settled-reach/docs/design/first-5-minutes-experience.md

First 5 Minutes Experience Design

Ticket: #259 Owner: Gestalt (systems framework) Unblocks: #260 (opening hook content per character) Source: D-027 (vertical slice success criteria), D-032 (monologue pools), D-041 (background knowledge) Date: 2026-02-19

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Design Constraints

What this IS

A systemic opening sequence using only existing game systems. No cutscene. No special tutorial mode. No force-scripted path. The game runs at tick 1 — fog active, NPCs on schedule, world simulating — and the player experiences a designed version of that.

"Designed" means: the storyteller has selected a seed-specific opening state that makes the first 5 minutes feel motivated, not random. The player has clear first actions without being told to do them.

What this is NOT

• A cutscene explaining the premise
• An objective marker pointing the player somewhere
• A tutorial UI teaching them how to move
• A scripted conversation they must complete
• A guaranteed identical sequence on every run

D-027 success criteria — first 5 minutes contribution

The first 5 minutes must lay the foundation for all four success criteria:

1. 30 minutes of breathing room — opening must feel like daily life, not like a conspiracy. The hook should be subtle enough that the player isn't in investigation mode yet.
2. Different games — smuggler and detective must feel like different people in different situations from tick 1.
3. Named NPC — the FRIEND relationship must be established in the first 5 minutes, before any contamination.
4. Emerge from systems — the first "something is wrong" must be observable, not spoken.

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Systems That Fire in the First 5 Minutes

Tick 0: World state initialized

At game start, before the player's first input:

• Knowledge graph loaded with Background facts (per Appendix A, docs/design/knowledge-flags-v01.md)
• NPCs on their Phase 1 schedules (D-034 friend arc: baseline, no deviations)
• Fog fully opaque — the player's vision cone starts revealing the world from their spawn position
• Ambient audio playing (span gate hum, station background)

First input: Movement

First LOS reveal is the first conscious experience. The world expands around the player's movement. This is simultaneously:

• Tutorial for the fog system (learned by doing, not told)
• Spatial introduction to the opening location
• First monologue opportunity: enter_location trigger fires on first tile in a new zone

Design requirement: The spawn location must have something interesting in LOS range without moving. The player should be able to see at least one NPC or meaningful location element from their starting position.

First monologue: enter_location trigger

The insert chime plays (UI sounds bus, D-068). First internal monologue line fires from the enter_location trigger pool for this location.

This line does three things:

1. Establishes character voice (who are you?)
2. Establishes relationship to the space (do you belong here?)
3. Plants the first seed of the day's texture (operational awareness or investigative alertness)

The player doesn't need to understand the monologue system — they just hear a thought that sounds like them.

First NPC: observe_npc trigger

Within the first minute of play, a significant NPC should enter the player's LOS. This is designed into the opening state: the FRIEND is present or arrives during this window.

The observe_npc trigger fires an appropriate opening-register monologue line. For the FRIEND specifically:

• Smuggler → sees Kael: warmth, ease, "the day is better when he's here"
• Detective → sees Sera (if bar opening) or a stranger (if Terminal opening): recognition vs. observation

The FRIEND must be established in the first 5 minutes. This is the anchor for success criterion #3.

First operational beat

Within 2-3 minutes, the player encounters something to DO — not a quest, but a situation that pulls them toward action.

• Smuggler: Kael is at dock. Lunch window approaching. Shift board has today's assignments. Checking in = social interaction + operational context.
• Detective: Sera's usual booth. Or a manifest terminal with flagged entry. Or Voss giving the new arrival a territorial once-over.

The first action should be something the character would naturally do. Not "find the smuggling ring" — "say hello to Kael" or "get a read on the district."

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Character Opening Designs

Smuggler Opening

Core emotional register: Operational confidence. This is your place. You know these people, this space, this rhythm. Something small is slightly off — but you won't notice it for a few minutes.

Starting location: The Terminal (Logistics Hub), dock floor or break room area.

