Ways to play¶
You do not play a character. You choose how close to the village you want to be, on a ladder of modes. The bottom rung is watching; each rung up gives you more of a hand in it. Phase 1 ships the first two; the others are designed and waiting for their phase.
| Rung | Mode | What you do | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Watching (Observer) | Read the feed, spotlight a person or place, ask how did this happen, rewind. You change nothing. | designed · Phase 1 |
| 2 | Tinkering (Cosmic Tinkerer) | Everything above, plus: light fires, spawn people, edit anything, switch the world's rules on and off. From Phase 3, write a rule of your own. | designed · Phase 1 |
| 3 | Faction Leader | Lead a people: decree, direct, and watch individuals defy you. | planned · Phase 16 |
| 4 | Advisor | Whisper to one leader; they decide. | planned · Phase 16 |
| 5 | Possession | Live one villager's life, with the rest of the village going on around you. | planned · Phase 19 |
The dial in the corner of the screen is the ladder: turn it from Observer to Tinkerer and the tinkering tools appear; turn it back and they fold away. The same dial grows more positions as modes arrive.
The loop¶
Whatever the mode, a session has a shape: something in the feed catches your eye → you click into the place or person → you ask Explain this and read the chain of causes → and, from Phase 3, you fork the world at that moment, change one thing, and compare what happens. The game is built so that step three always works: a surprising thing you cannot trace is indistinguishable from a bug, and that is treated as one.