Glossary Items

You can find your Glossary Items in the sidebar's Glossary tab, grouped by category (Characters, Locations, Items, or any names you choose). Clicking an item opens it.

Titles are unique within a book. When you rename a Glossary Item, every mention of it in every chapter updates too.

The Glossary Item's editor works like the chapter editor: paragraphs and headers behave the same. Two things sit next to the text. A side panel holds the item's settings (title, tags, category, and the category-specific toggles covered below). A fact card holds the named values your story checks and changes.

The detailed settings each have their own modal: a fact's type and bounds, the reader-facing card, the Trade Screen rules, the toolbar layout, and the combat stats and moves. These modals are covered under The modals further down this page. The sections before that cover the top-level toggles that open them.

• Title: the page heading. Up to 70 characters, unique within the book. Your reader sees it as the heading of the entry and as the text on every mention pill.
• Description: a one-line summary, up to 250 characters. Your reader sees it when they hover or click a mention.
• Category: how the sidebar groups items (Characters, Locations, Items, or any names you choose). You can rename categories and create new ones at any time.
• Tags: labels that Triggers and the Dynamic Components can match on. Up to 5 per item. The same 5-tag cap applies everywhere a tag picker appears (chapters, headers, abilities, secondary effects), which keeps matching fast.
• Hide by default: when this is on, the item stays hidden from your reader until a Trigger or Decision Template reveals it.
• Use fact card: when this is on, the rest of the book (Triggers, Decision Templates, Dice Templates) can read the item's fact rows. Turn it off for pure-lore items that need no state.
• Has a card: when this is on, the item gets a small visual card that readers see next to mentions and inside the glossary. Turning it on opens the Card settings modal, where you pick which facts and tags the card shows.

The wiki body is the entry itself: the lore, the description, the details your reader looks up. The editor is the same as a chapter's, with paragraphs and headers. You can mention other Glossary Items inline, as in a chapter.

You can also attach a main image: one you upload, or one from your book's media gallery.

The fact card

The fact card holds the named values your story reads and changes. Facts are grouped under headers; organise them however you like. Each fact has one of five types:

• Text: free-form text. Useful for short in-story descriptors and labels.
• Numeric: a whole number, zero or above, with an optional minimum and maximum. Use it for anything you can count: strength, gold, hit points. Triggers and dice rolls use Numeric facts when they compare or modify something.
• Boolean: true or false. Good for flags: has met Bingley, carrying a lantern, has the king's seal.
• List: a set of Glossary Item references. Holds up to 15 entries, with no duplicates and no quantities. Good for things like the keys the reader has picked up, or the people who saw the crime. Triggers can ask has any of, has all of, or has none of.
• Container: a bag of other Glossary Items, with quantities (up to 9,999 of any one item) and an optional weight cap. Trade Screens use containers as inventories: the merchant's stock is one container, the reader's pack is another.

Every fact has a default value. That's where the fact begins when your reader starts the book; Triggers and Decision Templates change it as the story plays out. A Restore default result puts it back to that value. Use it for a fresh start on a new chapter, or to wipe temporary state at the end of a scene.

A fact's name can be up to 70 characters. A Text fact's value can be up to 300 characters. The other types have their own limits, covered in the fact-settings modal below.

To set a fact's type, its range, or its starting contents, click the fact's settings cog. It opens the Fact settings modal, covered below.

For Glossary Items that represent things

When the item's category is Item, two extra toggles appear in the side panel:

• Can be used during combats: turn this on if combat moves can use the item (a sword that gets wielded, a potion that gets drunk). Turning it on opens the Combat Settings modal in item mode, where you set the consumable effect and any abilities the item adds.
• Can be added in containers: turn this on if the item is allowed inside an inventory. Turning it on opens the Trade Screen Settings modal, where you set the item's weight, its value, and its trade currency.

The settings themselves (weight, value, consumable effect, item abilities) live inside those two modals, so the side panel stays small. Two of the sections under The modals cover them in full.

For Glossary Items that represent characters

When the item's category is Character or Creature (a living entity), two extra toggles appear:

• Playable: turn this on if your reader can play as this character. A book can have several playable characters; the reader (and you, in Reading Simulation) picks one. Turning it on reveals a nested Player Toolbar toggle.
  • Player Toolbar: when on, the reader sees a small bar at the top of the page with this character's chosen facts. Turning it on opens the Player Toolbar Settings modal, where you pick which facts show, their icons, and the inventory source.
• Can engage in combats: turn this on if the character can take part in a fight. Turning it on opens the Combat Settings modal in character mode, where you set health, energy, shield, and abilities.

Each of the toggles above opens a modal where the actual configuration lives. The sections below cover the modals unique to Glossary Items.

Type, default value, range

Open this from the cog next to any fact on the fact card. At the top you set the value type: Text, Numeric, Boolean, List, or Container. Every other field in the modal depends on that type.

