Character Files

While the contents of plot and session files are largely up to you, character files are more structured. Their file names carry important information, and their contents always begin with a set of tags.

File Name

Character file names have three parts: the character’s name, their mnemonic, and the file extension.

Grete Mann - goodest boy.npc
^            ^           ^
name         mnemonic    extension

The name and mnemonic must be separated by a space, hyphen, and then another space (n - m).

The default file extension is .npc, but a more specific extension can be used instead based on the extension used for the character type’s sheet template. This is usually the same as the key of the campaign’s game system, like .fate or .nwod.

If a character’s name cannot be part of a valid filename, usually because of special characters, use a simplified version for the filename and add a @realname tag to the file with the correct name. This is handled automatically by NPC when it creates a new character, but is important to remember when you create or rename character files by hand.

File Contents

Character files are broken into sections. The first section is always the tag section, which has no header. Other sections are denoted by a header line, which looks like --Notes-- or --Stats--.

Note

In NPC 2.0.0, everything outside of the tag section can be formatted as you like. This may change in the future.

Tag Section

Character files start with their tag section. The most important tag is @type, which is also the only tag that is always required. Its value is based on whichever of the Game Systems the campaign is using. The character type can change which other tags are available, which is why the type is so important.

Plain text in the tag section is stored as the character description and usually talks about who they are, their history, what they want in the story, etc.

The tag section ends with the first header line, which is usually --Notes--.

Example file contents for Badd Mann - bad guy.npc

An evil man from a family rife with conflict. Badd hates his
brother, Caoil, for being too damn cool.

@org Evil League of Evil
@role Member

@location Hartsford, CT

--Notes--

Badd is the evil member of the Mann family. Hates his brother Caoil.