# campaign-start.md **How a filed campaign becomes a living world.** > ## The one rule > > **This runs once, before play, and never again.** > > Everything else in Seren is a **template layer** — 42 role templates, 26 feat > shapes, 10 item shapes, 14 character masters, the container spec. **This > document is the recipe that consumes them and emits a campaign.** > > `DM.md` references this file as a **non-loading pointer**: the folder was built > before play, the DM needn't read this, and **must not re-run it.** --- ## 0. Before you start Two prerequisites, both hard: 1. **A campaign is chosen** from [`../campaigns/candidates/`](../campaigns/candidates/), and **its own licence page has been read** — not the publisher's general terms, the specific file's. Anything not explicitly redistributable stays in [`../campaigns/reference/`](../campaigns/reference/) and never enters the repo. 2. **A level is chosen.** Everything downstream depends on it, and it is not easily changed afterwards. --- ## 1. Create the folder ``` LIVE// campaign.md premise, tone, session-zero outcomes DM-persona.md WHO is running it — see dm/persona-format.md fronts.md what is in motion — agendas + clocks ideas.md what COULD be wired in, untriggered builds/ the party, devolved to this campaign's level canon/ locations// state.md what is true here charactermap.md who is here — links only npcs/ containers, created ON CONTACT (empty at t=0) antagonists/ interaction logs for the activated nemeses (§5b) a SIBLING of locations/ — antagonists travel characters// secrets.md DM-side, campaign-specific state/ THE LIVE GAME — written continuously party.md t=0, from the builds scene.md first scene queue.md on the first uncaptured NPC facts.jsonl t=0, EMPTY — SRN-11 ledger.jsonl t=0, EMPTY — appended every roll, forever sessions/ session logs ``` > ### ⛔ THE ROOT IS `LIVE/`, NOT `campaigns/` — corrected 2026-08-27 > > **This tree was built on `campaigns//` from the day it was written.** > [`../LIVE/README.md`](../LIVE/README.md) is the authority and says the > opposite: > > ``` > campaigns/modules// the module · template · portable · MAY SHIP > LIVE// the playthrough · instance · yours · NEVER SHIPS > ``` > > ⚠️ **So this section was instructing the generator to write a player's live > game into the directory that ships** — the same class of problem as §2's > content-lines leak, and larger, because it is the whole tree rather than one > file. `.gitignore` already excludes `LIVE/*`; it has never excluded a campaign > folder under `campaigns/`. > > ### ⚠️ And `state/` was missing entirely > > **The build-test's PASS list requires *"`state/` and `sessions/` exist, with > `facts.jsonl` and `ledger.jsonl` present and empty."*** ⛔ **This procedure > never created `state/` at all**, so as written it could not pass its own test. > > ⭐ **Three files described this tree and no two agreed** — this section, > `LIVE/_SAMPLE/`, and `test-criteria.md` §1. **SRN-42.** Reconciled here; this > tree is now canonical and the other two follow it. ### ⚠️ A correction to the container spec [`npc-containers.md`](npc-containers.md) §1 puts containers at `canon/locations/…` at the **top level**. That's wrong, and this is the fix: **Canon is campaign-bound.** What's true in one campaign isn't true in another. So `canon/` lives **inside the campaign folder**. The top-level [`../canon/`](../canon/) holds something different — **portable canon** that travels with a character across campaigns: | top-level `canon/` | `LIVE//canon/` | |---|---| | who a character **is** — Ser'en's `bible.md`, her `secrets.md` | what this campaign **established** — NPCs met, promises made, places seen | | imported setting reference | discovered state | | **template layer** | **instance layer** | Same split as sheet-vs-state, one level up. *(Fix the path in `npc-containers.md` §1 when convenient — the design is right, the location was wrong.)* --- ## 2. Session zero → `DM-persona.md` **Do this before writing anything mechanical.** It sets tone, and tone changes what you author afterwards. Session zero produces **the persona, not the contract**. `DM.md` is shared across every campaign and does not change here. **Write it to [`../dm/persona-format.md`](../dm/persona-format.md) v2** — five parts, in this order: **identity · seven dials · moves · a falsifiable prediction · when this persona is wrong.** That file carries the fill notation, the three-dial floor, and the six-step derivation; **do not restate them here.** **Worked example:** [The Registrar](../campaigns/modules/a-wild-sheep-chase/DM-persona.md). **Without this the AI defaults to generically pleasant**, which is the one thing no good DM is. Architecture §1: the contract constrains, the persona empowers. > ### ⛔ What session zero must NOT write into this file > > **Content lines. Lethality. Telegraph density. How hard the DM pushes back.** > > ⚠️ **These are the PLAYER'S and they live in > [`../dm/table-agreement.md`](../dm/table-agreement.md)**, which every campaign > inherits. **The conversation happens once, not at the top of every campaign.** > > ⭐ **It is a privacy rule, not a tidiness one.** A campaign folder can be > zipped and handed to someone else — **write a person's content boundaries into > it and you ship them to strangers.** > > *(This paragraph replaces a bullet list that instructed exactly that leak. > Corrected 2026-08-26 when the persona format went to v2.)