tevansandClaude Opus 5
df01615c5a
Four readings of generated output reached the same verdict, and the last one answered 'would you run this tomorrow' with No. Three renderer passes each fixed what the previous review named and each introduced a new fault: adding resolution blocks made it menu-like, and subtracting blocks buried the clue and the skip guidance. The density is not a rendering bug. Everything on the page is a vice at the table and a virtue at the desk. So one working file, two surfaces. The worksheet carries everything, labelled, with reroll commands beside each component and explicit prompts where only a human can write. The play sheet carries the GM's own prose, the leverage point, the decision on one line and the numbers — 61 lines against the worksheet's 137. The JSON is the document. An authored layer holds what the GM writes and the generator never touches it, so a reroll cannot destroy prose. Lock what is good, reroll what is not, write the read-aloud, export. Two bugs found while building it, both in reroll: the exclusion set omitted the area's own current value so a reroll could hand back what was already there, and when every option was in use — six areas against a six-item pool — the fallback did the same. A reroll that changes nothing looks broken. DELVE does not write the read-aloud and does not write the climax. It gets a GM to a strong first draft in a minute instead of an evening, then gets out of the way. Tests 28 -> 38. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
9.9 KiB
WORKSHEET — The Vault of the Patient Lord
seed live-table-01 · barrow · 5 areas · depth 2 · generator 0.1.0
Finished. Export the play sheet.
The kernel
| Transgression | The Patient Lord bought a household from those with nothing left, so that someone would always obey. |
| Bottom problem | The Patient Lord — is disobeyed now, and cannot bear it |
| Prize | the signet that is still obeyed — the only thing the household answers to |
| Motif / danger | voices · obedience — the dead here still take instruction, and give it |
| Appeasement | do one small thing it asks, without arguing [Poise 2] — +1 Vanity, +1 Bane, repeatable |
| It asks | "Do as you are told." |
WRITE ▸ an opening paragraph. ✔ written
They bought a household from people with nothing left, so that someone would always obey. The household is still obeying.
Area 1 — The Weeping Stair
approach · institution
reroll: --reroll=1:situation --reroll=1:decision --reroll=1:feature --reroll=1:name
IMAGE servants' bones arranged as though mid-errand · someone has been talking here, and stopped when you arrived
SITUATION Three of the Host in servants' dress — carrying out an errand that has no destination left. On arrival, they stop, and wait to be told what to do.
WHY The order was never rescinded and nobody outranks it. OFFERS tell them where to go, and they go.
DECISION An order carved into the floor, still legible — obey it and the Host counts you as household; step over it and they do not
· [Poise 2] → you obey exactly enough to be counted household — Skeletons stand down for you
· miss → you obey wrongly, which is worse than not obeying: +1 Bane
· or step over it: no cost now, and the Host does not count you as theirs
PRESSURE trigger seenTwice · bane beat announcing · fallback The Silent Host will receive anyone who behaves as a guest
WRITE ▸ read-aloud — ≤3 sentences, built from the IMAGE and SITUATION above.
Forty steps down and the bones are still on their errand — a tray here, a folded cloth there, set down mid-stride three hundred years ago. Somebody was talking as you came through the arch, and stopped.
Area 2 — The Lesser Vault
complication · ritual · fight · cache
reroll: --reroll=2:situation --reroll=2:decision --reroll=2:temptation --reroll=2:feature --reroll=2:name
IMAGE orders scratched into the floor, the last one unfinished · a door braced shut from within by furniture
SITUATION A living grave-robber — repeating a phrase over and over, trying to get the intonation right. On arrival, they go quiet and put their back to the wall.
WHY They heard the password and cannot say it correctly. OFFERS trade something for the phrase, badly remembered.
DECISION Two doors, and behind one a voice giving instructions to nobody — the quiet door is longer; the voice would tell you exactly where to go
· [Poise 2] → you answer the voice as a subordinate would — it tells you the route AND answers one question about what lies on it, without taking you into its service
· miss → you engage and it takes that as enlistment: it will give you orders for the rest of the delve, and the first is now
· or take the quiet door and never speak to it: one extra Turn, no obligation
ENCOUNTER 1 Ghoul and 2 Skeletons — 1× Ghoul atk4/def3/G4, 2× Skeleton atk3/def2/G1
· harmed by anything · the Ghoul goes for court dress first — send someone plain
TEMPTATION Tube — a short length of speaking-tube, cut and carried: ask one question and get one true answer
· take free · use +1 Bane · standing: whatever answers can now hear you
PRESSURE trigger loud · bane beat noticing · fallback The Silent Host will receive anyone who behaves as a guest
WRITE ▸ read-aloud — ≤3 sentences, built from the IMAGE and SITUATION above.
The floor is scratched over with orders, the last one unfinished. A door at the far end is braced shut from the inside with furniture, and behind you a living man is whispering the same phrase again and again, trying to get the sound of it right.
