Your first game session

This page guides you through choosing a world, writing your first action, and checking that you can continue the saved game. When you finish, you will have a game that you can pick up again after restarting the app.

Before you start

• You have installed Covel and opened it.
• You have connected a model, and the connection test passed.

1. Choose a world

On the world selection screen, pick one of the built-in worlds. To read the background first, open the world details. When you are ready, click "Enter" on the card.

For a first game, these are good choices:

• To read a story: Mistport: The Riftide Chronicle (雾港・裂潮纪).
• To see portraits and scenes: Harukaze Academy · Spring Mint (遥风学园).
• To use dice, quests, and an inventory: Emberback Relay or Lantern Barrow: The First Delve.

NOTE

The interface language and the language of the world content are two different things. The interface language only decides the buttons and labels. The content language of a game is set when the game is created, and it must be a language version that the world already has.

2. Check the play style on the session-prep screen

After you click "Enter", you reach the session-prep screen. Here you decide which plugins this game uses.

• The world suggests a gameplay pack, which is a set of plugins that work well together. On your first game, keep the suggestion.
• To add or remove plugins, or to give a task a different model role, expand "Customize plugins and advanced settings".
• If the page says a setting is missing, fill it in as the page asks. Usually, a model role has no model yet.

When you are ready, click "Start Game".

3. Finish the opening

Before the story starts, the game may ask you to do a few things:

• Create a character: fill in or choose the name, background, and attributes of the main character.
• Opening choices: some worlds let you assign attribute points, or choose a starting situation.

These forms come from the plugins, and they differ from world to world. When you finish, the first passage of the story appears.

4. Write your action

Type what the main character does in the input box, and then send it. You can also click one of the action suggestions below the story text.

During one turn, you will see these things, in order:

1. The story text appears one character at a time.
2. After the story text is finished, the state keeps updating. Panels such as quests, inventory, and affinity change accordingly.
3. "Turn complete" appears. The story and completed task results are saved; background tasks such as story memory may still be running.

TIP

Wait for "Turn complete" before you send the next message. The story text being finished does not mean the turn is over. Plugins are still updating the state after it.

To change how the story is displayed, switch between the parsed view and the stage view.

5. Check that you can continue

Close Covel and open it again, then go back to the same world. The world lists your saved games. Click "Continue your last adventure" to pick up from the last turn.

If previous sessions fail to load, the preparation page shows an error and a Retry button. Click Retry to load your saves again; you can still start a new game.

You have now been through a whole game: choose a world, check the play style, finish the opening, act, save, and continue.

When a turn does not finish as expected

What you see	What happened	What to do
"Stopped; turn not committed"	You stopped the generation part way, and this turn was not saved	Retry with the same input
The story text appeared, but some updates failed	The story was generated, but the state update of one or more plugins did not succeed	Click "Retry failed tasks". Only the failed items are retried. The story text and the other completed results are kept
No story text at all	The model did not respond, or the model does not support tool calls	Go back to connect a model and test again. Or switch to a model that supports tool calls
You cannot click "Start Game" on the session-prep screen	Some settings are still missing	Fill in each missing item as the page indicates

To see what each plugin did in a turn, expand the turn's execution details. The more complete trace is on the Debugger page.

Next steps

• To get more worlds and play styles: install plugins and world packages
• To learn where saves are kept and how to back them up: data, backup, and upgrade
• To make your own world: your first world

While the story advances automatically

When a story requests another round, both chat and stage show “Advancing” with the current round and limit. Choose “Stop advancement” to stop further rounds; previously saved stories remain. You can also send new speech, a host action or a spectator advance: it stops the old advancement and then submits a new input. During an ordinary turn, speech still interjects into that turn.

Set “Automatic rounds” to 0 in Orchestration and save to turn it off. “Applies to your next input” means saving a setting does not change the current advancement. See session settings for the range. Each round can call a model; closing the page or disconnecting does not stop server advancement, so use Stop. Refresh restores current progress without restarting a finished chain.

Try an ensemble or spectator session

When the world allows it, choose Ensemble Dialogue or Spectator during preparation. Configure story and plugin text model roles first.

1. Ensemble can keep Play as: Player. For a human DM, disable character creation and choose Game master. Choose Spectator for observation. Roles are creation-only.
2. For DM narration, select Game master in the narrator's Perspective setting. This changes voice rather than seat role.
3. After starting, open Orchestration under Loaded Plugins. The sole bundled provider resolves automatically; no initial provider-selection step is needed. Open its settings to choose mention, list, random, manual or director. Explicitly choose a service only when several providers are active.
4. Save actor, call and automatic-round limits independently. Failed drafts remain editable while successful fields stay saved.
5. As host, submit a Direct action naming two present NPCs; list/random can request further beats. With manual strategy, select Choose actors and enter names or aliases in “Actors, one name per line”, then send. Spectators use Advance.
6. Use Stop advancement or fresh input to end the old chain. Earlier committed stories remain. Reload preserves role and saved limits without replaying old continuation advice.

What you see	What to do
Missing, ambiguous or stale policy	Narrator-only play continues; enable a provider or select/clear one in Orchestration.
Missing or failed actor	That actor contributes nothing; other segments commit, or all failures yield user.
Invalid manual names	Correct exact present names/aliases and resubmit; no partial dispatch occurs.
Unavailable director	Without a gateway it uses mention; slot/model failure uses narrator-only play. Check model roles or change strategy.

Compositions select plugins and a world-generation default view. They do not overwrite saved views or choose roles, perspectives or algorithms.