@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
# DELVE — a dungeon layer for VANITY
* Working name `vanity-delve`. * *Draft 6 **, 2026-08-05.*
* First draft d escribing a tool that * *exists**. The core is built, tested and generating.*
* Working name `vanity-delve`. * *Draft 7 **, 2026-08-05.*
* D escribes a tool that * *exists** and is released . The core is built, tested and generating; the
Foundry module is published at v0.6.0.*
---
@@ -11,19 +12,46 @@
|---|---|
| 1. Handwrite a delve, run it twice on paper | ✅ complete — [`paper/` ](paper/ ) |
| 2. Seam spike | ✅ complete — [`spike/SPIKE-REPORT.md` ](spike/SPIKE-REPORT.md ) |
| 3. Land the Forge seams | ✅ **branch ready for review ** — `~/projects/Vanity` branch `delve-seams` , committed, **not pushed **
| 4. Core + Barrow content | ✅ built — [`core/` ](core/ ), 11/11 tests passing |
| 3. Land the Forge seams | ✅ **merged and released ** — VANITY v0.10.4, PR #1
| 4. Core + content | ✅ built — [`core/` ](core/ ), **39/39 tests passing**
| 5. Curated overlays | not started |
| 6. Foundry vertical slice | not started |
| 6. Foundry vertical slice | ✅ **released ** — v0.1.0 → v0.6.0 |
| 7. Growing Delve Map | not started |
| 8. More themes | not started |
| 8. More themes | ✅ **16 themes ** , 68 motifs — all passing [ `validate-pack.mjs` ]( core/validate-pack.mjs ) |
**What runs today: ** `node core/cli.mjs --seed=gilded-court-404` emits a complete, coherent,
GM-readable delve. Samples in [`samples/` ](samples/ ).
**What runs today: ** the module installs from its manifest and raises a whole delve in the world
on one button, and `node core/cli.mjs --new --seed=gilded-court-404` emits the same delve as a
worksheet at the desk. Samples in [`samples/` ](samples/ ).
**What has never happened: ** a live session. Everything since the two paper playtests has been
validated at the desk, by tests and by reading. Open question 1 is still open, and it is the only
one that matters.
### Versions
| | |
|---|---|
| Module | 0.6.0 |
| Requires | VANITY **0.10.4+ ** — the release the seams landed in |
| Foundry | v13 minimum, verified 14.365 |
| Generator stamp | `GENERATOR_VERSION` 0.1.0 — written into every delve file, **not ** the module version |
---
## 1. What changed since draft 5
## 1. What changed
### In draft 7 — the tool shipped
| Change | Source |
|---|---|
| **Seams: "unpushed branch" → merged ** | PR #1 into `slaguru666/Vanity` , released in **v0.10.4 ** |
| **Step 6 shipped ** | The Foundry module went v0.1.0 → v0.6.0 in a day |
| **One theme → 16 ** | Castle, then the interior, settlement and wild families — 68 motifs |
| **11 tests → 39 ** | The authoring layer, situations and the subtraction pass each brought invariants |
| **A pack validator exists ** | [`validate-pack.mjs` ](core/validate-pack.mjs ) — the structural rules, checked per theme rather than rediscovered |
| **Required VANITY floor corrected ** | The manifest said 0.10.0; the seams land in 0.10.4. Below that a delve emits 9 chat cards and 3 folders |
### In draft 6, since draft 5
| Change | Source |
|---|---|
@@ -125,8 +153,15 @@ Two rules the tests enforce:
long delve outruns its motif; temptations may not. A generic relic breaks the fiction, while a
repeated one only looks thin.
**Remaining limit: ** the second cue fragment still comes from a global `features` pool. That is
the last piece of generic furniture.
**Closed in draft 7: ** the `features` pool was the last piece of generic furniture, and it is now
motif-scoped too. Every pack carries **6 features, 6 decisions, 5 temptations and 6 situations per
motif**; the top-level pools survive only as fallbacks for a delve long enough to outrun its motif,
and the pack itself says so (`_globalPoolsNote` ). Nothing generic reaches a six-area delve.
**Areas arrive as situations, not prompts. ** A `situations` pool per motif gives each area an
occupant doing something, with a leverage point — *"The tide watch, turning a glass that has
already run through — it asks what the hour is, and means the tide."* Four test invariants police
the grammar, because the first pass rendered broken English.
