OPERATOR TACTICS // FLOODED LONDON // HEX CRAWL SUPPLEMENT // THAMES BREACH ZONE // EARTH 2066 // ALIGNED_WITH_RULES_v4.0   //  OPERATOR TACTICS // FLOODED LONDON // HEX CRAWL SUPPLEMENT // THAMES BREACH ZONE // EARTH 2066 // ALIGNED_WITH_RULES_v4.0   //  OPERATOR TACTICS // FLOODED LONDON // HEX CRAWL SUPPLEMENT // THAMES BREACH ZONE // EARTH 2066 // ALIGNED_WITH_RULES_v4.0
OT_TABLETOP // FLOODED_LONDON // HEX_CRAWL_SUPPLEMENT // v1 // ALIGNED_WITH_RULES_v4.0 // LIVE
OT_TABLETOP // FLOODED_LONDON // HEX_CRAWL_SUPPLEMENT // v1 // ALIGNED_WITH_RULES_v4.0 // LIVE

FLOODED
LONDON

// THAMES BREACH ZONE | EARTH 2066 | REQUIRES: HEX CRAWL SYSTEM v2
OPERATOR TACTICS // FLOODED LONDON HEX CRAWL SUPPLEMENT

The Situation

The Thames Barrier failed on March 14, 2047. Not catastrophically — not all at once. The eastern gates held for eleven hours while engineers on the night shift tried to reach someone with authorization to flood the fields instead. By the time the authorization came through, there was no one to receive it. Three counties of tidal surge had already made the decision.

NAF classified the failure investigation in 2049. Nobody who was on duty that night still lives in London.

It is now 2066. The Thames is twenty times its pre-Upheaval width. Canary Wharf's towers stand in water. Parliament is submerged. The tube network flooded in stages over four years and the last trains ran in 2051. The flood line runs roughly east-west through the middle of the city, with the south and north high ground still habitable and the central zone ranging from ankle-deep to fully submerged.

Population: approximately 180,000 people still inside the flood boundary. Pre-Upheaval London housed nine million. Nobody agrees on what happened to the others.

How to Use This Document

This supplement provides Flooded London as an operational area for Operator Tactics Hex Crawl System v2. It adds London-specific environmental rules, a 10x8 hex grid covering the Thames Breach Zone, keyed hex profiles for 13 locations, a faction layer, encounter tables, and mission seeds.

The core loop, resource tracking, operator specializations, and encounter resolution all run from Hex Crawl v2 unchanged. This document overlays London's specific pressure systems on top of that framework.

The HTML hex map file (flooded_london_map.html) should be open at the table for reference. Hover or click any hex for operational details. Keyed hexes — the ones with full profiles in this document — are marked with a gold diamond on the map.

Environmental Rules: London Addendum

Water Depth Tiers

Flooded London operates across four distinct water depth conditions. The tier of a hex determines available movement approaches, cover conditions, and resource consumption. Terrain and tidal state can shift a hex up or down one tier.

Tier Depth Movement Notes
SHALLOW 0–0.5m Standard. No penalty. Stealth checks +1 difficulty (water noise). Contamination check on rest if skin exposed.
WADING 0.5–1.5m 2 Phases per hex. Forced Entry unavailable. Stealth: TACT vs 5+. No prone cover. Gear waterproof check per Phase (TACT 4+) or lose 1 item.
SWIMMING 1.5–3m Boat required. Swimming: GUTS 4+ per Phase, fail = 1 Fatigue. Nat 1 = 2 Fatigue. Combat on boats. Reduced cover. SHOOT -1 from boat instability.
SUBMERGED 3m+ Dive gear required. Without it: GUTS 5+ per Phase. Fail = 2 Fatigue. At 0 GUTS: drowning. With dive gear: 1 Phase per hex. SHOOT -2. FIGHT unaffected.

Tidal Cycle

London's flood is not static. The tidal cycle creates a 6-hour shift between high and low water. This runs on the session clock alongside the standard hex crawl Phase system.

Note The tide table is public knowledge in-world. Every faction plans around it. Players who don't learn it will be operating at a persistent disadvantage.

Contamination Protocol

London's floodwater carries chemical, biological, and radiological traces from decades of industrial infrastructure that drowned without proper decommissioning.

Contamination Table

D6 Result Mechanical Effect
1Clear.No effect.
2Skin irritation.-1 to GUTS checks for 24 hours.
3Respiratory.-1 to all checks for next session.
4Fever onset.+1 Fatigue, unrecoverable until medically treated.
5Acute exposure.Treat as Flesh Wound requiring medical attention.
6Severe.Treat as Mortal Wound. Requires off-grid specialist.

Structural Collapse Risk

Flooded buildings are dying. Water works on foundations for years. Assign a Collapse Risk rating to any building operators enter in a flood-zone hex: LOW / MODERATE / HIGH / CRITICAL.

Modified Resource Tracking

SUPPLY

Standard consumption. Resupply checks in flood-zone hexes are one difficulty step harder.

CLEAN WATER

Track separately. Flood water keeps you alive but requires a contamination roll. Clean water is a premium resource — you can survive without it for 48 hours before physical penalties begin.

FUEL (BOATS)

Each Phase of boat movement burns 1 Fuel unit. Track as team resource. At 0 Fuel, rowing takes 2 Phases per hex and costs +1 Fatigue.

BATTERY

Electronic gear drains faster in flood conditions. Each session of wet operations: TACT vs 4+ check. Failure: one electronic item needs recharge or replacement.

Hex Profiles

ZONE_01
North Zone

Elevated hexes. Dry. Occupied. These are the zones where the survivors built something. They're running out of everything and don't have the infrastructure to fix it.

HEX C1 — HAMPSTEAD HEIGHTS

Security: ACTIVE  |  Infrastructure: STRAINED  |  Civilians: PACKED  |  Surveillance: DRONE SWEEP (3hr rotation)  |  Faction: NAF dominant / Tideline present  |  Contamination: NONE  |  Black market: LIGHT  |  Mobility: CHECKPOINTED
Function

NAF's primary London foothold. Houses the only functioning large-scale water processing station north of the flood line.

Controller

NAF London Station (on paper). Tideline Authority (controls food distribution). Neither fully acknowledges the other's power.