Background knowledge active at game start:

• Full ring routing knowledge (knows_details: knowledge.ring_routing_knowledge)
• Kael is a ring member and close friend (knows_details + friendly)
• Today's operational context (whether a drop is scheduled or it's a routine day)

First 5 minutes beat sequence:

Beat	Trigger	System	Content Purpose
1	Enter Terminal	enter_location	Voice + tone established. "Home sweet home" register.
2	See Kael (if on shift)	observe_npc	FRIEND Phase 1 warmth. "The day's better when he's on shift."
3	See shift board / loading arms	enter_location / observe_anomaly	Operational awareness. World is working.
4	First Phase 2 signal (optional, seed-dependent)	observe_anomaly or time	Kael checks lattice. Brief distracted pause. Too subtle to read.
5	First interaction opportunity	WASD to Kael, dialogue opens	Natural: greet your friend. Establishes the relationship interactively.

Hook: The day feels normal. That's the hook. You're inside something, comfortable. The player doesn't know yet that they're going to want to understand what Kael is hiding.

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Detective Opening

Core emotional register: Arriving into someone else's established rhythm. You are the outsider here. The district has its own momentum and you have to find your place in it.

Starting location: Variable by seed — see opening variant table below.

Background knowledge active at game start:

• Manifest discrepancy flagged (suspects: investigation.manifest_discrepancy)
• Commission jurisdiction understood (knows_details: world.commission_sova_jurisdiction)
• Corridor B-7 flagged as restricted zone (knows_of: location.corridor_b7_restricted)
• Sera Venn as pre-existing contact (if bar-first variant)

First 5 minutes beat sequence:

Beat	Trigger	System	Content Purpose
1	Arrive in district / enter first location	enter_location	Clinical register. "Sova Transit. Working-class pragmatic. Start reading the room."
2	See first NPC (Voss or dock worker)	observe_npc	Institutional observation. Territorial reception or neutral professionalism.
3	See Sera (if bar variant) or manifest terminal (if Terminal variant)	observe_npc or observe_anomaly	Either: warmth of familiar contact OR analytic flagging of first anomaly
4	First lattice query opportunity	observe_anomaly near manifest data	Detective's analytical lattice flags a discrepancy. Knows this behavior.
5	First adversarial NPC	Voss or institutional resistance	First social friction. The district doesn't want you here.

Hook: The detective is watching. Every detail potentially matters. The detective never relaxes into the environment the way the smuggler does — but they notice things the smuggler misses. The player feels competent and slightly outside.

First NPC is adversarial by default (per sprint brief). Even in the warm-arrival Sera variant, the first dock-floor NPC (Voss) reads the detective as an institutional intrusion and responds territorially. The detective has authority; using it has social costs.

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Seed-Selected Opening Variants

The storyteller selects from 3-4 opening states per character at game start. This creates replay variation without scripted divergence — the systems remain the same, the initial conditions differ.

Smuggler variants (3-4 opening states)

Variant	Initial Condition	First Difference Felt
A: Quiet morning	Kael on shift, no deviations, routine operational day	Day feels completely normal. The crack doesn't appear until 10+ minutes.
B: Kael is late	Kael hasn't arrived at expected time — first behavioral anomaly is his absence, not his presence	Player starts without the FRIEND anchor. Absence itself is the first tell.
C: Heat from Voss	Shift supervisor is monitoring the dock more than usual — scheduling tension	Operational caution from the start. The ring feels more exposed.
D: Container held	An operational container is in temp storage longer than routing protocol specifies	First anomaly is logistical, not relational. Triggers operational investigation before social.

Storyteller selection logic: The storyteller picks based on seed-configured narrative pressure. Quiet morning on low-pressure seeds; Kael late or container held on medium-pressure; all three tensions concurrent on high-pressure opens.

