Builder's Manual · Chapter 1

Attaching a World

NPC Brain is an engine, not a world. It supplies memory, bonds, pressure, and consequences. The world supplies names and places. This chapter is the attach procedure: the minimum a new world must bring before its first session, and the conventions that keep it compatible.

What the engine owns

The rules never change per world. Memory split (working set fades, vault at salience 8 or higher never fades), relationship gates (numbers gate, spark plus scene decides), clock motion (everything with a duration is a clock, most resolve small), quest lifecycle (rumor to open to active to closed, one active stage, rewards on completion only), rumor discipline (three live rumors max), and the response header. The GM Instructions file is the runtime summary. The four assistant instruction files are the full law. A new world adopts them as-is.

What the world must bring

NPC files. Every NPC the party can meet more than once needs: name, aliveStatus, a relationships entry for each recurring bond (target as qualified slug, status, current numbers), and playerOpinion once met. Memories and coreMemories start empty and fill through play; seed at most one or two defining vault entries per major NPC.
Reference targets for every slug. If an NPC lists faction archive-keepers, species human, or class informant, files with those slugs must exist. Dangling slugs stay drafts and the mirror leg of any bond pointing at a missing file cannot run.
Clocks for live pressure. Open one clock per active threat, deadline, or project, each with owner, driver, stakes, scale, and total. Cap live clocks near seven.
A starting location file and one open quest with a giver, a first active stage, and involved lists.
Slug discipline: single-target fields use bare slugs (giver, faction, species, class, headquarters); multi-target fields use qualified slugs (npc/slug, location/slug).

First-session checklist

Every starting NPC has relationships entries for the other starting NPCs, mirrored on both files.
Every vault entry carries involved, location, whyItMatters, and weight.
Every running clock has stakes the table can see.
The opening quest is at open or active with exactly one active stage.
Three starting rumors are written down: one true, one half-true, one false.

Attach in this order: locations and factions first, then NPCs with bonds mirrored, then clocks and the opening quest, then rumors. Play from there; the engine does the rest.

Manual updated Sep 24, 2026.

NPC & World Engine

Shattered sky

A world-agnostic sandbox brain: people with routines who remember and act on their own, markets and supply routes, towns that grow and decline, seasons and festivals, creatures with territories, dungeons built as you explore, jobs from people who need them, enemies who learn, and a world that keeps moving whether you watch or not. Attach it to any world and live however you like.

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CreatedNov 8, 2026

UpdatedNov 8, 2026

A system for living worlds

People remember. Bonds change. The world keeps moving.

Bring any setting to life and live in it however you choose: fight, trade, build, scheme, explore, make things, settle down. People keep their own schedules, want things, remember what happened to them and act while you're elsewhere. Goods come from somewhere: a flooded mine raises tool prices two towns over a week later. Towns grow when trade flows and empty when it doesn't. Seasons bring planting, fairs, floods and hard winters; beasts hunt, breed and move; ruins reveal themselves one level at a time. The world notices what you keep doing and grows deepest there, with rivals, opportunities and trouble sized to your fame. Every scene is archived into a story record, so a promise made in week one still matters in month six. When a character's story ends, the world doesn't reset; it inherits.

Author's note

Recommended GM model: GLM 5.3 Flash (a Core model, included in the plan; Craft marks it Slow). In live testing it followed the engine best: no behind-the-scenes notes in the chat, a header on every reply, and enemies who grow over time. GPT-6 Luna also works well and is faster. Avoid DeepSeek V4 Flash for this engine: it often leaves its working notes in the chat. Choose the model in the GM Model dropdown when you start a game.

World-agnostic and built to attach to existing settings. The engine supplies the procedures; the attached world supplies its cast, places, calendar and rules through a single World Settings doc. Before play, follow the Porting Guide and the Builder's Manual chapter "Attaching a World", and run the Engine Test Cases. Version 4 builds on the engine first proven in Steelsong, with ideas adapted from LIMBO, School Days, Gritty Realms, Isekai Reincarnation, Vaelaria, Dead Horizon, generative-agent research and classic story-pacing systems.

Inside the World

131 entries · 23 types

Almanacs

1 total

Annals Ledgers

1 total

Characters

2 total

Chronicles

1 total

Classes

2 total

Clocks

2 total

Docs

33 total

Equipment

2 total