Draw

Clean water. The only reliable source north of the flood line. Medical bay. Only functioning clinic in this sector. NAF equipment exchange. Overpriced. Available. Structural shelter. Pre-Upheaval housing, still sound. Intel feeds from NAF satellite relay (curated).

Risk

NAF enforcement. ID checks, curfew, biometric registration. Water access politics. Permits required, easily revoked. Overcrowding drives disease pressure. The medical bay is already at capacity. Suspected informant network seeded throughout civilian population.

Scarcity

Food. All imported through Tideline channels. NAF doesn't produce it. Fuel. Rationed. Medical consumables. The medic is stretching everything. Space. Too many people.

Under-System

The water processing station runs on one aging turbine on a hybrid solar-battery system. When it fails — and it will — 2,000 people have 48 hours of reserves.

When It Strains

Water rationed by NAF priority class. Operators not on NAF manifest get cut first. The Tideline Authority's food leverage doubles overnight. People start making quiet arrangements with black market runners across the flood line.

Day

NAF Alpha Rotation on checkpoint. Economy: water permits, medical access, equipment. Risk: ID sweeps, informant activity.

Night

Tideline Authority block wardens. Economy: black market water, permit forgery. Risk: displacement violence, curfew raids.

Signature

The old Parliament Hill path runs straight up to a water processing station the size of a shipping container — pipes everywhere, condensation streaming down, three civilians waiting with repurposed canisters. The queue hasn't moved in an hour.

Encounters — Day (D6)
1
NAF checkpoint added biometric scan requirement overnight. Nobody has authorization to explain why.
2
Tideline supply runner arguing with a NAF trooper about a food delivery that hasn't arrived.
3
Three civilians selling NAF water permits. The permits are real. They're stolen.
4
A gene-forged operator being questioned at the water station entrance. Papers in order. Guard doesn't care.
5
A Black Reach contractor walks out of the medical bay with a fresh wound and no explanation for how they got in.
6
The turbine makes a sound it hasn't made before. A NAF tech runs toward the water station. The queue watches.
Encounters — Night (D6)
1
Tideline block warden extorting a family for priority water access. Cash or labor.
2
Permit forger sets up under a collapsed awning, takes two customers, vanishes before night patrol.
3
A NAF trooper quietly selling confiscated equipment from a bag. Nervous. The equipment is quality.
4
Someone transmitting on a NAF-monitored frequency from three blocks up. NAF has been scrambling for 20 minutes.
5
A water delivery goes wrong. Two people fighting over a can in the street.
6
Black Reach extraction team moving through — two people, no lights, moving fast. Carrying something.
Rumors (D6)
1
TRUE The turbine has a known failure mode. The tech knows exactly when it fails. She was told to say nothing.
2
TRUE The Tideline Authority has a secondary water cache south of the flood line — not registered with NAF.
3
FALSE NAF is planning a census sweep to revoke unregistered civilian permits. (They're discussing it, not decided.)
4
TRUE, MISLEADING Black Reach has someone embedded here. (One person — not a network.)
5
TRUE A NAF permit can be duplicated with 30-second access to the original scan code. Someone at the checkpoint knows this.
6
TRUE A contamination event is developing three hexes south. NAF knows. Tideline Authority doesn't.
Contacts

MARTA SZALAY, NAF water station tech. CAN GET: turbine failure timeline, processing output data, NAF maintenance schedule. WANTS: a way out of London before the turbine fails — her orders say she cannot leave her post. FEARS: being held responsible when the system fails. CURRENT PRESSURE: she was ordered last week to falsify maintenance logs.

OBI NNADI, Tideline block warden (corrupt). CAN GET: food distribution records, civilian population data, under-the-counter water permits. WANTS: a specific civilian found and brought to him — they witnessed something. FEARS: the civilian finding him first. CURRENT PRESSURE: regional Tideline lead coming for inspection in four days.

VEE, unlicensed forger. CAN GET: NAF transit permits, civilian ID packages, basic access credentials. WANTS: a working bio-mod calibration tool — hers broke, she can't do fine work without it. FEARS: one specific NAF corporal who knows her face. CURRENT PRESSURE: her latest permit batch has an undetected error. Five people are walking around with it.

HEX G1 — WALTHAMSTOW RIDGE

Security: LIGHT  |  Infrastructure: STRAINED  |  Civilians: NORMAL  |  Faction: TIDELINE dominant  |  Black market: NONE  |  Mobility: CHECKPOINTED
Function

Tideline Authority food production node — 40% of south London's food supply comes from hydroponic towers here.

Under-System

Former industrial buildings converted to vertical food production. The Tideline Authority runs it. The Dredge Compact is taxing the transit routes in and out. The Tideline Authority is paying under protest. This cannot continue.

Draw

Food and seeds — the only things people here will always trade for. Processing equipment. Agricultural expertise.

Risk

Dredge Compact enforcement on transit lanes. Single point of failure for Tideline food supply. Workers who know their leverage.

Contacts

Botanist-engineer hybrid who keeps the hydroponic systems running; Tideline logistics coordinator who knows exactly what the Dredge Compact is charging; Dredge Compact toll collector who is deeply uncomfortable with what they've been told to do.

ZONE_02
Flood Boundary

The transition zone. Where the street ends and the water begins. These hexes exist because necessity created them.

HEX B3 — CAMDEN THRESHOLD

Security: NONE  |  Infrastructure: FAILING  |  Civilians: PACKED  |  Faction: CONTESTED (3 groups)  |  Black market: HEAVY  |  Mobility: FLOODED LOWER STREETS
Function

The flood line crossing point. A market grew here because people needed a market here.

Controller

Nobody. Three groups claim control. None of them agree on what control means here.

Draw

Boat docking — the northern terminus for flood-zone watercraft. Supply exchange — food coming down from Walthamstow, salvage coming up from the flood zone. Black market permits: NAF transit, Dredge Compact dive, Tideline food allocation. Information — everyone passes through here.

Risk

Three factions in constant territorial friction. Violence is always close. No enforcement means no protection either. Price gouging for essential supplies. You pay what the market demands. NAF drone sweeps every 6 hours — not enforcing, monitoring.

Scarcity

Safe passage guarantees. There are none. Neutral ground. There is none. Fixed prices. There are none.

Under-System

The market generates enough informal revenue that all three factions want to control it and none of them will allow any of the others to. The resulting stalemate is the only reason it still functions.

