Proving Grounds

Test before canon.

Build the world in Vitus. Test what happens inside it before deciding what becomes canon.

Enter the Proving GroundsExplore all testing features

Available Proving Grounds, AI-refereed play against your world's rules, is a Loremaster feature. Quest and dialogue Simulation, shown on this page too, is part of Core on every plan.

Conceptual demonstration
One-way boundary

Experiment without rewriting the world.

  1. 01World canonGreywatch is sealed. House Vael is hostile.
  2. 02Test stateA temporary scenario uses those facts.
  3. 03Experimental resultThe envoy finds a forgotten northern passage.
  4. 04Creator decisionRevise, discard or deliberately adopt the idea.
Experimental resultNot canon unless the creator chooses to make it so.

This website example explains the boundary. It is not a product screenshot or a live simulation.

Conversations

Hear the conversation before the audience does.

Explore branching dialogue in the context of the characters and world it belongs to, while every result remains a draft experiment.

AvailableCore

Dialogue testing is intended to help TTRPG Game Masters prepare difficult NPC exchanges, writers explore alternative responses and narrative designers inspect branches before anyone encounters them in a finished work.

Vitus's Dialogue graphs support speakers, choices and condition-gated branches. Simulation, on every plan, lets you run a dialogue, choose at each branch and watch variables change.

  • Try a different response
  • Inspect the branch it opens
  • Keep experiments separate from canon
Conceptual branching conversation
Scene contextCommander Arlen guards Greywatch's sealed gate.Known state: House Vael is hostile · northern road fallen
Commander Arlen
“No one enters while Vael banners stand beyond the ridge.”
Relationship consideredArlen respects the crown, but refuses.

The branch stays closed while the hostile-faction condition remains true.

Known information consideredArlen agrees to send one scout.

The conversation opens a cautious route because the envoy knows about the old passage.

World state consideredThe gate is barred and the warning bell sounds.

The hostile path ends the exchange and creates a possible consequence to test.

Illustrative dialogue. It does not represent a live Proving Grounds session or built-in Vitus world.

A test run of the dialogue Þórr and the Ferryman in Vitus. The graph shows Óðinn's mocking line leading to Þórr's choice, which branches into a threat and a boast; the run is paused at the choice with both options offered below.
A dialogue test run, paused where the player chooses.
Quests & choices

Find the broken branch before your players do.

Test objectives, prerequisites, choices, consequences, failure paths and alternative outcomes while changes are still cheap.

Conceptual quest-condition tester
Quest

Reach Greywatch

Change the conditions to see which branch remains possible.

Scenario conditions
StartReach the outer wall
Available branchRequest entry from Commander ArlenThe gate is open and its commander can respond.
OutcomeEnter under guard

The main-gate route is currently available.

The quest graph for The Binding of Fenrir. Týr's warning leads to the choice of who will lay a hand in the wolf's jaws; one branch continues through Týr's oath to the outcome The wolf is bound, Týr is one-handed, and the other through Óðinn's refusal to The wolf runs free.
A quest graph with a meaningful branch and two different outcomes.
World state

Choices matter when the world remembers them.

Variables and conditions describe the facts that can change during a test, so later branches can respond to what happened earlier.

AvailableCore

World state is different from permanent canon. During a test it can hold a temporary value such as an open gate, an alliance, a living commander or a fallen road, then let the next part of the experiment react.

Vitus's authored variable system supports typed global and scoped values. This demonstration deliberately uses simple on/off states.

Conceptual state board

Change the world. Watch the consequence.

Current consequenceThe envoy enters under guard, but Greywatch remains isolated.

Arlen is alive and the gate is open. The road is still fallen and House Vael remains hostile.

This is an explanatory model of changing state, not the actual Vitus interface.

The state inspector during a simulation in Vitus, showing declared variables and the relationship scores between characters.
The variable declarations, simulation preset and live state inspector.
Sessions, systems & simulation

Test more than a single branch.

Use the same connected world to prototype a conversation, inspect a quest, explore a session or challenge a lightweight system idea.

Choose a testing lens

One world. Different experiments.

Focus

Character response and branching dialogue

Try alternative lines, choices and condition-gated responses against established character and world context.

UsesDialogue graphSpeakersChoices
Focus

Objectives, branches and consequences

Walk a quest graph, inspect changing variables and find unreachable or incomplete routes.

UsesQuest graphConditionsState
Focus

Rules-aware play and session rehearsal

Choose the Rule entries that govern play, take a role, and play turn by turn while Vitus AI referees and fills any empty seats. Every dice roll is made by the app and shown in the saga. You see the credit cost before you start. Loremaster.

UsesAuthored rulesRolesVisible app-rolled dice
Focus

Lightweight scenario and rules experimentation

Probe how defined rules, choices and state interact without claiming to replace a game engine or real playtesting.

UsesRule entriesScenario stateObserved outcomes

The selector explains intended testing modes. It is not a promise that every mode has the same implementation or release status.

Proving Grounds · Loremaster

The testing environment

AI-refereed play against your world's rules.

World state · Core

The facts that can change

Variables, relationships and conditions that shape the current test.

Simulation · Core

The system processing change

Step through a quest or dialogue and watch what changes.

Available

Built into Vitus.

Quest and dialogue Simulation is part of Core on every plan. Proving Grounds, with Vitus AI as the referee, is on Loremaster.

The Proving Grounds session setup screen in Vitus.
A Proving Grounds session setup.
A finished simulation of The Binding of Fenrir: Simulation ended with the outcome The wolf is bound, Týr is one-handed, and coverage of 10 of 13 nodes, with the unreached end-free, gods-refuse and failed nodes listed.
A finished Simulation run (Core): the outcome, and which parts of the quest were never reached.
The creator decides

An experiment can inform the world without taking control of it.

Run the test, inspect what happened and learn from it. The creator decides whether to revise the world, discard the result or deliberately carry an idea forward.

Conceptual creator judgement
Experimental result

The forgotten passage makes the siege too easy to bypass.

This result reveals something useful about the scenario. It has not changed the world's source of truth.

No decision has been made. The result remains an experiment.

These are explanatory choices, not a claim that Vitus currently has a one-click “accept into canon” workflow.

Available

A Loremaster capability.

Loremaster includes all Proving Grounds actions: creating, running, hosting and joining. Everyone at a Proving Ground table needs Loremaster too, because AI refereeing is the heaviest AI work in Vitus. Simulation stays on every plan.

Put the world into motion

Build it. Test it. Decide what survives.

Explore every Vitus capability or join the beta and help shape the complete Proving Grounds workflow.