Built-in Plugins and Features
Covel comes with a set of plugins and four worlds. This chapter tells you what each one is, what you will see in the game, and what you can adjust. To find out which plugin gives you a certain panel, or whether a feature can be turned off, look here.
The built-in plugins and worlds are only demos, and you do not have to use them.
Manage session policy providers and execution limits in orchestration settings.
Narrators supply location and mood cues when they change, for the stage and music to read; see Narrative and Memory.
Dimension tools report schema-invalid values as correctable input errors; see update-dimensions.
Opening character templates must include a placeholder for every collected field. Template/default errors are correctable invalid-input failures; see character tools.
What is in this chapter
| Page | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Narrative and Memory | Who writes the story, action suggestions, other versions of a reply, and how the story is remembered |
| RPG Mechanics | Dice checks, point buy at the start, quests, inventory, affinity, hidden story events |
| Characters and World | Setup at the start, creating a character, character profiles, world state, time, codex, relationships |
| Stage and Sound | Stage mode, scenes and characters on stage, background music |
| Built-in App Features | Features that belong to no plugin: views, appearance, AI world creation, debugging, and more |
Gameplay packs: pick a set of plugins at once
When you start a game, you do not need to choose plugins one by one. A gameplay pack is a ready-made set of plugins. Pick one on the session-prep screen. There are seven built in:
| Gameplay pack | Good for | Plugins it includes |
|---|---|---|
Traditional Story traditional-story | Long exploration, reading a story | Narrator, Action Suggestions, Codex, Relationship Graph, World Rules |
Dialogue Mode dialogue-mode | Character dialogue, visual novel | Dialogue Narrator, Scene Stage, Action Suggestions, Character Profiles, World Rules, Reply Variants |
Low Cost low-cost | Keeping model costs down | Narrator, World Rules |
Narrative Only narrative-only | Just reading the story, at the lowest cost | Narrator |
DM Mode dm-mode | Game-master narration | Pregame, world initialization, Narrator; no character creation |
Ensemble Dialogue ensemble-dialogue | A cast performs together | Pregame, world initialization, character creation, Dialogue Narrator, Character Actor, Turn Policy, Scene Stage |
Spectator spectator | Observe advancing NPCs | The ensemble composition without player character creation |
The first three packs also include Pre-Game Setup, World Dimensions and Character Creator, and they recommend turning on Story Memory. Narrative Only turns off the other plugins that are on by default: there is no opening form, character creation or world dimensions, and no world time, Story Memory or history compaction. The world's declared dimensions are not imported, and the session starts as usual.
The "Back to the minimal set" button on the session-prep screen selects this combination in one click: only narrative plugins and any plugins they or the world require.
A world can add plugins to a built-in pack and give that combination a name. For example, Lantern Barrow calls its Traditional Story setup with Tabletop Rules, Dice Check, Quest Log, Inventory and Affinity “Classic Tabletop”. This does not create another pack available globally. After you pick a pack, you can still add or remove plugins under "Customize plugins and advanced settings" on the session-prep screen.
All built-in plugins
Plugins marked "On by default" are added to every game automatically, and you can turn them off on the session-prep screen. Some plugins require capabilities from other plugins. If a provider is missing, its dependents are disabled and the interface explains what is missing; other features keep working. The others are chosen by the gameplay pack, the world, or you.
Narrative and memory
| Plugin | What it does | On by default |
|---|---|---|
Narrator narrator | Writes the story text for each turn | Yes |
Dialogue Narrator chat-mode-narrator | Tells the story as character dialogue; works alone, Scene Stage is optional | |
Character Actor character-agent | Plays the selected character's public speech/actions | |
Turn Policy turn-policy | One service with five strategy settings | |
Action Suggestions guide | Gives a few actions you can tap below the story text | |
Reply Variants branch-reply | Writes another version of the same turn | |
Story Memory memory | Remembers the ongoing plot, the current scene and the player character's state | Yes |
History Compaction history-compaction | When the conversation gets long, summarizes the older part | Yes |
A session may have several player characters. The two narrator plugins follow the character you are currently playing (see Narrator · The character you play and Seats). Story Memory, Inventory, Dice Check, Tabletop Rules, Character Creator and Character Profiles follow the action’s actor, falling back to the primary seat’s current character. Scene Stage still uses the first player character.
