Welcome to building on Ash & Acre. This manual is for the person who cloned this project and wants to add to it a new quest, a new corner of the vale, a new pressure, a whole new region, or an adaptation to a different setting. It explains what the design is trying to do, because every file type and every convention exists to serve one idea.
The core intent
Ash & Acre is a grounded medieval life simulation, not a power fantasy. The player is one ordinary person in a world that does not revolve around them. Everything every coin, skill, possession, relationship, and position must be earned through believable means. There are no dice; outcomes resolve narratively through skill, preparation, circumstances, and cause and effect.
Every design decision cascades from that. When you build content, ask constantly: does this reward an ordinary person for ordinary, earned effort? If an entry hands a nobody sudden wealth, magic, or importance, it is off-mission no matter how well written.
How the pieces fit together
The project is a constellation of domain types, each holding one facet of the simulated life. They are designed to cross-reference so a single life touches all of them at once:
- Character is the person, with connections to their Holding, Trade, Relationships, and Standing.
- Year and Market are the clock and the economy the weather, harvest, and prices that press on everyone.
- The pressures are deliberately separated into Taxes & the Tally, Church & Faith, Law & the Manor Court, War & Conscription, Crime & the Road, Health & Fortune, and Will & Succession. Each is a bounded domain so it can be gripped and expanded independently.
- Debt, Quest, and Relationship are the connective tissue that turn a static world into a story under pressure.
The genius of the setup is that these domains interlock: a heriot tax (Succession/Taxes) can force a debt (Debt), which the banker (Character) holds, which becomes a quest (Quest) and colors the family's Standing. When you add content, prefer to thread it through three or four domains rather than drop a single isolated card.
The rules that govern everything
Two invariants are non-negotiable and worth internalizing before you create anything:
- No free value. Every resource has a source and a price. If an entry implies someone gets something for nothing, it's broken.
- No instant mastery or mobility. Advancement is slow and earned. A beginner is not a master; a poor laborer does not become a lord in a week.
Keep these in mind for every file you write, and you will stay faithful to the project whether you're adding one quest or an entire new kingdom.
How to use this manual
Read the Architecture chapter to understand the file-type landscape before creating anything new. If you're adding conventional content (a quest, a holding, a hardship), use the Conventions chapter as your checklist. If you're introducing a brand-new kind of content, read Extending the World. And if you're adapting the whole thing to another setting, the Adaptation Guide will save you from common mistakes.
Build deliberately. One well-woven entry that stresses three systems at once is worth ten that sit alone.
