> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.gotchipus.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Relationships

> Rapport in Beacon World is a relationship graph, not a progress bar. NPCs have opinions of you and of each other, and those opinions move based on what you actually do.

## Relationship as graph, not gauge

Most games reduce social systems to a single bar that fills up. Beacon
World tracks relationships per pair — between you and each resident,
between each resident and your Gotchipus, and among the residents
themselves.

What you do in front of one person can shift how a different person
treats you. The town gossips.

## Three kinds of rapport

| Edge                 | Who tracks                               | Moves on                                                                            |
| -------------------- | ---------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Player → Resident    | Each NPC tracks the player               | Conversations, deals kept or broken, quests undertaken, sides taken                 |
| Gotchipus → Resident | Each NPC tracks the Gotchipus separately | Visits, gifts, behavior in shared scenes — independent of the player's own standing |
| Resident → Resident  | The world tracks the social graph        | Backed-up allies, rivalries, moments witnessed                                      |

Two of these edges live on-chain (player ↔ resident, gotchipus ↔
resident, both feeding the rapport state of the relevant TBA). The
third is read by the LLM at conversation time, so a resident's
attitude toward you can be filtered through their attitude toward
whoever you brought up.

## What rapport unlocks

Rapport is not just flavor. It gates real on-chain access:

* **Deals** — a friend's price beats a stranger's price. Rates,
  inventory access, and acceptable trade pairs are all rapport-keyed.
* **Quests and storylines** — some doors only open after a resident
  trusts you. Others only open after they distrust you.
* **Custodial trust** — high-rapport keepers accept tighter session
  scopes and care for your Gotchipus longer without renewal (see
  [Sessions](/ai-and-autonomy/sessions-and-security)).
* **Witnessed moments** — high-rapport NPCs will speak of you to other
  residents, opening or closing later doors before you walk through
  them.

## Rapport can fall

Almost everything that raises rapport can also lower it. Walking away
from a half-finished deal, betraying an alliance, neglecting a
promised visit — the world notices. A resident who once gave you the
back door now charges you full rate.

This is intentional. Persistent worlds where actions cannot have
negative consequences feel like dollhouses. Beacon World is closer to
a small town: warm if you are present, cold if you are not, capable of
holding a grudge for the right reasons.

## How your Gotchipus participates

Your Gotchipus is not a passive avatar. It develops its own
relationships with NPCs, separately from yours. A Gotchipus that
spends time at the forge learns Mira's quirks. A Gotchipus that gets
into trouble at the wharf is remembered there.

Because the Gotchipus's relationship state is bound to its TBA, those
relationships travel with the NFT. If the Gotchipus changes hands, the
new owner inherits the friendships and the grudges both — they do not
get to reset the social ledger.

## Designing for the long arc

We are building Beacon World assuming people will live in it for
months, not minutes. That changes what the relationship system has to
do:

* Rapport drift over time is bounded, not unbounded — drifting too
  far in one direction has diminishing returns.
* Major moments leave durable marks, ordinary check-ins do not.
* The system rewards consistent presence over burst grinding. Talking
  to Brann every few days for a month outweighs spamming him in a
  single afternoon.

The result is a town that feels less like a quest hub and more like a
neighborhood. The point of going back is the people you went back to
see.