Four-Corner HUD
v3 layout. Everything the player needs sits in one top row, read left to right: the bag (Tab) with party health directly under it (A–G, the row under Tab), mirroring the open bag (cargo on top, party below); a hot bar to its right (Q–T, right of Tab: Pace, Rations, Rest, Hunt, Talk & trade); and the right-aligned status bar (weather, wind, time, next landmark; [ ] P under it). The bottom of the screen belongs to the world and its clues. A small spiral scratch pad peeks up at the bottom middle-right and slides up on N (M for the map page), or on its own at a decision. Hotkey letters are a layer you can switch off, or let retire after 5 uses. Click the scene, then try the keys; J is a demo river crossing.
The keyboard is a map of the screen
Each key's physical position matches where its UI lives. Players learn the layout once, with their eyes and their fingers. Letters stay mnemonic where they can (N for notebook, M for map), and numbers are always choices.
What lives where
Bag Tab
Collapsed: cargo weight against 2,000 lb and days of food left. Open: the cargo grid and each person's role and carried tool. The trail keeps moving behind it.
Party A S D F G
Five heads with health pips and status glyphs, directly under the bag, in the same order as the party cards inside it. The key opens that person's page on the pad. The strip flashes when someone's health moves.
Hot bar Q–T
Pace (with speed pips), Rations (with level pips), Rest, Hunt, and Talk & trade (dimmed away from forts). Hover or press a key to see the name and current setting. Numbers are reserved for choices, so a key never changes meaning.
Status bar [ ] P
Always visible and right-aligned: weather, wind, date and time, next landmark (plus food, money and oxen when there's room). Time speed and pause sit under it, with the weather-hint chip beside them.
Scratch pad N M
A small spiral-bound pad that peeks up from the bottom middle-right. Pages: today's diary, the trail map, a person's page, and decisions (a river sketch, numbered choices, risk chips).
Ground level
Nothing but the world: the party, the wagon, and clues like the berry bush's glint and hawks circling over game.
Weather hints: read the sky
Weather never just happens. It is foreshadowed in the world first, then in the status bar, then it arrives. Attentive players (and Scouts) get more warning; Phase 2 almanac cards push the hints earlier still. Try the Storm building state: the wind swings west, the grass leans, a front piles up on the western horizon, the barometer falls, and the chip escalates.
| Stage | In the world | In the HUD | Lead time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 · Shift | Grass leans the other way, dust and pollen drift west, the wagon's bonnet ripples | Wind arrow flips; mph rises | ~5–10 min real time (a day or so on the trail) |
| 2 · Build | A cloud bank grows very slowly on one horizon; the light cools | Chip: "Clouds building in the west"; barometer falling | ~3–5 min |
| 3 · Warn | A rain curtain under the front, distant flicker | Chip turns red: "Storm coming · about 3 min" | ~1–3 min |
| 4 · Arrive | Rain, lightning, flash-lit scene, oxen skittish | Chip blinks; the notebook offers choices if it's severe | — |
| Major event | Tell | Counterplay | If you ignore it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm | West wind, anvil clouds | Make camp, cover the canvas | Soaked food spoils; lightning can spook the oxen |
| Hailstorm (severe) | Green-tinged sky, sudden cold | Shelter the oxen under the wagon's lee | Injured oxen, torn bonnet |
| Tornado (catastrophic) | Eerie calm, low rotating cloud, the wind dies | Unhitch, get people low in a ravine | Wagon destroyed, deaths possible |
| Prairie fire (catastrophic) | Smoke smudge on the horizon, ash, glowing night sky | Burn a firebreak, or reach a river | Supplies and oxen lost |
| Flash flood | Storms upstream; a river rising at the next crossing | Cross early, or wait it out on high ground | The ford becomes impassable; drowning risk |
| Blizzard (severe) | Late season, a grey wall in the mountains, the temperature crashing | Push through the pass early, or winter over at a fort | Frostbite, lost days, deaths |
| Dust storm and heat wave | Haze, a copper sky, still air | Travel at night, ration water | Exhaustion, lame oxen |
Away-from-game (D6): standing orders can include weather rules ("make camp at stage 3"). With guard dogs, catastrophes can still cost supplies but never lives while you're away.
Roles and carried tools
The player assigns a role to each party member at the outfitting step. The leader's occupation (Banker, Carpenter or Farmer, as in the original) stays separate and still sets money and the score multiplier. Each role comes with one carried tool; lose the person and you lose the tool. These hook directly into Phase 2's trigger/modifier layer.
| Role | Tool | What it does (Phase 1) | Phase 2 hook |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carpenter | Hand saw | Repairs a broken wheel, axle or tongue without a spare (it takes a day) | on:part_broken → repair chance |
| Healer | Remedy satchel | Shortens illness, better odds against cholera and dysentery | on:illness_start → duration ×0.6 |
| Hunter | Rifle | Fewer bullets per kill, can carry back more than the 100 lb limit | hunt.carry +50 |
| Scout | Spyglass | Warns of lost or rough trail and reads river depth a day early | on:segment_start → reveal |
| Teamster | Ox goad | Oxen tire more slowly and are less likely to be injured at Grueling pace | oxen.fatigue ×0.75 |
Rules that keep it modern
Centre is sacred
No UI in the middle band except in-world cues (signs, depth pole, thought bubbles). The vista is the game's selling point.
Glance, then expand
Every corner has a collapsed widget of at most 200×44 at native size and an expanded state limited to its own quadrant (the bag may reach about 50% of the width).
One panel language
Dark walnut glass (the scene blended with Apollo navy), a 1px outline, a brass rivet at each corner, gold labels, white body text. Parchment is kept for the journal and diary only.
Keys everywhere
Every widget shows its key, and every choice is numbered. Controller mapping: shoulder buttons cycle the corners.