Triggers

Runs once at the very start of a new play-through, so you can set the stage: hand out starting gold, add the first quest, open a menu, or tell the narrator how the story begins.

Pick game initialization to run it as soon as a new game loads, before the player’s first turn. Pick after player finish reading starting prompt to wait until the player has clicked past the last page of your opening; that choice is for visual stories only.

If the trigger has an Inject command to narration LLM action, the first narration starts right away and follows your instruction, without the player typing anything. A play-through that already has turns won’t run a Game Initialization trigger you add later.

Fires on a steady rhythm as the story goes on. Every 1 runs on every turn; Every 5 runs on turns 5, 10, 15 and so on. A turn is one player message plus the narrator’s reply.

It’s checked when the player sends a message, before the narrator writes, so an Inject command to narration LLM in the same trigger shapes that very turn. It isn’t checked when the player picks from a menu.

Instead of a number you can type a whole-number variable like {{storm_every}} (it must start above 0), so other triggers can speed the rhythm up or slow it down. Great for weather that worsens, a hunger meter or a reminder every few turns.

Gives players their own slash commands, like /hint, /rest or /quests. When a player types / in the message box, your commands show up with their descriptions. Picking one adds it to the message as a badge, and the trigger fires when they send it.

Choose prohibit to make the command the whole turn: the text box locks until the player removes the badge, and only your trigger’s instructions reach the narrator. Choose allow to let the player type their own action next to the command, and both are sent together.

Create the command first as a COMMAND variable: a name of up to 12 letters, dashes or underscores, plus a short description. A few names Mana already uses, like /summary and /context, aren’t available. The first time someone plays, a Story Commands popup lists all your commands.

Reacts to the choice a player makes in one of your selection menus. A menu opens when a trigger uses Show Selection Menu to player, and the moment the player picks an option, every trigger listening for it runs.

Pick one option to react to that choice only, or Any choice to react to whatever the player picks. Make one trigger per option to give each choice its own outcome. If one of them uses Inject command to narration LLM, the story continues right away with your instruction, so each choice can steer the next scene.

Build the menu first as a MENU variable. The option list stays grayed out until you pick a menu.

Fires when one of your number or true/false variables reaches a value you choose, like affection reaching 10 or has_key turning true. Use it for milestones: unlock a scene, end a chapter, or play a confession once a meter fills up.

It’s checked whenever the player sends a message or picks from a menu (and along with your Game Initialization triggers at the start), and also the moment a Set Variable action changes that variable. The value can be a number, true or false, or math with other variables, such as {{max_health}} / 2.

It keeps firing on every check for as long as the comparison is true. For a one-time moment, end the trigger with Run/Modify Trigger set to Disable on the same trigger, as in the example.

A gate for the trigger’s actions: a number or true/false variable has to compare the way you set, or nothing happens. Use it so a /bribe command only works when the player has enough gold, or a reunion scene only plays if the player found the locket.

It offers the same comparisons as Variable status, and the value can use math like {{price}} * 2. It reads the value at the moment the trigger runs, including changes other triggers made a moment earlier in the same turn.

You’ll also find it in the If part of the If / Then and If / Then / Else actions, to check a value partway through a trigger.

Sends a hidden instruction to the AI narrator, so you can steer what happens next: a storm rolls in, a rival shows up, the hero’s plan fails. The player never sees the instruction, only the narration it produces. If it clashes with what the player typed, your instruction wins.

When the trigger ran from the player’s turn, the instruction joins that turn’s narration; with a prohibit command it replaces the player’s input entirely. When it ran from Game Initialization or a menu choice, it starts a new narration right away. Instructions from triggers that run after the narration go out with the player’s next turn.

It counts for that one narration only and isn’t saved into the story. Several Inject actions in one check are combined, in order. Use {{name}} to drop in a variable’s current value, and keep it short and clear.

Puts your own pre-written text into the story word for word, with no AI writing involved. You choose whether the player sees it, and whether it’s saved to story context so the narrator remembers it in later turns. Use it for chapter cards, clues, letters and notes, or quiet facts the narrator should know.

show + save: the player reads it and the narrator remembers it. show + don’t save: the player reads it but the narrator never sees it, good for tips and hints. don’t show: the narrator remembers it, but it stays out of the live story. When the same turn also gets a new narration, your text appears after it.

require makes the trigger’s remaining actions wait until the player has clicked through the text (visual stories only). Texts can be up to 5,000 characters, {{name}} fills in variable values, and in visual stories they can use the same character and background tags as your Starting Prompt.

Changes your story’s Custom Instructions, the standing rules the narrator reads every turn, while the story is being played. Add a rule, remove one or swap one for another, so the narrator’s behavior changes as the story moves on: tougher fights after the player picks Hard, a curse that makes a character speak only in riddles, a darker tone for the final act.

Add puts your text on its own line at the start or the end. Delete and Replace work on all of the instructions or on specific text, which has to match word for word. The change lasts for the rest of that play-through; your original story isn’t edited.

Watch out for repeats: an Add in a trigger that fires every turn adds the line again every turn.

Lets your story notice what actually happened. After the turn’s narration finishes, the player’s decision AI (Jev by default) reads the last 3 turns and answers your questions, like “Has the player found the lighthouse keeper?” Each answer can run up to 5 of your triggers. Press the question count in the row to open the question editor.

Questions can be Yes / No (Yes when the AI is at least as sure as your setting, 50% by default), Multiple choice (2 to 20 options) or Score (2 to 10 levels, lowest first). You can add up to 50. Once a Yes / No question answers Yes, it isn’t asked again in that play-through. In the example, question 1 asks whether the player has found the hidden key (Yes runs a Key Found trigger), and question 2 asks who they suspect, with Butler and Maid each running their own trigger.

Only one per story. A trigger that holds it runs as a whole after the narration, and anything its answers inject goes out with the player’s next turn. Each check is an AI call that costs the player some coins (your In-Game Images/Video questions ride along in the same call), and it’s skipped if they can’t cover it. When the trigger’s conditions don’t pass, its questions aren’t asked that turn.

Changes one of your variables, like gold, affection or a quest flag. The new value sticks for the rest of that play-through, so later triggers, conditions and texts all see it.

For numbers, type math using other variables: {{gold}}+10 adds 10, {{gold}}-10 takes 10 away, and ({{hp}}*2)/3 works too. Whole-number variables are rounded. For a BOOL, type true or false. For a STRING, type any text; {{name}} inside it is filled in.

Only INT, FLOAT, BOOL and STRING variables can be set here; lists change with Update List. When the value changes, triggers with a Variable status event watching it are checked straight away.

Changes what’s on one of your lists. On an Objectives list you can add a new objective, which becomes a current goal, or mark one as completed or as failed. On a Characters list you can add or remove one of your story’s characters.

The change happens quietly, apart from a small “Objective Updated” badge the player sees for a few seconds when an objective changes. Add Show List after it if you want the player to see the whole list.

When marking, you can pick Last added Objective to mean whichever objective was added to that list most recently. A list holds up to 50 items.

Pops one of your lists up on the player’s screen, like a quest log. An Objectives list shows current goals first, then finished ones marked Completed or Failed. A Characters list shows its own title and the characters on it. The player closes it when they’re done reading.

It shows the list as it is at that moment, so put Show List after any Update List in the same trigger.

Tip: pair it with a /quests command set to prohibit and nothing else in the trigger. The player can then check the list any time without starting a new turn, because nothing is sent to the narrator.

Opens one of your menus as a popup so the player chooses what happens next: pick a class, choose a path, answer a riddle. The player has to choose; the popup can’t be closed without picking.

This action only opens the menu. What each choice does lives in separate triggers that use the User makes menu selection event. The trigger doesn’t wait for the player’s choice: its remaining actions still run right away.

Build menus as MENU variables: a title, an optional description and 1 to 20 choices, in a Text or Image layout. Only menus without problems show up in the picker, so give every choice a title or description, and in the Image layout every choice an image.

Puts one of your uploaded images or videos on the stage and adds it to the Story Media section of the player’s Gallery, where they can see it again later. Choose behind the story text to keep the text on top, or and hide the story text to also hide the text box until the player’s next command, so nothing covers the picture. Videos loop with sound, and you can set their volume from 0 to 300%.

Upload the picture or clip first as an IMAGE or VIDEO variable. It stays on the stage until the player closes it, even while new narration comes in. Visual stories only.

Want media to appear by itself when the story reaches a moment? Use In-Game Images / Video instead.

Brings a character into the story or benches them. Active characters are the ones the narrator can use; an Inactive (benched) character stays out of the story until another trigger moves them back. It’s the same switch as Move to Active / Move to Inactive in Character Management.

The change happens before that turn’s narration is written, so a character you activate can show up in that very turn. The editor’s Characters section shows who is active and who is inactive at the start. The change lasts for the rest of that play-through.

Puts the background you choose on the scene instead of leaving it to the narrator. Next turn makes the narration that’s about to be written use that background. Immediately swaps the background the player is looking at right now.

Add also puts it on your story’s list of backgrounds, so the narrator knows the place and can return to it later. Don’t Add shows it as a one-off. Day or night art follows the story’s own time of day. Visual stories only.

