Player Objective

Areas of Focus & Responsibility

The spreadsheet displayed above shows which tasks each class would focus on (generally speaking). Note: these are not communicated to the player but are simply guides towards the design of each Class when balancing the cost/payoff/time of each task.

Each Character has a varying amount of tasks marked as 'High Priority', 'Medium Priority' and 'Low Priority'. This table represents a preliminary spread, and testing and balancing would be required to determine the best distribution.

What is readily apparent is that the Conductor and Mechanic Classes seem to have a lot more 'High Priority' tasks than the other classes. However this doesn't reflect the reality of the situation as the tasks which the Mechanic and Conductor would be prioritizing are mostly simply tasks which would take a short amount of time and be repeated often in a routine or pattern. The Medic, as well, has a high number of Medium Priority tasks in comparison to other classes: this reflects that aside from creating Medical supplies the Medic would fulfil a more utilitarian role by assisting other Classes while they have downtime. There is no reason for them to focus on Healing, for instance, if nobody is injured.

With this in mind the classes can be split into three rough categories.

• Gatherer, currently comprised of the Hunter and Miner

  • These Classes have less overlap with other Classes in terms of their areas of focus as their primary activities will involve heading out into the area surrounding the Train while in a Local Map to gather as many supplies as possible.

  • On some maps with less of the Resource they are focused on collecting, or if there is a large surplus of their specialty Resource, Gatherers will most likely transition into supporting the other Gatherer players or performing tasks using/converting Resources at the Train

• Housekeeper, currently the Mechanic and Conductor

  • These two Classes have a higher number of 'High Priority' tasks, almost all of which take place either near or within the Train Cars.

  • These Classes would ideally establish rhythmic routines centered around when the Gatherers drop off supplies: they would perform maintenance, logistical or gathering tasks nearby while waiting for the Resources required for converting one Resource into another (if they have a surplus of the Resource required) then switch to producing/converting Resources one raw Resources are delivered.

  • The Conductor differs slightly here in that all of the Level Exit Gate related tasks - Gather Special Resource, Gather/Deliver Tax Resource and Solve Puzzle - are all 'High Priority'. Technically these tasks are all somewhere between 'High Priority' and 'Medium Priority' for all Classes, being the first thing any Class with downtime or no 'High Priority' tasks available should immediately think of doing.

• Support, currently the Medic and Cook

  • These Classes overlap a lot with the Housekeepers by having some 'High Priority' tasks which keep them on or near the Train Cars.

  • Without any interruption, however, both these classes will quickly find they have nothing on their 'High Priority' which actually needs immediately tending to.

    • Example: The Medic has Healing (Self), Healing (Others) and Create Medical Supplies as their highest priority tasks. But if Characters are mostly avoiding damage there will be nobody to heal and the Medical Supplies will begin stacking up.

    • At this point the Medic would be better served transitioning to assisting another Class with one of their High Priority tasks, or performing the Level Exit Gate oriented tasks such as Gather Special Resource or Deliver Tax Resource.

Overall the intent is that depending on the circumstances created by the Local Map Biome and prior events the overall importance of any given task can shift and, if it's one of the High Priority tasks for your Class, the importance of your role is elevated temporarily.

For example if the players enter a Local Map which has Cooked Food as the Tax Resource requirement for the Level Exit Gate, both the Hunter and the Cook Class are suddenly more 'important' as their primary area of focus is immediately contributing to being able to get out of the Local Map in a timely fashion.

Alternatively a scenario could arise in which the preceding 2x maps were abundant with Metal and the players have managed to stockpile a large amount of that resource. The latest Local Map could then be low on Metal and require a Puzzle to be solved before the Train can leave. The Miner's primary area of focus is not a priority in this map, and they would then transition to performing a lower priority task - either gathering Wood (note: Wood may not be a Resource which gets used...) or contributing to solving the Puzzle.

Throughout all the Local Map instances the players must be constantly assessing what their highest priority as a team is and working together to allocate their efforts in the most effective areas to get the best results possible.

Arrive. Explore and Collect Resources. Refuse to Elaborate. Leave.

Upon arrival in a new Local Map, the Train stops and players are able to leave the Train. They then have free reign of the Local Map to collect their job-specific Resources - such as Wood, Iron , Raw Food, etc. - using job-specific Tools. They can also convert the Resources collected into other Resources, such as Raw Food into Cooked Food or uses Tools to perform other tasks such as Healing other Characters or restoring Condition to Tools and Train Cars.

Some players will be given the task of gathering Resources, others to converting those Resources into something that can be used by other Characters, and then those who perform the 'final' tasks for those Resources. For example: the 'Miner' collects Metal in the world, the mechanic turns it into usable Iron and the chef uses the new Iron to repair their Cooking Tool.

Each Local Map will have some kind of objective to complete, such as gathering a specific amount of a Special Resource, interacting with Puzzle Stations to solve a team-based Puzzle or paying a Resource Tax. Once this objective is met the players will unlock the Level Exit Gate and be able to return to the World Map to select a connected Local Map to move on to.

Entropy and the Endgame State

Ultimately, the players cannot achieve the overall goal of surviving indefinitely. Over time their acquisition of Resources will be outstripped by the demands of maintaining Train Cars/Tools and Character Health/Hunger. They will first begin to need to make sacrifices of one form or another - neglecting Hunger to obtain enough Metal to keep the Train Cars going or enough Special Resource to exit the current Local Map before the Fog kills them. Likewise, each time the Train returns to a Local Map it will have only partially recovered it's resources, and the recovery of its resources will decline until it becomes a barren waste with nothing to offer the Characters. The rate of deterioration of Health, Hunger and Train Car Condition will accelerate until the Train breaks down or the players find themselves in a Local Map with no resources.

At this point the game will move into an End State Scenario in which the players are offered some choices for their continued survival - emergency measures which will keep the Train going at a huge cost. Alternatively they can Abandon the Train, which is an option only presented once the game registers that the Local Map they are in is barren and the Train cannot move. Otherwise this option to end the campaign isn't available: only Quit or losing through all Characters dying.

If the Abandon the Train option is chosen the players receive the 'Good Ending', in which their Characters set off into the (presumed) inhospitable landscape beyond the train tracks. Instead of an apocalyptic wasteland they instead find a land slowly recovering from the desolation of the Fog. It's revealed that it was the Train itself - specifically, the technology it used - which 'attracted' the Fog, and by trying to use that technology to escape the Fog the Characters were making things worse.

(This isn't a message about environmentalism.)