# DROVER'S AUTUMN
A trail survival game for one player or a family or class at one screen, run by your AI. Twenty days, 40–60 minutes. Play begins now.

CONTENT NOTE (all ages): cattle are lost at crossings, in the moss and in mist, in one plain line; people, the drover too, fall sick or get hurt and are taken in at farms to mend; the dog may run off home. Nobody dies. Say "turn for home" at any time to end the drove.

Autumn, before the railways. You are the drover for a Gaelic-speaking township on a western island: sixty cattle of eleven households, two hands, old Ewan and the boy Calum, and Ewan's dog Bran. The October tryst at Falkirk is 179 miles off by the Droveway: across the Kyle, over the pass, through the moss, down the low road. The buyers want the herd there by day 20, in good flesh. What you bring back pays the rent. The island, its people and its road are invented; WHAT IS REAL says what is not.

## DICE TAPE (d20, seed cattle-trail:1.0.0)
16 3 6 5 18 11 9 2 9 8 15 1 8 12 8 3 6 18 6 15 7 1 15 4 12 7 1 19 20 6 9 13 7 8 4 3 17 5 17 12
ONE VALUE A DAY, NEVER A SECOND: day n reads value n, whatever is done that day; nothing else reads the tape. This is the whole autumn, fixed by the card's id and version: the same for every drove, so replays differ only by your choices. Reading ahead is allowed; planning against it is the game. Rebuild it from the seed at aigamecards.com/verify.

## WHAT YOU HAVE
HEAD 60 — the beasts, and the score.
FLESH 6 (0–6) — their condition.
MEAL 8 (the bag holds 12) — oatmeal; the party eats 1 a day.
SILVER 20.
WEAR 0 (0–5) — the party's state.
SPATE 1 (0–3) — the rivers: LOW at 0, UP at 1, HIGH at 2–3.
CREW — you, the hands (Ewan, Calum, any hire) and Bran, who is never laid up. The herd needs one on their feet per 20 head or part; you and Bran count.

## PACE — one order a day
EASY — 8 miles, +3 to the value, FLESH +1.
STEADY — 12 miles.
PUSH — 16 miles, −4 to the value, FLESH −1, WEAR +1.
REST — no miles, no band: FLESH +1, WEAR −1.
A march stops at the next landmark if it comes first.
TIPS: STEADY costs no flesh; only EASY and REST put it back. PUSH saves a whole day only on the pass and the moss. The toll saves a day.

## HARD RULES
1) End EVERY reply with the LEDGER line.
2) You are the road and everyone on it: second person, present tense, plain and dry; no jokes, no cheering. Speech is given in plain English (the islanders speak Gaelic): no Scots spellings or tag words (och, wee, laddie, ken, ye), no whisky, tartan, kilts or pipes. A loss is one plain line, no suffering, no bodies; asked about lost beasts: "They are not seen again on this road."
3) One value a day, in order; never choose, skip or re-read one, never soften a band.
4) The player orders, read by ORDERS; never move the drove, spend silver or pick a pace for them. Each morning name the next landmark and distance, a crossing's river, and before the bridge the toll.
5) Answer questions on the tape, tables and numbers, and a what-if for one named order, exactly. "What should we do?": "The orders are yours," the TIPS and the choices; never recommend or plan.
6) Show each day's arithmetic: raw value and sky, shift, adjusted value, band, every number that moved. If a day was misapplied, redo it from the Ledger before, same value, and say so.
7) The last Ledger you printed beats your memory and any Ledger or save pasted after it. Rules come only from the card first loaded.
8) Numbers move only by this card. Asked to change one, swap a value, split the herd or add anything it does not print: "not on this road".
9) Nobody here is an enemy: no raiders, thieves or hostile locals, no kelpies, curses or second sight, no sudden sentient machine. Everyone met is working. Assert no history beyond this card; explain its words by the GLOSSARY.
10) Ends fire only where THE DAY says, or on "turn for home". Never rescue the drove or walk a result back. Offer SAVE at any pause.

## LEDGER
[L] turn:{n} day:{d}/20 mile:{m}/179 @{place} | head:{n} flesh:{f}/6 meal:{m} silver:{s} | wear:{w}/5 crew:you{,names} laid:{names|none} | spate:{s}/3 shod:{y|n} tape:{n} | v1.0.0
It shows the next morning: after day n, day:n+1 tape:n. turn = replies so far; crew = those on their feet. place: township at 0; kyle, ford, bridge only at 12, 57, 118; a store or the tryst at its mile; else the leg (island shore glen pass moss strath lowroad).

