Build Constitution

What the Code Is NOT Allowed to Become

1. Not a duel sim. The standoff is an opener, not the whole combat.
2. Not interactive fiction with battles. Combat must be mechanically deep, not decorative.
3. Not a generic retro RPG. The western layer must change mechanics, not just flavor text.
4. Not a survival slog. Resources create tension, not tedium.
5. Not a lore-heavy mystery game with thin mechanics. Systems must carry the narrative weight.
6. Not a two-character engine that later becomes a party game. Build 4-slot party architecture from day one.

Runtime Contracts

Four contracts govern the implementation:

Scene Contract

How towns, campfires, investigations, and consequence scenes are authored. Every scene has: speaker, text, choices, conditions, state effects, pacing tags, and memory callbacks. Memory objects (biscuit cloth, flask, poster) must be explicitly tagged so they echo later.

Combat Contract

Built as a 4-slot party battle system from day one. Key requirements:

• Nerve as real second health bar
• Ammo finite per encounter
• Wounds persist between encounters
• Cover is positional and destructible (schemaed from day one)
• Standoff as pre-phase feeding into turn order
• Duo techs in schema even if only one is active early
• NPC combatants as a supported type
• Age variants as first-class data

State Contract

What the game remembers. Key requirements:

• Relay branch (Tom/Nella/papers) as first-class state axis
• Reputation as a web, not a score
• Evidence with integrity tracking
• Witness states (alive, location, integrity, testified)
• Memory objects as explicit state items
• Hand injury as first-class state field
• Chapter flags supporting “same mechanics, different meaning”

Pressure Contract

Generalized system for nonstandard encounters. Schema all types now, implement as needed:

• Escort pressure (build for opening arc)
• Crowd pressure (Ch5)
• Public Reckoning pressure (Ch10)
• Transmission race (Ch9)

The One Thing to Protect Hardest

The player’s command menu must be part of the narrative.

• Young Galen feels different from adult Galen in the menu
• Eli’s grayed-out Loyalty line exists before it opens
• Dead Drop appears as a scar, not just a skill reward
• Age variants are first-class schema, not afterthoughts
• Skill unlock conditions are narrative, not numeric

If the menu cannot carry biography, the game loses one of its best ideas.