### The appeasement move
@@ -159,23 +194,49 @@ core/ pure JS, seeded, zero Foundry globals, Node-testable
director.mjs arc roles, heat, hoard tier, density, Bane beats
beat.mjs an area as a beat: Cue + Truth
pressure.mjs the clock and the tab — never rolls a die
delve.mjs composition
delve.mjs composition; GENERATOR_VERSION
authoring.mjs the working file — reroll, lock, setAuthored, outstanding
render.mjs markdown
cli.mjs --seed --areas --depth --density --greed --json
content/barrow.json the theme pack
test.mjs 11 invariants
render-authoring.mjs the two surfaces — worksheet and play sheet (§2)
cli.mjs --new --file --theme --themes --seed --areas
--reroll --lock --unlock --write --text
--play --json --todo --out (worksheet is the default)
validate-pack.mjs the structural rules a theme pack must satisfy
build-index.mjs regenerates content/index.json
content/*.json 16 theme packs + index.json
test.mjs 39 invariants
```
**The core never sees an Actor, a UUID, HTML or a roll. ** `pressure.mjs` decides * when * a clock
roll is due and what it means; the adapter rolls it at the table. That separation is what makes
the seed promise honest.
**The module vendors the core. ** `foundry-module/module/core/` is a copy of `core/` minus the
Node-only tools (`cli.mjs` , `test.mjs` , `validate-pack.mjs` , `build-index.mjs` ). It must stay
byte-identical to `core/` for the shared files — a drift there means the table and the desk
generate different delves from the same seed.
**Themes are pluggable. ** A pack declares its `forgeStageType` from the five geometries VANITY can
build — `barrow · cave · fen · village · forest` — so a new theme is authored content, not code:
| Geometry | Themes |
|---|---|
| barrow | barrow, castle, church, palace, temple |
| village | city, market, port, town, village |
| cave | cave, mountain |
| forest | forest, valley |
| fen | lake, river |
---
## 5. The Forge seams — landed
Branch `delve-seams` in a clone of `slaguru666/Vanity` , **committed, unpushed, awaiting review ** .
All default to current behaviour, so nothing changes for existing callers.
Merged into `slaguru666/Vanity` as PR #1 from branch `delve-seams` , and **published in VANITY
v0.10.4**. All default to current behaviour, so nothing changed for existing callers.
**This is the module's hard floor. ** `module.json` requires VANITY 0.10.4 or later. On anything
earlier the seams simply are not there, and every delve emits the 9 chat cards and 3 folders the
spike measured — the exact failure the seams exist to prevent.
| Seam | Change | Verified |
|---|---|---|
@@ -195,7 +256,7 @@ Neither gates a first release.
| Parameter | Range | Default | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Areas ** (excludes ending slot) | 3– **6 ** | * working default * — one theme, one table, two passes |
| Theme | Barrow (+4 planned) | Barrow | only Barrow exists |
| Theme | 16 packs, 5 geometries (§4) | Barrow | all validate; **only Barrow is playtested **
| Depth | 1–
| Party | 1–
| Deadliness | forgiving/standard/cruel | standard | **severity only ** |
@@ -293,18 +354,27 @@ if the rest of the packet is operational. It wasn't. Fixed since:
- **A trigger glossary**, so `seenTwice` is not shorthand
- **Accommodation/appetite compatibility**, killing the equation-output kernels
Still missing, and still the gap to a document: per-area read-aloud, exact route costs and
failure outcomes, concrete clue answers, and a full ending packet with negotiation terms.
**Draft 7 closed most of the rest. ** "Mostly prompts" was the charge; the answer was to make every
area arrive as a situation with an occupant, a leverage point and a way through, and to enforce it
with tests: every decision now states success * and * failure, offers an attempt rather than a pick,
and never gates progress without an alternative — playtest 1 died on exactly that.
Still missing, and still the gap to a document: per-area read-aloud (deliberately — §11), exact
route costs, concrete clue answers, and a full ending packet with negotiation terms.
## 13. Open questions
1. **Does the module beat a document? ** The spike answers the mechanical half — unmodified, the
Forge emits 9 cards and 3 folders per delve that no document could intercept, and the seams
take that to 0. The * table * half is still open until a live session.
1. **Does the module beat a document? ** The mechanical half is now settled * in shipped code * — the
unmodified Forge emits 9 cards and 3 folders per delve that no document could intercept, and
the released seams take that to 0. The * table * half is still open, and no amount of desk work
will close it. **This is the blocking question. **
2. Is `Ending: Authored` right, or right only for its author?
3. Is 6 areas right beyond one theme and one simulated table?
4. Is the ~5-Bane target reachable without feeling mechanical?
4. Is the ~5-Bane target reachable without feeling mechanical? Still **UNCALIBRATED ** — the target
is ~5, playtest 2 reached 3, and nothing since has been measured against a real table.
5. Do cue * fragments * work at a live table, or does a GM need prose?
6. **Do the other 15 themes hold up? ** They validate structurally, but only Barrow has ever been
read closely against a playtest. A pack can pass every invariant and still be dull.
---
