# SKIFF RUN — Captain’s Notes / How To Play

*A fold-sized pamphlet for the Ember chart.*  
*Version 0.9.7 · Keep in the glove box.*

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## 1. What this is (one screen)

You are a tramp captain with a light freighter, a hold that wants filling, and a chart of **sixty-four** named systems. Buy cheap. Sell dear. Jump. Refuel. Try not to get boarded. When your **net** looks respectable enough, dock at a quiet place and hang up the gloves.

That’s the whole loop. The rest of this pamphlet is manners, shortcuts, and a few things old hands mutter about in the yard.

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## 2. Loading the run onto your handheld

No install wizard. No floppy. No “dial-up patch.”

1. Copy the game folder (or open the Pages site your yardmaster published).
2. Open **`index.html`** in a browser that fits in your pocket — Fold, phone, tablet, or a stubborn desktop window.
3. Tap around. Your progress writes itself into local storage. Walk away; come back; the skiff remembers.

If you’re on GitHub Pages, the address looks like a personal Pages root with `/skiff-run/` on the end. Same game either way.

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## 3. The tabs (your cockpit)

Five tabs. Learn them like muscle memory:

| Tab | What it’s for |
|-----|----------------|
| **Dock** | Status, log, **Dock Press** (buyable tips), retire. |
| **Market** | Buy & sell. Row cues: **Cheap — buy** / Fair / **Expensive — skip or sell** vs galaxy average. |
| **Chart** | See the Ember map, pick a target, **Jump**. Modes: Local · Sector · Full (see below). |
| **Yard** | Hulls and bunks. Full commons at real yards; most docks scrap a **Mite**; a few dry docks sell none. Dock work pays once per stay. |
| **Captain** | Pilot handoff, jump prefs, theme packs, **New game**. |

The **status strip** up top is gospel: system, credits (₩), **fuel**, hold fill, and **net**. Glance at it before every jump.

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## 4. Chart — Local / Sector / Full — how to warp

1. Open **Chart**.
2. Pick a mode:
   - **Local** — only systems inside your **fuel reach circle** (what you can jump to now). Camera zooms to that neighborhood.
   - **Sector** — a regional window (~48 units). Camera fits the sector; dim dots are beyond current fuel reach.
   - **Full** — the entire Ember galaxy (all 64 names). Whole map, no neighborhood zoom.
3. Tap a system. Read the target card: fuel cost, dossier, neighbor peeks, and a margin stub if you’re carrying cargo.
4. Hit **Jump** when you’ve got the fuel.

**Important (read twice):** the circle on the chart is **fuel reach** — how far current tanks can take you this hop (capped by hull max), like the Palm ST Short Range Chart. Hull range still hard-caps the longest legal jump; empty tanks shrink the circle.

**New** (Captain tab) reshuffles **x/y** of the same named systems into new lanes. Names stay; geography lies differently every career.

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## 5. Trading basics + starter strategies

**Goods (base list prices, before system moods):**

- Hull Scrap · Dry Grain · Basalt Ore · Rack Spice · Lens Optics · Field Meds  

Cheap bulk at the bottom; meds and optics pay when you find a hungry dock.

**You start** at **Ember Reach** in a **Skiff-7** with **₩3,200** and a full tank. Net counts cash + cargo value + half the list price of your hull — so a fat hold and a nicer ship both count toward retirement even before you liquidate.

### Starter habits that actually work

1. **Peek before you fill.** Target a neighbor on the Chart; glance at peeks and the margin line. Don’t buy what the next dock also dumps cheap.
2. **One good arbitrage beat six mediocre ones.** Fill the hold with a single underpriced staple when the mods look juicy (ore near Ember Reach, scrap near Ash Meridian, grain at orchard-ish worlds — watch the dossier).
3. **Fuel is ₩45 a unit.** Short hops compound; empty tanks turn corsair flees into shakedowns. Keep a cushion.
4. **Leave red nodes for later.** Node color tracks **pirate risk** (teal quiet → red hot). Teal halos hint at trade edge from here. Early Skiff-7s draw less heat when they’re small and unarmed — still don’t go looking for Swarms.
5. **Sell all** at a peak, then replot. Empty hold + full wallet = options.

