"AITA for accidentally tricking my friend?"

I (19M) love worldbuilding. I would consider it to be my main hobby. I somehow find a way to connect most things I find IRL to my fictional setting, and will jot down a note on a napkin or something before transferring it to one of my worldbuilding binders when I'm alone. I don't talk about my fictional world with pretty much anybody, I think it's a little embarrassing.

I have multiple binders for the same setting, for different aspects of the world. Think one for food, geography, religion, etc. It's a little overkill but it helps me organize my thoughts. I invited over my friend (22F), let's call her A, for a movie night with me, my sister (18F), and my parents.

She's very much not into the D&D/fantasy stuff, and doesn't know anything about it. We ended up going up to my room to play video games, and at some point, I went downstairs to go to the bathroom or something. When I came back upstairs, she was on her phone, so I assumed she'd been doing that the whole time. She goes home, I think nothing of it.

The next day at around noon, she starts blowing up my phone calling me an AH for making her look stupid. I, understandably confused, ask what she means, and she admits she read one of my binders and asked her roommate to pick up one of the peppers she'd read about, because it sounded good. She said she wanted to make fool's bell poppers, because she and her roommate both love spicy food.

(Fool's bell is a fictional type of pepper I created that looks like an overripe bell pepper, but is actually a little more spicy than a serrano pepper, so around 25k Scoville.)

Her roommate had laughed in her face after looking up the type of pepper, and said she "got her good." A says I'm an AH because, to her, I 'knew she would snoop through my stuff,' so I put something fake to make her look dumb to her roommate.

I need to emphasize; this binder cannot be more clearly labelled as fiction. There are no IRL things in this binder, not standing alone at least, and the front literally says "Worldbuilding: (type)." On top of this, she's one of my only IRL friends, and I love her a lot. I have no idea why she would assume I would do this maliciously. AITA?

The commenters did not hold back one bit.

riposte12 wrote:

NTA - She read your personal things without permission and then tried to blame you for it?

Let me ask you something. Is she really one of your friends?

OP responded:

She's usually very nice and we have a couple shared interests, so I'm of course confused. 😭

iforgotthequestion wrote:

NTA but really I'm just tickled by how fitting the name of this pepper is for your friend who believed in its existence.

Accomplished_Form830 wrote:

NTA. You had them clearly labeled, in your room. They weren't out on the coffee table in the living room. She chose to snoop, and then in turn Karma made her the fool. This is not your fault. If anything she should apologize for invading your privacy. You are young, people don't do this just as a normal thing. She is 1000000% in the wrong here.

maybe_an_al wrote:

NTA "Friend" is not a term I would apply to this person. If you are trying to get laid, reconsider. If you are trying to build a real friendship, it's not going to work with someone who reads through your personal belongings, is too dumb to recognize it for what it is, and redirects their own embarrassment into anger at you.

All because you didn't warn them not to snoop through your GM materials and take them as fact rather than fiction because you didn't anticipate how nosy and stupid they are. You really don't want this person in your life.

Wabbit-127 wrote:

So I played DnD when the first board game came out and then for many years after. It’s fun. Someone who is respectful would not snoop. That would end things for me. You are way too young to know what your future is going to look like but you need to understand snoops are not cool. She is not your forever person. You are NTA. She totally is. Time to move on.

IHaveBoxerdogs wrote:

If this is real, your friend sounds dangerously paranoid. To think you had this elaborate plan to fool her? And just to make you look dumb? That is not a normal reaction I wouldn’t that type of person in my life. NTA.

superoptimist1997 wrote:

I have house sat for my friends multiple times, according to them both them they left me notes with instructions in obvious places like on the mirror. I did not know this because I was in their home and assumed it wasn't for me because they never told me to look for a note. True friends don't go through your things.

makethatnoise wrote:

I used to teach preschool students. One of my favorite phrases during that time was "you get what you get, and you don't throw a fit".

NTA. She looked through a binder, didn't ask you about it, and instead talked about it with someone else. Don't have the right to throw a fit honey.