Characters and worldbuilding

Characters and places are what the engine has to stay faithful to. Write them as people and rooms the narrator can inhabit, not as a wiki dump.

Player characters

Characters → Player Characters are who the player can be. Publishing needs at least one, and every character needs a name, description, and physical description.

Description is personality, role, and how they sound. Physical description is appearance for the story and for image generation. Portraits and gallery images are optional, but they help turn images, texting threads, and immersive mode.

Two world-level switches sit above the list:

• Allow custom characters: players can change name, appearance, and description before they start. On by default.
• Require character customization: they must edit the character before play. Useful for 1-to-1 worlds where the player is a self-insert.

Requiring customization also turns allow on. Players can save a customized character to reuse on other worlds that allow it. Details are in Can I customize and reuse my character?.

If an unchosen player character should still exist in the world as an NPC, that is an option on the character. Otherwise the extra PCs simply are not in that journey.

NPCs

Characters → NPCs are the cast. Give each a role, a description, a physical description, and a voice. A portrait and a gallery (including sprite-labeled images) feed the play UI. You can copy an NPC from another of your worlds, or convert between NPC and player character when the story needs it.

Keep variety. Do not default every companion to the same flirt, the same sad slump, or the same expert who explains the premise. If the world has a mystery, a counterpart who shares the crisis should be as inexperienced as the player unless the story says otherwise.

NPC stat sheets appear when RPG mode is on. See RPG mode and dice.

Lore book

Lore → Lore Book is reference the narrator can look up. Ordinary entries are always available. Write the public belief of the world here: what people think is true, what a place is for, what a faction wants.

A secret entry is hidden from the AI until a story beat reveals it. Use secrets for earned twists, not for routine flavor. You still need a cover story in ordinary lore or instructions, so the narrator has something true-enough to play before the reveal. The full walkthrough is How do I make secret lore entries?.

Add only lore that changes what the story does. A list of every street name is less useful than one entry that says how the city treats outsiders.

Locations

Lore → Locations is optional. Turn on location awareness if the engine should remember where the scene is.

• Starting location is set on turn 1, before the AI's first move. Leave it empty if the introduction should anchor the scene itself.
• Seeded locations can have descriptions and images.
• Scene transition cards show a location card in the story when the scene moves.
• Location images as backdrop swap the play background to that image. Players can turn this off on their device. Immersive mode always uses location backdrops.

The engine can also add locations during play. Seed the ones that matter at the start.

Universes

If you write sequels, spinoffs, or several stories in one setting, a universe puts them on one public page with a reading order. The universe Codex is player-facing reference. The story engine does not read it, so secrets in world instructions stay secret.

Creating and publishing a universe is covered in Universes: linked worlds and a shared codex.

Copying and remixing

Copying is off by default. When it is enabled on a published world, other people can duplicate that version into their own draft, with a permanent credit link back to you. See Can I copy or remix someone's world?.