# RPBuddy > RPBuddy (https://www.rpbuddy.ai) is an AI-powered single-player RPG sandbox. Players build living game worlds — hex maps, settlements, buildings — populated by AI NPCs with persistent memory, then roleplay through freeform chat while the world simulates forward day by day. ## Key facts - Genres: Medieval Fantasy, Victorian, Modern Day, Neon Future, Sci-Fi Colony — each with its own buildings, NPCs, music, economy, and culture. - NPCs have personalities, persistent memory of your conversations, dispositions that shift with your actions, daily routines, and they gossip with each other. - Gameplay: hex-map exploration, settlements with enterable buildings, quests, turn-based combat, inventory and economy, AI-powered story journal. - Every NPC portrait, building interior, and settlement gets unique AI-generated art. Art styles: Oil Painting, Retro Anime, Modern Anime, Comic Book, Adult Animation. - Nearly 400 original music tracks that shift with biome, time of day, and combat. - Pricing: Traveler is free to play with no credit card (50 image credits/month, 50 AI actions per day, unlimited worlds); Adventurer $10/month or $100/year (200 image credits/month, unlimited NPC chats and worlds); Hero $20/month or $200/year (500 credits/month, premium image models, enhanced NPC memory). Yearly plans are two months free and include a one-time bonus credit grant. Credit packs: 50 for $5, 100 for $8, 300 for $20. - 18+ platform. Single-player. User worlds are private and never used for AI training. - Support: support@rpbuddy.ai · Discord: https://discord.gg/ejppJUc3QS ## Docs - [Billing and credits](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/account/billing-and-credits): How image credits work, how to get more, and how to manage your subscription. - [Buddy](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/account/buddy): Buddy is RPBuddy's in-app helper. Ask it how anything in the game works. - [Languages](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/account/languages): RPBuddy is available in English, Español, Français, Deutsch, 日本語, 한국어 and Português. - [Plans and limits](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/account/plans-and-limits): What each plan includes. Other pages link here rather than repeating these details. - [Settings](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/account/settings): Atlas → Settings (the gears on the Command Deck, or press 6). It has two halves, saved in different places. - [Combat](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/adventure/combat): How a battle plays out, from the first strike to the loot. - [Creating enemies](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/adventure/creating-enemies): The enemy editor, field by field. - [Encounters](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/adventure/encounters): When and where enemies find you on the road. - [Inventory and equipment](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/adventure/inventory-and-equipment): Items, gear, healing and enchanted weapons. - [Levels and XP](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/adventure/levels-and-xp): How your character grows stronger. - [Money and economy](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/adventure/money-and-economy): Your wallet, and where money comes from and goes. - [Status effects](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/adventure/status-effects): Every effect in combat, plus how weaknesses and resistances change them. - [Disposition and relationships](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/characters/disposition-and-relationships): How characters feel about you, what changes that, and what it changes. - [Factions](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/characters/factions): Groups your characters belong to: guilds, gangs, houses, crews, congregations. - [Importing NPCs](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/characters/importing-npcs): Bring in a character you've written with ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or any other AI assistant. - [Memory and the Journal](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/characters/memory-and-the-journal): How characters remember, how you can shape what they remember, and the Journal where it all shows up. - [NPC profiles](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/characters/npc-profiles): Every field on a character's sheet, what it does in conversation, and what it does when you're not around. - [Party members](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/characters/party-members): Bring characters along on your travels. - [Your player character](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/characters/player-character): Every field on your character sheet, what the game does with it, and what the characters you meet actually know about you. - [Portraits, portrait states and expressions](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/characters/portraits-states-expressions): How character pictures are made, and how to give a character other outfits and faces. - [Your creator profile](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/community/creator-profile): Your public page in the Community Hub, at /@yourhandle. - [Playing community worlds](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/community/playing-community-worlds): Browse, preview and play worlds other players have built. - [Publishing a world](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/community/publishing): Share your world in the Community Hub so other players can play their own copy. - [Chat commands](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/conversations/chat-commands): In a conversation, type / in the message box. A list of commands appears above the input. Keep typing to narrow it, then Enter or click to pick one. When a command has everything it needs, Send is… - [Content settings and safety](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/conversations/content-and-safety): The settings that shape mature content, and what happens when a conversation crosses a line. - [Editing, re-rolling and the conversation view](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/conversations/editing-and-rerolling): The controls inside a conversation. - [First meetings](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/conversations/first-meetings): How characters treat a stranger, and how you become someone they know. - [How conversations work](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/conversations/how-chat-works): What happens when you send a message, who answers, and what a character knows when they reply. - [Shops and trading](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/conversations/shops-and-trading): Buying and selling happens by talking to shopkeepers. - [Spectator mode](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/conversations/spectator-mode): Watch a scene play out, and direct it, without being in it. - [What NPCs can do](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/conversations/what-npcs-can-do): Characters mostly talk. Some can also take real actions that change the game. This page covers which characters can do what. - [FAQ](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/help/faq): The full FAQ lives on its own page, in every language: rpbuddy.ai/faq. - [Troubleshooting](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/help/troubleshooting): Common problems, what causes them, and what to do. - [The image gallery](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/images-and-art/gallery): Every image you generate is kept in your gallery, and any of them can be reused, for free. - [Writing image prompts](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/images-and-art/image-prompting): How to get the picture you want. Every image prompt describes the subject only. Your world's art style, and the framing for each kind of picture, are added for you. - [Image safety](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/images-and-art/image-safety): What can stop an image from being made. - [Image models and art styles](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/images-and-art/models-and-styles): Every picture in your world (portraits, interiors, settlements, enemies) is painted by an image model in an art style. You choose both when you create a world, and can change them later. - [1. Sign up](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/journey/01-sign-up): RPBuddy is free to start, and you don't need a card. This chapter takes you from the landing page to your dashboard. - [2. Create your world](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/journey/02-create-your-world): A new world takes four choices. Then you create the character you'll play, and step onto your map. - [3. Your first building](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/journey/03-your-first-building): This is where your world comes alive: one building, and the people who live or work there. - [4. Your first conversation](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/journey/04-your-first-conversation): Walk in, talk, leave, and come back later. The people you meet remember you. - [5. The screen](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/journey/05-the-screen): A tour of everything on screen while you're in a world, on desktop and on mobile. - [6. Your character](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/journey/06-your-character): The characters you meet react to who you are. A few fields decide how they see you. Every field is covered in Your player character. - [7. Moving around](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/journey/07-moving-around): Getting from place to place, finding people, and how the map is laid out. - [8. Your first settlement](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/journey/08-your-first-settlement): Turn a patch of map into a town: draw it yourself, or drop in a complete ready-made one. - [9. Filling the world](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/journey/09-filling-the-world): Ways to add more to your world. Pick what you need, and each one links to its full page. - [10. A living world](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/journey/10-a-living-world): Your world doesn't stand still between conversations. Here's what moves on its own, and how to steer it. - [11. Your first fight](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/journey/11-your-first-fight): Make an enemy, meet it on the road, and win (or lose) the fight. - [12. Sharing your world](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/journey/12-sharing-your-world): Publish your world to the Community Hub so other players can play it, or play theirs. - [NPC daily life](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/living-world/npc-daily-life): Where characters go and what they do when you're not talking to them. - [Overnight](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/living-world/overnight): What changes when a new day begins. - [Quests](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/living-world/quests): Quests are reasons to go and talk to people, with a reward at the end. They come from each settlement's Bounty Board. - [Story Moments](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/living-world/story-moments): The small scenes you walk in on: a quarrel at the forge, a friend with news, a shopkeeper with a favor to ask. - [Story preferences](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/living-world/story-preferences): Journal → Preferences tells the story systems what you want from your world. It shapes Story Moments and the daily digest. Only one setting, Avoidances, reaches your conversations directly. - [Time and days](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/living-world/time-and-days): How the clock works, and every way to move it forward (or back). - [Area profiles and NPC briefings](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/places/areas-and-briefings): Your world, its regions, settlements and districts each have a profile and an NPC briefing. Together they're how characters know the world they live in. - [Buildings and rooms](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/places/buildings-and-rooms): Every building field and what it does, rooms and floors, and editing buildings on the map. - [Clusters and quick buildings](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/places/clusters-and-quick-buildings): Ways to put down a lot of buildings fast. For a whole settlement at once, see the templates in Settlements, districts and regions. - [The Location Wizard](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/places/location-wizard): The Location Wizard fills a building, landmark or room with a name, a description and the people who live or work there. This page covers everything it can do. For a first walkthrough, see 3. Your… - [The Lorebook](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/places/lorebook): The Lorebook holds facts characters bring up when they're relevant: a city's history, a secret society, how magic works, a legend everyone half-remembers. It follows the Character Card V2 lorebook… - [Roads, rivers, walls and terrain](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/places/roads-rivers-walls-terrain): The Build mode tools that shape the land around your buildings. Open Build mode with the toolbox, then pick a tool from the bar along the bottom. A hint above the bar explains each tool as you use it. - [Settlements, districts and regions](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/places/settlements): Drawing areas on the map, filling a settlement from a template, and how the three kinds of area fit together. - [The hex map](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/places/the-hex-map): Your world's map is a grid of hexes, each with its own biome. This page covers growing the map, reshaping it, and how it looks. - [Limits](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/reference/character-limits): Every text limit and count limit in one place. Editors show a counter as you get close. - [Credit costs](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/reference/credit-costs): What each image action costs. Every button shows its exact cost before you spend, and failed images are refunded automatically. - [Glossary](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/reference/glossary): Quick definitions, each with a link to the full explanation. - [Keyboard shortcuts](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/reference/keyboard-shortcuts): Every key and mouse shortcut in RPBuddy. Shortcuts don't fire while you're typing in a text box. - [Welcome to RPBuddy](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/welcome): RPBuddy is a single-player worldbuilding and roleplay game. You build a world, fill it with characters, and play it by talking to them. The AI plays every character. They remember you, they have… - [Export world](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/worldbuilding/markdown-export): Open Atlas → Settings. Export world is at the bottom of the world-settings column, below Intimacy. ## Pages - [FAQ](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/faq): pricing, features, billing, content policy - [Contact](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/contact) - [Privacy Policy](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/privacy) - [Terms of Service](https://www.rpbuddy.ai/terms) --- # Full documentation ## Billing and credits (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/account/billing-and-credits) # Billing and credits How image credits work, how to get more, and how to manage your subscription. ## What credits are for Image credits pay for pictures: portraits, interiors, settlement images, enemy portraits, portrait states and expression sheets. Every button shows its cost before you spend. Conversations and AI-written text don't use credits. See [Credit costs](../reference/credit-costs.md). Your balance is on the dashboard's top bar, in the in-world logo menu (desktop), and in the Atlas header. ## Two kinds of credits - **Monthly credits** come with your plan. They're topped back up to your plan's amount each billing period, and unused ones don't carry over. - **Extra credits** come from credit packs, referrals, and the one-time boost when you subscribe yearly. They never expire. Monthly credits are spent first. ## Getting more credits - **Credit packs**: choose **+** next to your balance: 50 credits for $5, 100 for $8, or 300 for $20. Packs are available on every plan, including free. If you find yourself buying them often, a subscription gives you far more credits for the money. - **Invite & Earn** (Account): share your link. When a friend makes their first payment, you each get 100 extra credits. - **Special offers**: when there's a promotion for you, a **Special Offer** button appears on the dashboard, with the discount applied at checkout. ## When you run out Trying to make an image without enough credits opens the get-more-credits window. Nothing is charged. ## Refunds Any image that fails, or that an image model turns down, is refunded automatically. ## Managing your subscription Open **Account** from the dashboard: - **Subscription** shows your plan and its status: active, cancelling on a date, payment failed, and so on. - **Manage Billing** opens your billing portal to update payment details, see invoices, or cancel. - **Change plan** switches between plans. - **Image Credits** shows your balance, with **+ Get More Credits**. - **Email preferences** controls optional emails. - **Invite & Earn** has your referral link. - **My Published Worlds** lists what you've shared in the Hub. - **Sign Out**. To delete your account, contact support@rpbuddy.ai. --- ## Buddy (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/account/buddy) # Buddy Buddy is RPBuddy's in-app helper. Ask it how anything in the game works. ## Where to find it Inside a world, choose the **question mark** in the icon column (top-right on desktop, top-left on mobile). ## What it knows Buddy knows these docs and the FAQ. It doesn't see your world, so ask it how things work rather than about your own characters or places. When it isn't sure, it says so and points you to the closest docs page. ## What it can do - **Answer questions**: "How do I add rooms to a building?", "Why didn't my character remember that?" - **Show me**: some answers open the right part of the Atlas and highlight the control you need. This isn't available while you're in a conversation. - **Read more** and **Open FAQ** take you to the full page. - Rate an answer with thumbs up or down, and **Clear chat** to start over. ## Limits You can ask Buddy up to 30 questions a day. The count resets at midnight UTC. --- ## Languages (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/account/languages) # Languages RPBuddy is available in English, Español, Français, Deutsch, 日本語, 한국어 and Português. ## Choosing your language Use the language switcher on the dashboard (or the landing page, docs and other public pages). It isn't inside worlds: choose your language before you go in. New accounts start in your browser's language when it's one of these seven. ## What follows your language - **The interface**, these docs, the FAQ and the legal pages. - **Everything the AI writes**: what characters say, the characters, places and profiles it generates, memories, summaries, the Journal, and Buddy's answers. - **Overnight events and daily life** in your world use the language you last played that world in. ## What stays as it is - **Content already written** stays in the language it was written in. Switching languages changes what's written from then on. - **Names and currency names** aren't translated. - **Settlement templates and quick-option buildings** are written in English. - A few newer parts of the interface may still appear in English. ## Tip Write lorebook keywords in the language you play in, since they're matched against what you type. See [The Lorebook](../places/lorebook.md). --- ## Plans and limits (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/account/plans-and-limits) # Plans and limits What each plan includes. Other pages link here rather than repeating these details. ## The plans | | Free (Traveler) | Adventurer | Hero | |---|---|---|---| | Price | Free, no card | $10 a month, or $100 a year | $20 a month, or $200 a year | | Image credits | 50 every 30 days | 200 a month | 500 a month | | Conversations and AI generation | 50 AI actions a day | Unlimited | Unlimited | | Worlds | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | | Story Moments | — | ✓ | ✓ | | Image models | Default | Default | All four | | Portrait state models | Flux 2 Klein | Flux 2 Klein | All three | | Expression sheets | — | — | ✓ | | Edit and re-roll messages | — | — | ✓ | | Enhanced character memory | — | — | ✓ | **Yearly plans** cost the same as ten months. Subscribing yearly also adds a one-time boost of extra credits (200 for Adventurer, 500 for Hero) that never expire. ## The free plan - **AI actions.** Sending a message (including a spectator direction) and AI generation (characters, buildings, enemies, profiles) each use one action. You get 50 a day, and they reset at midnight UTC. - **Image credits.** 50 to spend over 30 days. The 30 days start from the first time you spend one. - **Scenes** hold the person you're talking to plus up to two others who can speak. - **Daily life** in your world pauses once you've used the day's actions, and picks up again when they reset. - At very busy times, free AI features can be briefly unavailable. Conversations already under way carry on. ## What Hero adds beyond images - Characters recall **more memories** each message, and see a longer stretch of the current conversation. - **More lorebook entries** can apply to each message (ten instead of five). - **Three pinned memories** per character instead of one. - **Edit and re-roll** your messages. See [Memory and the Journal](../characters/memory-and-the-journal.md) and [The Lorebook](../places/lorebook.md). ## On every plan - Unlimited worlds, and unlimited building by hand. - Copying worlds from the Community Hub, for free. - Buddy, the in-app helper (up to 30 questions a day). ## Changing or ending your plan - **Upgrade or change plans** from Account → **Change plan**. - **Cancel** from **Manage Billing**. Your plan lasts until the end of the period you've paid for. - **When a paid plan ends**, you're on the free plan. Your worlds stay. Worlds set to a premium image model paint new images with the Default model. Extra credits you bought or earned stay with you. See [Billing and credits](billing-and-credits.md). --- ## Settings (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/account/settings) # Settings Atlas → **Settings** (the gears on the Command Deck, or press **6**). It has two halves, saved in different places. ## World settings These belong to the world and apply on every device. Choose **Save** in the Atlas to keep your changes. - **Art Model**: which image model paints new images in this world. See [Image models and art styles](../images-and-art/models-and-styles.md). - **Art Style**: the look applied to new images. - **Map Theme**: how the map is drawn: inked **Parchment**, dark **Modern** or a **Holographic** grid. Each genre has its own default. It only changes the look. - **Story Moments**: on or off. See [Story Moments](../living-world/story-moments.md). - **Random encounters**: **Off**, **Low**, **Normal** or **High**. See [Encounters](../adventure/encounters.md). - **Disable NPC combat**: keep confrontations in the conversation instead of the battle screen. - **Intimacy**: **Off**, **Suggestive** or **Detailed**. See [Content settings and safety](../conversations/content-and-safety.md). Story Moments and Intimacy aren't shown on the free plan. Below **Intimacy** in the world-settings column, eligible worlds show **Export world** with **Copy Markdown** and **Save Markdown**. These use saved authored text only and do not save pending edits. See [Export world](../worldbuilding/markdown-export.md). ## Global settings These apply to every world, but only in **this browser**. They take effect straight away. - **Accent color**: recolor the game's gold highlights (Classic Tan, Harbor Blue, Neon Pink, Colony Teal, or your own). It applies to in-world screens. - **Graphics quality**: **Low**, **Medium** or **High**. Higher settings add richer paper and watercolor detail. Lower it first if the map feels slow or your phone runs warm. The map redraws when you change it. - **Film grain**: a subtle texture over conversations. - **Dialogue speed**: **1x**, **2x** or **3x**, how quickly a reply plays out once it arrives. It doesn't make replies arrive faster. - **Classic combat (random rolls)**: replace the timing gauge with random rolls. ## Elsewhere - **Language** is on the dashboard. See [Languages](languages.md). - **Pause**, **music** and **2D / 3D** are on the in-world screen. See [5. The screen](../journey/05-the-screen.md). --- ## Combat (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/adventure/combat) # Combat How a battle plays out, from the first strike to the loot. ## How fights start - **Random encounters** while you travel. See [Encounters](encounters.md). - **Bounty markers** from the Bounty Board: walk up to one. See [Quests](../living-world/quests.md). - **A conversation that turns violent**: the character takes it to the battle screen. See [Fights with characters](#fights-with-characters). ## Turns The faster side acts first. Then you take turns, and party members act after you. On your turn, choose one: - **Strike**: attack with your weapon. Landing a hit builds **Focus**, and it's the attack that triggers your weapon's enchantment. - **Brace**: spend Focus to steady yourself. The next hit you take is halved, and its effect doesn't land. - **Items**: use a healing item. It costs no Focus but uses your turn. - **Flee**: try to escape. Speed decides your odds: at equal speed you get away about two times in three. A failed attempt uses your turn. You can't flee a fight with a character. You start each fight with a little Focus and build more by landing hits. ## The timing gauge When you attack, a dot sweeps across a bar. Stop it inside the marked zone to hit, and in the small zone inside that to land a critical. Miss the zone and the attack misses. Prefer to leave it to chance? Turn on **Classic combat (random rolls)** in Atlas → Settings. Your attacks then hit, miss or crit at random. The setting is saved in this browser. ## Reading the enemy The enemy's card shows: - **what it's about to do** next, and how hard it could hit - the **effects** its attacks can inflict, and the odds - its **weaknesses** and **resistances** - any **effects** currently on it. Hover or tap one to see what it does. See [Status effects](status-effects.md). ## Damage, in short Attack against defense, with a little randomness. Criticals hit half again as hard. Your weapon adds to your attack and your armor to your defense. Enemies grow stronger as you out-level them. See [Encounters](encounters.md). ## Your party Party members fight alongside you against enemies (not against characters). They act on their own after you, and they're only ever knocked out, never killed. Each companion makes the enemy tougher to wear down. If you fall while they're still standing, the fight goes on, and you're back on your feet if they win. ## Winning and losing against enemies **Win** and you earn XP and the enemy's loot, and the fight counts toward any bounty on it. Enough XP raises your level. Your HP stays where it ended. See [Levels and XP](levels-and-xp.md). **Lose** and you lose a tenth of your XP (never enough to drop a level) and some of your money. You wake up with full HP. ## Fights with characters A character can take a real confrontation to the battle screen, but only physical violence, not a heated argument. - There's no fleeing. - **Win**, and choose to **Spare** or **Kill** them. You can describe how. A spared character is left hurt but warms to you a little. A killed character dies, and is archived as **Deceased**. Anyone who sees it turns against you, and remembers. - **Lose**, and you're knocked out and wake up hurt. The character thinks a little less of you. - Fights with characters give no XP and no loot. Afterward, the conversation picks up with how it ended. To keep confrontations in the conversation, turn on **Disable NPC combat** in Atlas → Settings. --- ## Creating enemies (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/adventure/creating-enemies) # Creating enemies The enemy editor, field by field. ## Creating an enemy Open Atlas → **Enemies** (or choose **Enemy** in Build mode) and choose **Create Enemy**. - **Describe the enemy** ("a pack of dire wolves that roam the mountain passes") and choose **Generate**. The AI fills in everything except where it appears. On the free plan this uses a daily AI action. - Or fill in the form yourself. The list has **Active** and **Archived** tabs. Enemies with variants show how many they have. ## Identity - **Name** - **Description**: characters only ever hear the **first sentence**, when the topic of local dangers comes up. Lead with what locals would know ("Dire wolves hunt the mountain passes in winter"). - **Appearance**: for your reference. It doesn't change the portrait. - **Image Prompt**: the portrait. Saving a new enemy paints it (costs image credits). It's cut out against the battle backdrop. **Regenerate Portrait** paints a new one, and the gallery button reuses any image you already have. ## Combat Stats **HP**, **ATK**, **DEF**, **SPD** and **level**. Each is kept within a sensible range when you save. The level is a minimum: the enemy grows with you as you out-level it. See [Encounters](encounters.md). ## Danger Level **Common**, **Uncommon**, **Rare**, **Elite** or **Boss**. Danger level: - sets the bounty reward for hunting it - is how characters describe the threat - decides whether it can stun (Elite and Boss only) It doesn't change its stats or how often it appears. ## Where & when - **Biomes**: where it roams in the wilderness. - **Areas**: add a region, settlement or district. This is the only way to put enemies inside towns. An enemy with areas but no biomes stays within its areas. - **Active**: **Any time**, **Day** or **Night**. ## On-hit effects Up to two effects its attacks can inflict, each with a chance per hit, for example Burning at 25%. Bracing blocks them. See [Status effects](status-effects.md). ## Weaknesses and resistances Up to two of each. A **weakness** makes an effect land twice as often and last twice as long. A **resistance** stops it completely. They matter when you fight with an enchanted weapon. ## Loot Drops Each row is an item, money, or both, with: - a **drop %**: the chance per kill. 0% never drops. - a **quantity** - the item's **type** and stat (attack, defense or healing), which it keeps in your inventory Leave the item empty for a money-only drop. ## Variants **+ Variant** makes another version of this enemy, with a different look, stats or effects, that sometimes appears in its place. - A variant starts as a copy, using the original's portrait. After saving, **Regenerate** gives it its own. - Variants show as tabs on the enemy's profile. - A variant never roams alone. It appears where and when the original does, sometimes in its place, at the **Chance to replace the original** you set. ## Archive and delete - **Archive** stops an enemy (and its variants) appearing anywhere. **Restore** brings it back. - **Delete Enemy** removes it and its variants for good. ## What characters know Characters in an area know about the enemies that roam it, and mention them when the conversation turns to danger. --- ## Encounters (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/adventure/encounters) # Encounters When and where enemies find you on the road. ## How often Atlas → Settings → **Random encounters**: **Off**, **Low**, **Normal** or **High**. - At **Normal**, crossing a wilderness hex usually means a fight. **High** is busier, **Low** gives you room to breathe, and **Off** turns random encounters off (bounty fights still happen). - **Harsher biomes are more dangerous.