The crews

Every crew on the islands makes one thing well and runs short of another. Nobody can live off their own stock for long, and that simple fact is what keeps the ships moving.

You start out as a drifter, owing nothing to anyone. Each crew has a contact at its headquarters who will tell you what they're about and offer you work: a supply run for whatever they're short of, a consignment to carry to another island, a salvage trip to a far-off islet, or a quiet look around somewhere nobody else wants to go. Do the work well and they'll start to trust you. Once a crew likes you enough, and you've proved it a few times, they'll ask you to join.

Members get a bunk in the crew's town, a share of its stockpile and better pay for its jobs. In return they're expected to keep that stockpile topped up. Your standing is remembered by everyone, not just your own crew, so a favor for one may cost you with another.

The crews are also where you find hands for your ship. Their contacts know who's looking for a berth: lookouts with sharp eyes, guards who'll stand at the rail when raiders come, and medics who'll patch you up between ports. Hands from a crew you belong to cost more and work better.

• Whitetail Ranch

  Fenwick Island, north-west

  Farmers and a fishing co-op who kept the fields planted and the nets mended when everything else stopped. They're friendly, practical and slow to trust, and they remember who helped when the harvest was thin. Their co-op hall is the closest thing the islands have to a town meeting.

  Make foodNeed materials

• Breakwater Salvage

  Dunmore Island, south-west

  If it sank, washed up or got left behind, Breakwater have probably already been through it. They strip wrecks and empty islands for anything that still works, and their workshop can turn three broken engines into one that runs. Loud, filthy and very good at what they do.

  Make materialsNeed fuel

• Harbor Syndicate

  Saltholm, south-east

  Smugglers, fixers and dealers who believe every crate has a price and every rule has a gap. They control most of the fuel left on the islands, which makes them very hard to ignore. Their club in Kelderby is where deals get done, and the boss watches it all from Carrick House on the hill.

  Make fuelNeed medicine

• Lifeline Clinic

  Wellbrook, Hallam Island

  Doctors, nurses and anyone else who could hold a needle steady. They'll patch up whoever comes through the door, crew or drifter or the Administration's own, and they don't ask how it happened. Keeping a clinic open on these islands takes more than goodwill, and they know exactly what they need to keep their people safe on the roads.

  Make medicineNeed ammunition

• Swiftwater Runners

  Corran Island, north-east

  Couriers with the fastest boats in the Sound and crews who know every channel in the dark. If it needs to be somewhere by tomorrow, they'll get it there. They haul their boats out on the old airstrip at Corran Hard and keep them in the hangar that used to house planes, and their dispatch office never closes.

  Make ammunitionNeed food

• The Administration

  Port Hallam

  What's left of the old county government, along with the police, coast guard and soldiers who stayed at their posts when the power went. They kept Port Hallam open when nothing else worked, and they still run it: the harbor office, the checkpoint, the lockup. Some islanders are grateful. Others think the price of their order is too high. They aren't a crew you can sign up to, but their harbor clerk always has contract work for captains who stay on the right side of them.

  Keep the peaceWant no trouble

The stores

Every crew keeps a shared stockpile at its headquarters, watched over by a quartermaster behind the stores counter. It's what keeps the crew fed, fueled and patched up between runs, and it only stays full if the members keep filling it. Bring goods in and the crew thinks better of you for it. Members can draw from the stores when they need to, up to a fair share each day.

Outsiders can raid the stores, too, if they're bold enough to try. It's theft, plain and simple: the crew will remember it for a long time, the Administration will want a word, and the stores take a while to be worth raiding again.

Standing

Every faction keeps a quiet tally of what you've done for them and to them. Honest deliveries and full stockpiles bring you closer; theft, hot-wiring and violence push you away. Friends will greet you in the street and wave you through the gate. Strangers will keep their distance. Make real enemies, and their guards will tell you to turn around while you still can. Tempers cool over time, but they take longer than you'd like.