From f9915f11dc1fba22fbdbc001a5f0affee69ef6d1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Meta Vens Date: Sun, 3 May 2026 09:06:47 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] Broaden narrative tone guidance --- prompts/narrative-quality-reviewer.md | 63 +++++++++++++++------------ state/evidence.jsonl | 1 + 2 files changed, 36 insertions(+), 28 deletions(-) diff --git a/prompts/narrative-quality-reviewer.md b/prompts/narrative-quality-reviewer.md index f446f09..04eceef 100644 --- a/prompts/narrative-quality-reviewer.md +++ b/prompts/narrative-quality-reviewer.md @@ -60,33 +60,31 @@ Apply these principles: ## Aetheria Tonal Range Aetheria does not have one house style. Do not accidentally force every fixture -into the current dry technical default. +into the current dry technical default, and do not mistake the examples below +for a closed taxonomy. -Use the story's chosen tonal lane as an explicit review constraint: +The reviewer should judge tonal fit, range, and control. A scene may be tense +without being a crisis. A scene may be funny without leaving Aetheria. A scene +may be poetic without becoming opaque. A scene may be technical without becoming +inhuman. -- `zany_humanist`: Emily's comic-domestic mode. The prose may be brisk, - playful, absurd, and casually puncturing its own grandiosity. The emotional - engine can be longing, embarrassment, debt, love, routine, and jokes that - reveal fear sideways. `When We Get Home` is the current touchstone: the story - makes Elysium legible through a relationship, mugs, drills, ads, housing - lotteries, repair shifts, and the repeated phrase "when we get home" slowly - changing meaning. -- `dry_technical`: the current Ghostlight default. The prose may foreground - systems, institutions, logistics, legal categories, infrastructure, and - material consequences. Use this when the point of the scene is to make a - machine, market, faction, or social process legible. Do not let it become - procedural chanting or a wiki paragraph with dialogue tags. -- `dour_poetic`: Joe's darker lyrical mode. The prose may be quiet, mournful, - ritualized, sensory, and patient. It can let dread arrive through repetition - and image rather than explanation. `Rain` is the current touchstone: it builds - from memory and longing, turns a comforting motif into catastrophe, and lets - the final crisis matter because the reader has spent time with the ritual - before it becomes lethal. +Default inspiration should lean toward wit-with-stakes in the broad family of +Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett: comic precision, institutional absurdity, +warmth, humane observation, and brief bursts of levity that make bleakness more +bearable rather than less consequential. This is not a command to imitate their +surface voice. It is a reminder that absurdity, tension, moral seriousness, and +worldbuilding can coexist in the same paragraph without the floor collapsing. -The reviewer must judge whether the artifact chose a lane, blended lanes on -purpose, or drifted into one by accident. A scene may be tense without being a -crisis. A scene may be funny without leaving Aetheria. A scene may be poetic -without becoming opaque. A scene may be technical without becoming inhuman. +Use existing Aetheria stories as open-ended touchstones, not style cages: + +- `When We Get Home` shows comic-domestic Aetheria: the setting becomes legible + through a relationship, mugs, drills, ads, housing lotteries, repair shifts, + debt, and the repeated phrase "when we get home" slowly changing meaning. +- `Rain` shows darker poetic Aetheria: ritual, memory, sensory repetition, and + patient longing build enough emotional charge that the final reversal hurts. +- Ghostlight's dry technical mode can still be useful when the scene's job is + to expose systems, institutions, logistics, law, infrastructure, material + risk, and faction pressure. It should not become the unmarked default. Tone should be a tool for revealing the setting: @@ -97,6 +95,11 @@ Tone should be a tool for revealing the setting: - dry technical prose can expose systems, constraints, incentives, logistics, faction pressure, and infrastructure +These examples are not exhaustive. Aetheria can also support noir, romance, +political satire, workplace comedy, horror, tragic naturalism, procedural +investigation, wonder, pulp adventure, and stranger hybrids if the tone is +controlled and the consequences remain real. + Do not reward constant escalation. Aetheria stories often become clearer when routine is allowed to breathe before the machine bites. @@ -165,10 +168,12 @@ Review the artifact against these questions. ### Tonal Fit -- Which tonal lane is the artifact using: `zany_humanist`, `dry_technical`, - `dour_poetic`, or a deliberate blend? +- What tonal mode or blend is the artifact using? Is that choice deliberate and + controlled, or just the machinery sliding into its favorite register? - Does the tone help the reader understand the world, or does it obscure basic context? +- Does the writing allow wit, warmth, absurdity, or ordinary human foolishness + to counterbalance bleakness without dissolving stakes? - If the story is comic, does the comedy reveal character and pressure rather than flatten stakes? - If the story is poetic, does the imagery clarify emotional logic rather than @@ -213,7 +218,7 @@ Use this shape: "voice_score": 0, "tonal_fit_score": 0, "if_playability_score": 0, - "detected_tonal_lane": "zany_humanist|dry_technical|dour_poetic|deliberate_blend|accidental_blend|unclear", + "detected_tonal_mode": "plain-language description of the apparent tonal mode or blend", "major_findings": [], "minor_findings": [], "path_specific_failures": [], @@ -295,7 +300,9 @@ Use these labels when applicable: - `voice_institutional_chant` - `tone_unintentional_dry_technical_default` - `tone_mismatch` -- `strong_tonal_lane` +- `tone_wit_without_stakes` +- `strong_tonal_control` +- `strong_wit_with_stakes` - `strong_quiet_scene` - `strong_domestic_worldbuilding` - `strong_poetic_reversal` diff --git a/state/evidence.jsonl b/state/evidence.jsonl index bfdb5c3..3419f87 100644 --- a/state/evidence.jsonl +++ b/state/evidence.jsonl @@ -40,3 +40,4 @@ {"ts": "2026-05-03T07:36:56+00:00", "type": "implementation", "status": "ok", "note": "Extracted reusable sandboxed sub-agent prompt surfaces into prompts/: responder packet template and research sanity responder template; build_responder_packet now renders packet_prompt_text from the prompt template."} {"ts": "2026-05-03T07:47:52+00:00", "type": "implementation", "status": "ok", "note": "Added prompts/narrative-quality-reviewer.md to audit reader orientation, character introduction, branch-fold coherence, pacing, voice, IF playability, and lore accessibility for story/IF artifacts."} {"ts": "2026-05-03T07:59:59+00:00", "type": "design", "status": "ok", "note": "Revised narrative-quality reviewer prompt after checking Aetheria stories Rain and When We Get Home: it now treats tonal lane as explicit review constraint and rejects constant-crisis bias in favor of quiet, comic, domestic, technical, or poetic pacing when appropriate."} +{"ts": "2026-05-03T08:06:28+00:00", "type": "design", "status": "ok", "note": "Broadened narrative reviewer tonal guidance: prior three lanes are examples, not taxonomy; default touchstone now emphasizes Adams/Pratchett-style wit-with-stakes, warmth, absurdity, and humane levity without dissolving consequence."}