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Dialogue

Dialogue scenes are written the way a screenwriter drafts them - a scene, some alternate line readings, and the other character's possible replies. This is deliberately not a scripting language; if a scene starts feeling like code, it has gone wrong.

Add a ## Dialogue chapter:

## Dialogue

### Veil Hail (veil_hail)
---
Speaker: veil
When: comms
---
% Well now. Fresh freight, flying no colors we fear.
% You are a long way from the lanterns, captain.

- [Back away slowly](veil_parting)
- [Warn them off](veil_standoff) if fearsome > 20
- [Offer a toll](veil_toll) if credits >= 200

### The Toll (veil_toll)
---
Speaker: veil
---
% Smart. The Reach teaches quick or it buries slow. Leave the crates.

- [Pay it](veil_parting) ; costs 200 credits, earns veil selfish 5

### Standoff (veil_standoff)
---
Speaker: veil
---
% Big words for a convoy dog. Say them again with your guns lit.

- [Hold your course](veil_parting) ; earns veil fearsome 10
- [Stand down](veil_parting) ; earns veil cowardly 5

### Parting (veil_parting)
---
Speaker: veil
---
% Fly on, then. The dark is patient.

How to read a scene

  • Speaker - whose face and name the message wears: a clan key, a captain key, or a cast key. When: comms marks the scene that opens when a player hails that speaker's station.
  • % lines are alternate takes. The game performs one, at random. Write two or three so the character doesn't repeat like a recording.
  • A take can be conditional: %{standing < -20} You again. Bold. plays only when its condition holds - so the same hail can read differently to a hated rival, a stranger, and a friend. First matching take wins.
  • - [Label](next_scene) lines are the player's replies. The label is the line the player speaks; the (key) is the scene it leads to. Two optional clauses:
    • if <condition> - the reply is only offered when it's true (if fearsome > 20: only a feared captain gets the intimidation option).
    • ; <consequences> - what choosing it does, comma-separated: costs 200 credits, earns veil fearsome 10, signal veil_paid.
  • A scene with no replies (like Parting) simply ends the conversation.

Conditions can reference the seven trait poles, credits, and - in a captain's scene - standing, his personal opinion of the player. That vocabulary is the whole of it, and that's on purpose.

In play

Hail a Veil station and the scene tree above is the conversation - with the player's reputation deciding which lines exist.

Every voice needs a scene

Any character whose fact sheet names a Scene: (Harbormaster Quill, Brother Calen) needs that scene written here, with the character's key as Speaker:. The complete example shows them all wired up.

Next: The dials - only if you want them.