Packmakers

How to add your own characters and conversations.

Two kinds of files

File	What it is	Where it goes
Speaker	Someone who talks: name, voice, portraits	data/<namespace>/nostalgicdialog/speakers/<name>.json
Dialog	One conversation: what is said, the choices, what happens	data/<namespace>/nostalgicdialog/dialogs/<name>.json

<namespace> is a short lowercase name for your pack, like mypack. A file at data/mypack/nostalgicdialog/dialogs/elder.json gets the id mypack:elder.

These are normal datapack files, so they work anywhere a datapack does:

• A datapack: <world>/datapacks/<your pack>/data/mypack/nostalgicdialog/...
• KubeJS: kubejs/data/mypack/nostalgicdialog/... (the namespace folder goes straight inside kubejs/data)
• A mod: src/main/resources/data/mypack/nostalgicdialog/...

Portraits are images, so they go in a resource pack (or kubejs/assets/). See Speakers & Portraits.

Your first dialog in five minutes

1. Make a speaker. Save this as kubejs/data/mypack/nostalgicdialog/speakers/guard.json:

{
  "name": "Guard",
  "color": "gold",
  "voice": { "sound": "nostalgicdialog:voice.low", "pitch": 0.9 }
}

2. Make a dialog. Save this as kubejs/data/mypack/nostalgicdialog/dialogs/guard.json:

{
  "speaker": "guard",
  "nodes": {
    "start": {
      "lines": "Halt! Who goes there?",
      "choices": [
        { "text": "Just a traveler.", "goto": "traveler" },
        { "text": "None of your business.", "goto": "rude" }
      ]
    },
    "traveler": {
      "lines": "Very well. Keep out of trouble, {player}.",
      "next": "end"
    },
    "rude": {
      "lines": "{shake}Watch your tone.{/shake}",
      "next": "end"
    }
  }
}

3. Load it. Run /reload in game. The log prints how many speakers and dialogs loaded, and any mistakes in your files.

4. Try it. Run /dialog start @s mypack:guard.

5. Put it on an NPC. Look at any mob and run:

/dialog bind @e[type=villager,limit=1,sort=nearest] mypack:guard

Now right-clicking that villager opens the conversation.

TIP

The "speaker": "guard" line means "the speaker called guard in the same namespace as this dialog". Use "other:guard" to borrow a speaker from another namespace.

Pages to read next

• Dialogs & Nodes — how a conversation is put together
• Choices — hidden and greyed-out answers
• Conditions and Actions — make characters react and reward the player
• Starting Dialogs — NPCs, quests, command blocks
• Examples — complete dialogs to copy