World systems

The Setup toggles that decide which systems your game even has.

Setup decides what kind of game this is. Several toggles here remove whole steps from the editor, so it is worth understanding before you wonder where a step went.

Image: docs/setup-advanced.png The Setup step's Advanced Options panel showing the Game Systems toggles.

Game systems

Toggle	What it decides
Combat	Whether fighting exists. Off hides the Creatures step.
Abilities	Whether characters have abilities. Off hides that step.
Rolls	Whether outcomes are decided by dice at all.
Stats	Whether characters have numeric attributes.
Encyclopedia	Whether long-form lore is retrieved for the narrator.
Weather	Whether the world has changing conditions.
Time system	Whether the world runs a clock.

Turning one off does not delete your data — turn it back on and the step returns intact.

Time, and games without it

The Time System decides whether the world has a real clock: hours per day, minutes per hour, day names, a starting time.

A game without a clock still passes time in a loose sense — the narrator estimates how long a turn took. That estimate is fine for prose and wrong for arithmetic, which matters if you later write rules; see Minutes are not time.

Narration and enforcement

Impossible actions and Invented items control how strict the narrator is about players trying things the world does not support. Loose is more fun; strict is more coherent. Most games want something in between.

Roll manipulation decides whether players can influence their own rolls.

NPC behaviour

NPC simulation, NPC control and NPC background combat decide how much life the world has when players are not looking — whether NPCs act on their schedules, whether players can direct them, and whether fights happen off-screen.

These cost turn time, so a small game may want them off.

Stats and the HUD

Stat sets define your game's attributes. Rename them freely — rules read stats by role, so a stat called "Thew" still answers to the might role and nothing breaks.

The HUD editor decides what players see at a glance. A survival game shows hunger; a courtly intrigue shows reputation.

Calendar and weather

Calendar sets day names and the shape of a year. Weather cycles decide what conditions occur and how they move — which locations can then override (Locations).