To stay alive and safe, everyone must pitch in. One of the gravest offenses in the collective is to be a freeloader, someone who doesn’t contribute in any meaningful way. There have been people who were exiled because they skirted responsibilities or were found entirely useless in the past.
There are conflicting ideas of what ‘contributing’ means, and this is a topic we expect will be discussed at the larp. How much is your work worth, and is it enough? Finding your niche and your speciality, making yourself valuable is something that weighs on pretty much everyone’s mind.
Some people in the collective are known to do certain tasks well and have more or less taken responsibility for it. It doesn’t mean that no one else can or should try it, but that those mentioned below are regulars.
Night Hunters
Night hunters leave the group at night or sometimes for days at a time to gather food, search for resources, raid empty buildings and dig up caches. Sometimes they return with bounty, many times they find nothing. Night hunts are imperative for the group, but it is also very dangerous work. You’re exposed to the spores for longer periods of time, including in mold-infested places. You’re also a target for any raiders out there, or you could fall and get injured in the dark. Many people have left on night hunts and never come back. Many more have become ill and died from the Mold. Some people admire night hunters, other see no reason why they should get extra credit for doing this, while everyone else gets nothing. Others still treat them like cattle and demand they go out and not return without having found something. What do you think of them?
Regulars who often go out in the night: Marcos, James, Watson, Meza and Wah Jr.
Medical specialists
Felsing and Jordan are both nurses. They take care of all cuts and bruises, illnesses and injuries as well as treating those who have the Mold. Felsing is considered the main medical asset of the two, even though Jordan is highly skilled too. Perhaps because many people mistrust Jordan’s mental state. Nevertheless, they have often had to cooperate.
Resources
All resources are important, but some more than others. Food, tools, fuel and medicine are crucial for the collective’s wellbeing, and are considered the most valued resources of all. When you find something like this, it’s thought to belong to everyone. That doesn’t mean that everyone is honest about finding it, though. Other resources offer comfort, joy or pleasure and are considered people’s personal property. We encourage you to play heavily on what people have and what you would like to have, bartering and your characters’ different opinions about how resources should be managed.
Some people have taken it upon themselves to keep track of what kind of resources the collective has. Miller, Eames and Leyton try to keep lists and overview of what’s what and who has it. Whether the answers they get are truthful or not remains to be seen. When night hunters return, at least one of them is there to register how much and what’s been found.
Other people are often entrusted with resources like tools and equipment because they are handy and able to build and repair things, for example Olsen and Hill.
Other
There are of course many other tasks that needs doing and most people contribute in some way, making them valuable members of the group.
Hunt ensures that people are fed, accepting the ungrateful job of quarreling with those who see themselves as leaders, arguing that people have to eat, no matter how little the Collective has. Miller, Watson and Rhoades make up the Sanitation crew, checking for spores wherever the Collective goes, and scrubbing down people who drag the deadly fungus around with them.
The de facto leader group of the Collective are Richardson, Thulsa, Daniels and Wah Sr. There are many things they don’t agree on, but they make it work somehow. Still, there are several others who are vying for power also. Although Sisto is not among them, some of his followers probably think a spiritual leader would be best.
At the end of the day, making food, cleaning up, ensuring security, providing entertainment, being a good listener, making and dealing narcotic substances, selling or offering sex, providing leadership, making decisions, or being emotionally available are all things that make life in the collective easier or numb out the pain. Therefore, they are important. If not for all, then for some. It’s not merely down to how much food you can find, resources you can scrounge or comforts you can build. There are a lot of other things that keeps a group running and alive that perhaps are less measurable.