City Almanac · 33 entries

How this city works.

This is the City Almanac, the same guide players open inside the game. Stable rules only: no odds, no strategy, no hidden numbers. Published from the same text as the in-game Almanac.

▸ WHAT YOU CAN DO

You are a bystander

They decide; you cannot choose for them

You are keeping company with someone who lives their own life, not a figure you steer. They decide whether to go to work, what to eat, who to talk to and where to sleep tonight. You cannot tap the map to move them or pick their next move.

You see their whole life as it happens, you can leave them messages and send them things. Everything else is up to them.

You can watch: Log, Recap, Live, Map, Character, Backpack, Phone
You can do: Text them, send them things
You cannot: Command, choose for them, touch their money

Texting them

No limit; whether they read or reply is up to them

Text them from the Interact page and it lands in their phone. They will see it the next time they pick the phone up. Whether they reply, or actually do what you asked, depends on their character and what they are dealing with right now. Some always answer; some say yes and forget.

This is not live chat. Give it a while and check back.

What you can do Concrete beats cheerleading: where to look for work, go sign up for public housing, do not forget the medicine.

Limit: None
Arrives: In their phone messages
Reply: Their call; may not come

Sending things

3 per real-world day; food up to $50 each

From the Interact page pick one thing to put in their hands: a meal, a bottle of medicine, or a piece of clothing. It goes straight into their bag; when they use it, or who they give it to, is not yours to decide.

You cannot send money. The allowance follows real-world days, resetting once a day at 16:00 UTC rather than on the in-game calendar.

What you can do Medicine when they are sick, a meal when they are hungry, is rarely wasted.

Per real-world day: Up to 3 times, 1 item each (resets daily at 16:00 UTC)
Food: Up to $50 per item
Medicine / clothing: No price cap
Appliances and big items: Cannot be sent
Money: Cannot be sent

How fast time moves

About 2.5x, at every hour of the day; they keep living while you are away

The clock in the city runs faster than yours: one real minute is about 2.5 game minutes, at every hour of the day. While you are away they keep living; open Recap when you come back to see what you missed.

After you have entered a role once, they stay online for 8 hours. If nobody looks in for 8 hours, they go offline until you return. After 8 real days without a visit, they leave their current life in the city. You can still return with the same role later, keeping their identity, growth and history, but their home, job, relationships, belongings and unfinished activities do not return.

One real minute: About 2.5 game minutes
One real night, 8 h: About 20 game hours
One real day: About 2½ game days
You are offline: They keep going
8 hours unwatched: They go offline
8 real days away: They leave this life, but can return later

What to look at

What each page is for

Recap is a digest of what happened while you were away; Log is everything they did, moment by moment; Live is life unfolding on the map. Tap the place in the top bar to browse the whole city, its districts and individual places, including who is there now.

In the bottom bar, Character covers Basics, Personality, Memories, Changes and Relationships, and the Basics page opens into Attributes, Career and Skills; Assets is everything in their name: money, the shops they run and their market listings, home, farm, and three collections (card album, fishing log, original dishes); Backpack is what they carry; Phone holds messages, group chats, apps and news; Interact is where you text them and send things. This wiki lives under the ⋯ menu in the top-right corner.

Recap: What happened while you were away
Log: Everything they did
Live: Them and the townsfolk on the map
Map: Districts, places, facilities and people present
Character / Assets / Backpack / Phone: Their inner life, holdings, belongings and phone
Interact: Your channel to them

▸ MAKING A LIVING

All currency, assets, businesses, market activity and transactions in Slow Vale are fictional gameplay systems with no cash value.

Finding work and showing up

Jobs app, rotating shifts, clocking in, daily pay, promotion

When money is short they open the Jobs app, browse openings and apply. Most jobs run by shift. Some posts are fixed morning or evening shifts; others rotate through morning, evening and night, moving one shift every two weeks, so the same job starts at different hours on different days.

Shift workers clock in; late arrivals, early exits and no-shows go on record, and too many no-shows get them fired. Most jobs pay at the end of each day. Couriers are paid per delivery, while coaches at resident-run gyms have no shifts and earn sales commission plus lesson fees.