What you set per type

• Text: a default value, the string the fact starts at. You can @-mention other Glossary Items inside it; mentions render the same way as in chapter text.
• Numeric: a default value, plus an optional minimum and maximum. The bounds clamp every change a Trigger or Decision Template result makes: a stat capped at 100 can't go past 100, and a stat floored at 0 can't go negative.
• Boolean: a single checkbox for the default; tick it to start the fact at true, leave it unticked for false. There's nothing else to set.
• List: pick the Glossary Items the list starts with. Any Glossary Item in the book can go in; there's no category filter. The list holds up to 15 entries, with no quantities; duplicates are silently ignored. An Add to list result that would push it past 15 is dropped without warning.
• Container: pick the starting items and their quantities (up to 9,999 per item), and optionally a maximum weight. The picker only shows Item-category Glossary Items with Can be added in containers turned on.

The visual card the reader sees

Open this from Has a card on any Glossary Item. The card is the small panel your reader sees next to mentions and inside the glossary. It shows a portrait, a few key facts, and the tags you choose. What goes on it:

• Top-right stat: one Numeric fact displayed prominently in the card's corner. Use it for the headline stat: hit points, gold, level. You can also pin a short label next to the number. Leave it on None for no headline stat.
• Card facts: up to four facts (any type) shown in the body of the card, each with an icon you pick. Use it for secondary facts the reader should see without opening the full entry.
• Description: when on, the item's one-line description appears inside the card. Leave it off to keep the card smaller.
• Display tags: which of the item's tags show as pills on the card. Up to 5. Show the tags that mean something to the reader (Boss, Friendly, Cursed) and leave the rest off.

Weight, currency, value

This one opens from Can be added in containers on an Item-category Glossary Item, and it asks for three things:

• Container weight: how much one of this item weighs inside a container. It counts against the container fact's optional maximum weight; an item that would push the total over the cap can't be picked up.
• Currency: a Numeric fact that names what this item trades in. Any Numeric fact in the book works: gold, credits, favours, whichever fact acts as money in this part of the story. Leave it on None and the item costs nothing to trade.
  • Both traders need this Fact too. Currencies are matched by name. If this item is priced in gold, both Glossary Items in the Trade Screen need a Numeric Fact called gold, and those two Facts are the wallets the money moves between.
  • If one of them is missing it, the item goes free. The trade doesn't stop, it just costs nothing, and nothing warns you. The Trade Screen page walks through what to check.
• Value: either a fixed number (Static) or driven by one of the item's own Numeric facts (Dynamic, available only when the item has a fact with the same name as the currency). Static means "this sword always costs 50 gold". Dynamic means the value follows a fact, so a gem's worth can grow as its quality fact rises.

A merchant can override the value per trade from their own Trade Screen. What you set here is the default the rest of the book uses.

What sits at the top of the page

This one opens from Player Toolbar on a Playable living entity, and it asks for two things:

• Display facts: pick up to four of this character's own facts (any type) for the toolbar to show. For each one you also set:
  • an icon (and a colour for it),
  • a label of up to 30 characters that appears next to the value. It defaults to the fact's name; override it when "HP" reads better than "Hit Points".
• Inventory source: one of this character's Container facts. Picking one adds an inventory button to the toolbar that opens that container's contents. Leave it on None for no inventory button.

The biggest modal in the book

Open this from Can engage in combats on a character or Can be used during combats on an item. The modal's contents depend on which kind of Glossary Item you opened it from, but the layout is the same: a left rail of combat actions grouped under categories, and a right pane for whichever action you click.

Before you dig in, it helps to know three things:

• Actions are the unit. Everything you set lives on an action: health and shield are an action, an ability is an action, a passive aura is an action, and the consumable's effect is an action. You can add as many as you need.
• Tags connect the pieces. Tags on an ability decide which shields absorb its damage and which cleanses cancel it. Five tags max per action. It's the same tag system the rest of the book uses.
• Dice and prerequisites attach to abilities. An ability can roll a dice before it fires (with Dice Templates) and can be gated behind prerequisites. Both work the same way here as in the other Dynamic Components.

Character settings

Every living entity gets a non-deletable action at the top of the left rail. It holds the character's core combat settings:

• Behavior: how a non-player character chooses what to do each round. When the reader plays this character, the behavior is ignored; the reader picks instead.
• Health Points and Energy Points: either a fixed number or driven by a Calculation, so a boss can have HP that scales with the reader's level. Each one has its own Unit / Calculation toggle, which only shows up once the book has at least one Calculation.
• Has a Shield: when on, a third field appears for Shield Points (Unit or Calculation, same as HP), plus:
  • an Absorb Rate (0-100%): the fraction of incoming damage the shield absorbs before HP takes the rest;
  • Absorbs Damage with Tags: the ability tags this shield covers. Leave it empty and the shield absorbs everything; fill it in and only attacks carrying one of those tags are absorbed.

