NPCs that remember you, in a world that keeps records

A language model doesn't remember anything. On each turn it reads a block of text (the recent story, some instructions, maybe a few memory notes) and writes what comes next. Anything that isn't in that block doesn't exist for it.

That's why long AI roleplay goes soft. The fight from forty turns ago has scrolled out. The summary that replaced it kept “a fight in the woods” and dropped who you spared. The model fills the gap with something plausible, and plausible isn't the same as true. The wound heals on its own, the purse refills, and the innkeeper greets you like a stranger.

Bigger context windows push the problem back; they don't solve it. Worldtable's answer is ordinary software: write things down where the model can't lose them, and hand the right pieces back when they matter.

Each named person in a world holds their own record of you, separate from everyone else's. Engine The storyteller writes to it as you play: when you met, what passed between you, and a running journal of what they make of you. Storyteller

What goes in it

• Memories, by how they came to know it. Something you did to them, something they saw you do, something they heard about you from someone else, and their own private thoughts. Each one is stamped with the in-game day and how strongly it stuck.
• Five feelings. Trust, respect, fear, attraction and hostility, plus any grudges with the reason written down.
• Their read on you. A short journal in their voice, which the storyteller is shown every time they're in a scene with you.

Feelings move when you give them cause, and the storyteller decides how far. Storyteller The engine keeps the numbers and scales them: a king, an archmage or a dragon feels the same deed far less than a farmhand does, so winning one over takes more. Engine

You can read it

Every person you've met has a page. It shows where you stand on each feeling, the ladder of what trust and attraction unlock (from “will help” to “would die for you”) and how far off the next rung is, their read on you, their grudges, and their memories of you, filterable down to the searing ones. What they're hiding stays off the page. Secrets are earned in play.

When that person walks into a scene, the storyteller is handed where you stand with them and their journal on you, and it can search their memories of you for the detail it needs: the debt, the daughter, the night at the ford.

The same goes for everything about your character. Your injuries, coin, inventory and titles are kept by the game, not carried along in a prompt. Engine A wound stays until it heals. Money adds up: a price is paid, overspending is refused rather than emptying your purse, and change is made properly.

The storyteller also reads your recent turns as you actually wrote them, not a summary of them, so the line you said to someone or the thing you did in passing carries forward. And each character keeps their own clock, which moves when you play: every few turns, and further with travel and rest. Engine

Memory isn't only face to face. Do something notable (a killing, a rescue, a scene with someone important) and a timer starts. Some in-game days later, sooner for graver deeds, word of it reaches the wider world. Engine Each world's builder sets the pace, from overnight to slowly.

• Rumours spread region by region: specific near where it happened, vaguer further off, fading with time.
• Titles may be granted or taken away. You don't pick them.
• Consequences are set in motion. Someone may come looking for you, to thank you, hire you, collect a debt or settle a score, and a person looking for you asks around a whole town or region, not one room.

The storyteller writes the news. Storyteller When it arrives and what it touches is the engine's, and a marker shows on your map and sheet when there's something new. More in Word travels.

Each time word of your deeds goes out, a chapter is added to a book on your character's page: the story so far, written only from what actually happened. Storyteller As it grows, older chapters fold into a prologue so it stays readable. Engine

The storyteller reads it too, as established canon, so the people you meet can know your legend, and a scene three weeks from now doesn't contradict one from today.

The docs tag every mechanic by who's responsible. For memory it splits like this:

Keeping it Engine

Each person's memories of you, their five feelings and grudges, your coin, gear, injuries and titles, your clock, the reputation timer, and the story-so-far chapters. Stored per world and per character, between sessions.

Scaling it Engine

How much a powerful person's feelings resist your influence, and which rung of trust or attraction you've reached.

Handing it back Engine

Where you stand with each person in the scene and their journal on you, your recent turns, and your story so far, as you play.

Deciding what's worth keeping Storyteller

Which moments become memories, how strongly they stuck, how far a feeling moves, and what the rumour says.

Playing it Storyteller

How a person acts on what they remember: the cold shoulder, the free drink, the price that quietly doubles.

Say you stopped playing with a debt unpaid at an inn, a rival who heard you broke a contract, and a rescue the region hasn't heard about yet. A month later you open the tab.

• No time has passed for you. Your clock only moves when you play, so it's still the evening you left.
• The innkeeper hasn't forgotten. The unpaid tab is in her memories of you, dated, and her trust is where you left it. The first time you walk in, the storyteller is shown where you stand with her and her read on you, and can look up the rest.
• Your sheet is as it was. The arm you hurt is still hurt, and the purse holds what it held.
• The rescue is still pending. The timer is armed. Play on a little and the news reaches the next town over, and a stranger may greet you by a title.
• If you've lost the thread, the book on your character's page tells you what you did, and each person's page tells you what they think of it.

• People remember: memory, standing, word of your deeds, quests and the story so far, in full.
• Playing a turn: what gets written down at the end of every turn, and how undo works.
• AI dungeon master: how the AI narrates while game code referees and keeps records.
• Worldtable vs AI Dungeon: memory, maps and fights side by side.
• The World Studio: build a world with its own cast, and set how fast word travels in it.