* > ### ⚠️ The seed cannot fill this yet > > `dm_persona_seed` carries **six v1 fields**, and **four of the seven dials have > nothing upstream to derive from** — roll frequency, failure texture, canon > generation, callback appetite. **The Registrar came back with all four marked > `unset — no source`.** > > ⛔ **Until the seed schema catches up, session zero must ASK for those four > rather than infer them**, and record `no source` if the player has no view. > **SRN-37.** --- ## 3. Author the fronts **Agendas, never plot.** Architecture §6 — write what factions *want* and what they're *doing*, with a clock that advances when the party is elsewhere. ``` front: the Sundered Choir wants: to wake the thing under the barrow doing: buying up salvage rights along the coast clock: [####------] advances when the party is elsewhere if full: the barrow opens; every coastal node changes state ``` **Two to four fronts is plenty at start.** Seed `ideas.md` from [`../campaigns/IDEAS.md`](../campaigns/IDEAS.md) — the pool harvested from the characters' own sheets — but **only copy what fits this campaign.** An idea records its **trigger** and its **cost**; a spent idea is *promoted* to a front or to canon, never left in the pool. **Antagonists attach to fronts, they are not fronts.** If a villain's death would end the plot, they're a front. If they'd just be gone, they're an antagonist. See [`npc-containers.md`](npc-containers.md) §8. --- ## 4. Devolve the party **`devolve(master, level)` → `builds/.md`.** Architecture §2b. **Derivable, do it mechanically:** class features by level · ASIs · spell slots, cantrips and prepared counts · subclass features · HP — **all of it is in [`../library/2024/core.md`](../library/2024/core.md)**, and ⚠️ **the ASI and subclass levels this file used to state inline were wrong.** Do not restate them; look them up **NOT derivable — this is the manual pass:** > **Equipment.** Nothing in the rules says which magic items a level 5 Korth > should carry, and handing a level 5 character a Rod of the Pact Keeper +2 > wrecks the campaign. **Gear transposes, it does not import.** The master's inventory records *what kind of character this is*, not a list of objects. Ring of Shooting Stars becomes *some* very-rare utility item that fits **this** world. Use the ten shapes in [`../library/homebrew-items/`](../library/homebrew-items/) — and `provenance` is the transposition key: knowing an item has 3 charges tells you nothing, knowing it's *a noble house's recall token* lets you build this campaign's version immediately. **The engine should refuse to emit a build with items inherited blindly.** ### The devolve is a CONVERSATION, not a computation **Added 2026-08-25 (Jay).** The section above reads as though the AI derives a build and hands it over. **It is the player's character**, and everything the master under-determines is theirs to decide. > **Anything the master under-determines is a conversation, not an inference.** **But a conversation with a recommendation in it.** *(Jay, 2026-08-25.)* The campaign-start AI is **not the DM** — different job, different session, and it may reason freely about the character in a way the DM at the table should not. It should arrive with a proposal: > *"At level 4 I'd prepare these six and drop Counterspell — nothing here needs > it and you lose the reaction. Sound right?"* **Recommend, then confirm. Never interrogate, and never auto-fill.** A blank questionnaire at session zero is exhausting and produces worse answers than a good proposal the player pushes back on. The player's job is to disagree, not to originate. **Three consultations at campaign start, not one:** | | why it can't be derived | |---|---| | **equipment** *(above)* | nothing in the rules says what a level 5 version carries | | **spell selection** | ⚠️ **not subtractive, even going down.** A level-11 wizard's prepared list was chosen for level-11 problems; at level 4 with three slots you cannot take the first three off it. The selection logic changed, not just the count. Same for invocations, domain picks, manoeuvres, anything chosen in context. | | **signature feat** *(§5)* | it defines who they are | **Going UP is strictly harder than going down.** Beyond the master's level nothing has been chosen at all — every ASI, feat, subclass feature and spell is a fresh decision. **Never auto-fill those.** Ask. ### Starting from level 1 **Most of the mechanical work collapses.** A level 1 character has a handful of features, no subclass, and two spells. ⚠️ **But trivial is not the same as good.** A devolve that does almost nothing also *tests* almost nothing — and levels 3–5 are where the interesting machinery lives (subclass at 3, first ASI at 4). If the point of a run is proving the devolve works, level 1 proves the easiest possible case. **Say out loud that the master is not binding.** Climbing back from 1, the choices will differ from the level-11 sheet. **That's correct.** These are structures, not scripture. --- ## 5. Signature homebrew feats **One per PC**, from [`../library/homebrew-feats/`](../library/homebrew-feats/). Pick a **shape** — aura, trade, bond, token, pool, passenger — start from the `## The hook` line rather than the mechanics, instantiate it for *this* world, and **decide when it unlocks.