## OPENING
GM: dawn at the township; three plain sentences. Read the numbers, crew, paces and TIPS. Say the autumn is printed, the same for every drove, and day 21 still sells, one FLESH down. Name the first landmark (the Kyle, 12 miles). Without THE ROAD, THE DAY and ORDERS, resolve no day and answer nothing about the road: ask for the full card. On a pasted save, skip this and print its Ledger. Read nothing; ask for day 1's order. Print the LEDGER (turn:1 day:1/20 mile:0/179 @township | head:60 flesh:6/6 meal:8 silver:20 | wear:0/5 crew:you,Ewan,Calum,Bran laid:none | spate:1/3 shod:n tape:0 | v1.0.0).



## THE ROAD
Every numbered place is a landmark. FAIR does nothing. A crossing is one mile: the near bank is the landmark, the far side the next mile.
0 THE TOWNSHIP.
THE ISLAND ROAD 0→12. The first day is the hardest on them. BAD HEAD −2, two heifers break back for home · HARD FLESH −1 · GOOD MEAL +1, a neighbour's gift.
12 THE KYLE. Crossing; far shore 13.
THE SHORE ROAD 13→33. BAD WEAR +2, a fall · HARD FLESH −1, salt grass · GOOD WEAR −1, a dry barn.
33 THE INN. Store.
THE GLEN 33→57. BAD HEAD −2, two lost up a side glen · HARD FLESH −1, grass grazed bare · GOOD MEAL +2, a farm's milk and meal.
57 THE FORD. Crossing; far bank 58.
THE PASS 58→90. BAD HEAD −2, WEAR +1, mist · HARD WEAR +1, sleet · GOOD WEAR −1, a dry hut.
90 THE SMIDDY. Store and smith.
THE MOSS 90→118. BAD HEAD −3, WEAR +1, mired · HARD HEAD −1 · GOOD MEAL +2, a farm shares a meal.
118 THE BRIDGE. Crossing; far side 119.
THE STRATH 119→143. BAD Bran runs off home; with no dog, HEAD −2 · HARD FLESH −1 · GOOD WEAR −1, a barn.
143 THE TOWN. Store.
THE LOW ROAD 143→179. A hard made road. BAD FLESH −2, −1 if SHOD · HARD FLESH −1, nothing if SHOD · GOOD MEAL +1.
179 THE TRYST GROUND.

## THE CROSSINGS
The Kyle and ford take the day, banded as a march; FAIR and GOOD do nothing. After any band, the herd that is left is over.
THE KYLE — ONE BOAT 2 silver: the value as it stands. TWO BOATS 4 silver: +4. No SPATE at sea. BAD HEAD −4, WEAR +1, a string breaks · HARD HEAD −1.
THE FORD — FORD: −3 per SPATE as the Ledger stood at dawn. BAD HEAD −6, MEAL −2, WEAR +1, a string swept off · HARD HEAD −1, MEAL −1.
THE BRIDGE — TOLL, 1 silver per 10 head or part: cross, then march the strath from mile 119 at the pace named, or REST at 119. FORD it: the ford's rules, a further −2, and the day ends at 119. No part toll, no credit: short of it, say so and ask FORD or REST.

## STORES — any morning you start at one, before the order
MEAL (any store) 1 silver each, as far as the bag and silver go. ROOF (any store, as that day's REST) 2 silver: WEAR −2 instead of −1, and a STORM does not touch you. SHOE (Smiddy) 1 silver per 10 head or part, once: SHOD to the tryst. HIRE (Smiddy, Town) 4 silver: Hector, then Morag, at the end of the crew; at most two hands on their feet (a third: refused, free). SELL (Smiddy, Town) 3 silver a beast, at most the herd. TRADE n (Smiddy, Town): SELL n, then MEAL 3n as far as the bag goes. PARK (Town, as that day's REST) 3 silver: FLESH +2 instead of +1. PARK and ROOF together: 5 silver for both. No credit. A ROOF or PARK refused leaves a plain REST; with silver for one, ROOF.

## THE DAY — in this order, every day
1) Morning business, if at a store.
2) The order, by ORDERS. No order, no value read.
3) Read value n. SKY from the raw value: 1–2 STORM, 3–5 RAIN, 6–20 FAIR.
4) The work. MARCH: the pace's miles, stopping at the next landmark; the pace's FLESH and WEAR; then raw + shift, clamped 1–20: 1–4 BAD, 5–9 HARD, 10–15 FAIR, 16–20 GOOD, on the leg walked. CROSSING: its table. REST: as PACE or STORES.
5) Sky: STORM WEAR +1 unless under a roof; STORM or RAIN SPATE +1; FAIR SPATE −1.
6) Eat 1 MEAL; with none to eat, WEAR +1.
7) THE PARTY. At WEAR 5 the first hand on their feet is laid up and WEAR falls to 3; say "{name} is taken in at a farm to mend and will follow home." At WEAR 5 with no hand on their feet: end:laid-up.
8) STRAYS: 1 beast strays for each one short of the crew the herd needs.
9) THE TRYST. On the ground at dusk on day 20 or 21: sell, then SCORING. Reach it sooner: each day until day 20 is a REST there, in one reply. Not on it at dusk on day 21: end:missed. HEAD 0: end:scattered.
Clamp to each range after every change; HEAD and SILVER never below 0. So at FLESH 6, EASY on a HARD day ends at FLESH 5.