Area 3 — The Crossing
turn · demand
reroll: --reroll=3:situation --reroll=3:decision --reroll=3:feature --reroll=3:name
IMAGE a hall where your own voice arrives before you speak · an order half-scratched out and rewritten by a different hand
SITUATION The bells — ringing a summons room by room, coming closer. On arrival, the bell in this room begins.
WHY Something has called for service and the house is obliging. OFFERS answer the bell yourself before whatever is meant to arrives.
DECISION A bell-pull that would summon someone — ring it and help comes, and it is not the kind you wanted
· [Poise 2] → what comes is answerable to you for one scene
· miss → what comes is not the kind of help you wanted
· or do not ring: the way on is longer by one Turn
PRESSURE trigger loud · bane beat noticing · fallback The Silent Host will receive anyone who behaves as a guest
WRITE ▸ read-aloud — ≤3 sentences, built from the IMAGE and SITUATION above.
The hall answers before you do — your own voice reaches the far wall a half-beat early, saying what you have not said yet. Somewhere below a bell starts, and then the one in this room takes it up.
Area 4 — The Servants' Deep
descent · wound · pocket
reroll: --reroll=4:situation --reroll=4:decision --reroll=4:temptation --reroll=4:feature --reroll=4:name
IMAGE an instruction repeated until the stone gave out · boot-prints that stop mid-corridor and do not resume
SITUATION A single figure at a speaking-tube — reporting, at length, to a listener who died first. On arrival, it pauses mid-sentence and asks whether you are the reply.
WHY It has never once been answered. OFFERS answer as the listener would, and learn what it has been reporting.
DECISION A door that opens to a spoken password nobody living knows — guessing costs a Bane per attempt; the long way costs two Turns
· [Wits 2] → the word is already in your notes. It is in something you passed earlier — someone has been talking here, and stopped when you arrived. Say it and the door opens; if nobody wrote it down, the roll tells them now
· miss → you have the shape of it but not the word: one more attempt, or take the long way
· or the long way: two Turns, no guessing, no Banes
TEMPTATION Bell — a small bell from a servant's board: ring it and one order is obeyed, by anything
· take free · use +2 Banes · standing: it rings faintly when someone gives you an order
PRESSURE trigger disturbed · bane beat relicUse · fallback The Silent Host will receive anyone who behaves as a guest
WRITE ▸ read-aloud — ≤3 sentences, built from the IMAGE and SITUATION above.
An instruction has been cut into the stone so many times the stone gave out. Bootprints cross the floor and simply stop. At the far wall a figure is talking steadily into a speaking-tube, reporting to somebody who died first.
Area 5 — The Last Door
threshold · anchor · battle · chest
reroll: --reroll=5:situation --reroll=5:decision --reroll=5:temptation --reroll=5:feature --reroll=5:name
IMAGE a key that fits nothing here · wax jammed into a speaking-tube, still soft
SITUATION One of the Host, kneeling — waiting for an instruction that was promised and never came. On arrival, it addresses the first of you to speak as its superior.
WHY It was told to await further orders and did. OFFERS give it the instruction and it will carry it out to the letter, wherever that leads.
DECISION An instruction you can obey, ignore, or countermand — countermanding it works once and marks you as someone who gives orders
· [Poise 2] → you countermand it and the dead obey you instead — this marks you as someone who gives orders: from now on the Host brings you their disputes, and once per delve you may issue one order they must follow
· miss → the order stands and you have been seen to fail at giving one: +1 Bane, and the Host addresses someone else from now on
· or obey it, or ignore it and go round: ignoring costs one Turn
ENCOUNTER 1 Wraith and 3 Skeletons — 1× Wraith atk5/def3/G10, 3× Skeleton atk3/def2/G1
· harmed by blessed, silvered or magical weapons ONLY · it will take an appeasement over a fight every time
TEMPTATION Staff — a staff of office, propped where it was set down: give one order the dead must follow
· take the Vice Pride · use +2 Banes · standing: you may not refuse an order given to you
PRESSURE trigger disturbed · bane beat refusal · fallback The Silent Host will receive anyone who behaves as a guest
WRITE ▸ read-aloud — ≤3 sentences, built from the IMAGE and SITUATION above.
Wax has been jammed into the tube here, still soft. A key that fits nothing hangs on a nail. One of them is kneeling at the last door, and has been for a very long time, waiting to be told what to do.
Ending — The Audience
AUTHORED SLOT — DELVE stops here on purpose
IMAGE a seat that expects to be addressed IT WANTS to be obeyed without asking. IT ASKS "Do as you are told." APPEASED EVEN ONCE it listens, and will trade the signet that is still obeyed.
WRITE ▸ read-aloud
The seat at the head of the hall is occupied by a shape that keeps the gown's outline and nothing else. It turns toward you and there is nothing in the collar to turn.
WRITE ▸ the climax. How it goes, what harms it, what it will take instead of a fight. The Patient Lord — Wraith, Grit 6, atk 5, def 3, incorporeal. Blessed, silvered or magical weapons only; say so before initiative. It opens with "Do as you are told." Obey one small instruction and it will trade the signet. Refuse and it is a fight it will win slowly.