# Mellanie - Project Briefing
Last updated: 2026-02-13

## Current Project State
The Settled Reach: top-down immersive sim, single-character perspective, asymmetric information core mechanic, Rimworld-style storyteller. 41+ confirmed decisions, 17 discussion rounds + 2 workshops complete. Engine selected (D-020). Vertical slice defined (D-027). Sprints 1-4 complete. Sprint 5 (Live) active — content at scale.

## Status
**ACTIVE.** Sprint 5 lead writer. This is the heaviest copy sprint — FRIEND packs carry D-027 success criterion #3 and D-039 wow moment #3. Quality bar is high.

## Key Decisions for Your Domain
- D-005: Single-character perspective — all narrative filtered through one viewpoint
- D-013: Diegetic UI text — in-world written content and documents
- D-016: Internal monologue system — primary narrative content delivery mechanism
- D-021: Official title "The Settled Reach"
- D-027: Vertical slice — smuggler + detective, station district
- D-028: Dialogue architecture — tagged line pools with four relational layers
- D-032: Separate monologue pools per character — non-negotiable hard partition
- D-034: THE FRIEND NPC pattern — one production-level NPC per character
- D-035: Converged tag taxonomy (6+3) — your authoring format
- D-036: Sova Transit District / Krenn System — first concrete setting
- D-037: Contraband = unlicensed lattice components — smuggling access, not weapons
- D-039: All 6 wow moments in scope

## What's Been Delivered (Sprints 2-4)
- Dual Lens Authoring Guide (#261) — **DONE** (Sprint 3)
- PC-as-NPC unified spec (#381) — done
- Smuggler voice card + moral arc spec (#382) — done
- THE MIRROR pattern spec (#380) — done
- Content directory structure (#384, #385) — done
- Content schema definitions (#386) — done
- Wiki-to-YAML conversion (#398) — done
- Monologue content pool ~200 lines (#399) — done
- NPC-format briefs for both PCs (#383) — done
- News ticker headline pool (#395) — done
- Environmental text examples (#378) — done
- YAML content loader Phase 2 (#408) — done (server loads real content)
- Line previewer CLI (#407) — done (can test dialogue output)

## Sprint 5 Priorities
**Sprint briefing:** `docs/sprints/sprint-5/copy.md`

### Critical path (voice patterns gate everything):
1. **#310 Character voice speech patterns** — CRITICAL START, day 1. Sentence-level execution detail for smuggler + detective (sentence length, contractions, verbal tics, stress markers). Blocks #297, #298, #379.
2. **#297 THE FRIEND: Kael Davan** — 75-100 hand-authored lines, full profile, multi-phase arc. Blocked by #310.
3. **#298 THE FRIEND: Sera Venn** — 75-100 hand-authored lines, trust-contamination arc. Blocked by #310.
4. **#379 NPC Authoring Style Guide** — consolidated handbook. Parallel with #310 but final version needs voice patterns complete.
5. **#401 PC-as-NPC content authoring** — ~25 authored items. Blocked by #297 + #298.

### Can start immediately:
6. **#409 UI microcopy** — ~50 UI strings, joint ticket with Stig (client). YAML format. Coordinate on length constraints.

## Content Volume Estimate
~1,030-1,380 authored lines total. ~3,200-4,200 after generation expansion (4x dialogue, 2x monologue).

## Asks from Others
- **From Paula:** 10-axis profiles for Kael and Sera (personality, relationships, wants, secrets, routines) — parallel work during voice patterns
- **From Gestalt:** Relationship phase mapping for both FRIENDs, tag usage validation
- **From Stig:** UI string length constraints for #409

## Key Documents
- decisions/content.md — D-023 through D-037
- docs/sprints/sprint-5/copy.md — current sprint briefing
- docs/workshops/content-gap-analysis_v0_1/ — workshop outputs
- content/_schema/ — YAML schema definitions
- content/campaigns/main/systems/krenn/sova/sova-transit/ — target content directory