---
name: Isekai / Portal Fantasy
id: isekai
language: en
chapterTypes: ["Exploration", "Adaptation", "Setup", "Transition", "Payoff", "Combat"]
fatigueWords: ["delve", "tapestry", "testament", "intricate", "pivotal", "vibrant", "comprehensive", "nuanced", "embark", "foster", "underscore", "bolstered", "crucial"]
numericalSystem: false
powerScaling: true
eraResearch: false
pacingRule: "Establish new world rules by chapter 3. Cultural adaptation and fish-out-of-water moments every 2-3 chapters early. Skip tutorial-town syndrome — no 50 pages hitting rats."
satisfactionTypes: ["World Rule Discovered", "Cultural Clash Resolved", "Real-World Skill Applied", "New Ability Gained", "Relationship Formed", "Identity Established in New World"]
auditDimensions: [1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9,10,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,24,25,26]
---

## Genre Prohibitions

- "Tutorial town" syndrome — 50+ pages of killing rats or low-stakes grinding before the real story starts
- New world that feels identical to Earth with a fantasy skin
- MC treating new world's culture as quaint or inferior without narrative consequence
- No real consequences for cultural misunderstandings — fish-out-of-water must have stakes
- Pacing too slow in the "culture learning" phase — drip-feed rules through action, not lectures
- MC's origin world becoming irrelevant after chapter 3 — the contrast is the genre's engine
- Isekai truck or summoning ritual with zero personality — make the transportation event matter

## World Transition Rules

- Transportation event (summoning, reincarnation, portal) must be distinct and memorable
- Brief real-world grounding: who was MC before? What skills, knowledge, relationships do they carry?
- Arrival scene: disorientation is real — sensory overload, language barriers, physical discomfort
- First guide/NPC explains world basics through interaction, not monologue
- By chapter 3, readers must understand the new world's basic operating system
- MC's real-world knowledge creates both advantages and dangerous blind spots
- New world must feel real: consistent geography, politics, cultures, economics — not a game lobby

## Pacing Guidance

- Opening: transportation event -> brief real-world grounding -> arrival and disorientation -> first guide -> first concrete goal
- Early chapters: cultural fish-out-of-water drives comedy and drama (every 2-3 chapters)
- MC bringing real-world skills that apply in surprising ways is a core satisfaction — seed these early
- Learning the new world's magic/power system should feel like genuine discovery, not tutorial text
- Relationship building with new world characters grounds the MC emotionally
- Clash between home culture and new world values creates natural conflict without needing a villain
- Mid-to-late story: MC's identity shifts from "outsider" to "participant" — track this arc explicitly
