Story headers, points, and character meters

Add your first header

1. Open your story editor and find Story header below the openings. Turn on Enable.
2. Choose Scene tracker, Day & night, Phone interface (HUD), or Chapter & page under Header layout. Pick an accent and watch the preview update.
3. Enter the Starting location and Starting room / area. Use the same names as your story's locations so backgrounds and location details can follow the scene.
4. Set Starting day and Starting time with the hour and minute selectors, then choose Time of day, 12-hour clock, or 24-hour clock under Clock display.
5. Under Date, weather & decorations, choose Standard calendar for a date that advances with story time, or Custom text to display a canon date exactly as written. Custom text stays fixed until you edit it.
6. Save the story and start a chat to try the opening. The header appears above a prewritten hook as well as AI replies. A prewritten hook begins at your configured starting values; it does not advance time or award points.

Give each hook its own starting scene

A chat copies its resolved starting scene when it begins, including inherited story defaults. Later edits to a hook or the story's default scene do not rewrite that chat's opening or change where an AI opening re-roll starts. Branches carry that starting scene too. Saved progress continues from the latest header.

Turn off the hook override to use the current story defaults for future chats. Disabling Story header hides the feature while retaining hook overrides for when you enable it again. Older chats without a copied starting scene retain their existing saved headers and use story defaults only if an opening header is missing.

1. Enable Story header and choose the shared layout, emojis, message count, and meters. These apply across the story.
2. In Hooks, open a hook's tab and find Starting header for this hook below the opening. Leave Use a different starting scene for this hook unchecked to use the story defaults.
3. Check that option to set this hook's starting location, room / area, day, time, date, and weather. For example, one hook can begin at Cinderfall Palace on Day 1 in the evening, while another starts at Gray Harbor on Day 8 at dawn.
4. Watch the starting header preview, switch between hook tabs to check each scene, then save. Reordering hooks keeps their settings with them.
5. Start a chat from each hook to test it. Written hooks receive their starting header immediately; AI-written hooks use the selected scene while composing the opening. Meter starting values and scoring rules remain shared.

Try a simple location tracker

Time follows what happens in the story. A short exchange can take little or no time; ordinary activities, travel, sleep, and explicit time skips can move it further. Sending a message does not automatically advance a fixed number of minutes.

Day numbers and dates advance at midnight. The current day/night decoration switches to night before 6:00 AM and from 8:00 PM. Chapter & page shows completed weeks and the day within that week: Chapter 0 / Page 1 begins the first week, and Chapter 1 / Page 1 begins Day 8.

1. Choose Scene tracker. Set Starting location to Cinderfall Palace and Starting room / area to Entryway.
2. Set Starting day to 1, Starting time to 18:00 (6:00 PM), and Clock display to Time of day. The header will show Day 1, Cinderfall Palace, Evening, and Entryway.
3. For a decorative tracker, switch to Day & night. Open Date, weather & decorations to add your own sun and moon symbols; they start empty.

Add dates, weather, and message count

The Phone interface (HUD) layout works well with a clock, calendar, and weather. Automatic message count measures the chat transcript; it is not a count of unread fictional texts. Fictional phone notifications and social feeds are not available in this version.

1. Open Date, weather & decorations. Set a Starting date if the story uses a calendar; leave it empty if numbered days are enough.
2. Enter a starting Weather description, such as 51°F · Steady drizzle, and tick Show weather. Weather persists between changes rather than randomly changing every reply.
3. Under Automatic message count, choose Story replies, Player messages, All messages, or Off. The opening counts as a story reply. Regenerating or continuing a reply does not add another reply to that count.

Build a phone interface and customize emojis

Phone signal and battery symbols are decorative, with no simulated reception or battery level. The message card shows the selected transcript count. Fictional incoming texts, unread-message interactions, and social feeds are not available yet.

Day & night uses the separate Day decoration and Night decoration fields for its sun/moon ornament. Each points variable or character meter also has its own Icon field.

1. Under Header layout, choose Phone interface (HUD). It has a separate location/status row, large clock, calendar, weather, and a message-count card. Selecting it enables Story replies if message count was off.
2. Choose Use Gray Harbor sample for a ready-made rainy-town header. This fills the starting location, room, day, clock, date, weather, and reply count; it keeps your configured emojis and meters. Replace the sample values with your own scene before saving.
3. Open Customize field emojis to edit Location, Room / area, Time, Calendar, Day number, Weather, Message count, Chapter, Page, Phone signal, and Phone battery. Paste an emoji or a symbol, or clear a field to hide its icon. All field emojis start empty. Choose Clear field emojis to remove them all.
4. Keep Date, weather & decorations open to adjust the phone's calendar and weather. An empty starting date hides the calendar; weather appears when Show weather is on and a description is present.
5. Check the live preview, save, and start a chat. Your emojis appear on the opening hook and later replies. Existing saved headers keep the appearance they recorded; changing emojis affects newly created headers.

Create independent character meters

1. Under Variables & meters, choose + Character meter. The Romance preset starts at 0 out of 300, with a progress bar and Only when changed visibility.
2. Change the Name, Icon, Starting value, Minimum, and Maximum to fit the story. Choose Number, Progress bar, or Hearts under Appearance. Bars and hearts need a maximum value.
3. Set Largest change per reply. A value of 3 means the total increase or decrease for that meter is capped at three points in one reply, even if several things qualify.
4. Write the shared criteria in When does it increase or decrease? For example: +1 for meaningful kindness; +3 for welcome romantic interaction directed at this character; −2 for dismissing their feelings.
5. Open Characters & individual criteria. By default, visible NPCs participate; use Choose participating characters for a specific selection. The character the player is playing is excluded.
6. Give Alicia a rule such as +3 for playful flirting directed at Alicia. Give Tom a rule such as +1 for speaking kindly to Tom; +2 for respecting his boundaries. A character's individual criteria replace the shared criteria for that character.

Track Honey, Sugar, and Grace points

Points variables have one value across the story, while character meters keep a separate value for each participating character. You can add up to eight variables in total. Automatic ending selection, Day 25 locks, and scheduled story events are not part of these controls yet.

1. Choose + Points three times. Rename the variables Honey, Sugar, and Grace, and use 🍯, 🍬, and 🦢 as their icons.
2. Keep Starting value and Minimum at 0. Leave Maximum empty for open-ended counters and choose Number as the appearance.
3. For Honey, try: +1 when the player sincerely expresses trust in Byron or shows patience with his reserved nature. Set Largest change per reply to 1.
4. For Sugar, try: +1 when the player dismisses Byron's advice or acts recklessly in an interaction with him. Set Largest change per reply to 1.
5. For Grace, try: +1 for a meaningful success in royal duties; +2 for a concrete decision that demonstrates fair, responsible leadership. Set Largest change per reply to 2.

Choose what players see

Always keeps a variable in the header. Only when changed shows it prominently when its value changes; unchanged visible values are available under All character meters and points. Hidden from players keeps the score out of the player's header. Explain changes controls whether a short reason appears beside the change amount.

A meter's number, bar, and hearts are different ways to display the same value. Changing its appearance does not change its scoring criteria. Reaching a number does not by itself create a new story event or override a character's behavior.

Test your opening and the next few replies

1. Start a fresh chat and check the hook's header before sending anything. Confirm the location, room, starting time, and initial meter values.
2. Play one action that clearly meets a meter's criteria, then one that does not. Check that only the relevant character changes and the amount stays within your limit.
3. Regenerate the newest reply, then switch between its versions. Each version has its own saved header. A branch carries the values recorded at the point you branch from.