Script Cards

A script is a small piece of code in your world that the GM runs when the story calls for it: rolling loot, opening a shop, offering a level-up. A script players can see can draw its own card in the story, and that card can have buttons. A button can buy an item, take a feat, spend stat points or claim a starter without waiting for a GM turn, and without spending one.

You don't need to write the code yourself. Ask Orbit for the card you want ("a shop card where players buy from the blacksmith with their gold") and it writes the script, tests it, and shows you the card.

What a card can do

• Run an action. The tap changes the game straight away: gold comes off the sheet, the item goes into the inventory, the card redraws. If the player can't (not enough gold, already taken), the card says why and nothing changes.
• Show your world's files as tiles. Each tile is the file's picture and name, and a tap opens it. A tile can also show a line under its name (a price, a requirement), a badge ("2 left") and its own button, so a shop, a list of feats to learn or loot to claim is one grid. Lay them out as a grid, a list (a row per file, good for comparing prices) or a row that scrolls sideways, in small, medium or large.
• Hold picks. Steppers, toggles and buttons can hold choices before the player confirms them: points to spend, two skills of five, how many torches to buy, with a running total.

Buttons act; they never speak for the player. Once they've bought or chosen, players tell the GM what they do next in their own words.

Shared by the party

Everyone at the table sees the same card. When one player claims the Pearl of Power, everyone's card shows it as taken, and if two players tap at the same moment, only one gets it. A card can also show each player their own view: "Your pick" on yours, "Taken by Iorane" on everyone else's.

The GM knows

At the start of the next turn the GM is told what each tap did and what the card holds now, so it can play on from there: the shopkeeper counts the coins, the ferryman casts off. The sheet already holds the changes, so the GM never applies them twice.

What makes a good card

• Ask before anything that costs. A confirm ("Keep the Ivory Mask? The fence wants 10 gp.") stops a stray tap from spending.
• Show why an option is locked ("Needs CON 15") instead of hiding it.
• Once a choice is made, shrink the card to what was chosen: "Learned Spherewright Focus" reads better than the whole list again.
• Keep button labels short. The full line goes in the confirm.
• For a long list, show the first few tiles and a "Browse all" button. It opens every tile in a window players can scroll and search, so a shop of 50 wares doesn't push the story off the screen.
• Close the card when its moment is over. Cards stay in the story, and their actions keep working when players scroll back, so a shop should know when it has shut.

Limits

• A card's actions change records (sheets, items, new files), not the current state. Moving the party, the time and the trackers stay the GM's.
• Picks a player hasn't confirmed live in their browser and start again on a reload. Anything confirmed is saved.