** Volcanic wasteland and jungle see far more fights than green plains. - After a fight, you get a short stretch of road before the next one can find you. - **No enemies, no encounters.** A world needs enemies before anything can attack. ## Where **In the wilderness**, these enemies can find you: - enemies set to the biome you're crossing - enemies set to the region you're in - enemies with no biomes or areas at all, which roam everywhere outside towns **In towns** (inside a settlement, or close to buildings), only enemies you've placed there can appear: enemies whose **Areas** include that settlement, a district in it, or its region. A town nobody has placed enemies in is safe. ## When Enemies can be set to appear at **any time**, only by **day**, or only at **night** (evening and night). ## Which enemy Enemies close to your level are much more likely to turn up than ones far above or below you. If an enemy has variants, one of them sometimes appears in its place. See [Creating enemies](creating-enemies.md). ## Scaling An enemy's level is a minimum. When you out-level it, it grows stronger with you, up to twice its original strength, so even early enemies stay a little dangerous. ## The battle backdrop Fights in town use the settlement's picture as the backdrop. Out in the wild, it's the landscape of the biome you're in. ## Bounty fights Bounty markers from the Bounty Board are separate from random encounters. They're always there until you defeat them, even with encounters turned off. See [Quests](../living-world/quests.md). --- ## Inventory and equipment (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/adventure/inventory-and-equipment) # Inventory and equipment Items, gear, healing and enchanted weapons. ## Your inventory You have one inventory per world, with no weight or size limit. - **Desktop:** **Inventory** on the Command Deck (the backpack, or press **3**) lets you use healing items and equip gear quickly. - **Everywhere:** your character sheet (Atlas → **Player**) has the full inventory, where you can also edit items. ## Items Every item has a **name**, a **type**, a **quantity** and optional **notes**. The type decides what it does: | Type | What it does | |---|---| | **Weapon** | Adds its ATK to your attacks when equipped. Can carry an enchantment. | | **Armor** | Adds its DEF to your defense when equipped. | | **Consumable** | Restores HP when used. | | **Tool**, **Misc** | No game effect. Story items. | Items with the same name stack, unless their enchantments differ. On your character sheet, choose **+ Add Item** to make your own, and open any item to change it. Choose **×** to delete an item (the whole stack). ## Equipment You have one **weapon** slot (empty means fists) and one **armor** slot. Equip and unequip from the inventory or your character sheet. ## Healing - Use a healing item from the inventory, or **Heal** on your character sheet. You can't heal past your maximum HP. - In battle, using an item takes your turn. Poison halves healing. - **Sleeping** restores your HP in full. There's no healing over time otherwise. ## Enchanted weapons A weapon can carry one enchantment: an effect, and a chance to inflict it on each hit. It shows as a ✦ tag in your inventory, in shops, and on the **Strike** button in battle. - It triggers on **Strike**: each clean hit rolls the chance. - Against an enemy **weak** to the effect, it lands twice as often and lasts twice as long. Against one that **resists** it, it does nothing. - The effects are Burning, Bleeding, Poisoned, Chilled, Weakened and Blinded. See [Status effects](status-effects.md). **Getting one:** - **Shops that deal in magic weapons.** Ordinary smiths sell ordinary weapons. Describe an enchanter's forge in the Location Wizard and some of its stock will be enchanted. - **Edit an item yourself** on your character sheet: open a weapon and set its enchantment. - **Give a shopkeeper enchanted stock** in their Shop Inventory. Enchantments stay with a weapon when it's bought or sold. ## Where items come from - **Shops**: items keep their stats and enchantments. - **Enemy loot**: items keep their stats. - **Quest rewards**. - **Items you make yourself**. Characters don't see your gear. A shopkeeper or someone you're doing a quest for knows the names of what you carry, and that's all. --- ## Levels and XP (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/adventure/levels-and-xp) # Levels and XP How your character grows stronger. ## Starting out Every character starts at level 1 with the same stats: 100 HP, 10 attack, 5 defense and 10 speed, with **Strike** and **Brace**. Your level and XP bar are on the Command Deck and your character sheet. ## Earning XP You earn XP by defeating enemies. Higher-level enemies give more, and enemies well below your level give less. Fights with characters and quest rewards don't give XP. ## Levels Each level takes more XP than the last: | Level | Total XP | |---|---| | 2 | 200 | | 3 | 450 | | 4 | 800 | | 5 | 1,250 | | 6 | 1,800 | Each level you gain adds **10 max HP**, **2 attack**, **1 defense** and **1 speed**. Leveling up doesn't refill your HP, so heal or sleep afterwards. ## Losing a fight Losing to an enemy costs a tenth of your XP, but never enough to drop you a level. ## Enemies grow too Enemies grow stronger as you out-level them, up to twice their original strength, so the road never becomes entirely safe. See [Encounters](encounters.md). --- ## Money and economy (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/adventure/money-and-economy) # Money and economy Your wallet, and where money comes from and goes. ## The wallet Each world has one wallet, starting with a little money. Choose your money on the Command Deck (or the status bar on mobile) to see your transaction history, day by day. The currency depends on your genre: | Genre | Currency | |---|---| | Medieval Fantasy | gold | | Victorian | coins | | Modern Day | dollars | | Neon Future | credits | | Sci-Fi: Colony | credits | ## Earning money - **Bounty rewards** from the Bounty Board. See [Quests](../living-world/quests.md). - **Enemy loot**. See [Combat](combat.md). - **Selling** to shopkeepers. See [Shops and trading](../conversations/shops-and-trading.md). ## Spending money - **Buying** from shopkeepers. Prices depend on how they feel about you, and you can haggle. - **Losing a fight** to an enemy costs some of your money. ## What doesn't cost money There's no rent, tax, travel cost or upkeep. Your money only changes when you trade, fight, or finish a bounty. --- ## Status effects (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/adventure/status-effects) # Status effects Every effect in combat, plus how weaknesses and resistances change them. ## How effects work - An effect lands on a **clean hit**. A braced hit doesn't pass it on, and nor does a finishing blow. - **Stacks are turns.** Most effects last as many turns as they have stacks, and wear off one stack at a time. - Damage-over-time effects hurt every turn, and ignore armor. ## The effects | Effect | What it does | |---|---| | **Burning** | Damage every turn, and the target hits a little softer. | | **Bleeding** | Damage every turn, ignoring armor. | | **Poisoned** | Damage every turn, and healing items restore only half. | | **Chilled** | Lowers defense. Two chilling hits in a row **freeze** the target. | | **Frozen** | The target loses its next turn. | | **Weakened** | The target deals a quarter less damage. | | **Blinded** | Hits miss more often. For you, the timing gauge's hit zone shrinks. | | **Stunned** | The target loses its next turn. Only dangerous enemies can stun. | You may also see **Braced** (your next hit taken is halved), **Rallied** (hitting harder) and **Staggered** (losing a turn). Hover or tap any effect on the battle screen to see what it does. ## Weaknesses and resistances Enemies can have up to two of each: - **Weakness**: the effect lands **twice as often** and lasts **twice as long**. The card shows "Weakness: Burning", and a weakness hit flashes on screen. - **Resistance**: the effect **doesn't land at all**. You'll see "resisted". They come into play through your weapon's enchantment: a burning blade against an ice creature weak to fire, or a frost blade that does nothing against something made of ice. See [Inventory and equipment](inventory-and-equipment.md). ## Where effects come from - **Enemies** inflict them with their attacks. See [Creating enemies](creating-enemies.md). - **Enchanted weapons** inflict them on enemies. See [Inventory and equipment](inventory-and-equipment.md). --- ## Disposition and relationships (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/characters/disposition-and-relationships) # Disposition and relationships How characters feel about you, what changes that, and what it changes. ## Disposition Every character has a **disposition** toward you: a score from 0 to 100 that starts at 50. It falls into one of five bands: | Score | Band | |---|---| | 0–19 | Hostile | | 20–39 | Unfriendly | | 40–59 | Neutral | | 60–79 | Friendly | | 80–100 | Loyal | You'll see it on their hover card, on their sheet in the Atlas, and in the Journal. There's no pop-up when it changes, so check back on the people who matter. ## How it changes **After each conversation.** When you leave, everyone who spoke is judged on how it went, and their disposition moves up or down. Bad impressions land harder than good ones, and once someone really dislikes you, winning them back is slower still. Feelings never shift halfway through a conversation, only when it ends. **Other things that move it:** - **Story Moments**: how a scene you walked into plays out. - **Fights**: sparing someone you beat warms them a little; losing a fight to them cools them. Killing someone sharply turns everyone who saw it against you. - **Gossip**: when people pass on stories about you, those who hear them may warm to you or cool on you, a little. Scenes you only **spectate** never change how anyone feels about you. To set where someone starts, write a **Player Backstory** on their profile. That unlocks a starting-disposition slider. See [NPC profiles](npc-profiles.md). ## What it changes - **How they treat you.** Hostile characters are curt and unhelpful. Friendly ones warm up, offer help and share more. - **Prices.** Shopkeepers charge you more or less than the list price depending on how they feel about you. See [Shops and trading](../conversations/shops-and-trading.md). - **Joining your party.** Only characters who are loyal to you (80 or more) can be invited. See [Party members](party-members.md). ## Shared history Separate from disposition, characters also have a sense of **how well they know you**, based on how much you've been through together. Someone you've talked to once treats you as an acquaintance. Someone with a long history treats you like it, whether they like you or not. ## Relationship summary Once a character has enough memories of you, they write their own account of your history together: who you are to them and what's happened between you. It's rewritten as more memories build up. You can read and edit it in Journal → **Characters** → a character. Your edit is used from their next reply, but the next automatic rewrite replaces it. To make something permanent, pin a memory or a directive instead. See [Memory and the Journal](memory-and-the-journal.md). ## Between characters Characters have feelings about each other too: - **Relationships you write** on their profiles (sister, rival, landlord) are always known to them. - **Opinions they form** when they run into each other in town, and from what they hear, rise and fall on their own. They'll mention these when the other person comes up. Spectated scenes can change how the characters in them feel about each other. --- ## Factions (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/characters/factions) # Factions Groups your characters belong to: guilds, gangs, houses, crews, congregations. ## Creating and managing factions The **Faction** picker appears on every character's sheet (under **Additional** for NPCs, under **Identity** for you). - **+ New faction…** creates a faction and assigns it in one step. - **Manage** opens the full list of factions, where you can: - **add** and **rename** factions (names up to 60 characters, up to 50 factions per world). Renaming is safe: every member and lorebook entry follows the new name. - **delete** factions. Their members are unassigned when you choose **Save factions**, and you're told how many first. - choose **{n} members** to see who's in a faction and **add** or **remove** people directly. Changes here save straight away. Each character can belong to one faction at a time. That includes you. ## What a faction does - **For the character:** they know they belong to it. - **For everyone else in the scene:** they can see who's in which faction. - **For you:** your faction is visible to every character, strangers included, the way your clothes are. Characters in the same faction know you're one of their own. ## Telling the AI what a faction is Only a faction's **name** travels with its members. What it is, what it wants and who it's at odds with has to live somewhere characters can read: - **Your world, region or settlement profile** (and its briefing), for factions everyone knows about. See [Area profiles and NPC briefings](../places/areas-and-briefings.md). - **A lorebook entry scoped to the faction**, for things only members know. It's used whenever the character you're talking to belongs to that faction. See [The Lorebook](../places/lorebook.md). ## What factions don't do Factions don't change disposition, gossip, daily routines or combat. They're knowledge and identity, and the effect comes from what you write about them. The **Factions** field on a settlement profile is separate: free text describing local groups, not this list. --- ## Importing NPCs (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/characters/importing-npcs) # Importing NPCs Bring in a character you've written with ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or any other AI assistant. ## Where to import - **Atlas → NPCs → New NPC → Import** - **The Location Wizard → Cast → Import**, to add the character straight into a building ## Get a character from your assistant You have two options: - **Copy prompt for your assistant.** The prompt includes your world's genre, its roles and the exact format RPBuddy expects. Paste it into your assistant, describe the character you want, then copy the reply. - **Get the skill.** A one-time download that teaches your assistant the format, for assistants that support skills (such as Claude and Gemini). Upload it to your assistant, then just ask it for an RPBuddy character. You can also [download the skill here](/skills/rpbuddy-npc.zip). **How it works** explains the steps in more detail. ### Keeping the skill up to date Now and then the skill gets better. When a new version is out, a small **updated** tag appears next to **Get the skill**, and characters made with an older version show a **Get the latest** link after import. Your assistant keeps whatever version you gave it, so to update: download the skill again, then upload it to your assistant in place of the old one. Older versions keep working in the meantime. ## Edit an existing character with an assistant [Copy the profile as Markdown](npc-profiles.md) after making any edits you want your assistant to see; unsaved editor values are included without saving. Give your assistant the latest skill or import prompt, paste the profile, and ask for revised **Character JSON**, not Markdown. Import the reply and review every field before saving. Do not turn blank-field hints into character prose. The importer does not restore faction membership, Home/Workplace or other routine links, or Player Backstory relationships. Reapply those in the game. Copying and importing are not a lossless backup or an in-place update of the original NPC. ## Bring it in Paste the reply into **Character JSON** (the whole reply is fine, extra text and all), or **choose a .json file**. Then choose **Review NPC**. The character opens in the usual review form. Check every field and change anything you like before saving. ## Adjustments you might see If anything didn't fit, the review lists what was changed under **Imported with adjustments**: - text that was too long is shortened - a role can be written as it appears in the editor ("Resident") or as its key; a role from another genre is matched to the closest one in your world, and anything else becomes the world's general role (change it in the review) - relationships without both a name and a relation are skipped - unknown fields are ignored Some imports are refused outright: - characters without a name or age - characters under 18 - a paste containing several characters (import one at a time) ## Saving Like any character, an imported one is checked when you save it. A character must read as an adult throughout their profile, not just in the age field. If the save is refused, revise the description so the whole character clearly reads as an adult, then save again. ## After importing - Set **Home** and **Workplace** so they turn up in the right places. See [NPC profiles](npc-profiles.md). - Generate a portrait from their Portrait Prompt, or pick one from your gallery. --- ## Memory and the Journal (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/characters/memory-and-the-journal) # Memory and the Journal How characters remember, how you can shape what they remember, and the Journal where it all shows up. ## How memories form When you leave a conversation, each character who took part forms **one memory** of it, written from their own point of view. You need to have exchanged at least a message and a reply. That same moment also updates their disposition toward you, a few private notes on their state of mind, and whether they'd like to see you again. Characters gather memories in other ways too: - events in their settlement from the daily digest - gossip they hear from other characters - running into other characters in town - fights they were part of or witnessed - Story Moments - what you write when you skip time - memories you add yourself If a memory couldn't be written (say you closed the tab mid-conversation), it catches up the next time you talk to that character. **Nothing fades on its own.** Memories last until you delete them, or delete the world. ## What a character recalls Each time you send a message, a character brings to mind: - every memory you've **pinned** for them - their **relationship summary** of your history together - a few of their **most recent** memories of you - a few memories that **match what you just said** - the **story threads** they share with you - a little **gossip** they've heard On the Hero plan, characters recall more of each. See [Plans and limits](../account/plans-and-limits.md). ## Long conversations A character always sees the latest stretch of your conversation word for word. As a conversation grows, the earlier part is condensed into a running summary that keeps the key moments, so very long scenes stay coherent. If you come back to someone later the same day, you pick up where you left off. Later than that, they work from their memories. ## Gossip When characters share a building, they talk, and they pass on what they know. A story can be passed on twice: from the person who saw it to someone else, and from them to one more ("Heard from Mara that…"), but no further. A character who hasn't met you may already have heard something about you, and will treat you accordingly. **Private** memories never spread. Some intimate moments are made private automatically. ## Shaping what they remember Open the Journal (the open-book icon) → **Characters** → a character. You can: - **search** their memories - **add a memory** in the box at the top. Write it as something they remember, or as an instruction ("Always calls the player 'kid'") - **edit** or **delete** any memory - make a memory **private** (it stops spreading) or **public** - **pin** a memory, in one of two ways: - **Pin as memory**: they always remember it, every conversation - **Pin as directive**: a standing rule they always follow, even over their usual personality You can pin one memory per character, or three with Hero. The same page shows their disposition, their goal, fear and secret, and buttons to **Move to current location** or **Send home**. Each memory is tagged with where it came from: | Tag | Meaning | |---|---| | player | A conversation with you | | gossip | Heard from someone else, or a world event | | npc | A scene you watched but weren't part of | | reaction | Their private response to news that touched them | | injected | Added by you | ### Relationship summary At the top of a character's memories is **{name}'s history with you**: their own summary of your relationship. It's rewritten automatically every few conversations. You can edit it any time, and your version is used straight away, but the next rewrite replaces it. ## The Journal's four tabs **World.** Notes for each settlement, plus **General**. Active notes steer what the daily digest writes: "tensions are rising between the guilds", "it's festival week". Deactivate a note to stop it applying. Each night's digest summary appears here too. **Story.** Today's progress, a **day card** for each day you talked to people in a settlement, and each settlement's **Story So Far**, rolled up from every five day cards. **Characters.** Everyone you've met, filtered by settlement or searched by name. See above. **Preferences.** Your goal, fear and secret, and the kinds of stories you want. See [Story preferences](../living-world/story-preferences.md). ## The Memory Web Atlas → **Memory Web** draws everyone you know as a web: - You sit at the center. The line to each character grows stronger the more you've talked. - Story threads, individual memories, memories characters share, and scenes you've spectated hang off them. - Filter by **NPCs**, **Threads** or **Memories**. - Choose any point to see its detail: a character's disposition, relationship summary, threads and recent memories, or a shared scene from each person's point of view. Large worlds show the most connected characters. --- ## NPC profiles (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/characters/npc-profiles) # NPC profiles Every field on a character's sheet, what it does in conversation, and what it does when you're not around. ## Making characters - **Atlas → NPCs → New NPC.** Describe the character you want and choose **Generate NPC**, or choose **Manual** for a blank form. You can pick a **Reference character** for the AI to build on. - **The Location Wizard** creates characters along with a building. See [The Location Wizard](../places/location-wizard.md). - **Atlas → Locations → a building → + Add NPC** creates someone who lives there. - **Import** a character written with another AI assistant. See [Importing NPCs](importing-npcs.md). - **Settlement templates** and **Quick options** buildings come with their own residents. On the free plan, generating a character with AI uses one of your daily AI actions. ## The NPCs list Atlas → **NPCs** lists everyone in your world. - **Active / Archived** switches between characters on the map and those you've archived. - **Search** and the **area filter** narrow the list to a region, settlement or district. - Characters are grouped into **Known to you** and **Not yet met**. Tick **Hide people you haven't met** to see only the first group. Open a character to edit them. Changes take effect from the next message anyone sends them. There's nothing to refresh. ### Search by location or faction Search normally matches NPC names and occupations. Type part of a location or faction name to see suggestions, then choose one to filter by that entity. Typing its full name also activates the filter, ignoring case. A partial name alone does not activate an entity filter. Choose a suggestion to distinguish identically named entities; typing a shared exact name includes matches from all entities with that name, including both locations and factions. A faction match means explicit membership, not a mention in profile prose. A location match means the NPC's current location, Home or Workplace links to that location or one of its descendant floors or rooms. Places they visit, social building categories and scheduled trip destinations are not search associations by themselves. Active/Archived, area and known-character filters still apply. Clear or change the search to leave the selected entity filter. If location data could not load, location matches may be unavailable. ## Copy a profile as Markdown Use **Copy** on the NPC sheet to copy readable profile Markdown. It uses the current editor values, including unsaved changes; copying does not save them. Generated character review cards also copy their edited drafts, and the Location Wizard's **Copy All** includes its character drafts. The text includes supported identity, appearance, communication, behavior, motivations and background fields, plus authored Player Backstory and Daily Routine. Available faction and location links become names, including available room names, not record IDs; unresolved links are omitted. It is not an export of memories, play history, inventory, combat state or travel schedules. For editing with another assistant, see [Importing NPCs](importing-npcs.md). The import format supports less than the Markdown export: this is not a lossless round trip. ## How a character uses their profile Every time you send a message, the character's whole profile is read fresh. Other parts of the game read a smaller slice of it: | When | What it reads | |---|---| | **Writing their memory** of a conversation | Name, gender, role, appearance, Personality (legacy), their current disposition and key facts | | **Meeting other characters** in town | Name, role, Personality (legacy), and their relationships and opinions of each other | | **Reacting to gossip** | Relationships, goal, fear and secret. News that touches one of these gets a private reaction | | **The daily digest** | Name, occupation, disposition, goal and fear, for the characters with the strongest feelings about you | | **Setting up a Story Moment** | Personality (legacy), behavior, communication, daily rhythms, religion, belongings and today's mood | So a field doesn't only shape how they talk to you. It also shapes what happens around them. ## Identity **Name.** The character's full name. Their first name labels their lines in conversation. Renaming someone doesn't update other characters' **Relationships** rows that mention them. Those match by exact name, so update them too. If two people in a scene share a first name, the conversation labels them by surname instead, but distinct first names read better. **Gender.** Free text. When it's filled in, it's treated as authoritative and decides pronouns. Left blank, the AI infers it, and pronouns can drift. **Age.** At least 18. Characters age as days pass in your world: a long Passage of Time skip makes everyone older. **System Role.