When It Strains

When one faction gets strong enough to push — or when a Dredge Compact transport tax makes the river route commercially unviable — the market fractures. Three smaller, worse, less useful markets appear in its place. People die of access failure in the weeks following.

Day

Three faction-affiliated boat handlers jostling for dock priority. Economy: everything. Risk: faction friction, price extortion.

Night

Dredge Compact controls boat traffic after dark. Economy: premium black market access. Risk: Dredge enforcement, unlit water, structural instability.

Signature

A hundred boats tied to a submerged park railing, eight rows deep. On the bank, twelve vendors in whatever waterproof gear they could find. The sound is continuous — engines, argument, water, transaction.

Encounters — Day (D6)
1
Dock dispute — two boats both claiming the same slip. One of them has Dredge papers. One has Tideline papers.
2
Price for clean water just tripled while you were watching. No explanation offered.
3
A supply runner from Walthamstow arrives three hours late and won't explain why. Their cargo is lighter than expected.
4
NAF drone doing a very low sweep. Slower than usual. Someone is looking for something specific.
5
Black Reach buyer at a table in the middle of the market, openly purchasing salvage data. Nobody is stopping them.
6
A faction enforcer is collecting "dock fees" from boats that arrived this morning. The boats paid yesterday.
Encounters — Night (D6)
1
Dredge Compact running a late supply transfer — two boats, no lights. They're clearly not going through official channels.
2
Someone is forging Dredge Compact transit permits at a folding table under a canopy. Quality is excellent.
3
A fight over a salvage piece. It's escalating past argument.
4
A Tideline supply runner is trying to move cargo upriver without paying the Dredge toll. They think they've found a route. They haven't.
5
Black Reach extraction team coming upriver fast. They're bringing something out of the flood zone. Covered with a tarp.
6
One of the dock handlers is dead in the water. Nobody has reported it. Three people near the dock have noticed.
Rumors (D6)
1
TRUE The Dredge Compact is planning to close the Camden Threshold dock access unless transit fees triple. They need the revenue.
2
FALSE NAF is running an undercover operation at the market. (They're monitoring, not infiltrating — yet.)
3
TRUE One faction's "enforcer" is on Black Reach's payroll. They're here for intel, not enforcement.
4
TRUE A specific cargo came through three days ago — labeled as food — that was not food. It went south.
5
TRUE, INCOMPLETE The Dredge Compact found something in a submerged building near Euston. They haven't announced what.
6
FALSE There's a Tideline Authority safe route through the flood zone that bypasses Camden entirely. (No such route exists.)
Contacts

KESS, independent dock handler. CAN GET: cargo manifests (unofficial), boat schedules, who's moving what when. WANTS: a favor from someone with NAF access — her brother is on a detention list. FEARS: the Dredge Compact finding out she's been talking to Tideline runners without taking the Compact cut.

THE BUYER (no name given), Black Reach procurement. CAN GET: top-tier salvage prices, introduction to Black Reach operations. WANTS: specific technical components — gives a list. FEARS: being identified. CURRENT PRESSURE: a competitor is working the same market.

OMORUYI, Tideline supply coordinator. CAN GET: Tideline food allocation data, route information north to Walthamstow, community contacts across inhabited London. WANTS: reliable boat security for the supply line. FEARS: the Dredge Compact transit fee making food distribution economically impossible.

HEX F3 — HACKNEY WETLANDS

Security: NONE  |  Infrastructure: COLLAPSED  |  Civilians: NONE  |  Contamination: HIGH  |  Black market: NONE  |  Mobility: FLOODED / RESTRICTED
Function

The old marshes absorbed the flood and became something that wasn't planned. Feral. Growing.

Under-System

Stratford industrial collapse runoff seeded the water with failed biotech compounds. Gene-forged aquatic organisms — experimental remnants from programs that ended badly — are breeding here. The contamination level is HIGH. The collapse risk in any submerged structure is CRITICAL. Nobody controls this hex. The organisms are beginning to expand territory.

Draw

Nothing you want. The only reason to enter is if something valuable went in here first, or if you need to reach Stratford without going through the Dredge Compact lanes.

Risk

Gene-forged aquatic predators (see Feral entry, Encounter Table B). Contamination HIGH. Structural collapse CRITICAL. No extraction support if something goes wrong.

Warning Three consecutive Signs in this hex mean you're being tracked.
Contacts

No named contacts inside the hex. Dredge Compact dive team leader who surveys the boundary; ex-biotech researcher at Hackney North who knows what the organisms are (and feels responsible); Tideline environmental monitor who tracks the expansion of the contamination zone.

ZONE_03
Shallow Flood Zone

Wading to boat-required depth. Former city. The bones of what London was, visible at the waterline.

HEX C4 — SOHO WADING DISTRICT

Security: NONE  |  Infrastructure: FAILING  |  Civilians: SPARSE  |  Contamination: PRESENT (industrial, low)  |  Black market: HEAVY  |  Mobility: BOAT LANES (1-1.5m water)
Function

The cultural core of flooded London. Former Soho streets now navigated by flat-bottomed boat. The city's informal economy.

Under-System

Upper floors of hundreds of buildings are above water — some still occupied. The Dry Bar on Dean Street (third floor) has been open continuously since the flood. It serves as an intel hub. NAF does not officially acknowledge it exists. Everyone else uses it.

Draw

The Dry Bar for intel and contacts. Salvage access to cultural district buildings. Black market operating from upper-floor locations. Art and data recovery economy.

Risk

Structural collapse on lower floors is HIGH. Boat traffic is navigable but unpredictable. Multiple factions passing through with no clear dominance — friction is constant and random.

Note The Dredge Compact has begun charging transit fees for use of the main boat lane on Oxford Street. Not everyone is paying.
Contacts

Dry Bar owner (information, neutral, price is a drink or a secret); Dredge Compact boat lane marshal (permits and leverage); cultural salvage operator who knows which buildings are still sound.

HEX E4 — SHOREDITCH BREACH

Security: LIGHT  |  Infrastructure: FAILING  |  Faction: THREE-WAY (Black Reach / Dredge / NAF pending)  |  Contamination: PRESENT  |  Black market: HEAVY  |  Mobility: BOAT / UPPER FLOOR ACCESS
Function

Former tech district. Server farms and startup infrastructure accessible from upper floors. The hardware economy runs through here.

