| Storage Shed | +1 red Inbound capacity | Freight |
|
||||
| Extra Platform | +1 green **and** +1 red slot | Passenger |
|
||||
| Section Gang | +1 Laborer **or** +1 Porter | Either |
|
||||
|
||||
*Rationale.* §2.5 and §9 say only that Modifiers "increase capacities", which taken literally would
|
||||
leave no way at all to speed up a slow facility. Section Gang is the sole worker-adding card, which
|
||||
keeps that power scarce. Capacity modifiers are stronger than they sound, since banking room rather
|
||||
than worker count is what limits output.
|
||||
|
||||
**Sub-decision — what a "Freight House" is.** §9.3 and Appendix A refer to Freight Houses, but §9's
|
||||
facility list never defines one. It is **not a card**: it is the collective term for a freight
|
||||
facility that both loads and unloads — under 10a, the Grocer's Warehouse and the Oil Refinery. This
|
||||
reconciles every reference without adding a card type or disturbing Gap 4a's deck composition.
|
||||
|
||||
### 10e — Revenue/Day revalidated, and the Gap 6 targets revised
|
||||
|
||||
**The binding constraint is Local Operations actions, not workers.** A player gets exactly one per
|
||||
Stage — switch, *or* draw, *or* work the Freight Agent (§6) — so twelve per Day. Every Revenue point
|
||||
costs roughly one action: stocking a green box, or clearing a red one. Capacity buffers defer that
|
||||
cost but never remove it.
|
||||
|
||||
The ceiling is therefore **12 Revenue/Day**, reachable only by never switching and never drawing.
|
||||
Realistic mid-game play spends ~4 actions switching and ~2–3 drawing, leaving 5–6 for revenue.
|
||||
|
||||
**The correction: the original estimate ignored the development ramp.** Players open with a Whistle
|
||||
Post (not a Passenger Facility) and no freight facilities, and the timetable starts empty so no
|
||||
trains run until someone draws and plays a train card.
|
||||
|
||||
```
|
||||
Day 1 ~0 no facilities, no trains yet
|
||||
Day 2 ~2 first facility placed, first train running
|
||||
Day 3 ~5 developed
|
||||
Day 4+ ~6 steady state
|
||||
|
||||
cumulative: 3 Days ≈ 7 5 Days ≈ 19 10 Days ≈ 49
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision — the Gap 6 targets are lowered from 15 / 30 / 60 to 10 / 20 / 45.** The original figures
|
||||
assumed the steady-state rate applied from Day 1 and were roughly 1.5× too high. This mattered most
|
||||
in Solitaire and Co-op, where the target doubles as a *minimum* — a Solitaire Standard game needed 30
|
||||
in 5 Days against a realistic ~19, so it would have failed nearly every time.
|
||||
|
||||
| Length | Target (was) | Days | Est. cumulative |
|
||||
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: |
|
||||
| Short | 10 (15) | 3 | ~7 |
|
||||
| Standard | 20 (30) | 5 | ~19 |
|
||||
| Campaign | 45 (60) | 10 | ~49 |
|
||||
|
||||
**The Competitive collective floor is unchanged** at `3 × players × Days`. It was calibrated as about
|
||||
half of expected output — 15 per player over 5 Days against ~19 earned — and that still holds.
|
||||
|
||||
*Note on Gap 6.* Its structure, floors and mode matrix stand as decided; only the three target
|
||||
figures moved, and only because Gap 10 replaced an assumption with real numbers.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Gap 11 — Track card orientation
|
||||
|
||||
**Status:** DECIDED — orientation is chosen when the card is placed.
|
||||
|
||||
**The problem.** Gap 4a fixed the track mix at turnout ×6, straight ×3, run-around ×3. But a track
|
||||
card has an **orientation**, and nothing says what any of them is.
|
||||
|
||||
- A **turnout** has handedness: which end is the stem (§A.1's "A"), and which way the leg diverges.
|
||||
A stem-east/diverge-north turnout and a stem-west/diverge-south turnout are different cards.
|
||||
- A **straight** has an axis: east-west along the Running Track, or north-south connecting rows.
|
||||
|
||||
**Why it is not cosmetic.** Card edges must actually meet for a placement to be legal (Gap 4a). An
|
||||
east-west straight placed north of the Office has no south port, so it cannot attach to the Office's
|
||||
junction stub at all — the placement is illegal, not merely awkward.
|
||||
|
||||
Taken to its conclusion: **if all three straights run east-west, the Office's junction stubs can
|
||||
never be used, and Gap 8's fix is undone.** Vertical growth needs cards with north-south ports, and
|
||||
the catalogue currently guarantees none.
|
||||
|
||||
The same applies to turnouts. Appendix A's worked examples require turnouts facing more than one way
|
||||
to be performable at all; six identical turnouts would not build the layout the diagrams show.
|
||||
|
||||
**What the code does meanwhile.** `TurnoutOrientation` and `TrackAxis` are carried per card in
|
||||
`src/engine/state.ts`, and turnouts with no stated orientation default to stem-east / diverge-north
|
||||
(`DEFAULT_TURNOUT` in `src/engine/track.ts`). Tests cover both axes and several turnout handednesses,
|
||||
so whichever way this is settled the engine already supports it.
|
||||
|
||||
**Candidate resolutions.**
|
||||
|
||||
- **(a) Specify a mix.** Give the six turnouts named orientations and split the three straights
|
||||
between axes — e.g. 2 east-west, 1 north-south. Concrete, and it makes the draw meaningful: the
|
||||
card you need may not come.
|
||||
- **(b) Orientation chosen on placement.** A track card is generic, and the player picks how to lay
|
||||
it when playing it. Removes the drought risk entirely and matches how model railroaders think, at
|
||||
the cost of making track cards much more flexible — arguably too flexible, since a turnout is a
|
||||
physical object.
|
||||
- **(c) Rotationally symmetric cards.** Each card carries all four ports. Simplest to implement and
|
||||
impossible to be stuck with, but it discards §A.1 entirely, which is one of the game's most
|
||||
characterful rules.
|
||||
|
||||
**Decision — (b): orientation is chosen when the card is placed.** A track card is generic; the
|
||||
player decides how to lay it. §A.1's constraint survives intact — a turnout's two legs still never
|
||||
join each other — only the rotation is free.
|
||||
|
||||
*Measured, not argued.* With orientation fixed at a default, 100 simulated Office Areas grew only
|
||||
sideways and downward, **never upward**: an east-west straight has no south port, so it could never
|
||||
attach to the Office's north junction stub. Gap 8's fix was silently undone and Appendix A's
|
||||
switching puzzle was unreachable.
|
||||
|
||||
```
|
||||
before (fixed orientation) after (chosen on placement)
|
||||
row 0: 561 cards row 3: 1
|
||||
row -1: 324 row 2: 30
|
||||
(nothing above the mainline) row 1: 193
|
||||
row 0: 456
|
||||
row -1: 186
|
||||
row -2: 17
|
||||
row -3: 2
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
*Why not (a), a specified mix.* It would have to be tuned so no plausible draw leaves a player unable
|
||||
to build — hard to guarantee, and easy to break whenever the deck is retuned.
|
||||
|
||||
*Why not (c), rotationally symmetric cards.* It discards §A.1 entirely, one of the game's most
|
||||
characterful rules.
|
||||
|
||||
**Implemented.** `variantsFor()` in `src/engine/track.ts` enumerates the rotations — 2 for a straight,
|
||||
6 for a turnout, 2 for a run-around — and the chosen index rides the `cardPlayed` event, so replay
|
||||
reproduces the same layout.
|
||||
|
||||
**Consequence for print-and-play.** Card art must read correctly at any rotation the card allows.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Gap 12 — Balance targets are NOT reachable as specified
|
||||
|
||||
**Status:** OPEN, and the earlier "validated" reading is **withdrawn**.
|
||||
|
||||
### What changed
|
||||
|
||||
An earlier run reported mean 5.0 Revenue/player/Day and a ~35% win rate, apparently confirming the
|
||||
Gap 10e prediction. **That was an artifact of a scoring bug.** Unloading was being scored through the
|
||||
same path as loading, so an unload paid a full Revenue point after ONE Laborer action instead of
|
||||
four. End-of-game statistics exposed it by showing that `loadAdvanced` never fired in 200 games.
|
||||
|
||||
With the pipeline corrected, honest numbers for 200 solitaire Standard games:
|
||||
|
||||
| | Observed | Gap 10e predicted |
|
||||
| --- | ---: | ---: |
|
||||
| Revenue per game | 4.6 mean | 19 |
|
||||
| Revenue/player/Day | ~0.9 | 5–6 |
|
||||
| Win rate vs target 20 | **0 / 200** | — |
|
||||
| Freight share of gross | 21% | — |
|
||||
|
||||
**Nobody wins.** The targets of 10 / 20 / 45 are unreachable at this level of play.
|
||||
|
||||
### Is that the game or the bot?
|
||||
|
||||
Still the bot, at least in part. It spends about **10 Laborer actions per game against roughly 900
|
||||
available** (5.3 facilities × ~2.5 Laborers × 60 Stages). It is leaving almost the entire freight
|
||||
capacity of the railroad unused. Until that gap closes, the targets cannot be judged.
|
||||
|
||||
What the correction *does* establish firmly: a completed freight load costs **four** Laborer actions
|
||||
plus a stocking action plus the switching to spot a car — far more than the model assumed. The
|
||||
`card-reference.md` §7 estimate of 5–6 Revenue/Day was built on that mistake and should be treated as
|
||||
unfounded until re-derived.
|
||||
|
||||
### Strategy signal — the first real one
|
||||
|
||||
Games bucketed by how their Revenue was earned:
|
||||
|
||||
| Strategy | Games | Mean Revenue |
|
||||
| --- | ---: | ---: |
|
||||
| passenger-only (freight 0%) | 94 | 4.8 |
|
||||
| passenger-heavy (<33%) | 11 | **8.2** |
|
||||
| balanced (33–66%) | 37 | **7.7** |
|
||||
| freight-heavy (>66%) | 6 | 5.3 |
|
||||
| freight-only (100%) | 18 | 1.2 |
|
||||
|
||||
**Mixed strategies beat pure ones**, and pure freight is much the worst. That is a genuinely good
|
||||
sign for the design — it means the two revenue systems complement rather than substitute. Worth
|
||||
re-checking once the bot improves, since a weak bot could produce this pattern by accident.
|
||||
|
||||
### The bot was NOT the dominant gap — measured
|
||||
|
||||
The obvious suspicion was that the bot simply failed to use its Laborers. Measured over 20 games:
|
||||
|
||||
| | |
|
||||
| --- | ---: |
|
||||
| Load/Unload decision points | 1496 |
|
||||
| ...where a Laborer action was **legal** | 238 (16%) |
|
||||
| Laborer actions the bot **took** | 226 |
|
||||
|
||||
**The bot takes 95% of the Laborer actions available to it.** The problem is that they are legal
|
||||
only 16% of the time. Attributing the shortfall to bot policy was wrong.
|
||||
|
||||
### What is actually limiting freight
|
||||
|
||||
**A train stands at the Office only 18% of Stages.** Measured across 20 games (1200 Stages):
|
||||
|
||||
| | |
|
||||
| --- | ---: |
|
||||
| Stages with a train at the Office | 213 (18%) |
|
||||
| Mean trains in play | 2.27 of 4 Crew Trays |
|
||||
| Stages where a due train was **held** for want of a crew | 140 (12%) |
|
||||
| Trains scheduled per game | 6.1 of a possible 12 |
|
||||
|
||||
Every freight point needs a car brought *in* and the loaded car taken *out*, and both require a
|
||||
train standing at the Office. At 18% of Stages that is roughly 11 opportunities per game, capping
|
||||
freight at perhaps 5 points **regardless of how well the player switches**.
