Food is measured in “flotilla days.” We are not interested in tracking it any more granularly than that. If you have rations on your character sheet, you may erase them and get a refund of silver.
If the flotilla must pay for food, it has a daily upkeep of 100 sp/day.
Each settlement has a tolerance equal to its population / 100, with a minimum of 1. You know a settlement’s population by sight, and therefore its tolerance.
The flotilla can encroach on a settlement and freeload for a number of days equal to the settlement’s tolerance. After this, the flotilla has worn out its welcome, and must eat its own food or pay upkeep.
If the flotilla performs a Great Deed for a settlement, it can freeload for a number of days equal to twice the settlement’s tolerance, starting from the day it “cashes in” the deed. This may be immediately if success is obvious, or at a later date if a trophy is required to prove the deed.
What constitutes a Great Deed is left up to referee discretion, and we will telegraph whether or not something is big enough.
If the flotilla leaves a settlement after encroaching but before wearing out its welcome, and later returns, it is considered to have worn out its welcome. It may still perform a Great Deed.
You can’t use up a portion of tolerance and save some for later–you either wear your welcome or you leave.
If you attack a settlement and overcome its defenses you are granted 7x its tolerance in food. This comes at a price: in addition to consequences arising in the fiction, you can never encroach upon or perform a Great Deed for the targeted settlement, whether or not you succeeded at the raid.
The event calendar lists the following: encroachments, settlement tolerance, Great Deeds, silver collected, and food collected.