Under-System

Black Reach has a standing contract for pre-Upheaval server stock. The Dredge Compact runs dive ops here under a salvage license they issued to themselves. NAF wants to establish a checkpoint to tax both of them. Nobody is cooperating.

Draw

Pre-Upheaval server hardware (premium price). Tech salvage of every kind. Access to a NAF monitoring antenna on the roof of a flooded building that still transmits — no one is supposed to know this.

Risk

Three factions in a small space. All of them armed. Structural collapse MODERATE to HIGH on lower floors. Contamination PRESENT from industrial runoff through Bethnal Green.

Contacts

Black Reach embedded tech (data acquisition; wants secure comms); Dredge Compact dive lead (equipment, access, wants a rival crew dealt with); NAF signals analyst who is absolutely not supposed to be here (checkpoint intel, wants this meeting to never have happened).

ZONE_04
Deep Flood / Thames Zone

Boat or dive. The city under the water. The reason everyone is still here, working these hexes.

HEX B5 — WESTMINSTER TOWER

Security: ACTIVE  |  Infrastructure: FAILING (structural)  |  Faction: TIDELINE dominant  |  Surveillance: LIGHT  |  Black market: NONE  |  Mobility: BOAT (2-3m water at base)
Function

Symbolic headquarters of the Tideline Authority. The clock tower as political statement.

Controller

Tideline Authority (formal claim). The tower is structurally compromised at the waterline. The report has been suppressed for six months.

Draw

Tideline Authority access — the closest thing London has to legitimate governance. Intel on south London civilian network. Symbolic value. Controlling this location means something.

Risk

The tower is dying. Dive engineers have stalled the structural report. Everyone who works here knows. Three meters of contaminated water at the base. Entry by boat only. NAF considers this a symbolic provocation. They have not acted. Yet.

Scarcity

Structural honesty. Nobody tells the truth about the tower's timeline. Food. Even here. Extraction plan. There isn't one.

Under-System

The Tideline Authority's legitimacy is symbolically anchored to this building. If the tower falls, the governance structure doesn't automatically fall with it — but the fracture lines it creates between the five Brixton Rise neighborhood councils will be severe enough to threaten the coalition.

When It Strains

When the waterline breach accelerates, the Authority has 48 hours to execute an emergency governance transfer. Nobody has written the plan. The person who should have written it keeps meaning to.

Day

Tideline official meetings and delegation briefings. Economy: governance access, resource authorization. Risk: structural concern that nobody discusses aloud.

Night

Security rotation and private communications. Economy: nothing official. Risk: the building settles audibly at high tide.

Signature

Big Ben's clock face looks out over three meters of brown water. The clock stopped in 2049. The hands are still there, pointing at 11:43, which is when the last engineer decided the mechanism wasn't worth fixing.

Encounters — Day (D6)
1
A Tideline delegation arriving from Brixton Rise by boat — three boats, formal, guards. Something important is happening today.
2
A dive survey team attached to the Tideline Authority is assessing the base of the tower. They look worried.
3
A boat from the Soho direction is docked without authorization. Nobody is checking it.
4
NAF drone doing a slow pass — not standard surveillance height. Someone is looking at the structure.
5
Two Tideline Authority officials are arguing at the top of the access stairs. Voices are raised.
6
A piece of the tower face breaks loose. It falls into the water. Nobody says anything.
Encounters — Night (D6)
1
Tideline Authority communication being sent on a non-standard frequency. Encrypted. Someone doesn't want NAF listening.
2
A boat is leaving the tower after dark. One passenger. Moving fast toward the Vault District.
3
The structural engineer is on the observation level in the dark. Not working. Just sitting.
4
Someone is on the exterior of the tower, below the observation deck, with dive gear. Nobody authorized this.
5
A water-level mark on the tower wall shows the flood has risen 4cm since last month. This is new.
6
The tower settles. Distinctly. A crack runs up the southern wall that wasn't there this morning.
Rumors (D6)
1
TRUE The structural report exists. It was completed six weeks ago. It has not been released. The engineer has a copy.
2
TRUE NAF has made an informal offer to the Tideline Authority: abandon the tower, accept NAF structural oversight of Brixton Rise. Tideline said no.
3
FALSE The tower is stable for another two years. (It is not.)
4
TRUE Someone in the Tideline Authority is feeding NAF information about governance meeting schedules.
5
TRUE, INCOMPLETE A Tideline operative has been accessing something in the Vault District. What they're looking for involves the Barrier failure.
6
TRUE The five Brixton Rise councils don't agree on a succession if the tower falls during a session. Three of them have different people in mind.
Contacts

DIRECTOR AMARA OSEI-BONSU, Tideline Authority leadership. CAN GET: governance access, civilian network intel, resource authorization, Tideline favor. WANTS: the structural report quietly confirmed or buried — she needs to know how long she has before she must make a public decision. FEARS: the coalition fracturing before she has a plan.

GORAN PAVIC, dive structural engineer. CAN GET: the real structural assessment, access to the underwater base of the tower, dive knowledge of the Westminster flood zone. WANTS: to be told he doesn't have to suppress the report anymore. FEARS: the Tideline Authority and what they'll do if the report becomes public.

PRIYA NAIR, Tideline communications lead. CAN GET: Tideline comms schedule, faction communications intel, introduction to the Tideline intelligence network. WANTS: to identify the leak inside the authority. FEARS: it's someone she trusts.

HEX D5 — VAULT DISTRICT

Security: NONE (surface) / CONTESTED (sub-surface)  |  Infrastructure: COLLAPSED  |  Contamination: PRESENT  |  Black market: HEAVY (data/assets)  |  Mobility: SUBMERGED (dive required, 3-4m)
Function

The City of London financial district — submerged. The vaults are in the basements. Black Reach has been trying to get to them for 18 months.

Under-System

The financial data stored in these basements represents leverage over corporations and governments that were supposed to be regulated out of existence. Black Reach's client consortium needs this data. Three of the buildings are approaching catastrophic structural failure — 5 to 10 days on the worst estimates. After collapse, the data is inaccessible permanently.

Draw

Pre-Upheaval financial data (Black Reach contract). Structural steel and infrastructure salvage (Dredge Compact). Anything that goes under here tends to stay under.

