StoryKit

StoryKit — add an NPC, trainer, and skill tree

📖 Full documentation: StoryKit wiki page

A BepInEx library plugin for Outward (Definitive Edition, Mono branch) that lets a mod add an

NPC: a standing character in the world with a dialogue graph and, if it's a trainer, a full

in-game skill tree the vanilla Trainer window sells from. A consuming mod describes the NPC as

plain data; StoryKit builds the character, spawns it at a fixed spot, wires its conversation, and

compiles its skill tree — no custom UI, no NodeCanvas hand-editing.

StoryKit covers NPCs, trainers, and dialogue. A quest/story-event engine is not part of the

kit — there is no quest-authoring API. (It does ship read-only recon tooling over the vanilla

QuestEventManager — the qevent* dev verbs below — but that is diagnostics, not an authoring

surface, and it's off unless [Recon] EnableStoryRecon is turned on.)

Requires: BepInEx 5 (Outward's Mono branch — see Compatibility), ForgeKit, and

SideLoader present at runtime.

Installing (for players)

You don't install or interact with StoryKit directly. It arrives as a dependency of a mod that

adds an NPC — for example Beastwhispering, whose animal-taming trainer is a StoryKit NPC that

sells the mod's pet-skill tree. The NPC and its dialogue are what you actually meet in-game;

StoryKit is the plumbing behind it. A mod manager installs it automatically alongside whatever

mod declares it as a dependency.

Consuming the kit

A consumer calls NpcRegistry.Register(NpcSpec) in Awake, describing the NPC's placement,

appearance, dialogue tree, and (if it's a trainer) the skills it sells. NpcDirector spawns the

registered NPC at player-ready on every scene load (built to be master-only in co-op and

duplicate-safe — that guard has not been live-verified on a two-machine session), and

DialogueBuilder compiles the described conversation into a real NodeCanvas graph reusing

SideLoader's own trainer dialogue nodes. See the wiki page for the full NpcSpec/SkillTreeDef

shape and worked examples.

Mobile, combat-capable and merchant NPCs

Since 2026-08-22 a spec can also describe a walking NPC with an AI, combat stats, a faction, a

backpack and a vanilla shop (the road-merchant wave; first consumer: DangerousRoads). All of it

is opt-in on the same NpcSpec; a spec that sets none of these fields builds the classic pinned

talker exactly as before.

NpcRegistry.Register(new NpcSpec

{

Id = "mymod.pedlar", Name = "Orrin the Pedlar",

Mobile = true, // SideLoader melee AI + NavMeshAgent; no pin/NoFall/snap

LookFollowEnabled = false, // the agent owns yaw on a mobile body

Faction = "Merchants", // Character.Factions by NAME

BackpackName = "Mefino's Trade Backpack", // display name; ' and ’ both match

Ai = new AiSpec { WanderSpeed = 1.1f, CanWanderFar = false, ChanceToAttack = 40f },

Combat = new CombatSpec { Health = 900f, Protection = 20f, DamageBonusMult = 0.25f,

TargetableFactions = new List { "Bandits" } },

// MerchantSpec requires Mobile = true — the Merchant graft rides the mobile rig, and a

// static merchant is refused by SpecValidation rather than spawning without a shop.

Merchant = new MerchantSpec { StockTableNameContains = "MerchantCaravanTrader",

FallbackItemNames = new List { "Bandages", "Makeshift Torch" },

RefreshRateGameHours = 72f },

Dialogue = new DialogueSpec

{

Greetings = { "Care to lighten my pack?" },

Choices = { Choice.Shop("shop", "Let's see what you're carrying."),

Choice.Reply("road", "Where to?", "Wherever pays.") },

},

});

Character body = NpcRegistry.SpawnAtAndGet("mymod.pedlar", pos, yaw); // drive its AISWander yourself

NpcRegistry.ReplaceGreetings("mymod.pedlar", new { "You saved my hide back there." }); // live swap

NpcRegistry.Unregister("mymod.pedlar"); // done with him: despawn if live, drop the SL template + entry

A consumer that mints a fresh spec id per event (SideLoader refuses a second template per UID, so a

respawn needs a new id) must Unregister the old one when it is finished, or the