Help
Types of Things
A thing is anything an author places in the world or hands a creature — loot, a weapon, a wall, a way out. Its kind is fixed when it's created and settles what it can do: whether it can be carried, readied, or traded, and what — if anything — sets it off.
Treasure
Loot: coins, gems, anything carried for its value. It may be piled into a stack (max_stack), but nothing requires it to be, and it has no behavior of its own — an author gives one a spell only if it's meant to do something beyond being worth something. Only counts as money a store will take once its currency flag is set; without that it's worth carrying and selling, but not spending.
A pile of gold coins spilling from a dragon's hoard — worth carrying, worth selling, nothing more.
Magic item
A carried item that casts an effect when used, picked up, or put down. Where most enchantments live — anything with a triggered effect that isn't a weapon, armor, or skill.
Can be given a spell to cast · Goes off when: used, picked up, and put down
A cyanide pill sewn into a collar — its effect fires the moment it's used.
Decoration
Scenery, placed to be looked at rather than picked up. Sits higher on the tile by default so it reads as hanging or set back, though an author can place one anywhere.
Placed by an author; players can't carry it off
A tapestry on the wall, a chandelier overhead — dressing for the room, nothing a player can lift.
Weapon
Something a creature readies and attacks with. Answers to being swung (attack) and landing a blow (hit), plus the three things any carried item answers to — so it can go off in the hand that lifts it as easily as on the blow it lands.
Readied before use · Can be given a spell to cast · Goes off when: used, picked up, put down, swung, and blow landed
A silenced pistol — readied before a shot, and its effect can fire on the draw, on the pull of the trigger, or on the hit itself.
Armor
Something a creature readies and wears to soak damage. Answers to being struck (hit) rather than to striking, plus the three things any carried item answers to.
Readied before use · Can be given a spell to cast · Goes off when: used, picked up, put down, and struck by a blow
A dragon-scale cuirass — worn to turn a blade, and it can flare with a ward of its own the moment a blow lands on it.
Skill
An ability a creature holds rather than an object it carries — nothing to find lying on a floor, only bestowed. Casting one is the whole point: naming an effect is the entirety of its form.
Held by a creature, never placed in a room · Cast rather than used
A field medic's trained first aid — no object to pick up, just something an operative can do on command.
Portal
A doorway or teleport to somewhere else, chosen by the author — back the way the player came, or to a place in a room or on a map. Takes the whole tile, but walking onto it is how it's used rather than something it blocks.
Placed by an author; players can't carry it off
A shimmering archway in the ruins that drops whoever steps through it into the caverns below.
Doorway
An opening set into a wall two rooms share. Unlike a portal it needs no destination — where it comes out follows from where the rooms sit next to each other, so placing one is the whole of setting it up.
Placed by an author; players can't carry it off
A service door between two adjoining offices — walk through, and you're simply in the next room.
Space
Open floor. Marks a tile as passable so items and actors can be placed on it, and it's the one kind whose triggers run backwards — what happens 'to' a space is something being put on it, taken off it, or stepped onto it.
Placed by an author; players can't carry it off · Can be given a spell to cast · Goes off when: stepped on, something taken off it, and something put down on it
A pressure rune carved into the flagstones — quiet until a foot lands on it.
Obstacle
Walls, rocks, furniture — anything that fills a tile and blocks anything else from being placed there. The only thing that ever happens to one is being walked into; most have no effect at all and simply stop a player cold.
Placed by an author; players can't carry it off · Can be given a spell to cast · Goes off when: walked into
A reinforced blast door — most just stop you, but a wired one can trip an alarm the moment someone walks into it.
Store
A shopfront, which turns the whole room it stands in into a shop: anything an author marks buyable is bought where it is picked up and sold where it is put down. It fills its tile and stops anyone walking onto it. What things cost is their own value, softened by the buyer's wisdom.
Placed by an author; players can't carry it off
A traveling merchant's stall — set one in a room and the room is a market.
