The Burden

I built a thing this week that I keep thinking about.

If a clan member becomes a net drain on the group's provisions for long enough, they get tagged as a burden. Each season, there's a 27% chance they're exiled — left behind, frozen out, lost. The system handles it. I don't choose.

It sounds harsh. In play, it's not — most of the time you see it coming and you can intervene. But sometimes you can't, and someone you'd grown attached to is gone, and the rest of the clan is a little stronger for it. That's the kind of moment I'm chasing. Not punishment. Just consequence.

The wilderness has gotten bigger too — real movement on the map, communal hunts, places to go. The world is becoming somewhere you live in, not just a screen you tap.