When you’re ready to scale, hunt a **yard** (Ember Reach, Ash Meridian, Knot Harbor, and several others on the Full chart). Bigger hold or longer legs — pick one dream and save for it.

**Soft-fail:** go broke and the galaxy still has a path. **Dock work** pays a small stake once per stay. **Most** docks scrap a free **Mite** (overflow cargo gets jettisoned). Dead-tech or corsair-hot pads stay **dry** — no hulls — so learn the chart. Trading *down* pays scrap into your pocket.

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## 6. Hulls, fuel vs range, encounters

Relative hull sizes (Mite → Quiet Ark, including Unbowed and Wasp Prime) live on the **Ember Hull Scale Chart** in `docs/hull-roster.md`.

### Hulls you’ll actually sign for (this build)

| Hull | Hold | Tank | Range | Arms | Notes |
|------|------|------|-------|------|-------|
| **Skiff-7** | 20 | 14 | 28 | no | Starter. Quiet profile. |
| **Hold Barge** | 40 | 18 | 32 | no | Money printer; still runs from fights. |
| **Ember Cutter** | 16 | 16 | 38 | yes | Legs + guns; hire crew before you swagger. |

Yards trade in your old hull (trade-*down* can cash out). Crew hire/fire lives on the Yard tab (bunks matter if you plan to **Fight**). Unbowed is not open stock.

### Encounters on the lane

Jumps can raise:

- **Ash Corsairs** — dump cargo or flee (burns fuel). Armed + crewed can **Fight** for salvage — or eat repair bills.
- **Ledger Wardens** — pay the fine or attempt a bluff (bluffs fail, sometimes loudly).
- **Lane traders** — hail for a quick deal, or wave them off.

Odds lean on the **destination’s** police/pirate activity. Chart colors are not decoration.

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## 7. Winning (Quiet Moon)

Retirement is not a secret ending screen with fireworks — it’s a dock button.

- Grow **net** to about **₩35,000**.
- Dock at **Quiet Moon**.
- Press **Retire on Quiet Moon** when it lights up.

Net, not raw cash alone. Cargo and half a ship’s list price count. Some captains liquidate at the moon’s market first; some don’t. Either way, when the button wakes up, you’ve made it.

**New game** starts a fresh captain and a freshly shuffled chart. Same stars, new gossip.

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## 8. Strange frequencies

*(Yard mutter. Not a spoiler list. Confirm with your own eyes.)*

- Some captains swear the yard **sings in three colors** — and that the tune remembers you separately from the run.
- There is talk of handing the stick to a quiet co-pilot marked only **You** / **Agent**. Take it back when the lane feels wrong.
- A jump preference exists that **tops the tanks on arrive** if you can afford the pump. Old Palm habits die hard.
- Chart toggles that sound like radio bands — **Local · Sector · Full** — are real mode switches, not wallpaper.
- Red and teal on the map mean more than pretty ink. The circle is fuel reach (not a permanent hull halo). Learn it before midnight jumps.
- **New** does not invent new worlds. It lies about the roads between the old ones.
- Patrols and raiders have names. You’ll learn them the first time a dialog box refuses to be ignored.
- Rumor places a soft ending at a moon that doesn’t advertise — bring enough net, not just hope.

If something isn’t in the code, it isn’t in this pamphlet. We don’t invent ghosts.

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## 9. Credits (honest, period voice)

**Skiff Run** is an of1 / Andrew Lazo title — Ember names, Fold shell, hull art, themes.

The trade-run bones tip the hat to **Pieter Spronck’s Space Trader** (Palm OS freeware, **GPLv2**). We studied the manners of that classic; we wrote our own chart and fiction. See `CREDITS.md` and the LICENSE in the box.

If you liked the old Palm loop: welcome home. If you’re new: buy low, jump careful, retire proud.

— *End of Captain’s Notes.*  
*Pass this file around. Shareware etiquette still counts.*