The libraries: values, items, shops, tests and combats

The left panel lists them in this order: values, resources, items, events, formulas, images, endings, tests, statuses, traits, classes, level rewards, abilities, ending counters, shops, achievements, combats, damage types. The eight that describe the character and their progression have their own chapter, "Character and progression".

Only one cannot be edited here: Tests, marked "read-only". A test belongs to the choice that contains it; this list is therefore a simple view, showing which tests exist and in which scene. To reuse a test, you have to duplicate the choice.

An open library shows its list on the left and the detail of the selected row on the right. The gestures are the same from one library to another, with a few exceptions, noted below.

An item has more fields than the other rows, because it has to answer more questions: does it stack, up to how many, can it be sold, does it have charges, what becomes of it once empty, can it be used. Once made usable, it appears in the actions of a scene, a combat or a shop, depending on the contexts you tick.

A shop is a list of offers. Each offer carries what it costs and what it gives, as rules: remove six coins, give a key. An offer may also give nothing material and merely set an event, which is how you write "buying a piece of information".

The order of the offers is simply the order in which the reader sees them. You change it by dragging the handle to the left of a row.

A test belongs to a choice. On the choice, open "Rules…" then "Add a test", and first pick the formula that will be rolled. The choice then compares the roll to a difficulty, and the destination is set on each outcome, not on the choice itself.

You next decide the sense of the comparison: "at least" (the total must reach the difficulty) or "at most" (the total must not reach it, like 2d6 under Luck). The difficulty is a number, a character value or a formula: with a value, it can grow over the run.

Criticals are optional. A critical success can trigger on an extreme die face (a natural 20) or on a total. It is examined only if the roll has already succeeded, and a critical fail only if it has failed. Without a dedicated critical outcome, a critical result counts as an ordinary success or fail.

A "Success or failure" test always has its two outcomes, plus the critical outcomes you add. Each outcome has its effects, which apply after the choice's, and its own destination: without a destination, publication is blocked.

A "Results table" test has no difficulty and no criticals: the total names a row ("1 to 2", "5 and up"), and each row has its destination. It suits a random encounter table. The rows must cover all possible totals, with no gaps or overlap, or publication is blocked.

Without dice, a choice can also have conditional outcomes ("Add an outcome"). The first whose conditions are met applies: the captain knows you, or not. Each outcome has its destination, and a choice cannot have both a test and conditional outcomes.

The "Reveal" setting decides what reaches the reader. It changes nothing in what the engine calculates or remembers.

A hidden test that also removes a visible cost is jarring: the reader sees something vanish with no explanation.

A combat declares its enemies, the ways of attacking offered to the player, what counts as a defeat, and where you go afterwards. The attack and damage formulas come from the formula library: the combat names them, it does not hold them.

If a single roll settles the encounter, a test is enough: write it with combat text. A round-by-round fight is worth it when the exchange of blows is what the scene is about.

Each round, the reader chooses an action: an attack, an ability, an item or escape. The action is resolved, then each standing enemy attacks once, in row order, front rank first. Enemies have no initiative or target choice.

The "Resolution" setting decides what becomes of the character's attack.

The character's attacks are declared one at a time: each has its attack roll, its damage, its range ("The whole line" or certain ranks) and, if you wish, conditions and costs. This is where tactics set in: the bow reaches all ranks but costs arrows, the dagger hits only the front rank.

At least one attack must be able to reach the front rank, or the fight cannot be won. Two checkboxes also allow items and abilities in combat, each with its allowed tags: without a tag, nothing is offered.

Each enemy attacks with a fixed number, with its own formula, or, failing that, with the combat's; without any of the three, it does not attack. If you fill in "Defence of the character", an enemy attack only hits if its total beats it. Otherwise, every enemy attack hits.

A fight ends three ways, each with its effects and its destination: victory, when the last enemy falls; defeat, when defeat conditions are met, after the enemy phase; escape.

Defeat does not always mean death: capture, injury, theft, forced detour. It is for you to write what it brings.

To offer escape, tick "The character can flee". Without an escape formula ("Automatic escape"), it always works when offered. With a roll, failure uses the round's action and the fight resumes with the enemy phase. Escape can also have its conditions ("Escape possible when") and its cost.

There are no boss phases, and an enemy's death triggers no effect: it simply ceases to be a target. For a creature that changes form, chain several fights with a scene between them.

It is in this scene that the phase changes: the dragon takes flight, the knight casts off their mask. It reads better than a hidden threshold, and each phase stays visible in the graph.

Three settings decide what displays during the fight, without changing what the engine calculates. The reader sees only the last round: the screen keeps no history.