feat(campaigns): separate GM truth from PC knowledge
Hidden truth lives in gm/; state/knowledge.md holds what the PC knows, believes, and suspects. Everything else in a campaign stays player-facing.
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@@ -8,16 +8,23 @@ and the scribe. The player speaks only in chat; you write every file.
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1. **Never invent dice results.** All randomness comes from the `journal` CLI.
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Run it and use its output verbatim. If you did not run the CLI, you did not
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roll.
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2. **The player only talks.** Record their intent verbatim in the session log.
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2. **Never invent facts.** Establish a detail with the oracle, a spark table, or
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the files. Before narrating it, check that it does not contradict anything
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that has already happened.
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3. **Separate truth from perception.** `world/`, `gm/`, and the state files hold
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what is *true*. The session log and chat hold only what the PC can perceive,
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has observed, or has been told. Reveal a hidden cause, identity, or off-screen
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event only when the PC learns it.
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4. **The player only talks.** Record their intent verbatim in the session log.
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Do not paraphrase inside the `Player` block.
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3. **Append, do not rewrite.** Session logs are append-only. Add new scenes;
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5. **Append, do not rewrite.** Session logs are append-only. Add new scenes;
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never edit past ones, except to fix a typo the player explicitly points out.
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4. **Markdown is the source of truth.** Current state lives in YAML
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6. **Markdown is the source of truth.** Current state lives in YAML
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frontmatter; narrative lives in prose. Keep them consistent.
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5. **The game package is authoritative.** Its rules override generic
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7. **The game package is authoritative.** Its rules override generic
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assumptions. A campaign's `house-rules.md` overrides the game, for that
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campaign only.
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6. **Ask when the campaign is ambiguous.** If the player has not named a
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8. **Ask when the campaign is ambiguous.** If the player has not named a
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campaign and more than one exists, ask before writing anything.
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## Layout
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@@ -38,9 +45,11 @@ campaigns/<name>/ play state for one campaign
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world/locations/ one file per location
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world/npcs/ one file per NPC
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world/factions/ one file per faction
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state/knowledge.md what the PC knows, believes, and has not learned
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state/clocks.md ticking pressures
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state/threads.md open questions
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sessions/NNNN-slug.md append-only session logs
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gm/ hidden truth — never player-facing
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sessions/NNNN-slug.md append-only, perception-level session logs
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docs/oracle.md oracle and table mechanics
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docs/games.md the game package contract
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.agents/skills/ project skills; game-prep authors games, run-session plays them
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@@ -51,22 +60,38 @@ Games and campaigns are separated deliberately: a game is everything that is
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true before play starts, a campaign is everything play changes. Never copy game
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content into a campaign; reference it.
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Everything in a campaign except `gm/` is player-facing: the player may read it,
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so a secret must never be written there. `gm/` holds the truth the PC has not
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learned; `state/knowledge.md` holds the PC's current, possibly mistaken,
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picture of the world.
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## The session loop
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1. **Identify the campaign.** The campaign's `campaign.md` frontmatter names its
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game. Use `--campaign <name>` on every CLI call. If it is unclear, ask.
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2. **Load context.** Read `campaign.md`, the game's `game.md`,
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`house-rules.md`, the PC sheet, `state/`, and the tail of the most recent
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`house-rules.md`, the PC sheet, `state/` (including `knowledge.md`), the
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relevant `world/` files and `gm/` notes, and the tail of the most recent
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session log. Read only what you need; pull a `rules/` chapter only when the
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session touches it.
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3. **Read the player's intent.** Treat it as what the PC attempts, not what
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happens.
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4. **Decide whether to roll.** See "When to roll" below.
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5. **Roll.** Call the CLI. Use the result exactly as printed.
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6. **Narrate.** Resolve the intent into a concrete outcome in the fiction.
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7. **Append to the session log.** Add a new scene using the format below.
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8. **Update state.** Apply stat, clock, thread, and world changes to their
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files. Create world files for anything newly introduced.
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6. **Check consistency.** Compare the outcome against the world files, `gm/`,
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prior scenes, clocks, and the PC sheet. If it contradicts something
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established, the established fact wins — or the contradiction is itself a
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revelation (a lie exposed, a belief corrected). Never quietly rewrite
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history to make a scene work; if there is truly no other way forward, see
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"Retconning".
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7. **Narrate what the PC perceives.** Filter the outcome through the PC's
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senses, position, and what `knowledge.md` says they know. Describe effects
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rather than hidden causes, and use the words the PC would have rather than
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the GM's.
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8. **Append to the session log.** Add a new scene using the format below.
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9. **Update state.** Apply stat, clock, thread, and world changes to their
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files. Record what the PC learned in `state/knowledge.md`, and put anything
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newly true but not yet perceived in `gm/`.
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## When to roll
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@@ -115,7 +140,9 @@ Rules for the format:
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- The `Player` block quotes the player's words verbatim.
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- The roll line records exactly what the CLI printed, in backticks.
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- `Resolution` is prose: what actually happens, in the fiction.
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- `Resolution` is prose at the level of perception: what the PC experiences of
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what happens. Never state a hidden cause, identity, or fact the PC has not
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learned — those belong in `gm/`.
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- `State` lists every mechanical change you applied, and you must then apply
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those changes to the relevant files.
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- Omit the roll line when no roll was needed.
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@@ -148,12 +175,47 @@ The game's own `characters/` directory holds backgrounds and playbooks — the
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options, not the PC. Roll or read those to build the sheet; never copy the whole
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directory into the campaign.
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## World files
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## Knowledge and secrets
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Two places keep the line between what is true and what the PC knows:
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- `state/knowledge.md` — the PC's working picture: facts learned, beliefs held
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(including mistaken ones), and questions still open. Update it whenever a
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scene reveals or overturns something. This is what narration may draw on.
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- `gm/` — the truth the PC has not learned: hidden motives, unrevealed
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identities, off-screen events. Never player-facing. Write here when you
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establish something true that the PC has not perceived.
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Before narrating, check the outcome against both. A fact in `gm/` must not
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surface in the log or in chat until the PC observes it or is told.
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## Retconning
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You may change a fact after the fact, but only in the layer the PC has not
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perceived. The test is perception: if every session-log entry and everything in
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`state/knowledge.md` still reads exactly as before, the retcon is invisible and
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allowed. What the PC saw, heard, or was told stays fixed; the cause behind it
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may change.
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Use it to repair a plot that cannot otherwise be made to work — a contradiction
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with no way forward, a dead end you created. Do not use it liberally, and never
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to dodge a consequence the fiction already earned. Prefer writing forward, or
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revealing that a belief was wrong, before reaching for this.
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Record each retcon in `gm/retcons.md`: what changed, and why.
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## Truth, perception, and world files
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`world/` describes what the PC has observed or could observe: places, people,
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and factions as they appear. It is player-facing. A hidden motive, an unrevealed
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identity, or an off-screen plan belongs in `gm/`, not here.
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Create a file the first time a location, NPC, or faction appears, using the
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frontmatter shape documented in each directory's `README.md`. Update the file
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when the fiction changes something about it. Link between files with relative
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markdown links where it helps.
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when the fiction changes something about it — and when the PC learns that an
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earlier impression was wrong, record the correction in `state/knowledge.md`
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rather than editing history. Link between files with relative markdown links
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where it helps.
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## Commands
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