# EXP — a life worth returning to

**Decision update, 2026-09-08:** Use [claim policies](claim-policy-decisions-2026-09-07.md) for the
accepted item lifecycle, bank shipping, crafting, and offline rules. Initial offline activities are
skill practice only; they do not change inventory. Earlier consumptive work plans remain future
proposals. Use [current status](project-status-2026-09-08.md) for the three-view demo and its control
repair pass. A standalone life mockup is not a substitute for the migrated game HUD.

**Status:** experience direction and implementation scaffold, 2026-09-05. The founder approved the
non-coercive direction and a ground-up interaction redesign. Detailed rules below are proposals.
The prototype implements only the small subset listed at the end. The operator authorized an
unlisted web preview and this document on Play EXP, through staging and production, on 2026-09-05.
Noindex discourages search indexing; these preview URLs are not private or authenticated.

## The question at the center

You have time. What will you do with it?

Humanity crossed a black hole with advanced robotics, powerful AGI, and a civilization's worth of
tools. It arrived somewhere its old assumptions do not all hold. People develop quickly and age
slowly. Death remains possible. Long life makes purpose a recurring choice, not a solved problem.

The player is not required to maximize output or save every world. They can build a home, become a
craftsperson, study an anomaly, help a neighbor, travel, raise a family, make art, or change course.
The world remembers specific actions. It does not constantly grade the player's moral worth.

**Revised September 11:** encourage short daily check-ins, reward collection, and streak recognition.
The [current decisions](daily-life-rewards-token-model-2026-09-11.md) supersede the earlier no-daily-claim
rule. Caps, intervals, and missed-day treatment remain open. Public observation needs no login.
Login opens planning; manual takeover is explicit. These are plans, not prototype features.
Keep safe default activities. No reward decision grants immortality outside protected activities.

## Preserve the world; replace the interaction burden

Keep the graphics and asset pipeline, tuned world generation, galaxy catalog, travel foundations,
cutscenes, story context, PupBRO activation/sidebar, and the 23 knowledge trees. Preserve proven
identity and custody invariants while replacing their presentation. Do not erase existing assets,
accounts, inventories, or world deltas as part of a UI redesign.

Keep the irreverence, strange names, machine humor, and 16-bit pixel direction. Sincerity does not
require solemnity. A character can care deeply and still swear about a leaking roof.

The existing catalog has 999 clusters and 69,420 worlds. Most clusters have 69 worlds; the large hub
has 420. Some have small additions to reach the total. Preserve this catalog, not a new formula:
998 × 69 + 420 is 69,282, not 69,420. The world factory already accounts for the difference.

Replace mandatory button rotations, daily claims, notification clearing, repetitive loot sorting,
and dashboard-first onboarding. This does not authorize a change to protected token or Coin rules.

## Six mechanics that form one life

### 1. Intentions

The player sets a purpose, place, duration, resource allowance, and risk boundaries. PupBRO explains
what the character will do, what it needs, what can change, and when it will stop. Confirmation is
explicit. Plans are permissions, not blank checks for an AGI narrator.

Start with clear options: help here, prepare for a journey, practice with someone, investigate, or
rest. Later expose conditional plans: if the weather changes, return; if supplies fall below this
reserve, stop. Give advanced control without making programming a prerequisite.

When circumstances invalidate a plan, follow its fallback and preserve safe care. Do not demand an
urgent login. Scarce resources and finite projects constrain work. There is no infinite unattended
production queue. Being online does not multiply an otherwise identical action's output.

### 2. Dilemmas

Choices trade time, supplies, information, relationships, and exposure. They should not just trade
one hidden number for a larger one. Repair now, survey first, ask for help, or take another route.

Show what the character knows and what remains uncertain. Do not present a precise death percentage
when the model cannot support it. Unknown danger must be legible without revealing every surprise.
Frontier consent and logout rules still need their separate adjudication design.

Test for dominant options. If one routine wins in every situation, the game has lost judgment.
If every route gives the same result, the game has lost agency. Early mistakes should be recoverable;
later, informed choices can have lasting consequences under the accepted risk rules.

