Data Conventions

Use Settlements for communities with population, reserves, morale, security, governance, needs, projects, and faction ties. Use NPC for an individual whose needs, skills, status, loyalty, trust, and relationships can affect play. Use Faction for organized interests with goals, influence, resources, members, and a headquarters. Use Project for work that consumes labor and materials and changes a settlement. Use Event for an active pressure, discovery, shortage, or opportunity with choices and consequences.

Link entries rather than repeating names when a relationship should remain navigable. Keep relationship maps keyed to stable file slugs. Use notes for causes, memories, secrets, and the human context behind a number.

When creating new content, ask whether it increases agency. Prefer several pressures that can collide over a single linear objective. A good addition can be ignored, repurposed, or pursued in an unexpected order without becoming meaningless.