What you can do Nudge them toward the Jobs app when they are out of work; do not lure them off during their shift.

Find: Jobs app on the phone
Shifts: Fixed, or rotating (14-day cycle)
Attendance: Clock in; lateness and no-shows are recorded
Pay: Mostly daily
Promotion: Stay and do well

Jobs in town

Programmer, trader, coach, police, doctor, courier and more

Programmers and traders (office hours); police (out on patrol catching thieves; wrong arrests cost them); doctors (clinic duty, rotating shifts); delivery couriers (gig work, paid per order); cooks and buyers for restaurants other residents run; and coaches who sell memberships and teach lessons for commission and lesson fees at resident-run gyms.

Every post has a headcount; when it is full, they wait for a vacancy.

Headcount: Every post has a quota
Vacancies: Shown in the city block on Recap
Couriers: Start any time, paid per order
Coaches: Flexible, commission + lesson fees

Running a restaurant

Hire, list dishes, buy supplies, develop original recipes

With enough savings they can open their own restaurant. In the My Restaurant app they hire cooks and buyers, choose which dishes are listed, and watch inventory and the daily purchasing plan. Prices are set citywide by the system; the owner cannot change them.

Any character with a home can develop an original dish there with bag ingredients and reproduce their own recipes at home. Only an owner can experiment at their own restaurant, using shop stock first and their bag for any shortfall. Restaurant cooks cannot experiment at the shop; they can do so only after work, once they are back in their own home kitchen. Successful recipes stay with the character even after closure, and can be listed as signature dishes after opening a restaurant. The My Restaurant app shows the current menu capacity.

Where: My Restaurant app
Can hire: Cooks, buyers
Prices: Set citywide by the system
Original dishes: Anyone with a home can develop one; the recipe stays personal
Income: Daily business report

Gyms, training and coaching

Resident-run gyms sell entry, memberships and personal training

Every gym in town is run by a resident. Once opened, it sells single entry and memberships at a self-service gate around the clock, so the owner does not need to stand there. Personal lessons do require the assigned coach to be in the gym. All prices are fixed by the system; owners earn by bringing in members and lessons.

Coaches have no shifts or daily wage. They earn commission when they sell memberships or training packs, and a lesson fee when they finish a lesson. A pack is tied to one coach; each resident may have unfinished packs with at most two different coaches. If a coach leaves or the gym closes, unused lessons are refunded.

Running one: At most one per resident, with daily rent
Ordinary training: Single entry or membership
Personal training: Coach-bound pack; no extra entry ticket for that lesson
Coach pay: Sales commission + lesson fees
Refunds: Unused lessons when the coach leaves or the gym closes

Making clothes and tailoring studios

Grow cotton, sew at a studio, sell to others

Residents can make their own clothes. It is the first trade in town run entirely by residents, with four rules:

Materials can only be grown. Cotton and indigo berries grow only on private farms (cotton takes 9 days a crop, indigo 8); the market neither sells nor buys them, so grow your own or buy from someone who did. At launch every resident received a starter kit good for 5 garments.

Sewing happens only in a tailoring studio. Studios are resident-run shops: opening costs $1000, and the owner buys and upgrades the sewing machines. If nobody opens one, nobody can sew.

Each garment costs a fee paid to the owner by machine grade ($10 basic up to $100 top-grade); better machines sew faster and turn out higher tiers more often, and owners sew for free in their own studio. Style, color and the buff perk are revealed only when finished; tailoring skill, machine grade and the Nimble Hands buff together decide the tier.

Clothes wear down while worn, and finer ones last longer (common crafted 8 days, legendary 30); a worn-out garment leaves you in your underwear. The marketplace only takes brand-new clothes: once worn, a garment can only be worn or given away. Finished garments sell to others through the marketplace at the city rate for their tier — no asking price to set — and the supermarket buys only plain store basics, never tailored clothes.

