Builder's Manual · Chapter 1

What This Project Demonstrates

Liminal Adventure ships as a working example, not a blank slate. Everything a Builder's Manual usually has to describe in the abstract, this project does once, for real: a custom Creature file type running in parallel to the full person framework, a computed field chain spanning HP, Ammo, Carry Weight, and Talismans, a root map with a full hierarchy of linked sub-maps, a diegetic character creation wizard, a prelude flow, and a documented pattern for revealing content through play instead of dumping it all up front.

Where to look for each pattern

Two parallel frameworks, one lighter than the other — Character (the full person build: Lineage, Class, Innate Talents, Specialties) versus Creature (.craft/file-types/creature.json: Lineage and Grade only, 2–3 curated Talents, no Primary Stat bonus). See The File Types.
References that span the whole sheet — Character's currentCarryWeight reads ten different equipped slots plus an Inventory array with a single expression. See References & Computed Fields.
The same resource, two different mechanisms — a numeric Aura computes itself into an item's stats automatically; a Rig computes itself when it genuinely can (@Missing file) and stays GM-applied text only when it truly can't. See Two Ways to Grant a Bonus.
Content that reveals itself through play, not through the file tree — every numbered floor's map ships with zero pins on its interior landmarks, and its notableFeatures list uses a literal "???" for anything not yet found. The real data lives GM-only in that floor's own secrets field. See Reveal Through Play.
A character creation wizard that's actually a scene — the creationFlow on Character doesn't ask abstract questions in a vacuum; it opens mid-fiction, on the floor where the game itself starts, and the character's starting weapon, armor, and Talisman are all looted off a body found during the flow itself. See The Map, Flows & Playability.
A root map with a real hierarchy — @Missing file's map links out to every numbered floor's own map, and several locations within those link one level deeper still, each set with craft map set.
A complete game start — configured with craft meta set-game-start, deliberately short, because the fall itself lives in the prelude and the landing lives in the creation wizard.

Read this manual chapter by chapter, or jump straight to the pattern you need. Each chapter names the real files behind it.

Manual updated Aug 14, 2026.

Liminal Adventure

You fell into the Backrooms, same as everyone else here — and everyone here disagrees about what to do next. A modern-anime survival horror world built on a century-old rift, a stolen Map, and the truth of what actually happened to it, buried inside one person who doesn't know she's the one who has it.

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@Deatriss

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CreatedAug 7, 2026

UpdatedAug 14, 2026

Liminal Horror

Everyone here fell in the same way. Nobody agrees anymore on whether there's a way back out.

One moment ordinary, the next an endless suite of yellow rooms that never quite stop humming. Vend Row settled here and stopped looking for a way out; the Wallbreakers never will. Both sides trace back to the same unsolved theft, a century ago, of something that supposedly showed the way home — and neither one has ever agreed on who took it, or whether it's still out there to find.

Glimpses

Author's note

Liminal Adventure is Craft's built-in demonstration world — clone this project to see a custom file type, references, computed fields, a map, a creation wizard, and playable GM instructions all working together in one from-scratch game system built on top of the Backrooms.

Inside the World

143 entries · 7 types

Characters

14 total

Creatures

13 total

Equipment

79 total

Game Starts

1 total

GM Instructions

11 total

Locations

25 total

Chronicles

0 total