Spells
A spell is what an effect casts — what a magic item, a weapon, or a trapped floor does when it goes off. The same spell is cast by a potion, a wand, and a curse painted on a tile alike; what differs is when it triggers (on use, on pickup, on drop, on stepping onto it, and so on) and what it acts on. Every spell below is one an author can pick from the Spell field on an effect.
None
Does nothing. What a thing or terrain casts when its author never gave it a spell, so nothing has to check whether one is set before casting it.
A torch on the wall — light it, and nothing else happens.
Kill all but owner of
Kills every actor in the room except whoever is carrying the thing this spell acts on.
Author sets: acts on thing
A nerve-gas trap floods the vault, sparing only agents carrying the antidote vial.
Summon creature
Spawns a creature on the nearest open tile to where the spell went off. Does nothing if there's no open tile left.
Needs open standing room · Author sets: acts on creature
A summoning circle etched into the floor calls up a demon guardian.
Banish creature
Removes every actor of the chosen creature from the room, along with everything each was carrying.
Author sets: acts on creature
A jamming pulse disables and hauls away every drone sentry in the corridor, hardware and all.
Increase magic defense up to
Raises the target's resistance to ordinary weapons — at full, only an enchanted weapon still gets through. Never lowers it if the target is already tougher.
Needs a target · Author sets: magical defense
A dragon's hide toughens further under an old ritual, until only an enchanted blade can still wound it.
Decrease magic defense down to
Strips the target's resistance to ordinary weapons back down — at none, even a standard round hits just as hard. Never raises it if the target is already softer.
Needs a target · Author sets: magical defense
A solvent charge dissolves the ceramic plates in an agent's vest, so a standard round punches straight through.
Increase the target's stat
Grants the target a step of whichever stat this spell acts on. There's no ceiling — casting it twice is worth twice as much.
Needs a target · Author sets: acts on stat
A potion of ogre strength — drink it, and Strength climbs a notch.
Decrease the target's stat
Drains the target of a step of whichever stat this spell acts on, down to zero and no further.
Needs a target · Author sets: acts on stat
Truth serum saps a captured operative's Willpower.
Change power of target by
Spends or restores the target's power — the pool spells are drawn from — by a set amount. Restoring can run past full and settles back down on its own; nothing is spent below none.
Needs a target · Author sets: change amount
A mana potion refills a wizard's reserves mid-battle.
Change life force by
Wounds or heals the target by a set amount. Healing can run past full and settles back down on its own; nothing drains below none, and a target drained that far is dead.
Needs a target · Author sets: change amount
A silenced round, or a field medkit — the same spell, with the sign flipped.
Give to target
Conjures the thing this spell acts on directly into the target's hands. A target with no room for it is given nothing.
Needs a target · Author sets: acts on thing
Open the chest, and a sword appears in your hands.
Purge from target
Strips the target of everything it's carrying of the thing this spell acts on — every stack of it, readied or not. What's taken leaves the adventure for good.
Needs a target · Author sets: acts on thing
A checkpoint search confiscates every classified document an agent is carrying.
Play long message
Does nothing but display its long message. Naming this spell is how an author says the message is the whole of what happens.
Author sets: activate message
Read the inscription on a standing stone, and its history scrolls past.
Rid room of every uncarried
Clears the room's floor of every loose one of the thing this spell acts on. Anything an actor is carrying is left alone.
Author sets: acts on thing
A self-destruct charge incinerates every loose document left on the floor, but not the one you're holding.
Add thing to room
Puts a new one of the thing this spell acts on down on the floor, where the spell went off. Nothing is placed if the tile is already blocked.
Author sets: acts on thing
A treasure chest bursts open, spilling a gem onto the floor.
Activate all at this location
Sets off everything lying beneath this item on the same tile, in the order it was stacked. Only works when cast from an item placed in a room.
Cracking open a booby-trapped briefcase trips the charge wired beneath the false bottom.
Do nothing
Goes off and changes nothing — but it did go off, so its line and message still show. A red herring, not a placeholder.
A lever that clicks impressively and does absolutely nothing.
Change life force by permanently
Wounds or heals the target like Change life force by, but moves what it can hold too, so the change never fades.
Needs a target · Author sets: change amount
A bioweapon permanently damages an agent's constitution.