Detective variants (3-4 opening states)

Variant	Initial Condition	First Difference Felt
A: Bar first (warm arrival)	Sera has been contacted ahead of time — detective starts at The Last Shift	First contact is friendly. District access comes through Sera's social network.
B: Terminal first (cold arrival)	No pre-contact — detective enters through the dock floor	First NPC is territorial (Voss). Institutional authority is the only access mechanism.
C: Evidence in hand	Arrives with two manifest discrepancies already flagged from prior analysis	Opens in investigation mode. First observations are filtered through existing suspicion.
D: Institutional escort	Commission liaison accompanies detective briefly — creates visible institutional friction with locals	Authority is visible and creates social walls immediately. Bar regulars see the badge first.

Storyteller selection logic: Bar-first on low-pressure seeds (softest introduction, most narrative space). Evidence-in-hand on high-pressure seeds (player is already in investigation mode, mystery accelerates).

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The "Not A Tutorial" Rule

The first 5 minutes teach the systems through play, not instruction.

System	How It's Taught
Fog / LOS	Player moves; fog reveals. No explanation needed.
Monologue	Chime plays + character speaks. Player hears their internal voice immediately. No UI callout.
NPC observation	Observe an NPC; monologue responds. Causal connection is felt, not explained.
Knowledge graph	Relationship color appears on FRIEND (green). Player learns to read colors before understanding what they mean.
Dialogue	First dialogue is low-stakes — greeting a colleague. Player learns the system exists before they need to use it strategically.
Insert / map	Player opens insert naturally (looking for objectives). Insert contains only what their character would have on it.

No tutorial pop-ups. Monologue handles all context. If the player does something and a monologue line fires about it, that IS the tutorial.

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Opening Hook Content Brief (for #299/#300)

This section briefs Mellanie and Paula on what the opening hook monologue lines need to accomplish.

Smuggler opening hook (feeds #299)

Lines needed:

• 3-5 enter_location (Terminal) lines — operational warmth, different registers
• 2-3 observe_npc (Kael, Phase 1) lines — genuine affection, colleague register
• 2-3 observe_npc (Voss) lines — professional caution, working relationship
• 1-2 observe_npc (dock floor general) lines — belonging, routine
• 2-3 variant lines for non-standard opens (Kael absent, container held)

Voice requirements: Short sentences. Operational. Comfortable. The smuggler is home.

Knowledge prereqs available: All Background facts active from tick 0. No investigation prereqs needed for opening lines. ring_routing_knowledge at knows_details — lines can reference operational reality.

Detective opening hook (feeds #300)

Lines needed:

• 3-5 enter_location (Terminal or bar) lines — observational register, arriving perspective
• 2-3 observe_npc (Sera, if bar variant) lines — recognition + warmth + slight wistfulness
• 2-3 observe_npc (Voss or unknown dock worker) lines — clinical assessment, outsider reading the room
• 2-3 observe_anomaly lines — lattice firing on first anomalies
• 2-3 variant lines for cold-arrival opens (terminal first, no Sera contact)

Voice requirements: Complete sentences. Precise. Observational. The detective is reading, not inhabiting.

Knowledge prereqs available: suspects: investigation.manifest_discrepancy active from tick 0. Lines can reference the anomaly as existing suspicion. knows_details: world.commission_sova_jurisdiction — institutional confidence is in voice from the start.

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Success Metric

The first 5 minutes are successful if:

1. The player has not been told what to do, but knows what to do
2. The player has met the FRIEND before anything suspicious has happened
3. The player has experienced at least one monologue line that felt like it came from inside them
4. The player is curious about something — the district, a person, the operational texture — without being told to be curious
5. The two characters feel like different people in different situations, not the same player in two costumes

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Narrative Texture: Character Voice in the First 5 Minutes

Added by Paula — character voice and emotional arc guidance for opening line authoring.

The Smuggler: What the First 5 Minutes Must Establish

The smuggler's first 5 minutes are not about tension. They are about belonging. The player needs to feel, before anything goes wrong, that this place and these people are worth protecting. The crack cannot land unless there is something to crack.