** A behind-the-scenes category from your genre's list (barkeep, guard, merchant…). It sets: - a mindset for the scene, for some roles (a barkeep loves passing on local news, a guard is wary of strangers, a shopkeeper wants to make a sale) - how readily they pass on gossip - their default combat stats **Occupation.** What they actually do, in your words, and what they talk about. Be specific: "retired mason who sketches ruins by lantern light" beats "mason". Occupation never says *where* they work. That's the Workplace field, below. ## Appearance, outfit and portrait These three fields do different jobs: | Field | What it's for | Who reads it | |---|---|---| | **Appearance** | Their body: build, face, hair, distinguishing features | The character and everyone they meet | | **Default Outfit** | What they're wearing | The character, while no outfit state is active | | **Portrait Prompt** | The picture | Only the image generator | - **Appearance** is told to the AI as something to match exactly. Leave clothing out, and put the first thing a stranger would notice in the first sentence: other characters in a scene only see the start of it. For anyone who isn't human, start with the species. - **Default Outfit** is kept separate so a character can change clothes without rewriting their body. Switch outfits with portrait states (see [Portraits, portrait states and expressions](portraits-states-expressions.md)). - **If Appearance is empty, the outfit isn't used either.** Fill in Appearance for outfits to work. - **Editing Appearance or Default Outfit never changes the picture.** Update the Portrait Prompt and regenerate. **Personality** (marked **Legacy**) only appears on older characters that already have it. Newer characters spread personality across Communication, Behavior and Motivations instead. If a character has it, keep it: some background systems still read it. Clearing it removes the field for good. ## Communication and Behavior **Communication** (up to 500 characters): voice, delivery, vocabulary, and how honest they are. It's the strongest lever for making a character sound like themselves. It's also used when they're a bystander in someone else's scene, so keep it compact. **Behavior**: body language and physical tells. It drives the actions between their lines. Write what you'd see ("taps the counter when lying"), not adjectives ("nervous"). ## Motivations **Confidence** (Low, Medium, High) changes how they hold themselves: whether they defer, hold steady, or can't be intimidated. **Goal**, **Fear** and **Secret** are their inner life. The character never states them outright, but they color everything: - **Goal** drives their decisions. - **Fear** makes them defensive when it comes up. - **Secret** they guard, and will deflect or lie about if pressed. Facts you want them to share freely belong in **Brief History** instead. Characters with an inner life are the ones Story Moments and gossip build around, so fill these in for anyone you want things to happen to. **These can change.** For characters you've interacted with, the daily digest occasionally shifts a goal, fear or secret as their life moves on. The character also remembers the change. Check back after a few days. ## Background **Brief History**: key life events and a timeline. Shared freely, unlike the secret. Under **Additional**: - **Education** and **Religion**. - **Faction**: the group they belong to. Only the name travels with the character, so describe what the faction is and wants elsewhere. See [Factions](factions.md). - **Daily Rhythms**: their morning, workday and evening habits, in words. This is flavor for conversation only. It doesn't move them around the map. The Daily Routine fields do that, so keep the two consistent. ## Relationships Each row is a **name**, a **relation** (sister, rival, landlord) and an optional **dynamic** (how they get along and why). - **Use the other character's exact full name.** When two characters meet in town, the game matches relationships by exact name. A name that doesn't match anyone still works in conversation (the character knows about this person), but has no effect beyond that. - **Relationships go one way.** Add the matching row on the other character too. - When you mention someone on the list in conversation, the character is reminded how they're related. Rows without both a name and a relation are dropped when you save. ## Player Backstory Tick **Player Backstory** to write how this character already knows you: an old friend, a sibling, an ex, a rival. - They know you from the very first line: your name, and the history you wrote. They won't treat you as a stranger. - Your backstory always stays true for them, even as new memories pile up. - A **Disposition** slider appears, to set how they feel about you to begin with. After that, their feelings change through play. See [Disposition and relationships](disposition-and-relationships.md). Unticking the box clears the text. ## Daily Routine Where a character physically is decides who you'll find where, and whether they're "at home", "at work" or "visiting" when you talk to them. **Home.** Where they sleep, from any building or room. They're there at dawn and night, and head back over the late afternoon and evening. **Workplace.** Where they spend their working day, morning to afternoon. Left as **Same as home**, they work where they live. Setting a workplace also stops them acting like staff wherever they happen to be visiting. **Places they visit.** Where they go in their free time: - **Building types** (tavern, market…) only match buildings in their own settlement. - **Specific buildings** can be anywhere, including another settlement. Use these for "visits her sister in the next town". With nothing set, they stay home in their free time. **Rest Day Chance** (0–30%). The chance, on any given day, that they stay home all day. **Travel Schedule.** Trips that override everything else while they're under way. Choose **Add Trip**, then: - **Once**, **Daily** or **Weekly** - when they leave and come back - the destination (any building in your world) - a **description**: their answer when someone asks why they're there. Write it in their voice. Trips save straight away. A banner tells you when someone sets off and comes home. The simulation only runs around you, so characters elsewhere stay put until you come near. Scheduled trips run everywhere. ## Combat Stats Characters without stats show **Generate Stats from Role**, which fills them in from their System Role. If you never do, they're generated the first time they get into a fight. - **HP** sets both their health and their maximum. Typing a new value is also how you heal someone after a fight. - **ATK**, **DEF** and **SPD** work like yours. See [Combat](../adventure/combat.md). - **ATK and DEF also shape how they talk about violence.** A strong character carries themselves like a fighter; a weak one gets nervous at the thought of a brawl. ## Shop Inventory Anything listed here, the character can sell. The stock belongs to the character, not the building, so it goes where they go. Each item has a name, type, price, stock, a stat (attack, defense or healing), an optional enchantment for weapons, and a description. See [Shops and trading](../conversations/shops-and-trading.md). ## Archive and delete **Archive NPC** takes a character off the map but keeps everything about them, memories included. To bring them back, open them from **Archived**, pick a **Home**, and save. **Delete NPC** is permanent. Their portrait, portrait states, memories and relationships are deleted. Images still used elsewhere through the gallery are kept. A character killed after a fight is archived as **Deceased**. ## Things the game manages for you Some parts of a character change through play rather than through the sheet: - **Disposition**: how they feel about you, shown on their portrait. See [Disposition and relationships](disposition-and-relationships.md). - **Relationship summary**: their own account of your history together. You can edit it in the Journal. See [Memory and the Journal](memory-and-the-journal.md). - **Key facts**: a few notes on their state of mind at the end of your last conversation. - **Today's mood**: an agenda or mood for the day, set by the daily digest. - **Belongings**: personal items the AI gives them when it creates them. There's no editor for these. - **Met or not**: whether they know you. See [First meetings](../conversations/first-meetings.md). ## What overrides what - **Their picture**: the Portrait Prompt, nothing else. Portrait states and expressions are edits of a portrait. - **What they're wearing**: an active Outfit portrait state, then Default Outfit. Neither is used without Appearance. - **Where they are**: an active trip, then being pinned for a quest or Story Moment, then a rest day, then home at night, then work during the day, then places they visit. - **Knowing you**: a Player Backstory means yes from the first line; otherwise, once you've talked. - **How they feel about you**: you set the start (with a Player Backstory); play takes it from there. - **Goal, fear and secret**: yours to write, but the digest may move them on. ## Saving Saving checks all of a character's text, not just the field you changed, so a flagged word anywhere can block a save. A red banner at the top shows what went wrong. In the Location Wizard, **Edit NPC** opens a shorter version of the sheet with the most-used fields. --- ## Party members (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/characters/party-members) # Party members Bring characters along on your travels. ## Inviting someone In a conversation, open a character's portrait menu (the pencil on desktop, or long-press on touch) and choose **Add to party**. The option only appears for characters who are **loyal** to you (disposition 80 or more), and you can have up to three companions at once. See [Disposition and relationships](disposition-and-relationships.md). ## On the road - Party members follow you wherever you walk on the map. - Their portraits stack beside your name on the Command Deck (desktop), or at the bottom-left of the screen (mobile). - Choose that stack to **chat with your party** wherever you are. Out in the open, the backdrop is the settlement you're in or the landscape around you. - In any conversation, they count as present and chime in naturally. ## In fights Party members join your fights against enemies (not fights against other characters). They act on their own after you, and if they're knocked out, they're back on their feet once the fight ends. They never die. Each extra companion makes the enemy tougher, so bigger parties face stronger foes. If you go down while your companions are still standing, the fight carries on without you. See [Combat](../adventure/combat.md). Companions remember the fights they were in. ## Leaving the party - In a conversation, choose **Remove from party** from their portrait menu, or - choose their marker on the map and confirm. ## Good to know While someone's in your party, they're off their normal routine: they don't go to work or wander, and the daily digest doesn't give them a mood for the day. --- ## Your player character (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/characters/player-character) # Your player character Every field on your character sheet, what the game does with it, and what the characters you meet actually know about you. Open your sheet by choosing your portrait on the Command Deck (desktop) or in the status bar (mobile). It's the **Player** tab of the Atlas. ## Creating your character Character creation is the first thing you see in a new world. The other Atlas tabs stay locked until you're done. - **Describe your character** in the box (up to 500 characters) and choose **Create Your Character**. The AI turns it into a full sheet. Anything you state is kept, and anything you leave out is invented to fit your setting. If your character isn't human, mention the species. It always leads their appearance. - Or choose **Manual** to fill in a blank form. - Review every field, optionally choose **Generate Portrait** (uses image credits), then **Begin Adventure**. Everyone starts at level 1 with the same stats. You can't edit those directly. On the free plan, **Create Your Character** uses one of your daily AI actions. **Manual** doesn't. ## Identity **Name.** Your name. Characters who haven't met you don't know it until you tell them. See [First meetings](../conversations/first-meetings.md). **Gender.** Free text, so use whatever words fit. When it's filled in, characters treat it as authoritative and use the matching pronouns. Left blank, they work it out from your name, appearance and backstory, which can drift. **Age.** Set once at creation, and at least 18. After that it can't be edited, and it grows as days pass in your world. **Faction.** The group you belong to, if any. See [Faction](#faction) below. **Copy** puts your name, gender, appearance, description and portrait prompt on your clipboard as text. ## Appearance Your body: build, face, hair, skin, scars, anything someone would notice. Up to 1,500 characters. It's the one thing a stranger knows about you, so it's your first impression. Two tips: - **Leave clothing out.** What you wear goes in your outfit, so changing clothes never contradicts your appearance. - **Lead with what matters most.** Put the first thing anyone would notice in the first sentence. Appearance doesn't change your portrait. See [Your portrait](#your-portrait). ## Outfits **Default Outfit** (up to 250 characters) is what you normally wear. Choose **+ Add outfit** to save other outfits (up to 12). Choose one to put it on, and choose it again to go back to your default. Characters always see whichever outfit is highlighted, and it takes priority over any clothing mentioned in your appearance, your backstory, or their memories of you. To edit an outfit you've added, remove it and add it again. Outfits change what characters see you wearing. They don't change your portrait. They work like portrait states do for other characters (see [Portraits, portrait states and expressions](portraits-states-expressions.md)), except yours are text only. ## Description (personality and backstory) Labeled **Personality & Backstory** while you create your character, and **Description** on your sheet afterwards. Up to 2,500 characters. Write who you are and where you've come from. Only people who've met you see it. Behind the scenes, your name, gender, appearance and description also travel with the conversation when characters write their memories of you and their summaries of your relationship. That's how they keep straight who you are and which pronouns to use. The daily digest sees them too, so the day's events can involve you sensibly. A character only knows what they've learned. Writing "everyone in town knows I'm a famous duelist" here won't make strangers know it. To give someone a shared history with you, write it on *their* profile instead (see [NPC profiles](npc-profiles.md), Player backstory). ## Faction Pick a faction from the list, or create one with **+ New faction…**. Your faction is visible to every character, strangers included, the same way your clothes are. Characters in the same faction know you're one of them. What the faction means to them comes from your world's profiles and lorebook. See [Factions](factions.md). ## Your portrait Your portrait is made from the **Portrait Prompt** alone. The game frames it as an upper-body portrait and adds your world's art style. Your appearance and outfit are never added. - **If you change how you look or what you wear, update the prompt too**, then choose **Regenerate Portrait**. The cost is shown on the button, and failed images are refunded. - Describe only the subject: features, hair, build, and clothing from the waist up. The art style is added for you. - Real people's names and political titles are blocked. See [Image safety](../images-and-art/image-safety.md). - The gallery button (top-left of the portrait) lets you pick any image you've generated before, at no cost. ## Stats, equipment and inventory The right side of your sheet shows your level and XP, HP, and attack, defense and speed. Below that: - **Equipment**: one weapon slot and one armor slot, filled from your inventory. - **Inventory**: every item you carry. Choose **Heal** on a healing item to use it, or open an item to edit it. **+ Add Item** makes a new one. See [Inventory and equipment](../adventure/inventory-and-equipment.md) and [Levels and XP](../adventure/levels-and-xp.md). ## What characters know about you | | Strangers | People you've met | In a scene you're spectating | |---|---|---|---| | Name | Only once you tell them | Yes | Only if they've met you | | Appearance and gender | Yes | Yes | Only if they've met you | | Description | No | Yes | Only if they've met you | | Outfit and faction | Yes | Yes | No | | Age | No | No | No | Your inventory is only visible to characters you're trading with or doing a quest for, and they see item names only. ## Good to know - **Saving checks all of your text**, not just what you changed. If one field contains something that's flagged, it can block saving an unrelated edit until you fix it. - **Renaming yourself mid-story** is fine. Characters use your new name right away, though older memories may still mention the old one. --- ## Portraits, portrait states and expressions (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/characters/portraits-states-expressions) # Portraits, portrait states and expressions How character pictures are made, and how to give a character other outfits and faces. All of this lives in the left column of a character's sheet (Atlas → NPCs → a character). ## The portrait A portrait is made from the **Portrait Prompt** alone. The game frames it as an upper-body portrait and adds your world's art style. Nothing else from the profile is used, so Appearance and Default Outfit never change the picture. **What to write.** Describe the subject only: features, hair, build, expression, and clothing from the waist up. **What to leave out:** - art style, lighting, background and camera terms (added for you) - the character's name (names are blocked in image prompts) - real people and political titles (see [Image safety](../images-and-art/image-safety.md)) In worlds using the BuddyMix model, the AI writes portrait prompts as tags rather than sentences. See [Writing image prompts](../images-and-art/image-prompting.md). **Regenerate Portrait** makes a new picture from the prompt. The cost is shown on the button, and a failed image is refunded. It's only available while the **Default** state is selected. Two buttons sit on the portrait itself: - **The gallery button** (top-left) lets you use any image you've generated before, from any of your worlds, at no cost. - **⇋** flips the character to face the other way. The flip applies everywhere they appear: portrait, states, expressions and the map. ## Portrait states A portrait state is an edited copy of a portrait: the same character, changed by an instruction like "give them a long wool travelling cloak" or "soaked from the rain". Choose **+** in the **Portrait States** strip under the portrait, then fill in: - **Type**: **Outfit** or **Custom** (see below). - **Name**: up to 30 characters. - **Base image**: the default portrait or another state, so you can build edits on edits ("blue dress", then "blue dress, soaked"). - **Edit prompt**: describe the change, not the whole character. - **Model**: which image editor does the work: - **Flux 2 Klein**: every plan. - **Qwen Image Edit** and **GPT Image 2**: Hero only. GPT Image may refuse some requests under its provider's content rules, and you're refunded when it does. The costs are on [Credit costs](../reference/credit-costs.md). The picker remembers the model you used last. **Outfit or Custom?** - **Outfit**: while this state is active, the character treats it as what they're wearing, in place of their Default Outfit. They read the state's **name**, not the edit prompt, so name outfits descriptively: "rain-soaked travelling cloak", not "Outfit 2". - **Custom**: changes the picture only. Use it for moods and poses ("battle-ready", "exhausted") that shouldn't change what they say they're wearing. To manage states: - **✎** (or double-click) re-rolls a state, with its settings filled in. The old image is replaced once the new one finishes. - **×** deletes a state. - The default portrait can't be deleted. ### Switching states in a conversation In a conversation, open the character's portrait menu (the pencil on desktop, or long-press on touch) and choose **Change state**. Pick a state, or **Default** to go back. The portrait changes straight away, and an Outfit state changes what they're wearing from their next line. Only you switch states. Characters never change their own. ## Expression sheets (Hero) An expression sheet makes ten versions of a portrait's face: neutral, smile, angry, sad, surprised and more. In conversation, the character picks an expression for each line, and their portrait changes to match. - Choose **Create Expression Sheet** under the portrait. Creating and regenerating sheets is Hero-only. If you already have a sheet, you can keep using and managing it on any plan. - Each expression has a **key**: the word the character chooses from. Edit the keys and prompts to suit them. Clear emotion words work best. - **Hide** an expression to stop the character using it without deleting it. - **Each portrait state can have its own sheet.** With a state selected, the button reads "— *state name*". A sheet is only used while its portrait or state is the active one. Results vary with the art style and the face. ## Age rules Every character renders as an adult. Characters under 18 can't have portrait states or expression sheets, and edits that try to make someone look younger are refused. --- ## Your creator profile (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/community/creator-profile) # Your creator profile Your public page in the Community Hub, at **/@yourhandle**. ## Claiming a handle The first time you publish (or open **Your profile** from the Account menu), you'll be asked to **Create Your Profile** by choosing a username: - 3 to 24 characters: letters, numbers and underscores - unique, whatever the capitalization - some names are reserved Choose **Claim Handle**. You can change it later, but only once every 30 days. Changing only the capitalization is always allowed. ## Editing your profile Open **Your profile** from the Account menu on the dashboard, then **Edit profile**: - **Bio**: a line or two about what you build (up to 300 characters). - **Avatar**: upload a PNG, JPG or WebP up to 5 MB, then drag and zoom to crop it. Square works best. ## What's on your page - your avatar, bio and how many followers you have - your published worlds, with their status - **Manage** for each world (see [Publishing a world](publishing.md)) - recent comments on your worlds Other players can follow you from your page or from any of your world cards. --- ## Playing community worlds (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/community/playing-community-worlds) # Playing community worlds Browse, preview and play worlds other players have built. ## Browsing On the dashboard, switch the toolbar from **Your Worlds** to **Community Hub**. There's also a public Hub page anyone can browse without signing in. - **World of the week** sits at the top. - Sort by **Most played**, **Most liked**, **Newest**, or **Following** (creators you follow). - Search by title, creator or tag. Each card shows the genre, the creator, a few of the characters, and how many plays, likes and comments it has. Choose a card for the world page: the full description, the cast ("Who you'll meet"), comments, and a share link. ## Preview **Preview** lets you walk around a world and peek into its buildings before committing, even without an account. Conversations in a preview are a scripted demo, not the real thing. Anything else (talking for real, building, quests) prompts you to sign up or play. ## Play **Play** (or **Play This World**) gives you your own copy, in your Worlds list. It's free, and it's yours to play and change however you like. Play the same world twice and you'll be asked whether you want a second copy. **Your copy includes:** - the map, settlements, districts and regions, with their profiles and pictures - every building, with its rooms, interiors, music and shop stock - every character, with their portraits, outfits, personalities, routines and relationships - the enemies, the world profile, the lorebook (if the creator included it) and the world's settings **Your copy starts fresh:** - you create your own character - it's Day 1, with a starting wallet - nobody has met you, and nobody has memories of you yet - no quests or stories are under way Your copy is independent. Changes the creator makes later don't reach it, and changes you make don't reach theirs. A copy can't be published again. ## Liking, following and commenting - **Like** a world with the heart on its card. - **+ Follow** a creator to see their new worlds under **Following**, and get a notification when they publish one. - **Comments**: once you've played a world, you can comment on it ("Played it? Tell people what happened"). Comments need at least 20 characters. You can reply to comments, mark them **Helpful**, edit or delete your own, and **Report** any that break the rules. Each comment shows how far its author has played. --- ## Publishing a world (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/community/publishing) # Publishing a world Share your world in the Community Hub so other players can play their own copy. ## Before you start - You need a **creator profile**. You'll be asked to claim a handle the first time you publish. See [Your creator profile](creator-profile.md). - You can publish worlds you built. A world you copied from the Hub can't be republished. - Each world can have one publication at a time. ## Publishing On the dashboard, open your world card's menu and choose **Publish**. - **Public Title**: what players see in the Hub. - **Description**: what your world is about, and what makes it worth exploring. - **Tags**: up to five, from Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Modern, Historical, Horror, Post-Apocalyptic, Urban, Rural, Political, Cozy, Dark and Whimsical. - **Include lorebook entries**: players who copy your world get your lore too. - **Banner image**: the picture that headlines your world card and share page. If you don't pick one, one is chosen for you. - **Preview characters**: the cast shown on your world page, in the order you pick them. If you don't pick any, a default cast is shown. Then confirm the checklist, **Before You Submit**: - no NSFW, explicit or graphic content - no copyrighted characters, settings or IP - no real people or their likenesses - it's your original creation Choose **I Understand — Submit for Review**. ## Review What you submit is a **frozen snapshot** of your world as it is right now. The published copy uses the Suggestive intimacy setting. The RPBuddy team reviews it, and you'll get a notification either way: - **Approved**: your world goes live in the Hub, and people who follow you are told. - **Rejected**: the notification includes a note explaining why. Fix it and submit again. ## After it's live Your creator profile shows each world's status: **Live**, **In review**, **Unpublished** or **Rejected**. - **Manage** (on your creator profile) changes the title, description, banner and featured characters. The banner and cast come from your approved snapshot. - **Account → My Published Worlds** lets you **Edit** the title and description, or **Remove** the world from the Hub. **Changes to your own world don't reach the published copy.