Arcs

arcs

arcs holds authored narrative arc definitions keyed by a stable arc id. It has no editor surface. An arc produces a generated story trigger from its premise, and labels the quests that belong to it once it has surfaced.

In the world file: parties[""].arcs
API endpoint: /sections/arcs.json/sections/arcs.md
Size limits: No character-length caps for this section.

Quests

Schema

json

{
  "parties": {
    "": {
      "arcs": {
        "<key>": {
          "id": "string",
          "theme": "string",
          "surfacePremise": "string",
          "expectedConclusion": "string",
          "status": "active | resolved | dormant",
          "minQuestsForConclusion": "number",
          "title": "string",
          "secrets": [
            "string"
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Example

json

{
  "parties": {
    "": {
      "arcs": {
        "the_drowned_bell": {
          "id": "the_drowned_bell",
          "title": "The Drowned Bell",
          "theme": "A sunken shrine is waking, and the tide answers it",
          "surfacePremise": "the bell beneath the harbour still rings on some nights",
          "expectedConclusion": "The shrine is either sealed for good or allowed to finish waking.",
          "minQuestsForConclusion": 3,
          "status": "active",
          "secrets": [
            "The harbourmaster has been muffling the bell for years."
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Warning (no editor surface): arcs is not reachable through the editor's menus, so entries are written in JSON. This page covers what the engine does with an arc; fields with no described effect are listed with their type only.

Fields

id

The arc's identifier.

Two places use it. The generated trigger described below is named arcSurfacing_ followed by this value. And a quest's runtime arc id is used as a key into arcs, so the value a quest carries is matched against this one.

theme

A string. When surfacePremise is absent, the engine substitutes theme in its place before building the trigger, so theme becomes the text read into the condition described below.

surfacePremise

A string, read verbatim into the generated condition described below as It is mentioned or revealed that <surfacePremise>. The value is placed into that sentence unchanged, so the bell beneath the harbour still rings on some nights produces a readable condition and The Drowned Bell arc does not.

The value is trimmed first. If nothing remains, no trigger is produced.

expectedConclusion

A string. Required.

minQuestsForConclusion

A number. Required.

title

A string. It appears in the quest label described below. When the label is produced and title is absent, the text used is Storyline.

secrets

Array<string>. Optional.

status

One of active, resolved, or dormant. Required.

The generated trigger

An arc produces a trigger, built from its id and its premise:

its name is arcSurfacing_ followed by the arc's id
recurring is false
it holds one condition, of type story, whose query is It is mentioned or revealed that followed by the premise
its effects list is empty

The premise is trimmed before the trigger is built, and if nothing remains the trigger is not produced at all. surfacePremise supplies the text, or theme when surfacePremise is absent.

A story condition is one of the two semantic condition types.

The quest label

A quest carries an arc id, a position within the arc, and the arc's escalation as it stood when the quest was created. None of the three is an authored field: they are absent from the quest fields an author writes, and are set during play.

When a quest has an arc id, and the arc that id resolves to has recorded a surfacing time, a label is produced from the arc's title and the quest's position. Where title is absent, Storyline is used instead.

While a planned quest belongs to an arc, the AI generates no new quest for that arc.

What the engine records

An arc gains six fields during play that are not authored: a creation time, a surfacing start time, a surfacing time, a resolved time, an escalation level, and a last-update time. The surfacing time is what enables the quest label above.

Authoring notes

Write surfacePremise to complete the sentence it is placed in. The text is inserted unchanged after It is mentioned or revealed that .
A blank premise produces no trigger. If surfacePremise and theme are both empty, nothing is generated for the arc.
title is player-facing wherever the quest label is shown, and Storyline stands in when it is missing.

Arcs

#Schema

#Example

#Fields

#id

#theme

#surfacePremise

#expectedConclusion

#minQuestsForConclusion

#title

#secrets

#status

#The generated trigger

#The quest label

#What the engine records

#Authoring notes