Steamforge Conversation and Information System – Concept Spec

Overview

The Steamforge Conversation and Information System is designed to create organic, immersive, and unpredictable player-NPC interactions. It rejects the idea of purely transactional dialogue trees and instead embraces a world where conversations can mislead, amuse, inform, or provoke action in unexpected ways.

NPCs in Steamforge may:

• Tell the truth
• Lie intentionally
• Speak nonsense
• Provide partial information
• Offer quests directly or indirectly

Conversations are not puzzles to solve, but situations to navigate.

---

1. Conversation Content Types

Type	Purpose	Behavior
Nonsense / Flavor	World-building, weirdness, misdirection	Random, lore-colored babble, rumors, jokes
Partial Truth	Hints, clues, misremembered info	Contains useful bits buried in exaggeration or error
Direct Information	Useful, correct, actionable info	Usually requires trust, reputation, or correct lead-up
Active Quest Hook	Leads to a task, event, or story	May be obvious or subtle
Passive Quest Clue	Part of a breadcrumb trail	Requires player to connect dots
Intentional Lie	Designed to trick, test, or distract	Results in danger, humor, or wasted effort

---

2. NPC Conversation Architecture

Each NPC has:

• A pool of vignettes (lines, responses, or monologues)
• Vignettes are tagged:
  • Always True
  • Always False
  • Contextual (world state dependent)
  • Dynamic (mood or condition-based)

Selection of what an NPC says is weighted by:

• Reputation / Relationship with the player
• Player’s previous choices
• Environmental context
• Time of day / Location
• NPC mood / state
• Random chance

---

3. Conversation Mechanics

Players approach an NPC with a "Topic Driven" system rather than rigid dialogue lines.

Examples of topics:

• "Ask about the Ruins"
• "Ask about the Local Baron"
• "Ask for Work"
• "Ask for Rumors"

NPCs respond from their vignette pool based on:

• Their knowledge
• Their willingness to share
• Their emotional state
• Their personal traits (talkative, evasive, prideful, etc.)

---

4. Quest Generation from Conversations

A Quest is any task the player undertakes based on conversation.

Types:

• Direct ("Go here and do this")
• Indirect ("I heard a story about...")
• Accidental ("Follow up on a weird rumor")
• Deceptive ("Get tricked by bad info")

Quests may or may not appear in a formal quest log.

---

5. Information Filtering

Players must:

• Listen carefully
• Determine credibility
• Follow up on leads
• Identify patterns
• Learn which NPCs are trustworthy

---

Summary

The Conversation and Information System in Steamforge is a dynamic, layered approach to NPC interaction. It makes every conversation potentially valuable, misleading, or both. This system encourages exploration, observation, and deduction — creating a living world where players learn through engagement, not just UI markers.