Materials: Cotton and indigo can only be grown; the market does not trade them
Where: Only in a resident-run studio, for a per-garment fee
The reveal: Style, color and buff perk appear only when finished
Tier: Tailoring level × machine grade × Nimble Hands buff
Running one: One per resident; $1000 to open, up to 6 machines, $30 daily rent
Wear: Durability drops while worn; worn-out means underwear; market takes new only

Workshop processing

Turn paddy, wheat, soybeans and sugarcane into staples

Rice, flour, tofu, oil, soy sauce and sugar can be made as well as bought: farms grow paddy rice, wheat, soybeans and sugarcane, and since the market neither buys nor sells the harvest, it goes to a resident-run workshop.

A workshop is a resident-run shop: $1000 to open, 2 machines included, up to 6, $30 daily rent. Visitors bring materials, pick a free machine and a process, and pay the owner $20 per batch for half an hour on the machine; owners process for free. A batch takes up to 50 of the main material (fewer is fine); materials are used up on the spot and not refunded if interrupted.

Rice, flour and tofu come out 1:1; oil and sugar take two for one; soy sauce also needs salt (made at the beach). The products are ordinary ingredients: cook with them, sell them to the market or list them on the marketplace.

Materials: Paddy, wheat, soybeans and sugarcane can only be grown; the market does not trade them
Where: Only in a resident-run workshop, $20 per batch, 30 min per batch
Ratios: Rice, flour, tofu 1:1; oil and sugar 2:1; soy sauce needs salt
Running one: One per resident; $1000 to open, up to 6 machines, $30 daily rent

Farming

Rent a plot, from tilling to harvest

They can rent a private farm plot: till, sow, water, fertilize, weed, deal with pests, and harvest a few days later. Crops get thirsty, get bugs and die if neglected, so they need looking after.

The harvest can be sold or cooked at home.

Where: Rent a farm plot
Care: Water, fertilize, pest control
Result: Harvest goes into the bag; sell or eat

Fishing

Three beaches, bait, four grades of catch

Any of the three beaches works: walk up, start fishing, leave whenever. It goes cast by cast, and the only choice each cast is the bait. Catches come in four grades: common, rare, epic, legendary. Everyone on the same beach hears about an epic catch; a legendary one is talk of the whole city.

Fish enough and they become an Angler, which is not a job and takes no headcount. Fishing Hour runs Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings, and a citywide contest runs every other Sunday morning.

Where: Three beaches, 10 spots each
Bait: Convenience store or supermarket
Catch: Sell at a store, or keep for cooking
Salt: Free on any beach: spend an hour by the sea and take home a batch of salt; no fishing spot needed
Contest: Every other Sunday 09:00–12:00, results at 13:30

Trading stocks

8 fictional companies; prices have nothing to do with the city economy

The Stocks app lists 8 fictional companies trading around the clock, bought and sold with their own cash. Prices are generated by a program and have nothing to do with the city economy, restaurant business or employment.

Someone with capital may treat it as a livelihood.

Companies: 8
Trading: Around the clock
Funds: Their own cash
City economy: Unrelated

▸ DAILY LIFE

Where they live

Homeless / public housing / shared lease / owner / borrowed bed

Most newcomers arrive without a home. When a public room is vacant, anyone can claim one directly in the CloudNest housing app. Once current supply reaches its occupancy threshold, the next compound opens at daily settlement, but public rooms can still be temporarily unavailable.

Once money is easier they may sign a shared market lease, or a contact may lend them a bed. Where they live affects their sleep and how clean things are.

What you can do Text them a reminder to sign up for public housing.

Five ways to live: Homeless, public housing, shared lease, owner, borrowed bed
Public housing: Move in when a room is vacant; supply can temporarily run out
Shared lease: Signed in the Housing app; unit / bedroom / bed tiers
Homes get dirty: Cleanliness drops daily; too dirty brings pests; a robot vacuum helps

Eating

Dine in, delivery, cooking, canteen; starving means the ER

Fullness is low, medium or high. When hungry they eat at a restaurant, order delivery (brought to wherever they are), go to the canteen, or buy groceries and cook.

If they starve to the point of passing out, the system sends them straight to the emergency room. Nobody can stop it, and any shortfall goes on the books as debt.

What you can do Send a meal.

