How Stories & Personas Work

Preview

Stories and Personas are new. The file formats can change between versions, and some features are not finished. Test your pack again after you update Townstead.

A story is a conversation that a villager has with the player, written in Ink. It can give quests, remember what the player said, react to the world, and change how the villager feels about the player.

A Persona is a story that belongs to one person. A Persona is a unique villager who arrives in the player’s village, with their own name and job, and their own reactions to gifts. A Persona knows the player, and talks about what they know about the player.

This section is for pack authors. For the player’s view, see Stories & Personas.

Two Kinds of Story

	Villager story	Persona
Folder	data/<ns>/story/<id>/	data/<ns>/persona/<id>/
JSON file	story.json	persona.json
Who tells it	Every villager that attach matches, such as all farmers.	Only the Persona’s own villager.
How the villager appears	An ordinary villager.	The Persona arrives when its arrival goals are met, or with a command.
Page	Villager Stories	Personas

Both use the same Ink, the same quests, goals and rewards, and the same conditions and actions.

How a Player Meets a Story

1. The player talks to a villager who has a story. The dialogue screen shows a menu entry for it, next to MCA’s own options.
2. The player picks the entry. The story starts at its greet knot, or at a quest that is waiting to be handed back.
3. The story plays line by line. The player chooses replies.
4. When the story enters a quest knot, the quest starts and shows in the Quest Ledger.
5. When the goals are met, the villager has something to say. The next talk plays the hand-back lines and pays the rewards.

Stories need Townstead’s dialogue screen. When useRpgDialogue is off in the client configuration, stories do not show.

Each player has their own progress in each story. Two players who talk to the same Persona each get their own conversation, quests and relationship.

A Persona’s Life

1. Arrival. A player stands in a village. When one of the Persona’s arrival goals is met, the Persona walks in from the edge of the village toward the player.
2. Identity. The first time the world needs them, the Persona rolls a name, a gender and the values in rolls, such as a hometown. These stay the same for the whole world.
3. The story. The player talks to them. Then the quests, gifts and relationship start.
4. Downed, not dead. By default, a Persona who would die is downed instead and gets up later.
5. Leaving. A player can ask a Persona to leave town. A Persona can also move on by themselves, for example when their town falls.

World Settings

Setting	Effect
Switchboard Quests dial	Turns villager stories on or off, together with the Quest Ledger.
Switchboard Personas dial	Off: no Personas arrive, and Persona stories do not show. On: Personas are downed instead of dying. On, can die: Personas die like anyone else.
[personas] in the server configuration	permadeath and downedRecovery. See Downed.

Data Files

Folder	Page	What it holds
data/<ns>/story/<id>/	Villager Stories	A story’s .ink files and story.json.
data/<ns>/persona/<id>/	Personas	A Persona’s .ink files and persona.json.
data/<ns>/goal/	Quests, Goals & Rewards	Goals that several stories share.
data/<ns>/reward/	Quests, Goals & Rewards	Rewards that several stories share.
data/<ns>/story_item/	Story Tools	Named items for stories, such as a letter or a keepsake.
data/<ns>/downed/	Downed	Which other villagers are downed instead of dying.

Where to Start

• Follow Your First Story to make a story and then a Persona in a few minutes.
• If you are new to Ink, read inkle’s Writing with Ink guide first, and install the Inky editor. See Writing in Ink.