Trackers
Deep dives into every tool on stage
Trackers
Trackers are part of Story Director, but each lives in its own wing — this doc covers them in detail. For the agent that drives them, see Story Director. For the dashboard surface that surfaces some of the same data, see Storyboards.
A Tracker is a wing panel that shows live game state during a chat. Combat HP bars, NPC affinity meters, calendar dates, spellbook cards, gossip rumors, creature codex entries — each tracker is a focused slice of state with its own panel, its own settings menu, and (when DM Assistant is on) its own pipeline for auto-updates every turn.
There are 16 trackers. Each one is independent — enable any combination from Stage Settings or QuickPlay. When the matching toggle is on, the wing panel appears on the right rail and the bottom toolbar gets an icon for popping the panel open after minimizing it.
| Tracker | What it tracks |
|---|---|
| Combat | Active combat encounters — enemies, HP, turn order, dice rolls |
| Player Stats | HP, MP, AP, shield, XP, level, currency, custom survival needs |
| NPC Relationships | Affinity, trust, emotions, memories, dynamics, scene presence |
| Map | Locations, regions, travel state, danger, discoveries |
| Quest Journal | Active and completed quests, objectives, deadlines, rewards |
| Inventory | Items, equipment slots, currency, loot |
| Corruption | Degradation metrics for darker themes |
| Parallel Events | Things happening simultaneously elsewhere |
| Bonds | Magical or supernatural connections between characters |
| Knowledge | What the player knows vs believes vs suspects vs has wrong |
| Calendar | In-story date, time, seasons, events, celestial state |
| Biological Cycles | Heat, rut, pregnancy, ovulation, lunar transformations |
| Spellbook | Learned spells, abilities, cooldowns, cast history |
| Gossip | Rumors, reputation scores, organizations, social clusters |
| Memory Journal | What NPCs remember about the player |
| Creature Codex | Species bestiary plus individual creature instances |
| Party Management | Adventuring party — members, formation, tactics, shared loot |
How Trackers Work
Every tracker shares the same plumbing. Understand the plumbing once and every panel makes sense.
The Anatomy of a Wing Panel
Each tracker panel has:
- A toggle in Stage Settings or QuickPlay — turn the tracker on or off for this chat
- A wing panel that opens from the right rail when enabled
- A bottom toolbar icon that brings minimized panels back into view
- A per-panel settings menu (gear icon) for AI awareness, lorebook pinning, and clear-data
- An auto-refresh button that re-syncs the panel from chat history when state drifts
When the DM Assistant is on and a tracker is enabled, the Story Director keeps it live during gameplay. When the Director is off, the panels still exist and can be edited by hand — they just don't auto-update.
How Updates Reach Your Screen
Each turn, the Story Director plans the next beat and emits a set of typed update commands — start combat, update relationship, discover location, advance time, plant seed, and so on. The platform parses these commands, applies them to the matching tracker store, persists the resulting snapshot, and re-renders the wing panel. By the time the Narrator's prose finishes streaming in, your trackers are already up to date.
This whole pipeline runs in a single tool round. Some models can update many trackers in one round; smaller models manage fewer. Pick a model that supports multiple tool-call rounds for the smoothest experience — see Story Director's "Choosing a Story Director Model" section.
Per-Module Settings
Every tracker panel has a gear icon. Click it for:
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| DM Updates (turns) | How many user turns between auto-updates for this tracker. 1 = every turn, 0 = manual only. Overrides the chat-level default. |
| AI Context | How often this tracker's data is included in the Narrator's prompt — Always Include, Every 2 Turns, Every 5 Turns, Never Include |
| Lorebook | Optionally pin a lorebook to this tracker's AI context so the model has the supporting canon |
| Clear All Data | Wipes the panel back to empty state (with confirmation) |
The Module Settings Shape
Behind each tracker toggle is a small block of per-module configuration:
| Field | What it controls |
|---|---|
| enabled | Master on/off for the module |
| worldTheme | One of fantasy, scifi, modern, horror, postapo — biases AI prompts |
| subFeatures | A bag of named flags — different per module (see each module below) |
| updateFrequency | Override of how often the AI updates this tracker (turns) |
| promptInclusion | How often tracker data is included in the prompt |
| lorebookId | Optional lorebook pinned to this tracker |
Token Budget and Tool Rounds
Each Story Director turn has a finite tool-call budget — typically 3–5 rounds. Each tracker update costs at least one round. If you enable many modules all set to frequency 1, the model may exhaust its budget before updating every due tracker.
Skipped trackers aren't lost — they're picked up on the next eligible turn. But for cleaner pacing:
- Set your highest-priority trackers (Relationships, Quest Journal) to
1 - Set moderately important trackers (Calendar, Map, Gossip) to
2–5 - Set rarely-changing trackers (Creature Codex, Spellbook) to
0(manual)
If trackers stop updating consistently, reduce frequency-1 modules or switch to a stronger Story Director model.
Combat (Battle Tracker)
Tracks: Active combat encounters — enemies, HP, turn order, dice rolls.
