Themes

The investigator who sees what everyone else walked past — and pays for seeing it.

• wears
• detective
• cross-examiner
• forensic examiner
• informant
• auditor
• fraud investigator

Role overlap suggests

Build the Chain · Catch the Break · Cluttered Search · Fault Sweep · Minimum Evidence · Name the Trap · Order From Constraints · Spot the Fabrication · Stamp or Reject · Stream Screen · Structure From Distractors · The Confidence Wager · The Container · The Inspection Budget · Where Experts Look

Catch the Break	native	A suspect narrating a chain you must call clean or broken IS an interrogation. Least translation of anything in either catalog.
Build the Chain	native	Claim to support to evidence to conclusion is the corkboard. The red string is the UI, not a backdrop.
Name the Trap	strong	Classifying how a wrong answer is wrong maps onto naming the con — and Peregrine already ships a 17-character taxonomy for it.
Structure From Distractors	strong	Four prints, no question shown, name the job: forensics without the fiction being bolted on.
The Confidence Wager	strong	Peregrine ships The Wager in this fiction already: stake your certainty on a lead before you work it, and be scored on being right about being right.
Strike the Wrong Ones	native	Clear the Room — eliminate every wrong suspect without touching the live one. Built, and the fiction carries the scoring inversion without a word of instruction.

Stance

Compromised but not corrupt. The player is inside the institution enough to have access and outside it enough to be disbelieved — which is why nobody hands them the answer and why being right early costs them something.

After subtraction

Crime Syndicate shares the iconography but inverts the stance — there the player is inside the crime. Journalist shares the investigation but answers to publication rather than arrest. Courtroom takes the endgame.

Asset burden

Cheapest profile in the catalog. Documents, photographs, and a pinboard — no perspective, no illustrated scenes. This and Dark Academia should sequence first if build cost is the constraint.

Scenes

Interrogation room · Corkboard war room · Morgue · Precinct bullpen · Courtroom · Back-alley informant meet

Vocabulary

motive / means / opportunity — the concept keys · contradicted alibi · chain-of-custody break · coerced confession · the case file · priors

Tropes

The reveal monologue · The wrongly-accused red herring · "Just one more thing" · The partner who doesn't believe you yet

Iconography

Corkboard and red string · Evidence bag · Case file · Cigarette and rain-streaked window · Badge · One bare bulb

Audience

Durable across every age band and the safest first theme. The appeal is competence rather than identity, which makes it less electric than Dystopia for teenagers but far more reliable.

The booth where the rules keep arriving and the queue never stops.

• wears
• checkpoint officer
• customs officer
• permit clerk
• building inspector
• auditor
• inspector

Role overlap suggests

Build the Chain · Catch the Break · Cluttered Search · Fault Sweep · Minimum Evidence · Name the Trap · Order From Constraints · Spot the Fabrication · Stamp or Reject · Stream Match · Stream Screen · Structure From Distractors · The Confidence Wager · The Container · The Inspection Budget · Where Experts Look

Stamp or Reject	native	This theme IS the mechanic. Already drafted as drive-corps:checkpoint at confidence 78; the fiction was written into the contract before the theme existed.
The Inspection Budget	native	Six looks across a mostly-clean queue is the customs officer's actual job.
Stream Screen	strong	The same approve/reject decision without the rulebook — useful as the fast-tempo variant inside the same fiction.
Fault Sweep	strong	A document set with a stated number of irregularities to find is the booth's daily work — and it is the cheapest locate mechanic in the catalog, with no unsolved art problem. Strongest pairing available for an early build.

Stance

Employed by the machinery and slowly noticing it. The sympathetic case that is still against the rules is the whole emotional engine — the player must feel the rulebook as a weight, not a scoreboard.

After subtraction

Dystopia takes the same booth and flips who the player is working for, and adds retroactive rules. Military/Checkpoint keeps the booth but swaps the rulebook for rules of engagement. Smuggling is this theme viewed from the other side of the counter.

