Choices carry consequences.

The world answers

Actions with real upside are given real downside. Cornering a market makes you money and makes you a target. Breaking the law is available to you and so is what follows from it. Defending a settlement costs something and is remembered by the people who live there.

None of that works if the slate is wiped nightly. The reason consequence can carry weight here is that the world is persistent and keeps its own record — what you did is still true tomorrow, to you and to everyone who saw it.

Conflict and consent

Player-versus-player conflict is consented rather than universal. The intent is that fighting other players is a thing you opt into, in contexts where it carries stakes for both sides, rather than a condition imposed on everyone who steps outside a settlement.

Armour is built around trade-offs rather than a single ladder of better. Protection is bought with weight, mobility, cost or visibility, so what you wear is a statement about what you expect to be doing — not a number you raise until it stops mattering.

The specific rules governing consent, protection and the penalties attached to death are still being finalised and will be published here when they are settled.

This section describes design intent. It will be expanded once the detail is settled.