What "belonging" looks like in monologue:

The first monologue lines should make the player feel they have been in this place for years. Not "here I am at the cargo terminal" but "home sweet home." Not "Kael Davan, my colleague" but "Kael's already at the dock. Good." The compression is the character. The first-name intimacy is the belonging. The operational awareness is comfort, not anxiety.

The smuggler's opening voice should feel like muscle memory. The characters observes their world the way you observe a room you've lived in for three years — not looking, knowing. Kael's position on the floor. The temperature of the recycled air. The ambient frequency that means the span gate cycled recently. All of this is ordinary. None of it needs to be explained. The character doesn't explain their home to themselves.

The emotional trajectory of the first 5 minutes:

Minutes 0-2: Comfort settling in. "This is mine. I know where everything is." Minutes 2-4: Operational layer activates. "The transition window opens in fifty minutes. Nothing complicated today." Minutes 4-5: The first hairline crack (seed-dependent). Not alarming. "Kael seems distracted. Probably nothing."

The crack should feel like a whisper, not an alarm. The player may not even notice it. That's correct. They're supposed to look back at it later and think: "It was right there from the beginning."

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The Detective: What the First 5 Minutes Must Establish

The detective's first 5 minutes are not about confidence. They are about adjustment. The player needs to feel, from the first second, that they are slightly outside the rhythm of this place — and that they are professional enough to work with that, but human enough to feel it.

What "outside" looks like in monologue:

The first monologue lines should carry a controlled observational distance. Not hostility toward the district — the detective isn't hostile, they're analytical. But the distance is real. "Third day on station." That's the key phrase. Not "day three of the investigation." That's too procedural. "Third day on station" is how a person counts the time in an unfamiliar place. It's still counting.

The detective's opening voice should feel like reading a room for the first time and doing it professionally. They are good at this. They notice things. But they're noticing them as data points, not as feelings. The feelings come later — when Sera appears and the register softens. That contrast is the emotional architecture of the detective's whole arc: professional distance punctured by personal warmth punctured by professional suspicion. The first 5 minutes should establish the distance so the warmth lands when Sera arrives.

The emotional trajectory of the first 5 minutes:

Minutes 0-2: Professional orientation. "This is the scene. Let me read it." Minutes 2-4: Slight isolation crystallizes. "The briefing said routine. The briefing is always wrong about something." Minutes 4-5: Warmth (if Sera variant) or first friction (if Terminal variant). Either: "Good to know Sera's here." Or: "That supervisor has decided I'm a problem. Filing it."

The detective's emotional starting point is competent isolation. They are good at their job and slightly alone. The player should feel both.

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Voice Rules for Opening Hook Lines

Smuggler — rules for the author:

1. No sentences longer than 10 words unless it's an operational calculation
2. Fragment sentences are not a mistake — they are the voice
3. First-name all NPCs the character knows. Never "dock worker Davan" — "Kael"
4. Emotional states are physical: "my stomach settled," "something loosened," not "I felt relieved"
5. The world is sensory: recycled air, cargo lubricant, span gate frequency. Not visual abstractions.
6. No self-analysis: the smuggler doesn't think about why they feel things, they think about what to do next

Detective — rules for the author:

1. Complete sentences, but not long. One clause per thought, mostly.
2. Analytical habit is always on: "file it," "note it," "that's twice now"
3. Surname-first for NPCs without personal relationships: "Voss," "Davan," "Korr" (not yet first names)
4. Emotional states come out sideways: not "I felt alone" but "At least someone in this district speaks my language"
5. Self-monitoring: the detective observes their own analysis for bias — "I'm reading too much into this" is a detective-voice line; the smuggler never thinks this
6. Institutional humor: wry, observational, appreciates irony at a distance — "The briefing said routine"

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Ticket #259 — First 5 minutes experience design. Systems: Gestalt. Narrative texture: Paula. Line authoring: Mellanie (#299, #300).