Play Guide

Freeform input

There’s no command syntax to memorize. Type what your character would do:

• "I walk toward the chapel doors" — movement
• "Attack the pilgrim with my sword" — combat
• "Ask the merchant about the missing shipment" — dialogue
• "Search the crates for anything useful" — investigation
• "Lie about where I found the relic" — deception

Claude interprets your intent, maps it to engine verbs (move, attack, talk, search, deceive), and the engine resolves the outcome. You see only what the perception layer says your character perceived.

In-game commands

During play, these slash commands give you information and control:

Command	What it does
/status	Health, inventory, location, turn count, arc trajectory
/sheet or /character	Full character sheet — stats, equipment, progression
/map	Strategic map analysis — faction positions, pressure points, power balance
/leverage	Your political capital — influence, favors, intel, and available actions
/jobs	Available contracts, bounties, favors, supply runs, investigations
/accepted	Active work you’ve committed to
/arcs	Campaign arc signals — what trajectory the engine detects
/conclude	End the campaign with a structured epilogue
/archive	Browse completed campaigns
/export md	Export campaign chronicle as markdown
/export json	Export campaign chronicle as JSON
/export finale	Export standalone epilogue document (after /conclude)
/director	Enter director mode to inspect hidden truth
/help	Full command reference
save	Save the current game
quit	Exit the game

Perception filtering

You don’t see everything. The engine tracks what your character actually perceived:

• High clarity — you see names, details, and intentions
• Medium clarity — you see shapes and general behavior
• Low clarity — shadowy figures, muffled sounds, vague impressions

If an NPC attacked you from behind in dim light, you might see “something struck you from behind” rather than “the merchant stabbed you.” Director mode reveals the full truth.

NPC dialogue

NPCs speak from their cognitive state — beliefs, memories, morale, suspicion level, faction loyalty, and rumors they’ve heard. This means:

• The same NPC gives different answers depending on what they know and how they feel about you
• NPCs can lie, and they lie for traceable reasons
• NPCs remember your recent exchanges — within a session and across save/load — and reference them in later conversations
• Pushing an NPC past loyalty breakpoints triggers consequence chains
• Companion NPCs have departure risk tied to morale and loyalty

Between conversations, background NPCs keep living: a merchant rearranges wares, a guard scans the crowd, a courtier lingers at the edge of the candlelight. These ambient lines are generated deterministically per world — they cost no API tokens.

Combat

Combat is resolved deterministically by the engine. Factors include:

• Equipment stats and condition
• Position and terrain
• NPC morale (low morale NPCs may flee or surrender)
• Faction relationships (allies may intervene)

Claude narrates the engine’s resolution — dramatic flourishes are narration, but the outcomes are mechanical.

When you fall

Defeat is a setback, not the end of your campaign. When your character drops, the screen fades to a distinct death frame and ordinary actions are gated — type continue when you’re ready to rise. Introspection commands (/status, /sheet, /help) still work while you’re down, and quit will save and exit. Campaigns end deliberately through /conclude, never by one bad fight.

Saving

Games auto-save after each turn. Save files live in ~/.claude-rpg/saves/.

Resume with:

claude-rpg load

Save files include full simulation state: NPC beliefs, faction standings, district conditions, arc snapshots, endgame triggers, and equipment provenance.