### 3. Practice and understanding

Keep all 23 trees. Introduce a few relevant branches through activities and mentors, not a wall of
locked icons. Show descriptive proficiency and evidence. A character's learned craft is distinct
from its player's understanding; automated study cannot establish real-world learning.

A useful encounter lets the player notice something, test an idea, see a consequence, and apply it
again. Explanations are optional and revisitable. Do not convert learning into a quiz toll booth.
Give mysteries room to breathe. Scientific evidence and fictional laws remain separately labeled.

### 4. Relationships

People have routines, preferences, unfinished projects, disagreements, and things they enjoy besides
work. A friend may want company without assigning a quest. A robot may offer competent help and a
terrible joke. Conversations must sometimes exist for their own sake.

Record meaningful interactions, not grindable love points. Show recognition when a contribution
actually helped. Do not pretend a specific player caused autonomous progress. A community can finish
work while someone is away; preserve valid credit without punishing the absent player.

Adult relationships remain consensual. Child NPC protection, safe custody, civic care, and autonomous
robot personhood follow their governing documents. None becomes a retention mechanic.

### 5. Belongings and preparation

Use four clear locations: **worn, carried, stored, committed**. Add a readable heirloom designation
without creating another copy of the item. The authoritative custody system still owns transfers.

A plan can propose a kit: clothing, tools, food, and transport space. The player approves the cost
and reserve. Explain shortages where they matter. Compatible stacks can be grouped in the view;
distinct condition, ownership, and provenance must remain intact underneath.

At home, optional player-approved storage rules reduce sorting. On the frontier, weight, repair,
route access, and logistics still matter. “Stored” never means accessible from every planet. A
remote item is not equipped until valid transport delivers it. Scrap and salvage have uses; wealth
does not need to arrive as coins falling from wildlife.

### 6. Chapters, lives, and legacy

Make completion local and real. A visit can finish a task. A chapter can restore a place or resolve
a mystery. A life can fulfill an ambition. The galaxy does not have to end for any of those to count.

Long-lived characters need evolving purposes, not ever-larger XP requirements. Let someone finish
a craft chapter, teach, travel, or begin another discipline. Permit rest without stagnation alarms.

Follow existing succession rules: one active life, adult successors only, no return to control a
retired parent, no duplicated heirlooms, durable kinship and obligations, limited foreground Legacy
Anchors. The next life inherits a history and valid belongings, not the previous body's entire build.
Do not make marriage, parenthood, or a particular worldview the only route to a meaningful legacy.

## The browser experience

The world remains visible and inviting. Scene composition, distinct sprites, a few readable motions,
music, silence, and restrained dialogue do the emotional work. Pixel art is an art direction, not
permission to make text tiny. Support text scaling, keyboard access, reduced motion, and muted audio.

PupBRO powers the sidebar. Its proposed default sections are:

| Section | Purpose |
| --- | --- |
| My time | Understand the current situation and choose the next bounded plan. |
| People | Find a person, their context, and a reason to spend time together. |
| Belongings | See what is accessible, where it is, and what a plan commits. |
| Journal | Read causal outcomes, discoveries, and completed chapters without an unread badge. |

Maps, detailed skills, quests, settings, travel, and social tools remain accessible as deeper views.
The prototype's four sections are not a decision to delete those tools. Quests are commitments or
invitations within this structure, not an accumulating red counter.

On a phone, PupBRO can become a full-width panel. Essential choices require neither movement keys
nor precision taps. Powering down returns attention to the world. Direct walking, fishing, and other
manual activities may remain enjoyable optional play; none is a compulsory attendance test.

## Story and content production

Author a small cast and complete local stories first. Keep emotional writing and evidence review
human-accountable. Use procedural variation for places, constraints, available resources, and
consequences. Do not ask unconstrained generated dialogue to invent canonical facts or award items.

A chapter definition needs prerequisites, relevant world facts, involved people, valid approaches,
costs, outcome rules, a completion condition, knowledge references, and follow-up possibilities.
Its dialogue reads committed outcomes. Its completion cannot contradict the actual project state.
Add content validation before scaling authoring across worlds.

