Guide

Stories

Stories are the life events that land in your inbox: a cousin's wedding, a wrist that won't stop aching, a documentary crew, a letter from HMRC. Each one has a title, a body and up to four choices. A choice can change your stats, roll a random outcome, change the world (withdraw you from an event, start an injury, bring in a sponsor offer…) and schedule another story weeks later.

Stories live in data/events/narrative/*.json. Each file is a JSON array of stories. The core game splits them by category (family.json, health.json, travel.json, money.json, …), but any file name works. To change a core story, reuse its id or patch it ("target": "narrative:core.narrative.family-occasion"). The editor schema is the stories reference.

Every field on this page except id, trigger, title, body and choices is optional. A story written before these features existed works exactly as before.

A story#

{
  "id": "acme.story.pub-quiz",
  "trigger": "weekTick",
  "condition": { "chance": 0.02, "tierMin": 4 },
  "title": "Pub Quiz Night",
  "body": "The Feathers need a sixth for the quiz team. The darts round is worth double.",
  "choices": [
    {
      "id": "go",
      "label": "Join the team",
      "effects": { "morale": 4, "fatigue": 0.02 },
      "outcome": "You get every darts question right and none of the geography."
    },
    { "id": "no", "label": "Stay in and practise", "effects": { "form": 0.02 } }
  ],
  "cooldownWeeks": 30
}

Triggers#

At most one story fires per check. A follow-up that's due takes that week's weekTick slot. A mod's script can also fire a story at any check, whatever its trigger and condition.

Conditions#

All listed conditions must hold. Stat ranges use the same scales as the game: confidence and morale 0–100, form −1…1, fatigue 0…1, public image −100…100.

Your standing in a squads league (squad)#

For stories about the county side or a youth side. tour picks the league: the squads events of that tour where you live (core.tour.county is the county league, core.tour.junior the Shires youth leagues; a tour that runs one league an age group gives the one that would take you). Every other field is optional and every listed check must hold.

"condition": {
  "chance": 0.08,
  "months": [9, 10, 11, 1, 2],
  "squad": { "tour": "core.tour.county", "capsMin": 6, "seasonsMin": 2, "rankMax": 4, "picked": true, "averageMin": [80, 75, 70] }
}

In a county league the scene word {scene:county} is the county you play for, so a story can name it.

Choices#

The inbox shows each choice's guaranteed effects as chips ("Costs £90", "Morale ↑", "Miss next event", "Sponsor interest"). A choice you can't pay for is greyed out, and a story where no choice is affordable never holds up time: it settles on the cheapest choice. Only the choice's own effects.money counts towards affordability, not money in its outcomes.

Effects#

Numbers are changes, applied once.

Random outcomes#

Give a choice outcomes and one is rolled when it's picked, by weight, among the outcomes whose condition holds (their chance is ignored). The roll is seeded from the career, so the same save always rolls the same way. The choice's own effects, actions and outcome still apply; the rolled outcome's text is shown after them.

{
  "id": "play-through",
  "label": "Strap it and play through",
  "effects": { "confidence": 2 },
  "outcome": "Tape, gritted teeth and a stubborn streak.",
  "outcomes": [
    { "weight": 3, "text": "It settles down by the weekend." },
    {
      "weight": 2,
      "hint": "Could make it worse",
      "text": "By Friday you can't hold a mug. You've made it worse.",
      "actions": [
        { "type": "injury", "label": "Wrist strain", "weeks": [2, 3], "severity": "moderate" }
      ],
      "followUp": { "story": "acme.story.wrist-setback", "afterWeeks": 1 }
    }
  ]
}

A choice with two or more outcomes gets a "Could go either way" chip.

Actions (world effects)#

actions is a list. Each action has a type:

weeks is a number, or [min, max] rolled when it happens.

Mod scripts use the same handlers: dtj.effects.apply(action) takes modifier, injury, sponsorOffer, rivalry, social, followerSurge and staffMorale (clamped to smaller limits than a story's), and a script's inbox message can give its choices effects and actions that show as the same chips.

Modifiers last for their weeks, then expire. While one runs:

Injuries go through the medical room. part says where it hurts (shoulder, elbow, wrist, back, knee, foot, eyes; left out, it's worked out from the label, else the throwing shoulder), and each part hurts a different part of your game. injury names an injury type from medical.json instead (its name and part). weeks is how long it takes with plain rest; the treatment you choose (and your physio) makes it quicker or slower, and playing on can make it worse. sitOut: true starts you on rest (you miss events), false on playing through it. Keep story injuries short: one to three weeks.

{ "type": "injury", "label": "Wrist strain", "part": "wrist", "weeks": [1, 2] }

League nights are never skipped, because their line-up is fixed for the series.

Follow-ups and arcs#

A followUp on a choice or an outcome schedules another story:

"followUp": { "story": "acme.story.part-two", "afterWeeks": [2, 3], "chance": 0.8 }

The follow-up fires at the first week's end on or after that date, even if its own trigger, cooldown or once wouldn't normally allow it. Its condition is still checked (without chance), so a condition can cancel it: "condition": { "hasRival": true } drops a grudge match if the rivalry has cooled. Trigger facts like won aren't available to a follow-up.

The follow-up keeps the text variables of the story that scheduled it ({opponent}, {event}, {rival}, {sponsor} and the rest), except {money}, {nextEvent}, {venue} and {city}, which are worked out fresh. The inbox marks it "Part 2", "Part 3" and so on. Scheduled follow-ups are kept in the save.

Use "trigger": "followUp" for parts that should only ever come from their arc (or from your script). The loader warns about a followUp story nothing schedules, unless its mod has a script, and removes a follow-up pointing at a story that doesn't exist.