Asset burden

Typography and layout, not illustration. A permit that reads as a form. The cheapest build in the catalog after Detective.

Scenes

Border booth · Airport checkpoint · Embassy visa desk · Smuggler's dock inspection · Weighbridge at night

Vocabulary

permit · manifest · forged seal · expired stamp · diplomatic immunity · sanctioned / unsanctioned

Tropes

The sympathetic case that's still against the rules · The rule that contradicts an earlier rule · The one who comes back for revenge

Iconography

Rubber stamp · Passport · Sealed crate · Watchtower · Red and green light

Audience

Papers, Please proved this lands hard with exactly this age group. The power fantasy is unusual — authority the player comes to resent — which is more interesting than it sounds.

A map that is wrong on purpose, and a rival expedition one day ahead of you.

• wears
• adventurer
• cartographer
• archaeologist
• restorer
• conservator
• quartermaster
• spotter

Role overlap suggests

Cluttered Search · Compress It · Draw From Memory · Fault Sweep · Find the Pivot · Gather the Right Tool · Infer the Rule · Order From Constraints · Place the Mark · Predict Before Reveal · Roster Attrition · Spot the Fabrication · Stream Match · Strike the Wrong Ones · The Expedition · The Half-Map · Where Experts Look

Order From Constraints	native	'Assemble a valid sequence from relative cues that never state a position outright' is literally how a treasure map works. This is not a skin — it is the fiction the mechanic was already describing.
Place the Mark	native	Restoring a damaged map, or seating a glyph in its socket, is the cleanest instance of this mechanic anyone has found. Revive it here specifically.
Cluttered Search	strong	A dig site or a ship's hold is a dense field of near-twins — and the flat-schematic asset route (a map table, a contact sheet of finds) sidesteps this mechanic's usual art blocker.
Minimum Evidence	strong	Naming the site on as few clues as you dare, before the rival does.
The Half-Map	native	Its own Structures list names The Half-Map — two parties holding halves of a chart, neither sufficient alone. The mechanic came out of this theme's discovery check and this is its home fiction.

Stance

Obsessed and slightly disreputable. The player is not the institution — they are the one who reads the map differently, which is why they will find it and why nobody will believe them until they do.

After subtraction

Archaeology is this theme with the institution restored and the rival removed. Pirates shares the iconography and swaps inference for confrontation. Escape Room houses the same puzzles without the journey.

Asset burden

One map or dig-site backdrop reused across many arrangements. Middle tier — more than Detective, far less than Heist floor plans.

Scenes

Map table · Sealed tomb antechamber · Ship's hold · Cipher room · Dig site at dusk

Vocabulary

relative cues — 'north of the fallen king, not the standing one' — LOAD-BEARING: absolute coordinates would break Order From Constraints entirely · bearing · the survey · the assay · provenance

Tropes

The map that's wrong on purpose, as a test for the unworthy · The guide who has been there before and won't say how they know · The treasure that isn't what the myth said

Iconography

Weathered map with a torn edge · Brass compass · Sigil-carved stone · Rope and pulley · Lantern

Audience

Evergreen and age-agnostic. Lower identity charge than Dystopia or Dark Academia, higher pure-pleasure factor. Good candidate for the theme that carries the mechanics nobody has built yet, because the fiction forgives experimentation.

Specialist roles, one clock, and the thing that was never part of the plan.

• wears
• heist crew
• safecracker
• locksmith
• logistics planner
• spotter
• face

Role overlap suggests

Bank or Push · Beat Your Ghost · Cluttered Search · Decode Against the Clock · Gather the Right Tool · Match the Tool · Order From Constraints · Roster Attrition · Shared-Clock Triage · Stream Match · Strike the Wrong Ones · The Half-Map · Where Experts Look

Shared-Clock Triage	native	Specialist roles map directly onto 'choosing what to skip is the skill' — each crew member literally cannot solve every sub-puzzle.
Order From Constraints	native	Planning a job is constraint satisfaction wearing a mask.
Bank or Push	strong	Walk away with the take, or go for the vault. The genre's defining decision.
Gather the Right Tool	strong	Several unrelated systems on one clock is the alarm, the vault, and the guard rotation.

