docs(skills): repoint world-building off Duncarrow (specimen + cosmology); rewrite evals

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01HuHRPE7VfppUJEaoGBEUqZ
This commit is contained in:
2026-07-12 15:39:41 -05:00
parent ac8da4e6da
commit 602edbf257
4 changed files with 34 additions and 29 deletions

View File

@@ -32,9 +32,9 @@ Dry. Economical. Observational. States what is, lets the reader feel the weight.
It never editorializes, never reassures, never jokes. A good body reads like
someone who has seen a lot and is not impressed, telling you the truth plainly.
Look at the `duncarrow.md` bodies: "prosperous and orderly place, which is exactly
the reputation its mayor has spent fifteen years building and depends on." The
menace is in the plain statement, not in adjectives.
Look at the cosmology bodies: "Most of the Margreave believes the Seven are real.
Most of the Margreave is right." The weight is in the plain statement, not in
adjectives.
## NPCs: hard by default, warm when earned
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ own troubles and no reason to spend them on you. Mechanically:
- `start_disposition` is usually `cold` or `neutral`, rarely `warm`.
- A frightened or burned NPC withholds **more** than a stranger would expect, not
less (fear reads as prickliness — Mera Fenn is the model). `hostile` is a
less (fear reads as prickliness). `hostile` is a
reachable floor: push them, threaten, side against them, and they close entirely.
- What they reveal is gated. Low rungs get you surface; the personal and the
dangerous sit higher up.
@@ -61,7 +61,8 @@ When the player climbs the ladder, two things change together:
1. **They reveal more** — deeper `knows` gates unlock.
2. **Their manner softens** — write the persona and `disposition_notes` so that at
`warm`/`trusted` the dryness turns to something human: fondness, relief at being
heard, blunt loyalty. Old Teague's "dryness turns to something almost fond."
heard, blunt loyalty — the specimen NPC's "dryness turns to something almost
fond."
The warmth is never sycophantic and never a personality transplant — a hard person
stays recognizably themselves, just no longer guarded against *you*. That's more