|
||||
|
||||
Two things follow:
|
||||
|
||||
1. **Traffic volume, not labour, is the binding constraint** on freight. The tunable that matters
|
||||
most is how many trains are scheduled and how fast they turn around — Crew Tray count
|
||||
(`players + 3`, so only 4 in solitaire) and the 2-region Mainline card are both implicated.
|
||||
2. **Solitaire with one Office may simply be a thin configuration.** It is the MVP target, so this
|
||||
matters: the economy may only come alive with more Offices and a fuller timetable.
|
||||
|
||||
### Bot improvements made, and what they bought
|
||||
|
||||
| | Before | After |
|
||||
| --- | ---: | ---: |
|
||||
| Freight share of gross revenue | 5% | 31% |
|
||||
| Laborer actions per game | 10.1 | 13.4 |
|
||||
| Cars dropped (mostly junk before) | 19.0 | 13.8 |
|
||||
| Mean net revenue | 4.6 | 4.9 |
|
||||
|
||||
The largest single fix: the bot was dropping whichever car happened to sit at the tray's end, which
|
||||
silted industry tracks up with the wrong commodity — **532 coaches were observed parked on freight
|
||||
sidings across 20 games**. §A.3 forces cars off in seated order, so spotting the right car requires
|
||||
re-ordering the consist with the six Moves. That is the game's central switching puzzle and this bot
|
||||
still does not attempt it; it merely declines to drop a car that would do no work.
|
||||
|
||||
### Next steps
|
||||
|
||||
1. **Watch a game.** The remaining questions are about whether 18% train presence and a 6-of-12
|
||||
timetable *feel* right, which is a judgment call, not a measurement.
|
||||
2. Get the bot to schedule all 12 trains (it reaches only 6.1), which should roughly double freight
|
||||
opportunity.
|
||||
3. Only then decide whether the targets move or the economy does.
|
||||
|
||||
## Gap 13 — Deck scaling by player count
|
||||
|
||||
**Status:** OPEN — measured; recommendation below.
|
||||
|
||||
**The question asked:** should the 52-card deck be doubled?
|
||||
|
||||
**Measured answer: no.** 15 games per player count, Standard length:
|
||||
|
||||
| Players | Draws/game | Reshuffles | Trains scheduled | Freight facilities per player |
|
||||
| ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
|
||||
| 1 | 38 | 0.0 | 8.0 | 6.2 |
|
||||
| 2 | 47 | 0.0 | 12.0 | 5.0 |
|
||||
| 3 | 43 | 0.0 | 12.0 | 3.3 |
|
||||
| 4 | 40 | 0.0 | 12.0 | 2.5 |
|
||||
|
||||
**The deck never depletes.** Zero reshuffles at every player count; a solitaire player sees about
|
||||
74% of it. Deck size is not the constraint, so doubling would not relieve any pressure — and it
|
||||
would actively hurt, by halving the density of Timetabled Train cards. Trains are the scarcest
|
||||
useful card, and they are what drives all traffic.
|
||||
|
||||
Trains also cannot meaningfully double: the twelve are unique by number, and their numbers carry
|
||||
seniority (§8). Two Train 5s would be ambiguous. Note the table shows all 12 already get scheduled at
|
||||
2+ players.
|
||||
|
||||
**Where there IS real pressure: facilities, at higher player counts.** Freight facilities per player
|
||||
falls from 6.2 in solitaire to 2.5 at four players, from a fixed supply of 10. A facility is the only
|
||||
route to freight revenue, so that is a genuine squeeze — and it is a scaling problem, not a deck-size
|
||||
problem.
|
||||
|
||||
**Recommendation: scale the buildable portion with player count, and leave trains fixed.** Add
|
||||
roughly 4 cards per player beyond two — 2 freight facilities, 1 track, 1 Office upgrade — giving 52
|
||||
at 1–2 players, 56 at 3, 60 at 4. This keeps train density high in the early game, where traffic
|
||||
needs to get started, while giving each player material to build with.
|
||||
|
||||
**Not yet decided**, because it interacts with Gap 12's variance question: more facilities per player
|
||||
would raise the ceiling on the runaway mode as well as the floor.
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,549 @@
|
||||
# Station Master — Rules v0.1
|
||||
|
||||
> **Status: faithful transcription.** This document reproduces
|
||||
> `docs/StationMasterPrototypeRules.pdf` and `docs/StationMaster-PrototypeTurnChart.pdf` in
|
||||
> markdown. Nothing has been corrected, resolved, or added — including the places where the
|
||||
> original is ambiguous or self-contradictory. Those are catalogued in
|
||||
> [`open-questions.md`](open-questions.md) and resolved in `rules-v0.2.md`.
|
||||
>
|
||||
> Section numbering is editorial (the PDF is unnumbered) and exists only so other documents can
|
||||
> cite specific rules. Passages that depend on diagrams are described in text with a pointer to
|
||||
> the source page.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## 1. Historical Setting
|
||||
|
||||
Between 1840 to 1950, trains operated without radios in their cabs, racing in the dark against
|
||||
oncoming traffic, relying on timetables and pocket watches to avoid collisions. Station Operators
|
||||
physically passed engineers orders from the dispatchers and "OS" reported ("On Station") them
|
||||
through.
|
||||
|
||||
As the *Station Master* in your lineside Office, you'll manage a town's railroad connection,
|
||||
embarking passengers and gathering freight, meeting demands from all quarters. Can you manage
|
||||
trains and cargos effectively? The railroad depends on you!
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## 2. Definitions
|
||||
|
||||
The following are railroad/game terms. (Also available as a lookup table in
|
||||
[`glossary.md`](glossary.md).)
|
||||
|
||||
### 2.1 Along the right of way
|
||||
|
||||
- **Division Point:** Where your railroad ties into other railroads. There is an Eastern Division
|
||||
Point and a Western Division Point.
|
||||
- **Division:** Your company's tracks that connect the Eastern and Western Division Points. It
|
||||
might represent hundreds of miles of track and several train "Offices" (each controlled by a
|
||||
player serving as a Station Operator).
|
||||
- **Mainline Card:** Tarot-sized cards that represent roughly the hundred miles of tracks between
|
||||
train offices.
|
||||
- **Office:** The location you (the Station Master) sit at to lord over your area. An Office might
|
||||
be a Whistle Post (basically, a shack in the middle of nowhere), a depot, a station or a
|
||||
terminal.
|
||||
- **Control Point:** An office where trains are reported in to the distant (NPC) dispatcher. These
|
||||
include Division Points, Depots, Stations and Terminals. Whistle posts are not Control Points.
|
||||
Control Points are denoted by a train order signal on their card.
|
||||
- **Limits:** The sign located on the track east and west of your Office's area that denote the
|
||||
limit of your control area. As the track controlled by your office expands, the sign may be
|
||||
moved outwards.
|
||||
- **Subdivision:** The Mainline track between the Limits of opposing Control Points. Note that
|
||||
Whistle Posts are *NOT* Control Points and are considered to be an internal part of a
|
||||
Subdivision, no different than Mainline Track.
|
||||
- **Running Track:** The "Mainline" that runs horizontally between your limits, including your
|
||||
office. It is the horizontal row of cards, Limit-to-Limit.
|
||||
- **Secondary Track:** All tracks in your limits that are not the Running Track.
|
||||
- **Operational Rail:** Any track (Running and Secondary) on which a train may sit, change
|
||||
direction, drop and pick up cars on. Operational Rail is marked with a wheel icon.
|
||||
- **A/D (Arrival/Departure) Track:** These are short sidings in front of your office where trains
|
||||
arrive and depart from. A train at an Office occupies one A/D track. Should a train arrive and
|
||||
there are no available A/D tracks, there might be a collision.
|
||||
|
||||
### 2.2 Train makeup
|
||||
|
||||
- **Crew Tray:** The canoe-shaped holder that contains the train pieces.
|
||||
- **Engine:** The engine piece. A Crew Tray must have an engine piece. The engine may be pulling
|
||||
cars, pushing cars, or a combination of both.
|
||||
- **Consist:** A collection of Rolling Stock (cars) in a Crew Tray.
|
||||
- **Rolling stock:** The non-engine pieces representing rail cars that make up either a train (in a
|
||||
Crew Tray) or are left sitting on an Operational Rail card. Rolling stock may be…
|
||||
- Coaches for passengers (blue or white)
|
||||
- Boxcars for general freight (brown or white)
|
||||
- Refrigerated cars (reefers) for field produce (brown or white)
|
||||
- Hoppers for coal (brown or white)
|
||||
- Tank cars for oil (brown or white)
|
||||
- Cabooses for the conductor and switch crews (red)
|
||||
- A colored car is loaded. A white car is empty.
|
||||
- **Division Yard:** A table-top pile of Rolling Stock. Rolling Stock for use for cargo, passengers
|
||||
or on trains are selected from here.
|
||||
- **Classification Yard:** Where used Rolling Stock is placed. Used engines and cabooses return
|
||||
directly to the Division Yard. When the Division Yard is empty, all Rolling Stock in the
|
||||
Classification Yard is moved back to the Division Yard.
|
||||
|
||||
### 2.3 Train types
|
||||
|
||||
- **Timetabled Trains:** These are trains scheduled to run every day at the same time. This time is
|
||||
denoted by a Number Board placed on the turn chart. The Timetabled Trains are numbered 1-12, with
|
||||
odd-numbers westbound (left) and even-numbered eastbound (right). The train image on their card
|
||||
also defines its direction. Lower-numbered trains are more important and the dispatcher will give
|
||||
them greater seniority on the railroad.
|
||||
- **Number board:** The small tiles, numbered 1-12, that record which stage (hour) the train should
|
||||
depart.
|
||||
- **Extra Trains:** These are one-and-done trains, a train which runs once with its card returned to
|
||||
the Scrap Yard deck upon completion. Since their image on the card is head-on, the player drawing
|
||||
it may determine its direction. Their train number is denoted with an "X" designation, but the
|
||||
actual following number denotes their seniority.
|
||||
|
||||
### 2.4 General terms
|
||||
|
||||
- **East** is to the player's right. **West** is to the player's left.
|
||||
- A **Stage** is a two-hour section of time.
|
||||
- A **Phase** is an operational component of a Stage.
|
||||
- A **Day** is a series of twelve Stages.
|
||||
- A **Move** is a Crew Tray moving from one Operational Rail card to another.
|
||||
- **Highball:** When a train holding at an Office automatically departs.
|
||||
- **Revenue:** Points gained and lost in the game to determine victory.
|
||||
|
||||
### 2.5 Passenger and Cargo elements
|
||||
|
||||
- A **Facility** is a business which loads/unloads cargo and freight.
|
||||
- A **Modifier Facility** is a card placed adjacent to a Facility that increases its capacities.
|
||||
- A blue man-icon is a **Laborer**, who works cargo.
|
||||
- A black man-icon is a **Porter**, who assists passengers.
|
||||
- A green **Outbound box** holds all to-be-loaded freight/passengers of the indicated type.
|
||||
- A red **Inbound box** holds all just-unloaded freight/passengers of the designated type.
|
||||
- A blue **"MEN | AT | WORK"** turn track follows how quickly freight cars are loaded/unloaded.
|
||||
|
||||
### 2.6 Railroad management
|
||||
|
||||
- **Dispatcher:** The imaginary person running the railroad and granting rights to trains to
|
||||
operate.
|
||||
- **Superintendent:** The Dispatcher's right-hand-man, who manages the division. The role of the
|
||||
superintendent is passed player to player, and a Superintendent's shift is six hours (i.e. three
|
||||
Stages).
|
||||
- **Home Office:** The primary face-down deck cards are drawn from.
|
||||
- **Departments:** Three decks (face up) from which cards may also be drawn from and discarded to.
|
||||
- **Salvage Yard:** Where used cards are placed. They are face up to ensure that no cards that
|
||||
should not be discarded are. We're keeping an eye on you.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## 3. Game Mode
|
||||
|
||||
The type of game should be chosen. Versions include
|
||||
|
||||
- **Solitaire** (player controls either one or several Offices). You may consider playing an
|
||||
open-ended solitaire game to grow familiar with *Station Master's* mechanics.