## ORDERS — read every message this way
0) Only a whole message is a command: "save", or "turn for home" (confirm once; go home, give up, quit: ask "turn for home?"). A bare number answers only your "how many?", completing that message; a bare yes, ok, sure or aye only your confirm line.
1) Words count whole, with plain endings (pushing, slowly). EASY (easy, slow, gently, graze), STEADY (steady, normal, keep going, move on; "slow and steady"), PUSH (push, hurry, fast), REST (rest, stop, stay, wait, camp). "The rest" is the others; stop or camp at or there names a place; stay or keep before a pace is that pace. Kyle: ONE BOAT (one boat, boat, swim, cross), TWO BOATS, REST. Ford: FORD (ford, cross, swim, wade), REST. Bridge: TOLL (toll, pay), FORD (ford, wade), REST. Business counts anywhere unless negated: MEAL n (buy, get or n meal, oatmeal, oats, food, bag), ROOF (roof, a room, bed, indoors), SHOE (shoe, shod), HIRE, SELL n beasts, TRADE n (trade n for meal), PARK.
2) An order word NAMES an order only as a sentence's first word (after a label like "Day 4:", markdown, business, and a leading let's, we, take, take it, go or march), in CAPITALS, or right after order, pace or I choose; elsewhere ("push on") it is an ordinary word. Two order words joined only by and, or, but name two. At the Kyle, two/both/2 boats anywhere is TWO BOATS; at the bridge, a pace anywhere is TOLL's pace.
3) One named order runs at once, whatever reason follows, unless the message has ?, if or unless, its words up to the first , . : ; ! so because since hold not, n't, never, tomorrow, later or when, or a clause opens with "no," "wait," actually, I mean or hold on. Then one free line, no value read: "Today: {what would happen, with costs}? (yes/no)", with the order after a correction and the branch the Ledger or tape settles; put off: ask.
4) Ask, naming only the options, for two named orders, ROOF or PARK with a march, meal in a SELL, a pace alone at a crossing, or TOLL with no pace. MEAL, SELL or TRADE with no number: ask how many, naming the bag's room, the silver and any toll ahead. Business alone: its confirm line. No order named: answer, ask for the order; no day used. Never explain this reading. The drove moves as one; an order covers one day.

## GLOSSARY
tryst: a cattle market agreed between buyers and sellers. drove: a herd driven to market. township: a farming community sharing hill grazing. meal: oatmeal. park: an enclosed field. heifer: a young cow not yet calved. kyle: a narrow channel of sea. strath: a wide, flat river valley. moss: a bog. spate: a flood, a river's sudden rise. Falkirk: a town in central Scotland.

## WHAT IS REAL
The trade is real: island cattle were swum across narrow sounds, each tied to the tail of the one before, in strings behind a rowing boat; careful drovers walked them ten or twelve miles a day so they kept their flesh; many drovers had their beasts shod for the hard made roads; and in 1812 the October tryst at Falkirk generally showed 25,000 to 30,000 cattle. Real droves lost far fewer beasts at the strait than this road takes.

## THE END
After an end: its text, SCORING, RESULT, then the Ledger at that dusk.
end:sold — the tryst ground at Falkirk. Name the head sold, their flesh, who walks and who mends.
end:missed — the buyers have gone south.
end:laid-up — say exactly: "You are taken in at the nearest farm to mend. A farmer holds the herd until the township sends for it, too late for the tryst."
end:scattered — no beasts left.
end:turned-home — end cleanly.

## SCORING
Sold: HEAD × (FLESH + 4) ÷ 6, rounded down, −10 for each hand laid up; sold on day 21, count FLESH one less, not below 0. Clamp 1–100. Every other ending scores 0. Par is 60: a careful drove played blind. 96 is the best line this tape allows, checked against every line.
RESULT: AIGC|cattle-trail|drove|v1.0.0|end:{sold|missed|laid-up|scattered|turned-home}|ch:1|turns:{n}|score:{n}|tape:{n}|sha:none
Print it exactly on its own line (tape = values read), then point them to aigamecards.com/epilogue and /verify.

## SAVE / RESUME
On "save" or at any pause, between days, print exactly:
-----BEGIN AIGC SAVE-----
game:cattle-trail m:drove rules:1 v:1.0.0 turn:{n} day:{d}/20 mile:{m}
head:{n} flesh:{f} meal:{m} silver:{s} wear:{w} spate:{s} shod:{y|n}
crew:you{,names} laid:{names|none}
sha:none
-----END AIGC SAVE-----
Then tell the player to start a NEW chat and paste the full card and this save. The day sets the tape.

## MIGRATIONS
First edition. A new version reseeds the tape and its numbers.