Risk

Structural collapse CRITICAL on lower floors. Three-way conflict (Black Reach / Dredge Compact / independent salvagers). No extraction point if you're inside when something fails. Underwater visibility: 2 meters on a good day.

Contacts

Black Reach dive team lead (access, equipment, wants muscle for distraction op); Dredge Compact sector manager (competing salvage license; wants the Black Reach team out); independent dive operator who knows which buildings are still safe (for now).

HEX F5 — CANARY WHARF SPIRES

Security: ACTIVE  |  Infrastructure: STRAINED  |  Civilians: SPARSE (Dredge staff)  |  Faction: DREDGE COMPACT dominant  |  Contamination: PRESENT (low)  |  Black market: HEAVY  |  Mobility: BOAT (to 8th floor), DIVE (lobby level)
Function

The towers above the flood. The Dredge Compact's primary London base. The only commercial dive operation in the flood zone.

Under-System

The towers stand in four meters of water at their bases. The Dredge Compact operates from the 22nd floor of the largest tower. They control the only commercial-grade dock-lift system for flood zone access. They run guided dive operations into the submerged lobbies. The reef forming beneath the towers has been growing for four years. Something large is using it as territory. The Dredge dive team has stopped entering the eastern lobby without explaining why.

Draw

Dive equipment and access. Flood lane transit permits. The only functioning commercial dock in the flood zone. Intel from the only people who regularly operate in deep water.

Risk

Dredge Compact enforcement — they own the space and know they own it. The thing in the eastern lobby. Equipment failure far from any support.

Contacts

Dredge Compact operations director (permits, access, wants competitors handled); dive equipment specialist (gear, underwater intel, wants out of the Dredge Compact but owes them too much); reef survey researcher who is documenting the organism that the Dredge won't name.

HEX H5 — GREENWICH HILL

Security: LIGHT  |  Infrastructure: STABLE  |  Civilians: SPARSE (researchers)  |  Faction: NONE (independent)  |  Contamination: NONE  |  Black market: NONE  |  Mobility: ELEVATED
Function

The Royal Observatory. The best sightlines over the Thames corridor. The only faction-neutral intelligence hub in London.

Under-System

A group of former university researchers refused to leave when the evacuation orders came. They stayed, documented the flood's progress, and built a functioning intelligence operation. They sell data to everyone — NAF, Tideline, Black Reach, Dredge Compact. Their neutrality is their business model. They know this is temporary.

Draw

Best available intelligence on Thames corridor movement. Faction-neutral access — the only place in London where you can meet a NAF contact and a Black Reach contact on the same afternoon. Satellite uplink (limited). Signal intercept capability.

Risk

Everyone knows this place exists. Everyone has considered taking it. The researchers survive because all four factions currently need the neutrality more than the control. The day that calculus changes, the observatory becomes a battlefield.

Contacts

Lead researcher and intelligence broker (sells everything; price is information, not money); signals analyst (intercept data; wants equipment they can't get through official channels); observatory archivist who has been documenting the Barrier failure since 2047 and has information NAF classified — and classified again when the first classification didn't hold.

HEX I5 — BARRIER BREACH

Security: NONE  |  Infrastructure: CATASTROPHICALLY FAILED  |  Civilians: NONE  |  Faction: NONE  |  Contamination: CRITICAL  |  Mobility: EXTREME HAZARD (dive + current)
Function

The original failure point. The Thames Barrier, collapsed. The reason all of this flooding exists.

Under-System

Extreme current through the debris field at every tidal shift. Three dive teams sent for assessment have not returned. The official NAF explanation is structural collapse risk. The classification level on all Barrier documentation has been raised twice since 2047. Somebody approved the decommissioning of the Barrier maintenance program in 2044. That person's name is in the classified files. The observatory archivist at Greenwich has been trying to establish that name for fifteen years.

Draw

The classified documentation on the Barrier failure — if it still exists underwater. The name of who authorized the decommissioning. The answer to what happened to the three dive teams.

Risk

Everything. CRITICAL contamination. Extreme current (navigation requires TACT vs 5+, failure = swept into tidal zone, no recovery). Structural debris CRITICAL collapse throughout. Something in the debris field that the Dredge Compact refuses to name.

Contacts

No living contacts in this hex. The Observatory archivist (Greenwich) is the closest thing to a guide for what might be found here — from a safe distance.

ZONE_05
South Zone

Elevated south London. Where the surviving city is actually trying to function.

HEX C7 — BRIXTON RISE

Security: ACTIVE  |  Infrastructure: STRAINED  |  Civilians: PACKED (8,000-12,000)  |  Faction: TIDELINE dominant  |  Black market: LIGHT  |  Surveillance: INFORMANT NET  |  Mobility: OPEN
Function

The largest survivor settlement in London. The Tideline Authority's operational capital. The closest thing to a city still functioning.

Controller

Tideline Authority (formal). Five neighborhood councils that barely agree on anything (actual).

Draw

Food — the most food in one place south of the flood line. Medical care. Two functioning clinics. Solar-powered electricity. Twelve hours per day. A real market. Not black market — actual commerce. Gene-forged operators are common here. No scrutiny.

Risk

Five neighborhood councils. If they stop cooperating, the settlement fractures. Running out of food. Six to eight weeks from crisis. Leadership knows. Leadership is not saying. Informant network — the councils watch each other, not just outsiders. NAF considers Brixton Rise the most significant non-NAF power center in London.

Scarcity

Food. The crisis is coming. It is already here on the ledger. Long-term infrastructure. Everything is patched, not fixed. Trust between councils. It is wearing.

Under-System

The settlement operates on the assumption that the Walthamstow Ridge food supply chain remains functional. If the Dredge Compact succeeds in making that supply economically unviable — or if the Hackney Wetlands organism expands to disrupt the northern routes — Brixton Rise has six weeks of reserve food. After that: hardship rationing, then crisis.

When It Strains

Ration reduction sparks friction between councils. Council 3 (Coldharbour Lane block) has already discussed separating from the coalition and making a direct deal with NAF. If food drops below 70% of current allocation, that conversation becomes a vote.

Day

Five council offices open. Market active. Medical intake ongoing. Risk: council politics, informant surveillance, queue pressure at food distribution.

Night

Black market operates on three streets. Gene-forged operators socialize openly in certain establishments. Risk: council enforcement varies by district — Council 4 runs night patrols.