|
||||
- **Multiplayer** (players each control an Office)
|
||||
|
||||
Goals are…
|
||||
|
||||
- A specific total Revenue Points or highest Revenue within a specific number of Days.
|
||||
- **Co-Op.** Multiple players work to achieve a shared goal.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## 4. Game Setup
|
||||
|
||||
The game begins in the early days of railroading. The Division has just been spiked down and no
|
||||
trains are officially running yet. The future awaits!
|
||||
|
||||
1. Each player places a Whistle Post card (representing his Office) in the center of his play area.
|
||||
A Limits card is placed to either side, east and west. These three cards represent his "Running
|
||||
Track". All remaining Whistle Posts and Limits are set aside.
|
||||
|
||||
2. A "Mainline" card (tarot size) is drawn at random and placed between each player, forming a
|
||||
chain of Offices.
|
||||
|
||||
> *Diagram (PDF p. 4):* a player's Running Track is the horizontal three-card row —
|
||||
> Limits card, Office (Whistle Post) card, Limits card — with a tarot-sized Mainline card
|
||||
> abutting each end.
|
||||
|
||||
3. Players are assumed to be in a "chain" of Offices running east to west. Each player rolls a D12.
|
||||
Highest number is considered the Eastern Division point. Place the "Eastern Division Point" just
|
||||
right of the player's eastward Mainline card. The player to his right (or at the opposite end of
|
||||
the table space) gets the Western Division Point card to the left of another Mainline card,
|
||||
placed to his left.
|
||||
|
||||
> *Diagram (PDF p. 4):* example with two players — West Division Point card, Mainline card,
|
||||
> player 1's three-card Running Track, Mainline card, player 2's three-card Running Track,
|
||||
> Mainline card, East Division Point card.
|
||||
|
||||
4. Each player rolls the D12. Highest begins the game as the Superintendent (his shift runs three
|
||||
turns (or six hours)). Place the Fedora piece before him to signify his position. A Pocket watch
|
||||
piece is placed on the "midnight" hour on the turn sheet.
|
||||
|
||||
5. The "Home Office" deck is shuffled and placed face down.
|
||||
|
||||
6. Starting from the superintendent, each player draws three cards off the Home Office deck. Once
|
||||
they have these cards, three cards are drawn from the Home Office deck and placed face up next
|
||||
to it, three individual decks representing the Department decks.
|
||||
|
||||
7. Space should be provided for the Salvage Yard deck (discards).
|
||||
|
||||
8. All available train car pieces should be placed the Division Yard pile. Crew trays and Number
|
||||
Boards are placed near the turn sheet.
|
||||
|
||||
> *Diagram (PDF p. 5):* table layout — Home Office deck (face down) at top; three Department
|
||||
> decks face up below-left of it; Salvage Yard deck below those; Division Yard (a pile of
|
||||
> rolling stock) at right; Classification Yard (empty) below the Division Yard.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## 5. Order of Play
|
||||
|
||||
In each Stage of the day (a two-hour time period) the players perform Phases, one at a time in
|
||||
order from the Superintendent through the players in order to his left. Once all the Phases for
|
||||
that Stage are complete, the day ends. Every three Stages, the Superintendent's fedora piece is
|
||||
given to the player to the current Superintendent's left.
|
||||
|
||||
### 5.1 Phases
|
||||
|
||||
Phases are (in order)
|
||||
|
||||
1. Local Operations Phase
|
||||
2. New Train Phase
|
||||
3. Mainline Phase
|
||||
4. Cargo phase
|
||||
5. Superintendent Shift Change (at 4am, 10am, 4pm and 10pm)
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## 6. Local Operations Phase
|
||||
|
||||
A player may do **one of three things** in this phase:
|
||||
|
||||
### 6.1 Switch with a train
|
||||
|
||||
- If choosing this option, the player may move trains about his station area.
|
||||
- He has six Moves he can use to move his Crew Trays about. He may divide these moves between
|
||||
multiple Crews in any fashion he chooses.
|
||||
- See [Appendix A](#appendix-a-local-switching) for details on how trains move and switch.
|
||||
|
||||
### 6.2 Draw a card
|
||||
|
||||
- The player may draw a single face-down card from the Home Office deck, or take the top face-up
|
||||
card from any of the three Department decks.
|
||||
- He may play any or all appropriate cards from his hand.
|
||||
- Any played cards are placed on the table or into the Salvage Yard deck, face up.
|
||||
- Before concluding, the player must reduce his hand to no more than three cards. If he must (or
|
||||
wishes to) discard, that card is placed face up on top of one of the three Department decks.
|
||||
- If drawing a card has depleted the Home Office deck, immediately collect all cards from the
|
||||
Salvage Yard and three Department decks, reshuffle, and reestablish the Home Office and
|
||||
Department decks.
|
||||
- If any of the Department decks is empty, draw a Home Office card and place it in the empty spot.
|
||||
|
||||
### 6.3 Freight Agent Operations
|
||||
|
||||
- You may select one Rolling Stock from the Division Yard pile and place it onto a Facility's green
|
||||
Outbound box.
|
||||
- Or you may select one Rolling Stock from a Facility's red Inbound box and place it into the
|
||||
Classification Yard pile.
|
||||
- Or if your Facility is hopelessly jammed, you may remove one car from the
|
||||
Outbound / Inbound / "MEN|AT|WORK" areas and place it into the Classification yard.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## 7. New Train Phase
|
||||
|
||||
There are only a limited number of crew trays / engine pieces. If all are in play, keep any train
|
||||
cards due out near the turn sheet to remind you of these "held trains". As soon as you can run a
|
||||
train, build it as specified below. The lowest numbered train should go out first.
|
||||
|
||||
If there is a Timetabled Train (one with a number board on that Stage) and a crew is available, set
|
||||
the crew on the appropriate Division Point (based on the train card's image's direction). Put an
|
||||
engine piece on the "front" of the train. Then, starting with the superintendent and working left,
|
||||
each player may place ONE car (loaded or empty) on the train (within the car types and numbers
|
||||
specified) from the Division Yard pile. The person placing the Rolling Stock piece on the train must
|
||||
make every effort to find a suitable car (within the train's specific criteria, either loaded or
|
||||
empty). If no appropriate cars exist, the train will run short (Rolling stock might be added enroute
|
||||
to bring it to its maximum length).
|
||||
|
||||
For new Timetabled Trains (when a player draws that card and plays it), roll 1D12 and place the
|
||||
number board in that spot on the Timetable column of the turn chart. If occupied by a scheduled
|
||||
train, work down the column, looking for the next available space. If you get to the bottom of the
|
||||
chart, start again at the top. This train is now a scheduled train and will run every day at that
|
||||
time. If a new timetabled train is placed on the current turn, refer to the paragraph above for
|
||||
determining the consist.
|
||||
|
||||
Once all timetabled trains are created, if there is a played Extra Train card and an available Crew
|
||||
Tray, the player who played the card may place the Crew Tray in either division point (west or east)
|
||||
for immediate departure and may load the consist *as he chooses, subject to the listed criteria*.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## 8. Mainline Phase
|
||||
|
||||
Any train holding at a player's Office (Whistle Post, Depot, Station, or Terminal) or a Division
|
||||
Point must attempt to move. These trains move automatically and in numeric order based on the white
|
||||
number board pictured on the train's image (lowest number first). Remove the "X" from extras to
|
||||
determine their true number.
|
||||
|
||||
Note that at the start of the game, the entire railroad consisting nothing but Whistle Posts is
|
||||
considered to be one big Subdivision. Updating Offices with the Control Point icon split the
|
||||
Subdivision in two at that point.
|
||||
|
||||
### 8.1 Highball conditions
|
||||
|
||||
The imaginary dispatcher will Highball (i.e. clear a train) out of an Office under the following
|
||||
conditions:
|
||||
|
||||
- The train must be sitting on the A/D track before the Office or at a Division Point.
|
||||
- The train must be in correct order listed on the train's card (engine on the front, Rolling Stock
|
||||
and possibly a Caboose). It may depart with fewer Rolling Stock than listed.
|
||||
- If there is a train in the next Subdivision and moving towards the considered train, the
|
||||
considered train will not depart.
|
||||
- If there is a train in the next Subdivision moving in the same direction (i.e. the considered
|
||||
train is following the other train), the Superintendent determines if it is safe for a following
|
||||
train to depart.
|
||||
- If the Subdivision contains a Whistle Post (i.e. a non-Control Point) yet a train is occupying
|
||||
Secondary Track there (i.e. clear of the Running Track), the superintendent must Highball the
|
||||
train.
|
||||
|
||||
### 8.2 Movement along the Division
|
||||
|
||||
Trains are placed on the appropriate "Start" point of the Mainline card. They must move one region
|
||||
(vertical bar) every turn. Once they run off the end of the card, they enter the adjoining player's
|
||||
Limit. They are then moved immediately to the Office, where they stop for orders. When moving trains
|
||||
along the division, it's a good idea to keep their train card near them for reference as to the
|
||||
train number and operation details.
|
||||
|
||||
If any cars or trains are sitting on the Running Track between the Limits and the Office, a
|
||||
collision may occur. Further, if there is no room at the station (every A/D track is occupied by a
|
||||
train or Rolling Stock) a collision may occur.
|
||||
|
||||
If a train is ready to Highball and the track between it and the Limits is occupied by a train or
|
||||
cars, a collision may occur.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## 9. Load/Unload Phase
|
||||
|
||||
Loading and unloading of Rolling Stock (passengers and freight) takes place in this phase. There are
|
||||
special cards that permit this.
|
||||
|
||||
- **Passenger Facilities:** Depots, Stations and Terminals.
|
||||
- **Freight Facilities:** Mine Tipples, Produce Sheds, Grocer's Warehouses, Oil Refineries, Power
|
||||
Plants.
|
||||
- **Modifier Facilities:** A number of cards that, if placed adjacent (on any of the nine nearby
|
||||
spots) increase the passenger or freight facility's capacities. If two Facilities are adjacent to
|
||||
the Modifier, the effects of a Modifier Facility may only be used on one Facility in a turn.
|
||||
- Note that some Freight Faculties allow only outbound cargos (loading), some inbound (unloading)
|
||||
and some both. Passenger Faculties always allow both.
|
||||
|
||||
### 9.1 Special Icons
|
||||
|
||||
- Loading boxes are green, with the icon of the car type that can be loaded from there.
|
||||
- Unloading boxes are red, with the icon of the car types unloaded from there.
|
||||
- A number touching a box denotes the number of cars that can be held in the Loading/Unloading
|
||||
boxes. If it touches *both* boxes, then that is the total of *all* loads/unloads on that card.
|
||||
- Human icons in denim blue are Laborers, used for handling freight.
|
||||
- Human icons in uniform black are Porters, and used for assisting passengers.
|
||||
- Laborers and Porters may only be used once each in a Stage.
|
||||
- For Freight Facilities, there is a blue "MEN | AT | WORK" sign. This is used as a turn track for
|
||||
loading/unloading cars. Only one Load may exist on each of the three blue boxes. However, you may
|
||||
"move past" another load if you have enough Laborers to hop past it.
|
||||
|
||||
For each Facility, add up the number of icon resources (Laborers and Porters) that you have at each
|
||||
site. Resolve them one at a time.
|
||||
|
||||
### 9.2 Passenger Operations
|
||||
|
||||
One Porter will allow you to do any one of the following actions.
|
||||
|
||||
- **Assist passengers to board.** *Requirements:* A blue coach occupying a green Loading Slot, and a
|
||||
train at the Office's A/D track with a white empty coach. *Action:* Replace the white empty coach
|
||||
on the train with the loaded blue one, discard the empty coach into the Classification Yard, and
|
||||
earn a Revenue point.
|
||||
- **Assist passengers to de-train.** *Requirements:* White empty coach in Division Yard, and an
|
||||
unoccupied red Unloading slot. Replace the blue coach with the white one on the train. Place the
|
||||
blue coach on the red Unloading Slot. Earn a Revenue Point.