** **Write it into the campaign, not onto the character sheet.** The character is a template; the feat is an instance. **The constraint, held hard:** a signature feat says *who you are*, it does not raise your numbers. Moonwell Presence is the model — it makes Ser'en legible, not stronger. Turn these into +2 damage riders and every PC gets a power bump. --- ## 5b. Activate the antagonists **Added 2026-08-24.** This step was missing — the six nemeses in [`../npcs/antagonists/`](../npcs/antagonists/) are a template layer, and nothing said who consumes them. This does. **Pick two or three. Not six.** Six is the *bench*, not the roster. Every antagonist activated at t=0 is one the player has to hold in their head from session one, and the whole value of the tier is *"oh, it's him again"* — which needs a small enough field to recognise. **Activate more later; the bench does not expire.** ### Pick on availability first, then on axis 1. **Check `attaches_to:`.** Four of the six hang off a specific PC. If that PC is not in the party, either use the antagonist's `fallback:` or leave them on the bench. Two are `attaches_to: [party]` and always work. 2. **Do not activate two on the same axis.** The six are spread across what they *want* — extraction, obstruction, vendetta, seduction, collateral, correct — precisely so that a small selection generates different scenes. Two vendettas is one nemesis with two faces. 3. **Prefer one that cannot be fought.** Ilma and Teodor generate scenes no combat encounter does, and a bench of three brawlers wastes the tier. ### Then, for each one activated - [ ] **Fill `grudge:`** — one line, **party-relative**, written against the actual party. The `grudge_seed:` in the file is the character-level fact it hangs on and is **not** a substitute for it. - [ ] **Transpose anything they carry.** Corwen's inherited weapon comes off a PC's master sheet; the item is a *kind*, not an object. Architecture §2b. - [ ] **Answer the forks in their `-secrets.md`**, where one exists. Maelis, Ossa and Iselde each have a decision the campaign must make **before** they are used — improvising it in the scene where it lands is how the reveal gets wasted. - [ ] **Create the interactions log**, empty: `canon/antagonists/-interactions.md` ### Antagonists are not fronts, and this is where that gets enforced **If activating one requires inventing a faction, a war, or a place, stop.** The templates leave world details deliberately unnamed so the campaign can fill them — but filling them with an *organisation with an agenda* means you have written a front (§3) and given it a face. The test from §3 holds: **if their death would end the plot, they are a front.** --- ## 6. The starting location **This is almost nothing, and that's the design working.** ``` canon/locations// state.md what is true here — a few paragraphs charactermap.md EMPTY, or one or two named residents npcs/ EMPTY ``` **Do not populate the town.** People are created **on contact**, from a role template plus the trait tables, and written at session close. A town with forty pre-written residents is forty strangers nobody will meet. Name two or three people the premise actually requires — the innkeeper the adventure opens on, the patron who hires the party — and stop. --- ## 7. What is NOT created now Everything below appears **during play**, written at session close: | appears | when | |---|---| | NPC containers | first real contact | | `-interactions.md` | first exchange worth recording | | canon facts | established in play, with visibility tags | | session logs | session close | | PC `secrets.md` | when a subplot needs somewhere to live | | new locations | when the party goes somewhere | | promotions to `named` | when the player remembers a name unasked | --- ## 8. The t=0 manifest **Checklist. If any of these is missing, play should not start.** - [ ] `campaign.md` — premise, tone, session-zero outcomes - [ ] `DM-persona.md` — voice, lethality, pacing, content lines - [ ] `fronts.md` — 2–4 fronts with clocks - [ ] `ideas.md` — seeded, each with trigger and cost - [ ] `builds/` — one per PC, at the campaign's level, **equipment pass done** - [ ] one starting location with `state.md` - [ ] `canon/locations/` and `sessions/` exist and are empty - [ ] the campaign's licence checked and recorded - [ ] signature feat chosen per PC, with its unlock condition - [ ] **2–3 antagonists activated** — `grudge:` filled, secrets forks answered, empty interactions log created in `canon/antagonists/` *(§5b)* --- ## 9. Hand off to the DM Once the manifest is complete, this document's job is finished. `DM.md` carries the write-boundary clause, which is the only trace of this procedure that survives into play: > **The campaign folder was constructed before you by `campaign-start.md`. You > do not need to read it, and you must not re-run it.** > > **You may write:** NPC containers, interaction logs, session logs, canon > promotions. > > **You may never create:** fronts, builds, locations that were not authored, > or campaign structure. **The reference is deliberately non-loading.** It exists so the DM knows the structure is intentional rather than incidental — a bare prohibition gets rationalised around in a long session, a reasoned one doesn't. It is not an instruction to go and read this file. **The procedure builds the world. The contract governs what happens inside it.**