Labourers
Labourers are the foundation of the city’s survival - ordinary people performing the essential, backbreaking work needed to keep society functioning. They build, haul, gather, and endure the harshest conditions with little recognition, driven by necessity and the will to survive. Often overlooked, yet utterly indispensable, Labourers embody the grit, perseverance, and quiet sacrifice that holds the city together in the face of relentless cold.
ACTIONS
Labourer teams can pick from any of five actions to perform at the end of a given Act:
Gather (Coal): A team of Labourers set about mining coal to feed the generator. Labourers will gather two units of coal. The number of units gathered can be increased by Engineers Upgrade Resource Gathering.
Gather (Wood): A team of Labourers set about felling lumber for construction materials. Labourers will gather two units of wood. The number of units gathered can be increased by Engineers Upgrade Resource Gathering.
Gather (Steel): A team of Labourers set about mining and smelting steel for construction materials. Labourers will gather one unit of steel. The number of units gathered can be increased by Engineers Upgrade Resource Gathering.
Build: A team of Labourers can construct up to two buildings. Building a Tent requires 1 Wood. A House can either be built by upgrading an existing Tent—costing 1 additional Wood—or constructed from scratch for 2 Wood.
Strike: A Labourer team may initiate a strike, but the Labourer who calls the strike must choose a specific demand from the list provided below, along with its associated resolution. If multiple teams go on strike during the same Act, they must all strike for the same demand. Once a demand is fulfilled, that team cannot strike again in the next Act—but may do so again afterward. The Labourer responsible for submitting actions for the teams in a given act can end the strike at any time—Therefore the Governor could select a new faction representative in the next act and end the strike without fulfilling any demands so long as they have a Labourer loyal to them. Strikes cannot be Overruled by Enforcer teams.
Strike Demands:
- Food: Can be resolved by feeding the striking team. (Well Fed teams cannot strike for this demand.)
- Food for the Children: can be resolved by feeding all Child teams. (Cannot strike for this demand if all Child teams are Well Fed.)
- Shelter: Can be resolved by housing the striking team. (Teams assigned to tents or houses cannot strike for this demand.)
- Shelter for the Children: Can be resolved by housing all Child teams. (Cannot strike for this demand if all Child teams are assigned to houses and/or tents.)
- Warmth: Can be resolved by ensuring the striking team has no assigned cold tokens.
- Warmth for the Children: Can be resolved by ensuring all Child teams have no assigned cold tokens.
- Healthcare: Can be resolved by improving the striking team’s health condition from gravely ill to ill, or ill to healthy. (Healthy teams cannot strike for this demand.)
- Children’s Healthcare: Can be resolved by improving all Child team’s health condition from gravely ill to ill, or ill to healthy. (Cannot strike for this demand if all Child teams are healthy.)
- Laws: Can be resolved by passing or repealing a law specified by the Labourer who calls the strike.
- Justice: Can be resolved by the death or exile of a character specified by the Labourer who calls the strike.
Special Rules
As representatives of the broader communities that form the backbone of the city, Labourers are the first to hear of local events—whether fortunate, troubling, or outright strange. They have the power to decide how to respond to these events through vote of the largest minority. However, certain conditions or specific criteria being met may limit their choices or compel a particular course of action.
Costuming Advice
Labourers are the rugged backbone of the city, toiling long hours in freezing conditions to keep survival possible. As some of the least prepared and poorest of the empire, many of these people would’ve been ill-equipped for the onset of the frost and so would be wearing many layers of various different clothes that alone would be inappropriate for the temperature.
Key features:
- Oversized Silhouette. Many layers of clothing, some of which would not be appropriate for the weather but are the best they could’ve scrounged. Clothes may in place be ill-fitting. Heavy wool, cotton canvas, and flannel; Sturdy, thick fabrics that look live-in and rugged. Thick wool or canvas coats, often mid-length and simple in design, sometimes patched or visibly mended for realism.
- Low saturation, low contrast colours. Greys, browns, navy blues and dark greens should be the order of the day. Avoid bright or new-looking fabrics; everything should look weathered and practical. Enhance clothes with first, soot and grime stains on sleeves, collars, and trousers. Consider sewing patches on knees, elbows and other wear spots.
- Consider accessorising with simple tools like hammers, shovels and pickaxes (LARP-safe versions only). Canvas or leather satchels, ropes and simple toolboxes would also fit the characters and their intended work. Top it off with simple belts, and wool or fur hats like beanies, trapper hats, or caps.
- Labourers have rough, weather-beaten skin with dirt smudges. Pale or reddened cheeks from cold exposure. Hair is unkempt but functional often tied back or under hats or braided. Light bruising and scratches are optional to demonstrate the harsh conditions.