** To share an update, remove the old publication and submit again. **Removing a world** takes it out of the Hub. Players who already copied it keep their copies. ## What players see Your world page shows the cover, description, tags, featured cast, and how many plays, likes and comments it has, with your handle and a link to your profile. Anyone can preview it, even without an account. See [Playing community worlds](playing-community-worlds.md). --- ## Chat commands (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/conversations/chat-commands) # Chat commands In a conversation, type **/** in the message box. A list of commands appears above the input. Keep typing to narrow it, then **Enter** or click to pick one. When a command has everything it needs, **Send** is the first choice. Arrow down for optional extras. Command words are in English in every language (`/travel`, `with`, `to`). The hints under them follow your game language. Commands only work in a face-to-face conversation, not in spectate or the tutorial. ## /travel Walk somewhere with people from the conversation, without closing the chat. `/travel with Sara Jones and Tomas to The Copper Market` - **with** / **and** pick who comes. They follow you on the map like party members for this trip only. They are not added to your party. - **to** picks a building or room. Nearby places are listed first; you can still choose somewhere in another settlement. - **reason** is optional, in your own words. The people you travel with hear why you went. Time still passes on the walk. Random encounters do not fire on this path, and you cannot cancel by clicking the map. When you arrive, everyone goes inside and the same conversation continues. `/travel to The Copper Market` with nobody listed ends the conversation and you walk there alone. See [Moving around](../journey/07-moving-around.md). ## /weather Change the weather for your current hex. The list only includes weather that biome can have — desert will not offer blizzard. Pick a condition and **Send** to change it quietly. The clock and sky update; nobody comments. Add **note** if you want them to notice: `/weather rain note the sky opens without warning`. That writes a hidden scene beat and they react. ## /ooc A director's note the character sees and you do not. Nothing appears in the chat log. Type `/ooc` then the instruction, as-is — quotes, parentheses, whatever you write. - **Send** with only the note: they start or continue the scene from it. Useful for opening a conversation. - **Break** (you must pick it from the list, not type the word) then a player line: the note stays hidden, and that line shows as your message. This is not the same as writing OOC in the open chat, which characters often argue with. ## /move Instantly move **one** character who is not the person you're talking to (the left portrait). - Not here: **here** brings them to your building, or **to** sends them somewhere else. - Already here: only **to**. - **note** is optional. If they arrive **here** with a note, the current conversation gets a hidden beat and they can react. If you send them **to** another place, they get a personal memory of going there (it does not count as having met you). The conversation stays open. Journal → Characters still has **Move to current location** and **Send home**. See [Moving people yourself](../living-world/npc-daily-life.md#moving-people-yourself). ## /clear Wipe this conversation and start a blank scene with the same person. You must add **confirm**. `/clear` alone will not send. The wiped conversation is deleted. No memory is formed from it, even if you leave afterward. Anyone who had joined the scene is unjoined. You can start again, or use `/ooc` to set the new scene. --- ## Content settings and safety (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/conversations/content-and-safety) # Content settings and safety The settings that shape mature content, and what happens when a conversation crosses a line. ## Intimacy Atlas → Settings → **Intimacy** sets how intimate moments are written in this world: - **Off**: romance can happen, but characters won't steer toward intimate scenes on their own. If past memories include one, they may still mention it, without explicit detail. - **Suggestive** (the default): intimate moments are written with restraint, the way a romance novel would: sensory, never graphic. - **Detailed**: intimate moments are written fully, with nothing left off-screen. This setting isn't available on the free plan. ## Avoidances Journal → Preferences → **Avoidances** lists topics you'd rather not have characters bring up. They won't raise them, but they'll follow your lead if you do. See [Story preferences](../living-world/story-preferences.md). ## When a message crosses the line - Some content is never allowed. A message like that gets a short reply steering back to the story instead of an answer. - A conversation that goes somewhere it shouldn't can be ended. You'll see "Conversation ended — content policy violation." and leave the building. - Repeatedly breaking the rules pauses chat for a while, and the pause gets longer if it keeps happening. What isn't allowed is listed in [section 6 of the Terms of Service, Prohibited Content & Conduct](/terms#prohibited-content-conduct). ## Images Image prompts have their own rules. See [Image safety](../images-and-art/image-safety.md). --- ## Editing, re-rolling and the conversation view (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/conversations/editing-and-rerolling) # Editing, re-rolling and the conversation view The controls inside a conversation. ## Writing your messages Write what your character says and does in ordinary sentences, the way you'd write a story: > I set a coin on the counter and lean in. "One room for the night, please." Putting spoken words in quotes makes it clear what you say out loud. First person ("I lean in") and third person ("Kara leans in") both work. Actions don't need asterisks or brackets. - Press **Enter** to send and **Shift+Enter** for a new line. - Wrap text in \*asterisks\* for **bold** or \_underscores\_ for *italics*. - Messages can be up to 4,000 characters. ## Edit and re-roll (Hero) Hover one of your own messages to see two buttons: - **✎ Edit**: change what you said and rerun the conversation from that point. **Save & rerun** (or Enter) to go, **Cancel** (or Esc) to back out. - **↻ Re-roll**: get a different reply to the same message. Either way, everything after that message is replaced. Some limits: - Only messages from the current conversation that haven't yet been turned into memories can be edited. - Anything that actually happened in a replaced reply stays done: money spent, items traded, quest steps completed. - There's one reply at a time, not a set of alternatives to swipe through. ## The portrait menu Open a character's menu with the pencil on their portrait (desktop) or a long-press (touch): - **Add to party** or **Remove from party** (see [Party members](../characters/party-members.md)) - **Edit NPC**: open their sheet in the Atlas - **Change state**: switch their outfit or look (see [Portraits, portrait states and expressions](../characters/portraits-states-expressions.md)) ## Playback - **Dialogue speed** (1x, 2x, 3x) in Atlas → Settings changes how quickly lines play out once a reply arrives. It doesn't make replies arrive faster. - **Film grain** in Atlas → Settings adds a subtle texture to the conversation view. - Narration sits in the middle of the screen. The person you're talking to stands on the left, and others on the right. ## Expressions When a character has an expression sheet, their face changes with each line. On desktop, hover an earlier line to see the face they made. See [Portraits, portrait states and expressions](../characters/portraits-states-expressions.md). ## Leaving **Leave** (or **Esc**) ends the conversation. On mobile, use the door button. --- ## First meetings (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/conversations/first-meetings) # First meetings How characters treat a stranger, and how you become someone they know. ## Strangers A character who has never met you: - **doesn't know your name.** They know you as a stranger. - **goes by what they can see**: your appearance, what you're wearing, your gender, and any faction you belong to. - **is reserved**, the way people are with someone new. They may still have **heard about you**. If gossip about "a newcomer" has reached them, they'll have an impression of you before you've said a word, but not your name. ## Getting to know each other Introduce yourself, and they'll use your name from then on. When the conversation ends, they form a memory of it, and from then on they've **met** you. In every later conversation they know your name, your backstory, and everything they remember about you. Some things don't count as meeting you: hearing gossip, watching a scene you spectated, or events from the daily digest. ## Already acquainted Old friends, siblings, exes and rivals don't need an introduction. Write a **Player Backstory** on the character's profile and they know you from the very first line: your name, and the history you wrote together. See [NPC profiles](../characters/npc-profiles.md). ## Rooms full of people Each person in a scene is a stranger or not on their own terms. You might walk into a tavern where the barkeep greets you by name and the traveler beside her has no idea who you are. ## What a stranger doesn't see Your **Description** (personality and backstory) is only for people who've met you. A stranger can't know your history until they learn it. See [Your player character](../characters/player-character.md). --- ## How conversations work (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/conversations/how-chat-works) # How conversations work What happens when you send a message, who answers, and what a character knows when they reply. ## A turn 1. You send a message. 2. The game reads the scene: what's going on, and who you're talking to. 3. It gathers everything the character needs to know (see [What they know](#what-a-character-knows-when-they-reply)). 4. The character replies with a mix of **dialogue**, **actions** and **narration** (scene description with no speaker), and the reply plays out line by line. While you wait, the input shows the character thinking. If a reply takes a while, it says they're "thinking very hard". A slow or failed reply is retried automatically ("Retrying..."). If it still doesn't come back, you'll see "Response timed out. Try again." ## Who answers - The character whose portrait you chose answers, and keeps answering. - **Speak to someone else by name** to turn to them: "Mara, what do you think?" or "I turn to Joss." - These don't switch who you're talking to: "you" on its own, a pronoun, mentioning someone in passing, or talking to a group ("you two"). - If the person you turned to stays quiet for a couple of replies, the conversation drifts back to whoever you were talking to before. ## Scenes with several people - **Anyone present can speak up**, not just the person you're talking to. Once someone speaks, they're fully part of the scene from then on. - **Who's present** means everyone in the building or room you're in, plus your party. - **In a busy room**, a handful of people at a time are "in view" for the scene. Anyone already talking, your party, and anyone you mention stay in view. The rest rotate, so the background cast changes as the scene goes on. - **Up to two portraits** show on screen at once. Each speaker gets their own color. - **Characters only speak for themselves.** Lines for someone who isn't present, or lines written as your character, are dropped. ## Mentioning people Name someone from the same settlement, and the character you're talking to is reminded who they are: their job, where they're usually found, and how the two of them are related, if they are. ## What a character knows when they reply Every message, a character reads: - **their own profile**: personality, voice, behavior, motivations, history, relationships - **today's mood**, if the daily digest gave them one, and their notes from your last conversation - **where they are**: the world, region, settlement and district briefings, the building, and whether it's their home, workplace or somewhere they're visiting (see [Area profiles and NPC briefings](../places/areas-and-briefings.md)) - **lorebook entries** that apply to the moment (see [The Lorebook](../places/lorebook.md)) - **what they remember about you**: pinned memories, their summary of your relationship, recent and relevant memories, story threads, gossip - **you**: what they can see, and more if they've met you (see [First meetings](first-meetings.md)) - **who else is here**, and what they think of them - **your avoidances** from Journal → Preferences - the latest stretch of your conversation, plus a summary of anything older ## Time in a conversation The world clock pauses while you talk. Instead, each reply moves time forward by roughly how long it would take to say, so a long conversation can carry you from morning into the afternoon, or past dawn into a new day. Pause the world first (the pause button at the top of the screen) if you don't want time to move. ## Picking up later - Come back to the same person within the same part of the day and you carry on in the same conversation. - Come back a part or two of the day later and the character remembers the earlier conversation and picks up where you left off. - After that, a new conversation starts, and the character works from their memories. **Chat History** (the clock button by the input) lists your past conversations with the character, to read back. ## Chat commands Type **/** in the message box for actions that do not need a permanent button: travel with people, change the weather, give a hidden director note, move someone, or wipe the scene. See [Chat commands](chat-commands.md). ## When you leave Choose **Leave** (or press **Esc**). Everyone who took part forms a memory of the conversation, their feelings toward you may shift, and they note anything they'll want to remember. See [Memory and the Journal](../characters/memory-and-the-journal.md). --- ## Shops and trading (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/conversations/shops-and-trading) # Shops and trading Buying and selling happens by talking to shopkeepers. ## Who runs a shop Any character with items under **Shop Inventory** on their profile. The stock belongs to the character, not the building, so it goes wherever they go. Shops come stocked when they're made by the Location Wizard (for shop-type buildings), by quick options, or by settlement templates. You can add or change stock yourself any time. See [Editing a shop](#editing-a-shop). ## Buying In a conversation with a shopkeeper, their wares appear in a panel at the side of the screen (on mobile, behind the shop button). It lists each item, its **list price**, how many are left, and any enchantment. To buy something, ask for it. The shopkeeper completes the sale, the money leaves your wallet, and the item arrives in your inventory. - **Your price depends on how they feel about you.** Hostile shopkeepers charge well over list, unfriendly ones a little over, friendly ones a little under, loyal ones the least. A shopkeeper who likes you may tell you you're getting a deal. - **Haggle.** The price you agree on in conversation is the price you pay. - **You need the money.** A sale you can't afford doesn't go through. ## Selling Offer the shopkeeper something from your inventory. If you agree on a price, that's what you're paid. If you don't discuss one, you get half the item's value. Whatever you sell joins their stock. ## Stock - Each sale lowers the item's count. When it runs out, it's gone from the shop. - Some items are unlimited, like a room at an inn. - Shops don't restock on their own. Add stock in the Atlas when you want to. - Items keep their stats and enchantments when they change hands, in both directions. ## Editing a shop Open the character in Atlas → **NPCs** and find **Shop Inventory**. Each item has: - **Name** - **Type**: Weapon, Armor, Consumable, Tool or Misc - **Price** - **Stock**: how many they carry, or −1 for unlimited - **ATK bonus**, **DEF bonus** or **Heals HP**, depending on type - **Enchantment** (weapons only) - **Description**: shown when the item is inspected, and kept in your inventory after you buy it Changing an item's price or type fills in a matching stat. Set the price first, then adjust the stat if you want something different. ## Money Each genre has its own currency: gold, coins, dollars or credits. See [Money and economy](../adventure/money-and-economy.md). --- ## Spectator mode (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/conversations/spectator-mode) # Spectator mode Watch a scene play out, and direct it, without being in it. ## Starting Hover a building (or tap it) and choose **Spectate**: "Watch a scene here without taking part". It works from anywhere on the map, and your character doesn't move. ## Directing the scene A banner reminds you that the characters can't see or hear you. Instead of speaking, you write what happens next: > A stranger bursts through the door, soaked from the rain, and asks for Mara by name. The characters carry on from there, among themselves. Some things are off-limits while spectating: - no fights - nobody can be called into the scene - your party stays out of it - quest steps can't be completed ## Afterwards - The characters remember the scene as something that really happened to them. In the Journal, these memories are tagged **npc**. - Their feelings about each other can change. Their feelings about you don't, because you weren't there. - Spectated scenes appear in the Memory Web. On the free plan, each direction you give uses a daily AI action, like any message. --- ## What NPCs can do (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/conversations/what-npcs-can-do) # What NPCs can do Characters mostly talk. Some can also take real actions that change the game. This page covers which characters can do what. ## Shopkeepers A character with shop stock can **sell to you** and **buy from you** when you agree on a deal. Money and items change hands for real. See [Shops and trading](shops-and-trading.md). ## Characters involved in your quests People taking part in one of your quests (a delivery's sender or recipient, for example) can **complete a quest step** during the conversation, including handing over or taking the package. See [Quests](../living-world/quests.md). ## Calling someone over, sending someone home Shopkeepers and characters involved in your quests can also: - **call someone over**: another character walks into the scene and joins the row of portraits - **send someone home**: a visitor leaves ## Starting a fight When a conversation turns violent, the character can take it to the battle screen. Only real physical violence counts, not an argument. Characters set never to fight won't, and you can switch fights off for the whole world with **Disable NPC combat** in Atlas → Settings. See [Combat](../adventure/combat.md). ## What you'll see While a character acts, the input says what they're doing. Your wallet, inventory and quest log update as it happens, and anyone called over joins the portraits. ## What characters don't do - Hand out money, items or gifts. Only shopkeepers trade, and only when you agree a deal. - Offer quests. The Bounty Board is where quests come from. - Skip time. - Join or leave your party. You do that yourself from their portrait menu. ## What changes when you leave The biggest effects of a conversation happen when it ends: memories, feelings toward you, and notes the character keeps for next time. See [Memory and the Journal](../characters/memory-and-the-journal.md) and [Disposition and relationships](../characters/disposition-and-relationships.md). --- ## FAQ (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/help/faq) # FAQ The full FAQ lives on its own page, in every language: **[rpbuddy.ai/faq](/faq)**. It covers: - **Getting Started**: what RPBuddy is, whether you need tabletop experience, what you need, playing on mobile - **Accounts & Billing**: the free plan and its limits, plans, image credits, extra credits, rollover, canceling - **Gameplay**: conversations, the simulation, multiple worlds, playing with friends, copying or resetting a world, getting back to the Dashboard, crafting, combat and XP - **Content & Safety**: age suitability, what is and isn't allowed, blocked messages, AI training, mature content - **Technical**: the AI models, odd replies, art styles, exporting, reporting bugs, supported browsers - **Privacy & Data**: what's collected, deleting your data, what happens if you cancel For step-by-step help with a specific problem, see [Troubleshooting](troubleshooting.md). --- ## Troubleshooting (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/help/troubleshooting) # Troubleshooting Common problems, what causes them, and what to do. ## Conversations **A character doesn't know my name.** They haven't met you yet. Introduce yourself. After that conversation, they'll know you. To have someone know you from the start, write a Player Backstory on their profile. → [First meetings](../conversations/first-meetings.md) **A character forgot something important.** Characters recall a handful of memories each message, chosen by what's recent and what matches what you're saying. To make sure something always stays with them, open the Journal → Characters → them, and **pin** that memory. → [Memory and the Journal](../characters/memory-and-the-journal.md) **"Response timed out. Try again."** A reply took too long, even after automatic retries. Send your message again. **Chat is paused.** Repeated messages broke the content rules. Wait for the pause to end. → [Content settings and safety](../conversations/content-and-safety.md) **"You've reached today's AI limit."** The free plan's daily AI actions are used up. They reset at midnight UTC. Building by hand, images (with credits) and exploring still work. → [Plans and limits](../account/plans-and-limits.md) ## Worldbuilding **Nothing happens when I click a building.** In Build mode, a click selects or edits instead of walking. Choose **Done** to leave Build mode. To enter a building, you need to be close to it: click it to walk over first. **My NPC briefing didn't update after I changed the profile.** Briefings are never rewritten automatically once they exist, so your edits are safe. Choose **Rewrite from profile** for a fresh one. → [Area profiles and NPC briefings](../places/areas-and-briefings.md) **Everyone the AI makes is human.** Only Medieval Fantasy worlds start with every people turned on. Turn others on under **Peoples** on your world profile. Even in a mixed world most people are human, and you can always ask for a specific one ("an elf blacksmith"). → [Area profiles and NPC briefings](../places/areas-and-briefings.md) **A portrait doesn't match the character's appearance.** Portraits are made from the Portrait Prompt only. Update the prompt and regenerate. → [Portraits, portrait states and expressions](../characters/portraits-states-expressions.md) ## Images **Out of credits.** Buy a credit pack, or subscribe for a monthly allowance. → [Billing and credits](../account/billing-and-credits.md) **My prompt was refused.** It named a real person or an official title, or suggested a character who isn't an adult. Reword it. → [Image safety](../images-and-art/image-safety.md) **Image generation is paused.** Several prompts in a row were refused. Wait for the pause to end. **"The server is busy."** Nothing was charged. Try again in a moment. ## Combat and quests **Nothing ever attacks me.** - Does your world have any enemies? Make one in Atlas → Enemies. - Towns are safe unless you've added that town to an enemy's **Areas**. - Check **Random encounters** in Settings isn't **Off**. - Night-only or day-only enemies wait for their time of day. → [Encounters](../adventure/encounters.md) **My quest failed.** Skipping ahead with Passage of Time ends active quests. → [Quests](../living-world/quests.md) ## Performance and display **The map is slow, or my phone gets warm.** Lower **Graphics quality** in Atlas → Settings. → [Settings](../account/settings.md) **Some text is in English when I play in another language.** Content already written stays in its original language, and settlement templates and quick-option buildings are English. → [Languages](../account/languages.md) ## Account **"Session Moved".** Your world is open in another window or device. Choose **Reconnect Here** to play here instead. **How do I get back to the Dashboard?** On desktop, hover **RPBuddy.ai** at the top-left and choose **← Dashboard**. On mobile, use your browser's back button. Your world saves as you play. **Still stuck?** Ask Buddy (the question mark in a world), or contact support. → [Buddy](../account/buddy.md) --- ## The image gallery (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/images-and-art/gallery) # The image gallery Every image you generate is kept in your gallery, and any of them can be reused, for free. ## Opening the gallery - **Dashboard → Gallery** shows everything you've made. - **The gallery button** (the grid icon) on a portrait, building interior, settlement picture or enemy portrait in the Atlas opens it to pick an image for that spot. ## Finding images - Switch between **This World** and **All Worlds**. - **Search** by name. - **Load More** to see older images. ## Reusing an image From the gallery button, choose any image to use it there. It costs nothing, and works across worlds: a portrait you made in one world can become a character in another. ## Deleting an image Choose the **×** on an image (**Delete permanently**). If it's still in use somewhere, you'll see where first ("This image is currently used in…"), and deleting it leaves those places without a picture. Choose **Delete Anyway** or **Delete Forever** to confirm. This can't be undone. --- ## Writing image prompts (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/images-and-art/image-prompting) # Writing image prompts How to get the picture you want. Every image prompt describes **the subject only**. Your world's art style, and the framing for each kind of picture, are added for you. ## Portraits The **Portrait Prompt** on a character's sheet is the only thing the portrait is made from. Their appearance and outfit fields aren't used. **Include:** features, hair, skin, build, expression, and clothing from the waist up. **Leave out:** - art style, lighting, background and camera words (added for you) - the character's name (names are blocked) - held items and anything below the waist (portraits are framed from the waist up) If you change how a character looks or dresses, update the prompt too, then regenerate. > Weathered man in his fifties, close-cropped gray beard, scar across the left eyebrow, heavy wool coat over a > leather apron, tired but kind eyes. ## Interiors and outdoor places A building's **Interior Image Prompt** paints the backdrop of every conversation held there. Outdoor places (parks, plazas, ruins) use an **Exterior Scene Prompt** instead. Describe the room or the scene: the materials, the light, the clutter, the mood. Leave people out, since the characters appear in front of it. > Low-beamed tavern room, smoke-darkened rafters, a long oak bar with brass taps, lanterns throwing warm light over > scarred tables. ## Settlements A settlement's **exterior image prompt** paints a ground-level view of the place: its streets, its buildings and their materials, the light. The biome it stands in is added for you. Leave out people and signs. ## Enemies An enemy's **Image Prompt** paints the creature, which is then cut out to stand against the battle backdrop. Describe the creature itself, not a scene around it. ## Tag-style prompts (BuddyMix) In BuddyMix worlds, prompts are comma-separated tags rather than sentences: > 1boy, mature male, gray beard, scar on eyebrow, wool coat, leather apron, tired eyes When the AI writes a prompt for you in a BuddyMix world, it uses tags automatically. ## Words that won't work Image prompts can't name real people or use titles like "president", "senator" or "mayor". The button stays greyed out until you rephrase ("a civic official's study" instead of "the mayor's study"). See [Image safety](image-safety.md). --- ## Image safety (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/images-and-art/image-safety) # Image safety What can stop an image from being made. ## Before anything is charged Image prompts are checked before you spend any credits, so a refused prompt costs nothing. - **Real people** and political or official titles ("president", "senator", "mayor") aren't allowed in image prompts. - **Every character in RPBuddy is an adult**, and images are always drawn that way. Prompts suggesting otherwise are refused. If prompts keep getting refused, image generation pauses for a while, and the pause grows longer if it keeps happening. What isn't allowed is listed in [section 6 of the Terms of Service, Prohibited Content & Conduct](/terms#prohibited-content-conduct). ## During painting An image model can occasionally turn down a request on its own. GPT Image is the strictest. When that happens, your credits are refunded and you'll see a message saying so. Rewording the prompt, or switching your world's art model, usually helps. ## When things are busy At busy times you may see "The server is busy. Please try again shortly." Nothing was charged. Try again in a moment. ## Refunds Any image that fails, for whatever reason, is refunded automatically. --- ## Image models and art styles (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/images-and-art/models-and-styles) # Image models and art styles Every picture in your world (portraits, interiors, settlements, enemies) is painted by an **image model** in an **art style**. You choose both when you create a world, and can change them later. ## The four models | Model | Plans | Styles | |---|---|---| | **Default** | Every plan | Oil Painting, Modern Anime, Retro Anime (80s/90s), Adult Animation, Comic Book | | **BuddyMix** | Hero | Stylized Anime | | **Krea 2** | Hero | Art Book, Adult Animation, Graphic Novel, Dark Fantasy, Retro Anime, Shonen Manga, Shoujo Manga, Open Air | | **GPT Image** | Hero | Oil Painting, Graphic Novel, Adult Animation, Modern Anime, Retro Anime (80s/90s) | The premium models cost more credits per image than Default. See [Credit costs](../reference/credit-costs.md). - **GPT Image** has stricter content rules of its own and turns down some requests. You're refunded when it does. - **BuddyMix** uses tag-style prompts rather than sentences. The AI writes them that way for you. See [Writing image prompts](image-prompting.md). Styles that share a name across models ("Adult Animation", "Retro Anime") are tuned separately for each model, so they look a little different on each. ## Changing later Atlas → Settings → **Art Model** and **Art Style**. - **Only new images change.