Signature

Brixton Hill at 7am: the food distribution queue stretches four blocks before the market opens. Solar panels catch the morning light. Somewhere a generator is running. It sounds healthy. For now.

Encounters — Day (D6)
1
Two neighborhood council members are in a quiet, vicious argument outside the distribution point.
2
A supply runner from Walthamstow arriving — one crate missing from the expected manifest. No explanation.
3
Gene-forged operator asking questions about the northern transit routes. Getting answers from people who should know better.
4
Medical clinic intake queue longer than usual. Twelve people with the same type of wound. Nobody is explaining.
5
NAF contact operating openly in the market. Shopping. Watching.
6
A neighborhood council closed-session meeting that was supposed to be private. You can hear it.
Encounters — Night (D6)
1
Council 3 representatives meeting with someone who arrived by boat from the flood zone after dark.
2
Black market food operating from a building that has official distribution permits. The permits are legitimate. The source of the extra food is not.
3
A Tideline operative is moving through the settlement with a package that didn't go through market intake.
4
Two council security teams in the same area, watching each other, not cooperating.
5
A civilian is moving out — everything they own, at night. They're not the first this week.
6
Someone is transmitting Tideline internal communications on an external frequency. Brief. Intentional.
Rumors (D6)
1
TRUE Council 3 has already opened back-channel communication with NAF about a direct food supply agreement.
2
TRUE The food crisis is six to eight weeks away. Tideline leadership has told the councils it's twelve weeks. The actual ledger says otherwise.
3
FALSE The Tideline Authority has a secret food reserve large enough to last six months. (The secondary cache exists but is measured in days, not months.)
4
TRUE Someone in Brixton Rise is feeding movement data to Black Reach. Council security knows there's a leak. They don't know who.
5
TRUE The medical clinic is seeing cases consistent with early contamination exposure. Nobody has announced this.
6
TRUE, PARTIAL NAF is planning a formal governance offer to the Tideline Authority. The terms include NAF administrative presence in Brixton Rise.
Contacts

COUNCIL CHAIR FATIMA ADEYEMI (Council 1). CAN GET: Tideline governance access, civilian network introductions, resource authorization, political intelligence across south London. WANTS: the Council 3 back-channel communication with NAF documented and stopped without becoming a public fracture. FEARS: losing the coalition and with it, the settlement's ability to function.

DR. YUSUF IBRAHIM, clinic lead. CAN GET: medical access, injury intelligence, contamination data, off-grid treatment. WANTS: someone to take the contamination case data north and get it to the observatory at Greenwich. Doesn't trust Tideline comms right now. FEARS: what the contamination spread means if it reaches the settled population.

TASH, black market food coordinator (Council 3 aligned). CAN GET: food supply chain intelligence, black market access, Council 3 political positioning, back-channel communications. WANTS: to know if the NAF deal being discussed by Council 3 is real or negotiating theater. FEARS: being on the wrong side of whatever comes next.

HEX E7 — PECKHAM MARKET

Security: NONE  |  Infrastructure: STRAINED  |  Faction: NONE dominant (three present)  |  Black market: HEAVY  |  Contamination: PRESENT (low, side streets)  |  Mobility: OPEN / BOAT EAST END
Function

The intersection of legitimate commerce, black market, and faction intelligence operations. Everyone buys here. Everyone watches here.

Under-System

Peckham High Street is still above water. Side streets flood intermittently — boats dock at the east end of the market from the flood zone. Three factions run buyers here. The Tideline Authority has a warden who is definitely on someone else's payroll.

Draw

Everything the black market offers. Direct access from flood zone (boats). Intelligence from three factions operating simultaneously. Peckham Market is where things that can't be moved officially get moved.

Risk

Dead drops and buyer operations make this a surveillance environment. Multiple factions means multiple intelligence collection operations. The warden on someone's payroll doesn't know you've noticed.

Contacts

Dredge Compact buyer (salvage acquisition; wants first refusal on anything server-related); Black Reach dead drop handler (will not confirm who they work for; will pay well); Tideline warden whose loyalties are complicated (market access, civilian intelligence, and a secret).

HEX G7 — LEWISHAM CROSSING

Security: NONE  |  Infrastructure: FAILING  |  Faction: THREE-WAY  |  Black market: LIGHT  |  Mobility: ELEVATED TRACK (foot transit)
Function

The primary east-west transit corridor for south London. The elevated DLR track, still structurally sound. Nobody fixed the trains but the tracks are a walkway.

Under-System

Controlling Lewisham means controlling movement between east and west south London. Three factions have been arguing about this for four months. The argument is about to resolve violently. The structural assessment of the elevated track has not been completed. Someone should complete it before more people rely on it.

Draw

The transit route itself. Access to east and west south London that bypasses flood zones. Strategic control of a chokepoint.

Risk

Active territorial dispute. The resolution is coming. Being here when it resolves is a problem. Structural integrity of the elevated tracks is unknown — one section near the station center makes a sound it probably shouldn't.

Contacts

DLR track maintenance worker who knows the structural assessment and hasn't told any of the factions (yet); faction coordinator who wants a neutral party to broker the transit agreement before the shooting starts; civilian community rep who uses the tracks daily and cannot afford for this to go wrong.

HEX E8 — CRYSTAL PALACE RIDGE

Security: ACTIVE (NAF)  |  Infrastructure: STABLE  |  Civilians: SPARSE  |  Faction: NAF controlled  |  Surveillance: BROADCAST / SIGNAL  |  Mobility: ELEVATED / OPEN
Function

The Crystal Palace transmitter mast. 40km broadcast radius. The most valuable communications infrastructure in London.

Under-System

A NAF signal team and their civilian contractors maintain the transmitter. The Tideline Authority wants shared access for a governance broadcast. NAF is saying no. The transmitter was sabotaged three weeks ago and the saboteur has not been identified. The civilians caught in the middle have started quietly asking each other whether they should be elsewhere.

Draw

The transmitter — if you control it, you control broadcast communications for 40km. This is enough to shape public understanding of the governance situation significantly.

Risk

NAF active security. The unknown saboteur. Civilians with complicated loyalties who are watching everything. The NAF signal team has been told to treat any Tideline approach as a security incident.