Panel Fields You See
| Field | What it shows |
|---|---|
| In Combat | Master flag — are we in a fight right now |
| Enemies | Roster with name, HP bar (current/max), level, boss flag, status effects, threat level (low / medium / high / critical) |
| Turn Order | List of combatants in initiative order |
| Current Turn | Whose turn it is right now |
| Round Number | Which combat round we're on |
| Combat Log | Append-only log of what happened — attacks, misses, status changes, dramatic beats |
| Dice Rolls | History of recent rolls with expression (2d6+3), individual rolls, modifier, total, timestamp |
AI Directives That Drive It
The Story Director emits directives to start combat with an enemy roster, end combat, update enemy HP, mark turn changes, apply status effects, and roll dice. Status effects are tracked inline on each enemy as a list of named effects (no separate sub-toggle).
When to Enable
TTRPG-style stories, action stories, monster-hunter games, dungeon crawls, anything where turn-by-turn combat matters and you want the AI to remember exactly which enemies are bloodied and whose turn it is.
When NOT to Enable
- Slice-of-life, romance, character-study chats where you don't want HP bars cluttering the side rail
- Stories where combat happens once and resolves in a single message — no need for a turn tracker
- Pure dialogue scenes
Player Stats (Resources)
Tracks: HP, MP, AP, shield, XP, level, currency, and a free-form bag of survival needs.
Panel Fields You See
| Field | What it shows |
|---|---|
| HP / Max HP | Hit points with a colored bar |
| MP / Max MP | Mana / magic points |
| AP / Max AP | Action points (or whatever resource your world uses) |
| Shield | Optional damage buffer above HP |
| XP | Experience toward next level |
| Level | Current character level |
| Currency | Gold, credits, vouchers — whatever the in-world currency is |
| Needs | Free-form bag — each entry has a current value, max value, and label. Example: hunger, sleep, sanity, fury, ki — whatever your world tracks |
AI Directives That Drive It
The Director emits absolute set commands (hp: 80) or relative deltas (hpDelta: -10) for any stat. Survival needs accept both delta updates and full-shape sets — the AI can decrement hunger over time or initialize a new need on the fly.
When to Enable
RPG settings, survival fiction, magical-girl transformations with mana costs, anything where the player's body or psyche has stats. The needs bag is especially flexible — name a custom need anything, and the AI will treat it as a meaningful gauge.
When NOT to Enable
- Stories where treating the player as a numerical entity breaks immersion
- Pure prose-driven chats where HP bars would feel mechanical and intrusive
- One-shots that don't span enough time for resources to deplete meaningfully
NPC Relationships
Tracks: Affinity, trust, emotions, memories, dynamics, scene presence per NPC.
Panel Fields You See
| Field | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Avatar + Name | Identifier card |
| Category badge | friend, romance, family, rival, neutral, or enemy |
| Affinity bar | 0–100 with a color gradient |
| Trust bar | 0–100 |
| Current emotion + intensity + cause | "amused, 65, player made her laugh unexpectedly" |
| Dynamics chips | Bag of named gauges — longing 45, resentment 20, protectiveness 80 |
| Current thoughts | Internal monologue line — what they're thinking but not saying |
| Recent memories | The last few logged moments with impact tags |
| Scene-presence chip | Where they are right now, what they're wearing, what they're doing |
| Chemistry meters | (Sub-feature) seven-dimensional compatibility breakdown |
| Affiliations | Organizations and roles — "Order of the Silver Veil, Initiate, active" |
| Interaction count + first met + last interaction | Numeric stats |
Sub-Features
| Sub-feature | What it adds |
|---|---|
| Chemistry/Synergy | Seven compatibility metrics (intellectual spark, emotional resonance, physical magnetism, sexual tension, personality mesh, life compatibility, goal alignment), an overall chemistry score, and a trend (rising / stable / declining / volatile) |
| AI-Only Needs | NPC needs are tracked by AI but hidden from your view. NPCs act on their needs naturally — a hungry NPC complains, a tired one withdraws — without bars cluttering the UI |
Already baked in (no sub-toggle needed): scene presence, dynamics bag, current thoughts, emotional state with cause, affiliations, NPC archetype (adult, child, baby, elder, monster, animal, spirit, pet, familiar).
AI Directives That Drive It
The Director emits per-NPC updates with category, affinity delta, trust delta, reason, new memory text, current emotion, intensity, cause, dynamics deltas, current thoughts, chemistry metrics (when sub-feature on), NPC needs (when sub-feature on), scene presence, and affiliations.
When to Enable
Almost always when running a story with named NPCs. Relationships are the spine of most stories — without this tracker, the AI loses context for how NPCs feel about the player over time.
When NOT to Enable
- Solo introspective scenes with no recurring cast
- Chats where every interaction is one-and-done (random encounters that won't return)
- Stress-testing a character card's voice in isolation
Map (World Map)
Tracks: Locations, regions, travel state, danger, discoveries, movement history. Hierarchical — maps can zoom into child maps.
Panel Fields You See
| Field | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Active map | The map currently focused (world, region, settlement, dungeon, encounter) |
| Map tree | Parent / child navigation between maps |
| Locations | Pins on the active map with name, type, danger level, discovered flag, visited flag |
| Current location | Player marker on the map |
| Biome label | Forest, desert, mountain, urban — atmospheric context |
| Connections | Routes between locations |
| Scene context | Time of day, weather, season, atmosphere, ambient sounds, lighting, present NPCs |
Tapping a pin opens its detail sheet: population, economy, factions, notable NPCs, connections, special features, mood, last event summary.
