Playing with friends: party journeys

A party journey is a journey you play with friends. Each of you controls one of the world's characters, the narrator tells one shared story, and a chat between the players sits beside it. This page describes how it works while the feature is still rolling out, so some accounts will not see it yet.

Starting a party

There are two ways in. When you pick your character for a new journey, turn on Play with friends and the journey starts as a party with the invite ready. For a journey you already play, open the journey menu (the three dots in the header) and choose Play with friends. Friends can join a story that is already underway, and they can read the earlier turns to catch up.

Copy the invite link from the party popup (the Party entry in the journey menu, or the gear on the party panel) and send it to your friends. You can make a new link (the old one stops working), or revoke it so nobody new can join. A party holds up to four players, including you as the host.

Joining

Open the invite link, sign in if needed, and pick your character. You choose among the world's player characters that nobody has taken yet, so a world needs at least two of them for anyone to be able to join. If the world has adult content, your account needs adult content enabled first.

Once you are in, the journey appears in your own journeys list like any other.

Two ways to take turns

The host picks the mode under Turns in the party popup and can change it at any time.

Rounds (the default). Every connected player declares an action, then one narration resolves them together. The ready checks above the action box show who has declared. You can change your action or take it back with Unready until the round fires. It fires when the last expected player declares. The host can also press Resolve now to continue with the actions already declared. Anyone who has not declared does not act this round.

One at a time. You act in join order, starting with the host in a fresh party. Each action gets its own narration. Your action box is disabled while you wait, and shows whose turn it is. The host can use Pass turn to move on to the next player.

Away players is set to skip them by default, so you do not wait for disconnected players. In rounds it is always on. In one-at-a-time mode, the host can switch it to wait for everyone. Switching modes clears any pending declarations.

What the narrator does

The narrator writes in third person and names your characters. It follows the declared actions, while characters who are not acting stay present and react without making decisions for their players. There are no suggested actions in a party: the chat is where you plan your next move together.

The narrator is instructed not to kill or write out your character while you are a party member.

What each player sees

You all read the same story. As a guest, you see your own character card and trackers, including your character's sheet values. World-level trackers are shared, while character trackers are personal. The host's personal trackers stay with the host. Separate personal trackers authored for other player characters do not currently carry over to guests.

You can open the cast and journey memory to read them. Only the host can make corrections.

The party panel holds the roster and the chat. Its gear opens the party popup, where the host manages the invite link and the turn and payment settings. On smaller screens, you can open the panel from the header. Chat is just between you and the other players. The narrator never reads it.

Who pays

Turns cost credits like in any journey.

• In rounds, the players whose actions are in the round split its cost evenly.
• In one at a time, the acting player pays for their turn.
• The host can turn on I pay for everyone's turns to cover every turn from their own credits instead.

When you split a round's cost, every declaring player must be able to pay. If someone cannot, they block the round unless the host uses Resolve now to continue without their action. In one-at-a-time mode, the host can pass a turn if the acting player cannot pay.

You see warnings when your credits run low. If the host pays for everyone, only the host needs enough credits, and guests do not see credit warnings.

Automatic turn images are off on party journeys. The host can still generate portraits and other images by hand, and pays for those.

What only the host can do

If you host, only you can steer the narrator, change journey settings, undo or regenerate turns, edit turn text, correct the cast or memory, generate images, use Ask Ima, or delete the journey. You pay for regenerated turns. You can replay a round's original actions, but cannot edit those actions and replay them.

Ask Ima is available to you for questions, with story editing off throughout the party journey.

As host, you can remove a player. As a guest, you can leave the party. Your character then becomes narrator-controlled.

Ending a party

As host, you can End the party from the party popup (the Party entry in the journey menu, or the gear on the party panel). Your journey returns to solo play and guests lose access. Their characters remain part of the story as narrator-controlled characters, and the narrator is instructed to write them out of the scene. Your shared turns are kept, and the narration returns to addressing you.

The confirmation dialog suggests branching first if you want to preserve the party version.

Coming back later

Nothing is lost between sessions. The roster, the invite link, the chat and whose turn it is are all saved, so everyone can pick the journey up from their own journeys list whenever they like, together or not at the same time.