Contacts

NAF signals commander (official, cautious; wants the sabotage investigation completed before anything else moves); Tideline liaison attempting to negotiate access (committed, increasingly desperate; the governance broadcast needs to happen before NAF spins the meeting outcome); civilian transmitter technician who knows the sabotage was internal (NAF, not Tideline) and hasn't decided what to do with this.

The Faction Layer

Four active factions. Each one is trying to solve a resource problem. None of them are winning cleanly. The map shifts every session — advance every faction's Move by one step before play begins.

The Dredge Compact
Controls: Canary Wharf Spires (F5, HQ). Camden Threshold dock access (B3). Flood lane transit routes throughout the flood zone. Partial claims on Shoreditch Breach (E4) and Kensington Flood Zone.
Want (this week): A competitor salvage crew found an access route into the Vault District that bypasses Dredge Compact permit requirements. Stop it — by purchase, intimidation, or elimination. The revenue loss is secondary to the precedent.
Fear: NAF establishing a formal transit tax on flood-lane boat traffic. Currently the Compact taxes that traffic itself. Formal NAF jurisdiction would end their revenue model.
Move: Deploying two enforcement teams to Shoreditch Breach to formalize the permit system there. Simultaneously, a negotiating team is at Camden Threshold applying pressure on the three-faction arrangement.
Posture: Transactional. Will work with anyone who pays. Will enforce against anyone who doesn't. Gene-forged operators get no special scrutiny — some of their best divers are gene-forged.
What They Offer: Dive equipment and training. Flood zone transit permits. Access to the only commercial dock-lift in London. Introduction to the underwater economy. Safe houses in the spires.
What They Demand: Payment for services. Muscle for enforcement actions. Intel on competitor salvage operations. Delivery runs through contested water.
If Damaged: The flood zone fragments. Piracy increases immediately. NAF uses the chaos to push through transit regulations and eventually assumes control of flood-zone access entirely. The Dredge Compact's revenue model is replaced by a NAF tax model, which is worse for everyone.
NAF London Station
Controls: Hampstead Heights (C1, primary). Crystal Palace relay (E8, shared). Notting Hill checkpoint (B1). Richmond storage depot. Drone coverage grid across north London.
Want (this week): Identify and detain a Tideline Authority operative who accessed a NAF database three days ago. They have a partial biometric profile and a last-known location at Camden Threshold.
Fear: The Tideline Authority formally requesting NAF withdrawal from civilian governance zones. If the governance claim succeeds legally, NAF's presence becomes occupation. That is a political problem NAF cannot solve with drones.
Move: Running a quiet census sweep through flood boundary settlements to build leverage before the Tideline Authority's governance claim strengthens. Simultaneously reviewing structural data on Westminster Tower.
Posture: Authority. Treat operators as potential problems until proven otherwise. Gene-forged operators receive additional biometric registration requirements. NAF personnel follow doctrine; exceptions require officer authorization.
What They Offer: Clean transit papers. Medical access at Hampstead Heights. Equipment at official rates. Intelligence from the NAF satellite relay (curated — they share what they choose). Formal extraction support.
What They Demand: Information about Tideline Authority internal politics. Identification of Black Reach embedded assets. Recovery of specific data from the Vault District under NAF cover. Withdrawal from locations NAF considers sensitive.
If Damaged: Drone coverage grid goes dark. The flood boundary becomes ungoverned. Black market prices spike across all hexes. Tideline Authority accelerates its formal governance claim. Black Reach operations accelerate. The civilian situation in Hampstead Heights collapses within 72 hours of NAF withdrawal.
The Tideline Authority
Controls: Westminster Tower (B5, symbolic HQ). Brixton Rise (C7, operational center). Walthamstow Ridge (G1, food supply). Camden Threshold market licensing (B3). Foot transit access to most inhabited south London hexes.
Want (this week): Enter the NAF governance meeting with leverage. They have a session scheduled in 48 hours. Intelligence from three sources suggests NAF has already decided the outcome. They need something to change that calculation.
Fear: The food supply chain being disrupted — by Dredge Compact transit fees, by Hackney Wetlands expansion, or by anything else. They are 2-3 days from crisis at any moment. A single supply line failure is not recoverable without warning.
Move: Positioning additional supply caches in three south London locations to reduce dependency on the Walthamstow line. Simultaneously attempting to document evidence that the Barrier failure was a NAF administrative decision, not an infrastructure accident.
Posture: Cautiously cooperative with operators who seem useful to civilians. Hostile to anything that looks like exploitation. Will ask for violence only when no alternative exists. Will ask when that moment comes.
What They Offer: Community trust and civilian network access throughout south London. Food and water allocation (limited). Safe transit through inhabited zones. Knowledge of civilian population movement and needs.
What They Demand: Tasks that help civilians survive. Documentation of specific corporate or governmental wrongdoing. Support for the governance claim. Nothing that requires them to look the other way on civilian harm.
If Damaged: Food distribution fractures. Individual settlements become isolated and competing. Brixton Rise becomes a fortress rather than a hub. Council 3 immediately opens NAF negotiations. NAF moves into the governance vacuum within a week.
Black Reach
Controls: Vault District operations (D5, primary). Embedded assets at: Hampstead Heights (C1, one operative), Camden Threshold (B3, one buyer), Canary Wharf Spires (F5, one surveyor), Peckham Market (E7, dead drop).
Want (this week): Recover one specific server rack from a specific basement in the Vault District, intact. They have located it. They have a dive access route. They need a distraction to pull the Dredge Compact away from the entry point for four hours.
Fear: Their client identity being exposed. The consortium that Black Reach serves consists of financial institutions that were supposed to be regulated out of existence under the 2054 Resource Governance Accords. Discovery ends the operation and creates a political crisis for the institutions.
Move: Deploying a four-person dive team to the Vault District through an access route that avoids the Dredge Compact permit zone. Simultaneously running surveillance on two operators at Hampstead Heights whose presence they cannot account for.
Posture: Neutral professional face. Work with anyone for the right price. Give nothing away about client or mission. Gene-forged operators welcomed without scrutiny — several of their best divers are aquatically adapted.
What They Offer: Top-tier dive equipment. Underwater transit intelligence for the deep flood zone. Vault District access (the parts they've mapped). Corporate-level extraction support if things go catastrophically wrong. Introduction to a financial network that still functions.
What They Demand: Silence about their operations and client identity. Muscle for specific dive operations. Distraction operations during their extraction runs. Identification of surveillance on their Vault District activities.
If Damaged: A different contractor runs the operation. The client consortium gets the data eventually — it just takes longer and costs more. What changes: whoever the alternate contractor reports to now has leverage over the same institutions. The political consequences arrive later, harder, and less predictably.