AI Directives That Drive It
The Director emits commands to discover a new location, update an existing one (mood, lore, factions, NPCs, connections, danger level), set the player's current location, move the player on the map, update the scene context, create a new map (with a scope and persistence kind), and zoom into a location (turning a pin into a child-map portal).
Map Scopes
| Scope | Used for |
|---|---|
| world | Top-level continental / planetary view |
| region | A kingdom, province, island |
| settlement | A single town or city |
| dungeon | A specific complex |
| encounter | A single tactical scene |
Maps are either persistent (canonical, kept forever) or ephemeral (one-off scenes that can be cleaned up when the scene resolves).
When to Enable
Stories with geography that matters — travel arcs, exploration, political maps, dungeons, anything where "where are we exactly" is a question worth answering.
When NOT to Enable
- Single-location chats (one apartment, one coffee shop) where geography is irrelevant
- Pure dialogue pieces where setting is implicit and never referenced
- Stories that explicitly want to feel placeless or dream-logic
Quest Journal
Tracks: Active and completed quests, objectives, deadlines, prerequisites, rewards, dependencies.
Panel Fields You See
Quest cards with:
| Field | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Title | Display name |
| Description | Body text |
| Type badge | main, side, hidden, urgent, daily, or event |
| Status | active, completed, failed, or abandoned |
| Objective checklist | Each objective with completed flag, optional progress counter (3/10 herbs), optional flag |
| Linked NPCs + locations | Auto-derived from descriptions, editable |
| Deadline indicator | If the quest has a due date |
| Rewards preview | XP, currency, items, reputation per faction |
| Priority | Higher numbers float to the top |
| Chain ID + order | For multi-quest arcs |
AI Directives That Drive It
The Director emits add quest, update quest, complete quest, fail quest, abandon quest, complete objective, update objective progress, add objective, and log event commands.
When to Enable
Adventure stories, mystery investigations, multi-objective plots. The Director uses the quest list to weave objective progression into the prose — completing a quest feels earned because the AI saw it in the journal.
When NOT to Enable
- Stories without explicit goals — pure character study, vibe pieces
- Short one-shots with a single immediate beat
- Stories where listing tasks would break the tone
Inventory
Tracks: Items, equipment, currency, loot.
Panel Fields You See
Equipment slots (visible as silhouette anchors):
| Slot | What goes there |
|---|---|
| Main Hand | Primary weapon |
| Off Hand | Shield, secondary weapon, focus |
| Head | Helm, hat, circlet |
| Body | Armor, robe, jacket |
| Hands | Gloves, gauntlets |
| Feet | Boots, sandals |
| Neck | Amulet, necklace |
| Ring 1 / Ring 2 | Two ring slots |
| Back | Cloak, cape, pack |
Backpack of items grouped by category, plus quick currency display.
What Each Item Tracks
| Field | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Name | Display label |
| Description | Body text |
| Category | weapon, armor, accessory, consumable, material, quest, key, or misc |
| Rarity | common, uncommon, rare, epic, legendary, or unique |
| Quantity / max stack | For stackable items |
| Equip slot | Which slot it goes in if equipped |
| Stats | List of named modifiers (+5 strength, -2 agility, +10% fire damage) |
| Effects | Free-form effect descriptions |
| Value / sell value | Currency for shopping |
| Charges / max charges | For wand-like items |
| Quest item flag | Marks it as plot-important |
| Consumable flag | Whether using it deletes one charge |
| Icon / image URL | Display assets |
AI Directives That Drive It
Add item, remove item, equip item, unequip item, use item, set / add / remove currency.
When to Enable
RPG settings, looter stories, anything where what you're carrying matters. Also works in non-RPG settings as a "what's in my purse" or "what's on my desk" tracker.
When NOT to Enable
- Modern slice-of-life chats where inventory tracking would feel mechanical
- Pure dialogue or introspective pieces
- Short scenes where item state never changes
Corruption
Tracks: Degradation metrics for darker themes — five core gauges plus per-NPC corruption.
Panel Fields You See
Five player meters, each 0–100:
| Metric | Measures |
|---|---|
| Corruption | Moral or magical taint |
| Submission | Yielding to external will |
| Dependence | Reliance on something or someone unhealthy |
| Obsession | Fixation that crowds out other priorities |
| Identity Loss | Drift away from who the player started as |
Each metric has up to three optional thresholds for behavior changes (level 1, level 2, level 3). The panel also shows:
| Field | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Overall level | pure, tainted, corrupted, fallen, or lost |
| Dominant metric | Which of the five is highest |
| Change log | Append-only history of deltas with reasons |
| NPC corruption entries | Separate tracking for how each NPC is degrading — same five metrics, plus cause and visible effects |
AI Directives That Drive It
Change metric (delta), set metric (absolute), set all metrics, reset corruption.
When to Enable
Dark fantasy, horror, psychological-spiral arcs, anything where slow degradation is a deliberate story beat. The thresholds let you mark behavior changes — "at corruption 50, the player starts dreaming in another language" — and the AI honors those triggers.
When NOT to Enable
- Lighter stories where corruption bars on screen set the wrong tone
- Stories where this material isn't part of the experience
- One-shot scenes that don't last long enough for degradation to mean anything
Parallel Events
Tracks: Things happening simultaneously elsewhere in the world.