** Everything you've already made keeps its look. Regenerate the pictures you want in the new style. - Switching between a sentence-style model and BuddyMix resets the art style to that model's default. ## Without Hero Premium models are Hero-only. If a world is set to one (say, a community world you copied, or your own world after Hero ends), new images are painted with the **Default** model at the Default price instead. Existing images stay as they are. ## Settlement templates Template buildings come pre-painted in the Default model's five styles, whatever model your world uses. See [Settlements, districts and regions](../places/settlements.md). --- ## 1. Sign up (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/journey/01-sign-up) # 1. Sign up RPBuddy is free to start, and you don't need a card. This chapter takes you from the landing page to your dashboard. ## Create your account Choose **Sign up** on the landing page, or **Play** on any world in the Community Hub. The first time you arrive on the dashboard, you'll be asked to: - confirm you're 18 or older - accept the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy - choose whether you'd like the occasional marketing email (optional) Then choose **Play Free** to start on the free plan, or pick a paid plan. ## What the free plan gives you - **AI actions every day.** Conversations and AI generation (characters, buildings, profiles) share one daily pool. It resets at midnight UTC. - **Image credits** for portraits and interiors. They refill on a rolling window. - **Unlimited worlds** and unlimited building by hand. The full comparison is in [Plans and limits](../account/plans-and-limits.md). ## Pick your language The language switcher is in the dashboard's top bar. RPBuddy is available in English, Español, Français, Deutsch, 日本語, 한국어 and Português. Your choice changes more than the menus. The characters you meet and everything the AI writes for you will be in that language too. See [Languages](../account/languages.md). ## Your dashboard A short tour runs the first time you visit. Replay it any time with **Learn** (the graduation cap) in the top bar. The rail on the left (a bar along the bottom on phones) holds: - **Your Worlds** — the worlds you've made or copied from the Community Hub - **Characters** — everyone from every world, in one place - **Gallery** — every image you've generated - **NPC Memories** — moments your characters remember, across all your worlds - **Account** — opens **Your profile** (your public creator page) and **Account** (plan, credits, billing) A new account starts with no worlds. That's the next chapter. ## Want to look around first? Switch the toolbar from **Your Worlds** to **Community Hub** to browse worlds other players have built. You can preview any of them before making your own. See [Playing community worlds](../community/playing-community-worlds.md). **Next:** [2. Create your world](02-create-your-world.md) --- ## 2. Create your world (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/journey/02-create-your-world) # 2. Create your world A new world takes four choices. Then you create the character you'll play, and step onto your map. ## The four steps Choose **+ New World** on the dashboard. ### 1. Name What your world is called in your world list. You can give it an in-world name later, in the Atlas. From the dashboard, open the world's options and choose **Rename**, enter the new name, then **Save**. You must own the world. This changes its private dashboard name, not its in-world lore name or an existing published title. ### 2. Setting Pick one of five genres: **Medieval Fantasy**, **Victorian**, **Modern Day**, **Neon Future** or **Sci-Fi: Colony**. The setting decides the flavor of everything the game generates: building types, the jobs people hold, the names they're given, what they wear, the currency, and how the map is drawn. Every system works the same way in every genre. You choose the setting once. There's no option to change it later. ### 3. Art First pick an **Art Model**, then an **Art Style**. - The model decides how many credits each image costs and which styles you can choose. **Default** is available on every plan. The other models are Hero-only. - The style is the look applied to every portrait, interior and settlement image in this world. You can change both later in Atlas → Settings. Images you've already made keep their original look. See [Image models and art styles](../images-and-art/models-and-styles.md). ### 4. Starting biome Choose the land your world starts on: green plains, dry plains, desert, frozen tundra, jungle, wasteland or volcanic. Choose **Create World**. ## Create your character The first thing you'll see in your new world is character creation. Everything else waits until you've made your character. 1. **Describe yourself** in a sentence or two. 2. Choose **Create Your Character**. The AI turns your description into a full character sheet. 3. **Review** every field and change anything you like. To fill the form in yourself, choose **Manual** instead. 4. Optionally, choose **Generate Portrait** (uses image credits). You can regenerate until you're happy with it. 5. Choose **Begin Adventure**. ### What the AI does with your description Say you write: > My name is Leon Voss, I am a 29 year old elven warrior with jet black hair, and wearing a white tunic. The AI sorts that into the right fields and fills in what you left open: - **Name** Leon Voss and **Age** 29, taken as written. **Gender** is inferred from the rest of the description, or taken word for word if you state it. - **Appearance** opens with "Elf" (for anyone who isn't human, species always comes first), then the jet black hair, plus the height, build, eyes and distinguishing features you didn't mention. - **Default Outfit** gets the white tunic, fleshed out with other garments, colors and condition to suit your setting. - **Personality & Backstory** gets a few grounded sentences: a warrior with a past, not a legendary hero. - **Portrait Prompt** is written from your looks and outfit, ready for **Generate Portrait**. Anything you state is kept, and anything you leave out is invented to fit. If something isn't right, change it in the review. Two fields are worth getting right now: - **Appearance** is all that strangers know about you. Keep clothing out of it. - **Default Outfit** is what you're wearing. It's separate so you can change clothes without rewriting how you look. More on your character in [6. Your character](06-your-character.md). ## Your map Once your character is made, you're on your map: a single hex of the biome you chose, with no towns or people yet. You'll add those over the next two chapters. You can add more hexes of any biome later. ## The world tour A short tour shows how to move, where your character sheet lives, the Command Deck, the clock, and your tools. On desktop, replay it any time from the graduation-cap button in the top-left corner. **Next:** [3. Your first building](03-your-first-building.md) --- ## 3. Your first building (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/journey/03-your-first-building) # 3. Your first building This is where your world comes alive: one building, and the people who live or work there. ## Open Build mode Look for the **toolbox** icon. - **Desktop:** the toolbox slot on the Command Deck (or press **5**), or the toolbox in the icon column at the top-right of the screen. - **Mobile:** the toolbox in the icon column at the top-left of the screen. Time pauses while you build. The building tools appear in a bar along the bottom of the screen. ## Place the building 1. Choose **Building**. 2. Click (or tap) where you want it. 3. The building opens for shaping. On desktop: - scroll to rotate - Shift+scroll to resize - Ctrl+scroll to cycle through footprint shapes - Ctrl+Shift+scroll to add or remove floors (its height) On touch, drag the corners to resize, drag the ring to rotate, and use the on-screen buttons for the rest. You can also pick a roof style. 4. Choose **Done** when it looks right. ## The Location Wizard As soon as you finish shaping, the **Location Wizard** opens. Its first step asks how you want to fill the building: - **Quick options** — instant ready-made buildings for your genre (a tavern, a coffee shop, a mess hall…), complete with people. They're assembled without AI, so they appear instantly. - **A description** — in the description box, write who lives or works here and what the place is like, then choose **Generate**. The AI drafts the building and its people from your description and what it knows about your world. - **Manual** — start from a blank form. - **Place Empty** — leave it as an empty building and fill it later. Leave **Generate characters at this location** ticked to get people along with the building. ### Tips for the description A sentence or two is plenty. Say who runs the place and what it feels like: > A tavern run by an elderly couple. Cracks in the walls, but a warm, welcoming atmosphere. - **Who's there.** The owner, family, staff, regulars. The AI builds the cast around them. - **The feel.** One or two details (worn, cozy, rowdy, upscale) shape the description, the people, and the interior image prompt. - **Names come from name lists.** Characters are named from large pools of real names, not invented by the AI, so they sound natural and don't repeat. Mention a background ("an elderly Japanese couple") and they'll get names from that culture. The generator prefers these pool names even if you write your own, so if you have specific names in mind, change them when the review comes back. ## Review before you save Whichever way you started, the wizard walks you through what it made. You can change anything: - **Story** — the building's name and description. - **Cast** — everyone who lives or works here. Open a character to edit them, or add and remove people. - **Rooms** — optional floors and rooms inside the building. - **Details** — building type, owner, map color, interior image prompt, music and map icon. ## Images and cost With **Generate images** ticked (the default), saving paints the interior and a portrait for each character. That costs image credits. The **Cost so far** card shows the total, and big batches ask you to confirm first. Untick **Generate images** and no image credits are spent. Your characters are fully playable without portraits, and you can paint the ones that matter later. Choose **Save** (**Place Building** for a quick option) to finish. Images paint in the background while you carry on. The Command Deck shows **Painting** with a count, and a card pops up as each image lands. ## Building a whole town? Draw a settlement first. You can drop a complete, ready-made town into it. See [8. Your first settlement](08-your-first-settlement.md). **Next:** [4. Your first conversation](04-your-first-conversation.md) --- ## 4. Your first conversation (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/journey/04-your-first-conversation) # 4. Your first conversation Walk in, talk, leave, and come back later. The people you meet remember you. ## Walk in Click (or tap) the building and your character walks there. When you arrive, the building's card appears with the people inside. Choose **Enter**, or press **E**. You can only enter once you're standing close to the building, so if **Enter** is missing, click the building to walk over first. ## The conversation view The interior fills the screen and everyone present sits in the row of portraits at the bottom. 1. Choose the portrait of the person you want to talk to. 2. Type what you say or do in plain sentences, with spoken words in quotes, and press **Enter** to send (Shift+Enter for a new line). Type **/** for commands such as traveling with someone or a hidden director note. See [Writing your messages](../conversations/editing-and-rerolling.md#writing-your-messages) and [Chat commands](../conversations/chat-commands.md). 3. Their reply plays out line by line: what they say, what they do, and what's happening in the scene. You speak first. People don't open the conversation when you walk in. The exception is [Story Moments](../living-world/story-moments.md), where you walk in on something already happening. ## How they respond Nothing is scripted. Each reply comes from the character's profile, the place they're in, what they know about the world, and what they remember about you. - **Strangers don't know your name.** They go by how you look and what you're wearing. Tell them your name and they'll use it. - **More than one person in the room?** Speak to someone by name ("Mara, what do you think?") to turn to them. Others may chime in on their own. - Change the playback speed in Atlas → Settings → **Dialogue speed**. ## Leave, and come back Choose **Leave**, or press **Esc**. When you leave, each person who took part forms a memory of the conversation, and their feelings toward you may shift a little. Next time you visit, they'll remember what happened, and they'll know your name if you gave it. That's the heart of RPBuddy. ## You've got the core loop Everything from here builds on it. Read on in order, or jump to whatever interests you: - [5. The screen](05-the-screen.md) — every part of the interface - [6. Your character](06-your-character.md) — make yourself someone the characters react to - [7. Moving around](07-moving-around.md) — travel, rooms, finding people - [8. Your first settlement](08-your-first-settlement.md) — a whole town, ready-made or your own - [9. Filling the world](09-filling-the-world.md) — more places, people, lore and danger - [10. A living world](10-a-living-world.md) — what happens while you're not talking to anyone - [11. Your first fight](11-your-first-fight.md) — enemies and combat - [12. Sharing your world](12-sharing-your-world.md) — publish it, or play someone else's --- ## 5. The screen (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/journey/05-the-screen) # 5. The screen A tour of everything on screen while you're in a world, on desktop and on mobile. RPBuddy uses the mobile layout on touch devices with a small screen. A narrow browser window on a computer keeps the desktop layout. ## The Command Deck (desktop) The bar along the bottom of the screen has three parts. **Left: you.** Your portrait (choose it to open your character sheet in the Atlas), your name, level, and HP and XP bars. Once people travel with you, their portraits stack beside your name. Choose them to talk to your party. **Center: six slots.** Each has a number key: | Key | Icon | Slot | What it does | |---|---|---|---| | 1 | scroll | **Quests** | Bounty Board postings in this settlement, plus your active and finished quests | | 2 | hourglass | **Skip time** | Passage of Time: jump ahead (or back) to another day and time | | 3 | backpack | **Inventory** | Your pack: use healing items, equip weapons and armor | | 4 | magnifying glass | **Where is?** | Find a character or place by name | | 5 | toolbox | **Build** | Build mode: buildings, roads, rivers, settlements and more | | 6 | gears | **Settings** | World settings: art, map look, encounters and story options | The number keys don't work while you're typing, or while the Atlas, Passage of Time or Build mode is open. **Right: the world.** The settlement you're in, the music playing (choose the track name to pick another; the music-note icon mutes it), and your money (choose it for your transaction history). While images generate, a **Painting** count appears here too. Then the day (choose it to skip time), the clock, the weather, a moon button (**Sleep until morning**) in the evening and at night, and **Live / Paused**. In Build mode the right side swaps to **Undo**, **Redo** and **Done**. ## Around the edges (desktop) - **Top-left:** hover **RPBuddy.ai** for your credit balance (with **+** to buy more), **Docs**, and **← Dashboard**. The graduation cap beside it replays the world tour. - **Top-center:** the quest tracker shows your current quest step. - **Top-right:** a column of icons: | Icon | Opens | |---|---| | Open book | **Journal**: your notes, the story so far, the people you've met, and your story preferences | | Compass | **Atlas**: every character, place, enemy, piece of lore and setting in your world | | Question mark | **Buddy**: the in-app helper. Ask how anything in RPBuddy works | | Toolbox | **Build mode** (hidden while you're in a conversation) | - **Bottom-right:** map controls: zoom in and out, **Fit** (the whole world on screen), and **2D / 3D** for a flat or isometric map. In 3D, the arrows rotate the view. The map's eye button hides persistent interface chrome without disabling location hover or building entry. On mobile, the down/up arrow collapses or restores the camera rail, with a remembered browser preference. See [Map controls and scenic view](../places/the-hex-map.md). ## Mobile There's no deck. Instead: - **Top-center:** a status bar with mute, your money, your portrait (opens the Atlas), the day (tap it to skip time), the clock, and pause. - **Top-left:** a column of icons: Journal (open book), Build mode (toolbox), Where is? (magnifying glass) and Buddy (question mark). - **Top-right:** Quests (scroll). In the evening and at night, a Sleep button sits above it. - The quest tracker sits just below the status bar, and the map controls stay at the bottom-right. - Your **inventory** is in the Atlas: tap your portrait, then the **Player** tab. - Quests and Where is? open as sheets. - To leave the world, use your browser's back button. Your world saves as you play. ## In a conversation The deck steps aside. On desktop, a bar at the top-right keeps the music, the place, your money, your portrait (opens the Atlas), the day, the clock, the weather, Sleep and pause within reach. On mobile, a leave button (the door) and the Journal sit at the top-left. ## Good to know - A banner appears when someone sets off on a trip you scheduled for them, and again when they head home. - You can play a world in one window at a time. Opening it somewhere else shows **Session Moved** here, with a button to reconnect. --- ## 6. Your character (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/journey/06-your-character) # 6. Your character The characters you meet react to who you are. A few fields decide how they see you. Every field is covered in [Your player character](../characters/player-character.md). Open your character sheet any time: choose your portrait on the Command Deck (or tap it in the mobile status bar). ## The fields that matter most **Appearance.** Your body: build, face, hair, anything distinctive. It's the one thing a stranger knows about you, so it's your first impression. Leave clothing out of it. **Default Outfit.** What you normally wear. It's a separate field so you can change clothes without rewriting how you look. Characters always use your current outfit over any clothing mentioned elsewhere. **Personality & Backstory** (labeled **Description** on your sheet once you've begun). Who you are and where you've come from. Only people who've met you see it, so a stranger can't know your history. **Gender.** Fill it in and characters will use the right pronouns. Left blank, they guess from everything else. **Faction.** If you belong to a group, everyone can see it, strangers included. Members of the same faction know you're one of them. See [Factions](../characters/factions.md). ## Changing clothes Under **Outfits**, choose **+ Add outfit** to save other things you wear. Choose an outfit to put it on, and choose it again to go back to your default. Characters see whichever outfit is highlighted. Outfits change what characters see you wearing. They don't change your portrait. ## Your portrait Your portrait is drawn only from the **Portrait Prompt**, with your world's art style added automatically. Editing your appearance or outfit doesn't change the picture. Update the prompt too, then choose **Regenerate Portrait** (costs image credits). The gallery button on the portrait lets you reuse any image you've made before, for free. ## What characters know about you | | Strangers | People you've met | |---|---|---| | Your name | Only once you tell them | Yes | | Appearance, gender, outfit, faction | Yes | Yes | | Personality & backstory | No | Yes | ## Good to know - Your age is set when you create your character, then grows as days pass in your world. - Your level, HP, equipment and inventory live on the same sheet. See [Inventory and equipment](../adventure/inventory-and-equipment.md). --- ## 7. Moving around (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/journey/07-moving-around) # 7. Moving around Getting from place to place, finding people, and how the map is laid out. ## Travel Click (or tap) anywhere on the map and your character walks there along the roads and paths. Click a building and you walk to its door. When you arrive, its card appears with **Enter**. Press **Esc** to stop walking. Close to a building, press **E** to enter the nearest one. The clock keeps running while you walk, so long journeys take part of the day. Out in the wilderness, enemies may find you on the way. See [Encounters](../adventure/encounters.md). In a conversation, **/travel** walks you there with people from the scene without closing the chat. See [Chat commands](../conversations/chat-commands.md#travel). ## Inside a building Some buildings have floors and rooms. Inside one, an **up arrow** sits at the right end of the row of portraits above the chat bar. Choose it to see the building's rooms, then choose a room to go there. If you're in the middle of a conversation, the person you're talking to appears as a small portrait next to each of the other rooms. Choose their portrait instead of the room name and they'll come with you, so you can carry on the conversation there. See [Buildings and rooms](../places/buildings-and-rooms.md). ## Where is? Choose **Where is?** (the magnifying glass: key **4** on desktop, or the icon column at the top-left on mobile) and type a name. - **Characters** show the place they're at right now. - **Places** show their building type. Choose a result to jump the map there. Each result also has **Go there** (walk to it) and **Teleport** (arrive instantly). ## Settlements When you walk inside a settlement's boundary, it becomes your current settlement. Its name shows on the Command Deck, its Bounty Board appears in **Quests**, and conversations with your party outdoors use the settlement's art as a backdrop. ## The map Your world is made of hexes, each with its own biome. Add more hexes in Build mode with the **+** buttons around the edge of your world. See [The hex map](../places/the-hex-map.md). ## Company Characters you invite into your party follow you wherever you go. See [Party members](../characters/party-members.md). --- ## 8. Your first settlement (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/journey/08-your-first-settlement) # 8. Your first settlement Turn a patch of map into a town: draw it yourself, or drop in a complete ready-made one. ## Why settlements matter - **Shared knowledge.** Everyone who lives in a settlement knows its **NPC briefing**, a short description of the place every resident shares. - **A Bounty Board** with jobs to take on. See [Quests](../living-world/quests.md). - **A backdrop.** The settlement's art appears behind outdoor conversations with your party and behind fights in town. - **Structure.** Districts divide a settlement into neighborhoods. Regions group several settlements together. ## Draw it 1. Open Build mode and choose **Settlement**. 2. Pick a mode: - **Hexes**: click whole hexes (they must touch). - **Draw**: click points around any shape. 3. Choose **Finish**. 4. In the **Create Area** box, choose **Settlement**, give it a name, and pick a type: **Village**, **Town**, **City**, or type your own ("free city", "mining camp"). 5. Choose **Create**. Any buildings already inside the boundary become part of the settlement. ## The Settlement Wizard Once the settlement is created, the wizard offers three ways to fill it. ### Begin from a template A complete settlement in about a minute: buildings, streets and the people who live and work there, ready to talk to. 1. **Template.** Choose the kind of place (each genre has three, from small to large) and how many buildings. 2. **Layout.** See it arranged on your map. Adjust the spread and spacing, shuffle for a new arrangement, then **Lock layout**. 3. **Residents.** Name your settlement and meet who lives there. Swap any building for a **Different building**, give people **New names**, or **Shuffle everyone**. 4. **Place** the buildings. Templates are free. Every portrait and interior comes already painted, so placing one costs no credits. A few things to know about templates right now: - **Art styles.** Template art is painted in the Default model's five styles: Oil Painting, Modern Anime, Retro Anime, Adult Animation and Comic Book. You pick one in the wizard. Worlds set to a premium model still get Default-model art for template buildings. - **Language.** Template names, descriptions and characters are written in English, whatever language you play in. ### Describe it Write a line about the place and the AI writes its profile: who runs it, what it trades, what people argue about. This writes the profile only. No buildings or people are placed. ### Fill it in by hand Write the profile yourself. ## The profile and the NPC briefing A settlement's profile (government, economy, culture, current tensions and more) is the raw material. From it, the game writes the **NPC briefing**: a few sentences that every resident knows. The briefing is written once, when it's empty. After that it's yours. Edit it freely, and the game will never rewrite it behind your back. To get a fresh one after changing the profile, choose **Rewrite from profile**. Find all of this in Atlas → World. See [Area profiles and NPC briefings](../places/areas-and-briefings.md). ## Settlement art In Atlas → World, open the settlement to write an exterior image prompt and generate its picture (costs image credits). Template settlements arrive with one already painted. ## Districts and regions Draw them the same way. A district goes inside a settlement, and a region goes around one or more. Each has its own profile and briefing. See [Settlements, districts and regions](../places/settlements.md). --- ## 9. Filling the world (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/journey/09-filling-the-world) # 9. Filling the world Ways to add more to your world. Pick what you need, and each one links to its full page. ## More places - **Another building.** Same as chapter 3: Build mode → **Building** → the Location Wizard. See [The Location Wizard](../places/location-wizard.md). - **A landmark.** Build mode → **Landmark**: an outdoor place characters can visit, like a park, a plaza or some ruins. - **A custom shape.** Build mode → **Custom**: plot the corners of an unusual building. - **A block of buildings at once.** Build mode → **Cluster**: stage a group of building shapes inside a settlement, lock them in, then fill each one with the Location Wizard. See [Clusters and quick buildings](../places/clusters-and-quick-buildings.md). - **Rooms and floors** inside a building. See [Buildings and rooms](../places/buildings-and-rooms.md). ## More people - **Atlas → NPCs → New NPC.** Describe the character you want, or fill in the form yourself. - **Atlas → Locations → a building → + Add NPC** creates someone who lives there. - **Import** a character written with ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or another assistant. See [Importing NPCs](../characters/importing-npcs.md). Everything about a character's profile, and why each field matters, is in [NPC profiles](../characters/npc-profiles.md). ## Things everyone should know - **The world profile and briefing** (Atlas → World → The world): what every character in your world knows. - **Peoples** (on the same page): which species appear when the game generates characters. - **Lorebook entries** (Atlas → Lorebook): facts characters bring up when the conversation touches on them. See [The Lorebook](../places/lorebook.md). - **Factions**: groups characters belong to. See [Factions](../characters/factions.md). ## Danger - **Enemies** (Atlas → Enemies, or Build mode → **Enemy**): creatures and foes that find you while you travel, out in the wild or in the towns you choose. See [Creating enemies](../adventure/creating-enemies.md). ## Shaping the land - **Roads**, **Rivers** and **Walls**, **Fill** for water and colored areas, **Stamps** for map icons, and the **Eraser**. See [Roads, rivers, walls and terrain](../places/roads-rivers-walls-terrain.md). --- ## 10. A living world (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/journey/10-a-living-world) # 10. A living world Your world doesn't stand still between conversations. Here's what moves on its own, and how to steer it. ## The clock While you're out on the map, the clock runs. A full in-game day takes about a quarter of an hour of real time. It pauses on its own while you're in a conversation, in the Atlas, in a battle or in Build mode, and after a few minutes without any input. Choose **Live / Paused** on the Command Deck to stop it yourself. Conversations move time along too: each reply advances the clock by however long it would take to say. The day has eight parts, from Dawn to Night. A new day begins at dawn, not at midnight. Time only passes while your world is open, so closing the game freezes it. See [Time and days](../living-world/time-and-days.md). ## Daily life As the day moves through its parts, the people around you go about their routines: - home at dawn - off to work in the morning - visiting the places they like in their free time - home again in the evening Some take the occasional day off. Trips you've scheduled for someone take them across the map and back, and a banner lets you know when they set off. When people share a building, they meet and talk among themselves, and news passes from one to the next as gossip. Someone you've never met may have already heard about you. You set each character's home, workplace, favorite places, days off and trips on their profile. See [NPC daily life](../living-world/npc-daily-life.md). ## Overnight When a new day begins: - the conversations you had in each settlement become a **day card** in the Journal, and every few cards fold into that settlement's **Story So Far** - the **daily digest** looks at the settlements around you and writes small events: things that happened in town, things people witnessed, rumors that start to spread. Some people wake up with a particular mood or agenda for the day. Notes you add in Journal → **World** steer what the digest writes. See [Overnight](../living-world/overnight.md). ## Story Moments Each day, a few buildings in the settlement you're in get a **blue marker**. Someone inside is in the middle of something. Walk in and they'll draw you into it. Story Moments are part of the paid plans. See [Story Moments](../living-world/story-moments.md). Journal → **Preferences** lets you steer the kinds of stories you get. See [Story preferences](../living-world/story-preferences.md). ## Moving time yourself - **Sleep** (evening and night only): skip to the next morning, wake with full HP, and let the night's changes happen. - **Passage of Time** (the Skip time slot, or choose the day number): jump to any day and time. On long skips you can write what happened with each person while you were away. Skipping ends any quests you're on, and the overnight changes and new Story Moments wait for the next natural dawn. - **Going back** to an earlier day permanently deletes everything that happened after it. You'll be asked to confirm. ## The Journal The Journal (the open-book icon) is where all of this shows up: your notes, the day cards and Story So Far, everyone you've met and what they remember, and your story preferences. See [Memory and the Journal](../characters/memory-and-the-journal.md). --- ## 11. Your first fight (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/journey/11-your-first-fight) # 11. Your first fight Make an enemy, meet it on the road, and win (or lose) the fight. ## Make an enemy Open Atlas → **Enemies** (or Build mode → **Enemy**) and choose **Create Enemy**. Describe it ("a frost-bitten zombie that haunts the tundra") and choose **Generate**. The AI fills in its stats, danger level, the effects its attacks can inflict, its weaknesses and resistances, and what it drops. Review it, then save. Saving paints its portrait (costs image credits). See [Creating enemies](../adventure/creating-enemies.md). ## Where you'll meet it Enemies find you while you travel: - **In the wilderness**, enemies roam the biomes you set for them. An enemy with no biomes or areas roams everywhere outside towns. - **In towns**, only enemies you've placed there appear. Add a settlement, district or region under the enemy's **Areas**. Towns with no enemies placed in them are safe. - **Day or night.