Narrator files

The narrators you make in Settings, Narrators are the same kind of file: Export saves one to share, Import adds one someone shared. The editor has a field for each entry in the table below.

A narrator is who writes the journal: the murloc scribe by default, or a style a player picks. Each narrator is a data file, one per narrator and prose language, in companion/crates/mrglglgl-core/narrators/<id>.<language>.toml. No code changes are needed for a new voice or a translation of an existing one, apart from listing the file in src/narrators.rs.

The rules about facts, memory, length and language are the app’s, the same for every narrator, and are not part of a narrator file. A narrator decides only how the entry sounds.

Fields

Field	Meaning
id	Stable identifier shared by every language of the narrator, e.g. grumpy_dwarf
language	Prose language: en or fr
name	Shown to players in Settings
opt_in	true for a narrator only used when a player picks it (the full murloc-speak voice is one)
persona	Who is writing, in one or two sentences
voice	How it sounds: warmth, humour, register
murloc	How the murloc shows on a day without a margin note
margin_note	The instruction used on days the murloc adds a note in the margin
[example]	One worked example: notes (a day’s facts, not from the test fixtures) and entry (the entry this narrator would write), plus margin_note
[hints]	One line per day pattern: only_fished, many_deaths, big_level_jump, new_zone, rare_loot, murloc_heavy, murloc_death, nothing_happened

murloc_scribe.en.toml is the reference: copy it and change the voice.

What makes a good narrator

• Never mock the player. A narrator can grumble about the day; it is always on the adventurer’s side.
• The murloc is seasoning. Entries are readable prose; murloc-speak belongs in margin notes, except for the opt-in murloc voice.
• The example matters most. Small models copy the shape of the worked example closely: its length, its rhythm, and whether it invents things. Keep it about 120 words, built only from its own notes, with every number and name from those notes.
• Hints steer, they do not add facts. “Make the quiet charming” is a hint; “mention the rain” would invite an invented event.

Testing a narrator

cargo test -p mrglglgl-core --test prompt checks every shipped narrator renders a complete prompt. To read real entries, run the narrator samples with a downloaded model (MRGLGLGL_TEST_MODEL pointing at a GGUF file), and read what comes out before shipping.