Panel Fields You See
Event cards with:
| Field | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Title | Display name — "The Cardinal's audience with the King" |
| Description | Body text |
| Location | Where it's happening |
| Involved NPCs | List with name, role, status |
| Timing | When it started, estimated duration, ongoing flag |
| Urgency | low, medium, high, or critical |
| Can intervene | Whether the player could realistically affect this |
| Potential outcomes | List of plausible resolutions |
| Actual outcome | Set when the event resolves |
| Plot category | immediate (player-adjacent), looming (background pressure), or completed |
| Hidden flag | When true, the event is happening off-screen |
| Player awareness | unaware, suspicious, or aware — how much the player knows |
AI Directives That Drive It
Add event, update event, resolve event with outcome, remove event, escalate event to a new urgency.
When to Enable
Political intrigue, group stories, world-changing arcs, anything where stuff is happening that the player doesn't see directly. Hidden parallel events let the Story Director seed off-screen plots that surface later.
When NOT to Enable
- Tight one-location stories where nothing relevant happens off-screen
- Pure intimate / two-person pieces
- Stories where introducing parallel plots would dilute the focus
Bonds (Supernatural Bonds)
Tracks: Magical or supernatural connections between characters.
Panel Fields You See
Bond cards with:
| Field | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Partner name | The other character in the bond |
| Your role | "Childe", "Beta", "Initiate" |
| Their role | "Sire", "Pack Alpha", "Coven Leader" |
| Bond type | See list below |
| Intensity label | faint, weak, moderate, strong, overwhelming, or absolute |
| Intensity value | 0–100 for granular tracking |
| Intensity description | AI-written line about what this intensity feels like for this bond |
| Active effects | What the bond gives you right now |
| Passive effects | Always-on side effects |
| Drawbacks | Costs and risks |
| Can be broken | Whether breaking is possible |
| Break conditions | What would sever it |
| Strengthen conditions | What would deepen it |
| Formed at + last strengthened + last weakened | Timestamps |
Bond Types
sire_childe (vampire), blood_bound, pack_member (werewolf), coven_bond (witch), soul_link, familiar, oath_bound, curse_linked, dream_walker, telepathic, life_debt, custom.
AI Directives That Drive It
Form bond, strengthen bond, weaken bond, break bond, update bond, add effect (or drawback), remove effect.
When to Enable
Vampires, werewolves, witches, soul-bonded romance, mystic-pact stories. Anywhere supernatural ties create persistent state worth tracking.
When NOT to Enable
- Mundane settings without supernatural elements
- Stories where bonds are implicit and don't need mechanical tracking
- Short scenes where no bond would form or change
Knowledge Journal
Tracks: What the player knows vs. believes vs. suspects vs. has wrong.
Panel Fields You See
Knowledge entries with:
| Field | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Subject | The person, place, event, etc. the knowledge is about |
| Content | What the player learned |
| Reliability | certain, believes, suspects, uncertain, wrong, or unknown |
| Source | Where the info came from |
| Learned from | NPC name if applicable |
| Category | person, place, event, secret, lore, rumor, or fact |
| Tags | Free-form labels for filtering |
| Linked NPCs / locations / quests | Cross-references to other trackers |
| Actually true | DM-only flag tracking whether the info is correct |
| DM notes | Hidden notes for the Story Director's reference |
Sub-Features
| Sub-feature | What it adds |
|---|---|
| Secrets | Bidirectional secret tracking — who's hiding what from whom. Adds secret type (player_hiding or npc_hiding), who it's hidden from, concealment method (lying, omission, misdirection), vulnerability points (how it might slip out), revelation impact (what happens if revealed), and danger level (minor / major / explosive) |
AI Directives That Drive It
Add knowledge, update knowledge, remove knowledge, set reliability (with optional actuallyTrue flag), reveal truth (set actuallyTrue and add DM notes).
When to Enable
Mystery stories, conspiracy plots, social intrigue, anything where the player accumulates information of varying reliability. The Reliability field lets the AI track "the player believes X is true, but actually Y is true" — the foundation for dramatic irony.
When NOT to Enable
- Action-focused stories without a strong information layer
- Stories where everyone tells the truth and nothing is hidden
- Short scenes where accumulated knowledge doesn't matter
Calendar
Tracks: In-story date, time, seasons, events, celestial state.
Panel Fields You See
| Field | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Calendar name | Display label — "Verdant Empire Calendar" |
| Era name | "Third Age", "Year of Our Lord" |
| Months | Custom month list with day count and optional season |
| Days per week + weekday names | Custom weekday system |
| Current date | Day, month, year, era |
| Current time | When Time of Day sub-feature is on — hour, minute, optional period |
| Calendar events | Upcoming and past events with type, date, description, recurring flag |
| Moons | When Moon & Astrology is on — each moon's name, cycle length, current phase day |
| Zodiac | Active zodiac sign, list of all signs and their associated months |
| Active phenomena | Eclipses, blood moons, comet sightings |
Sub-Features
| Sub-feature | What it adds |
|---|---|
| Fantasy Calendar | Custom months, weekdays, eras, and holidays |
| Time of Day | Hours and periods (dawn, morning, night) alongside the date — supports 12h, 24h, or narrative format |
| Real-Time Sync | Calendar follows your real-world date and month |
| Moon & Astrology | Moon phases, zodiac signs, celestial events, multi-moon worlds, eclipse phenomena |
Each Event Tracks
| Field | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Title | Display name |
| Description | Body text |
| Date | Day, month, year, era |
| Type | holiday, event, deadline, prophecy, birthday, cosmic, supernatural, ritual, festival, or custom |
| Recurring | Annual, monthly, or single-occurrence |
AI Directives That Drive It
Set calendar, advance date, add event, remove event, update date, update time, update celestial state, advance moon by N days.
