Character playbook(16)
One archetype per sheet: what it does to the plot, its pitfalls, its genre variants, and a revision checklist to run on your manuscript.
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Playbooks
Practical sheets to frame, write and revise the building blocks of your story.
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Setting playbook(30)
One setting per sheet: what it forces on the plot, its postcard pitfalls, its genre variants, and a revision checklist to run on your scenes.
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Faction playbook(40)
One organization per sheet: the pressure it puts on scenes, its org-chart pitfalls, its genre variants, and a revision checklist.
Trope playbook(22)
One trope per sheet: execution beats, the turn, cliché pitfalls, genre variants, and a revision checklist.
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Character sheets
The Antihero
Heroes
Imperfect protagonist: ambiguous morals, selfish motives — and a readable cost.
- Ambiguous
- Selfish
- Compelling
The Manipulator
Villains
Intelligence, politics, charisma — wins without always striking.
- Strategic
- Charismatic
- Concealed
The Loyal Ally
Allies
Support, fidelity, warmth — the character who keeps the hero from collapsing alone.
- Loyal
- Complementary
- Selfless
The Mirror Character (Foil)
Supporting
Reflects the hero’s doubts through contrast — not necessarily the enemy.
- Similar
- Divergent
- Revealing
The Classic Hero
Heroes
Courage, call, transformation — the story’s active engine.
- Brave
- Active
- Transformed
The Everyman Hero
Heroes
Relatable, often carried by events — until they must choose.
- Relatable
- Naive
- Growing
Setting sheets
The Cyberpunk Megacity
Urban
A vertical city where neon hides the sky and corporations own the law.
- Vertical
- Saturated
- Corrupt
The Ancient Forest
Wild
Woods older than any map, where the paths never lead to the same place twice.
- Alive
- Ambiguous
- Ancient
The Besieged Castle
Enclosed
Walls that have held for a century, an army camped outside, and supplies that won't last.
- Besieged
- Counted
- Fracturing
The Border and the Checkpoint
Thresholds
A booth, a stamp, a uniform — and a right of passage that can flip at any moment.
- Authoritative
- Suspicious
- Binary
The Café-Bookshop
Thresholds
A third place where two strangers can cross paths again without it feeling contrived.
- Cozy
- Recurring
- Public
The Childhood Home
Enclosed
A bedroom left untouched, an attic full of boxes, and a memory that refuses to stay put away.
- Intimate
- Loaded
- Regressive
Faction sheets
Colonial administration
State
Two laws, one office: the permit to stay is refused here, not at the capital.
- Permit
- Cadastre
- Language
The corporation (megacorp)
Guilds
The company is the state: the badge, the care, the name on the patent are refused.
- Badge
- Patent
- Clause
The chivalric order
Creeds
Honour, vendetta, oath: you do not store that with the weapons.
- Honour
- Oath
- Vendetta
The family mafia
Outlaws
Kinship and business around the same table — every favour is a bill.
- Blood
- Debt
- Silence
The clandestine cult
Creeds
A rite no one names, a curse, an initiation that marks.
- Rite
- Curse
- Initiation
The closed community
Creeds
The family secret is the law; leaving is betraying the blood.
- Secret
- Table
- Blood
Trope sheets
Enemies to lovers
Romance
They have reasons to hate each other; love starts because the conflict forces them to see.
- Hatred
- Witness
- Choice
Locked-room suspicion
Tension
A lock, a closed list, everyone lying about something other than the crime.
- Lock
- List
- Accusation
Magic at a price
World
Every spell has a bill; it is paid in a relationship.
- Bill
- Bond
- Remainder
Found family
Structure
People blood did not bind choose each other — and the “we” becomes a stake.
- Choice
- Loyalty
- Group
Fake dating
Romance
The lie is public; the cost is private — and that is where it turns.
- Lie
- Public
- Cost
Forbidden love
Romance
The obstacle is external: a law, a family, a caste — not only them.
- Rule
- Transgression
- Price
How to use a playbook
1. Place the function
Start from what the building block must do to the plot — a role or a setting — not from a list of traits. The sheet gives the narrative function and the promise it makes to readers.
2. Write the variant
Each sheet lists genre variants and the twists that dodge cliché. Pick one and hold it across the manuscript.
3. Revise with the checklist
On revision, run the sheet's checklist: it turns theory into concrete, scene-by-scene fixes.