Wiki / mechanics / map-and-territory
Roaming crews & locals
Status: Draft. Live in the sandbox campaign. Every number on this page is TEMP: they are first guesses that are still being tuned.
Two kinds of people live outside the outfits' towns. Roaming crews are landless gangs with a price on their heads: they wander, grow, stop you on the road for a toll and rob anyone they beat. Locals are contacts who turn up in towns you claim: do what one asks and he joins you.
How you use it
- Watch the map for roaming crews. The strip under a crew's badge shows its bounty, coloured by how a fight would go for you.
- When your people meet a crew, you'll get a standoff: pay the toll, shake them down, or fight. A crew that's scared of you can be let go.
- To collect a bounty, send a commander to hunt the crew and fight it when he gets there.
- When a local turns up in a town you've claimed, hear him out. Do what he asks (pay, build, research, beat a crew, or play through his story) and he joins you free.
How it works
Where crews come from
| Rule |
Live |
| Day one |
Each gang seat has a crew camped next to it. On day one every one of them is turned loose as a roaming crew, and its town goes back to neutral |
| New crews |
Every 30 days, 2 new crews camp on a neutral town next to someone's land, up to 12 live crews of each tier |
| Tiers by date |
Later crews come in harder: tier 2 from day 150, tier 3 from day 300, tier 4 from day 450. The log says "a harder crew is camping near …" |
| Who's in one |
Its boss, a random small pack of tier 1 men, and a second-in-command: a friend of the boss, a step stronger than him |
| Land |
None. A crew has no towns and no income, only its purse |
What a crew does
| Rule |
Live |
| Roaming |
It rests about 30 days, then walks to a neutral town within 3 road hops of its camp. It steers around armies it couldn't beat |
| Growing |
Left alone for 120 days, it climbs a tier: more men, a bigger purse and a bigger bounty, up to the top tier. Any fight restarts the clock |
| Coming for you |
At the end of a rest there's a 35% chance it marches on the nearest army within 6 hops that it beats by 1.25×. It goes after the same outfit at most once every 90 days, and never after one that paid it. You get a warning with the boss's face: where, how many days out, and the bounty |
| Robbing |
A crew that beats you robs: it takes its toll (×1.5 if it outnumbers you) out of your cash. It never kills or captures your people |
The bounty on the map
| Strip colour |
Means |
| Pale |
You'd win |
| Gold |
An even fight |
| Red |
They'd win, and they come for armies like yours |
The colour is measured against the army you have selected, or your strongest if none is. Hovering a crew shows "wanted $…".
Meeting a crew
Whenever your people share a town with a crew you aren't hunting, whoever moved, the crew's mood decides what happens:
| Mood |
When |
What happens |
| Scared |
You have 1.5× their men, or their boss fears your outfit |
They back off: shake them down, let them go, or fight |
| Bully |
They have 1.5× your men |
A standoff, with a 1.5× toll |
| Even |
Anything else |
If they've met you before and their boss doesn't dislike yours, they wave you through. Otherwise it's a standoff. A crew you've never met always stops you |
In a standoff your army is held: it can't march on until you choose.
| Choice |
Result |
| Pay |
$300 × the crew's tier (×1.5 for a bully). Your whole outfit may pass for 60 days |
| Shake them down |
A dice roll (below). Pass: they hand over half their bounty (as much as they have) and you may pass for 60 days. Fail: it's a fight on the spot |
| Fight |
A field battle, right there |
The shake-down roll: two dice + your commander's best of Muscle or Charm above 5 + a size step + 1 for every 5 levels your boss has, needing 9. The size step compares his men with theirs: +2 at 4× or more, +1 at 2×, 0 at 0.75×, −1 at 0.5×, −2 below that. Double 1s always fail and double 6s always pass. The odds show on the option before you pick.