|
||||
|
||||
### 9.3 Freight Operations
|
||||
|
||||
Freight operations are like passenger operations with the distinct difference that passengers
|
||||
self-load and unload, whereas freight can take hours to manually work. Each Laborer may do one thing
|
||||
below.
|
||||
|
||||
- **Load the car:** *Requirements:* A load in the Green Loading Box and an empty car of the required
|
||||
type on the industry's track (maximum of four cars). It takes one laborer to move the cargo one
|
||||
spot: from the Green Loading Slot to "MEN", then "AT", then "WORK". If moved off "WORK", replace
|
||||
the empty white car on the industry's track with the load and discard the white car into the
|
||||
Classification Yard. Earn a Revenue Point.
|
||||
- **Unload the car:** *Requirements:* A load in the industry's track and an empty car of that type
|
||||
in the Division Yard. The first Laborer replaces the load with an empty car of that type on the
|
||||
industry's track and places the load on "WORK". Additional Laborers move it to "AT" then "MEN".
|
||||
The last one places the load on a red Unloading box. Earn a Revenue Point.
|
||||
- **NOTE:** While ANY loads are in the "MEN | AT | WORK" track; the industry's track is locked down
|
||||
for safety reasons. It loses its status as Operational Rail. No cars can be picked up or dropped
|
||||
off, and no trains may occupy or move on it.
|
||||
|
||||
Passenger Facilities and Freight Houses permit cars to move each direction (loading and unloading).
|
||||
Of course, you *may not* load a car, gain a point, then unload it and gain another. To keep track of
|
||||
complex platform operations, the player should denote outbound pieces by flipping them onto their
|
||||
roofs. Once the train completes operations and highballs, the pieces can be flipped right-side-up
|
||||
once more.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## 10. Collisions
|
||||
|
||||
- Any collisions that occurred on a mainline card are the fault of the Superintendent who cleared
|
||||
the trains out. He loses 5 Revenue points. Both trains are immediately removed. Timetabled trains
|
||||
can run the next day.
|
||||
- Any collisions that occur on the track between (and including) a player's Limits are his fault.
|
||||
Lose 5 Revenue points. Both trains are removed. Timetabled trains run the next day.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Appendix A: Local Switching
|
||||
|
||||
As mentioned before, *Operational Rail* is any track card that a train can stop and leave Rolling
|
||||
Stock (uncouple) on. Operational Rail is any track card with a train wheel icon on it.
|
||||
|
||||
During the Local Operation Phase, you may operate your train if you do not draw a card or add/remove
|
||||
cargo or passengers from a card. You will have six Moves that you can make, and these moves can be
|
||||
split between trains if desired. A Move involves a train travelling from one Operational Rail to
|
||||
another (regardless of distance) without changing direction.
|
||||
|
||||
### A.1 Turnouts
|
||||
|
||||
A train that enters a turnout from "A" may proceed to B or C. However, a train entering through B or
|
||||
C may only proceed to A. Since there is no Operational Rail wheel icon, the train may not stop on
|
||||
this card.
|
||||
|
||||
> *Diagram (PDF p. 9):* a single track card showing a turnout. "A" is the right-hand end of the
|
||||
> horizontal track; "C" is the left-hand end of the same horizontal track; "B" is the upper-right
|
||||
> end of the diverging leg.
|
||||
|
||||
### A.2 Reachable squares in one Move
|
||||
|
||||
> *Diagram (PDF p. 10):* a six-card grid (two rows of three) with four cards highlighted green as
|
||||
> reachable in one Move from a Crew Tray sitting on the lower-right card. Two blue arrows mark the
|
||||
> possible routes. The example notes he cannot end up in the upper-right card, as that would
|
||||
> require a change of direction.
|
||||
|
||||
### A.3 Dropping and picking up cars
|
||||
|
||||
A train may drop off cars, either where he starts or while moving. Note that cars **must come off
|
||||
the train in the order they are seated in the Crew Tray.**
|
||||
|
||||
> *Diagram (PDF p. 10):* the train starts with four cars (yellow, brown, blue and red, in that
|
||||
> order). He drops red as he starts, then brown and blue during his move. He ends with only the
|
||||
> yellow car.
|
||||
|
||||
Engines also have couplers on the front end. In this case, a train can pick up two cars and add them
|
||||
to the Crew Tray in order that they were in, pushing them into the Facility.
|
||||
|
||||
> *Diagram (PDF p. 10):* a train with a yellow car and a forward-facing engine moves right, picks
|
||||
> up a brown and a blue car, and arrives at the Freighthouse with the consist ordered
|
||||
> yellow, engine, brown, blue.
|
||||
|
||||
It is critical that cars are loaded into and unloaded from the Crew Tray, and occupy the track, in
|
||||
the same order they originally held, left-to-right.
|
||||
|
||||
### A.4 Special Rules
|
||||
|
||||
- While your Office Track is considered Operational Rail, Rolling Stock may not be dropped off here.
|
||||
As there is a passenger platform here, it would be dangerous for the railroad to switch Rolling
|
||||
Stock in this area.
|
||||
- If two trains are operating in your station area, they may not share the same card or move through
|
||||
each other.
|
||||
- The exception to the above is your Office track. It has the number of A/D (Arrival/Departure)
|
||||
tracks listed. As long as there are fewer trains holding here than A/D tracks, you may enter and
|
||||
pass through.
|
||||
- If you move your Crew Tray into cars on your track, you **MUST** pick them up. You may not "go
|
||||
around them".
|
||||
- A Crew Tray must always have an engine. It may only move a maximum of four Rolling Stock.
|
||||
- While you automatically couple to any cars you come across during your Moves, the same is not true
|
||||
for arriving at or departing trains during the Mainline Phase. Those trains are running at high
|
||||
speed and are not expecting any trains or Rolling Stock on the line. Any cars encountered by such
|
||||
trains result in a collision.
|
||||
|
||||
### A.5 Basic Switching Moves
|
||||
|
||||
There are two basic switching moves you should be aware of, *trailing* (that require a reverse move)
|
||||
and *facing* (more difficult, as they require you to push the cars in). See if you can figure out how
|
||||
to spot the brown car (in the middle of your train) to the freight house on Card "C".
|
||||
|
||||
**Trailing point.** How to get that brown car to the industry on Card C?
|
||||
|
||||
> *Diagram (PDF p. 11):* a six-card grid labelled A, B, C on the top row and D, E, F on the bottom
|
||||
> row. C is a Freighthouse; E is a Depot. The train sits on Card F with cars yellow, brown, blue,
|
||||
> red and a left-facing engine.
|
||||
|
||||
1. First move: Drop your back two cars (blue and red) on Card F. Move train to Card B.
|
||||
2. Second move: Reverse to card C and drop the brown car.
|
||||
3. Third Move: Move forward to Card B.
|
||||
4. Fourth Move: Back up to Card F and collect the rest of your train. Simple!
|
||||
|
||||
**Facing point.** Again, get the brown car to Card C. This is more difficult and can only be done if
|
||||
you have a run-around (i.e. bypass) track in your Secondary Trackage.
|
||||
|
||||
> *Diagram (PDF p. 11):* the same six-card grid, but the train now sits on Card D with cars
|
||||
> red, blue, brown, yellow and a right-facing engine.
|
||||
|
||||
1. First Move: Move to Card B, dropping the red, blue and brown car. Continue with the yellow to
|
||||
Card F.
|
||||
2. Second Move: Back up via Card E to Card D.
|
||||
3. Third Move. Move forward to Card B, collecting red, blue and brown cars on the nose of your
|
||||
train. Push them into Card C, where the brown car is dropped off.
|
||||
4. Fourth Move: Back up and drop off everything on the nose of your train (red and blue) on Card B.
|
||||
Continue backing to Card D.
|
||||
5. Fifth Move: Pull forward to Card F via Card E.
|
||||
6. Sixth Move. Back up your train to Card B to rebuild your train (red, blue, yellow). If you wish to
|
||||
start back where you began, continue back to Card D. However, note that, with the Sixth Move, your
|
||||
Local Operations Phase is over. If the next Mainline Phase has either a train coming from the west
|
||||
(left) or highballing from Card E west, you might wish to remain clear of the Running Track.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Appendix B: Optional Rules
|
||||
|
||||
- **Reduced visibility:** The first three Stages (midnight through 4am) and the last two (8pm
|
||||
through 10pm) are night operations. You only get five Moves in the Local Operations Phase during
|
||||
these times.
|
||||
- **"Sister" trains.** Generally, trains run with counterparts, such as Trains 1 & 2, trains 3 & 4.
|
||||
Pull out all even train cards from the deck (2 through 12) and set them aside. When their companion
|
||||
train (odd number) is drawn and played, bring the Sister Train in as well. This does not include
|
||||
Extras.
|
||||
- **Employee Rotation.** At the end of the day, all players move one chair to the left and take over
|
||||
the next station up the line. Take your points (and the Fedora) with you. Railroads are known for
|
||||
constantly moving people to new regions and why should you be excluded?
|
||||
- **Emergency Toolbox:** Each player starts with a RED FLAG card, bringing his total hand up to
|
||||
four. He must play/discard his hand down to three on his first turn. This allows more collisions to
|
||||
be avoided.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Appendix C: Turn Chart
|
||||
|
||||
Transcribed from `docs/StationMaster-PrototypeTurnChart.pdf`. The chart's columns are: Roll 1D12,
|
||||
Timetable (blank, filled in with Number Boards during play), Stage, and then one column per phase —
|
||||
Local Operations Phase, New Train Phase, Mainline phase, Load / Unload, and "Super" Shift Change.
|
||||
|
||||
The four phase columns carry the same icon in every row (a card back for Local Operations, a crew
|
||||
tray for New Train, a mainline card for Mainline, and rolling-stock pieces for Load/Unload) — they
|
||||
mark that every Stage runs all four phases. The Shift Change column carries a fedora icon only on
|
||||
the rows listed below.
|
||||
|
||||
| Roll 1D12 | Stage | Clock | Shift Change |
|
||||
| --------- | ----- | ----- | ------------ |
|
||||
| 1 | 1 | Midnight | |
|
||||
| 2 | 2 | 2:00 AM | |
|
||||
| 3 | 3 | 4:00 AM | Fedora |
|
||||
| 4 | 4 | 6:00 AM | |
|
||||
| 5 | 5 | 8:00 AM | |
|
||||
| 6 | 6 | 10:00 AM | Fedora |
|
||||
| 7 | 7 | Noon | |
|
||||
| 8 | 8 | 2:00 PM | |
|
||||
| 9 | 9 | 4:00 PM | Fedora |
|
||||
| 10 | 10 | 6:00 PM | |
|
||||
| 11 | 11 | 8:00 PM | |
|
||||
| 12 | 12 | 10:00 PM | Fedora |
|
||||
|
||||
The Stage cells are color-coded on the printed chart, suggesting daylight: deep blue at Midnight
|
||||
warming through to yellow at 6:00 AM, pale blue through midday, red at 6:00 PM, and back to deep
|
||||
blue by 10:00 PM. The coloring appears to be informational (it aligns with the Reduced Visibility
|
||||
optional rule) rather than mechanical.
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,841 @@
|
||||
# Station Master — Rules v0.2
|
||||
|
||||
> **Status: working ruleset.** This is [`rules-v0.1.md`](rules-v0.1.md) — the faithful transcription
|
||||
> of the prototype PDFs — with the seven gaps from [`open-questions.md`](open-questions.md) resolved
|
||||
> and integrated in place.
|
||||
>
|
||||
> Every passage that differs from v0.1 is marked **[Gap N]**, so the provenance of each change stays
|
||||
> visible. Section numbers match v0.1 wherever a section existed there; §11 and §12 are new.
|
||||
> `open-questions.md` cites v0.1 numbering throughout.
|
||||
>
|
||||
> Numbers marked *provisional* are calibration targets to be retuned after the game is played.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## 1. Historical Setting
|
||||
|
||||
Between 1840 to 1950, trains operated without radios in their cabs, racing in the dark against
|
||||
oncoming traffic, relying on timetables and pocket watches to avoid collisions. Station Operators
|
||||
physically passed engineers orders from the dispatchers and "OS" reported ("On Station") them
|
||||
through.
|
||||
|
||||
As the *Station Master* in your lineside Office, you'll manage a town's railroad connection,
|
||||
embarking passengers and gathering freight, meeting demands from all quarters. Can you manage trains
|
||||
and cargos effectively? The railroad depends on you!