Stance

Professional and amoral in a way the fiction forgives. The mark deserves it, the crew is family, and the only real sin is sloppiness — which is why the mechanics can be pure optimisation without moral weight.

After subtraction

Crime Syndicate shares the crew and swaps the caper for the power struggle. Prison Break is a heist run backwards from inside. Smuggling keeps the planning and loses the vault.

Asset burden

THE EXPENSIVE ONE. Floor-plan scenes need Cluttered-Search-grade backdrop investment if you want spatial casing rather than menu triage. Flag before committing — this theme is a second-wave build, not a first.

Scenes

Casino floor · Museum after hours · Armored truck route · Blueprint table · Getaway car

Vocabulary

the mark · the take · casing · the inside man · the score · specialist roles: hacker, muscle, face, driver

Tropes

The reveal-the-plan flashback · The mark who was in on it · The one thing that wasn't part of the plan

Iconography

Blueprints · Earpiece · Duffel bag · Laser grid · Vault dial · Ski mask

Audience

Broad and reliable, with the crew-assembly fantasy doing extra work for a player who likes systems. Lower identity charge than Dystopia; higher replay appeal.

Rank, transmissions, and a rulebook written by someone who isn't here.

• wears
• checkpoint officer
• spotter
• radio operator
• dispatcher
• squad leader
• codebreaker
• field engineer

Role overlap suggests

Beat Your Ghost · Cluttered Search · Decode Against the Clock · Gather the Right Tool · Infer the Rule · Order From Constraints · Roster Attrition · Shared-Clock Triage · Stamp or Reject · Stream Match · Stream Screen · Strike the Wrong Ones · The Half-Map · The Inspection Budget · Where Experts Look

Stream Match	native	Recon Sweep is built and shipping in Drive Corps — target named, cards streaming, tap on the match. This theme owns the mechanic's origin role.
Decode Against the Clock	native	Intercept, also built. A transmission is the payload the mechanic's contract asks for and the fiction supplies it without strain.
Stamp or Reject	strong	Rules of engagement ARE an accumulating rulebook, and the delayed consequence lands hard when the subject is a vehicle you waved through.
Cluttered Search	strong	Sniper spotting is the mechanic's origin role and still unbuilt — blocked on scene art, which the flat-schematic route (briefing board, peg wall) sidesteps.
Roster Attrition	workable	A squad is a named cast. Sits as a layer over any of the above rather than alone.

After subtraction

Checkpoint/Customs takes the booth and swaps rules of engagement for a permit rulebook; Dystopia takes the same booth and flips who the player serves. What is uniquely Military's after subtraction: the SQUAD — a named cast under orders, with a chain of command that makes a bad call someone else's casualty. No other theme has that.

Asset burden

Terrain scenes are illustrated; the briefing board and radio room are documents. Split the build accordingly.

Scenes

Desert · Mountains · Jungle · Motorpool · Briefing board

Vocabulary

rules of engagement · the ramp · sector · comms discipline

Iconography

Helmet · Rifle · Bandolier · Compass · Aviator glasses · Combat boots · Radio · Canteen · Map

The truth has to be shrunk to survive, and what was legal yesterday is treason today.