Switches the era of the player’s play-through between Fantasy, Modern and Futuristic. When the narrator brings in a new place or character that isn’t in your story yet, Mana picks a matching one from its library, and the era decides what fits.

Use it when the story jumps through time or between worlds, like stepping through a portal from a medieval kingdom into a neon city. Backgrounds and characters already in the story stay. The change lasts for the rest of that play-through; your original story never changes.

Rolls a random whole number and picks a branch based on the result, so the same moment can play out differently every time. Set the range (1 to 100 by default), then give each branch a rule like is less than 30 or is between 30 and 70, and its own actions. Press + Add RNG Branch for more branches.

Branches can’t overlap: if two of them cover the same number, the editor points it out and won’t save until you fix it. Both ends of the range can be rolled. If no branch matches, nothing inside runs and the trigger moves on.

Every new turn rolls again, but Redo replays the result the player already got. A branch can hold an If / Then or If / Then / Else, but not another Use RNG.

Makes part of a trigger depend on a check, without needing a separate trigger. Put one or more Variable checks in the If box and actions in the Then box. The Then actions run only if every check passes; otherwise they’re skipped and the trigger carries on with its next action.

The difference from the Conditions panel: conditions decide whether the whole trigger runs, while If / Then only controls the actions inside it. The checks happen when the trigger reaches this action, so a Set Variable earlier in the same trigger already counts.

The editor won’t save an If / Then until it has at least one check and one Then action. The Then box can hold a Use RNG, but not another If / Then or If / Then / Else.

Works like If / Then, with a fallback. When every check passes, the Then actions run; when any check fails, the Else actions run instead. Exactly one of the two lists runs, which suits success-or-failure moments like opening a lock with or without the right code.

Like If / Then, it needs at least one check before the editor will save it. Then and Else can each hold a Use RNG, but not another If / Then or If / Then / Else.

Lets one trigger control another. Run starts the named trigger right now: its events are skipped, but its conditions still have to pass. Disable switches a trigger off so it can’t fire, and Enable switches it back on. Then this trigger carries on with its next action.

Type the trigger’s name; the editor wraps it as {{Trigger Name}} and warns you in red if no trigger has that name. Renaming a trigger updates these references for you.

A trigger can disable itself, the usual way to make a moment happen only once. Enable is also how you switch on a trigger you set to Disabled in the Triggers list. On/off changes last for the rest of that play-through, and a trigger can’t Run itself, so it can’t loop forever.

Pauses the trigger for a moment before its next action, for dramatic timing like a fuse burning down. Type the seconds (decimals like 1.5 work) or a number variable like {{delay}}.

While it waits, the player can’t send another turn or pick a menu choice. Most results of a trigger appear once it has finished, so the pause shows best next to things that happen on the spot: a Story/System text set to require, a background used Immediately, or a Failure/death Screen.

Stops the trigger right there, so none of the actions below it run. It’s most useful inside an If / Then or Use RNG branch as an early exit, and even from inside a branch it stops the whole trigger.

Only this trigger stops. Other triggers still get their turn, and if another trigger started this one with Run/Modify Trigger, that one carries on as normal.

An action that does nothing, on purpose. Every Use RNG branch needs at least one action, so use it to fill the quiet ones, like the “no encounter” part of a roll.

Unlike Skip Remaining Actions, it doesn’t stop anything after it. It’s also a handy placeholder while you’re still building a trigger.

Ends the run with a game-over screen: a skull, your title and message, the line “Rewind to an earlier moment to continue your story.” and a Rewind Story button. The player can’t keep playing until they rewind to an earlier moment. Use it for deaths, failed missions or bad endings.

Both the title and the message are needed, and {{name}} works in both. As soon as the screen shows, this trigger stops, no other triggers run, and the player’s turn isn’t sent to the narrator. The popup can’t be closed and is still there after a reload.

Undoes the turn in progress. It stops any narration being written, removes the player’s latest turn and puts everything back the way it was after the last completed turn: variables, custom instructions, which triggers are on and which characters are active. Use it to enforce story rules, like “the hero can’t leave the castle before midnight”.

It works best in a trigger that runs after the narration, such as one run by a Check Story Context answer, so the narration that broke the rule is removed too. As soon as it runs, no other triggers run in that check.

To explain the rewind, put a Story/System text set to require right before it, as in the example. In visual stories the player reads it before the rewind happens.

Makes the story leave its Story Progression nodes and carry on as a normal Realism story for this play-through. Use it after a final node, or as an open-world choice, so players can keep playing freely once your planned story is done.

If the player later rewinds to before the exit, story progression comes back. In a story without progression nodes it does nothing.