What Are Story Cards?

Story Cards are notes for the AI about characters, locations, concepts, and any other parts of your world.

In Questsmith, Story Cards are trigger-driven: they enter context only when relevant words or phrases appear.

What Story Cards Do

• Preserve important details after older story text scrolls out of context.
• Increase narrative consistency for recurring characters, places, and lore.
• Add world depth without forcing all details into every generation.

Story Cards were previously called World Info.

When to Use Story Cards

Story Cards are optional, but they are one of the best tools for long-form consistency.

• Capture elements as you play: Save key details when a new character, location, or idea appears.
• Expand underdeveloped elements: Add missing details manually or with the Story Card Generator.
• Do preliminary world-building: Define factions, places, items, and concepts before the first turn.

How Story Cards Work

Every card needs one or more Triggers (keywords). When a trigger appears in player input or AI output, the card Entry is added to context.

• Activation is not instant mid-output; newly triggered cards affect subsequent outputs.
• The AI receives the Entry text, not the card Name or Notes.
• Cards stay active for a variable number of turns based on context budget.
• The AI does not know Story Cards exist unless triggers cause entries to load.

Anatomy of a Story Card

• Type: Mainly important for Character Creator workflows; otherwise organizational.
• Name: For your reference only.
• Entry: The core lore text that is sent to the AI.
• Triggers: Comma-separated words or phrases that activate the card.
• Notes: Hidden from AI; useful for player-facing options in Character Creator or creator notes.

Story Card Management

• Cards are editable at any time, including during active adventures.
• Import and export are supported (browser), useful across adventures and scenario branches.
• Hard cap: 5,000 Story Cards per adventure/scenario.

Best Practices for Entries

• Use plain, concise English with clear, unambiguous phrasing.
• Put high-priority facts near the beginning and end of Entry text.
• Mention the actual entity name in Entry since Name is not visible to AI.
• Avoid bloated physical descriptions that waste context space.

Best Practices for Triggers

• Use comma-separated triggers and keep spacing intentional.
• Avoid short triggers that accidentally match common words.
• Consider stems that catch singular and plural forms where appropriate.
• Prefer proper names for precision and lower false-positive activation.

Generating Story Cards with AI

Questsmith includes a Story Card Generator to speed up creation when you do not want to write every card manually.

Generator Settings

• Speed Create Mode: Save current card and move to the next in one step.
• Include Story Summary: Uses current Story Summary context for generation.
• Log Generation in Notes: Stores generated variants in Notes for comparison.
• AI Instructions: Style, tone, and generation constraints for card output.
• Story Information: Adventure-specific lore context for better relevance.

Details Tab Workflow

• Type: Character, Class, Race, Location, Faction, or Custom (Item, Spell, Event, etc.).
• Name: Manual or Generate New.
• Entry: Manual or Generate New.
• Triggers: Ensure they align with card name and likely in-story references.
• Notes: Optional creator notes or generated output log.

Quick Genre Examples

• Fantasy: Knight classes, enchanted weapons, magical factions, ancient ruins.
• Sci-Fi: Alien species, ship systems, station hubs, interstellar organizations.
• Historical Mystery: 19th-century investigators, landmarks, secret societies.

Troubleshooting

• Placeholders like ${What is your gender?} also work in Story Cards.
• Very long entries may be only partially reflected in outputs. Keep cards information-dense and focused.
• Use Context Viewer to verify which cards are activating and catch accidental trigger collisions.

Story Cards are simple to start and powerful to master. With careful trigger design and concise entries, they can dramatically improve consistency and immersion in Questsmith adventures.