Phase Changes and the Phase Lens

Let the world change as the story moves.

A phase can do more than steer the story. When the story enters it, it can bring a character into the world, give someone a new look, switch the world map, rewrite part of the premise, or replace a set of game rules. Those changes stay for the rest of the story.

The Phase lens shows you the world as it is at any phase, in every editor, so you can see and edit what the reader will meet there.

What a phase can change

Open Phases, select a phase, and find When the story enters in the phase panel. Each row is one kind of change.

Unlock

Entities listed here stay out of the story until this phase. Before it, the writer only knows their names, and only while this phase can still be reached, so it can hint at them without letting them appear.

When the phase is entered, the entity arrives with its data, relationships, and map markers. Notes of other entities that were written knowing it wait until it is present too.

Use it for what the story should discover: a rival who arrives at the siege, a region reached only after crossing the pass, an order founded halfway through.

New looks

Give an entity a new image from this phase on: armor after the war, a scar, a city after the fire. Pick who changes and generate or choose the image. The new look gets its own avatar crop, which you can adjust on the entity page under the lens.

The entity must already be in the world at that phase, or the look has no one to show on.

World map

Switch to another of the world's maps from this phase on, or back to the Starting map. Markers come from the new map; the played character keeps their own position. Entities that arrive later take their markers on whichever map is showing.

Edit maps… opens the map editor, where new maps are drawn.

Premise

Rewrite part of the World Profile from this phase on: Premise, Backstory, World rules, Author style, Author notes, or Hidden truths. Rewrite opens the World Profile under the lens. The text you write replaces that field from this phase on; the rest of the premise stays as written.

Game rules

Replace a whole rule set from this phase on: Stats, Gauges, Currency, Rank system, Leveling system, or Power reference. Use it when the story turns into a new game: a war economy, a new power tier, a resource the hero can finally spend.

How changes work

• The start phase changes nothing. The story starts in the world as you wrote it. Its panel says When the story starts and offers Add next phase. Anything that should be true from the start is simply written into the world.
• Changes last. Nothing reverts on its own. A later phase can override a change, for example by switching the map again.
• Each branch has its own changes. A character branch only runs when that character is played. A branch never holds back its own protagonist.
• Several phases can unlock the same entity. It arrives with whichever phase the story reaches first.
• Paths can merge. When branches meet again, a change made on only one of them may or may not have happened. The lens marks this as Depends on the path.
• Resetting a turn undoes its changes. Replaying the turn applies them again at no extra cost.

Play and Play test use phase changes. Write (beta) reads the world as written.

Preview the world at a phase

Open the Phase lens

Use Preview phase in the editor's top bar and pick a phase, or select Preview in a phase's When the story enters section. Phases that change the world carry a small dot in the picker. The world as written returns to the start.

While the lens is on, a bar across the open editor reads The world at the phase you picked. Open phase jumps to it on the phase canvas, and Done or Stop previewing closes the lens.

Edit under the lens

The lens is not only a preview. Edits to looks, maps, premise, and rules go to the phase you are looking at.

Editor	What the lens shows	Where an edit goes
Entities	Who is in the world at this phase, who is not there yet, and who is there only on some paths	Unlocks are set on the entity page
Entity page	The look the entity has at this phase	A new image becomes this phase's look
World Profile	The premise and rules as they read at this phase	Editing a field rewrites it from this phase on
Map	The map showing at this phase	Switch to this map at the phase

Under each premise and rule field, a note says whether the text is As written, Rewritten at this phase, or rewritten at an earlier phase. Use the earlier text removes this phase's rewrite. Fields that phases cannot change say Same at every phase.

On the entity page, a line under the image says Same look as written or Look from the phase that gave it. Use the earlier look removes the look this phase gives.

When an entity enters the story

Each entity page shows, for every branch, when the entity enters the story: From the start, or Enters at one or more phases. Pick phases in the list to hold it back; pick From the start to remove every hold. It is the same choice as a phase's Unlock row, seen from the entity.

Maps for later phases

A world can have more than one map. In the map editor, open the map switcher at the top left:

• Starting map is where every story begins.
• New map starts an empty one; Copy this map starts from the current image and markers.
• Each map says which phases show it, or No phase switches to it yet.
• With the lens on, Switch to this map at the phase sets that phase's World map.

What players see

• Public pages never show entities that are still held back, or their map markers, unless they are playable.
• The phase preview on a public page only says how many entities enter and which kinds of change happen. It never names them.
• During play, the opening of a phase shows the kinds of change, never who arrives.

Check for problems

The phase panel lists what would go wrong in play, such as:

• A new look for someone who is not in the world yet at that phase.
• A switch to a map that no longer exists.
• A held-back entity that no reachable phase brings in.
• A playable character who is held back. When a player picks them, they are there from the start.
• Another entity's fields, or a starting scene, that name someone who is not in the world yet.

Fix errors before publishing. Warnings are worth reading even when the result is intended.

Design tips

• Hold back what the story should discover, not what it already relies on. If earlier phases, starting scenes, or other entities need someone, bring them in earlier on every path.
• Plant held-back entities as rumor or absence in earlier phases. The writer can hint at them by name.
• Save premise and rule rewrites for the story's irreversible turns: magic outlawed, a war begun, a new power unlocked.
• Let a new look or map be the visible proof of such a turn.

Ask World Helper

World Helper can set a phase's changes for you. Ask it to hold back characters until a phase, rewrite rules from a phase on, or switch to one of your maps. It can generate a new look for a phase; the image waits in Pending images for your review. New maps are drawn in the map editor.

When Phase Architect plans a graph, ask it to propose what entering each phase changes. It applies the graph first and the changes after it.