Nightshelf (nightshelf.net, the “service”) is an interactive-fiction platform: you pick a story, and each turn of that story is written for you as you play, generated in part by artificial-intelligence language models. These terms are the agreement between you and the operator of Nightshelf (“we”, “us”) for using the service. By creating an account or using Nightshelf, you agree to them.
1. Who may use Nightshelf
You must be at least 18 years old to use Nightshelf. By creating an account you confirm that you meet this requirement and that the account information you provide is accurate. One account per person; you are responsible for keeping your sign-in credentials private and for what happens under your account.
2. The service is fiction, written by machines
Story text on Nightshelf is generated by AI models responding to the story’s authored structure and to what you type. It is fiction. It may occasionally be inaccurate, incoherent, or include themes you did not expect, despite the safeguards we operate. It is not advice of any kind — medical, legal, financial, or otherwise — and you agree not to rely on it as such.
3. Credits
Playing and creating stories consumes credits, the service’s internal usage unit. Credits measure the real computational work your turns use, so charges vary a little from turn to turn; figures shown on the pricing page are labeled typical for that reason.
- Credits are a limited licence to use the service. They are not money, have no cash value, are not redeemable or exchangeable, and cannot be transferred between accounts.
- Free credits (the daily allowance and welcome packs) are promotional; we may adjust their size or terms prospectively.
- Subscription credits refresh monthly and expire at the end of each billing cycle. Purchased pack credits do not expire. Balances spend subscription credits first, then purchased, then free.
- A turn that fails partway may still consume credits for the model work it actually performed before failing; such charges are labeled honestly in your wallet history.
- If your balance reaches zero mid-story, the story pauses — you never lose a save to an empty balance.
4. Subscriptions and purchases
Paid subscriptions and credit packs are sold through Paddle, our merchant of record. Paddle handles checkout, payment processing, applicable taxes, and billing support, and your purchase is also subject to Paddle’s buyer terms. We never see your full payment details.
Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period until you cancel. You can cancel at any time; cancellation takes effect at the end of the period already paid for, and you keep access and that cycle’s credits until then. We will give notice before any price increase takes effect on your subscription. Refunds are handled per our refund policy.
5. Your stories and your content
You own what you write — the free-text input you type into stories and the story premises you submit to the creation workroom. You grant us the licence needed to operate the service: to store your content, process it (including sending it to the AI model providers that generate story turns), and display it back to you.
- Private stories stay private. Stories you create and keep private, and the content of your saves, are not shown to other users and are not used to train AI models.
- If you submit a story for publication, you grant us a licence to display it to other users once approved. Published stories pass human review, and we may reject or unpublish content that violates these terms.
- Story text generated for you by the service may be used by you for personal, non-commercial purposes.
6. Acceptable use
You agree not to:
- use the service for anything unlawful, or submit content that is illegal, that sexualises minors, or that harasses or threatens real people;
- infringe others’ rights — including submitting copyrighted text you have no right to use;
- abuse the platform: probe or disrupt its security, scrape it, resell access, farm free credits with multiple accounts, or use the service to build a competing dataset;
- attempt to extract other users’ data or private content.
We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these terms. Where practical we will warn first; serious abuse may be terminated immediately. You may delete your account at any time.
7. Availability and changes
Nightshelf is under active development. Features may change, and we may modify or discontinue parts of the service. We aim to never shrink what a paid period already bought: if a paid feature is discontinued mid-cycle, we will make it right with a credit adjustment. The AI models behind narrators may be substituted with equivalents when providers change.
8. Disclaimers and liability
The service is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, express or implied. To the maximum extent permitted by law, our total liability for any claim arising out of the service is limited to the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim. Nothing in these terms excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded, or affects consumer rights that mandatory law grants you where you live.
9. Changes to these terms
We may update these terms as the service evolves. Material changes will be announced on the site with a reasonable notice period; the “last updated” date above always reflects the current version. Continuing to use Nightshelf after a change takes effect means you accept the updated terms.
10. Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of the jurisdiction in which the service operator is established, except where the mandatory consumer-protection law of your place of residence applies instead. Purchases made through Paddle are additionally governed by Paddle’s buyer terms.
11. Contact
Questions about these terms — or anything else — reach us through the feedback page.