How do I write a recipe?

Give it a name, say how many it makes, and list what goes into it one per line as a number and a name: two wood, one nails. A line with no number counts as one, and two lines of the same thing are added together. Up to five ingredients per recipe and up to ten recipes.

What does discovery mode do?

It hides what each recipe needs until somebody has made it once. The Make button still works, so the way to discover something is to hand out ingredients and try. It turns a recipe book into a puzzle, which is the point of it in a lesson or a quest game.

Can it read the piles from the inventory tray?

No, and that is deliberate. This page keeps its own piles, so it never has to claim in the privacy list that it stores something another page owns. If you want both, run them side by side and treat the inventory as the store cupboard and this as the workbench.

What happens if somebody is one ingredient short?

Nothing at all. Crafting is all or nothing: it either takes every ingredient and gives the output, or it changes nothing and says exactly what is still missing. A half-crafted pile is the one thing that would quietly ruin a game, so it cannot happen.

Does it remember the recipes?

Yes. The recipes, every pile and what has been discovered are kept in this browser, so a game survives a refresh or a locked phone. Nothing is uploaded, and a share link carries only whether recipes are hidden.

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Crafting

Recipes you write, ingredients players hold, and a table that turns them into something new.

Made by the PaperCarnival team · Updated 2026-09-22

Nobody playing yet

Add names in the Players tab. Everybody has their own pile of ingredients, and crafting uses the pile of whoever is chosen above.

Players

No players yet. Type a name and press Add.

Everybody has their own pile, and crafting uses the pile of whoever is chosen at the top.

Names stay in this browser. They are never put in a link, and every tool with players reads the same list.

Crafting is all or nothing: it takes every ingredient or none of them

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Turning things into other things

Crafting is what makes a pile of resources into a plan. On its own, three wood is just three wood; with a recipe in front of you it is most of a boat, and suddenly the wood is worth trading for. That is why crafting turns up in so many games with so few components: it costs one sheet of paper and it gives every item a reason to be wanted.

The tricky part at a real table is the bookkeeping, and specifically the half-done craft: somebody hands over two of the three things, gets distracted, and nobody can remember what was paid. Here it cannot happen. Crafting takes every ingredient and gives the output, or it takes nothing at all and says what is still missing. There is no state in between.

This page keeps its own piles rather than reading the inventory tray. Sharing one store between two pages sounds convenient and would mean this page had to claim, in the privacy list, that it stores something another page owns. Keeping them separate keeps that list honest, and running both side by side works perfectly well: the inventory as the store cupboard, this as the workbench.

Kept in this browser under pph.craft.recipes, pph.craft.inv, pph.craft.found and pph.players, and nowhere else. Accounts, printing, storage and what the page loads are answered on the FAQ.

Questions

How do I write a recipe?: Give it a name, say how many it makes, and list what goes into it one per line as a number and a name: two wood, one nails. A line with no number counts as one, and two lines of the same thing are added together. Up to five ingredients per recipe and up to ten recipes.
What does discovery mode do?: It hides what each recipe needs until somebody has made it once. The Make button still works, so the way to discover something is to hand out ingredients and try. It turns a recipe book into a puzzle, which is the point of it in a lesson or a quest game.
Can it read the piles from the inventory tray?: No, and that is deliberate. This page keeps its own piles, so it never has to claim in the privacy list that it stores something another page owns. If you want both, run them side by side and treat the inventory as the store cupboard and this as the workbench.
What happens if somebody is one ingredient short?: Nothing at all. Crafting is all or nothing: it either takes every ingredient and gives the output, or it changes nothing and says exactly what is still missing. A half-crafted pile is the one thing that would quietly ruin a game, so it cannot happen.
Does it remember the recipes?: Yes. The recipes, every pile and what has been discovered are kept in this browser, so a game survives a refresh or a locked phone. Nothing is uploaded, and a share link carries only whether recipes are hidden.

Crafting

Turning things into other things

Questions

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