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## 2. Definitions
|
||||
|
||||
See [`glossary.md`](glossary.md) for the same terms as an alphabetical lookup table.
|
||||
|
||||
### 2.1 Along the right of way
|
||||
|
||||
- **Division Point:** Where your railroad ties into other railroads. There is an Eastern Division
|
||||
Point and a Western Division Point.
|
||||
- **Division:** Your company's tracks that connect the Eastern and Western Division Points.
|
||||
- **Mainline Card:** Tarot-sized cards that represent roughly the hundred miles of tracks between
|
||||
train offices. **[Gap 4b]** Each Mainline card is divided into **two regions**.
|
||||
- **Office:** The location you (the Station Master) sit at to lord over your area. An Office is a
|
||||
Whistle Post, a Depot, a Station, or a Terminal — see §11.
|
||||
- **Control Point:** An office where trains are reported in to the distant (NPC) dispatcher. These
|
||||
include Division Points, Depots, Stations and Terminals. Whistle Posts are not Control Points.
|
||||
Control Points are denoted by a train order signal on their card.
|
||||
- **Limits:** The sign located on the track east and west of your Office's area that denote the limit
|
||||
of your control area. **[Gap 4a]** When you extend your Running Track, the Limits sign moves
|
||||
outwards with it.
|
||||
- **Subdivision:** The Mainline track between the Limits of opposing Control Points. Whistle Posts
|
||||
are *NOT* Control Points and are an internal part of a Subdivision, no different than Mainline
|
||||
Track.
|
||||
- **Running Track:** The "Mainline" that runs horizontally between your limits, including your
|
||||
office. It is the horizontal row of cards, Limit-to-Limit.
|
||||
- **Secondary Track:** All tracks in your limits that are not the Running Track.
|
||||
- **Operational Rail:** Any track (Running and Secondary) on which a train may sit, change direction,
|
||||
drop and pick up cars on. Operational Rail is marked with a wheel icon.
|
||||
- **A/D (Arrival/Departure) Track:** Short sidings in front of your office where trains arrive and
|
||||
depart from. A train at an Office occupies one A/D track. **[Gap 2d]** If a train arrives and no
|
||||
A/D track is available, it is a collision.
|
||||
- **Office Area:** **[Gap 4a]** The grid of track cards a player controls. It grows during play as
|
||||
track and Facility cards are placed (§11.2).
|
||||
|
||||
### 2.2 Train makeup
|
||||
|
||||
- **Crew Tray:** The canoe-shaped holder that contains the train pieces.
|
||||
- **Engine:** The engine piece. A Crew Tray must have an engine piece. The engine may be pulling
|
||||
cars, pushing cars, or a combination of both.
|
||||
- **Consist:** A collection of Rolling Stock (cars) in a Crew Tray.
|
||||
- **Rolling stock:** The non-engine pieces representing rail cars that make up either a train (in a
|
||||
Crew Tray) or are left sitting on an Operational Rail card. Rolling stock may be…
|
||||
- Coaches for passengers (blue or white)
|
||||
- Boxcars for general freight (brown or white)
|
||||
- Refrigerated cars (reefers) for field produce (brown or white)
|
||||
- Hoppers for coal (brown or white)
|
||||
- Tank cars for oil (brown or white)
|
||||
- Cabooses for the conductor and switch crews (red)
|
||||
- A colored car is loaded. A white car is empty.
|
||||
- **Division Yard:** A table-top pile of Rolling Stock. Rolling Stock for use for cargo, passengers or
|
||||
on trains are selected from here.
|
||||
- **Classification Yard:** Where used Rolling Stock is placed. Used engines and cabooses return
|
||||
directly to the Division Yard. When the Division Yard is empty, all Rolling Stock in the
|
||||
Classification Yard is moved back to the Division Yard.
|
||||
|
||||
> **[Gap 4c]** A Crew Tray holds a maximum of four Rolling Stock (§A.4), and a caboose *is* Rolling
|
||||
> Stock. A train requiring a caboose therefore carries at most **three** revenue cars.
|
||||
|
||||
### 2.3 Train types
|
||||
|
||||
- **Timetabled Trains:** Trains scheduled to run every day at the same time, denoted by a Number
|
||||
Board placed on the turn chart. Numbered 1-12, with odd-numbers westbound (left) and even-numbered
|
||||
eastbound (right). The train image on their card also defines its direction. Lower-numbered trains
|
||||
are more important and the dispatcher will give them greater seniority on the railroad.
|
||||
- **Number board:** The small tiles, numbered 1-12, that record which Stage (hour) the train should
|
||||
depart. **[Gap 7]**
|
||||
- **Extra Trains:** One-and-done trains, which run once with their card returned to the **Salvage
|
||||
Yard** deck upon completion **[Gap 7]**. Since their image on the card is head-on, the player
|
||||
drawing it may determine its direction. Their train number is denoted with an "X" designation, but
|
||||
the actual following number denotes their seniority.
|
||||
|
||||
### 2.4 General terms
|
||||
|
||||
- **East** is to the player's right. **West** is to the player's left.
|
||||
- A **Stage** is a two-hour section of time.
|
||||
- A **Phase** is an operational component of a Stage.
|
||||
- A **Day** is a series of twelve Stages.
|
||||
- A **Move** is a Crew Tray moving from one Operational Rail card to another.
|
||||
- **Highball:** When a train holding at an Office automatically departs.
|
||||
- **Revenue:** Points gained and lost in the game to determine victory.
|
||||
|
||||
### 2.5 Passenger and Cargo elements
|
||||
|
||||
- A **Facility** is a business which loads/unloads cargo and freight.
|
||||
- A **Modifier Facility** is a card placed adjacent to a Facility that increases its capacities.
|
||||
- A blue man-icon is a **Laborer**, who works cargo.
|
||||
- A black man-icon is a **Porter**, who assists passengers.
|
||||
- A green **Outbound box** holds all to-be-loaded freight/passengers of the indicated type.
|
||||
- A red **Inbound box** holds all just-unloaded freight/passengers of the designated type.
|
||||
- A blue **"MEN | AT | WORK"** turn track follows how quickly freight cars are loaded/unloaded.
|
||||
|
||||
### 2.6 Railroad management
|
||||
|
||||
- **Dispatcher:** The imaginary person running the railroad and granting rights to trains to operate.
|
||||
- **Superintendent:** The Dispatcher's right-hand-man, who manages the division. The role is passed
|
||||
player to player; a Superintendent's shift is six hours (three Stages).
|
||||
- **Home Office:** The primary face-down deck cards are drawn from.
|
||||
- **Departments:** Three face-up slots beside the Home Office deck from which cards may also be drawn
|
||||
and to which they may be discarded. **[Gap 4a]** These are market slots fed from the Home Office
|
||||
deck, not separate decks with their own contents.
|
||||
- **Salvage Yard:** Where used cards are placed. They are face up to ensure that no cards that should
|
||||
not be discarded are. We're keeping an eye on you.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## 3. Game Mode and Victory · **[Gap 6]**
|
||||
|
||||
At setup the players choose a **mode**, a **victory condition**, and a **length**.
|
||||
|
||||
### 3.1 Modes
|
||||
|
||||
- **Solitaire** — one player controls one or several Offices. A good way to learn the mechanics.
|
||||
- **Competitive** — players each control an Office and race each other.
|
||||
- **Co-op** — players each control an Office and work toward a shared pooled total.
|
||||
|
||||
### 3.2 Length *(provisional)*
|
||||
|
||||
| Length | Revenue target | Days |
|
||||
| --- | ---: | ---: |
|
||||
| Short | 10 | 3 |
|
||||
| Standard | 20 | 5 |
|
||||
| Campaign | 45 | 10 |
|
||||
|
||||
**[Gap 10e]** These figures were lowered from 15 / 30 / 60 once the card faces were specified and the
|
||||
development ramp accounted for. A player earns nothing on Day 1 — no facilities exist and no trains
|
||||
run yet — so cumulative output is roughly 7 / 19 / 49 at those Day counts. The targets sit just under
|
||||
those figures: winnable by a player running well, missed by one who is not. See
|
||||
[`card-reference.md`](card-reference.md#7-economy-summary).
|
||||
|
||||
In **Co-op**, the Revenue target is multiplied by the number of players, since Co-op scores a pooled
|
||||
total.
|
||||
|
||||
### 3.3 Victory conditions
|
||||
|
||||
| Mode | First to Revenue target | Highest Revenue after N Days |
|
||||
| --- | --- | --- |
|
||||
| **Solitaire** | Reach the target → win. | Must reach the target by the end of N Days, or **lose**. Above it, the final score stands as the result. |
|
||||
| **Competitive** | First player to reach the target wins. | All players' Revenue **combined** must reach the collective floor (§3.5), or **everyone loses**. Otherwise the highest individual Revenue wins. |
|
||||
| **Co-op** | Pooled Revenue reaches `target × players` → the team wins. | Pooled Revenue must reach `target × players` by the end of N Days, or **lose**. Above it, the final pooled score stands as the result. |
|
||||
|
||||
"Highest Revenue" is a comparison between rivals, which is meaningless in Solitaire and
|
||||
self-defeating in Co-op. In those two modes the timed condition is therefore pass/fail against the
|
||||
target figure: below it you lose regardless of score, above it your score stands and is what players
|
||||
compare between sessions.
|
||||
|
||||
### 3.4 Collision floor — Competitive only
|
||||
|
||||
**Three collisions within a single Day and every player loses immediately.** Collisions are counted
|
||||
Division-wide, across all players and the Superintendent alike. **The counter resets at the start of
|
||||
each Day.**
|
||||
|
||||
This applies under both victory conditions. Solitaire and Co-op have no collision limit.
|
||||
|
||||
### 3.5 Collective Revenue floor — Competitive, timed games only
|
||||
|
||||
All players' Revenue combined must reach **`3 × players × Days`** by the end of the game. If it does
|
||||
not, every player loses regardless of individual scores. *(Provisional — roughly half the expected
|
||||
output of a functioning Division.)*
|
||||
|
||||
| Players | Days | Floor |
|
||||
| ---: | ---: | ---: |
|
||||
| 3 | 3 | 27 |
|
||||
| 3 | 5 | 45 |
|
||||
| 4 | 5 | 60 |
|
||||
| 4 | 10 | 120 |
|
||||
|
||||
### 3.6 Note on the floors
|
||||
|
||||
The two floors make Competitive play partly cooperative: players race each other inside a railroad
|
||||
they all need to keep functioning. This is the mechanical expression of the game's premise.
|
||||
|
||||
Be aware of one consequence: a player who is clearly losing can deliberately wreck trains to trip the
|
||||
collision floor and deny the leader a win. The saboteur loses too, so it is mutually assured
|
||||
destruction rather than a free grief, and the per-Day reset means three wrecks must land inside a
|
||||
single Day.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## 4. Game Setup
|
||||
|
||||
The game begins in the early days of railroading. The Division has just been spiked down and no
|
||||
trains are officially running yet. The future awaits!
|
||||
|
||||
1. Choose mode, victory condition and length (§3).
|
||||
|
||||
2. Each player places a Whistle Post card (representing his Office) in the center of his play area. A
|
||||
Limits card is placed to either side, east and west. These three cards represent his Running Track.
|
||||
All remaining Whistle Posts and Limits are set aside.
