Campaign Memory

Campaign Memory keeps your world consistent. Every time you save content to a campaign, CritForge extracts key facts (characters, locations, relationships, events) and checks them against what it already knows. If something contradicts an established fact, you'll get a warning so you can fix it before your players notice.

You don't need to turn anything on. Campaign Memory works automatically for all content linked to a campaign.

What gets tracked

Campaign Memory extracts facts from every content type you save to a campaign: NPCs, plots, encounters, maps, factions, and more. It tracks six categories of information:

• Characters -- alignment, class, race, location, personality traits
• Organizations and factions -- leadership, alliances, rivalries, goals
• Locations -- rulers, population, government type, current condition
• Items -- ownership, location, magical properties
• Events -- what happened, when it happened, who was involved
• Relationships -- alliances, enemies, family ties, who knows who

Facts are confidence-scored. Only facts that are explicitly stated or strongly implied in your content get tracked. Vague references won't clutter your campaign memory.

How contradictions are detected

When you save a new piece of content, CritForge compares the extracted facts against everything already in your campaign's memory. If it finds a conflict, it creates a contradiction with one of three severity levels:

• Hard -- a direct conflict where the same property has two different values. For example, "Thorg is lawful good" in one plot but "Thorg is chaotic evil" in another. These are almost always mistakes.
• Soft -- a possible conflict that might be intentional. A character described slightly differently in two contexts, or an organization's goals that seem to shift.
• Evolution -- a change over time that could be character development rather than an error. An NPC who was "loyal to the crown" early in the campaign but is now "secretly plotting rebellion."

Where you'll see contradictions

Contradictions show up in three places:

• Campaign page -- the World Consistency panel lists all unresolved contradictions for your campaign, sorted by severity. Hard contradictions appear first with a red indicator; soft contradictions appear in amber.
• Content detail pages -- inline warning banners appear when the content you're viewing is involved in a contradiction. You can resolve contradictions right from the detail page without navigating away.
• Toast notifications -- when saving new content creates a contradiction, you'll get a real-time alert with a link to review it.

Resolving contradictions

When you see a contradiction, you have three main options (with a fourth available on content detail pages):

1. Keep newer -- the newer fact supersedes the older one. This is the most common resolution. Use it when the newer content is correct and the old one was a mistake or is out of date.
2. Both are true -- the facts coexist. Use this when both are intentionally correct, like a character who has a public persona and a secret identity, or an NPC who lies about their alignment.
3. Intentional retcon -- you're deliberately changing established lore. You can add a note explaining why. This keeps a record of the change for your own reference.
4. Dismiss as error -- available on content detail pages. The contradiction was caused by a generation mistake and isn't meaningful. This removes the contradiction without changing any facts.

Once resolved, the contradiction disappears from your World Consistency panel. If you chose "Intentional retcon," your note is preserved so you can remember why you made the change.

Entity matching

Campaign Memory is smart about recognizing the same entity across different pieces of content. "Thorg," "Thorg the Barbarian," and "the half-orc blacksmith" can all resolve to the same character if the context makes it clear they're the same person.

This fuzzy matching uses multiple strategies (exact name matches, similar spellings, and contextual clues) so you don't need to use the exact same name every time you reference a character or location.

Tips

• Link content to campaigns when you generate it. Campaign Memory only tracks content that's assigned to a campaign. Unlinked content in your library won't be checked for contradictions.
• Don't stress about soft contradictions. They're informational. If a character's description varies slightly between two plots, that's often fine. Focus on hard contradictions first.
• Use retcon notes. When you intentionally change something about your world, the retcon option with a note is better than just dismissing the contradiction. Future-you will appreciate the reminder.
• Check World Consistency before sessions. A quick glance at your campaign's contradiction panel before game night helps you catch any inconsistencies your players might spot.