Game Concepts

Core Concepts

This page explains the main pieces of Decision Craft so you can follow any screen or tooltip.

Theme

The overall fantasy or genre concept for the run. Themes include an image and a short description, and they influence everything else generated.

You can also propose a custom theme.

If you want some inspiration, you can check the theme database.

Custom themes can include character wishes, which are short player-written prompts that steer the generated characters toward a certain fantasy or role.

Favorite themes can also be exported from Previous Games and imported later as .dctheme files.

World

The setting created from the chosen theme. Includes:

• World name and lore
• Currency name
• World traits
• Locations discovered as the story progresses

The room also chooses an image style for the run: anime or realistic.

Characters

Each player chooses a character generated for the world:

• Items (bag)
• Skills (abilities/spells)
• Stats (attributes)
• Background and story hooks

Quests

Each run includes:

• Main quest for the whole party
• Personal quest for each character

Rewards can be money, items, skills, or story outcomes.

Rounds

Gameplay proceeds in rounds. Each round includes:

• A scene with story text and an image
• A set of choices
• A result that changes the world

Runs often begin like one-shots, but they can continue for as long as the story still has momentum.

Choices

Players can:

• Vote for a listed choice
• Write a custom choice
• Use an item or skill to prefill a custom choice

Dialogues

During scenario play, you can switch from Act to Talk and start a direct dialogue with an NPC. This is separate from voting on a choice:

• Pick 1 to 4 NPCs from the dialogue picker.
• Write what your character says.
• Wait for the AI to answer in-character.
• Usually one NPC answers first, but if several are selected, multiple NPCs can reply and react to each other.
• Use dialogue to ask questions, negotiate, roleplay, threaten, flirt, or get clues.

Effects

Effects are changes applied by the story:

• Active effects that persist across rounds
• Round effects applied in the current turn

Effects can also include new images, quest updates, NPC arrivals, money changes, and location changes.

Manual Edits

Decision Craft includes a manual Edit system so you can correct important details when the AI gets something wrong:

• Players can adjust their own character text.
• Portraits can be reverted to a previous generated version.
• Hosts can update NPCs, items, skills, and some quest outcomes.
• Every change is logged in the edit history.

NPCs

Non-player characters appear during the story. NPCs can join, help, or be eliminated depending on the narrative.

Eliminations & Spectators

If a character is eliminated, the player can remain as a spectator and keep watching the story. The lobby can also be recreated for the eliminated player to get a new character. If all players are eliminated, the game is over and cannot be continued.