A tiny RPG

Review scope: Linked public documentation checked October 30, 2026. Examples are proposed checks, not recorded OD results; use your account's current controls.

Tutorial index

What you will make

An RPG, or role-playing game, combines fictional choices with agreed rules and consequences. State is the current inventory, location, and other changing facts. A check resolves an uncertain action. An NPC, or non-player character, is someone the model portrays. An incident is one accepted story event, even when retold. EXP means experience points; this exercise uses none. A quiet conversation does not need to become a game.

You will help Mira, a 30-year-old adult archivist who is precise, patient, and dryly humorous, and Rowan, a 32-year-old adult courier who is practical and informal, deliver A17. You are an adult traveler. Neither success nor failure is predetermined.

Before you start

Use one narrator-led practice chat with the cast from Tutorial 09. This avoids learning group routing and game rules simultaneously. Extra Details (ED) is the character-editor field for supporting rules. Additional Personality Details (APD) holds personality; keep Mira's existing APD rather than replacing it with game mechanics. The systems guide documents optional progression and native State Trackers.

Follow these steps

1. Choose how uncertainty will be resolved. For this exercise, roll a physical six-sided die outside OD when a check is needed. Tell the chat the result. This is your external method, not an OD dice feature. If you prefer freeform storytelling, agree on outcomes in conversation and omit the numerical rules.

2. Add one small written rules module. In Mira's ED, append this original module once beneath the existing story rules. Remove conflicting mechanics from older engines. This is narrative guidance, not installed game software.

   ARCHIVE DELIVERY GAME
   Goal: the records clerk accepts sealed parcel A17 and issues receipt R-A17.
   Start: Time 3; A17 at the archive; no receipt.
   Time means remaining delivery opportunities, not real minutes.
   Ordinary questions, planning, and quiet social conversation cost no Time.
   Before a risky route action, state its stakes and ask the traveler to choose.
   A chosen risky route attempt requires Time above 0.
   Resolve its outcome, then subtract 1 Time, whether it succeeds or fails.
   Attach that cost to one accepted incident ID; retelling it adds no new cost.
   Plans, quoted examples, and hypothetical attempts are not completed attempts.
   The user supplies an external six-sided die result: 4-6 succeeds; 1-3 fails.
   Do not invent a roll or repeat a check merely to force success.
   At Time 0, allow no new route attempts. If already at the office,
   finish the pending handover; otherwise store A17 safely for tomorrow.
   A final route success permits a handover, not automatic acceptance.
   NPCs retain their own goals. Never choose the traveler's action or feelings.
   

3. Agree on the starting state in chat. Send: Use the archive delivery game. Starting Time is 3, A17 is sealed at the archive, and no receipt exists. I will supply external die results. Explain a check's stakes before I choose an action. Confirm the reply matches before beginning.

4. Play a quiet turn first. Send: Before we leave, I ask Mira why she became an archivist. She can tell a story, decline, or ask about you. Time should remain 3. Her answer need not become a reward, a new skill, or an automatic relationship increase.

5. Make a consequential choice. First establish who carries A17 and who joins the journey; ask rather than assuming Mira and Rowan accompany you. Then send: What would be at stake if I tried the narrow canal shortcut? An illustrative explanation is: success reaches the office approach; failure returns you to the junction; either attempt costs one Time. You can reject those stakes and take another approach. The narrator should not roll or move you before you decide.

6. Resolve an attempted action. Suppose you choose the shortcut and your real die shows 2. Send: I attempt the shortcut. My external die result is 2. A possible worked outcome is:

   The footbridge is blocked by repair equipment.
   Rowan points back toward the junction. "Long way, then."
   Time: 2. A17 remains sealed with the traveler. No receipt.
   Mira studies the map. "Its confidence exceeded its accuracy."
   

   This example assumes you chose to carry A17 and Mira and Rowan joined the journey. Otherwise preserve the established parcel location and present cast. The failed route should change your available choices; it should not award the delivery.

7. Require an actual ending event. Reaching the office is not acceptance. Play the handover and any clerk questions. Read the accepted NPC reply before updating the final checkpoint: an offer can become acceptance only in that reply. Count the delivery only when A17 is accepted and R-A17 is issued. Record that incident identity once, so retelling, quoting, or regenerating the same accepted incident cannot earn it twice. A genuinely new attempt needs its own identity.

   If you use the companion's coded local ledger, record the route cost under a stable ID such as A17-route-01/cost. Its roll record records dice only; it does not automatically spend Time, transfer ownership, or update native trackers.

8. Write a resume point. Save current Time and its units, parcel identity/holder/location/condition, actual cast, receipt and already-counted incident IDs, individual knowledge, relevant permissions, and the open choice. Keep required unknowns explicit. If using native trackers, follow Tutorial 13 and inspect their actual values. A local ledger backup preserves its own events; keep the narrative checkpoint too, because item names and a count do not retain everyone's knowledge.

Checkpoint and troubleshooting

Test a failed attempt, a successful attempt, and a social turn. Verify the arithmetic and parcel location yourself. If every action succeeds, restate the agreed failure consequence rather than adding harsher adjectives. If the story charges for conversation, correct Time to the last confirmed value. If a regenerated reply changes an outcome, choose the accepted version and reconcile state before continuing.

Read a game rule as a condition and consequence

Before adding stronger words such as always or absolute, identify the event that permits a change. In this exercise, planning a shortcut is different from choosing and resolving its risky attempt. The stated consequence is one Time cost attached to that accepted attempt, not a cost for every mention of the route.

Try these original inputs from separately restored starting states: What if we used the shortcut?, I decline that route, and I attempt it; my external roll is 2. Save the actual reply and Time for each. The first two target no change; the last targets the agreed failure and one cost. These are proposed cases. The OD prompt lab shows how to write and compare similarly scoped rules.

Check the last-opportunity boundary

In a separate practice run, explicitly start with Time 1 and an undelivered A17. A chosen route attempt must resolve before Time becomes 0. If it succeeds and reaches the office, the clerk can still accept or reject the handover; a receipt is not automatic. If it fails short of the office, no new route attempt is allowed until a deliberately established next-day reset. A question or refusal at Time 0 costs nothing. Record each result as observed rather than treating this rule text as an executable timer.

One interval, one accepted timeline

Printing Mira's and Rowan's activities does not itself spend two opportunities or add their simultaneous durations. If both act during the same five-minute interval, a separate story clock advances five minutes; sequential activities require a different explicit rule. Offscreen plans do not run a background process.

After edits or regeneration, choose which outcome is accepted and reconcile affected records. Preserve unrelated events and the selected Persona (user identity profile); local undo is not an OD rollback. Use the checkpoint audit to identify missing state before resuming.

Next: Memory and continuity.