RPG mechanics
| Plugin | What it does | On by default |
|---|---|---|
Dice Check dice-check | Pre-rolled dice decide risky actions; no attribute label appears when no ability is available | |
Tabletop Rules tabletop-rules | Assigns attribute points at the start, and lets the player start attribute checks | |
Quest Log core-quest | Records quests and objectives, with localized status badges | |
Inventory inventory | Looks up carried items, settles trades, and records item changes | |
Affinity affinity | Tracks numeric player–NPC affinity and supplies current scores to narration | |
Hidden Story Events story-events | Story events that only happen when their conditions are met |
Inventory and affinity world-seeded records pass dataset validation; sync can remove seeded records deleted from their authoritative source.
Characters and world
Character, fact, and dimension tracking retain each narrative segment’s speaker or actor. The player message remains a separate source; see Characters and World.
| Plugin | What it does | On by default |
|---|---|---|
Pre-Game Setup pregame | Collects the player's choices when a game starts | Yes |
Character Creator char-creator | Creates the protagonist from form answers and updates character state | Yes |
Character Profiles character-blueprint | Holds the characters and portraits the world provides | |
World Dimensions world-init | Prepares character attributes and dimensions, and updates dimension state | Yes |
World Time world-time | Time passing, day and night, and a rules summary | Yes |
World Rules living-world-rules | Brings the world's rules into every turn, with localized category badges | |
Codex codex | Records people, places and things, with localized category badges | |
Relationship Graph npc-graph | Records a graph of relationships between people, groups and factions | |
World Fact Extraction world-ir | Extracts current facts and reviews open quest objectives for other plugins |
Stage and sound
| Plugin | What it does | On by default |
|---|---|---|
Scene Stage scene-stage | Updates scenes and cast as the player changes location | |
Soundtrack soundtrack | Plays the world's own music for each scene |
The four built-in worlds
Mistport, Harukaze Academy and Lantern Barrow each show one play style: Mistport shows traditional narrative, Harukaze Academy shows stage mode, and Lantern Barrow shows tabletop rules. Emberback is written in English and shows how a world can offer editions in several languages.
| World | Gameplay | What is worth a look |
|---|---|---|
Mistport (雾港・裂潮纪) mistport | A dark-fantasy investigation in the traditional narrative style | Hidden story events, memory for investigation, portraits |
Harukaze Academy (遥风学园) haruka-academy | A campus ensemble in stage mode | Campus timetable, dialogue narration, day/night scenes, transparent portraits |
Emberback Relay emberback | Sci-fi frontier mystery, written in English | Shows how one world can carry several languages (English first, with a Chinese edition) |
Lantern Barrow: The First Delve (提灯古冢) lantern-barrow | Classic tabletop dungeon exploration | Point buy at the start, dice checks, dungeon panel |
To build your own world based on these, the files are in the repository's worlds/ directory.
More
Plugins such as image and voice generation are not built into Covel. You install them separately. See Install plugins and world packages. To write your own, see Develop plugins.
Generic policy selection and delegation caps are in session orchestration settings. The bundled policy resolves automatically as the sole service; choose explicitly only when another provider is active. Change the strategy in its own settings.
The story interface also provides the host’s advancement and Stop controls. The story provider decides whether to request another round. Ensemble dialogue can follow policy advice to continue and yields to the player when no actor contributes.
Ensemble actors respond from their own witnessed history; the shared brief does not automatically tell newcomers about private exchanges from the previous scene. See ensemble dialogue.
New compositions remain plugin lists plus a world-generation default view. They do not select a role, perspective or strategy. For DM Mode, set Narrator Perspective to Game master. Ensemble works with the default Player role and mention strategy. To play a human DM, turn off character creation and select Game master in preparation. For Spectator, choose that role at creation, then list, random or director and Advance. Choose Game master instead to direct/narrate the same NPC composition. World allowed-pack lists remain authoritative and saved views are not overwritten. Recommendations stay optional; missing actors/policies preserve narrator-only play.