When to Enable
Stories where time and dates carry weight — holidays, deadlines, seasonal magic, lunar cycles. Pair with Biological Cycles if your story has lunar transformations.
When NOT to Enable
- Floating-in-time stories where dates don't matter
- Pure dialogue pieces where temporal context is irrelevant
- One-scene one-shots that don't span any meaningful in-story time
Biological Cycles
Tracks: Heat, rut, pregnancy, ovulation, period, lunar transformations, custom cycles.
Panel Fields You See
Cycle cards with:
| Field | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Character name | Who the cycle belongs to |
| Cycle type | heat, rut, pregnancy, ovulation, period, lunar, or custom |
| Custom type name | When type is custom |
| Current phase | Free-form phase label |
| Phase progress | How far through the current phase |
| Total duration | Cycle length |
| Effects | Active behavioral / mechanical effects |
| Symptoms | Visible symptoms |
| Intensity | Strength of the current phase |
| Started at + next phase at | Timestamps |
| Linked moon name | When Lunar Cycles is on, links cycle to a specific moon |
| Transformation type / trigger / intensity | Lunar sub-feature only |
| Fertility window | Fertility sub-feature only — start, peak, end days |
| Conception chance | Fertility sub-feature only |
| Mood modifiers + stat effects | Hormone Effects sub-feature only |
| Pregnancy data | Pregnancy Tracking sub-feature only — see below |
Pregnancy Tracking Fields
When Pregnancy Tracking is on and a character is pregnant:
| Field | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Is pregnant | Boolean |
| Week number | 1–40 |
| Trimester | 1, 2, or 3 |
| Days pregnant | Running total |
| Due date | Narrative date string |
| Conception date | Narrative date string |
| Baby size comparison | "a blueberry", "an avocado" |
| Baby size emoji | Small visual cue |
| Baby development | What's developing this week |
| Symptoms | Pregnancy-specific symptoms list |
| Mood summary | AI-generated mood line |
| Energy level | 0–100 |
| Cravings | Food / other cravings |
When not pregnant: fertility level (low, moderate, high, peak, infertile), cycle day, cycle length, cycle phase (menstruation, follicular, ovulation, luteal), days until period.
Sub-Features
| Sub-feature | What it adds |
|---|---|
| Lunar Cycles | Werewolf and lycanthropic transformations linked to calendar moon phases — transformation type, trigger phase, intensity |
| Fertility Tracking | Fertility windows, ovulation tracking, conception probability |
| Hormone Effects | Mood modifiers and stat effects driven by cycle phases |
| Pregnancy Tracking | Week-by-week baby development, trimester progress, due dates, full menstrual cycle phases when not pregnant |
AI Directives That Drive It
Add cycle, update cycle, remove cycle, advance phase, update lunar link (binds a cycle to a specific moon in the Calendar).
When to Enable
Werewolf packs, omegaverse, fertility-focused stories, pregnancy arcs, witch coven cycles — anything where bodies follow rhythms that matter narratively.
When NOT to Enable
- Stories that don't engage with this material at all
- Tones where introducing cycle tracking would feel out of place
- Short scenes where cycles don't progress meaningfully
Spellbook
Tracks: Learned spells, abilities, cooldowns, cast history.
Panel Fields You See
Spell cards with:
| Field | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Name | Display label |
| Template | attack, buff, debuff, heal, utility, summon, passive, or ritual |
| Description | Body text |
| Class | Optional class label — Wizard, Druid, etc. |
| Level | Spell level / tier |
| Rarity | common, uncommon, rare, epic, legendary |
| Status | learned, observed (seen but not yet learned), or theoretical |
| Observed from | When status is observed — who cast it |
| Proficiency | 0–100 mastery |
| Mana / HP / AP cost | Casting cost — or a custom resource ("25 Fury", "10 Ki Points") |
| Cooldown / cooldown remaining | Recharge time |
| Range / area / duration / cast time | Tactical fields |
| Damage / healing | Dice formula |
| Element | Fire, frost, shadow, etc. |
| Buff / debuff effects | Lists of effects |
| Summon description | For summon-template spells |
| Passive effect | For passive-template spells |
| Ritual components | For ritual-template spells |
| Casting requirement | Free-form — "Requires a poppet nearby", "Must be outdoors" |
| Narrative cost | Story-level cost beyond mechanics |
| Emotional affinity | What feeling powers the spell |
| Signature flag | Whether this is the player's iconic spell |
| Cast history | List of past casts with context, outcome, mana spent, dice result |
| Mastery level | Progress toward greater proficiency |
Sub-Features
| Sub-feature | What it adds |
|---|---|
| Tactical Mode | D&D-style dice rolls, strict mana costs, mechanical enforcement of success thresholds |
| Wild Magic | Chance of random magical side effects on cast — per-spell wild-magic susceptibility |
AI Directives That Drive It
Learn spell, observe spell, update spell, remove spell, use spell (applies cooldown).