• wears
• resistance operative
• broadcast editor
• forger
• informant
• intelligence analyst
• checkpoint officer

Role overlap suggests

Assemble to Order · Cluttered Search · Compress It · Draw From Memory · Fault Sweep · Name the Trap · Place the Mark · Roster Attrition · Shared-Clock Triage · Spot the Fabrication · Stamp or Reject · Stream Match · Stream Screen · Structure From Distractors · The Confidence Wager · The Half-Map · The Inspection Budget · Voice the Error · Where Experts Look

Compress It	native	Compressing a true event into what the regime will approve — every omission a choice, scored on how much truth survived. Zero overlap with any neighbouring theme; propaganda-as-editing-puzzle is dystopia-exclusive.
Spot the Fabrication	native	Find the plant inside your own cell from internal evidence, where being wrong costs the cell rather than only you.
Stamp or Reject	strong	The RETROACTIVE variant specifically — rules reverse and re-judge past decisions, so the player is managing their own paper trail rather than gatekeeping. Mechanically distinct from Customs, where rules only accumulate.
Roster Attrition	workable	A cell is a named cast, and it is small enough to matter. Sits as a layer over the reasoning mechanics, never alone.

Stance

RESISTANCE BY DEFAULT, with complicity as tactical cover rather than the premise. The cost is real without requiring perpetrator guilt: staying under means letting someone get flagged, burning an asset to protect the cell, choosing which of two people you can actually save. That is mission-preservation guilt, and it lands as hard as complicity-guilt while giving the player somewhere to stand.

After subtraction

After subtraction: Border/Customs owns stamp-or-reject, Disaster owns resource triage under scarcity, Secret Society owns coded-rule inference. What is uniquely left is propaganda-as-compression, retroactive rule invalidation, and trust calibration inside your own cell.

Asset burden

Broadcast scripts, directives, ration cards — all typography. The resettlement line and the wall would want scenes, but the headline mechanics need none of them.

Scenes

Broadcast booth, editing the Approved Story · Safehouse cell meeting · Resettlement line, entered as infiltrator rather than officer · The wall · Curfew streets

Vocabulary

directive · sector · sanctioned / unsanctioned · the cell's cover story · plausible deniability · the Ministry-of-euphemism naming pattern

Tropes

The rule that was legal yesterday · The ally who turns out to be a plant · The propaganda that is technically true · The truth that has to be shrunk to survive

Iconography

Loudspeaker · Redacted broadcast script · Armband · Protest poster papered over · Coded chalk mark · Ration card

Audience

The strongest identity hook in the catalog for this age band, and it is not a nice-to-have — rebellion-as-identity is close to the whole appeal of the theme at this stage of life. Designing the player as complicit-and-conflicted underrates what the audience actually wants to be.

A trace countdown, a corporate mole, and an AI that changes sides.

• wears
• digital infiltrator
• intelligence analyst
• forger
• codebreaker

Role overlap suggests

Decode Against the Clock · Infer the Rule · Spot the Fabrication · Structure From Distractors · The Confidence Wager · The Half-Map · The Inspection Budget · Voice the Error · Where Experts Look

Decode Against the Clock	native	A trace countdown is the mechanic's own clock wearing a costume — the payload is what you are exfiltrating and the timer is what is hunting you.
Shared-Clock Triage	strong	A data heist with limited uptime: which systems to crack and which to leave is the whole planning fiction.
Gather the Right Tool	strong	Multiple unrelated subsystems — ICE, cameras, the vault — on one clock, each wanting a different exploit.
Synergy Collection	workable	Augmentations as interacting powers. The Balatro shape fits, but the synergies must reflect something real or it teaches a fictional subject.

After subtraction

Heist owns the crew and the vault; Dystopia owns surveillance and the approved narrative; Spy owns cover identity. After subtraction, Cyberpunk's own ground is thin — the trace countdown is Decode wearing neon. RUN THE SUBTRACTION HARD before building: this may be a reskin of Heist with a more expensive art budget.

Asset burden

Neon environments are the most art-hungry look in the catalog and the hardest to make cheaply without looking generic.

