Builder's Manual · Chapter 1

Extend the Playable World

Build outward from a playable situation. Delianora already has a shared rules vocabulary, classes, professions, a character sheet, a creation flow, and a historical framework. The next useful addition is usually a person with a need, a place with a function, or a game start that connects them. Begin with what a player can perceive and do, then supply enough supporting detail for consistent consequences.

Use the existing foundations

@Missing file supplies shared mechanical language. @Missing file establishes public chronology, and @Missing file describes religious practice and the limits of public certainty. Treat these as references when authoring content. Both handbooks are public books: neither is a place for unrevealed historical causes, secret identities, hidden motives, or private directions to the Game Master.

Keep class, profession, and social standing distinct. Class is a broad capability foundation. Profession is an actual job or practice with its own progression. Standing describes recognized position or authority. A charming merchant need not be a Bard, a strong dockworker need not be a Warrior, and a religious farmer need not be a Cleric. The distinction matters to both characterization and balance: a social title must not silently grant a package of combat abilities.

The project currently supports nine classes and sixty-eight professions. Those counts describe this baseline, not a requirement to add another whenever a new occupation appears in a scene. Reuse an existing profession where it fits. A new employer, guild office, workshop, district, or relationship can make an existing profession feel specific without duplicating its rules.

Design a small connected area

Start from an existing anchor such as @Missing file and its surrounding city. Identify a few useful destinations, people with overlapping interests, and several problems that permit different approaches. Give a location a reason to be visited twice. Give an NPC something to want after the first conversation. Let solving one problem reveal a relationship or consequence elsewhere.

A useful content entry answers: what is here, why does it matter now, who cares, what can change, and what remains true when the party returns? Record enough to support those answers without prescribing a single successful course of action. Description supports atmosphere; actionable details support play. A locked archive, a disputed delivery, or an employer with conflicting obligations can sustain more interaction than a page of disconnected scenic adjectives.

Change rules deliberately

When play exposes a rules problem, locate the authoritative rule and the state that implements it before editing. Do not repair a shared issue by adding contradictory exceptions to several new locations or NPCs. Likewise, avoid reopening the whole system merely because a new story needs a local custom. Distinguish setting detail, a scenario-specific ruling, and a genuine mechanical change.

Preserve the checkpoint as a comparison point. Extend one coherent area or experience at a time, test its entry points, then publish a new version with notes explaining the resulting player experience. Content depth grows through connected decisions and consequences, not simply through the number of files created.

Manual updated Oct 9, 2026.

A land of magic and science, gods and demons, and the lives of mortals making their way in the world.

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Delianora

The gods shaped your inheritance. The future is yours.

Across Delianora, ancient enchantments and ingenious machines share a living world of river cities, mountain workshops, sacred places, and roads that lead beyond the familiar. The gods once walked closer to mortal lives. Their gifts, teachings, and mistakes left an inheritance that no single history can fully explain.

Civilizations rose through the Age of Foundations, kingdoms connected distant peoples, and the Age of Artifice brought wonders alongside lasting consequences. The Glass Court fell; the long divine withdrawal and the Age of Fractures reshaped the world. Faith endured. Magic flourished. Mortals increasingly took the lead in shaping their own destinies.

Now, near the year 5,000 After First Frost, old mysteries wait beneath a restless present. Earn a living, follow a rumor, protect a community, uncover a buried truth, or pursue an ambition of your own. Your ancestry, class, profession, and relationships give you a place in the world. What you make of it is yours to discover.

Author's note

A playable world in active development. The core systems, character-creation flow, class and profession progressions, historical framework, and cinematic prelude form the current build checkpoint. Further development focuses on locations, people, game starts, and connected adventures.

Begin with the Player’s Handbook for character creation and play. The Builder’s Manual explains how to extend the setting consistently. Fresh-character and opening-session playtesting is the next step; some locations and story connections are still being developed.

World Map