Jesse.MarkowitzandClaude Fable 5.1
04ca74c365
The third release from the audit; nothing a player sees changes. CHANGELOG has the detail. The 0.4.9 playtest line is no longer maintained (Jesse, 2026-09-29): the deploy rule that existed for it is gone and #85 is moot. The table test (#39 #35 #42a #40) is closed — every line of the checklist was met at a table. #46 is done and cannot regrow: the 36 unused declarations are removed and `noUnusedLocals`/`noUnusedParameters` are on; two of them were dead bot functions from rejected candidates the round said it had deleted. The documents no longer teach `trainCapSlack` (a knob that throws), point at `as-built.md` (deleted in 0.8.2), model `officeType` (the engine says `tier`) or describe `collisionOccurred` (never emitted); the README's account of bot flags now matches the bot's. Five playtest saves committed in `docs/` against the repository's own rule are in the ignored `playtests/`. What the audit found and did not fix is written down as TODO #112-#117, each with its reason. #112 is `docs/plans/structure.md`, the proposal for `http.ts`, `main.ts` and `check`. #117 — `/api/save` hands a seat the seed mid-game — waits on a conversation. Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01FrCWubm9GAftYCm2hWdKwK
119 lines
6.4 KiB
Markdown
119 lines
6.4 KiB
Markdown
# Station Master — Components and Markers
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**Version 0.8.5** · 2026-09-29
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**Scope:** non-card physical components and supplies. Card-created facilities, workers, deck piles,
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hand state, timetable state and other markers are documented with their cards or in the
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[rules book](rules.md).
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The figures below are checked against `ROLLING_STOCK_SUPPLY` and the supply constants in
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`src/engine/content.ts`. They are physical inventory rather than deck tuning, which is why they are
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printed here at all — per-category CARD counts are not published, because they move with play balance.
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## Rolling stock
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Rolling stock has a type and a load state. In the interface, coloured cars are loaded and white cars are empty. The Division Yard starts with the following supply.
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| Type | Loaded | Empty | Total | Use |
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| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | --- |
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| Coach | 8 | 8 | 16 | Passenger work. |
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| Boxcar | 10 | 10 | 20 | Freight House outbound/inbound; Grocer’s Warehouse inbound. |
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| Hopper | 8 | 8 | 16 | Mine Tipple outbound; Power Plant inbound. |
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| Reefer | 5 | 5 | 10 | Packing Sheds outbound; Grocer’s Warehouse inbound. |
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| Tank car | 6 | 6 | 12 | Refinery outbound; Power Plant inbound. |
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| Caboose | 6 | 0 | 6 | Required or permitted at the rear of the applicable train cards. |
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| **Total** | **43** | **35** | **78** | |
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The engine is not rolling stock and does not count against the four-car Crew Tray limit.
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## Other supplies
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| Component | Count | Note |
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| --- | ---: | --- |
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| Crew Trays | players + 3 | Engine and tray are one combined resource; there is no "engine without a tray". |
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| Office cards | 4 | Every player starts on one. The starting Office is not drawn from the deck. |
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| Limits signs | 8 | "2N + spares", so relocating one is never a supply question. |
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## The two yards
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### Division Yard
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The Division Yard is the active supply. It provides:
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- loaded cars to a Freight Agent stocking a green outbound box;
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- empty cars for building up trains;
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- an empty coach when passengers detrain; and
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- an empty matching freight car when a loaded freight car begins unloading.
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When a train completes a run or is destroyed, its caboose returns to the Division Yard. When a car is taken from the Division Yard and that yard has become entirely empty, every car from the Classification Yard moves back into the Division Yard immediately.
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### Classification Yard
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The Classification Yard collects used rolling stock: cars displaced by boarding passengers, cars
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cleared from inbound red boxes, cars removed by unjamming a facility, ordinary cars from completed
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or destroyed trains, and empty cars replaced by a completed outbound freight load. It is not a
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player-selectable source. It returns to service only when the Division Yard is empty.
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> **This is a one-way ratchet for COACHES, and it decides games.** Boarding sends an emptied coach
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> here; detraining takes a fresh empty out of the *Division* Yard. Nothing returns a coach to the
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> Division Yard except the bare-yard refill — and a yard kept topped up with freight cars returning
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> from industries may never run bare. Measured over one three-Day game, every coach was here by the
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> middle of Day 2 and stayed. See [Rules](rules.md) §4.6.
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## Crew Trays and trains
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Crew Trays represent an engine and its coupled consist. The game creates **players + 3** free trays at setup. A tray is scarce: a due train without a free tray is held for that Stage, and Extras wait until one becomes free.
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Within a tray, the engine can pull, push, or be between cars while switching. To depart an Office for the Mainline, it must be made up with the engine at an outer end; if it has a caboose, the caboose must be at the opposite outer end. A train may have at most four cars. A scheduled train can run under-strength but never with more than its card allows.
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## Fedora
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The **Fedora** is the physical marker for the Superintendent. The player with it resolves
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following-train clearance decisions, takes the Yard Office and Red Flag questions, and is the player
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every round round the table starts with. A Mainline collision is their fault by §10, and costs 5
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Revenue. The initial holder is the first player tied for the highest Superintendent setup D12 roll.
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It passes at the end of Stages 3, 6, 9 and 12 — every third Stage, at the Supervisor Shift. The
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handover is **announced on screen and written into the history**: it is the one thing in the game
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that changes hands on the clock rather than because somebody did something, so nobody is watching
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for it. Note that the Supervisor Shift refreshes every Laborer and Porter *every* Stage
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while the Fedora moves only every third.
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## D12 and seeded randomness
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The D12 is used by the engine for:
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- the initial seating roll in a multi-player engine game;
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- the initial Superintendent roll;
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- a timetabled train’s timetable slot; and
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- all shuffled deck order and automatic setup selection through the same seeded random stream.
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The rules engine uses a deterministic 32-bit seeded random generator. The same numeric seed, player configuration, house rules, and accepted intent sequence reconstruct the same game. A seed by itself is not enough when house rules differ.
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## The Office, tier by tier
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Every player has one Office card. It is a property of the district rather than a card that is
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swapped, so an upgrade raises the numbers in place and leaves anything built beside it alone.
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| Office | A/D tracks | Porters | Passengers out / in | Control Point |
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| --- | ---: | ---: | --- | :---: |
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| Whistle Post | 1 | 0 | 0 / 0 | — |
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| Depot | 2 | 1 | 1 / 1 | yes |
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| Station | 3 | 2 | 2 / 2 | yes |
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| Terminal | 4 | 3 | 3 / 3 | yes |
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**A/D tracks are what decide whether an arrival is a collision.** A train pulling in to an Office
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with every track occupied collides (§8.3) unless an **Interlocking** holds it out on the Limit
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Track. A train held that way takes the first track to free, ahead of anything arriving after it.
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**A Whistle Post is not a Passenger Facility.** It has no Porters and no passenger boxes, so nobody
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boards or gets off there however well the district is built, and the passenger Modifiers — Waiting
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Area, Restaurant, Hotel — cannot be played at one.
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**A Control Point divides the Mainline into Subdivisions**, which is what §8.1 reasons about. A
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table of Whistle Posts is one Subdivision from end to end; every upgrade splits one in two and buys
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the Division capacity.
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**Games open on a Depot** unless the table turns on "Players start with Whistle Posts, not Depots"
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when the game is created. See the Home deck reference.
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