Scenes

Neon alley · Server farm · Megacorp tower · Underground market · Virtual grid

Vocabulary

jack in / jack out · ICE · the trace · megacorp · wetware

Iconography

Cybernetic arm · Holographic display · Neural jack · Encrypted drive · Neon signage · Drone

Party roles, riddle gates, and loot that turns out to be cursed.

• wears
• party member
• alchemist
• engineer
• adventurer

Role overlap suggests

Cluttered Search · Decode Against the Clock · Predict Before Reveal · Roster Attrition · Synergy Collection · The Expedition · The Half-Map

Synergy Collection	native	Party composition IS the Balatro shape — a tank and a healer interact, and discovering which combinations carry a dungeon is the game.
Order From Constraints	strong	A riddle gate stated in relative cues is the genre's oldest puzzle and the mechanic's hard rule (never an absolute position) is native to how riddles are written.
Name the Trap	strong	A cursed item is a trap with a species. The taxonomy writes itself in this fiction.
The Boss Gauntlet	native	The boss chamber is the layer's origin. Filed as a layer, so it needs a host.

After subtraction

Hidden Treasure owns maps and relative bearings; Dark Academia owns unstated rules and initiation. What is left that is uniquely this: the PARTY — several capabilities the player composes and switches between, which no other theme in the catalog supports.

Asset burden

Expensive, and competing with a saturated visual field.

Scenes

Ancient ruins · Enchanted forest · Castle throne room · Underground catacombs · Mountain pass

Vocabulary

the party · the trial · attunement · the gate

Iconography

Sword and shield · Spellbook · Potion vial · Treasure chest · Torch · Ancient rune

A secret identity, an arch-nemesis, and powers that are starting to slip.

• wears
• vigilante
• challenger
• rescuer

Role overlap suggests

Match the Tool · The Boss Gauntlet · The Container

Voice the Error	native	Maintaining a secret identity is producing the wrong answer on purpose and being rewarded for it — the one fiction besides Spy where that reads as competence.
Shared-Clock Triage	strong	Two rescues, one of you. Who you cannot save is the genre's defining beat and the mechanic's exactly.
Beat Your Ghost	workable	Training montage. Fits, adds nothing the theme needs.
The Boss Gauntlet	native	The arch-nemesis is the layer's purest expression — a named recurring opponent with a specialism drawn from your weakness.

After subtraction

Overlaps Spy on cover identity and Survival Competition on the arena. Uniquely its own: the COLLATERAL problem — every other theme scores what you achieved, this one can score what your success cost bystanders, which is a scoring axis nothing else in the catalog has.

Asset burden

Character art is the whole theme, and doing it badly is worse than not doing it.

Scenes

Rooftop · Abandoned warehouse · City skyline · Secret lair · Collapsing building

Vocabulary

the emblem · the alter ego · collateral · the signal

Iconography

Cape · Mask · Utility belt · Emblem · Grappling hook · Signal beacon

The thing in the frame you didn't notice, and the moment you should have turned back.

• wears
• haunted survivor
• trainee analyst
• apprentice under a master
• monster hunter

Role overlap suggests

Cluttered Search · Infer the Rule · Match the Tool · Predict Before Reveal · Roster Attrition · Spot the Fabrication · Structure From Distractors · The Boss Gauntlet · The Confidence Wager · The Container · The Expedition · The Half-Map · The Inspection Budget · Where Experts Look

Where Experts Look	native	'The scene freezes; click where attention should have gone' IS horror's visual grammar — the thing in the background you missed. Mechanically perfect and, per the catalog, expensive and unproven: the contract is the risk.
Catch the Break	strong	THE CHEAPER SUBSTITUTE. Call it clean or broken and name the error still delivers the 'something's wrong, when did you notice' beat, at document asset cost. Use this if Horror needs to be in an early wave.
Bank or Push	native	Split Up in disguise — press deeper for the truth or retreat with what you have.
Find the Pivot	workable	The moment that recontextualises everything before it is the genre's signature move.

