Add role ladder (glassie/bartender/doorgirl/bouncer/DJ) to design + role-agnostic sim rule

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
type-two 2026-07-19 15:58:03 +10:00
parent 5086a325d8
commit 92e370e8c3
2 changed files with 48 additions and 9 deletions

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@ -77,6 +77,17 @@ Archetypes, scripted moral encounters, inspector, incident report memory, regula
venues 24, real pixel art swapped into the paper-doll layer slots, MODELBEAST-
assisted art generation if useful.
### Phase 4 — The role ladder (design §6; future, do not start)
Glassie, bartender, DJ roles + roster board. Not scoped yet — but it imposes ONE
rule on every earlier phase: **the simulation is role-agnostic.** Crowd sim, patron
state, meters, and incidents must never assume the player is security — the player
is just an entity with a verb-set reading shared state. If you're about to hard-code
"the player" into a sim system (e.g. "patrons only get cut off by the player"),
model it as an actor capability instead (NPC staff already need this — Kayden works
the door while you're on the floor). The DJ role will drive the TechnoEngine
directly, so LANE-JUICE keeps track parameters (BPM, layer intensities) externally
settable rather than hard-coded.
## 4. Coordination protocol (all lanes)
1. **Branches:** each lane works on `lane/<name>` (e.g. `lane/door`), pushed to

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@ -162,25 +162,53 @@ The unreliable authority you serve.
mocking. The kebab shop across the road is visible all night and is the true
moral centre of the game.
## 6. Progression
## 6. Roles & career mode
Venues as levels, nights as rounds (Thu → Fri → Sat per venue):
**Structural principle: the venue is ONE simulation; a role is a lens + verb-set
over it.** Patrons are role-agnostic data wandering the crowd sim; each role is a
scene that reads the same state with different permissions. The career ladder
doubles as the tutorial — each role teaches one system before the endgame role
demands them all. NPC staff work whichever roles you aren't (competence varies —
see Kayden).
1. **The Royal (dive bar).** Tutorial. Loose rules, low stakes, capacity 80.
2. **Voltage (Valley club).** Full ruleset, guest list, inspector active.
3. **Elevate (rooftop).** Dress code hell, influencer density, VIP politics.
4. **ROOM (underground techno, boss venue).** Dress code re-randomises every 15
in-game minutes, everyone claims VIP, the inspector is *definitely* in the
building, and the techno is so loud all dialogue is written as lip-read guesses.
| Role | Verbs | Teaches | Signature tension |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Glassie** (entry) | Collect glasses (hand-stack grows: taller = clears faster, wobbles more; drop = smash + mop duty), mop spills before slips, restock runs through the crowd, find lost phones | Floor navigation, drunk-tells by pure observation | ZERO authority. You see the Maggot but can only radio it in — and watch who responds |
| **Bartender** | Order queue (orders get slurred/ambiguous with patron drunkenness), pour minigame (jigger = safe, free-pour = fast/risky), tips via speed + banter picks, drink-watch (intervene on the glass-hoverer) | Intoxication rules from the server's side | RSA: you legally CANNOT serve a Maggot — the cut-off with them begging across the bar, Heat if the inspector's watching |
| **Doorgirl** | The Door phase (§3.1): IDs, dress code, guest list, rope theatre | Inspection & social judgment | The whole §3.1 tension set |
| **Bouncer** | The Floor phase (§3.2): patrol, ejections, stalls, pat-downs | Enforcement & positioning | The whole §3.2 tension set |
| **DJ** (unlock) | Ride the crowd's Energy curve with track picks (tracks = parameter sets on the synth engine — gameplay drives the actual audio), beatmatch transitions (align two beat bars, cut on the one), field booth requests | Reading the room | Request verbs: the dismissive headphone-lift, the nod-then-never-play, the hard no. Denying: +Vibe (purists), +Aggro (requester's table) |
| **Head of Security** (endgame) | §3.1 + §3.2 interleaved, PLUS radio command of NPC staff in every other role | Everything at once | You used to speak into the radio; now you're the voice on the other end |
**Roster board** frames progression: pick shifts from a weekly roster
(role × venue = level select), wages differ by role, story beats attach to roles.
Venues as difficulty tiers, nights as rounds (Thu → Fri → Sat per venue):
1. **The Royal (dive bar).** Glassie/bartender shifts. Loose rules, capacity 80.
2. **Voltage (Valley club).** Doorgirl/bouncer shifts. Full ruleset, inspector active.
3. **Elevate (rooftop).** Head of Security. Dress code hell, influencer density, VIP politics.
4. **ROOM (underground techno, boss venue).** The DJ shift + Head of Security
finale. Dress code re-randomises every 15 in-game minutes, everyone claims VIP,
the inspector is *definitely* in the building, and the techno is so loud all
dialogue is written as lip-read guesses.
Roguelite-lite structure: fail a night → retry the night; 3 Heat strikes → run over.
Seeded runs for shareability ("seed VALLEY-4207 is brutal").
*(Far-future note, not a plan: this structure is accidentally multiplayer-shaped —
one night, each player a role. Architecture shouldn't preclude it; nothing should
be built for it.)*
## 7. Scope guardrails
- v0.1 = ONE venue, Door phase only, 3 nights, placeholder paper-doll art. Ship it.
- v0.1 = ONE venue, Door phase only (the doorgirl shift), 3 nights, placeholder
paper-doll art. Ship it.
- v0.2 = Floor phase + door/floor interleave + audio engine.
- v0.3 = progression, regulars' memory, incident report, inspector.
- v0.4 = content pass (archetypes, scripted encounters), real pixel art, boss venue.
- v0.5+ = the role ladder (§6): glassie → bartender → DJ, roster board. Roles are
post-core-game content — but every earlier phase must keep the sim role-agnostic
(no system may assume the player is security).
- Cut before slipping: fight mini-game, budgie, venue 3. Never cut: the clicker,
the stamp feel, the low-pass filter trick.