01 / World and lore
The people in the street
The pedestrian system spawns ordinary adult human NPCs walking between existing trolley stops. They do not attack and have no combat disciplines. They are not replacements for existing shopkeepers or other NPCs.
New pedestrians are distinguished by their own runtime flag. Seeing a moving person in a room does not mean every named NPC follows the same rules.
02 / World and lore
A limited reserve
The first successful eligible drain from a pedestrian provides one displayed LF and leaves the pedestrian sickly. That reserve is shared by the supported drain commands. Trying again does not generate another fresh meal.
The grant is explicitly labelled as a pedestrian drain. It does not count as a qualifying feed or remove hunger penalties. Public draining and public attacks can also summon Cortex responses.
03 / World and lore
The public consequence
Public attacks use the public-defense response. The hypnosis-follow alarm uses the alarm-enforcer response. The difference matters because an alarm arrest can lead to auction while a public-defense squad ordinarily leaves its defeated target unconscious at the scene.
These are NPC mechanics in a fictional game. The guide does not treat them as a reason to ignore out-of-character conduct rules.
Source notes c5dfe60
Repository edition reviewed 2026-09-19. The running game may differ.