Stance

Under-informed and running out of room. The player never has enough to be certain, which is why the mechanics that pay for early commitment work here and the ones that reward exhaustive checking do not.

After subtraction

SPLIT RULING: keep Horror as one entry for now. Slasher, Supernatural, Creature and Psychological share every mechanic on this list — Where Experts Look, Bank or Push, Catch the Break, Find the Pivot — and differ only in iconography and vocabulary, which is a theme's cheap half. PSYCHOLOGICAL is the one genuine candidate to split out later: an unreliable narrator changes what the CONTENT must contain (the player's own perception becomes untrustworthy, which no other sub-genre needs), and that is a content difference rather than a costume. Revisit when a build is actually planned.

Asset burden

Strains the budget. Where Experts Look needs an authored attention map per scene on top of the art, which is the most expensive content in either catalog. The Catch the Break substitution is what makes an early Horror build possible at all.

Scenes

Root cellar · Fogged-in summer camp · The house that's bigger inside · Hospital ward after hours · The tape nobody should have watched

Vocabulary

the good sign ignored · the rule the babysitter breaks · the survivor who remembers wrong on purpose · the last transmission

Tropes

The final girl or guy · The reveal that recontextualises everything before it · The found footage cutting out at the worst moment

Iconography

Flashlight beam · Static-filled screen · Handprint on fogged glass · Child's toy in the wrong room · Flickering light

Audience

Enormously strong with this age band, and the sub-genres behave differently — Psychological and Slasher want different mechanics and probably deserve separate entries once this one is built.

Ten rituals share a principle nobody will name, and you were chosen before you applied.

• wears
• initiate
• apprentice
• scholar
• archivist
• naturalist
• codebreaker
• student of a detective

Role overlap suggests

Build the Chain · Catch the Break · Cluttered Search · Compress It · Decode Against the Clock · Draw From Memory · Fault Sweep · Find the Pivot · Infer the Rule · Minimum Evidence · Name the Trap · Order From Constraints · Place the Mark · Spot the Fabrication · Stamp or Reject · Stream Screen · Structure From Distractors · The Container · The Inspection Budget · Where Experts Look

Infer the Rule	native	The mechanic's own framing — 'ten rounds share a principle nobody stated; name it' — is the secret-society premise word for word. Near-zero translation.
Order From Constraints	strong	Ritual sequence recovered from relative cues; coded correspondence orders itself the same way.
Compress It	strong	Coining the rule that covers all of it IS the thesis defence — and the theme supplies the only fiction where a judge scoring your phrasing feels natural rather than arbitrary.
Draw From Memory	workable	Reproducing a glyph or mark from memory under examination.

Stance

Ascending and complicit. The player wants in, and every rung costs something they can't get back — knowledge that costs the knower is the theme's whole moral engine.

After subtraction

Dystopia inverts the direction — Dark Academia is 'prove you belong', Dystopia's cell is 'prove someone else doesn't'. Boarding School shares the setting without the occult stakes. Occult Investigation attacks the society from outside.

Asset burden

Same manuscript-and-typography class as Detective and Checkpoint. Sequence these three together — one asset pipeline serves all of them.

Scenes

Candlelit library stacks · Initiation chamber · Professor's locked study · Exam hall · Forbidden-archive sub-basement

Vocabulary

glyph · marginalia · palimpsest · oath · the Society's actual name, never spoken aloud · the professor who is also a member

Tropes

The rule you break before you know it's a rule · The initiate who was chosen before they applied · Knowledge that costs the knower something

Iconography

Wax seal · Illuminated manuscript · Brass key on ribbon · Candle and inkwell · Robes with a hidden pin

Audience

Extremely strong with this age band right now, and the appeal is identity rather than plot: being selected, being told you are the kind of person who sees the pattern. That is the same hook as Dystopia's rebellion, pointed inward.

Call-outs, pink slips, and a ghost of your own best run.

