Phase 1 design · encounters · mockup

Trail Encounters

Four sample vignettes the party meets between checkpoints. Each one shows up in the world first (a listing wagon, vultures over a wreck, a marker by the ruts, a flag on the skyline). Then the scratch pad slides up with the decision: numbered choices, risk chips, and the party role or tool that opens a better option. HUD v3 stays on screen throughout. The Talk & trade slot on the hot bar only lights up at the fort. Click the scene, then use ← → to switch vignettes, 1–5 to pick, Space to decide and N to fold the pad.

Vignette
← → switch · 1–5 choose · Space decide · N pad

The four encounters

IBroken axle

Trigger
A part-failure roll once per travel day. The odds rise with Grueling pace (×2), rough-trail segments, a load over 1,800 lb and wet ground, so drizzle and ruts make it likelier. Weights pick the part: wheel 50%, axle 30%, tongue 20%. The wagon lists, and the pad opens with the part already named.
Role / tool that changes it
Carpenter's hand saw: repair without a spare, 1 day, and no part used. A spare axle takes half a day. The Scout spots passing outfits farther off, so "flag down a wagon" shows up more often. The Teamster halves the odds at Grueling pace. Lose Ezra and option 1 disappears for good.
Phase 2 hook
on:part_broken → repair chance and time modifiers (a "Wheelwright's apprentice" card halves the time). Knowledge-gated: after an axle has broken in any run, "Check the running gear" unlocks at forts as a pre-emptive roll.

IIAbandoned wagon

Trigger
Drawn from a per-segment derelict table, weighted up after the forts, where outfits historically lightened their loads. It appears as a world clue about 40 s before the halt: circling vultures, then the silhouette. The party only stops if the wreck is within about 40 yards of the road. Anything farther just scrolls past.
Role / tool that changes it
Scout's spyglass: Ada calls it out early (the HUD chip) and can read the warning board from the road. Healer's remedy satchel: Mary searches it gloved and burns the bedding, which drops the sickness risk from RISKY to LOW. Carpenter: salvaging a wheel takes 1 hour instead of 3.
Phase 2 hook
Item-gated loot tables. A wreck can hold unlock items such as a diary page or a map fragment, which grant knowledge unlocks. on:derelict_found; consumable modifiers ("Vinegar & lye": search risk ×0.5).

IIIA tombstone from another run

Trigger
When someone in your party dies, you write the epitaph (60 characters, filtered). The marker is saved at the mile where they died in a shared pool. Each run draws 0–2 markers per segment. Your own past graves always appear, and friends' and well-tended graves are weighted up.
How it persists
Every "pay respects" adds a stone to the cairn, so a well-visited grave visibly grows. Tokens (flowers, a coin, a ribbon) stack on the marker. Markers weather and fade after a real year unless someone tends them. Report and hide are one key each.
Role / tool · Phase 2 hook
No tool needed. Morale rises more if the dead shared a name or role with someone living (the joke writes itself). Knowledge: read 5 graves at one river and the almanac card for that crossing unlocks. on:grave_read.

IVFort Kearney

Trigger
A fixed checkpoint at mile 304. The wagon always stops here, even while you're away, and waiting costs money after the first free day. Arriving lights the Talk & trade slot (T), which is dimmed on open trail.
Role / tool that changes it
Prices are +25% over Independence and compound at each fort, as in the original. When you talk, each role hears different rumours: the Scout hears trail conditions, the Healer hears who is sick ahead, and the Teamster hears about grass and water.
Phase 2 hook
Activity-gated: fort price boards feed the hidden logistics game (buy low at Kearney, sell at Laramie). A player notice board carries async notes between runs. on:fort_arrive.

Encounter pacing

Per trail segment

There are about 16 segments of 40–200 miles each. Every segment has one fixed checkpoint (fort, river or landmark), 1–3 minor events that standing orders resolve and the diary logs, and about one decision encounter every 60–90 trail miles (roughly every 3–5 minutes of real time at normal speed). Decisions never come within 2 minutes of each other, and severe weather counts against the same budget. Tombstones are extra: 0–2 per segment, optional, and never a forced halt.

Decision (pad opens)Minor (diary only)Grave (optional stop)Checkpoint

While you're away

Standing orders resolve encounters: repairs use the Carpenter first, skip wrecks that carry a warning, pay respects at graves. Each result becomes a journal entry on the scratch pad, with an icon, the mile and the cost, and the pad's corner blinks "New entry" when you return. Anything the orders don't cover waits at the next checkpoint. Deaths can only come from conditions already underway (dogs prevent even those). Try the While away view.

Open questions

  1. Named or anonymous graves? Showing the other player's handle ("Laid by mapleleaf") makes graves feel shared, but it adds moderation and privacy cost. Should names default to anonymous, with friends' graves named?
  2. Can the warning board lie? If boards are always true there's no tension. If they're often false, players learn to ignore them. Maybe a small false-alarm rate that only the Healer can see through?
  3. Breakdowns while away: should a broken part stop the wagon on the spot, like a checkpoint, or should standing orders always repair it (costing the day either way) so the wagon still reaches the fort?