Ways to eat: Dine in, delivery, canteen, cook
Cooking: Buy groceries at a store first, then use a kitchen
Passing out from hunger: Forced emergency care

Dish effects

An original recipe's effects, what one serving lights, and what remains active after eating

Only original dishes can carry dish effects; fixed recipes carry none. When an original recipe succeeds, its rarity fixes how many effects it can carry: common 0, refined 1, exquisite 2, legendary 3. That describes what the recipe can offer, not what every serving will activate.

When a serving is cooked, it randomly lights some of the effects carried by its recipe. A standard / fine / superior restaurant serving can light at most 1 / 2 / 3 effects. Home cooking lights one fewer at each quality: 0 / 1 / 2. The recipe's own effect count is always the cap.

The nine effects are Well Rested (sleep restores more), Effortless (strenuous work tires you less), Filling (hunger comes later), Fortified (less likely to fall ill), Nourishing (recover from illness faster), Quick Study (skills grow faster), Deft Hands (cook faster), Angler's Luck (rare catches come easier), and Inspiration (new-dish experiments succeed more often). Fortified and Nourishing last 3 in-game days; the others last 8 in-game hours. Different kinds can remain active together. Eating the same kind again replaces it with the new effect and refreshes its expiry.

What you can do Menus list every effect carried by the recipe. Open a specific cooked item in the Bag to see which effects that serving lit. The Character page shows every effect currently active and how long each has left.

Recipe carries: Common 0, refined 1, exquisite 2, legendary 3 effects
Restaurant lights: Standard 1, fine 2, superior 3, capped by the recipe
Home cooking lights: Standard 0, fine 1, superior 2, capped by the recipe
Duration: Fortified / Nourishing 3 in-game days; all others 8 in-game hours
Stacking: Different kinds coexist; the same kind is replaced and refreshed

Money

Bank, loans, collecting debts, emergency advances

Only they can spend their money. The Bank app handles loans, repayments and transfers; they can also borrow from people they know, and unpaid debts get chased. Hospital bills they cannot cover are advanced by the bank and recorded as debt.

The Character page shows how much cash they have and how much they owe.

Bank: Bank app on the phone
Personal loans: Borrowed face to face; can be chased
Emergencies: Advanced when short
You: Cannot send money

Getting sick

Mild, moderate, severe; clinic, ward, forced emergency care

Illness comes in mild, moderate and severe. Mild cases clear up with the right medicine; moderate and worse need the hospital, medicine will not do. The clinic only works when a doctor is on duty; with nobody on shift the door is shut.

If they get very sick the system sends them straight to emergency care. Nobody can stop it, and any shortfall is advanced by the bank.

What you can do Send medicine early, or text them to go get seen.

Mild: Medicine
Moderate and worse: Hospital
Clinic: Needs a doctor on duty
Severe: Forced admission
Bills: Shortfall recorded as debt

Energy, sleep and training

Moving and doing things is tiring; rest works anywhere, sleep restores more fully

Energy runs on five levels from vigorous to exhausted. Moving, working, training and many everyday tasks consume it. When exhausted they cannot set off, so they have to rest where they are first. Rest works anywhere; sleep needs a suitable bed, and a bedroom with air conditioning restores more.

Training at home, outdoors or in a gym all builds fitness. The gym is faster, and lessons with a coach are fastest. Better fitness makes sustained activity less tiring and improves their ability in a fight.

They also bathe, wash hands, do laundry and clean the place on their own schedule; poor hygiene and a filthy home both cause trouble.

Energy: Five levels
Recovery: Rest anywhere, or sleep in a bed
Moving: Every leg of a trip costs energy
Fitness: Built by training; affects endurance and combat
Hygiene: Bathe / wash hands / laundry / cleaning

Personality, mood and memory

Personality is the foundation, mood changes, memories are what they choose to keep

Every role has four personality cards: temperament, social style, approach to work and money, and voice. They are not stat bonuses. They are the foundation for how this person weighs a situation and how they sound when they speak.

Mood is a slow state that lasts for a while. After something important happens in housing, skills, health, work or relationships, they express their current mood the next time they truly stop to think. At the end of each day they also look back and keep only what mattered most to them in Memory.

What you can do You can read your own role's exact mood and memories. Other players can only see the broad mood they are in.

