Dialogue Templates

You can find Dialogue Templates in the sidebar, under Dynamic Components. The list shows every dialogue in this book: name, element and emotion counts, and validity. Click Add Dialogue Template to create a new one, or click a row to open and edit it.

The editor has two panes. The left pane is the dialogue tree: General Settings at the top, then every element in the conversation. Click one to edit it in the right pane. General Settings holds the template's name, the persona (who the character is), and the emotion list (the feelings a choice can read and change). If something is broken, the tree marks it with a warning icon so you can go straight to it.

• Template name: the label shown in the list and in any Trigger that fires this dialogue. Required, up to 70 characters. Pick a name you'll still recognise later: "Queequeg, first meeting at the Spouter-Inn" is clearer than "dialogue 3".
• Show the title: turn this on to show the template name as a heading at the top of the dialogue. Leave it off to keep the focus on the character.

The persona is the character the reader talks to. Pick a Character or Creature Glossary Item from your book. Its name and main image appear beside the dialogue, so the reader can see who's speaking.

A template has exactly one persona; the whole conversation is with that character.

The dialogue tree

A dialogue is a tree of up to 20 dialogue elements. Each element is one turn in the conversation: the character's line, and up to five choices the reader can pick from. A choice with children leads one level deeper into the tree. A leaf choice (one with no children) fires its results and the dialogue ends, unless one of those results goes back a step instead. It's the same branching structure as the rest of the book, inside a single conversation.

Each element holds:

• The character's line: what the persona says on this turn, shown above the choices. Leaf choices have no line; they only fire their results.
• Choices: the lines the reader picks from. Each choice can have its own prerequisites (whether it's offered) and its own results (what happens when the reader picks it).
• Prerequisites gate a choice on the state of the story: a fact, an item the reader carries, whether a Glossary Item has been revealed, or an emotion value ("only offer this line if Trust is above 5"). When the condition isn't met, you choose whether the choice is hidden or greyed out.
• Results are what picking the choice does: reveal a Glossary Item or chapter section, change a fact, change an emotion, open another Dynamic Component (a Trade Screen, for example), go back a step, or end the dialogue.
• Disabled after choice: on by default. Once the reader has taken this element, it greys out and can't be entered again. Turn it off for a character the reader can return to, like an innkeeper they can talk to on every visit.

Named feelings a choice can read and write

A template can have up to five emotions. Each one is a name, a number, and an optional short description: Trust, Anger, Fear, Affection, or whatever fits the character. The description is a note to yourself, so leave it out when the name says enough. A choice's prerequisite can read a value (gate a line behind "Trust above 5"). A choice's result can write one: add, subtract, or reset points, or take the change from a Calculation.

Once a Dialogue Template is part of a published expansion, it locks: its card in the list shows a lock icon and no longer opens. Click the card's Duplicate button for a copy with (Copy) appended to the name, and edit that. The original stays unchanged for readers of that expansion.

A Dialogue Template can be invalid for several reasons:

• The persona points at a Glossary Item that has since been deleted. Pick another character to revalidate the template.
• A choice prerequisite or a result references a Glossary Item, fact, tag, Calculation, or emotion that has since been deleted. If you delete an emotion from the Emotion Entries tab, every choice that used it is flagged automatically. Open the element with the warning and fix the reference.
• A choice has Has Prerequisites switched on but no prerequisites written. Add the conditions or turn the switch off.
• Two results on the same element both fire a Dynamic Component, or both navigate (one goes back, the other ends the dialogue), with no conditions to separate them. Only one of each can run on the same click. Gate them with conditions, or remove one.

The list page marks invalid templates with a warning icon and sorts them to the top. The publish check rejects any book with an invalid dialogue, so a broken template blocks the next expansion until you fix it.

Deleting a Dialogue Template that's in use breaks every Trigger pointing at it. The editor warns you when you delete, so you can cancel or fix the Triggers afterwards.