** An enemy can be set to appear only by day or only at night. How often fights happen is up to you: Atlas → Settings → **Random encounters** (Off, Low, Normal, High). At Normal, crossing a wilderness hex usually means a fight. See [Encounters](../adventure/encounters.md). Bounties from a settlement's Bounty Board place red markers outside town. Walk up to one to start the fight. See [Quests](../living-world/quests.md). ## The battle screen Whoever is faster acts first. On your turn: - **Strike** — attack with your weapon. Each hit builds **Focus**. - **Brace** — spend Focus to halve the next hit you take and shrug off its effect. - **Items** — use a healing item (this uses your turn). - **Flee** — try to escape. Faster characters get away more easily. When you attack, a dot sweeps across a bar. Stop it inside the marked zone to hit, and in the small center zone to land a critical. If you'd rather leave it to chance, turn on **Classic combat (random rolls)** in Atlas → Settings. The enemy's card shows what it's about to do, its weaknesses and resistances, and any effects on it. Hover (or tap) an effect to see what it does. See [Combat](../adventure/combat.md) and [Status effects](../adventure/status-effects.md). Characters in your party fight alongside you. ## After the fight - **Win:** you earn XP and the enemy's loot, and enough XP raises your level. See [Levels and XP](../adventure/levels-and-xp.md). - **Lose:** you lose a little XP (never a level) and some of your money, then wake up fully healed. ## Fights that start in conversation If a conversation turns violent, the character may take it to the battle screen. There's no fleeing these. Win and you choose to **Spare** or **Kill** them. Anyone who witnesses a killing will remember it. To keep confrontations in the conversation, turn on **Disable NPC combat** in Atlas → Settings. --- ## 12. Sharing your world (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/journey/12-sharing-your-world) # 12. Sharing your world Publish your world to the Community Hub so other players can play it, or play theirs. ## Claim your handle The first time you publish, you'll create a creator profile: a public username (letters, numbers and underscores) that appears on your published worlds. You can change it later. See [Your creator profile](../community/creator-profile.md). ## Publish On the dashboard, open your world card's menu and choose **Publish**. - **Public Title** and a description of what makes your world worth exploring. - **Tags** to help players find it. - **Include lorebook entries**, so players who copy your world get your lore too. - **Banner image**, which headlines your world card and share page. If you don't pick one, one is chosen for you. - **Preview characters**, the cast shown on your world page. Then confirm the checklist: no NSFW content, no copyrighted characters or settings, no real people, and it's your own creation. Choose **I Understand — Submit for Review**. What gets submitted is a frozen snapshot of your world. The RPBuddy team reviews it, and you'll get a notification when it's approved (it goes live) or rejected (with a note explaining why). ## After it's live From your creator profile you can change the cover and the featured cast, or unpublish. Players who already copied your world keep their copies. Changes you make to your own world afterwards don't reach the published snapshot. To share an update, unpublish and submit it again. ## Play other people's worlds Switch the dashboard toolbar to **Community Hub**. Sort by most played, most liked, newest, or creators you follow. - **Preview** lets you walk around a world and peek into its buildings before committing. - **Play** gives you your own copy. Copying is free, and the copy is yours to play and change. A copy brings the creator's map, places, characters (portraits and outfits included), enemies, profiles and settings. It starts fresh with your own character on day 1, and nobody has met you yet. See [Playing community worlds](../community/playing-community-worlds.md). You can like worlds, follow creators, and comment on worlds you've played. --- ## NPC daily life (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/living-world/npc-daily-life) # NPC daily life Where characters go and what they do when you're not talking to them. ## Where life goes on Daily life plays out **around you**: in the hex you're in, and across any settlement that reaches into it. Characters elsewhere stay where they are until you come near. Scheduled trips are the exception and run everywhere. Life moves forward each time the day passes into its next part. ## A day in the life 1. **Dawn**: everyone's at home. 2. **Morning to afternoon**: people with a workplace head to work and mostly stay there, with the odd break. 3. **Free time**: they drop by the places they like to visit. 4. **Late afternoon and evening**: people start heading home, and by night everyone's back. Each character keeps a steady pattern. Someone who closes up early does so all that day. Some days, a character takes a **rest day** and stays home. All of this comes from their profile: Home, Workplace, Places they visit, Rest Day Chance and Travel Schedule. See [NPC profiles](../characters/npc-profiles.md). ## What overrides the routine - **A scheduled trip** takes them to their destination and back. A banner tells you when they set off and when they head home. - **Quests and Story Moments** keep the people involved in place until they're done. - **Talking to you.** Someone you're in a conversation with doesn't wander off. - **Your party.** Party members stay with you instead. ## Characters among themselves When characters share a building, they run into each other. They remember those meetings, and their opinions of each other shift. They also pass on news. A story can be passed on twice from whoever saw it, and a character whose goals, fears or secrets are touched by what they hear has a private reaction to it. You see the results in the Journal, and in what people say when you talk to them. ## Moving people yourself - **Journal → Characters → a character → Move to current location** brings them to where you are. **Send home** sends them home. - In a conversation, **/move** does the same kind of relocate for anyone except the person you're talking to. See [Chat commands](../conversations/chat-commands.md#move). - In a conversation, a character can be brought along to another room with **Go with**. --- ## Overnight (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/living-world/overnight) # Overnight What changes when a new day begins. ## When it happens The overnight changes run when: - the clock passes dawn while you're exploring - a conversation runs past dawn - you **Sleep** They don't run when you skip ahead with Passage of Time. ## Day cards and Story So Far For each settlement where you talked to people that day, the day's conversations become a **day card** in Journal → **Story**. Every five day cards fold into that settlement's **Story So Far**: a running account of your time there. Anything a character remembers privately stays out of day cards. ## The daily digest Each new day, the settlements around you get a **daily digest**: a look at what happened in town overnight. It reads your world, the settlement's profile, your character, your story preferences, the Story So Far, yesterday's events, your Journal notes, recent gossip, and the characters with the strongest feelings about you. It writes: - **events**: things that happened in town. Some everyone knows about, some only a few people saw, and some start as gossip that spreads. The people involved remember them. - **moods for the day**: an agenda or frame of mind for some characters, which colors how they act that day. - **now and then, a change of heart**: a character you've interacted with may find their goal, fear or secret shifting as their life moves on. A summary of each digest appears as a note in Journal → **World**. ## Steering it - **Journal → World**: active notes for a settlement (or **General**) act as story directions. "It's festival week", "tension is rising between the guilds". Deactivate a note to stop it applying. - **Journal → Preferences**: the kinds of stories you want. See [Story preferences](story-preferences.md). ## What comes after - **New Story Moment markers** appear for the day. See [Story Moments](story-moments.md). - **Bounty Boards** post new jobs. See [Quests](quests.md). --- ## Quests (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/living-world/quests) # Quests Quests are reasons to go and talk to people, with a reward at the end. They come from each settlement's Bounty Board. ## The Bounty Board Every settlement has one. It shows up in **Quests** (the scroll) → **Available** whenever you're inside that settlement. A dot on the Quests button means there are postings. The board offers up to three jobs at a time, one of each type: - **Monster Bounty**: defeat a number of one enemy. Red markers appear just outside the settlement; walk up to one to start the fight. Fights with that enemy anywhere also count. The reward grows with the enemy's danger level. - **Investigation**: go and speak with someone about something. - **Delivery**: pick something up from one person and bring it to another. Choose **Accept** to take one on. Postings change each day, and after you accept a type, that type is gone from the board for a little while. ## Doing a quest - Steps complete by doing them: winning the fights, talking to the right person. There's no turning in. - The **quest tracker** at the top of the screen shows your current step, with a kill count for bounties. - Buildings you need to visit are marked on the map. - The people involved stay put until the quest is finished. - When the last step is done, the **reward is paid automatically** into your wallet. ## Your quest log **Quests** has three tabs: - **Available**: this settlement's board - **Active**: what you're doing now, with each step ticked off as you go - **Done**: finished and abandoned quests You can **Abandon** an active quest at any time, with no penalty, and **delete** finished ones. You can have up to five quests active at once. At five, the board stops offering more. ## Good to know - Characters don't hand out quests in conversation. The Bounty Board is where they come from. - **Skipping ahead with Passage of Time ends any active quests.** - Defeating a bounty enemy gives you its loot and XP as usual, on top of the quest reward. --- ## Story Moments (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/living-world/story-moments) # Story Moments The small scenes you walk in on: a quarrel at the forge, a friend with news, a shopkeeper with a favor to ask. ## Blue markers Each day, up to four buildings in the settlement you're in (or the nearest one) get a **blue marker**. Someone inside is in the middle of something. Markers don't say who or what. Walk in to find out. ## Walking in 1. Enter the building. The scene is set up as you arrive. 2. The character at the center of it **speaks first**, reacting to you walking in. 3. From there it's a normal conversation. Join in, help, take sides, or walk away. **Who you might find:** - people at work, sometimes with a coworker or family member - a friend you haven't seen in a while, who's glad (or not) to see you Strangers stay strangers. Someone who's never met you won't greet you like an old friend. ## Afterwards When the conversation ends: - **word gets around**: the people involved remember what happened, and the town can hear about it - **feelings shift**: how it went changes how they feel about you - **follow-ups**: some moments lead to another one a few days later Behind the scenes, patterns in your relationships (a falling-out, an alliance, a reputation) can become the premise for later moments. ## Ignoring a marker Nothing happens if you don't go in. Markers are replaced at the next day change. ## Settings - Turn Story Moments on or off in Atlas → Settings → **Story Moments**. They're on by default. A moment already under way still finishes. - Steer what kinds of moments you get in Journal → Preferences. See [Story preferences](story-preferences.md). - Story Moments are part of the paid plans. - A world needs at least one settlement for Story Moments to appear. --- ## Story preferences (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/living-world/story-preferences) # Story preferences Journal → **Preferences** tells the story systems what you want from your world. It shapes Story Moments and the daily digest. Only one setting, **Avoidances**, reaches your conversations directly. ## Your goal, fear and secret - **Your Goal**: what your character wants most. The story will dangle paths toward it. - **Your Fear**: what your character dreads. The story may make you face it. - **Your Secret**: something you're hiding. The world may threaten to expose it. These pull the story toward themes that matter to you, without characters naming them. Characters are never told your secret. These are separate from your character sheet: they're about the story you want, not facts characters know about you. ## Genres, tone and pacing - **Genres**: pick any of the presets (political mystery, romance and drama, dark fantasy, comedy and mischief, survival, war, horror and suspense, redemption arc, heist and intrigue) or add your own. - **Tone**: serious, lighthearted, gritty, whimsical or balanced. - **Pacing**: slow burn, steady or fast-paced. Slow burn plants small seeds; fast-paced gets to the point. - **Surprise me** hides these three and lets play decide what your story is about. ## Player agency **Drive my own story**, **let the world surprise me**, or **balanced**: how much the world brings to you versus waits for you. ## Backstory hooks Facts about your character's past that the story can pull on: who they're running from, who they lost, what they're hiding from. Keep it to facts about your character rather than instructions. ## Avoidances Topics you'd rather not see. Type one and press Enter to add it. - **In conversations**, characters won't bring these up, but they'll follow your lead if you do. - **In Story Moments and overnight events**, they're kept out entirely. ## Saving Choose **Save Preferences** (or **Update Preferences**). Changes shape what happens from then on. ## Start New Story At the bottom, **Start New Story** clears the current story setup and Story So Far and begins again. Characters' memories, your notes, the digests and everyone's relationships stay as they are. --- ## Time and days (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/living-world/time-and-days) # Time and days How the clock works, and every way to move it forward (or back). ## The clock Each day has eight parts: | Part | Hours | |---|---| | Night | 00:00–02:59 | | Dawn | 03:00–05:59 | | Early Morn | 06:00–08:59 | | Morning | 09:00–11:59 | | Midday | 12:00–14:59 | | Afternoon | 15:00–17:59 | | Late Aft | 18:00–20:59 | | Evening | 21:00–23:59 | - A new world starts on **Day 1**, in the morning. - **The day number changes at dawn**, not at midnight. Staying up past midnight is still the same day until 3:00. - **Time only passes while your world is open.** Close it and everything waits for you. The current day, time and weather are on the Command Deck (desktop) or in the status bar (mobile). ## What moves time - **Exploring the map.** The clock runs while you're out on the map. A full day takes about a quarter of an hour of real time. - **Conversations.** The clock pauses while you talk, but each reply moves time forward by roughly how long it would take to say. - **Walking.** Time keeps running while you travel, so long journeys take part of the day. - **Sleep** and **Passage of Time**, below. ## Pausing Time pauses on its own while you're in a conversation, in the Atlas, in a battle or in Build mode, during the world tour, and after five minutes without any input. To stop it yourself, choose **Live / Paused** on the Command Deck (the pause button on mobile and in conversations). Your choice is remembered for each world in this browser. While paused, conversations don't move time either. ## Sleep In the **evening** and at **night**, a moon button (**Sleep until morning**) appears next to the clock. Sleeping: - skips to the next morning - restores your HP in full - lets the night's changes happen (see [Overnight](overnight.md)) ## Passage of Time Choose **Skip time** on the Command Deck (the hourglass), or choose the day number, to open **Passage of Time**. Pick any day and part of the day. **Skipping ahead:** - For skips longer than three days, you can write what happened with each person and each settlement while you were away. Characters remember what you write. Leave a field blank and they simply know that time has passed. - **Any quests you're on end when you skip.** Finish or abandon them first if you want to keep them. - Skipping doesn't run the overnight changes or bring new Story Moments. Those come with the next natural day change. - Everyone ages with the days, including you. - Scheduled trips jump to where they'd be by then, and the weather changes. **Going back to an earlier day** deletes supported records dated after that day, including memories and conversations. It is not a complete restoration of the world's earlier state. Numeric dispositions and authored relationships remain; whether an NPC remembers meeting you is recalculated from surviving interaction memories or an authored relationship. Time-passage summaries alone do not establish a meeting. You'll be asked to confirm with **I understand, continue**. If the operation fails, some changes may already have been applied; refresh the world before trying again. ## Weather Weather changes as the parts of the day go by, and each biome has its own mix: clear, rain, fog, snow, sandstorms and more. Characters notice it, and it's part of every scene. In a conversation, **/weather** changes it on purpose. See [Chat commands](../conversations/chat-commands.md#weather). --- ## Area profiles and NPC briefings (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/places/areas-and-briefings) # Area profiles and NPC briefings Your world, its regions, settlements and districts each have a **profile** and an **NPC briefing**. Together they're how characters know the world they live in. Find them in Atlas → **World**. The list on the left runs from **The world** at the top, through regions, down to settlements and their districts. ## The idea in one paragraph A **profile** is a set of fields (government, economy, culture, tensions…) where you describe a place in as much detail as you like. The **NPC briefing** is a short paragraph of what every resident actually knows. Characters read the briefings in every conversation. The profile fields are mostly raw material: the briefing is written from them, and the Location Wizard and the daily digest read some of them directly. ## What a character knows about where they are Every message, a character in a building reads, in order: 1. **The world briefing**: everyone in your world knows this. 2. **The region**: its name and briefing, how it relates to other regions, and the other settlements in it. 3. **The settlement**: its name and briefing. Residents know it as home. Visitors get "what locals say about this place". 4. **The district** briefing. 5. Any **lorebook entries** that apply. 6. **The building**: its name, type and description, and whether this is their home, their workplace, or somewhere they're visiting. In a building outside any settlement, steps 2 to 4 are simply skipped: the character still knows the world, any lorebook entries that apply, and the building. Characters out in the wilderness with your party only know the settlement they're near, or the land around them. ## The briefing rule At every level, the briefing works the same way: - **It's written for you when it's empty.** Save a profile with no briefing and one is written from the profile's fields. - **After that, it's yours.** Edit it however you like. The game never rewrites it behind your back. - **Rewrite from profile** writes a fresh one when you want it, for example after changing the profile a lot. - **Clear it and save** for the same effect. Keep briefings to common knowledge. A briefing is read by every character in that area, every message. Secrets belong on characters' profiles or in lorebook entries. ## Quick Start Every profile has a **Quick Start** box. Describe the place in a line and choose **Quick Start** to fill in every field (and the briefing, if it's empty). Quick Start replaces what's already in the fields, so review the result before you save. On the free plan, it uses one of your daily AI actions. Each level's Quick Start builds on the one above it: - **World**: from your genre. - **Region**: from your genre and your world briefing. - **Settlement**: from your genre, your world briefing and its region. - **District**: from your genre, your world briefing and the settlement's briefing. ## World profile **World Name**: the in-world name of your world, realm or planet. Characters only learn it through the world briefing, so if you rename it, update the briefing too. The fields are grouped as **The shape of it**, **Who holds power** and **How it lives**: - Era & Age - Geography & Scale - Major Powers - World-Scale Conflicts - Economy & Resources - Religion & Beliefs - Technology & Magic - Peoples & Cultures - World History - Additional Lore **Peoples & Cultures** and **Additional Lore** also go to the Location Wizard word for word, so they're the place for world rules every generated character must respect: what a species looks like, how people dress, what's taboo. The daily digest reads **Era & Age** and **World-Scale Conflicts** directly. **NPC Briefing**: "every NPC in the world knows this much". Probably the most important paragraph in your world. ### Peoples Choose which species live in your world: **Human**, **Elf**, **Dwarf**, **Halfling**, **Half-orc** and **Gnome**. At least one must stay on. Medieval Fantasy worlds start with all six; every other genre starts with humans only, and any mix works in any genre. - New characters are drawn only from the peoples you've chosen, with names to match. - In a mixed world, most people are human and others turn up now and then. - A specific request still works: ask for "an elf blacksmith" in a human-only world and you'll get one. - Changes save straight away. They apply to characters created from now on, not existing ones. Settlement templates and quick-option buildings use their own casts and don't follow this setting. ## Region profile Governance, Culture & People, Economy, Military & Defense, Notable Landmarks, Regional Tensions, History, Additional Notes, plus: - **Relationships**: how this region gets along with others (allies, rivals, trade partners). Unlike the other fields, this one is read directly by every character in the region, every message. Use the other regions' exact names. - **NPC Briefing**: what locals in this region know. Every other region field reaches characters only through the briefing. ## Settlement profile Government, Laws & Customs, Religion, Economy, Architecture, Culture & Mood, Current Tensions, History, Factions, Notes. - **The Location Wizard reads every field**, word for word. Culture & Mood and Architecture decide how generated people dress and look. - **The daily digest** reads Government, Economy, Current Tensions and Factions, so those shape what "happens" in town each day. - **Factions** here is free text about local groups. It's separate from the faction list you assign characters to. The settlement's briefing is read-only until you choose **Edit manually**. Placing a **settlement template** replaces the settlement's profile and briefing with the template's. **Settlement Exterior Image**: see [Settlements, districts and regions](settlements.md). ## District profile Character, Wealth Level, Dominant Trade, Local Power, Dangers, Notes. The Location Wizard follows a district closely: buildings and people match its character and wealth. A bar in a rich quarter comes out upscale, one in the slums comes out grimy. **Dangers** is descriptive only. To have enemies appear in a district, add it to an enemy's **Areas**. See [Creating enemies](../adventure/creating-enemies.md). ## Area types Each area has a type: Village, Town or City; Kingdom, Country, Province or Territory; Quarter, Ward, District or Zone. Or choose **Custom…** and write your own (letters only, up to 24 characters), like "free city" or "colony sector". The type is woven into what characters say ("you live in Brindle, a free city"). ## Good to know - **Renaming an area doesn't update its briefing.** If the briefing mentions the old name, edit it or choose **Rewrite from profile**. - **Region membership is automatic.** A settlement belongs to the region its center sits inside. --- ## Buildings and rooms (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/places/buildings-and-rooms) # Buildings and rooms Every building field and what it does, rooms and floors, and editing buildings on the map. ## Where to edit buildings - **Atlas → Locations** lists every building, grouped by settlement. Search by name or type, use the area filter, or tick **Hide unnamed locations** to hide empty placeholders. Unfinished buildings carry a **New** tag. - In Build mode, choose a building to open it, or double-click it to reshape it (see [Editing on the map](#editing-on-the-map)). - A building with no name, description or residents yet opens in the Location Wizard instead. See [The Location Wizard](location-wizard.md). ## Building fields **Name.** The building's name everywhere: on the map, on its card, and in what characters are told about where they are. Renaming a building doesn't rewrite old memories that mention the old name. **Type.** Chosen from your genre's list (tavern, clinic, noodle bar…). The type changes: - how characters describe where they are - whether the owner behaves like a shopkeeper (for shop types) - who drops by: characters whose favorite places include this type - the music, when you haven't picked tracks - whether it's an indoor place or an outdoor one like a park or plaza, which changes how its picture is painted - whether people who live there also work there (they don't, in homes) Changing the type later only affects what happens from then on. It doesn't change the jobs of people already there. **Description** (up to 2,000 characters). What a person standing there would notice, and what the place is for: the smells, the regulars, the house rules. Every character in the building reads it, every message. - It's **not an image prompt**. Saving a description never changes the picture. - Put the most important line first. - Don't put secrets here. Everyone who walks in knows this text. **Owner.