When to Enable
Magic-user stories, wizard schools, witch covens, sorcery, superpowers. Doubles as an "abilities" tracker for psionic, tech-based, or martial-art powers — any setting with discrete usable techniques.
When NOT to Enable
- Non-magical, non-powered settings
- Stories where abilities are implicit and don't need card-level tracking
- Short scenes that don't span enough time for cooldowns to matter
Gossip Network
Tracks: Rumors spreading between NPCs, reputation scores, organizations, social clusters.
Panel Fields You See
| Field | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Rumor entries | Topic, original truth, source, current spread status (spreading, dormant, mutating, suppressed, forgotten), spread rate (slow, moderate, fast, wildfire) |
| Per-NPC perception | Each NPC's version of the rumor, belief level (certain / confident / unsure / skeptical), who they learned it from, who they told |
| Truth branches | (Sub-feature) competing versions of the same rumor with separate strength and holder lists |
| Reaction predictions | (Sub-feature) per-NPC predicted reaction when they hear the rumor |
| Reputation scores | (Sub-feature) per-NPC and player fame/infamy/notoriety/influence/honor/fear scores |
| Organizations | (Sub-feature) factions, guilds, gangs, cults, with members, ranks, territory, influence, wealth, relations, player standing |
| Social clusters | (Sub-feature) grouped NPCs that share info faster internally |
Sub-Features
| Sub-feature | What it adds |
|---|---|
| Truth Branches | Multiple competing versions of the same rumor spreading simultaneously, each with separate strength (dominant, strong, weak, dying) and a list of NPCs who believe that branch |
| Reaction Prediction | The AI predicts how each NPC will react when they hear a rumor — and how they'll twist it when they retell it |
| Social Clusters | Group NPCs into factions ("The Royal Court", "Merchant Guild") that share info faster internally than across cluster lines, with a configurable info-speed multiplier |
| Reputation & Orgs | Track infamy / fame / notoriety / influence / honor / fear for player and NPCs; manage factions, guilds, organizations with members, ranks, leaders, headquarters, territory, motto, secrets, and goals |
Reputation Score Fields
Each tracked subject (player, NPC, or organization) carries:
| Field | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Scores | A bag — each of fame, infamy, notoriety, influence, honor, fear is 0–100 |
| Primary reputation | Which rep type defines them most |
| Title | "The Infamous", "Guild Champion" |
| Reputation events | History of rep changes with date, deltas, reason, witnesses |
Organization Fields
| Field | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Name + type | guild, faction, gang, cult, house, order, company, tribe, government, other |
| Description | Body text |
| Leader | NPC name or "Player" |
| Headquarters | Location name |
| Territory | Controlled areas |
| Members | List with name, rank, optional role, joined-at, loyalty 0–100 |
| Ranks | Ordered hierarchy from highest to lowest |
| Influence | 0–100 regional power |
| Wealth | 0–100 |
| Relations | Connections to other orgs — alliance, rivalry, war, trade, vassal, neutral, with strength 0–100 |
| Player standing | leader, officer, member, associate, neutral, rival, enemy, unknown |
| Player rank | If member, the rank held |
| Motto + secrets + goals | Identity fields |
AI Directives That Drive It
Add gossip, update gossip, add perception, remove gossip, add truth branch, update truth branch, update next targets (predictions), age gossip (turns since creation, drives decay), add / update social cluster, add / update / remove reputation, update reputation deltas, add / update / remove organization, add / remove org member, update org relations, update player standing.
When to Enable
Political intrigue, social games, small-town stories where everyone knows everyone, anything with reputation as a mechanic. Sub-features stack — turn on Truth Branches for stories about misinformation, add Reputation & Orgs for guild politics.
When NOT to Enable
- Solo adventures with minimal social network
- Pure dialogue scenes with no surrounding social world
- Stories where reputation never matters
Memory Journal
Tracks: What NPCs remember about the player — significant moments and milestones per NPC.
Panel Fields You See
Memory entries per NPC with:
| Field | What it shows |
|---|---|
| NPC name | Who remembers it |
| Content | What they remember |
| Category | interaction, promise, betrayal, gift, shared_experience, or observation |
| Emotional weight | trivial, minor, significant, or defining |
| Sentiment | positive, negative, neutral, or complex |
| Timestamp | When the memory was logged |
| Linked event description | Optional reference to the moment that produced it |
AI Directives That Drive It
Add memory, update memory, remove memory.
When to Enable
Long-running stories where you want the AI to make emotionally consistent callbacks — "Remember when you saved my brother at the festival? I still owe you for that." This is the tracker that makes NPCs feel like they remember you the way real people would.
When NOT to Enable
- Short one-shot chats where callbacks won't have time to land
- Stories where the relationship card's memory log (Cast Storyboard) is sufficient
- Pieces where introducing structured memory would crowd out the prose
The Relationships tracker already keeps a memory log per relationship. Memory Journal is a parallel, more structured surface for milestone moments that deserve their own slot.
Creature Codex
Tracks: Species bestiary plus individual creature instances inheriting from their species.
Panel Fields You See
Two views — Species (templates) and Creatures (specific instances).
