People, Factions, and Relationships

Give a person one principal identity record. Use Character for a player hero and NPC for a non-player character with enough continuity to merit a profile. Do not create a second NPC copy of a player character to represent the same person. Keep stable details—identity, temperament, goals, fears, affiliations, routines, and established knowledge—with that person. Update their current situation when play changes it; preserve major past developments in the Session Log or an appropriate relationship/event record.

Make agency operational

An NPC entry should support decisions, not just describe appearance. Give important NPCs understandable goals, methods, limits, and information sources. Schedules and routines describe ordinary behavior; they are not a prison. Emergencies, personal choices, and events can disrupt them, but record why the routine changed. Never give an NPC knowledge of a scene they did not witness or learn about through an established channel.

Factions are collective actors, not lists of names. Record what the group wants, what resources or leverage it can actually use, how it relates to other groups, and what it is doing now. Its plans should be consistent with its means and information. When a faction's resources, allies, or objectives change, update its record and note consequential outcomes in the Session Log or linked event.

Keep relationship dimensions separate

Create a Relationship Record when a pair's connection becomes important enough to track. A record represents two participants and keeps attraction, trust and closeness, relationship agreement, and love distinct. Record each person's stated preferences and boundaries and note meaningful developments with their in-world timing. Use descriptive statements grounded in play; do not turn the fields into a universal romance score or let one field automatically compute another.

Relationship status changes require meaningful developments and the people involved choosing or communicating that change. NPCs may initiate, decline, or end relationships. Jealousy and commitment are possible, not required. Intimacy does not imply consent, love, or exclusivity. Keep relationship records factual and respectful; never infer a player's character's private feelings from a scene description.

Handle sensitive records with care

Pregnancy Records support an optional house rule, not official Fabula Ultima mechanics. Create one only when that rule is active and a pregnancy is established in play. Record the conception date, detection threshold, medical confirmation, one-time gestation result and due date, and relevant developments. The separate protection and conception checks must not be collapsed: a conception roll occurs only after protection fails. Roll and record the gestation duration once; do not reroll for narrative convenience. Do not generate sample records that imply an unestablished pregnancy, relationship, or medical outcome.

These records serve continuity, not coercion. Keep consent, adult status, established biology, player boundaries, and the world's medical capabilities in view. A structured field never grants permission to decide a character's response or to expose information their character has not learned.