Encounter Tables

Three tables. Roll on the one that matches where you are. These are situations, not enemy counts. Shooting is one option.

Flood Zone (Boat / Wading Hexes) — D10

1
Supply boat taking fire from an elevated position. Source unclear. Reason unclear.
2
A Dredge Compact dive team surfaces next to your boat. They are carrying something sealed in a waterproof container. They did not expect to surface next to anyone.
3
Submerged street sign marking an intersection. A body is tied to it. Recent.
4
NAF drone — marked — but the flight pattern doesn't match NAF doctrine. Someone else is flying it.
5
Three civilians on a raft trying to reach elevated ground. The raft has one day left. They have less.
6
Dredge Compact checkpoint — boat blocking a canal lane, checking permits. One checkpoint guard is new. The new guard is asking questions that aren't on the checklist.
7
Fire on an upper floor of a flooded building. Someone is at the window.
8
Submerged vehicle's emergency beacon transmitting for six days. No response has come.
9
Two salvage boats facing off over an access point. Neither crew looks willing to back down.
10
Nothing moves. The water is warmer here than it should be.

Deep Water (Submerged / Dive Hexes) — D10

1
Something large moves beneath the boat. Not a structural hazard. Something else.
2
A building facade collapses 30 meters ahead. The wave reaches you in eight seconds.
3
Black Reach dive team ascending directly below your position. They didn't know you were here.
4
Signal transmission from below the water. Clear channel. No identifying header. Repeating.
5
Dredge Compact dive emergency — one diver separated from team, personal beacon active. The Compact is 40 minutes away.
6
Structural groan. Floor of a submerged building is failing somewhere nearby. You can feel it through the hull.
7
A gene-forged aquatic remnant — not quite animal, not what it was designed to be. Watching. Not aggressive. Yet.
8
A Tideline Authority marker buoy with a message attached. Three days old. The intended recipient never arrived.
9
Emergency airlock in a submerged building. The indicator light is green. Someone sealed themselves inside.
10
Nothing moves. The water goes absolutely still. This does not happen naturally.

Elevated Zone (Dry / Partial Hexes) — D10

1
NAF checkpoint with a new requirement that was not present last time. Nobody can explain the change.
2
Tideline Authority supply convoy with armed wardens. One crate is sealed differently from the others.
3
Someone watching from a window three floors up. Has been watching since before you arrived.
4
A civilian with a working radio — quality equipment, not salvage — transmitting to someone outside London.
5
Two rival salvage crews in a loud argument about territory. They are about to start shooting.
6
A refugee column arriving — 40 people, most carrying everything they own. Looking for Brixton Rise.
7
A body in civilian clothes with NAF-grade equipment in the bag.
8
Smoke signal from a building marked as abandoned. Deliberate pattern.
9
A gene-forged operator sitting openly on steps, eating, not concealing what they are. They want to talk.
10
A Tideline Authority warden paying a civilian for information. The civilian sees you watching.

Mission Seeds

Six seeds. Each one runs on systems already in play. None of them resolve cleanly.

01

THE TURBINE

Objective

Recover replacement parts for the Hampstead Heights water turbine before it fails. The parts are in a submerged warehouse in Bethnal Green — wading tier at low tide, swimming tier at high.

Clock

72 hours. After that, NAF institutes emergency water rationing and the civilian situation at Hampstead Heights deteriorates into something it cannot recover from before winter.

Complication

Black Reach has the same warehouse flagged for server hardware. Their dive team is en route. The warehouse has one access point and the building's collapse risk just moved to MODERATE.

02

THE CENSUS SWEEP

Objective

Extract a specific civilian from Notting Hill before the NAF census sweep completes and they are detained.

Clock

The sweep reaches Notting Hill in 18 hours. Moving fast enough to beat it means moving loud. Loud means Noise Signature.

Complication

The civilian knows something about Black Reach's client identity — something they overheard in a building they weren't supposed to be in. Both NAF and Black Reach want them. The civilian wants to reach the Tideline Authority. These things are not compatible.

03

THE GOVERNANCE MEETING

Objective

Serve as security detail for the Tideline Authority delegation to the NAF governance meeting.

Clock

Meeting begins in 24 hours. The Tideline Authority has just received intelligence suggesting NAF has already decided the outcome. The delegation is not withdrawing.

Complication

Someone is going to attempt to prevent the Tideline negotiator from reaching the meeting. You do not know who. NAF security does not know you know. The Tideline Authority does not know there is a threat — they think they just have a bad deal waiting for them.

04

THE RACK

Objective

Recover a specific server rack from a specific basement in the Vault District, intact.

Clock

Structural collapse timeline on the target building: five to ten days on the worst dive survey estimate. Today might be day eight. Nobody knows for certain.

Complication

Black Reach wants the same rack and has already mapped the access route. The Dredge Compact controls the only other safe entry point and is not negotiating. Someone at Hampstead Heights is transmitting your operational details to an unknown party — and has been doing so for three days.

05

FERAL

Objective

Track and neutralize the gene-forged aquatic organism expanding out of the Hackney Wetlands. It has killed three Dredge Compact dive operators in the past two weeks.

Clock

The Dredge Compact closes the eastern flood lane in 48 hours if the threat is not resolved. That shuts 40% of flood zone transit.

Complication

The organism is protecting something. Understanding what it is protecting may be more valuable — operationally, politically — than killing it. The biotech researcher in Hackney North knows what the organism was designed for. She hasn't told anyone.

06

THE BROADCAST

Objective

Restore the Crystal Palace transmitter to full operational status and hold it for one transmission window.

Clock

6 hours. The Tideline Authority needs to broadcast a specific message across London before NAF can spin the governance meeting outcome to the civilian population.

Complication

The NAF rapid response team on the ridge received orders 40 minutes ago. The civilian contractors maintaining the transmitter will not leave the building without a safety guarantee. The transmitter has been sabotaged — and the sabotage was not done by the Tideline Authority. The saboteur is still on the ridge.