Abilities

Abilities are the active moves a character can use during a turn: attacks, heals, buffs, anything that costs an action. Add as many as the character needs; each one gets its own card in the left rail. For each ability:

• Icon: what shows on the ability button during combat. When the ability has a dice attached, the dice icon is used automatically.
• Energy Cost (0-10) and Cooldown Period (0-10 rounds, or "for the entire combat"). The cost comes off the character's energy points; the cooldown locks the ability for that many rounds after each use.
• Luck: a percentage chance that the ability lands each time it's used. Defaults to 100%.
• Action and target: what the ability does (deal damage, heal, apply a passive, and so on) and who it affects (self, the opponent, the whole party). Pick both from the dropdowns at the top of the Ability tab.
• Tags: up to 5. Shields, cleanses, and resistances match on these. A Fire tag marks an ability as fire damage; an opponent with a Fire resistance passive takes less damage from it.
• Value: the number behind the action. Four ways to source it:
  • Static: a fixed number.
  • Dynamic: a Numeric fact on this character. The value reads the fact at the moment the ability fires, so the damage tracks the stat.
  • Calculation: a Calculation that combines several facts into one number.
  • Static Range: a minimum and a maximum; the engine rolls between them each time. "Deal 4 to 8 damage."
• Consumes an item: turn on if using the ability costs an item from the character's inventory. You pick an item tag rather than a specific item, so any item carrying the tag can satisfy it (the reader chooses if more than one matches). You also set a consumption amount.

Each ability also has its own Prerequisites, Secondary Effects, and (if a dice is attached) Dice Modifiers, covered on tabs inside the action card.

Secondary effects

Secondary effects are the passive part of a fight. Each is one ongoing modifier: a damage-over-time, a regen, a resistance, a cleanse. You give it a name, a target, a duration in turns, a value, and the tags it matches on. The effect types:

• Damage / Heal (grouped under Health Points): a value applied to health each round.
• Energy drain / Energy regeneration: the same, for energy.
• Resistance, Cleanse, Enhance: these modify how other effects land. Resistance cuts damage carrying a given tag. Cleanse removes effects carrying a given tag. Enhance boosts effects carrying a given tag.
• Prevent abilities: locks the opponent out of abilities carrying a given tag for the duration.

A secondary effect attaches either to an ability, firing as a side effect of using it, or to a dedicated Passive Effects action, which stays on for the whole fight.

Consumable effects

When you open the modal from an item, a Consumable toggle sits at the top of the right pane. Turn it on and a final action appears at the bottom of the rail: the consumable's effect, what happens when the reader drinks the potion or eats the apple. It's a short panel: pick Increase, Decrease, or No effect, then the percentage change. The effect targets whichever stat the consuming ability points at.

To mention a Glossary Item in your text, type @ and pick it. This works in chapters, decision items, Trigger text, and anywhere else with a text field. The editor inserts a small pill linked to the item. Two things follow:

• Renames carry through. Rename the Glossary Item and every mention of it updates. You never have to fix old references by hand.
• Reveal gating. A mention is only clickable for your reader once the item has been revealed to them (next section). Unrevealed mentions look like plain text.

Glossary Items work one of two ways, depending on the Hide by default toggle:

• Visible from the start: the default. Your reader sees mentions as clickable pills from the first chapter the item appears in. Use it for characters and places the reader should know about from the start.
• Hidden until revealed: your reader doesn't see the item at all until a Trigger or Decision Template reveals it. Until then, mentions render as plain text. Use it for a twist character, a place the reader discovers, or a hidden faction.

The reverse works too: a Trigger or Decision Template can hide an item the reader has already seen. It's rare, but useful for a secret the reader should "forget" after a specific moment.

A Glossary Item can hit two kinds of problem. They behave differently, and only one of them blocks publishing.

• The editor refuses to save when a new title collides with another Glossary Item in the book. Pick a different title and try again; the rest of your edit is kept.
• The Glossary Item goes invalid when a setting on it points at something that no longer exists. The validator tracks four areas independently (trade settings, the toolbar, the card, and each combat action), so an item can be partly broken while the rest still works. The usual causes:
  • A trade currency points at a fact that was deleted, or at one that is no longer Numeric.
  • The toolbar shows a fact that no longer exists, in either a display-fact slot or the inventory slot.
  • The card's Top-right stat or Card facts point at facts that have been deleted.
  • A combat action points at a deleted Dice Template, Calculation, fact, or tag, or its prerequisites reference something that's gone. The Combat-settings modal marks the action with a warning so you can go straight to the broken row.

The Glossary sidebar marks invalid items with a small warning in the accent colour. Click the item and open the relevant panel or modal; the broken row is highlighted there too. The publish check refuses any book with an invalid Glossary Item, so invalid items are flagged again on the publish page.