Intelligence

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What it controls

Intelligence is a fact that has been confirmed and can be known by a character. A clue is evidence; intelligence is the explanation or confirmation that follows. The example is The Sender Has Not Left the Harbor. It appears only after the salt mark and the recent delivery record are confirmed.

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Content

The content becomes a fact the player can know, but it is not shown as soon as the node is created. It appears in the intelligence menu only after the reveal condition holds and the fact enters the current story state.

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Reveal and knowing

Do not select every character as a knower. What a character knows directly shapes what they can say, what they hide, and who the player gets the answer from.

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Build the chain

1. Write the evidence the player observes first as a clue;
2. Define the confirmed fact here and set its reveal timing;
3. Bind the characters who already know it, so later dialogue and actions have a basis.

For example, the player first sees “salt marks on the envelope edge,” then confirms through the register that “the sender has not left the harbor.” The first is a clue; the second is intelligence. Do not write both stages as one record. In a test session, confirm that the fact is absent before the reveal and can be reviewed afterward.

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Check it

• The content states a fact that is already true;
• The reveal act exists and is connected to the main route;
• The reveal condition can be reached through player actions or story events;
• Only characters who really know the fact are bound;
• A test confirmed the fact does not appear before the reveal, can be reviewed afterward, and is not spoken early by a character.