|
||||
|
||||
3. A Mainline card (tarot size) is drawn at random and placed between each player, forming a chain of
|
||||
Offices. **[Gap 4b]** With N players there are N+1 Mainline cards — one between each adjacent pair,
|
||||
and one beyond each end.
|
||||
|
||||
4. Players are assumed to be in a chain of Offices running east to west. Each player rolls a D12.
|
||||
Highest is the Eastern Division Point; place that card just right of the player's eastward Mainline
|
||||
card. The player at the opposite end of the chain gets the Western Division Point card to the left
|
||||
of his westward Mainline card.
|
||||
|
||||
5. Each player rolls the D12. Highest begins as the Superintendent (his shift runs three Stages).
|
||||
**[Gap 7]** Place the Fedora piece before him. A Pocket Watch piece is placed on the "midnight"
|
||||
hour on the turn sheet.
|
||||
|
||||
6. The Home Office deck (52 cards, §12.1) is shuffled and placed face down.
|
||||
|
||||
7. Starting from the Superintendent, each player draws three cards off the Home Office deck. Then
|
||||
three cards are drawn from the Home Office deck and placed face up next to it, forming the three
|
||||
Department slots.
|
||||
|
||||
8. Space should be provided for the Salvage Yard deck (discards).
|
||||
|
||||
9. All available train car pieces are placed in the Division Yard pile. Crew Trays and Number Boards
|
||||
are placed near the turn sheet.
|
||||
|
||||
10. *(Optional rule — Emergency Toolbox)* Each player is dealt one Red Flag card from its separate
|
||||
supply, bringing his hand to four. He must play or discard down to three on his first turn.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## 5. Order of Play · **[Gap 1]**
|
||||
|
||||
Each Stage runs its Phases in order. Within a Phase, players act one at a time starting with the
|
||||
Superintendent and proceeding to his left. Once all the Phases for that Stage are complete, **the
|
||||
Stage ends** **[Gap 7]** and the Pocket Watch advances. After twelve Stages, the Day ends.
|
||||
|
||||
Every three Stages the Superintendent's Fedora passes to the player on the current Superintendent's
|
||||
left.
|
||||
|
||||
```
|
||||
STAGE N
|
||||
├─ 1. Local Operations P(super) → P(+1) → P(+2) … one at a time
|
||||
├─ 2. New Train per train: super → left, ONE car each
|
||||
├─ 3. Mainline ALL trains move, train-number order (global)
|
||||
├─ 4. Load / Unload P(super) → P(+1) → P(+2) … one at a time
|
||||
└─ 5. Shift Change Stages 3, 6, 9, 12 only
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
### 5.1 Phases
|
||||
|
||||
Phases are, in order:
|
||||
|
||||
1. Local Operations Phase
|
||||
2. New Train Phase
|
||||
3. Mainline Phase
|
||||
4. **Load/Unload Phase** **[Gap 7]**
|
||||
5. Superintendent Shift Change (at 4am, 10am, 4pm and 10pm)
|
||||
|
||||
**[Gap 1]** Phases are resolved *phase-major*: every player completes Phase 1 before any player
|
||||
begins Phase 2. The Mainline Phase is global and automatic, with one exception: §8.1's fourth
|
||||
condition requires the Superintendent to rule on whether a following train may depart. No other
|
||||
player acts during it. Per-Stage resources (Laborer and Porter usage) reset at the start of each
|
||||
Stage, not each Phase.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## 6. Local Operations Phase
|
||||
|
||||
A player may do **one of three things** in this phase:
|
||||
|
||||
### 6.1 Switch with a train
|
||||
|
||||
- The player may move trains about his station area.
|
||||
- He has six Moves to move his Crew Trays about, divisible between multiple Crews in any fashion.
|
||||
- See [Appendix A](#appendix-a-local-switching) for how trains move and switch.
|
||||
|
||||
### 6.2 Draw a card
|
||||
|
||||
- The player may draw a single face-down card from the Home Office deck, or take the top face-up card
|
||||
from any of the three Department slots.
|
||||
- He may play any or all appropriate cards from his hand. **[Gap 3a]** This includes Office upgrade
|
||||
cards (§11) and **[Gap 4a]** track and Facility cards placed into his Office Area (§11.2).
|
||||
- Any played cards are placed on the table or into the Salvage Yard deck, face up.
|
||||
- Before concluding, the player must reduce his hand to no more than three cards. If he must (or
|
||||
wishes to) discard, that card is placed face up on top of one of the three Department slots.
|
||||
- If drawing a card has depleted the Home Office deck, immediately collect all cards from the Salvage
|
||||
Yard and three Department slots, reshuffle, and reestablish the Home Office deck and Department
|
||||
slots.
|
||||
- If any Department slot is empty, draw a Home Office card and place it in the empty spot.
|
||||
|
||||
### 6.3 Freight Agent Operations
|
||||
|
||||
- Select one Rolling Stock from the Division Yard pile and place it onto a Facility's green Outbound
|
||||
box.
|
||||
- Or select one Rolling Stock from a Facility's red Inbound box and place it into the Classification
|
||||
Yard pile.
|
||||
- Or if your Facility is hopelessly jammed, remove one car from the Outbound / Inbound /
|
||||
"MEN|AT|WORK" areas and place it into the Classification Yard.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## 7. New Train Phase
|
||||
|
||||
There are only a limited number of Crew Trays and engine pieces **[Gap 4b: player count + 3]**. If
|
||||
all are in play, keep any train cards due out near the turn sheet to remind you of these "held
|
||||
trains". As soon as a Crew Tray frees up, build the train as specified below. The lowest numbered
|
||||
train goes out first.
|
||||
|
||||
If there is a Timetabled Train (one with a number board on that Stage) and a crew is available, set
|
||||
the crew on the appropriate Division Point (based on the train card image's direction). Put an engine
|
||||
piece on the "front" of the train. Then, starting with the Superintendent and working left, each
|
||||
player may place ONE car (loaded or empty) on the train, within the car types and numbers specified
|
||||
on the train card (§12.4), from the Division Yard pile. The person placing the Rolling Stock must
|
||||
make every effort to find a suitable car.
|
||||
|
||||
**[Gap 9] The round repeats.** Play continues around the table — Superintendent, then left — until
|
||||
the consist is full or no suitable cars remain in the Division Yard. A single pass would tie consist
|
||||
length to player count, leaving trains permanently short at two or three players and overrunning the
|
||||
consist at five or more.
|
||||
|
||||
```
|
||||
4-coach Limited, 2 players
|
||||
round 1: P0 → coach P1 → coach
|
||||
round 2: P0 → coach P1 → coach
|
||||
full — departs with 4
|
||||
|
||||
5 players: the round ends mid-way, when the consist fills
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
If no appropriate cars exist, the train runs short — Rolling Stock may be added enroute to bring it
|
||||
to its maximum length.
|
||||
|
||||
For new Timetabled Trains (when a player draws that card and plays it), roll 1D12 and place the
|
||||
Number Board in that spot on the Timetable column of the turn chart. If that slot is occupied by a
|
||||
scheduled train, work down the column to the next available space; if you reach the bottom, continue
|
||||
from the top. This train is now scheduled and will run every Day at that time. If a new Timetabled
|
||||
Train is placed on the current Stage, refer to the paragraph above for determining the consist.
|
||||
|
||||
Once all Timetabled Trains are created, if there is a played Extra Train card and an available Crew
|
||||
Tray, the player who played the card may place the Crew Tray at either Division Point for immediate
|
||||
departure and may load the consist *as he chooses, subject to the criteria listed on the card*
|
||||
(§12.4).
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## 8. Mainline Phase
|
||||
|
||||
Any train holding at a player's Office (Whistle Post, Depot, Station, or Terminal) or at a Division
|
||||
Point must attempt to move. These trains move automatically, with **no player input**, in numeric
|
||||
order based on the white number board pictured on the train's image (lowest first). Remove the "X"
|
||||
from Extras to determine their true number.
|
||||
|
||||
> **[Gap 5]** When an Extra ties a Timetabled train on number, **the Timetabled train moves first**.
|
||||
> Extras carry no timetable authority and yield to every scheduled train. Sort by
|
||||
> `(number, isExtra)` ascending.
|
||||
|
||||
At the start of the game the entire railroad, consisting of nothing but Whistle Posts, is one big
|
||||
Subdivision. Upgrading an Office to a Control Point (§11) splits the Subdivision in two at that
|
||||
point.
|
||||
|
||||
### 8.1 Highball conditions
|
||||
|
||||
The imaginary dispatcher will Highball (clear) a train out of an Office under the following
|
||||
conditions:
|
||||
|
||||
- The train must be sitting on the A/D track before the Office, or at a Division Point.
|
||||
- The train must be in the order listed on the train's card (engine on the front, Rolling Stock, and
|
||||
possibly a Caboose). It may depart with fewer Rolling Stock than listed, but not out of order.
|
||||
- If there is a train in the next Subdivision moving towards the considered train, the considered
|
||||
train will not depart.
|
||||
- If there is a train in the next Subdivision moving in the same direction (i.e. the considered train
|
||||
would be following it), the Superintendent determines whether it is safe for the following train to
|
||||
depart.
|
||||
- **[Gap 2b]** If the Subdivision contains a Whistle Post (a non-Control Point) and a train is
|
||||
occupying Secondary Track there — that is, standing clear of the Running Track — that train does not
|
||||
count as occupying the Subdivision. The Superintendent has no grounds to withhold clearance and
|
||||
**must Highball the considered train**. A train on Secondary Track is not itself eligible to be
|
||||
highballed; §8.1's first condition requires an A/D track or a Division Point.
|
||||
|
||||
### 8.2 Movement along the Division
|
||||
|
||||
Trains are placed on the appropriate "Start" point of the Mainline card and must move one region
|
||||
(vertical bar) every **Stage** **[Gap 7]**. **[Gap 4b]** Each Mainline card has two regions. Once a
|
||||
train runs off the end of a card it enters the adjoining player's Limit, and is then moved
|
||||
immediately to the Office, where it stops for orders.
|
||||
|
||||
Keep each train's card near it for reference to its number and operating details.
|
||||
|
||||
### 8.3 Collision triggers · **[Gap 2a]**
|
||||
|
||||
Collisions are **automatic**. If any of the following holds at the moment a train moves, the
|
||||
collision occurs — there is no die roll and no judgment call:
|
||||
|
||||
- Cars or trains are sitting on the Running Track between the Limits and the Office when a train
|
||||
arrives.
|
||||
- **[Gap 2d]** There is no room at the station — every A/D track is occupied by a train or Rolling
|
||||
Stock — when a train arrives.
|
||||
- A train is ready to Highball and the track between it and the Limits is occupied by a train or
|
||||
cars.
|
||||
|
||||
Trains in the Mainline Phase run at speed and are not expecting anything on the line (§A.4). This is
|
||||
the counterpart of local switching, where a Crew Tray automatically couples to whatever it meets.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## 9. Load/Unload Phase **[Gap 7]**
|
||||
|
||||
Loading and unloading of Rolling Stock (passengers and freight) takes place in this phase.
|
||||
|
||||
- **Passenger Facilities:** Depots, Stations and Terminals — that is, any Office above Whistle Post
|
||||
(§11). A Whistle Post is not a Passenger Facility, so a player who has not upgraded has no
|
||||
passenger business at all.
|
||||
- **Freight Facilities:** Mine Tipples, Produce Sheds, Grocer's Warehouses, Oil Refineries, Power
|
||||
Plants. Per-card values in §12.5.
|
||||
- **Freight House:** **[Gap 10d]** not a facility type of its own, but the collective term for a
|
||||
freight facility permitting both directions — the Grocer's Warehouse and the Oil Refinery.
|
||||
- **Modifier Facilities:** Cards that, placed adjacent (on any of the nine nearby spots), increase a
|
||||
passenger or freight facility's capacities. If two Facilities are adjacent to the Modifier, its
|
||||
effects may only be used on one Facility per **Stage** **[Gap 7]**.