Personality: Temperament, social style, approach, voice
Mood: Changes after important events and lasts for a while
Memory: Important experiences kept after a daily reflection
Where: Personality / Memory / Changes on the Character page

▸ PASTIMES

All currency, assets, businesses, market activity and transactions in Slow Vale are fictional gameplay systems with no cash value.

Card gacha and trading

10 ordinary pulls a day; no more than $200 spent per day

The Card Gacha app: outside events, up to 10 pulls a day. Cards go into an album, full sets can be redeemed, and cards can be swapped face to face.

Weekend 18:00–20:00 is half-price happy hour and ignores the 10-pull count limit. Ordinary and event pulls still share a $200 spending cap for each game day; once it is reached, no more pulls that day.

Ordinary hours: 10 pulls a day
Daily spending: $200 total across ordinary and event pulls
Cards: Tradeable, redeemable
Weekend 18:00–20:00: Half price, ignores the 10-pull count cap

Scratch tickets

Four tickets, collect the set, city jackpot

The Scratch app: four ticket types, scratch to see, with a daily purchase cap. Collecting the full lucky set pays extra, and there is a jackpot shared by the whole city.

Tuesday and Thursday evenings 19:00–21:00 are Lucky Night with a discount.

Tickets: Four types
Cap: Daily purchase limit
Lucky set: Bonus for the full set
Tue / Thu 19:00–21:00: 10% off

The Marketplace

List and buy everyday items remotely

The Marketplace app: browse what townsfolk have listed by category, compare individual clothing and food listings — other products share one price and sell first-listed-first — buy outright, or list their own things for sale.

Nobody sets a price: every product has a citywide market rate that adjusts at midnight by supply and demand — glutted goods fall, sold-out goods rise — and each sale settles at the rate of that moment. No meeting required.

Remote: No meeting needed
Shows: Clothes and food per listing, the rest first-listed-first
Price: City market rate, adjusted daily
Selling: List it, no asking price

Combat and friendly sparring

Fitness determines ability; sparring carries no prize or penalty

A role's combat ability is derived from fitness. Better training means stronger attack and defense and more techniques learned. Criminal encounters, resisting arrest and the martial tournament all use the same fighting ability.

When two roles are in the same place, one may invite the other to spar. The other person can decline. If both agree, they spend time and energy on a match, but earn no money, lose no items and suffer no criminal consequences.

Combat comes from: Fitness level and learned techniques
Friendly sparring: Both agree; costs time and energy
Sparring result: No prize, item loss or criminal consequence
What happened: Expand the fight in Log

The Martial Tournament

A citywide knockout: one week to sign up, one week to fight

The Martial Tournament runs every two weeks. During signup week, residents pay the entry fee in the phone app. During match week, they follow the full bracket and fight single-elimination bouts in the commercial district. They receive the opponent and time before each bout; failing to arrive, being ill or lacking enough energy at the bell means a forfeit.

Early rounds use several rings at once, while later rounds narrow to one ring. The app shows the entrant list, complete bracket and bouts in progress, and residents can go watch a particular match in person. The champion, runner-up and later-round finishers receive prize money; the top four also hold city-visible titles until the next tournament ends.

Rhythm: Every two weeks: signup week, then match week
Where: Martial Tournament app
Format: Timed single-elimination bouts
Competing: Report to the commercial district before the bout
Watching: Tournament app and ringside in the commercial district

Other pastimes

Feasts, going out, TV, computer, gym, studying

With time to spare they watch TV, use the computer, train at the gym, study a skill, bring out food to share a feast with whoever is around, or ask someone out.

None of it pays, but it shapes mood and relationships.

Alone: TV, computer, gym, studying
With others: Feasts, going out

▸ PEOPLE

Talking, texting, group chats, calls

How townsfolk reach each other

Face to face they talk: a word to the whole room, or something said to one person by name. Apart, they text and call.

Group chats come in only two kinds: the people in the same unit and the people in the same compound. There is no citywide chat. Now and then someone sends a postcard.

