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Troubleshooting - the five classic mistakes

  1. Curly quotes and long dashes from drafting in Word. The game speaks plain keyboard characters only. Fix the quotes, or better, draft in a plain-text editor from the start.

  2. A key that doesn't match. Offers: bounty needs a job whose heading ends in (bounty); Then: reveal dimming_2 needs a beat keyed (dimming_2); Scene: quill_hail needs a scene keyed (quill_hail). Misspelled keys don't error - the connection just quietly never happens. When something is silently missing in play, check its key first.

  3. No space after the #. ### Name (key) works; ###Name (key) does not. Same for the fence: it must be a line of only dashes.

  4. A fact outside the fence (or prose inside it). Facts go between the --- lines; story goes below them. If a Color: line is showing up in your description text, it's outside the fence.

  5. Two things with the same key. Keys are nicknames, and nicknames must be unique across the file.

The file at a glance

When you're lost, this is the whole shape of a universe file - every chapter optional, every entry the same heading / fact sheet / prose shape:

# The Silver Reach              <- the title and the world's prose
## Sides                        <- the factions (character sheets)
### [The Lantern Combine](lantern)
### [The Red Veil](veil)
## Jobs                         <- the work sides offer
### [Convoy Escort](escort)
## Narrative                    <- the story, chapter by chapter
### [The Dimming: A Cold Lane](dimming_1)
## Goals                        <- how the campaign ends
### [Break the Veil](goal_break_veil)
## Regions                      <- the map's moods
### [The Veilfall](veilfall)
## Landmarks                    <- the legendary places
### [The Pale Ark](pale_ark)
## Captains                     <- the named people
### [Mara Dusk](mara)
## Lifeforms                    <- the comms cast and passengers
### [Harbormaster Quill](quill)
## Dialogue                     <- the words
### [Veil Hail](veil_hail)

The rest is world-building - and that part was always your job, not the computer's.