Character arc log

The Arc Log is a record of who your character is becoming through play. It's not a plan and not a script. It reflects what actually happened at the table.

Arc types

You choose your arc type; your GM confirms it. The arc type frames the shape of your character's journey. The six arc types are:

Redemption — your character is trying to make right something they did or failed to do
Chosen One — your character has a destiny they didn't ask for and may not want
Found Family — your character is learning what it means to belong somewhere
Corruption / Descent — your character is being pulled toward something they swore they'd never become
Self-Discovery — your character doesn't know who they are yet
Revenge / Justice — your character is pursuing accountability for a specific wrong

Your arc type shapes which reflection prompts appear and which milestone markers your GM uses. It doesn't constrain how you play your character.

Selecting a type in the chooser opens its throughline — what that shape of story is really asking — and three well-known stories built on the same shape, so you're choosing against something recognisable rather than a one-line label.

Choosing, and your GM locking it in

Picking an arc is a proposal. Until your GM locks it in:

You can fill in your Session Zero beats and read the whole arc
You can swap to a different arc type entirely — Choose a different arc re-opens the chooser. Switching resets your beats, so anything written against the old arc is discarded
The journey cannot start; your GM can't reveal the next phase until they've confirmed the arc

Once it's locked in, changing the type becomes your GM's call — everything else about the arc stays as reversible as it ever was. Your GM can hand the choice back by unlocking the arc, as long as the journey hasn't started yet.

Strands

Play doesn't respect the arc you signed up for. A Corruption arc where the party quietly became your character's first real family isn't a mis-picked arc — it's a Corruption arc that grew a Found Family strand.

Your GM can graft beats from another arc type onto your running arc as a secondary strand. They appear in their own section with a note explaining why it opened, and they work exactly like any other beat: mark them, write entries against them, open their guidance, brainstorm them.

💡Tip

A strand never takes over. Your original arc keeps its turning point and its ending — a strand is a thread running alongside it, not a second arc competing to finish first.

Your GM can mark a strand resolved when the thread has played out, or close it if it turned out not to be the story after all — a closed strand's beats go back out of your view.

What you see in the Arc Log

Not everything is visible at once. The log reveals itself as your arc unfolds:

Foundational components set at Session Zero — the baseline of who your character is when the campaign begins
Milestones your GM unlocks as significant moments occur in the campaign
Your reflection answers from each session
GM-noted moments your GM has logged directly
Your GM's current read — a few sentences on where your character is right now, refreshed every few sessions, with any threads they consider still unresolved

Components that haven't been reached yet don't appear in your log. This is intentional.

How to play a beat

Every beat in your arc carries more than a name. Open How to play this on any beat and you'll find:

Try this — concrete ways to steer play toward the beat, rather than waiting for it to arrive
You will know it landed when — what the beat actually looks like at the table, so you can tell the difference between having played it and having described it

Your GM sees one more section on their side: the openings they can build so the beat has somewhere to happen. Guidance is a suggestion, never a requirement — your character is yours.

The arc itself also opens with The shape of this arc, a short read on what the whole journey is really asking, and What stalls this arc — the handful of things that most often make an arc of this type go quiet.

The brainstorm board

Below your beats is a Brainstorm board: somewhere to park half-formed ideas about where your arc could go. A scene you want. A person who could walk in. A line you're saving.

Attach an idea to a specific beat, or leave it on the arc as a whole
Keep an idea private while it's still forming, or share it so your GM can see it in time to build toward
File an idea as open, in play, played, or shelved as the campaign moves

Nothing on the board is canon. It becomes true only when it happens at the table.

Session reflection prompts

After each session you have 48 hours to answer one rotating reflection question. Examples of questions you'll see:

"What did your character lose or gain tonight?"
"What did your character believe that they now doubt?"
"What did your character do that they can't take back?"

One question per session. Answering is optional — if you skip it, the session is still logged, just without a reflection entry. Your answers go into your arc log and are visible to your GM.

💡Tip

Short answers are fine. A sentence or two is enough to capture the moment. You can always expand on it later.

Branch points

At some point in the campaign, your GM will unlock a branch point — a moment of divergence in your character's journey. After the session where that moment occurs, you select which branch your character took.

❗Important

You don't choose your branch in advance. You play your character at the table, and your selection afterwards records the choice that was made. If the record turns out not to match what happened, change it — see below.

Choosing a path isn't final. Change path puts you back at the turning point so you can pick again — your entries and checkmarks on the path you stepped away from are kept, and come back if you return to it. What you can't do on your own is open a new phase of the arc: reaching the turning point in the first place, and closing the arc at the end, are both released by your GM.

Nothing is locked in

Marking a beat fulfilled is a note about how play is going, not a commitment. Tap the circle again and the beat goes back to unfulfilled — as many times as you like. The same is true of your written entry on a beat: you can edit it after it's been marked complete.

The one thing that stays with your GM is the reveal. Beats you haven't been shown yet stay hidden, and your GM decides when the next phase opens — and can close it again if the table isn't there yet.

GM-logged moments

Your GM can also log arc moments from their side — significant things they noticed about your character during play. These appear in your log labeled as GM noted entries and are visible to you. Your GM can't edit your reflection answers; you can't edit their noted moments.

Troubleshooting

I marked a beat complete by mistake. Tap the circle again to unmark it. Beats toggle both ways, and unmarking one steps the arc back if it had moved on because of it. If you also chose a path you'd rather undo, use Change path — your work on that path is kept.

I missed the 48-hour window to answer my reflection prompt. The reflection window closes automatically. You can't add a late entry for that session, but the session is still logged. Future sessions will have their own prompts — one missed entry doesn't affect your arc.

My arc says "Proposed arc" and my GM can't start the journey. That's the confirmation step. Your GM locks the arc in from their side, and until they do you can still change type. If they say they've locked it, refresh your arc log.

I want a different arc type but the option is gone. Once your GM has locked the arc in, switching type is their call — ask them to unlock it. They can only do that before the journey has begun, so if you're several sessions in, a strand is usually the better answer: it adds the story you're actually playing without discarding the one you've built.

My brainstorm idea isn't visible to my GM. Ideas are shared by default, but an idea saved as private is visible only to you. Use Share on the idea to hand it across the screen.

I don't see a branch point option even though my GM said one was unlocked. Branch points appear after the session where the branching moment occurred. If your GM unlocked it but you don't see it, try refreshing your arc log. If it still doesn't appear, your GM may need to check that the branch point was published, not just saved as a draft.

I can see the Arc Log but it only shows Session Zero entries. The log reveals itself progressively — only milestones your GM has explicitly unlocked appear. If several sessions have passed without new log entries, ask your GM to check whether milestones are being logged from their campaign dashboard.