Gameplay Guide

A cooperative tabletop tale where every player shares one hero and every vote shapes the next beat.

Start Here

"Our Story" is a tabletop-style RPG told through one shared character called the hero. Instead of each player steering their own avatar, everyone submits a vote for what the hero should do next. The winning intent becomes canon, the system rolls the bones, and the built-in AI narrator brings the moment to life.

Keep these pillars in mind:

• Many minds, one body. Every turn is decided collaboratively, and the fiction reflects the blended intent.
• Use the verbs that already exist. Pick from the active Verb catalog or from the hero's known skills so the system knows how to resolve your idea.
• Action teaches. Taking actions grants experience, and experience is later spent during Meditation to grow stronger.

Flow of Play

Each turn moves quickly once you know the rhythm:

1. Propose actions. Players submit votes using the command syntax (see below). Verb votes, skill uses, movement, broadcasts, and more can all be proposed in parallel.
2. Pack the context. For the verb + target pairing that wins (or the verb alone when no target is named), the system gathers only the votes that match exactly, shuffles their ! snippets, trims the pile down to that verb's context limit, and passes those raw snippets to resolution.
3. Resolve the roll. Every action maps to a roll type from the Roll type compendium. The system combines a random die, the hero's stats, relevant skills, items, and the target's defenses to decide success.
4. Narrate and apply results. The AI narrator weaves the scene, adjusts resources, grants experience, and shares the outcome with everyone in the node.

Voting Syntax

Taking an action is as simple as a short sentence.

[verb] [optional target] ! [optional context]

• The verb must exist in the Verb catalog or be the name of a known skill.
• The target (if any) must be a real noun currently present in your node: the hero, a mob, or a thing.
• The context after ! adds flavor or intent. Keep it concise; only a limited number of snippets from matching verb + target votes survive the shuffle.

Context with !

• Use one ! per vote. Everything after it is passed straight into the resolver without paraphrasing.
• Give the narrator hooks: what you attempt, how you do it, or why it matters.
• Avoid meta commands; describe the fiction, not the rules.

Targets Must Be Real

• If you reference something that is not currently in the node, the action fizzles before it rolls.
• Some things start hidden. Use verbs like search, forage, or survey to discover them and make them valid targets.
• Describe the target clearly. "goblin" works if a goblin is present; "left goblin" works if there are multiples.

Common Mistakes

• Unknown verbs. Stick to verbs from the catalog or your skills.
• Missing targets. If an action clearly needs someone or something to aim at, include it.
• Overlong context. Trim your flourish; shorter snippets have a better chance of being kept.

Command Reference

These are the core commands players can vote on. All of them follow the general syntax rules above.

Rolls and Outcomes

Every action that can change the world calls for a roll. The system chooses the correct roll type based on your verb or skill, then combines several ingredients:

result = random die (from the roll type)
        + relevant stat modifier
        + skill tier bonuses (if any)
        + bonuses from things or situational edges
        - target resistances or defenses

To find the underlying roll, browse the Verb catalog and cross-reference the entry in the Roll type compendium.

Outcomes land in familiar bands:

• Critical success: You excel. Expect stronger effects, upgrades, or bonus boons.
• Success: You accomplish the intent cleanly.
• Mixed result: You succeed but face a cost, complication, or reduced impact.
• Miss: The attempt fails and the situation shifts against you.
• Critical failure: Things go badly and invite a hard twist.

The AI narrator always ties the mechanical band back into the fiction so every voter understands what changed.

Area of Effect Roll Types

Some roll types — flagged with the AoE badge in the Roll type compendium — strike multiple targets in a single action. They resolve in two stages instead of one, and the second stage depends on the first.

Two-phase resolution

1. Targeting roll. Before any damage is calculated, the hero rolls to discern allies from foes amid the chaos of the spread.
2. Damage roll per target. Each chosen target then takes its own roll against its own defenses. Crits, misses, and per-target variance are all possible inside a single invocation.