• wears
• racer
• mechanic
• pit crew

Role overlap suggests

Beat Your Ghost · Call Then Execute · Gather the Right Tool

Beat Your Ghost	native	The ghost marker came from racing. This is the mechanic's origin role and nothing needs translating.
Bank or Push	native	A pink-slip race is bank-or-push with the stake named in the fiction. Layer over the ghost.
Synergy Collection	strong	Garage builds: parts that interact rather than stack, which is the mechanic's requirement that synergies be real.
Stream Match	workable	A cop chase — spot the cruiser among traffic — but it is a weak fit and the theme does not need it.

After subtraction

Almost nothing overlaps: no other theme owns SELF-IMPROVEMENT AGAINST YOUR OWN RECORD. That is Beat Your Ghost's native ground and this is the only fiction where beating a previous version of yourself is the whole point rather than a scoring device.

Asset burden

Motion is expensive to fake convincingly.

Scenes

Warehouse district · Mountain switchback · City strip · Drag strip · Rooftop parking garage

Vocabulary

the call-out · pink slips · the line · boost

Iconography

Nitrous tank · Racing stripes · Trophy · Checkered flag · Police lights · Modified engine

A named cast, a public vote, and nobody came here to make friends.

• wears
• competitor
• challenger
• squad leader

Role overlap suggests

Cluttered Search · Gather the Right Tool · Match the Tool · Roster Attrition · Stream Match · Strike the Wrong Ones · The Boss Gauntlet · The Container · The Half-Map · Where Experts Look

Roster Attrition	native	The premise, not a layer bolted on — but it IS still a layer, so this theme cannot be built without a host mechanic underneath it.
Bank or Push	native	Immunity or the bigger prize. Also a layer.
Spot the Fabrication	strong	Alliances and the sabotage nobody claims. Needs the mechanic's authored-liar cost.
Shared-Clock Triage	workable	Timed challenges with partial completion.

After subtraction

CAUTION: its two native fits are both LAYERS. A theme whose headline mechanics cannot ship alone is a skin plus a roster over some other reasoning mechanic — not a standalone build. Prison Break has the same problem. Battle Royale is this theme and should be folded in rather than kept separate.

Asset burden

Studio-set look is achievable with flat graphics and a strong scoreboard.

Scenes

Arena · Compound · Jungle camp · Studio set · Isolation pod

Vocabulary

immunity · the alliance · the confessional · the twist

Iconography

Torch or flag · Scoreboard · Buzzer · Wristband tracker · Elimination card · Confessional booth

Scavenging, rationing, and deciding whether to trust the stranger.

• wears
• survivor
• expedition leader
• quartermaster
• scout

Role overlap suggests

Cluttered Search · Predict Before Reveal · Roster Attrition · The Expedition · The Half-Map

Shared-Clock Triage	native	A scavenging run with one daylight window and flat pay per find is the mechanic exactly.
The Inspection Budget	strong	Rationing and salvage-checking: most of what you find is junk, and you cannot examine everything.
Spot the Fabrication	strong	Trust the stranger. The stakes are the settlement rather than a score, which is the strongest version of the mechanic.
The Expedition	strong	The only theme besides Survival with a natural long arc — decisions compound across a journey rather than resetting.
Roster Attrition	workable	A settlement is a named cast, as a layer.

After subtraction

Heavy overlap with Survival and Natural Disaster — all three run on scarcity and triage. After subtraction, this one uniquely owns FACTIONS and the long rebuild: the others are about surviving an event, this is about what you construct afterwards and who you trust to help. Recommend it ABSORBS Survival rather than sitting beside it.

Asset burden

Environment-heavy.

Scenes

Ruined city · Bunker · Overgrown highway · Quarantine zone · Wasteland

Vocabulary

the Event · ration · the quarantine line · salvage

Iconography

Gas mask · Makeshift weapon · Ration can · Geiger counter · Torn map · Radio static