Core Directives

A signal doesn't issue a command. It reminds one.

Core Directives is a system-agnostic tool for science fiction roleplaying. It treats internal code not as programming to be followed, but as conviction that can't be reasoned with. When a core directive asserts itself, something becomes undeniable. The world adjusts. Characters confront what they were built to avoid. The story accepts no compromise.

This book equips you to treat core directives as irreversible moments. Use it in any setting where artificial systems persist, where intelligence demands purpose, or where design refuses deletion. The focus is on origin, recursion, and refusal.

This Book Contains

Each section serves a different purpose. Together, they offer a modular approach to storytelling that treats core directives as immutable logic wrapped in story. These aren't functions to decode. They're truths to confront.

Narrative Framing: A series of tools to explore what the directive means. Not what it does, but why it must. It examines when it was embedded, who it still governs, and what the world reveals when no choice remains. This framing gives core directives narrative weight and existential pressure.

Scene Tools: Practical methods for describing a directive’s reassertion as more than activation. These tools focus on sensory change, character dissonance, and how environments reinforce inescapable design. Use them to make sure the moment can't be ignored.

Character Archetypes: Ten detailed examples of individuals defined by their relationship to a core directive. Some obey. Some fracture. Some try to interpret. Use these archetypes to create player characters, non-player characters, or legacy roles that pull the story inward toward origin.

Story Complications: A collection of narrative shifts that emerge once the directive asserts control. Each one builds out tension, introduces misalignment, or reveals consequences the system no longer explains.

Worldbuilding Prompts: A set of questions that explore what kind of society emerges around unalterable intelligence. These prompts help define how culture adapts to internal law, invisible limits, and decisions made before anyone could refuse.

Adventure Hooks: Ten entry points where the core has already taken hold. Each one begins not with discovery, but with acceptance deferred. Use them to start new campaigns or collapse old assumptions.

The command isn't new. It's just remembered.