Who gets struck

• On a successful targeting roll, only occupants the hero treats as hostile (Enemy disposition, including mobs the hero has already been attacked by) are caught in the spread, up to the roll type's cap.
• On a failed targeting roll, the hero loses control. Up to the cap of occupants in the node are struck regardless of disposition — including the hero's Friends. Pick your moment.

Naming a focal target

If your vote names a target (fireball goblin), that target is treated as the focal point: they are guaranteed to be hit even on a failed targeting roll, and they count against the cap. The remaining slots are filled by the rules above.

Caps are per roll type

Each AoE roll type defines its own cap (for example, MagicalAttackAreaDamage strikes up to three targets). The cap is shown in the Roll type compendium.

Narration

You'll see one personalized account of what your hero did, and each struck pawn receives their own personalized account of what happened to them. Everyone else in the node hears one third-person summary of the whole event.

Stats, Resources, and Growth

The hero's sheet is shared knowledge. Learn how every part works so you can vote with purpose.

Stats

Six core stats shape most rolls: Strength (STR), Dexterity (DEX), Vitality (VIT), Intellect (INT), Spirit (SPI), and Charisma (CHA). Call them by name or abbreviation when you reference them in Meditation or narration.

Resources

Hit points, mana, and stamina measure how ready the hero is. Meditation is the primary way to refill these pools between fights or after exhausting tasks.

Experience

Every resolved action grants experience. Simply trying things advances the hero. Experience stays banked until you spend it during Meditation.

Meditation

Meditation is both rest and growth:

• Vote for meditate <stat> ! <mantra> to refocus on a stat. Doing so can restore resources and invest experience into that stat.
• Players collectively choose which stat or skill to nourish. The winning intent spends the required experience.
• When meditating on a skill, demonstrate insight into how it works and where it can evolve. Clear reflections unlock the next tier.

Mantras

Mantras deepen with every improvement. Each new mantra must be more intentional than the last. For example, if your old mantra for Strength was "muscles me strong," an improved version like "big muscles make me strong" works because it clarifies what Strength means to the hero. Expect the bar to rise each time you grow.

Leveling Up

Every ten stat points earned lets the hero meditate levelup to spend the stored level pip. Leveling may unlock new verbs, strengthen rolls, or open narrative doors, depending on how the vote has been steering the story.

Skills and Crafting

Skills start with vague descriptions at tier one. As you meditate on them, your reflections should reveal what the skill truly does and how it might evolve. Clear, insightful mantras unlock the next tier, granting stronger dice, bigger bonuses, or new move sets.

Skills serve two major purposes:

• Combat and support. Aim a skill at a valid target to attack, defend, heal, or control the fiction.
• Crafting. Blend a skill with two items from your inventory and a vivid description to create something new. The AI narrator considers your narrative context, skill tier, ingredients, and the roll result to decide what emerges.

Critical crafting rolls upgrade quality, while poor rolls might waste materials or spawn imperfect results. Creativity and clarity matter: describe how the ingredients are used so the narrative can respond.

Choosing a tier when you cast

Unlocking a higher tier doesn't replace the lower ones — every tier you've earned remains available. That matters because each tier may resolve through a different roll type. Take the skill purify:

• Tier 1 — Soap Salesman's Shine resolves as PHYSICAL_ATTACK_MELEE (you scrub it clean).
• Tier 4 — Purification Mandate resolves as HEAL (you command corruption to leave).

Same word, very different effects. The skill wizard surfaces this with a tier picker on the "how do you use this skill?" step — pick a chip, see that tier's name, description, and roll type update, then vote. The vote shows up as purify:1 … or purify:4 … so everyone can see which form was invoked.

If you're typing commands directly, append :tier to the action word (purify:1 wound ! …). Bare purify … defaults to your peak unlocked tier. Picking a tier above your current mastery fails fast — locked tiers stay hidden from the picker and rejected at the command parser.

Where :tier does NOT apply:

• Crafting (skill ! item1 ! item2 ! description) doesn't take a :tier suffix. Crafting feeds the LLM every tier you've unlocked as context, so it can weigh the skill's whole evolution against the materials. There's nothing to pick.
• Meditation (meditate <skill> ! mantra) also rejects :tier. Meditating is how you push your mastery forward, so it always operates at your highest unlocked tier — picking a lower one would defeat the point.

World and Exploration

The game world is organized into nodes. Each node has a name, a short description, the visible hero, active mobs, and things lying around. All resolved actions in a node are broadcast to the other occupants from their points of view.

Discovery

Not every noun starts visible. Verbs like search, forage, or survey can trigger the right roll to uncover hidden doors, caches, or creatures. Once revealed, they become legal targets for future actions.

Mobs

Mobs follow their nature: herbivores browse, omnivores adapt, and carnivores hunt. Treat them accordingly. Defeating a mob usually causes it to drop things that players can collect or combine.

Things

Things grant passive power while they sit in the hero's inventory. Combine them through crafting to chase rare synergies. Keep an eye on weight, attunement limits, or other fictional constraints the AI narrator introduces.

World Bosses and Endless Progression

Worlds are arranged into tiers, linked by portals that sit on the safe haven. Each world is guarded by a World Boss, and the portal onward stays sealed until that boss falls — defeat the guardian and the path to the next tier opens for everyone who helped bring it down.

The deepest world in the chain is the frontier: it has no portal onward yet, because no world has been forged beyond it. Slaying the frontier's boss does something special instead of opening an existing path:

• The hero who lands the killing blow earns a one-time right to dream the next world into being.
• That hero can then vote meditate world ! <vision> — describe the world you want to forge: its place, its mood, and what makes it harsher than the last. A sincere, vivid vision succeeds; empty or off-topic text fails (and you keep the right to try again).
• On success a brand-new, higher-tier world unfurls beyond the frontier, and a fresh portal opens at the safe haven leading to it. The chain is effectively endless — every frontier conquered births the next.

Only the finishing blow earns the forge right, and only on a frontier world (one with nothing beyond it). Once a world has been forged, that path exists for good, so the option closes — the new world becomes the frontier, waiting for its own boss to fall. The "Forge World" choice only appears in the meditation wizard when you actually hold the right.

Survival and Return

When the hero is reduced to zero vitality, they die. Death is not the end, but coming back costs something.

• To return, the voters must choose meditate live ! <reason>. The reason must feel sincere within the fiction.
• The experience cost equals the hero's current level. If you cannot afford it, the death sticks.
• Permadeath is possible. Plan ahead and bank experience if you expect danger.

Writing Strong Votes

Great votes are short, clear, and actionable. Try these habits:

• Lead with the verb and target so the system instantly knows your intent.
• Use the ! context to explain how you do it, not to argue the rules.
• Support other players' ideas by echoing key details and matching their verb + target so your contexts combine before the shuffle.
• Keep things grounded in what the hero can see or touch right now.

Example Round

1. The voters submit votes: punch goblin ! drive it back toward the fire, look chest, say Secure the doorway!, and meditate strength ! steel lives in my bones.
2. punch goblin wins. The system shuffles the context snippets from every punch goblin vote and forwards as many as the verb allows.
3. A Might roll fires: random die + Strength modifier + any relevant skill bonuses + item bonuses - the goblin's defense.
4. The narrator reports a mixed success. The goblin staggers, but the hero loses footing. Everyone hears the description, the hero gains experience, and stamina drops a bit.
5. The next turn begins; players vote again, maybe this time to meditate strength ! big muscles make me strong to lock in the lesson.

Quick Reminders

• Stick to verbs and skills you actually know; consult the Verb catalog when in doubt.
• Targets must exist in the current node or an action fails before rolling.
• Actions earn experience, but only Meditation spends it. Bring better mantras every time you grow.
• Crafting uses a skill plus two real inventory items and a vivid plan.
• Keep hidden doors and treasure in mind—discover them with the right verbs.
• Death is reversible if the voters decide to spend the experience and make the case to live again.