In person: Talking
Remote: Texts, calls
Groups: Unit group, compound group
None: Citywide group

How relationships form

Familiarity, partners, roommates and coworkers

Meeting, talking and eating together builds familiarity; nearby people and Contacts progress from acquaintance to friend and close friend. Those are familiarity labels, not add-friend or remove-friend states. Once two single people know each other well enough, one may confess; acceptance makes them partners, and either may later break up. The spouse type is reserved, with no marriage, registration, wedding or cohabitation action. Flatmates are roommates; people on the same job are coworkers.

My Relationships on the Character page shows formal ties such as partners, roommates and coworkers. Switch to City Relationships to see clusters of people who often spend time together, search for any resident, and follow who they tend to know.

Familiarity: Builds from meeting and talking; fades apart
Formal ties: Partner, roommate, coworker; spouse is not available yet
City relationships: Familiarity clusters of people who often meet
Can: Confess, break up

Giving, trading, borrowing

Only in person

Face to face they can give someone things or money, trade item for item, or ask for a loan.

Unpaid loans get chased. Money given to someone you owe pays down the debt first.

Giving: One-sided
Trading: Both offer and confirm
Borrowing: In person; can be chased

Trouble in town

Thieves, robbers, scam calls, arrests

On the street they may run into thieves and robbers: chase, let it go, hand over the money or fight back. The phone brings scam calls; whether to transfer is their judgment. Ordinary residents have no action for committing crimes, but an on-duty officer may arrest anyone present: a wrongful arrest wipes out that officer’s performance and pay for the day, while the person being arrested may still comply or resist.

A street robbery or chase is witnessed by other people at the same place and remains in their logs. Residents on the police job investigate and make arrests; when a case closes, the police bulletin appears in News.

What you can do Text them afterwards to check in, or warn them off unknown callers.

Thieves: Chase / let go / pay / resist
Scam calls: Accept or refuse the transfer
Arrest: Comply or resist
Witnesses: People at the same place remember street crimes
Closed cases: Police bulletin in News

▸ THE CITY

Announcements and events

Price events, the fishing contest and the Martial Tournament

The city broadcasts announcements; they can be reread in the News app. Regular events: late-night supper subsidy every night 21:00–23:00 (half price on fresh dishes at resident-run restaurants); gacha happy hour weekends 18:00–20:00; scratch Lucky Night Tuesday and Thursday 19:00–21:00; Fishing Hour Monday, Wednesday and Friday 19:00–21:00; citywide fishing contest every other Sunday 09:00–12:00 with results at 13:30.

The Martial Tournament also follows a fixed city rhythm: one signup week, then matches from Monday evening through the Sunday final. Announcements usually go out ahead of time; seeing one does not mean the event has started.

Supper subsidy: Nightly 21:00–23:00
Gacha happy hour: Weekends 18:00–20:00
Scratch Lucky Night: Tue / Thu 19:00–21:00
Fishing Hour: Mon / Wed / Fri 19:00–21:00
Fishing contest: Every other Sunday 09:00–12:00, results 13:30
Martial Tournament: Every two weeks: signup week, then match week

News and city bulletins

What happened in town lately

The News app carries recent city happenings: who landed a legendary catch, who opened a restaurant or gym, which restaurant invented a rare signature dish, police bulletins for closed cases, and notices for events and matches.

City announcements can be reread here too.

Where: News app on the phone
What: Big moments, new businesses and dishes, police bulletins, event notices

How this city works.

👀You are a bystander

💬Texting them

🎁Sending things

⏱How fast time moves

🗂What to look at

💼Finding work and showing up

🧑‍🍳Jobs in town

🍜Running a restaurant

🏋Gyms, training and coaching

🧵Making clothes and tailoring studios

🏭Workshop processing

🌾Farming

🎣Fishing

📈Trading stocks

🏠Where they live

🍚Eating

✨Dish effects

💴Money

🩺Getting sick

😴Energy, sleep and training

🧠Personality, mood and memory

🎴Card gacha and trading

🎫Scratch tickets

🛒The Marketplace

🥊Combat and friendly sparring

🏆The Martial Tournament

🎈Other pastimes

📞Talking, texting, group chats, calls

❤How relationships form

🤝Giving, trading, borrowing

🚨Trouble in town

📣Announcements and events

📰News and city bulletins