Each Species Tracks
| Field | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Name | Display label |
| Classification | "Beast", "Elemental", "Undead", "Fae", etc. |
| Taxonomy | Hierarchical — Order ("Mana Remnant", "Beast", "Fae", "Elemental") → Family ("Slime", "Canine", "Moth", "Drake") → Kind (specific variant). Kind can be hidden until the player figures it out, shown as "Unknown" with a teaser hint |
| Rarity | common, uncommon, rare, legendary, mythical, unique |
| Disposition | docile, cautious, neutral, aggressive, territorial, predatory |
| Habitat | Where they live |
| Description | Body text |
| Appearance | Vivid visual description |
| Base traits | List — "nocturnal", "pack hunter", "bioluminescent" |
| Base behaviors | Typical behaviors |
| Diet | What they eat |
| Lifespan | How long they live |
| Image hint | For future image generation |
| Abilities | List of named abilities with type (attack, spell, passive, buff, debuff, heal, utility, ultimate), description, effects, usage notes |
| Passives | List of innate traits with name, description, mechanical effect |
| Base needs | Free-form bag of need gauges |
| Base stats | (Sub-feature) HP, MP, attack, defense, speed, level, XP |
| Combat profile | (Sub-feature) threat level 1–10, abilities, weaknesses, resistances, loot drops, danger notes |
| Ecology | (Sub-feature) ecosystem role, migration pattern, symbiotic relations, population status, seasonal behavior |
| Taming | (Sub-feature) tameable flag, method, requirements, loyalty base, mountable flag, special ability when tamed |
| Arcana | (Sub-feature) magic affinity, reagents yielded, ritual uses, ley line influence, cursed variant flag |
| Research | (Sub-feature) knowledge level (unknown / rumored / observed / studied / mastered), field notes, specimens collected, dissection notes, pending hypotheses |
Each Creature Instance Tracks
Creatures inherit from their species but carry first-class individual data:
| Field | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Species ID | Link to the parent species |
| Nickname | Optional individual name |
| Location | Where this creature is |
| Condition | "healthy", "wounded", "sickly", "thriving" |
| Mood | "content", "agitated", "fearful", "playful" |
| Status | alive, dead, captured, tamed, fled, unknown, dormant |
| Bond | 0–100 personal bond with player |
| Trust | 0–100 |
| Temperament | Individual personality override |
| Encounters | List with date, description, outcome (peaceful, fled, fought, captured, tamed, observed, other), notes |
| First encountered + last seen | Timestamps |
| Corruption level | Optional 0–100 |
| Appearance | THIS creature's unique look — scars, markings, mutations |
| Traits | THIS creature's personality quirks |
| Behaviors | THIS creature's individual habits |
| Abilities + passives + combat profile + taming + arcana + research | All can override the species defaults |
| Needs + current stats | This individual's current values |
Sub-Features
| Sub-feature | What it adds |
|---|---|
| Creature Stats | HP, MP, attack, defense, speed — full RPG stat blocks and mechanical ability numbers |
| Combat Profiles | Threat levels, abilities, weaknesses, resistances, loot drops, danger notes |
| Ecology | Ecosystem roles, migration patterns, population status, seasonal behavior |
| Taming & Bonds | Taming methods, loyalty mechanics, mount potential, taming requirements |
| Arcana & Magic | Magic affinities, reagents, ritual uses, cursed variants |
| Research Notes | Knowledge levels, field notes, specimen tracking, dissection notes, hypotheses |
Logging Modes
- encountered — only log creatures the player actually interacted with
- ambient — also log background fauna and ecosystem creatures the player merely observed
AI Directives That Drive It
Add species, update species, remove species, add creature, update creature, remove creature, add encounter.
When to Enable
Monster-hunter stories, naturalist-explorer plots, dragon-rider campaigns, Pokemon-style collection arcs, anything with a meaningful creature roster.
When NOT to Enable
- Stories without creatures, beasts, or non-humanoid entities
- Pure interpersonal drama where animals or monsters aren't characters
- Settings where every creature is just background flavor
Party Management
Tracks: Your adventuring party — members, formation, tactics, morale, shared inventory.
Panel Fields You See
| Field | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Party name + banner | Identity |
| Leader | Whose decisions take precedence |
| Members | Each with name, avatar, combat role (tank, dps, healer, support), formation position (front, mid, back), HP, MP, level, online flag, leader flag |
| Formation | A map of lanes (front / mid / back) to member IDs |
| Tactics preset | aggressive, defensive, balanced, support, or custom |
| Conserve mana flag | Whether spellcasters should hold back resources |
| Focus mode | auto, damage, or survival |
| Protect priority | Member ID to prioritize protecting |
| Shared inventory | Items the party shares |
| Shared currency + split mode | Pooled funds, distributed as shared, even, or leader |
AI Directives That Drive It
Add member, remove member, update member, set leader, set formation, set tactics, update member HP / MP, add / remove shared currency, disband.
When to Enable
Group adventures with multiple controlled-or-allied characters. Often used in combination with En Masque group chats — one party state across multiple characters' perspectives.
