Audience Stability Floor Storyline

Audience Stability Floor Storyline is a non-character pressure storyline for the corporate entertainment layer of Storyteller. It starts when a broadcast can technically continue but the audience no longer has a stable reason to keep watching.

The storyline converts archive, voice, body, fan oxygen, sponsor, pirate relay, and schedule fallout into a playable management fork. The player must decide what stabilizes attention and who owns the cost.

Primary playable question

When the show falls below its entertainment-stability floor, what is allowed to hold the audience in place: proof, money, counter-programming, schedule compression, or silence?

None of these answers are clean wins. Each branch preserves pressure in another surface.

State-triggered entry

Open this storyline when all of the following are true:

1. Audience Stability Index is volatile, breached, patched, bridged, compressed, or spiraling;
2. a broadcast-facing object is active, contested, or scarred: Last Performance, public receipt, sponsor relief surface, fan oxygen ledger, pirate relay, custody contradiction, or Blackout Incident;
3. at least two claimant factions can contest the stabilizing explanation: sponsor desk, fan public, inspector, archive bureau, editor, artist, pirate relay, or schedule board;
4. at least one pressure counter is live: audience_stability, audience_churn, broadcast_floor_breach, public_grief_stability, fan_oxygen_resentment, sponsor_stop_loss_pressure, inspection_heat, contract_capture, schedule_slots_occupied, or black_screen_slots.

This storyline is driven by audience-state and claimant pressure, not by a fixed numbered trigger.

Content pack

Mechanic

• 观众稳定性下限 — defines the state machine and branch costs.

Card

• Audience Stability Index — stores whether the active broadcast floor is stable, volatile, breached, patched, bridged, compressed, or spiraling.

Event

• Ratings Floor Breach — fires when the stability floor becomes a visible management crisis.

Rite

• Audience Stability Triage — the assignable management action that resolves the breach through public proof, sponsor patch, unofficial relay, schedule compression, or suppression.

Existing integration surfaces

• Broadcast Schedule supplies finite slot pressure.
• Blackout Incidents preserves folded failures as scars.
• Audience Correction Afteruse Receipt audits later route use of a prior correction row.
• Audience Stability Regrade Receipt audits later route use of an old stability grade.
• 冠名氧气分诊 supplies sponsor/fan cost movement.
• Orion Breath, Inspector Rhee Archive, Han Cutroom, and 海盗频段童声 act as route assets or claimant surfaces.

Core route states

State	Meaning	Required gameplay effect
floor_met	Attention remains stable enough for the current broadcast promise.	The storyline can remain dormant, but accumulated costs still exist.
volatile_but_legible	The public is unsettled but has an explanation.	Public receipt and fan-witness branches remain available.
ratings_floor_breach	The floor fails and must be triaged.	Offers ratings-floor-breach or an equivalent fork.
public_receipt_floor	Proof or witness explanation stabilizes the breach.	Legitimacy improves; sponsor, inspection, archive, or schedule pressure rises.
sponsor_clean_patch	Money and polish stabilize the breach.	Churn falls; capture, distrust, fraud, or escrow debt rises.
pirate_attention_bridge	Unofficial attention keeps the audience present.	Churn slows; relay, fan oxygen, sponsor, or inspector pressure rises.
schedule_compressed_floor	Slot movement stabilizes attention.	Breach is contained; slot capacity, timer, or blackout debt worsens.
audience_churn_spiral	The breach hardens into audience loss.	Future stabilization costs rise and recovery may require public scar, sponsor capture, pirate relay, or blackout debt.

Branch model

Branch A — Public receipt floor

The player uses a receipt, witness, final-take source, contradiction, or public explanation to let the audience understand the breach.

Expected outcomes:

• set public_receipt_floor or volatile_but_legible;
• audience_stability +1, public_receipt_legitimacy +1, or fan_oxygen_balance +1;
• sponsor_stop_loss_pressure +1, inspection_heat +1, archive_debt +1, or schedule_pressure +1;
• later clean patch or suppression branches become contested.

Branch B — Sponsor clean patch

The player lets sponsor money, relief gala packaging, or a clean reassurance edit stabilize attention.

Expected outcomes:

• set sponsor_clean_patch;
• audience_churn -1 or broadcast_floor_breach -1;
• contract_capture +1, public_receipt_distrust +1, archive_fraud +1, sponsor_escrow_debt +1, or voice_integrity_risk +1;
• later public or inspector routes can challenge the patch.

Branch C — Pirate attention bridge

The player keeps the audience from leaving by letting unofficial relay or fan queue commentary carry the unstable slot.

Expected outcomes:

• set pirate_attention_bridge or fan_attention_bridge;
• audience_churn -1, public_grief_stability +1, or schedule_slot_saved +1;
• inspection_heat +1, relay_custody_risk +1, fan_oxygen_resentment +1, or sponsor_stop_loss_pressure +1;
• future relay custody or fan oxygen accounting becomes a visible pressure.

Branch D — Schedule compression

The player moves, merges, delays, shortens, or folds a slot to keep the audience floor from becoming immediate failure.

Expected outcomes:

• set schedule_compressed_floor;
• broadcast_floor_breach -1 or audience_churn -1;
• schedule_slots_occupied +1, contract_timer_risk +1, black_screen_slots +1, or blackout debt rises;
• later Broadcast Schedule state must remember the scar.

Branch E — Hidden breach / churn spiral

The player suppresses proof, hides fan accounting, or airs a clean ending without solving the audience reason to stay.

Expected outcomes:

• set audience_churn_spiral, floor_breach_hidden, or clean_patch_backlash;
• audience_churn +1, public_grief_stability -1, fan_oxygen_resentment +1, inspection_heat +1, or black_screen_slots +1;
• later public receipt, sponsor, pirate relay, or schedule recovery costs increase.

Counter contract

At least two counters must change whenever the storyline resolves or mutates:

• audience_stability
• audience_churn
• broadcast_floor_breach
• public_grief_stability
• public_receipt_legitimacy
• public_receipt_distrust
• fan_oxygen_balance
• fan_oxygen_resentment
• sponsor_stop_loss_pressure
• sponsor_escrow_debt
• contract_capture
• inspection_heat
• archive_debt
• archive_fraud
• relay_custody_risk
• schedule_slots_occupied
• black_screen_slots

Missability and recovery

The stability floor is missable when the player repeatedly suppresses public explanation, accepts clean sponsor patches without proof, or compresses slots until the audience no longer believes the broadcast contract.

Recovery is allowed, but it must be costly. A churn spiral can only be recovered by at least one of:

• publishing a delayed receipt while accepting public_receipt_distrust;
• taking sponsor relief while accepting contract_capture or sponsor_escrow_debt;
• using pirate or fan attention while accepting relay_custody_risk or fan_oxygen_resentment;
• compressing or restructuring a schedule slot while accepting blackout or slot debt;
• satisfying an inspector, editor, or witness branch at higher cost.

Non-goals

• Not a global mood bar.
• Not a fixed numbered trigger.
• Not a generic PR storyline.
• Not a sponsor clean-win button.
• Not an ending-only page; every route state must alter future assignable options, counters, tags, or route availability.