Beating a crew
| Rule |
Live |
| Hunt |
Pick a commander and a crew. He marches after it along neutral roads or your own, and arriving opens a sit-down where you can fight |
| Win |
The crew's bounty in cash, +20 Respect for your commander, and a piece of loot (knife, baton or pistol). Their boss may be taken prisoner |
| Their boss |
If he's killed or taken, the second-in-command takes over (now stronger). You're told who took over and who killed the old boss. The crew then moves to a new camp 8–12 road hops from you |
| A captive |
A captured crew boss has no outfit to go back to. You can ask him to join you; he may say no |
Locals
| Rule |
Live |
| When |
On your first claim and on every third claim after it, a local contact turns up in the town you just claimed |
| His trade |
Business, Muscle, Cunning or Charm, in turn |
| His scene |
He opens with a short scene the first time. After that, open him from the town card, the journal or the map pin. Later pins him on the map |
| What he asks |
About one in three play a short story with dice checks. The rest ask a deed (table below) |
| He joins |
Free, once the deed is done or the story ends well. He takes a roster seat as a capo, and his town goes up one level if it isn't already at the top |
| Reward |
A deed pays +30 Respect and +10 Influence. A story pays +10 Respect, plus whatever its checks pay |
| It can fail |
A story can end with him walking out, and he won't talk again for 180 days. If he dies, the ask fails. If the town changes hands, the ask goes with it |
| His trade |
Deeds he may ask |
| Business |
Pay him $2,500, or raise an Office or Casino in his town |
| Muscle |
Beat the strongest roaming crew within 6 hops, or bring an item of Earner grade or better |
| Cunning |
Research a node, or bring an item of Earner grade or better |
| Charm |
Raise a Neighbourhood or Strip Club in his town |
If none of his deeds can be set, he asks for the $2,500. Story checks use the same dice as the shake-down: two dice + your boss's points above 5 in the stat, against a target.
Numbers (all TEMP)
| Number |
Value |
Where |
| New crews |
2 every 30 days, up to 12 per tier |
expeditions.roam_spawn_days, roam_spawn_count, roam_max_per_tier |
| Tiers (from day · purse · bounty) |
0 · $3,000 · $2,000 / 150 · $5,000 · $3,500 / 300 · $8,000 · $6,000 / 450 · $12,000 · $9,000 |
expeditions.roam_tiers |
| Rest, wander radius |
30 days, 3 hops |
settlement_economy.roam_days, roam_radius |
| Growth |
One tier per 120 days left alone |
expeditions.roam_grow_days |
| Coming for you |
35% chance, within 6 hops, needs 1.25× power, once per 90 days per outfit |
expeditions.roam_raid_chance, roam_raid_hops, roam_raid_margin, roam_raid_gap_days |
| New camp after losing its boss |
8–12 hops away |
settlement_economy.roam_leave_hops |
| Toll |
$300 × tier; ×1.5 for a bully |
diplomacy_m2.toll_per_tier, toll_bully_mult |
| Free road after paying |
60 days |
diplomacy_m2.toll_days |
| Moods |
Scared at 1.5× your men, bully at 1.5× theirs, wave-through at opinion 0 or better |
diplomacy_m2.toll_scared_ratio, toll_bully_ratio, toll_even_pass_opinion |
| Shake-down |
Needs 9; +1 per 5 boss levels; takes 50% of the bounty |
diplomacy_m2.shake_target, shake_rep_levels, shakedown_share |
| Win |
Bounty + 20 Respect + one loot item |
expeditions.roam_tiers, settlement_economy.loot_respect, loot_items |
| Locals |
First claim, then every 3rd |
expeditions.contact_every_claims |
| Story chance |
34% |
locals.rp_chance |
| Deed reward |
+30 Respect, +10 Influence (story: +10 Respect) |
locals.quest_respect, quest_influence, rp_respect |
| Pay deed |
$2,500 |
locals.pay_cash |
| Walk-out wait |
180 days |
locals.walk_days |
See also
Locked vs leftover
| Locked (document this) |
Leftover / do not claim |
| Crews hold no land and roam near a camp |
Hideouts as towns you attack and take |
| Crews rob; they never kill or capture |
Losing men to a crew that beat you |
| Toll standoff: pay, shake down or fight; let a scared crew go |
A free walk-away from a standoff |
| Crews grow when left alone and come for armies they can beat |
Crews that never change |
| A beaten crew's second takes over and the crew moves far away |
A fresh crew respawning on the same spot |
| A local joins free once his ask is met |
A signing fee for locals |
| In the sandbox a local raises his town a level |
A local bringing a new business into the town |
Sources
src/systems/expeditions.gd, src/systems/locals.gd, src/systems/frontier.gd, src/systems/battle.gd (crews rob), src/ui/tabs/map_tab.gd (the bounty strip), data/local_events.json, data/config.json (expeditions, locals, diplomacy_m2, settlement_economy, squads.roamer_packs)