Life Like guides

Life Like looks simple — you're born into a random life, you make a handful of choices, you find out how it turned out. But under the two-minute run there's a real system: six stats, eight eras with different life expectancies, starting families that range from destitute to old-money dynasty, ten born gifts, and a scoring model that decides whether your life was one for the ages or a hard road. These guides explain how all of it actually works, so you can read your results and stack the odds on your next run.

• A beginner's guide to Life Like

  Your first few lives, what actually moves the score, and the mindset that gets you a good run instead of a hard road.

• The six stats, explained

  Looks, Smarts, Health, Wealth, Happiness, and Social — what each one does during a life and how it feeds your final grade.

• Every era, ranked by life expectancy

  From 45-year lifespans in Antiquity to 120 years in the far future — what each of the eight eras does to your run.

• Your starting hand: place and family

  Where you're born and what you're born into, from a gold-rush boomtown to an old-money dynasty, and why the rich hand isn't always the winning one.

• Which born gift should you pick?

  You choose one of three gifts at birth — the only thing about your starting life you control. Here's what each of the ten does.

• How lives are scored, graded, and titled

  The grade thresholds from S down to F, how the score is built, and where the rare titles like The Punchline come from.