A long Chronicle needs pauses, setbacks, reunions, celebrations, and quiet scenes as well as epic
firsts. Do not schedule a disaster merely because the player has been away. The broader simulation
keeps running; protected care and plan fallbacks must handle absence without emergency screen duty.

## Delivery scaffold and migration boundaries

| Layer | Existing foundation | Next work |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Presentation | Phaser, pixel assets, world rendering, sidebar | Test intention-first controls in the isolated lab, then adapt them into AdventureShell behind a rollout flag. |
| Life rules | New pure first-chapter reducer | Extend reviewed activity contracts, state validation, partial work, interruption, and outcomes. No full engine rewrite. |
| Persistence | Existing Postgres identity and custody | Add server-owned plans, reserved inputs, transactions, idempotent command receipts, and restart recovery. Client saves are never authority. |
| Content | Existing story, cutscenes, skill taxonomy | Version chapter definitions, dialogue conditions, evidence entries, and authored recurring characters. |
| World simulation | Existing world factory and simulator plan | Use the same domain rules for small live scenarios and headless runs; grow fidelity only when measured. |
| Release | Feature → dev → staging → production | Test adapters, retain rollback flags, preserve old data, and obtain release approval. |

Before connecting this to live play, map every old inventory action and currency award to its
server owner. Write contract tests for custody and conservation. Never run old and new reward paths
for the same action. Revalidate the migration ledger's identity, mobile, reconnect, and authorization
gaps. Do not tear down DJH or change public branding as part of this prototype.

## What is built now

- `lib/life/first-chapter.ts`: pure, clock-injected rules for a first contribution, three protected
  routines, committed material costs, cancellation, completion receipts, replay, and duplicate commands.
- `prototypes/life/`: local-only React/Vite experience using existing art. PupBRO powers on, records a
  contribution, previews a plan, shows a completed chapter, and exposes people, belongings, and history.
- `tests/life-first-chapter.test.ts`: regression tests for the small rules.
- `scripts/check-life-prototype.cjs`: repeatable browser journey and mobile overflow check.

Run `npm run life:dev`; open `http://127.0.0.1:4310/`. Local development binds to loopback only.
The normal application build also generates the operator-approved `/lab/mara/index.html` preview,
`/lab/mara/design.html` readable Markdown, and `/lab/mara/design.md` source. The operator also approved
publishing the existing pitch deck as-is at `/pitch` on 2026-09-05. Other design files stay outside
the public build. These unlisted URLs remain accessible to anyone with the link. The lab remains
separate from live gameplay and uses an isolated browser save, not live accounts.
“Return after 6 hours” and “Return after a week” advance lab time. This is not the Ark calendar.
The scenario is authored and deterministic; it is not a civilization Monte Carlo simulation.

The current choices test presentation, not balanced strategy. Observation is cheaper than other
routes and has no lasting tradeoff yet. Resource scarcity, alternate endings, and opportunity costs
need tests before this becomes an actual economic loop. No Coins, token claims, or live skill XP
are emitted. No full inventory migration, AGI service, multiplayer authority, or new procedural
worlds are implemented. The local save is editable and single-tab; it is not a security boundary.

For browser checks, provide Playwright through the normal runtime or `LIFE_PLAYWRIGHT_MODULE`.
If using installed Chrome, set `LIFE_BROWSER_CHANNEL=chrome`. Supply an existing temporary output
directory as the script argument to capture screenshots.

The next implementation step is a small `/demo` region inside the existing EXP renderer, with the
same art and character scale. The standalone Mara illustration is not the visual target. Follow the
[world-first build plan](world-first-build-plan-2026.md) for progressive HUD controls and a complete
first chapter. Add an authenticated, transactional adapter for one protected plan before claiming
persistent multiplayer behavior. Use the [daily-life proof](daily-life-proof-2026.md) for experience
gates and the [rollout plan](exp-rollout-plan-2026.md) for the larger sequence.