When NOT to Enable
- Solo-protagonist stories
- Pure two-person chats where there's no "party" to speak of
- Stories where party composition stays implicit and doesn't need management
Where Trackers and Storyboards Overlap
Some trackers share state with a Storyboard tab. The data lives in one place, but you can read it through two surfaces.
| Tracker wing panel | Storyboard tab |
|---|---|
| Quest Journal | Quest Board |
| NPC Relationships | Cast |
| Map | Map |
| Calendar | Calendar |
| Gossip | Renown (specifically, the Renown standings/heat/favors layer) |
The wing panel is the operational surface — at-a-glance state for the active turn. The Storyboard is the reflective surface — pressure boards, dependency trees, audits, drift detection, promote-to-canon flows. Use both. They're reading the same store; edits in one show up in the other.
The other 12 trackers (Combat, Player Stats, Inventory, Corruption, Parallel Events, Bonds, Knowledge, Biological Cycles, Spellbook, Memory Journal, Creature Codex, Party Management) have no Storyboard equivalent. They live entirely in the wing panel.
Auto-Initialize, Auto-Update, Swipe Resync
Three different flows keep your trackers in sync.
Auto-Initialize (first message)
When you enable a tracker for the first time on an existing chat — say you're 20 messages in and suddenly turn on Quest Journal — the platform analyzes your chat history and asks the AI to seed the tracker with story-appropriate state. You'll see "Initializing trackers..." briefly while it runs.
With Smart Init on (the default when DM Assistant is enabled), the Story Director handles this seeding through its normal tool calls on your next message — no separate API call, much cheaper.
With Smart Init off (or DM disabled), a dedicated initialization request runs once per newly-enabled module.
You can also trigger this manually per panel: click the refresh icon in the wing panel header and it re-syncs that tracker from your chat history.
Auto-Update (every turn)
When the Director is on, each turn includes tracker updates. The Director:
- Looks at the latest message exchange
- Decides which trackers are due (based on each module's update frequency)
- Emits typed update commands
- Your wing panels update before the Narrator's prose finishes streaming
If a tracker is not due that turn (e.g. you set Calendar to every 5), it gets skipped — no wasted tokens.
Swipe Resync
When you swipe to a different version of an AI message, your trackers may now reflect the previous swipe's events. The platform notices and quietly re-syncs trackers in the background:
- It collects your enabled modules
- Builds the message history up through the chosen swipe
- Asks the AI to recompute what tracker state should look like at that point in the conversation
- Applies the result
You'll see a "Trackers re-synced to this swipe" toast. The originating model used for the resync matches your active chat model (BYOK respected).
Per-Character Trackers in Group Chats
In a group chat, each character has its own immersion snapshot. That means:
- The Relationships tracker for Character A reflects A's relationships with everyone else; Character B has a separate Relationships view from B's perspective
- Combat, Resources, Inventory, Spellbook are scoped to whoever is "you" right now — the persona currently driving the chat sees their own loadout
- Map, Calendar, Quest Journal, Renown, Gossip, Bonds, Knowledge, Memory Journal, Creature Codex are shared across the whole group (one canonical world state)
Switching active character in a group swaps the per-character trackers in and out. The Story Director's accumulated story context is group-level — one story brain for the whole party — but the trackers it updates split between shared and per-character lanes.
Troubleshooting Trackers
| Problem | Likely Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Trackers stopped updating | Story Director ran out of tool call rounds | Reduce the number of frequency-1 modules, or switch to a model with better tool call support |
| Director only updates 1–2 trackers per turn | Model supports only one tool call round | Use GLM 4.7, Claude Sonnet, or Gemini |
| A specific tracker never updates | Its frequency is set to 0 (manual only) | Open the panel's gear icon and raise the frequency |
| Tracker shows stale data after swiping | Swipe resync didn't run | Click the refresh icon on the panel, or send a new message |
| Tracker tab missing from the bottom toolbar | Module is disabled in Stage Settings | Open Stage Settings → Immersion Modules and toggle it on |
| Tracker data doesn't reach the AI | Promot Inclusion is set to "Never" or "Every 5" too infrequently | Open the gear icon and set Prompt Inclusion to Always Include |
| Wing panel exists but won't open | The panel is minimized to the bottom toolbar | Click its icon in the bottom toolbar to expand it back |
When NOT to Use a Tracker
A few patterns where leaving a tracker disabled is the right call:
- You're doing a tight one-shot. A two-message scene doesn't need Combat, Inventory, or Quest Journal
- The tone is wrong. HP bars feel mechanical in a quiet romance; corruption meters break a comedic tone
- You don't trust the data yet. Brand-new chat — the tracker will be near-empty for the first few turns. Let it seed before opening
- The token budget is tight. Every active tracker's AI Context costs tokens. Turn off the ones you don't need
- You're stress-testing a character card. Disable trackers entirely so the Story Director isn't adding signal you didn't ask for
- You'd rather edit by hand. Trackers don't require the Story Director. Turn the Director off, leave trackers on, and edit them manually whenever you want a piece of state on screen
You can always turn a tracker back on partway through a chat. With Smart Init, the Story Director will seed it from chat history on your next message.
Related Docs
- Story Director — the agent that updates trackers on every turn
- Storyboards — the dashboard surface that shares state with five trackers
- Compendium — where promoted tracker entries become permanent canon
- Compendium — the lorebook retrieval pipeline that reads promoted entries
- Group Chats — per-character vs shared trackers in multi-character chats