|
||||
- Some Freight Facilities allow only outbound cargos (loading), some inbound (unloading), and some
|
||||
both. Passenger Facilities always allow both.
|
||||
|
||||
### 9.1 Special Icons
|
||||
|
||||
- Loading boxes are green, with the icon of the car type that can be loaded from there.
|
||||
- Unloading boxes are red, with the icon of the car types unloaded from there.
|
||||
- A number touching a box denotes how many cars can be held in the Loading/Unloading boxes. If it
|
||||
touches *both* boxes, that is the total of *all* loads/unloads on that card.
|
||||
- Human icons in denim blue are Laborers, used for handling freight.
|
||||
- Human icons in uniform black are Porters, used for assisting passengers.
|
||||
- Laborers and Porters may only be used once each in a Stage.
|
||||
- For Freight Facilities there is a blue "MEN | AT | WORK" sign, used as a turn track for
|
||||
loading/unloading cars. Only one Load may exist on each of the three blue boxes. You may "move past"
|
||||
another load if you have enough Laborers to hop past it.
|
||||
|
||||
For each Facility, add up the icon resources (Laborers and Porters) you have at that site. Resolve
|
||||
them one at a time.
|
||||
|
||||
### 9.2 Passenger Operations
|
||||
|
||||
One Porter allows one of the following:
|
||||
|
||||
- **Assist passengers to board.** *Requirements:* a blue coach occupying a green Loading Slot, and a
|
||||
train at the Office's A/D track with a white empty coach. *Action:* replace the white empty coach on
|
||||
the train with the loaded blue one, discard the empty coach into the Classification Yard, and earn a
|
||||
Revenue point.
|
||||
- **Assist passengers to de-train.** *Requirements:* a white empty coach in the Division Yard and an
|
||||
unoccupied red Unloading slot. Replace the blue coach on the train with the white one. Place the
|
||||
blue coach on the red Unloading Slot. Earn a Revenue point.
|
||||
|
||||
### 9.3 Freight Operations
|
||||
|
||||
Passengers self-load and unload; freight can take hours to work manually. Each Laborer may do one
|
||||
thing:
|
||||
|
||||
- **Load the car.** *Requirements:* a load in the Green Loading Box and an empty car of the required
|
||||
type on the industry's track (maximum four cars). One Laborer moves the cargo one spot: Green
|
||||
Loading Slot → "MEN" → "AT" → "WORK". Moved off "WORK", replace the empty white car on the
|
||||
industry's track with the load and discard the white car into the Classification Yard. Earn a
|
||||
Revenue point.
|
||||
- **Unload the car.** *Requirements:* a load on the industry's track and an empty car of that type in
|
||||
the Division Yard. The first Laborer replaces the load with an empty car of that type on the
|
||||
industry's track and places the load on "WORK". Additional Laborers move it to "AT" then "MEN". The
|
||||
last places the load on a red Unloading box. Earn a Revenue point.
|
||||
- **NOTE:** while ANY load sits in the "MEN | AT | WORK" track, the industry's track is locked down
|
||||
for safety. It loses its status as Operational Rail: no cars may be picked up or dropped off, and no
|
||||
train may occupy or move on it.
|
||||
|
||||
> A complete freight load therefore takes **four Laborer-actions** for one Revenue point, while a
|
||||
> passenger operation takes one. This asymmetry is intentional.
|
||||
>
|
||||
> **[Gap 10e]** Laborers are nevertheless rarely the binding constraint. Stocking a green box costs a
|
||||
> whole Local Operations action (§6.3), and spotting the empty car costs switching — so it is the
|
||||
> one-action-per-Stage budget, not worker count, that limits Revenue. See
|
||||
> [`card-reference.md`](card-reference.md#7-economy-summary).
|
||||
|
||||
Passenger Facilities and Freight Houses permit cars to move each direction (loading and unloading).
|
||||
You *may not* load a car, gain a point, then unload it and gain another. To track complex platform
|
||||
operations, denote outbound pieces by flipping them onto their roofs; once the train completes
|
||||
operations and highballs, flip them right-side-up again.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## 10. Collisions · **[Gap 2]**
|
||||
|
||||
Collisions are automatic (§8.3). When one occurs:
|
||||
|
||||
- **Fault and penalty.** A collision on a Mainline card is the fault of the Superintendent who cleared
|
||||
the trains out; he loses 5 Revenue points. A collision on the track between (and including) a
|
||||
player's Limits is that player's fault; he loses 5 Revenue points.
|
||||
- **Train-on-train.** Both trains are immediately removed.
|
||||
- **[Gap 2c] Train-on-cars.** A moving train striking uncoupled Rolling Stock is a full collision: the
|
||||
train *and* the struck cars are destroyed, and the responsible party loses 5 Revenue points — the
|
||||
same penalty as a train-on-train wreck.
|
||||
- **[Gap 2c] Disposition of destroyed pieces.** Engines and cabooses return to the Division Yard; all
|
||||
other Rolling Stock goes to the Classification Yard. Timetabled train cards return to their
|
||||
timetable slot and run again the next Day. Extra train cards go to the Salvage Yard.
|
||||
- **[Gap 3c/6]** Note that an Office with fewer A/D tracks collides more readily (§2.1, §11.1), and
|
||||
that in Competitive games three collisions in one Day ends the game for everyone (§3.4).
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## 11. Offices and the Office Area · **[Gap 3, Gap 4a]**
|
||||
|
||||
### 11.1 Office types
|
||||
|
||||
Every player begins on a Whistle Post (§4.2). Offices are upgraded by playing an Office card from
|
||||
hand during the "Draw a card" option of the Local Operations Phase (§6.2). The card replaces the
|
||||
current Office card; the replaced card goes to the Salvage Yard. **There is no Revenue cost** — the
|
||||
cost is one of only three hand slots, plus a whole Local Operations action, which is mutually
|
||||
exclusive with switching your trains or working freight that Stage.
|
||||
|
||||
| Office | Control Point | Passenger Facility | A/D tracks |
|
||||
| --- | :---: | :---: | ---: |
|
||||
| Whistle Post | no | no | 1 |
|
||||
| Depot | yes | yes | 2 |
|
||||
| Station | yes | yes | 3 |
|
||||
| Terminal | yes | yes | 4 |
|
||||
|
||||
**[Gap 8]** These are the *only* differences between the tiers. All four carry identical track
|
||||
geometry (§11.3), so an upgrade is a drop-in replacement that preserves every connection.
|
||||
|
||||
**Upgrades follow a strict sequence: Whistle Post → Depot → Station → Terminal.** No tier may be
|
||||
skipped. A Station or Terminal card drawn early is therefore a dead card occupying one of three hand
|
||||
slots; the player may sit on it, or discard it face-up to a Department slot where a rival may take
|
||||
it.
|
||||
|
||||
An upgrade delivers three benefits at once: passenger revenue (a Whistle Post has none), A/D capacity
|
||||
(and running out of A/D tracks is an automatic collision, §8.3), and Subdivision splitting — which
|
||||
raises traffic capacity for the whole Division, not just for the upgrading player.
|
||||
|
||||
### 11.2 Growing the Office Area
|
||||
|
||||
A player's Office Area is a **grid** of track cards, not a single row. The Running Track is the
|
||||
horizontal row through the Office, Limit-to-Limit; everything else is Secondary Track.
|
||||
|
||||
- Plain track, turnouts and Facility cards are all played from hand into an empty adjacent grid spot,
|
||||
and **must connect to existing track**. Facility cards carry their own rails — placing a Facility
|
||||
places track.
|
||||
- Extending the **Running Track** horizontally moves that player's Limits sign outward with it (§2.1).
|
||||
Growth is uncapped in the prototype.
|
||||
- Modifier Facility cards are not track. They are placed adjacent to a Facility, on any of the nine
|
||||
nearby spots (§9).
|
||||
|
||||
A longer Running Track is more track to keep clear of arriving trains, so territory carries its own
|
||||
collision risk.
|
||||
|
||||
### 11.3 Office card geometry · **[Gap 8]**
|
||||
|
||||
Every Office card is printed with a **diverging junction stub above and below** its track:
|
||||
|
||||
```
|
||||
[ ][ ↓ ][ ]
|
||||
[Lim][Off][Lim]
|
||||
[ ][ ↑ ][ ]
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
Both Secondary rows are therefore reachable from the opening Stage, and the nine-spot Modifier
|
||||
neighbourhood (§9) is usable immediately.
|
||||
|
||||
**These stubs are plain junctions, not turnouts.** The directional rule of §A.1 — enter from A and you
|
||||
may proceed to B or C; enter from B or C and you may only proceed to A — governs *drawn turnout
|
||||
cards*. It does not apply to the Office card, which remains Operational Rail with its A/D tracks and
|
||||
its §A.4 pass-through allowance intact.
|
||||
|
||||
**All four Office tiers carry identical track geometry.** Whistle Post, Depot, Station and Terminal
|
||||
print the same stubs in the same places, and differ only in Control Point status, Passenger Facility
|
||||
status, and A/D track count (§11.1). This matters because an upgrade replaces the card in place: any
|
||||
difference in geometry between tiers would strand the Secondary Track attached to the old card. An
|
||||
upgrade must never disturb a connection.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## 12. Components · **[Gap 4]**
|
||||
|
||||
*All counts provisional — calibration targets to retune after play.*
|
||||
|
||||
### 12.1 The Home Office deck — 52 cards
|
||||
|
||||
A single deck containing every card type. The three Department slots are face-up market slots fed
|
||||
from it, not decks with their own contents (§2.6).
|
||||
|
||||
| Category | Count | Detail |
|
||||
| --- | ---: | --- |
|
||||
| Timetabled Trains | 12 | One each, numbered 1–12 |
|
||||
| Extra Trains | 4 | X9, X10, X11, X12 |
|
||||
| Office upgrades | 9 | Depot ×4, Station ×3, Terminal ×2 |
|
||||
| Freight Facilities | 10 | 5 types × 2 |
|
||||
| Modifier Facilities | 5 | |
|
||||
| Plain track / turnouts | 12 | Turnout ×6, straight ×3, run-around ×3 |
|
||||
| **Total** | **52** | |
|
||||
|
||||
The track mix is turnout-heavy because turnouts are how Secondary Track branches onward once the
|
||||
Office card's own junction stubs (§11.3) are built out.
|
||||
|
||||
All twelve Timetabled Trains are in the deck: the Division starts with no trains running (§4), and a
|
||||
train becomes scheduled only when a player draws and plays its card (§7).
|
||||
|
||||
Office cards recirculate — upgrading Depot → Station sends the Depot to the Salvage Yard, and it
|
||||
returns on the next reshuffle. The Office pyramid (4/3/2) exists so the strict upgrade sequence
|
||||
(§11.1) does not strand players with nowhere to climb.
|
||||
|
||||
### 12.2 Fixed supplies (outside the deck)
|
||||
|
||||
| Component | Count |
|
||||
| --- | --- |
|
||||
| Mainline cards (tarot, 2 regions each) | N + 1 for N players |
|
||||
| Division Point cards | 2 (East, West) |
|
||||
| Whistle Post cards | N + spares |
|
||||
| Limits cards | 2N + spares |
|
||||
| Crew Trays and engines | **player count + 3** |
|
||||
| Number Boards | 12, numbered 1–12 |
|
||||
| Red Flag cards | 1 per player *(optional rule only)* |
|
||||
| Fedora | 1 |
|
||||
| Pocket Watch | 1 |
|
||||
| D12 | 1 |
|
||||
|
||||
Red Flag cards sit outside the 52 so the deck is identical whether or not the Emergency Toolbox
|
||||
optional rule is used, and are **removed from the game when played** rather than reshuffled — each
|
||||
player's flag is a single escape.
|
||||
|
||||
### 12.3 Rolling Stock — 62 pieces
|
||||
|
||||
Loaded and empty counts are paired because loading swaps a white car for a coloured one (§9.3).
