CHAPTERS SRD

A romantasy-first SRD for designing solo story games about relationships, transformation, and the things that change us along the way. CHAPTERS is a free System Reference Document for creating structured solo and GMless narrative games where emotional journeys matter just as much as what happens in the wider world. At the heart of CHAPTERS are three evolving Paths: Heart follows the protagonist: what they believe, confront, choose, and become. Bond follows the central relationship: the trust, tension, intimacy, distance, and change between two characters. Fate follows the world around them: the discoveries, obstacles, pressures, and outside forces that shape their journey. Together, these Paths give stories room to unfold without leaving players to wander indefinitely. Scenes answer focused questions, meaningful changes earn Marks , and Turning Points move each Path into a new State until the story reaches an ending shaped by what happened in play. CHAPTERS was designed with romantasy in mind: cursed lovers, rival knights, strange bargains, haunted swords, courtly intrigue, impossible vows, and all the inconvenient feelings that happen between adventures. But the framework can support any story where relationships and personal transformation sit at the centre of play. INSIDE THE SRD You’ll find guidance for designing: premises and protagonist Roles; complete Arc Playbooks built from Heart, Bond, and Fate; Path Questions and evolving States; Scene Questions that give individual scenes direction; six core Story Pressures for introducing change; Marks and Turning Points for shaping progression; Counterparts and the Compass system for portraying an important second character; optional Deep Turning Points for larger structural shifts; stagnation support, endings, playtesting, and more. CHAPTERS is written with first-time designers in mind . You do not need to already understand narrative game design to begin building with it. The SRD is released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) , so you are welcome to use it to create free or commercial games of your own This product was created using the Chapters System Reference Document by Fistful of Crits, a trading name of Fistful of Ink. The Chapters System Reference Document is © Fistful of Ink and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .