Linking things together

Which field joins what to what, and which joins are not checked for you.

The spatial spine

biome  ->  area  ->  point of interest  ->  dungeon

Biome	A theme. Supplies room templates, encounter tables, ambience, palette.
Area	Belongs to one biome. Joined to other areas by `connections`.
Point of interest	Belongs to one area. A place inside it you can go.
Dungeon	Hangs off a place through `poi.dungeon`. Does not replace the place.

A place whose area does not exist never appears. Travel needs a declared connection.

A road is two entries, one on each area. oneWay is read on the destination's entry, so listing a road both ways gives a two way road.

Placing a person

Two fields, both work. npc.home names a place. poi.residents lists people. Pick one and stay with it.

Offering a quest

quest.giver does not offer anything

It is a label. npc.offersQuests is what puts a job in front of a player.

A quest can begin in one of four ways. At least one must be true:

An NPC lists it in offersQuests.
autoStart is set.
Another quest unlocks it.
An effect emits startQuest for it.

Chaining quests

Four pieces. All four are needed.

Only the first link is in an NPC's offersQuests.
Each later link requires the previous one complete.
Each link but the last unlocks the next.
The level floor sits on the first link only.

{ "id": "mill_1", "unlocks": ["mill_2"],
  "requires": { "minLevel": 3 } }

{ "id": "mill_2", "unlocks": ["mill_3"],
  "requires": { "quests": [ { "quest": "mill_1", "status": "complete" } ] } }

Dialogue

Ownership points one way

npc.dialogue names a dialogue. The dialogue never names the NPC. A dialogue nothing points at can never be opened.

Inside a dialogue, five fields name a node, and only nodes in that same dialogue:

start · option.goto · check.onSuccess · check.onFailure · redirectWhen[].goto

Effects on an option run before the check

option.effects run on choosing the option, whatever option.check then rolls. Put anything that depends on the roll on the success node's onEnter.

Options are tested against what the speaker knows, not what is true.

Objectives

`kill`	A death whose statblock id is `target`.
`collect`	Gaining the item named by `target`.
`reach`	Entering a map, firing a trigger, opening a gate, or a custom event.
`talk`	Starting a conversation with `target`.
`custom`	Your own `when` predicate. Required for this kind.

On the first four kinds, when is an extra condition the event must also pass. It is never a second way to complete.

Unchecked ids

objective.target is a bare id, not a checked reference. A typo passes validation and the objective never completes. The same applies to condition.prevents, condition.implies, sense.ignores, and dungeon.guaranteedRoles. The studio has a rule for the first of these.

Flags

A flag is a free string. Nothing checks that the thing reading it and the thing writing it agree on the spelling. The studio does, with flag_never_set and flag_writer_unreachable.

The engine writes these itself. You can read all of them:

found:<poi>                       a hidden place has been discovered
seen:<map>:<room>                 a room description has been shown
gate:<id>:open                    a gate stands open
gate:<id>:tried                   a bypass with no retry has been failed
said:<dialogue>:<node>:<option>   a once only option has been taken
quest:<quest>:<objective>:count   counted objective progress
ending:<arc>                      an ending arc has been reached

Lore

A learnLore effect is the only thing that teaches lore.
A loreThread groups entries. Read it as threads.<id>.known.
requirement.lore gates on it.

Lore no effect teaches is reported as unlearnable_lore.

Deeds

Three things record a deed:

quest.remembersAs when a quest finishes.
dialogueNode.remembers when a line is reached.
An emit effect anywhere.

npc.caresAbout lists the kinds a person takes personally. Those fade slower in their memory. The memory model decides who saw it, who they told, and how the story changed on the way.

Arcs

An arc groups quests. Read it as arcs.<id>. Finishing an arc marked isEnding ends the run, unless start.postVictory is continue.

The whole graph

npc ──dialogue──> dialogue ──(node ids only, never global)──> node
 │ │ │
 │ │ └──offersQuests──> quest ──unlocks──> quest ──> arc ──isEnding──> the end
 │ │                      │
 │ │                      ├──rewards.items──> item
 │ │                      ├──rewards.reputation──> faction
 │ │                      └──remembersAs──> deedKind
 │ │
 │ ├──statblock──> monster ──loot──> lootTable ──> item
 │ ├──faction──> faction ──relations──> faction
 │ ├──caresAbout──> deedKind
 │ └──home──> point of interest <──residents── point of interest
 │                    │
 │                    ├──area──> area ──biome──> biome
 │                    ├──gate──> gate
 │                    └──dungeon──> dungeon ──biome──> biome

effect learnLore ──> lore <──entries── loreThread

Every arrow is a checked reference except the ones named above.