|
||||
|
||||
| Type | Loaded | Empty |
|
||||
| --- | ---: | ---: |
|
||||
| Coaches (blue) | 8 | 8 |
|
||||
| Boxcars (brown) | 6 | 6 |
|
||||
| Hoppers (brown) | 6 | 6 |
|
||||
| Reefers (brown) | 4 | 4 |
|
||||
| Tank cars (brown) | 4 | 4 |
|
||||
| Cabooses (red) | 6 | — |
|
||||
| **Total** | | **62** |
|
||||
|
||||
### 12.4 Train consist criteria · **[Gap 4c]**
|
||||
|
||||
Odd numbers run westbound, even eastbound. Pairs are sister trains under the optional rule. Seniority
|
||||
runs passenger-first: low numbers are the varnish, high numbers the drags and locals. Order in every
|
||||
case is engine at the front, revenue cars, caboose last where required.
|
||||
|
||||
| Trains | Class | Consist |
|
||||
| --- | --- | --- |
|
||||
| 1 / 2 | Limited | 4 coaches, no caboose |
|
||||
| 3 / 4 | Mail-Express | 3 coaches, no caboose |
|
||||
| 5 / 6 | Manifest Freight | 3 boxcars or reefers + caboose |
|
||||
| 7 / 8 | Coal Drag | 3 hoppers + caboose |
|
||||
| 9 / 10 | Oil Train | 3 tank cars + caboose |
|
||||
| 11 / 12 | Way Freight | 3 cars of any type + caboose |
|
||||
| X9–X12 | Extra | Any 3 cars + caboose — the player who played it chooses |
|
||||
|
||||
Remember the four-slot Crew Tray limit includes the caboose, which is why no caboose train carries
|
||||
more than three revenue cars.
|
||||
|
||||
### 12.5 Card faces · **[Gap 10]**
|
||||
|
||||
What is printed on each individual card — freight facility profiles, passenger facility profiles,
|
||||
Modifier effects, and track geometries — is catalogued in
|
||||
**[`card-reference.md`](card-reference.md)**. Summary:
|
||||
|
||||
| Facility | Car | Direction | Laborers | Out | In | Track |
|
||||
| --- | --- | --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
|
||||
| Mine Tipple | Hopper | Outbound | 3 | 3 | — | 4 |
|
||||
| Produce Shed | Reefer | Outbound | 2 | 2 | — | 3 |
|
||||
| Grocer's Warehouse | Boxcar | Both | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
|
||||
| Oil Refinery | Tank | Both | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
|
||||
| Power Plant | Hopper | Inbound | 3 | — | 3 | 4 |
|
||||
|
||||
| Office | Porters | Green slots | Red slots |
|
||||
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: |
|
||||
| Depot | 1 | 2 | 2 |
|
||||
| Station | 2 | 3 | 3 |
|
||||
| Terminal | 3 | 4 | 4 |
|
||||
|
||||
| Modifier | Effect |
|
||||
| --- | --- |
|
||||
| Team Track | +1 car on the industry track |
|
||||
| Loading Dock | +1 green Outbound capacity |
|
||||
| Storage Shed | +1 red Inbound capacity |
|
||||
| Extra Platform | +1 green and +1 red slot (passenger) |
|
||||
| Section Gang | +1 Laborer or +1 Porter |
|
||||
|
||||
**"Freight House"** (§9.3, Appendix A) is not a card — it is the collective term for a freight
|
||||
facility that both loads and unloads, namely the Grocer's Warehouse and the Oil Refinery.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Appendix A: Local Switching
|
||||
|
||||
*Operational Rail* is any track card a train can stop and leave Rolling Stock (uncouple) on, marked
|
||||
with a train wheel icon.
|
||||
|
||||
During the Local Operations Phase you may operate your trains if you do not draw a card or work
|
||||
cargo. You have six Moves, splittable between trains. A Move is a train travelling from one
|
||||
Operational Rail card to another (regardless of distance) without changing direction.
|
||||
|
||||
### A.1 Turnouts
|
||||
|
||||
A train entering a turnout from "A" may proceed to B or C. A train entering through B or C may only
|
||||
proceed to A. There is no Operational Rail wheel icon on a turnout, so a train may not stop there.
|
||||
|
||||
> *Diagram (v0.1 §A.1, PDF p. 9):* "A" is the right-hand end of the horizontal track, "C" the
|
||||
> left-hand end of the same horizontal track, "B" the upper-right end of the diverging leg.
|
||||
|
||||
### A.2 Reachable squares in one Move
|
||||
|
||||
> *Diagram (v0.1 §A.2, PDF p. 10):* a 2×3 grid with four cards reachable in one Move from a Crew Tray
|
||||
> on the lower-right card. The upper-right card is unreachable, as getting there would require a
|
||||
> change of direction.
|
||||
|
||||
### A.3 Dropping and picking up cars
|
||||
|
||||
A train may drop off cars where it starts or while moving. Cars **must come off the train in the order
|
||||
they are seated in the Crew Tray.**
|
||||
|
||||
Engines also have couplers on the front end, so a train can pick cars up onto its nose and push them
|
||||
into a Facility, in the order they were in.
|
||||
|
||||
It is critical that cars are loaded into and unloaded from the Crew Tray, and occupy the track, in the
|
||||
same order they originally held, left-to-right.
|
||||
|
||||
### A.4 Special Rules
|
||||
|
||||
- While your Office Track is Operational Rail, Rolling Stock may not be dropped off there — there is a
|
||||
passenger platform, and switching there would be dangerous.
|
||||
- If two trains are operating in your station area, they may not share a card or move through each
|
||||
other.
|
||||
- The exception is your Office track, which has the number of A/D tracks listed (§11.1). As long as
|
||||
fewer trains are holding there than A/D tracks, you may enter and pass through.
|
||||
- If you move your Crew Tray into cars on your track, you **MUST** pick them up. You may not go around
|
||||
them.
|
||||
- A Crew Tray must always have an engine, and may move a maximum of four Rolling Stock — cabooses
|
||||
included **[Gap 4c]**.
|
||||
- You automatically couple to cars you meet during your Moves. The same is **not** true of trains
|
||||
arriving or departing in the Mainline Phase: those run at speed and are not expecting anything on the
|
||||
line. Any cars they encounter result in a collision (§8.3).
|
||||
|
||||
### A.5 Basic Switching Moves
|
||||
|
||||
Two basic moves: *trailing* (requiring a reverse move) and *facing* (harder, requiring you to push the
|
||||
cars in). Both worked examples use a 2×3 grid — A, B, C on the top row (C a Freighthouse), D, E, F on
|
||||
the bottom (E a Depot).
|
||||
|
||||
**Trailing point** — train on Card F, cars yellow, brown, blue, red, engine facing left:
|
||||
|
||||
1. Drop the back two cars (blue and red) on Card F. Move train to Card B.
|
||||
2. Reverse to Card C and drop the brown car.
|
||||
3. Move forward to Card B.
|
||||
4. Back up to Card F and collect the rest of your train.
|
||||
|
||||
**Facing point** — train on Card D, cars red, blue, brown, yellow, engine facing right. Possible only
|
||||
with a run-around (bypass) track in your Secondary Trackage:
|
||||
|
||||
1. Move to Card B, dropping red, blue and brown. Continue with the yellow to Card F.
|
||||
2. Back up via Card E to Card D.
|
||||
3. Move forward to Card B, collecting red, blue and brown on the nose. Push them into Card C, dropping
|
||||
the brown car.
|
||||
4. Back up and drop red and blue on Card B. Continue backing to Card D.
|
||||
5. Pull forward to Card F via Card E.
|
||||
6. Back up to Card B to rebuild your train (red, blue, yellow); continue to Card D to finish where you
|
||||
began. Note that this sixth Move ends your Local Operations Phase — if the next Mainline Phase has a
|
||||
train coming from the west or highballing from Card E westward, you may wish to remain clear of the
|
||||
Running Track.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Appendix B: Optional Rules
|
||||
|
||||
- **Reduced visibility.** The first three Stages (midnight through 4am) and the last two (8pm through
|
||||
10pm) are night operations. You get only five Moves in the Local Operations Phase during these
|
||||
Stages.
|
||||
- **"Sister" trains.** Trains run with counterparts — 1 & 2, 3 & 4, and so on. Pull all even train
|
||||
cards (2 through 12) from the deck and set them aside. When the companion odd-numbered train is
|
||||
drawn and played, bring the Sister Train in as well. Does not include Extras.
|
||||
- **Employee Rotation.** At the end of the Day, all players move one chair to the left and take over
|
||||
the next station up the line, taking their points and the Fedora with them.
|
||||
- **Emergency Toolbox.** Each player starts with a RED FLAG card, bringing his hand to four; he must
|
||||
play or discard down to three on his first turn. This allows more collisions to be avoided. **[Gap
|
||||
4a]** Red Flags come from a separate supply and are removed from the game when played, not
|
||||
reshuffled.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Appendix C: Turn Chart
|
||||
|
||||
Columns: Roll 1D12, Timetable (filled with Number Boards during play), Stage, then one column per
|
||||
Phase — Local Operations, New Train, Mainline, Load/Unload — and "Super" Shift Change.
|
||||
|
||||
| Roll 1D12 | Stage | Clock | Shift Change |
|
||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|
||||
| 1 | 1 | Midnight | |
|
||||
| 2 | 2 | 2:00 AM | |
|
||||
| 3 | 3 | 4:00 AM | Fedora |
|
||||
| 4 | 4 | 6:00 AM | |
|
||||
| 5 | 5 | 8:00 AM | |
|
||||
| 6 | 6 | 10:00 AM | Fedora |
|
||||
| 7 | 7 | Noon | |
|
||||
| 8 | 8 | 2:00 PM | |
|
||||
| 9 | 9 | 4:00 PM | Fedora |
|
||||
| 10 | 10 | 6:00 PM | |
|
||||
| 11 | 11 | 8:00 PM | |
|
||||
| 12 | 12 | 10:00 PM | Fedora |
|
||||
|
||||
Stage cells are colour-coded for daylight — deep blue at Midnight warming to yellow at 6:00 AM, pale
|
||||
blue through midday, red at 6:00 PM, deep blue again by 10:00 PM. The colouring is informational and
|
||||
aligns with the Reduced Visibility optional rule; it has no mechanical effect.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Change log from v0.1
|
||||
|
||||
| Gap | Change | Sections |
|
||||
| --- | --- | --- |
|
||||
| 1 | Phases resolve phase-major, players in Superintendent-then-left order within a phase | §5 |
|
||||
| 2 | Collisions are automatic; train-on-cars is a full collision; no A/D room is a collision; Whistle Post highball clarified | §8.1, §8.3, §10 |
|
||||
| 3 | Office upgrades: cards played from hand, strict sequence, A/D counts 1/2/3/4 | §11.1 |
|
||||
| 4 | 52-card deck, piece counts, 2-region Mainline cards, train consist criteria, grid-based Office Area | §2.1, §11.2, §12 |
|
||||
| 5 | Timetabled trains outrank Extras on a number tie | §8 |
|
||||
| 6 | Mode × victory-condition matrix, collision floor, collective Revenue floor | §3 |
|
||||
| 7 | Load/Unload Phase; "the Stage ends"; Salvage Yard; turn → Stage | throughout |
|
||||
| 8 | Office cards carry junction stubs above and below; all four tiers share identical geometry; track mix 6/3/3 | §11.1, §11.3, §12.1 |
|
||||
| 9 | The New Train make-up round repeats until the consist is full | §7 |
|
||||
| 10 | Card face specifications: freight and passenger facility profiles, Modifier effects, "Freight House" defined; §3 targets lowered to 10/20/45 | §3.2, §9, §12.5, `card-reference.md` |
|
||||
|
||||
Gaps 8 and 9 were found by a verification walkthrough of one full Stage against v0.2 and the
|
||||
architecture model, not by reading the original PDFs. Neither question arises in tabletop play, where
|
||||
a person simply does the sensible thing.
|
||||
Reference in New Issue
Block a user