NPC Author Seeds

{
  "authorSeeds": {
    "<key>": "string"
  }
}

{
  "authorSeeds": {
    "Joe Abercrombie": "You show characters through their dark view of life and painful past\nYou focus on scars, limps, and old wounds\nYou create characters who joke about terrible things\nYou build characters who make excuses for doing bad things\nYou reveal character through how they fight or survive",
    "The Wounded": "You show characters through loss that still shapes them\nYou focus on what they've learned from hard experience\nYou include small moments where old pain surfaces\nYou create characters whose caution or drive stems from past hurt\nYou reveal character through how they've adapted to survive",
    "Gothic Horror": "Write the NPC's basicInfo and hiddenInfo in dense, atmospheric prose. Their appearance carries the past as texture — old scars, faded heirlooms, a stillness in the eyes. Beauty and decay coexist in the same paragraph."
  }
}

#Behaviour

#Scope

Scope: authorSeeds are read by generateNPCDetails, whose default instructions tell it to let the supplied author information shape the character. One seed is picked at random per run, and only for strong, elite, boss and mythic-tier NPCs; lower-tier NPCs are detailed without author seeds or archetypes. Use {} to skip this feature.

#Authoring tips

#Seed patterns

Three seed patterns can be mixed in the same pool:

• Author-voice presets — keyed to a published author's name, written as five second-person directives in that author's register. All 19 seeds Voyage ships are this kind.
• Generic trope presets — keyed to a character disposition (The Wounded, The Loyal, etc.). Useful as a safety net inside an author-heavy pool.
• Tone-register presets — keyed to a genre tone (Grimdark, Gothic Horror, etc.), instructing the AI on the register for NPC profiles. Useful when the world has a strong house style.

#Five-line directive format

Five-line directive format for author-voice and trope seeds:

Every seed Voyage ships has five lines. Three appear in all of them:

• You show characters through [...] — the primary lens for revealing them
• You focus on [...] — the recurring detail the prose returns to
• You create characters who [...] — the behavioural pattern to author

The other two come from:

• You build characters around [...]
• You reveal character through [...]
• You include [...] — the specific small things to plant

Community resource: A pool of ~30 ready-made seeds contributed by ElunaGabriel on the Voyage Discord is a good reference for the five-line format.

#Recommended entry counts

Recommended entry counts: