Extending the Framework

The framework is built to be built on. Everything below is a safe extension — the kind that adds capability without breaking the fiction-first promise or the reference graph.

Adding fields

Add a field when the fiction demands it and no existing field covers it. Natural candidates for this framework:

• A structured dex number. The IPN number currently lives in the description prose. If your project needs to sort or filter by it, add a numeric dexNumber field and keep the prose number in sync.
• Encounter tables. wildlife lists species but not frequency. If you want season/time-of-day weightings, add an encounter field on Location — or keep it in prose, which many projects will prefer.
• Trainer stats beyond traits. If you want more resolution than the six traits, add fields to Character — but read the design intent first. The framework's whole economy is deliberately small.

Adding file types

When content wants to be its own thing, make it a type. Two natural fits for this framework:

• Move. Moves are currently free text on companions (activeMoves, learnedMoves) and species (signatureMoves). If you want moves shared across creatures, referenced, or searchable, create a Move type — type, cost, effect, and which species can learn it — and point the string fields at it. This is the single most valuable extension, and it's a real project's worth of work: the dex references moves by name in prose today.
• Quest / Mission. Threads track the world's problems; they're a GM device. If you want player-facing goals with rewards, a Quest type (goal, giver, reward, status) complements Threads without replacing them.

Converting strings to references

Any free-text field that points at an existing file is a candidate for a reference. The rule: convert when the connection needs to stay consistent (renaming the file should update everywhere), not when a string is just description. References are for identity; strings are for prose.

Computed fields

If you find yourself maintaining a value that's derivable — a companion's species temperament, a character's badge count, a party's total value — make it computed instead of hand-maintained. Compute from source fields and references, and update the source when the world changes. Keep expressions simple enough to read; a computed field nobody can explain is a trap.

Adapting to another region or setting

The framework is world-agnostic at the mechanics layer. To make it yours:

• Swap or extend the dex — your region's species, your own IPN-style numbering.
• Build your region tree under the world root: regions, then towns and routes.
• Write your factions and threads first; they generate the play.
• Set your starting points: a Game Start, a home town, starter partners.
• Keep the voice. The creature-first rule, the condition and bond ladders, the light resolution — those travel to any setting. The flavor is yours to change; the promise of fiction-first play is not.

Guardrails

• Don't bolt on a stat block. If you find yourself adding HP, damage dice, and level curves, you're rebuilding the game the framework deliberately isn't.
• Don't duplicate fields across types. If two files maintain the same fact, one of them should reference the other.
• Keep references resolving. Every slug should point at a real file, and a reference should be stored as a resolved link rather than a bare name — a name typed in by hand looks fine in the file and silently resolves to nothing.
• Edit the type chart in pairs. Craft's references point one way and nothing back-fills the other, so each half of the chart is stored twice on purpose: what a type is strong against is mirrored by what the other type is weak to, resisting is mirrored by being resisted, and no-effect is mirrored by immunity. Change one side and you must change the other, or the two pages will disagree and nothing will warn you.
• A roster is a finishing pass, not a per-file chore. The species list on each Type page is the same kind of hand-maintained mirror. When you add creatures, add them all, then update the affected Type files once at the end — one editor, once, rather than eighteen files edited in parallel.
• Keep the ladders. Bond and condition are the two meters the whole game runs on — if you add a third meter, it should earn its place. And whatever meters you keep, say in your GM instructions when the GM writes them to the file: a meter that is only ever described resets every time the session does.

The framework's job is to make your world easy to build and honest to run. When in doubt, ask what serves the fiction — the fiction is the product.