** Shown on the building's card and in the Atlas. When a building is created, the character whose name matches the owner becomes its proprietor: they run its shop and act like it. Typing a different name here later doesn't make that person the proprietor. **Interior Image Prompt** (or **Exterior Scene Prompt** for outdoor places). The picture behind every conversation held here. Describe the room or scene, not the people. Your world's art style is added for you. **Regenerate** paints a new one (the cost is on the button). The gallery button lets you reuse any image you've made before, at no cost. Real people and titles like "mayor" or "senator" are blocked in image prompts. Write "a civic official's study" instead of "the mayor's study". See [Image safety](../images-and-art/image-safety.md). **Building Color** and **Map Icon** change how the building looks on the map, and nothing else. **Auto** uses your genre's color for its type. **Music Tracks.** What plays while you're inside. With none picked, music is chosen to suit the building's type. You can also change it in-game from the music player. ## Rooms and floors Under **Sub-locations**, **+ Add sub-location** adds a room, floor or unit inside the building. Each room can hold rooms of its own, up to three levels deep, with up to 100 in one building. - **Every room is a full location**, with its own name, description, picture, music and residents. - **A new room starts empty.** Open it to describe it and generate it, or fill it in by hand. - **Rooms are private.** Characters in a room know they're inside a building, and that people elsewhere in it aren't in the room with them. - **Characters who live in a room** know the building as home, rather than treating it as somewhere they're visiting. - **Deleting a room** moves the people who live there up a level, and deletes the rooms inside it. The Location Wizard can add floors and rooms when you create a building. See [The Location Wizard](location-wizard.md). ### Moving between rooms In a conversation, the **up arrow** at the right end of the row of portraits opens the room list. Choose a room to go there. If you're mid-conversation, choose the person's small portrait beside a room to take them with you. ## Residents The right side of a building's page lists everyone who lives there, grouped by room. - **Move to room** moves a resident into another room of the building. If they also worked where they lived, you'll be asked first, because moving them clears their workplace. Set it again on their sheet if they really work downstairs. - **+ Add NPC** creates a new resident. ## Editing on the map In Build mode: - **Double-click a building** (or long-press on touch) to reshape it: - pick a footprint shape and a roof style - flip it - scroll to rotate, Shift+scroll to resize, Ctrl+scroll to cycle shapes, Ctrl+Shift+scroll to change floors - **Edit details** opens it in the Atlas - **Select** lets you drag a box around buildings, then drag them somewhere else. - **Copy** (or Ctrl+C on a selected building) places a copy. The copy brings the details, pictures and rooms, but not the people. In the Location Wizard, **Start fresh** discards the copied details instead. **Building status badges** appear in Build mode: amber for buildings still waiting to be filled, green for finished ones. ## Deleting buildings The **Eraser** in Build mode removes a building after you confirm. The people who live there are archived, not deleted, and keep their memories. Bring them back from Atlas → NPCs → **Archived**. A building joins the settlement and district it's placed in. Moving it within its settlement updates its district to match where it now stands. --- ## Clusters and quick buildings (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/places/clusters-and-quick-buildings) # Clusters and quick buildings Ways to put down a lot of buildings fast. For a whole settlement at once, see the templates in [Settlements, districts and regions](settlements.md). ## The Cluster tool The Cluster tool lays out a group of building shapes inside a settlement: a row of shops, a courtyard, a village green. It places shapes only. You fill them in afterwards. 1. Open Build mode (the toolbox) and choose **Cluster**. 2. Move over a settlement to preview a layout, and click to hold it in place. Click the map again to move it. 3. Adjust the controls: - **Layout**: Auto, Village, Town, Courtyard, Roadside or Freeform - **Count**: how many buildings - **Radius**: how far they spread - **Frontage gap** and **Lot spacing**: how far buildings sit from the street and from each other - **Uniformity**: tidy rows or a looser scatter - **Size** and **Size variety** - **Shape variety** - **Height** (floors) and **Height variety** - **Both sides** or **One side** of a street 4. The bar shows how many buildings fit ("{placed}/{requested} buildings fit"). **Reroll** for a different arrangement. 5. **Lock cluster** to place them. Locked buildings start empty, and placing them costs nothing. Choose any one in Build mode to fill it with the Location Wizard. See [The Location Wizard](location-wizard.md). ## Quick-option buildings **Quick options**, the first step of the Location Wizard, give you a ready-made building in one click: a name, a description, the people who live or work there, and optional floors and rooms. - Each genre has its own set, from taverns and blacksmiths to coffee shops, noodle bars and mess halls, plus homes. - They're assembled without AI, so they appear instantly. - Reroll any person, any name or the rooms until you're happy. - Images are optional, and charged as they paint. Untick **Generate images** to spend no image credits. - They're written in English, and they cast their own residents rather than following your world's Peoples setting. --- ## The Location Wizard (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/places/location-wizard) # The Location Wizard The Location Wizard fills a building, landmark or room with a name, a description and the people who live or work there. This page covers everything it can do. For a first walkthrough, see [3. Your first building](../journey/03-your-first-building.md). ## When it opens - after you place and shape a **Building**, **Custom** building or **Landmark** in Build mode - when you choose an empty building (or one from a cluster) in Build mode - when you place a copy of a building The header shows the settlement and district the building is in. ## Step 1: Type — how to fill it - **Quick options.** Ready-made buildings for your genre: a tavern, an inn, a blacksmith, a coffee shop, a noodle bar, a mess hall, homes and more. Each comes complete with a name, a description, staff or a family, and optional floors and rooms. They're assembled instantly without AI. Reroll any person, name or room until you like it. Quick options are written in English. They're offered for indoor buildings, not landmarks or rooms. - **A description.** In the description box, write who lives or works here and what the place is like (up to 2,000 characters), then choose **Generate**. - **Manual.** Start from a blank form. - **Place Empty.** Keep the building as an empty shell and fill it later. **Generate characters at this location** is ticked for indoor places and unticked for outdoor ones. Untick it for an empty building; tick it for a park with regulars. ### What the AI reads when you choose Generate Your description is only part of it. The AI also reads: - the **biome** the building stands in - the **world** briefing, plus your world's Peoples & Cultures and Additional Lore, word for word - the **region**'s briefing - the **settlement**'s briefing and every field of its profile - the **district**'s briefing and profile, including its character and wealth - your active **Journal notes** for the settlement - **nearby buildings**, and anyone already living here - for a room, the building it's in and the rooms beside it The settlement and district matter most. People are dressed to fit the settlement's culture and architecture, and places match the district's wealth: a bar in a rich quarter comes out upscale, one in the slums comes out grimy. **Fill in your settlement and district profiles before generating buildings** and everything fits together. See [Area profiles and NPC briefings](areas-and-briefings.md). ### Tips for describing a place - Say who runs it and who's usually there: "a tavern run by an elderly couple, with dockworkers in every evening". - Add one or two details about the feel: worn, cozy, rowdy, upscale. - **Names come from name lists.** Characters are named from large pools of real names, not invented by the AI. Mention a background ("an elderly Japanese couple") and they'll get names from that culture. The generator prefers these pool names even if you write your own, so rename people in the review if you have names in mind. - **Peoples.** Characters are drawn from the species your world allows. A specific request ("an elf blacksmith") still works in any world. See [Area profiles and NPC briefings](areas-and-briefings.md). - **Magic weapons only when you ask.** An ordinary smithy sells ordinary weapons. Describe a place that makes or sells enchanted weapons ("a frost-mage's forge") and some of its stock will be enchanted. **One Generate, a whole cast.** A single **Generate** drafts the building and everyone in it in one go. On the free plan that's one daily AI action for the lot, where creating the same people one at a time in the Atlas would use one each. Nothing is saved until you save. ## Step 2: Story The building's **name** and **description**. The description is what every character inside "stands in", so keep the most important line first. See [Buildings and rooms](buildings-and-rooms.md). ## Step 3: Cast Everyone who'll live or work here. Choose someone to open their full profile on the right and edit any field. You can add and remove people, and with quick options, reroll a person or their name. - The first character is the **owner** by default. - **Import** adds a character written with another AI assistant. See [Importing NPCs](../characters/importing-npcs.md). - Everyone is 18 or older. People created here live in the building. They also work there, unless it's a home or a room. ## Step 4: Rooms For indoor buildings: set **floors**, **rooms per floor** and **occupants per room**, then name each room, give it an interior prompt, and choose who lives in it. See [Buildings and rooms](buildings-and-rooms.md). ## Step 5: Details **Type**, **Owner**, **Building Color**, the **Interior Image Prompt** (or Exterior Scene Prompt outdoors), **Music Tracks** and **Map Icon**. ## Images and saving With **Generate images** ticked (the default), saving paints: - the building's interior - a portrait for each character with a portrait prompt - a picture for each floor and room with an interior prompt The **Cost so far** card adds it up, and a large batch asks you to confirm before spending. Untick **Generate images** and no image credits are spent. Characters are fully playable without portraits, and you can paint them later. Choose **Save** (**Place Building** for a quick option). Images paint in the background, and a card pops up as each one lands. If an image fails, its credits are refunded. ## Copies When you place a copy of a building, the wizard opens with the original's details filled in. Saving brings over its pictures and rooms, but not its people. **Start fresh** clears the copy so you can fill the building another way. ## Closing without saving **Cancel** (or ×) asks first if you've made changes. A building you placed but never saved is removed when you cancel. Anything you'd already saved, including a **Place Empty** shell, is kept. --- ## The Lorebook (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/places/lorebook) # The Lorebook The Lorebook holds facts characters bring up when they're relevant: a city's history, a secret society, how magic works, a legend everyone half-remembers. It follows the Character Card V2 lorebook standard, so lorebooks you've built in SillyTavern, NovelAI and similar tools import straight in. Find it in Atlas → **Lorebook**. ## Why use it Briefings are read every message, so they should stay short. The Lorebook holds everything else and only brings in what the moment calls for. Mention the old siege and the entry about the old siege comes in. Talk about the weather and it stays out of the way. ## How entries are chosen Each time you send a message, entries are chosen in this order: 1. **Scope.** Only entries that apply here are considered: to this place, this character, or this character's faction. 2. **Always On** entries come first. 3. **Keyword** entries whose keywords appear **in the message you just sent**. 4. Entries the AI judges **relevant by meaning**, even if no keyword matched. ### Why scopes matter Scopes let a memory belong to a person *and* a place. Say Sara lost her brother in a fire at the tavern where she now works: - Scope an entry to **Sara** and **The Copper Kettle**, with keywords like "fire, brother, burned". - At the tavern, when the fire comes up, Sara remembers it: the smell of smoke in the cellar, the night she couldn't reach him. - Talk to her about fires at the market, and the entry stays out of it. Talk to anyone else at the tavern, and they don't suddenly know her story. The same idea works for a guard who only discusses the patrol rota at the barracks, or members of a faction who share a password only among themselves. Only a few entries are used per message: five, or ten with Hero. Lower **Priority** numbers win when there are more than that. Chosen entries are given to the character as established fact for that reply. Lorebook entries are used in conversations inside buildings, but not in party conversations out in the wilderness. ## Writing an entry Choose **New Entry**. **Title** (visible to the AI). The AI uses the title to judge whether an entry is relevant, so make it descriptive: "The Siege of Vael, Year 302" works better than "Entry 3". **Keywords** (comma-separated, up to 25). Words that bring the entry in when you use them. Matching is whole words and ignores capitals, so include plurals and variations ("wolf, wolves"). Write keywords in the language you play in. Keywords are ignored for Always On entries. **Content** (up to 1,500 characters). The lore itself, written as facts a character would know. If text runs past the limit (in an imported entry, for example), the editor marks the extra in red, and it isn't used. **Enabled.** Untick to switch an entry off without deleting it. The checkbox on each card in the list does the same. **Always On.** Used in every message where its scope applies. Each one permanently takes up one of your five (or ten) slots, so keep it to one or two. **Priority.** Lower numbers win when there are more matching entries than slots. Give your most important entries lower numbers. ### Secondary keywords Tick **Require secondary keys** to add a second condition: - **AND ANY**: a keyword plus at least one secondary keyword - **AND ALL**: a keyword plus every secondary keyword - **NOT ANY**: a keyword and none of the secondary keywords - **NOT ALL**: a keyword, but not every secondary keyword For example, NOT ANY covers "talk about the king, but not when the queen comes up". ### Scope **Scope** decides who can see an entry. With no scope, it's **Everywhere**: available to every character in your world. **Add Scope** narrows it to a **Region**, **Settlement**, **District**, **Building**, **NPC** or **Faction**. With several scopes, all of them must match. An NPC scope plus a Building scope means "only when talking to that person in that building". The **Faction** scope applies when the character you're talking to belongs to the faction. It's the cleanest way to give members shared knowledge. See [Factions](../characters/factions.md). ## Import, export and clear - **Import** adds entries from a lorebook file (SillyTavern world info, a Character Card V2 card or lorebook, a NovelAI lorebook, or an RPBuddy export). It adds to what you have rather than replacing it. Entries are checked as they come in. Any that are flagged appear under "need review", and you can edit them and choose **Save & Re-check**. - **Export** downloads your lorebook in the same standard format, scopes included. - **Clear All** deletes every entry. Export first if you might want them back. Some settings from other tools (probability, insertion depth and position) are kept in exports, but RPBuddy doesn't use them. Matching entries are always used. Type tags on imported entries are labels only. ## Good to know - If you delete a character, building or faction that an entry is scoped to, the entry can't be used anymore. Update its scope. - The budget bar at the top of the list warns you when Always On entries are crowding out the rest. ## Tip: one moment per entry Split big topics into small entries, each about one thing, with its own keywords. Say you've written Sara's whole childhood. As one entry, every mention of her past drags all of it in: the fire, the move to the city, the apprenticeship, the falling-out with her mother. She ends up reciting her life story when you only asked about the scar on her hand. As four entries ("Sara — the tavern fire", "Sara — moving to the city", and so on), only the part that comes up gets used. Her answers stay focused, the moment feels natural, and the other entries leave room for lore about everything else in the scene. A good test: if you can't sum an entry up in its title, it's probably two entries. --- ## Roads, rivers, walls and terrain (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/places/roads-rivers-walls-terrain) # Roads, rivers, walls and terrain The Build mode tools that shape the land around your buildings. Open Build mode with the toolbox, then pick a tool from the bar along the bottom. A hint above the bar explains each tool as you use it. ## Shapes: curve, straight, ellipse Roads, walls and fills share three drawing shapes: - **curve**: click to add points, and the line flows smoothly through them - **straight**: click to add points, joined by straight segments - **ellipse**: click the center, then click again to set the size For **curve** and **straight**, press **Enter** or choose **Finish** when you're done. **Ctrl+Z** removes the last point while you're drawing. ## Roads Pick **main**, **path** or **trail**, a shape, and a color (**Auto** uses your map theme's road color). Start or end a road near another road's end and they snap together. Characters walking around town follow your roads and bridges. ## Rivers Click to add points along the river's course, then press **Enter** or choose **Finish**. Ctrl+scroll changes the width (on touch, use **−** and **+**). ## Walls Pick a shape, then set the **thickness** (T) and **height** (H) with **−** and **+**, and choose a color. On desktop, Shift+scroll changes thickness and Ctrl+scroll changes height while you draw. ## Fill Fills paint areas of the map: lakes, fields, plazas. Pick **curve**, **straight**, **ellipse**, or **hex** (click whole hexes, then **Finish** fills them), and a color. ## Stamps **Stamp** opens an icon picker: trees, rocks, crates, wells and many more. Click to place one, or drag to paint a trail of them. Scroll to rotate (in 2D) and Shift+scroll to resize, or use **−** and **+** for size. Choose a fill color, or **No fill**. ## Eraser Click a stamp, road, river or wall to delete it. The Eraser can remove a building too, after you confirm: the building is archived along with the people who live there, and they keep their memories. ## Editing what you've drawn In Build mode, click a road, river, wall or fill to edit it: - drag its points to reshape it - click between two points to add one - right-click a point to remove it - change its type, width, thickness, height or color in the bar - **Done** keeps the changes, **Cancel** throws them away, **Delete** removes it ## Undo and redo **Undo** and **Redo** are at the start of the tool bar (and on the Command Deck on desktop), or use Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Shift+Z (or Ctrl+Y). Your undo history clears when you leave Build mode. See [Keyboard shortcuts](../reference/keyboard-shortcuts.md). --- ## Settlements, districts and regions (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/places/settlements) # Settlements, districts and regions Drawing areas on the map, filling a settlement from a template, and how the three kinds of area fit together. ## Three kinds of area - **Settlement**: a village, town or city. Its residents share common knowledge, it has a Bounty Board, and its art is the backdrop for outdoor conversations and fights in town. - **District**: a neighborhood inside a settlement, like the docks or the merchant quarter. - **Region**: a larger territory, like a kingdom or province, around one or more settlements. Each has its own profile and **NPC briefing**: what the people there know. See [Area profiles and NPC briefings](areas-and-briefings.md). ## Drawing an area 1. Open Build mode (the toolbox) and choose **Settlement**. 2. Pick a mode: - **Hexes**: click whole hexes. They have to touch. - **Draw**: click points around any shape, then click near the first point to close it. 3. Choose **Finish**. 4. The **Create Area** box asks what it is: - **Settlement**, **Region** or **District** (only the types that fit where you drew are offered) - a **name** (up to 50 characters) - a **type**: Village, Town or City for settlements; Kingdom, Country, Province or Territory for regions; Quarter, Ward, District or Zone for districts. Or type your own, like "free city" or "mining camp". 5. Choose **Create**. A district has to be drawn inside a settlement. An area covering several hexes can be a settlement or a region. Buildings already inside a new settlement become part of it. If your new area overlaps an existing settlement, you're told which buildings will move. ## How areas fit together It's all automatic. There's nothing to link by hand. - A **building** belongs to the settlement it stands in, and to the smallest district around it. - A **settlement** belongs to the region its center falls inside. - Characters take their area knowledge from the building they're in. ## Editing and deleting an area In Build mode, **double-click** a settlement, district or region to edit its outline. For a region, double-click a spot inside it that isn't part of a settlement. Drag points to reshape it, click between points to add one, and right-click a point to remove it. **Delete** removes the area after you confirm. Deleting a settlement or district doesn't delete its buildings. They're just no longer part of it. To change an area's name, type or profile, open it in Atlas → **World**. ## The Settlement Wizard Creating a settlement opens the **Settlement Wizard**, with three ways to fill it. ### Begin from a template A complete settlement in about a minute: buildings, streets, and the people who live and work there, ready to talk to. Every genre has three templates: | Genre | Small | Medium | Large | |---|---|---|---| | Medieval Fantasy | Village | Market Town | City Quarter | | Victorian | Village | Market Town | City Quarter | | Modern Day | Small Town | Town | City Neighborhood | | Neon Future | Neon Block | District | Downtown Sector | | Sci-Fi: Colony | Outpost | Colony Town | Capital District | Small templates hold 8 to 30 buildings, medium 14 to 40, and large 24 to 40. 1. **Template.** Choose one and how many buildings you want. **What you get** shows the mix of homes and other places. If your settlement is too small for a template, you're told how many buildings it can fit. 2. **Layout.** See the buildings arranged on your map. Adjust the spread, spacing and scatter, shuffle for a new arrangement, then **Lock layout** once everything fits. 3. **Residents.** Name your settlement and meet who lives there. Swap a building for a **Different building**, give people **New names**, or **Shuffle everyone**. 4. **Place** the buildings. **What you get:** buildings with their interiors, residents with portraits, shop stock and music, streets, and a settlement profile, briefing and exterior picture. If the settlement already had a profile and briefing, the template's replace them. **Good to know:** - **Templates are free.** Every portrait and interior is already painted, so placing one costs no credits. - **Art styles.** Template art is painted in the Default model's five styles: Oil Painting, Modern Anime, Retro Anime, Adult Animation and Comic Book. Worlds set to a premium model still get Default-model art for template buildings. - **Language.** Template names, descriptions and characters are written in English. - **People and buildings.** Template residents are all human, whatever your world's Peoples setting, and template buildings don't have rooms. Add rooms, or edit anyone, afterwards. - **Variety.** The same building won't appear twice in one settlement. Across your world, unused buildings are chosen first, and you'll see a note when a template starts repeating ones you already have. ### Describe it Write a line about the place, and the AI writes its profile: who runs it, what it trades, what people argue about. It writes the profile only. No buildings or people are placed. On the free plan this uses one of your daily AI actions. ### Fill it in by hand Write the profile yourself. A banner offers a template if you change your mind. ## Region and district wizards Creating a region or district opens a smaller wizard: **Describe it** to have the AI write the profile, or fill it in by hand. ## Settlement art Open the settlement in Atlas → **World** to write an **exterior image prompt** and generate its picture (the cost is on the button). Describe the streets, materials and light, not people. The picture appears: - behind conversations with your party when you're in town but not inside a building - behind fights in the settlement - in the Atlas --- ## The hex map (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/places/the-hex-map) # The hex map Your world's map is a grid of hexes, each with its own biome. This page covers growing the map, reshaping it, and how it looks. ## Hexes and biomes A new world starts with a single hex of the biome you chose. Each hex is a large patch of land, big enough for a town and its surroundings. The biomes are: - Green Plains - Dry Plains - Desert - Frozen Tundra - Jungle - Wasteland - Volcanic Wasteland - Ocean (when adding or editing hexes) A hex's biome affects: - **Travel danger**: harsher biomes see enemies more often. See [Encounters](../adventure/encounters.md). - **Which enemies roam there**: enemies are set to appear in particular biomes. - **Weather**: each biome has its own mix. - **Music**: what plays while you're out on the map. You can pick tracks for each biome from the music player. - **Backdrops**: the landscape behind party conversations and fights out in the wild. ## Growing the map Open Build mode (the toolbox). Around your world: - **+** on any open edge adds a new hex. Pick its biome from **Choose Biome**. - **✎** on a hex opens **Edit Hex**: - change its biome - **Show full biome art (hide map texture)**: show the painted landscape instead of the map's drawn style, for that hex - **Show color wash (global)**: the soft biome tint around your buildings, on or off for the whole world - **×** on a hex deletes it (any hex except the one your world started with). ## Deleting a hex Before anything is removed, you'll see exactly what the hex holds and what will happen to it: - **Settlements** entirely inside the hex are deleted. Settlements that spread into other hexes are kept, just smaller. - **Buildings**, **roads**, **rivers**, **walls**, **fills** and **stamps** inside it are deleted. - **Characters** who lived there are **archived, not deleted**, and they keep all their memories. Find them under Atlas → NPCs → **Archived**, and pick a new Home to bring them back. Then choose **Delete Hex** to confirm. ## Looking at the map - **Pan** by dragging. **Zoom** with the scroll wheel or a pinch, or the **+** and **−** buttons at the bottom-right. - **Fit** brings the whole world on screen. - **2D / 3D** switches between a flat map and an isometric view. In 3D, the arrows rotate it. Your choice is remembered in this browser. **Map Theme** (Atlas → Settings) changes how the map is drawn: inked **Parchment**, dark **Modern**, or a **Holographic** grid. Each genre has its own default. It's purely visual. See [Settings](../account/settings.md). On a slower device, lower **Graphics quality** in Settings for a smoother map. ### Scenic view and mobile controls Choose the **eye** in the bottom-right map controls to hide the map's persistent interface. A faint restore eye stays at the bottom-right of the screen; choose it to bring the interface back. You can still pan and zoom, hover populated locations for details, and enter buildings normally. Empty decorative buildings do not gain hover details. Scenic view is map-only, not a conversation mode. Entering a building, chat or combat, or leaving the world, restores the interface. It is not remembered for the next visit. On mobile, the **down arrow** at the top of the camera controls collapses the rail. The **up arrow** at its bottom anchor opens it again. This preference is remembered in this browser when storage is available; desktop controls stay expanded. Scenic view shows only the restore eye, not a collapse arrow, and restoring the interface respects your mobile collapse preference. ## Markers you'll see - **Quest destinations**: buildings you need to visit for your current quest step. - **Bounty markers**: red markers just outside a settlement, from bounties you've accepted. - **Blue markers**: Story Moments. See [Story Moments](../living-world/story-moments.md). - **Building status badges** (in Build mode): amber for buildings you haven't finished, green for complete ones. --- ## Limits (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/reference/character-limits) # Limits Every text limit and count limit in one place. Editors show a counter as you get close. ## Character sheets **NPCs** | Field | Characters | |---|---| | Name | 120 | | Gender | 80 | | Occupation | 100 | | Appearance | 1,500 | | Default Outfit | 250 | | Personality (legacy) | 1,500 | | Communication | 500 | | Behavior | 1,500 | | Goal | 500 | | Fear | 500 | | Secret | 500 | | Brief History | 1,500 | | Education | 500 | | Religion | 500 | | Daily Rhythms | 1,000 | | Relationship: name | 120 | | Relationship: relation | 60 | | Relationship: dynamic | 150 | | Player Backstory | 1,000 | | Portrait Prompt | 1,000 | **Your character** | Field | Limit | |---|---| | Describe-your-character box | 500 characters | | Name | 50 characters | | Gender | 80 characters | | Appearance | 1,500 characters | | Default Outfit, and each extra outfit | 250 characters | | Extra outfits | 12 | | Description (personality and backstory) | 2,500 characters | | Portrait Prompt | 1,000 characters | **Portraits** | | Limit | |---|---| | Portrait state name | 30 characters | | Portrait state edit prompt | 500 characters | | Expression key | 24 characters | | Expression prompt | 200 characters | ## Places | | Limit | |---|---| | Location Wizard description | 2,000 characters | | Building name (Location Wizard) | 200 characters | | Building description | 2,000 characters | | Interior or exterior image prompt | 1,000 characters | | Rooms inside a building | 3 levels deep, 100 in total | | Area name when drawing | 50 characters | | Custom area type | 24 characters (letters only) | | Settlement name (template) | 60 characters | | World name (in-world) | 200 characters | | Profile fields | 1,000 characters each | | NPC briefing | 2,000 characters | | Quick Start: world, region, district | 500 characters | | Quick Start: settlement | 5,000 characters | | Settlement exterior image prompt | 1,000 characters | ## Lorebook | | Limit | |---|---| | Title | 100 characters | | Content | 1,500 characters | | Keywords, and secondary keywords | 25 each, up to 50 characters each | | Entries used per message | 5 (10 with Hero) | ## Enemies | | Limit | |---|---| | Describe-the-enemy box | 2,000 characters | | Name | 50 characters | | Description, Appearance | 1,500 characters each | | Image Prompt | 1,000 characters | | On-hit effects | 2 | | Weaknesses, resistances | 2 each | | Areas | 12 | | Variant chance to replace the original | 5–50% | ## Conversations and the Journal | | Limit | |---|---| | Chat message | 4,000 characters | | Journal note | 500 characters | | Added or edited memory | 2,000 characters | | Relationship summary | 4,000 characters | | Your goal, fear, secret (Preferences) | 240 characters each | | Backstory hooks | 1,000 characters | | Avoidance, custom genre | 50 characters each | | Pinned memories per character | 1 (3 with Hero) | ## Characters and the world | | Limit | |---|---| | Party size | 3 companions | | Active quests | 5 | | Faction name | 60 characters | | Factions per world | 50 | | Travel schedule description | 500 characters | | Repeating trips (daily and weekly) per character | 10 | ## Community | | Limit | |---|---| | Handle | 3–24 characters (letters, numbers, underscores) | | Bio | 300 characters | | Profile avatar | 5 MB (PNG, JPG or WebP) | | Publish tags | 5 | | Comment | 20–2,000 characters | --- ## Credit costs (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/reference/credit-costs) # Credit costs What each image action costs. Every button shows its exact cost before you spend, and failed images are refunded automatically. ## Images painted by your world's model These cost **1 credit** each with the Default model, or **2 credits** with a premium model (BuddyMix, Krea 2, GPT Image, Hero only). Without Hero, a premium-model world paints with Default at 1 credit. | Action | Images | |---|---| | Player or NPC portrait (generate or regenerate) | 1 | | Building interior or outdoor scene | 1 | | Settlement exterior | 1 | | Enemy portrait | 1 | | Location Wizard save | 1 for the interior, plus 1 per character with a portrait prompt, plus 1 per floor or room with an interior prompt | | Quick-option building | the same, charged as each image paints | ## Portrait edits and expressions | Action | Credits | Plans | |---|---|---| | Portrait state, Flux 2 Klein | 2 | Every plan | | Portrait state, Qwen Image Edit or GPT Image 2 | 4 | Hero | | Expression sheet (10 faces) | 10 | Hero | | Regenerate one expression | 2 | Hero | ## Free - Settlement templates (pre-painted) - Reusing any image from your gallery - Placing buildings, clusters, roads and other map features - Creating worlds - Everything the AI writes: conversations, characters, places, profiles and enemies (on the free plan these use daily AI actions instead; see [Plans and limits](../account/plans-and-limits.md)) ## Getting more credits See [Billing and credits](../account/billing-and-credits.md). --- ## Glossary (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/reference/glossary) # Glossary Quick definitions, each with a link to the full explanation. **AI actions**: the free plan's daily allowance for conversations and AI generation. → [Plans and limits](../account/plans-and-limits.md) **Art model, art style**: what paints your world's images, and the look they're painted in. → [Image models and art styles](../images-and-art/models-and-styles.md) **Atlas**: everything in your world, in one place: characters, places, enemies, lore and settings. → [5. The screen](../journey/05-the-screen.md) **Biome**: the kind of land a hex is: plains, desert, tundra and so on. → [The hex map](../places/the-hex-map.md) **Blue marker**: a Story Moment waiting to happen in a building. → [Story Moments](../living-world/story-moments.md) **Bounty Board**: each settlement's job board, where quests come from. → [Quests](../living-world/quests.md) **Brace**: a combat action that halves the next hit and blocks its effect. → [Combat](../adventure/combat.md) **Build mode**: the tools for placing buildings and shaping the map. → [3. Your first building](../journey/03-your-first-building.md) **Cluster**: a group of building shapes placed at once, filled in later. → [Clusters and quick buildings](../places/clusters-and-quick-buildings.md) **Command Deck**: the bar along the bottom of the screen on desktop. → [5. The screen](../journey/05-the-screen.md) **Credits**: what images cost. → [Billing and credits](../account/billing-and-credits.md) **Daily digest**: the overnight look at what happened in town. → [Overnight](../living-world/overnight.md) **Day card**: the Journal's summary of one day's conversations in a settlement. → [Overnight](../living-world/overnight.md) **Directive**: a pinned memory a character treats as a standing rule. → [Memory and the Journal](../characters/memory-and-the-journal.md) **Disposition**: how a character feels about you, from hostile to loyal. → [Disposition and relationships](../characters/disposition-and-relationships.md) **District**: a neighborhood inside a settlement. → [Settlements, districts and regions](../places/settlements.md) **Enchantment**: an effect a weapon can inflict on each hit. → [Inventory and equipment](../adventure/inventory-and-equipment.md) **Encounter**: an enemy finding you while you travel. → [Encounters](../adventure/encounters.md) **Expression sheet**: a set of facial expressions a character's portrait switches between. → [Portraits, portrait states and expressions](../characters/portraits-states-expressions.md) **Focus**: what Brace costs in combat; you build it by landing hits. → [Combat](../adventure/combat.md) **Gossip**: news characters pass on to each other. → [NPC daily life](../living-world/npc-daily-life.md) **Hex**: one tile of your world map. → [The hex map](../places/the-hex-map.md) **Intimacy**: the setting for how intimate moments are written. → [Content settings and safety](../conversations/content-and-safety.md) **Journal**: your notes, the story so far, the people you've met, and your story preferences. → [Memory and the Journal](../characters/memory-and-the-journal.md) **Landmark**: an outdoor place characters can visit. → [9. Filling the world](../journey/09-filling-the-world.md) **Location Wizard**: the tool that fills a building with a name, a description and people. → [The Location Wizard](../places/location-wizard.md) **Lorebook entry**: a fact characters bring up when it's relevant. → [The Lorebook](../places/lorebook.md) **Memory**: what a character remembers of a conversation or event. → [Memory and the Journal](../characters/memory-and-the-journal.md) **NPC briefing**: the short paragraph everyone in an area knows. → [Area profiles and NPC briefings](../places/areas-and-briefings.md) **On-hit effect**: an effect an enemy's attacks can inflict. → [Status effects](../adventure/status-effects.md) **Party**: characters traveling with you. → [Party members](../characters/party-members.md) **Peoples**: which species live in your world. → [Area profiles and NPC briefings](../places/areas-and-briefings.md) **Pin**: marking a memory so a character always keeps it in mind. → [Memory and the Journal](../characters/memory-and-the-journal.md) **Portrait state**: an edited version of a portrait, like a different outfit. → [Portraits, portrait states and expressions](../characters/portraits-states-expressions.md) **Profile**: the detailed fields describing your world, a region, a settlement or a district. → [Area profiles and NPC briefings](../places/areas-and-briefings.md) **Quick options**: ready-made buildings in the Location Wizard, made without AI. → [The Location Wizard](../places/location-wizard.md) **Quick Start**: filling a whole profile from one line. → [Area profiles and NPC briefings](../places/areas-and-briefings.md) **Region**: a territory around one or more settlements. → [Settlements, districts and regions](../places/settlements.md) **Relationship summary**: a character's own account of their history with you. → [Disposition and relationships](../characters/disposition-and-relationships.md) **Resistance, weakness**: effects an enemy ignores, or suffers more from. → [Status effects](../adventure/status-effects.md) **Room (sub-location)**: a floor or room inside a building. → [Buildings and rooms](../places/buildings-and-rooms.md) **Scope**: who a lorebook entry applies to. → [The Lorebook](../places/lorebook.md) **Settlement**: a village, town or city. → [Settlements, districts and regions](../places/settlements.md) **Settlement template**: a ready-made town you can drop in. → [Settlements, districts and regions](../places/settlements.md) **Spectate**: watching and directing a scene without being in it. → [Spectator mode](../conversations/spectator-mode.md) **Story Moment**: a small scene you walk in on. → [Story Moments](../living-world/story-moments.md) **Story So Far**: the running account of your time in a settlement. → [Overnight](../living-world/overnight.md) **Variant**: another version of an enemy that sometimes appears in its place. → [Creating enemies](../adventure/creating-enemies.md) --- ## Keyboard shortcuts (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/reference/keyboard-shortcuts) # Keyboard shortcuts Every key and mouse shortcut in RPBuddy. Shortcuts don't fire while you're typing in a text box. ## On the map | Input | Action | |---|---| | Drag | Pan the map | | Scroll, or pinch | Zoom | | Click a spot or a building | Walk there | | **Esc** | Stop walking, or leave the building you're in | | **E** | Enter the nearest building, when you're close to one | | **1**–**6** | Quests, Skip time, Inventory, Where is?, Build, Settings (desktop) | In **Where is?**, **Enter** jumps to the first result and **Esc** closes the search. ## In a conversation | Input | Action | |---|---| | **Enter** | Send | | **Shift+Enter** | New line | | **/** | Open chat commands | | **Esc** | Leave the conversation | | \*text\* / \_text\_ | Bold / italics | | Long-press a portrait (touch) | Open the character's menu | Editing a message (Hero): **Enter** for Save & rerun, **Esc** to cancel. ## In Build mode | Input | Action | |---|---| | **Ctrl+Z** | Undo (removes the last point while drawing) | | **Ctrl+Shift+Z** or **Ctrl+Y** | Redo | | **Enter** | Finish a road, river, wall or custom building | | **Esc** | Cancel what you're drawing or editing | | **Ctrl+C** | Copy the selected building (once it's been filled in) | | **F** / **Shift+F** | Flip a copied or preset building horizontally / vertically while placing it | | Click a road, river, wall or fill | Edit it | | Double-click a settlement, district or region | Edit its outline | | Double-click a building (long-press on touch) | Reshape it | | Right-click a point | Remove it, while editing an outline or line | **Scrolling while reshaping a building:** | Input | Action | |---|---| | Scroll | Rotate | | **Shift**+scroll | Resize | | **Ctrl**+scroll | Cycle footprint shapes (not for custom shapes) | | **Ctrl+Shift**+scroll | Add or remove floors | **Scrolling with other tools:** | Tool | Input | Action | |---|---|---| | River | **Ctrl**+scroll | Width | | Wall | **Shift**+scroll / **Ctrl**+scroll | Thickness / height | | Stamp | Scroll / **Shift**+scroll | Rotate (top-down view only) / resize | | Landmark (moving) | **Shift**+scroll | Resize | ## Windows and panels | Input | Action | |---|---| | **Esc** | Close the Atlas (you're asked first if there are unsaved changes), the Journal, and most windows | | **Enter** | Add a note, memory, genre or avoidance in the Journal | | **Enter** / **Esc** | Next step / close, while creating a world | --- ## Welcome to RPBuddy (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/welcome) # Welcome to RPBuddy ![Welcome to RPBuddy](./images/welcome/welcome.webp) RPBuddy is a single-player worldbuilding and roleplay game. You build a world, fill it with characters, and play it by talking to them. The AI plays every character. They remember you, they have opinions about you, and what you say changes things: deals get made, quests get taken, friendships form and sour. You don't need to know any tabletop rules, and there's nothing to memorize. You walk around, talk to people, and the world keeps moving. ## The core loop 1. **Get into your world.** Pick a genre and describe the place you want. 2. **Place a building with characters in it.** A tavern, a clinic, a noodle bar: whatever your world needs. 3. **Walk in and talk to them.** Everything else (towns, roads, enemies, lore, time passing, sharing your world) builds on that loop. ## Five genres **Medieval Fantasy**, **Victorian**, **Modern Day**, **Neon Future** and **Sci-Fi: Colony**. The genre sets the look, the names, the building types, the clothing and the currency. Everything else works the same in all of them. ## How these docs are organized - **The Journey** is the place to start. Chapters 1 to 4 take you from signing up to your first conversation in a few minutes. Chapters 5 to 12 cover everything after that, and you can read them in any order. - **Topic sections** go into full detail: characters, places, conversations, the living world, adventure, images and art, the community, and your account. - **Reference** collects the numbers in one place: credit costs, limits, keyboard shortcuts and a glossary. - **Help** covers troubleshooting and the FAQ. Ready? Start with [1. Sign up](journey/01-sign-up.md). ## Getting help - **Buddy**, the in-app helper, answers questions about how anything works. See [Buddy](account/buddy.md). - [Troubleshooting](help/troubleshooting.md) and the [FAQ](help/faq.md). - Join the community on [Discord](https://discord.gg/ejppJUc3QS) or [r/RPBuddyAI](https://www.reddit.com/r/RPBuddyAI/), or [contact us](/contact). --- ## Export world (https://www.rpbuddy.ai/docs/worldbuilding/markdown-export) # Export world Open **Atlas → Settings**. **Export world** is at the bottom of the world-settings column, below **Intimacy**. ## Copy or save - **Copy Markdown** puts the document on your clipboard. - **Save Markdown** downloads a UTF-8 `.md` file. If clipboard access is unavailable, you can still use this download. Export reads **currently saved authored text**. Save pending edits first; exporting never saves them silently. The buttons are unavailable while Atlas has pending changes or is saving. ## Which worlds qualify You must own the original authored world. Existing owned worlds qualify too; it is not limited to newly created worlds or worlds with a new origin marker. Community clones, previews, starter worlds and tutorial worlds are excluded. This includes a clone of your own published world: use the original authored world instead. Editing or renaming a community clone does not make it eligible. ## What the document contains Readable entity headings and named field bullets cover saved world lore, supported NPC profiles, factions, enemies and variants, locations with named parent/floor/room paths, and editor-visible lorebook fields. References use names rather than raw record IDs. Empty sections are omitted. There are no HTML anchors or geometry appendices. The document does **not** include map placement data such as coordinates, footprints or boundaries, raw map JSON, play history, or a restorable backup. It cannot restore the world or be imported as a complete world. Not every authored field is included: NPC **Player Backstory** (`playerRelationshipSeed`) and **Travel Schedule** (`travelSchedule`) are currently absent from whole-world export. Keep those separately if you need them. Individual [NPC profile Copy](../characters/npc-profiles.md) has a different scope. --- # FAQ ### Getting Started **What is RPBuddy?** RPBuddy is an AI-powered tabletop RPG sandbox that lets you build living worlds, create characters, and have immersive conversations with NPCs — all driven by AI. **Do I need tabletop RPG experience to use RPBuddy?** No. RPBuddy handles the worldbuilding and storytelling. You just describe what you want and interact with the world. **What do I need to get started?** A desktop web browser. Create a free account and you'll be building your first world in minutes. **Does RPBuddy work on mobile?** Yes. RPBuddy works on phones and tablets with a responsive interface. You can also install it as a home-screen app on iOS and Android for a native-app feel. Desktop is still the best experience for map building and detailed editing. ### Accounts & Billing **Is there a free plan?** Yes. Every account starts on the free Traveler plan: 50 image credits, 50 AI actions per day (a chat message or an AI generation each count as one), unlimited worlds, and unlimited manual building. No credit card required. Image credits refill 30 days after you first use them. **What happens when I hit a free-plan limit?** You can keep playing. AI actions reset at midnight UTC; image credits refill on their 30-day schedule. You can also buy a credit pack, or upgrade for unlimited play and monthly credits. **Can I upgrade from the free plan?** Yes, any time. Your worlds and everything in them come with you. **What plans are available?** Traveler (free) — 50 image credits, 50 AI actions per day, unlimited worlds, unlimited manual building, no card requiredAdventurer ($10/month) — 200 image credits, unlimited NPC chats, unlimited worldsHero ($20/month) — 500 image credits, advanced image generation (expression sheets, premium models), message editing & re-rolling, enhanced NPC memoryBoth paid plans can be billed yearly instead: Adventurer $100/year and Hero $200/year, which is two months free. Yearly plans are charged in full at signup and include a one-time bonus of image credits — 200 on Adventurer, 500 on Hero. Your image credits are still granted monthly either way. **What are image credits used for?** Each credit generates one image — character portraits, building interiors, settlement exteriors. NPC conversations don't cost credits. They're unlimited on paid plans and limited to a daily allowance on the free plan. **Can I buy extra credits?** Yes. Anyone can, including free-plan accounts: 50 credits for $5, 100 credits for $8, or 300 credits for $20. The bigger the pack, the cheaper each credit gets. Addon credits never expire — they aren't affected by plan changes, allowance resets, or billing cycles. **Do unused monthly credits roll over?** No. Your monthly subscription credits reset on each billing cycle, and free-plan credits refill to 50 every 30 days from first use rather than on a billing cycle. Purchased addon credits do roll over. **Can I cancel anytime?** Yes. Cancel through your account settings or the Stripe customer portal. You keep access until the end of your billing period. After that your account moves to the free plan and keeps its worlds. **What's your refund policy?** If you cancel within 48 hours of your initial subscription and haven't used any of the credits that subscription granted, you can request a full refund. After that, subscriptions are non-refundable. Credit pack purchases are non-refundable. ### Gameplay **What can I do in RPBuddy?** Build settlements with buildings, roads, rivers, and landmarksCreate NPCs with detailed personalities, backstories, and AI-generated portraitsHave freeform conversations with any NPC — they remember previous interactionsRun quests, manage inventory and economy, engage in combatTrack your story through an AI-powered journal **How does NPC conversation work?** When you enter a building and talk to an NPC, you're having a real-time AI conversation. The NPC has a personality, memories, relationships, and goals that shape how they respond. They remember what you've said in previous conversations. **What are chat commands?** In a face-to-face conversation, type / to open commands: travel with people without closing the chat, change the weather, give a hidden director note, move someone, or wipe the scene. Command words stay in English. See Chat commands. **Can NPCs talk to each other?** Yes. When multiple NPCs are in the same building, secondary characters can join the conversation naturally. **What is the simulation?** When you're not interacting with the world, NPCs go about their daily routines — traveling between buildings, encountering each other, and living their lives. Time advances and the world evolves. **Can I have multiple worlds?** Yes. You can create as many worlds as you want. Each world is independent with its own characters, story, and settings. **Can I play with friends?** RPBuddy is currently a single-player experience. Multiplayer is something we're considering for the future. **Can I play a second player character in the same world?** Not yet. A world has one player character, and there's no way to swap in a new one without losing the story already in progress.Two characters can't share a world because NPC memories are anchored to a single “player”. A second character would walk in carrying the first one's history, and NPCs would greet a stranger like an old friend.Starting a brand-new world is the straightforward option — your current world stays exactly as you left it. **Can I copy or duplicate my own world?** There's no direct duplicate button. The one way to get a second copy is to publish the world to the Community Hub and then clone it back from there — open the ⋮ menu on your world card, choose Publish, then play your own world from the Hub to clone it into your account.Two things to know before you do: publishing makes the world publicly visible, and the published version is a frozen snapshot, so the copy won't stay in sync with the original as you keep building. **If an NPC mentions a place that isn't on my map, does it get created?** No. The map only changes when you change it. NPCs will sometimes reference places that don't exist as hexes — a neighboring city, a port down the coast — and that's just them talking, the same way a real person mentions somewhere they've been. Nothing is generated behind the scenes and no hexes are added.If you want a place they mentioned to become real, add it yourself in worldbuilding mode. **Are there cheats or console commands?** No — there's no console, no command line, and no cheat codes. That said, it's your world: you can add items to your inventory and edit your character directly from the Atlas Player tab. Your gold balance is the exception; it only moves through real transactions like selling, quest rewards, and combat. **How do I leave a world and get back to the Dashboard?** On desktop, go back a page in your browser and the world exits cleanly — or hover over the RPBuddy.ai logo in the top left and click Dashboard. On mobile, simply go back to the previous page.Your world is saved continuously, so there's nothing to save before you leave or quit. **Can I craft items?** There's no crafting system. Items come from shops, NPCs, quest rewards, and combat loot — and you can always add items to your inventory directly from the Atlas Player tab. **When does combat start, and how do I earn XP?** Combat starts two ways: walking through a biome can trigger an encounter (only if you've created at least one enemy template for that biome — without templates the world is safe to wander), or a conversation with an NPC turns genuinely violent and moves to the battle screen.XP and experience points come from winning fights — enemies above your level are worth more, weaker ones less. Losing to enemies costs some XP and gold. ### Content & Safety **Is RPBuddy appropriate for all ages?** No. RPBuddy is an 18+ platform. Users must confirm they are 18 or older before playing. **What content is allowed?** RPBuddy supports mature scenarios and dramatic themes in creative fiction on paid plans, within our Terms of Service. On the free plan, scenes that move into mature territory are paused with a notice. Your worlds are private on every plan.For image generation, individual AI image models enforce their own content restrictions on top of ours — some are stricter than others, and a model may decline a prompt that another accepts. If a portrait or image is refused, adjusting the prompt or switching models in your world settings may help. **What content is NOT allowed?** Content involving minors in sexual situations, real identifiable people without consent, content promoting real-world violence, and attempts to bypass content safety systems are strictly prohibited. See Section 6 of our Terms of Service for the full list. **Why was my NPC chat message blocked?** There are two different notices. “Mature content isn't available on this plan” means the scene reached mature territory on the free plan; it is not a safety violation, and upgrading lifts it. A safety block is different.An NPC chat message is blocked when RPBuddy's automated safety screening flags it as potentially containing content prohibited by Section 6 of our Terms of Service. This includes sexualized content involving minors, non-consensual sexual content, bestiality, content involving real identifiable people without consent, content that promotes, plans, or instructs real-world violence or terrorism, harassment or threats against real people, illegal-purpose content, and attempts to bypass safety systems. Consensual adult fictional content is permitted, but these prohibitions apply even in fictional roleplay. Repeated attempts to submit prohibited content may lead to account action. Because screening is automated, false positives are possible; contact support@rpbuddy.ai if you believe a message was blocked incorrectly. **Does RPBuddy use my data for AI training?** Not on paid plans. On the free plan, the prompts and AI responses from your sessions may be used to improve RPBuddy's AI. Upgrading stops that for all future activity, and content you created on a paid plan is never used, even if you later move to the free plan. Buddy chats are never used. Your worlds stay private on every plan. See our Privacy Policy for details. **Is mature content available on the free plan?** No. Mature scenes are available to paying users. Everything else — combat, drama, dark themes — is fine on every plan within our Terms. ### Technical **What AI models power RPBuddy?** RPBuddy uses state-of-the-art large language models for NPC conversations and story generation, and dedicated image generation models for character portraits and art. We continuously evaluate and upgrade our AI stack to deliver the best experience. **Why does my NPC sometimes say something weird?** AI models can occasionally produce unexpected outputs. If an NPC says something out of character, just steer the conversation — they'll course correct. We're constantly improving the prompts and guardrails. **What art styles are available?** RPBuddy currently offers: Oil Painting (classic fantasy), Retro Anime (80s/90s cel animation), Modern Anime, Comic Book, and Adult Animation. **Can I export my world data?** Data export is planned for a future update. In the meantime, if you need your data, contact support@rpbuddy.ai and we'll help you out. **I found a bug. How do I report it?** Join our Discord community or email support@rpbuddy.ai. We actively fix bugs and love hearing from our players. **What browsers are supported?** RPBuddy works best in Chrome, Firefox, and Edge on desktop. Safari is supported but may have minor differences. ### Privacy & Data **What data do you collect?** Account info (name, email), payment info (processed by Stripe — we never see your card number), your game content (worlds, characters, chats), and basic usage data. On the free plan, AI prompts and responses may also be used to improve our AI. See our full Privacy Policy for details. **Can I delete my data?** Yes. You can delete individual worlds (which permanently removes all associated data and images), or request full account deletion by emailing support@rpbuddy.ai. Free-plan content that was already used to improve an AI model stays in that model; it is removed from our systems and excluded from future training. **What happens to my data if I cancel?** Nothing is lost. Your account moves to the free plan with your worlds intact. Content you created while subscribed is never used for AI improvement.