Cartridges

A Cartridge is a reusable story world packaged with its engine. Think of it like a game cartridge: it carries the world, the cast, the tone, and the configuration so you don't have to set any of that up yourself. You drop it into Alcove and start writing.

What's inside a cartridge

• Canon source — the starting facts of the world: setting, history, the rules that make it feel real.
• Cast — the characters that exist at the start, with their traits and relationships.
• Tone & style — how chapters should read.
• Configuration — the engine settings that shape checks, generation, and routing, so every Save File behaves consistently.

Cartridges carry configuration so users do not have to.

Original worlds and fanfic use the same engine

An original novel and a fanfic are both just cartridges — they only differ in where their canon source comes from. The writing engine underneath is identical.

One cartridge, many Save Files

A cartridge is a container, not your only timeline. When you start writing you create a Save File — your own timeline in that world. Share a cartridge and everyone who Remixes it writes their own Save File from the same starting canon.

Share the cartridge. Everyone writes their own Save File.

You can mint a blank private cartridge, import an existing draft (see Import & export), or brainstorm a world in an MCP-capable assistant and save it over Alcove's connection — see MCP & your AI.

Free and premium cartridges

Most cartridges are free to start. Some premium cartridges are unlocked with a one-time price — an unlock that adds the cartridge to your library permanently. Unlocking is always a fixed price, and some premium cartridges come with extra production value beyond the base world.

There is no separate official starter catalog. Public source worlds are real writers' cartridges that you can Remix.

Public cartridges

Cartridges start private. When you deliberately make one public, Alcove shares its real, read-only forge at:

alcove.fi/<owner>/<cartridge>

Visitors see the same Saves, Canon, Threads, Canon Locks, and Actions surface members use — not a teaser card. Settings and every write remain member-only.

Next: Save Files — the timeline you actually write in.