Story flags#

A flag is a name the career remembers. A choice (or a rolled outcome) sets one with a setFlag action, and any later story can ask for it with flag or refuse to fire while it stands with notFlag. Flags never expire on their own: clear one with "value": false when the thread is paid off. Text variables are filled in the name, so a flag can be about a person: "fuel:{rival}" and "called-out:{opponent}" are one flag per rival or opponent, and a story that asks for "flag": "fuel:{rival}" only fires while the flag for that rival stands.

The game sets a few flags itself: staff-clash while two of your staff are at odds and staff-clash-asked once you have answered (the core's "{clashA} or {clashB}?" story in events/narrative/team.json fires on the first and not the second, and its choices set staff-clash-choice:back-one, bang-heads or let-it-ride, which the game reads the next week), and poached-by:<playerId> when a rival takes, or loses, a coach of yours.

The core's rival stories are the worked example (events/narrative/rivals.json): "Beaten by {rival}" sets fuel:{rival}, feud:{rival} or respect:{rival} for the choice you made, and three matchEnd and weekTick stories pay each one off (the screenshot comes down, a columnist drags the feud up while the record is against you, the rival returns the compliment) and clear it; "The Handshake" sets called-out:{opponent} and schedules the opponent's reply as a follow-up; declining the grudge match sets bottled:{rival}, which a rival with the edge brings up until you answer it. The pattern:

{ "id": "fire", "label": "Use it as fuel",
  "actions": [{ "type": "setFlag", "flag": "fuel:{rival}" }] }

{ "id": "acme.story.fuel-paid", "trigger": "matchEnd",
  "condition": { "againstRival": true, "won": true, "flag": "fuel:{rival}" },
  "choices": [{ "id": "done", "label": "Take it down",
                "actions": [{ "type": "setFlag", "flag": "fuel:{rival}", "value": false }] }] }

The flags are listed in the save's story memory (flags), in the order set. Mod scripts do not read them yet.

Text variables#

Titles, bodies, labels, outcome texts, news and social posts can use:

A story that uses a scene word takes its wording from where the player lives, and a story that uses a word the player's scene has not got does not fire there: a title written as {scene:Level} Call-Up reads "County Call-Up" in England and "Area Call-Up" in Scotland, and the story is never sent to a player living in a country whose scene has no word for the level. Write the words your scene has in its words; a key your scene leaves out is read from the fallback scene's. Nothing in the base game names an English place or an English level word outright any more: use the scene words for places and levels, and livesIn for a story that can only happen in one country.

Example: an arc#

A charity exhibition in three steps: the invite, the night itself (two to three weeks later), and a chance of a viral moment.

[
  {
    "id": "acme.story.charity-invite",
    "trigger": "weekTick",
    "condition": { "chance": 0.02, "months": [10, 11], "followersMin": 400 },
    "title": "The Hospice Exhibition",
    "body": "The hospice in {city} wants you to headline its exhibition night.",
    "choices": [
      {
        "id": "headline",
        "label": "Headline it",
        "effects": { "image": 2 },
        "outcome": "Posters go up with your face on them.",
        "followUp": { "story": "acme.story.charity-night", "afterWeeks": [2, 3] }
      },
      {
        "id": "donate",
        "label": "Send a donation",
        "effects": { "money": -100, "image": 1 },
        "outcome": "They send a lovely card."
      }
    ],
    "cooldownWeeks": 52
  },
  {
    "id": "acme.story.charity-night",
    "trigger": "followUp",
    "title": "Exhibition Night",
    "body": "The function room in {city} is packed. How do you play it?",
    "choices": [
      {
        "id": "show",
        "label": "Put on a show",
        "effects": { "fatigue": 0.05, "morale": 6 },
        "outcome": "Big finishes and bigger cheers.",
        "outcomes": [
          { "weight": 3, "text": "The night raises a fortune.", "effects": { "image": 4 } },
          {
            "weight": 1,
            "hint": "Could go viral",
            "text": "You hit a nine-darter against the local radio DJ. The clip goes everywhere.",
            "actions": [
              { "type": "followerSurge", "percent": 0.1, "min": 500 },
              {
                "type": "news",
                "headline": "Nine-darter at {city} charity night",
                "body": "{name} produced a perfect leg for a good cause."
              }
            ]
          }
        ]
      },
      { "id": "relaxed", "label": "Keep it relaxed", "effects": { "morale": 4 } }
    ]
  }
]

Example: the week before an event#

{
  "id": "acme.story.food-poisoning",
  "trigger": "weekTick",
  "condition": { "chance": 0.01, "hasEventWithinDays": 5, "injured": false },
  "title": "The Dodgy Prawn",
  "body": "A late-night takeaway and a very long night. {nextEvent} is in a few days.",
  "choices": [
    {
      "id": "play",
      "label": "Dry toast and play",
      "effects": { "fatigue": 0.1 },
      "outcomes": [
        { "weight": 2, "text": "You're grey, but upright." },
        {
          "weight": 1,
          "text": "It lingers.",
          "actions": [
            { "type": "modifier", "label": "Under the weather", "weeks": 1, "accuracy": -0.02 }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "withdraw",
      "label": "Pull out of {nextEvent}",
      "actions": [{ "type": "withdraw" }],
      "outcome": "You text the organisers from the bathroom floor. Entry fee refunded."
    }
  ]
}

Checking your stories#

The Mods screen lists problems with each file, line and field. A story with an invalid field (an unknown action type, a severity that doesn't exist, a week range like [4, 2]) disables the mod, like any other schema error. Broken references (a follow-up to a missing story, a sponsorOffer from an unknown sponsor, a rivalry with an unknown player) are removed with a warning and the story still loads.