How do world tables work?

World tables are in beta: the Tables section appears in the editor once the feature is enabled on your account. Worlds that already have tables show them to every player.

A world table is a grid with your own columns that belongs to the world itself, not to a character sheet. Players see every table you have not hidden in a Tables panel next to the status sheet during play, and the storyteller reads them on every turn. Tables work in any world: you do not need to turn on a game system.

There are two kinds, and the difference is who writes the rows.

Reference tables: data the storyteller quotes

A reference table is authored data. You write the rows, the storyteller reads them and quotes them exactly, and nothing changes during play. Use it for anything with specs a player might compare:

• a garage of cars with top speed, handling, and a daily price
• a spell list with cost, range, and effect
• faction standings, a price list, a train timetable

Without a table, the storyteller invents a different figure every time the same car comes up. With one, "the Kestrel does 240" is canon.

Dynamic tables: state the storyteller maintains

A dynamic table is a running log. Your rows are the starting rows of every new journey, and from there the storyteller adds, updates, and removes rows as the story moves. Use it for:

• a quest log with a Status column (Active, Done, Failed)
• a bounty board, a ship's manifest, a list of contracts

Give a dynamic table a choice column for its status, so a resolved quest gets marked Done instead of vanishing from the log.

Setting one up

In the world editor, open the Tables section (under Lore) and click Add table.

• Title: short and concrete ("Quest Log", "Garage"). The storyteller refers to the table by it, so keep titles unique.
• Kind: Reference or Dynamic.
• Description: tell the storyteller what the table holds and, for a dynamic table, when to write a row. "Quests the player has accepted. Add a row when an NPC gives one; set Status to Done when it resolves."
• Columns: up to eight, each Text, Number, or Choice (with the allowed values). Every row already has a Name, so do not add a Name column.
• Rows: the grid itself. Cells are text, numbers included.

Each row has an eye icon: a hidden row stays in the table for the storyteller but never reaches the player. The Hidden from players switch on the table does the same for the whole table, which turns it into GM-only notes or a hidden ledger.

What the storyteller does with them

Reference tables are inlined in the storyteller's instructions as a grid, with a rule to quote values rather than invent them and never to edit them. Dynamic tables are described by their columns, and their current rows appear in the game state on every turn. The storyteller keeps them current with two tools, one to add or patch a row and one to remove it. Patching is by column, so changing a quest's Status leaves its other cells alone.

If you add a dynamic table to a world version that already has running journeys, those journeys pick up its starting rows on their next turn.

Limits and tips

• Up to 8 tables per world, 8 columns each. Reference tables hold up to 60 rows, dynamic ones up to 40 during play.
• Keep reference tables lean: every row is in the prompt on every turn. Thirty rows with six columns cost roughly the same as a long lore entry.
• Tables are Loom-only. Worlds on the older Spark engine store them but ignore them.
• Models are not perfect bookkeepers. If a dynamic table drifts, tell the storyteller in your action ("update the quest log") or edit the world's description to spell out when rows should change.