Characters and Conversations
Based on the requirements of two of my WIPs, I needed robust character and conversation systems. Normally these would be game-specific since the story dictates how dialogue is presented and executed. These two additions are general system implementations, but bring a great deal of potential to storytelling.
I did not make any attempt to chase Versu's capabilities. I was specifically looking at NPC agency. How can an IF story be written so that its PC and its NPCs have full autonomy and agency within a story.
This means having personalities with moods, goals, friendships, enemies, and more. These come in the form described below:
Character model — the state
create Jonas Reed
a person, proper, very impulsive, slightly honest
temperament duty over fear
never betrays a confidence
mood anxious
feels devoted to Marta Kell
knows the-ledger-burning, witnessed, certain
| Piece | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Personality & temperament | Stable traits, and which pressure wins when two collide (duty over fear) |
| Principles | Lines they will not cross (never betrays a confidence) |
| Mood | The volatile layer — what they are feeling now |
| Feelings & knowledge | Who they care about; what they know, how they learned it, how sure they are |
| Goals | What they are trying to do, with priority and gating (active when it is breaking) |
| Influence & face-acts | Pressure they exert on others — intimidation, charm — and how it lands (witnessed / resisted) |
| Conscience | What they are burdened by, and what that costs them to keep |
Conversation — the selection
| Construct | What it decides |
|---|---|
| Manner | How a reply is delivered, by mood — a beat of business, or a voice |
| Greetings | First time, on return, again so soon, after days, asked again, on leaving |
| Topic recency | Whether a subject is fresh, recent, or stale — and what that changes |
| Exchanges | A question they asked, awaiting your answer; may be blocking |
| Initiative | When they speak unprompted — open floor, subject change, harm |
| Threads | A subject they will carry across turns, beat by beat, until it concludes |
| Continuation prompts | The player pulling the next beat: tell me more, continue, go on, and? |
A taste of each of the three that do the most work:
define exchange the-offer for Will Kemp, blocking
answer "yes", "aye", "sworn":
phrase kemp-sworn
change Will Kemp to sworn
on leaving:
phrase kemp-calls-after
leave
on silence:
phrase kemp-offer-silence
end exchange
define initiative for Will Kemp
on an open floor, when it is cheerful:
phrase kemp-interjects
on an open floor, when it is stung:
hold their tongue
when the subject changes:
deflect to "the offer"
end initiative
define conversation the-defection for Will Kemp, blocking
about "the rose", "the offer", "henslowe"
opens when the grievance was discussed and the-blow-up is stale
beat:
phrase kemp-names-his-price
then asks the-offer
on refusing:
phrase kemp-holds-the-thread
on resuming:
phrase kemp-takes-it-up
This is most certainly a first version and changes/additions are likely, but this is built into the latest version of Chord Writer now available on https://sharpee.net/.