/gat-story

name: gat-story
description: "Develop game story and narrative through one-question-at-a-time writer interviews. Produces narrative docs under gat/narrative/ or runs as discussion-only. Use when the user wants story, plot, lore, worldbuilding, characters, quests, dialogue, narrative tone, or authored story content for a GAT game."
argument-hint: "[<hint> | discuss]"
user-invocable: true
allowed-tools: Read, Glob, Grep, Write, Edit, Agent, AskUserQuestion

Story

This skill explores and documents a game's narrative through open-ended writer interview. Spawn `gat-writer` for narrative reasoning. Spawn `gat-designer` or `gat-artist` only when story choices need design-system or visual-direction checks. Pick questions from the angle table below — follow the conversation, not a script.

Phase 1: Resolve Mode

• If argument is `discuss` → Mode: `discuss` (no files written, exploration only)
• If argument is a hint or empty → Mode: `story` (produces narrative docs under `gat/narrative/`)

Check whether these files exist:

• `gat/overview/game.md`
• `gat/overview/systems-index.md`
• `gat/overview/art-direction.md`
• `gat/narrative/story.md`
• `gat/narrative/world.md`
• `gat/narrative/characters.md`
• `gat/narrative/quests.md`
• `gat/narrative/dialogue.md`

If foundational overview docs exist, read them before asking questions that they already answer. If they are missing, proceed only with high-level narrative brainstorming and note that final narrative docs may need revision after `/gat-brainstorm` establishes the game overview and systems.

Phase 2: The Interview

Core Rules

• **One question at a time.** Never batch. Wait for the answer before the next question.
• **Provide a recommended answer** with each question. Explain the narrative reasoning.
• **Prefer open-ended questions.** Let the user type free-form responses. Reserve

`AskUserQuestion` for concrete options where the user needs to choose.

• **Pick angles, don't follow steps.** Use the angle table as a menu. Jump to

whatever dimension is most useful next.

• **If a question can be answered by reading existing files, read them instead of asking.**
• **Spawn `gat-writer`** when you need narrative synthesis: premise, tone,

character arcs, world logic, quest structure, dialogue voice, or consistency checks.

• **Spawn `gat-designer`** when narrative choices affect mechanics, system

ownership, progression, player agency, or content volume.

• **Spawn `gat-artist`** when narrative choices affect visual identity,

character/world art hooks, readability, motifs, or asset groups.

Drilling into Vague Narrative Ideas

When the user has a fuzzy story idea, make it playable and specific through curious questioning.

**How to drill:**

• When the user says the story should feel a certain way, ask what event,

character choice, or player action creates that feeling.

• When the user mentions lore, ask how the player encounters it: dialogue,

quest, item text, environment, UI, systemic event, or cutscene.

• When a character is named, ask what they want, what blocks them, how they

pressure the player, and whether they change.

• When the user references another work, isolate what to borrow: structure,

tone, world texture, relationship dynamic, mystery shape, or dialogue style.

• When a branching idea appears, ask how many branches must be produced and

whether consequences are cosmetic, systemic, or story-changing.

• When a world fact appears, ask what it causes in daily life, factions,

resources, locations, or mechanics.

• If an answer opens three new questions, resolve the one that most affects

player role, stakes, or content scope first.

**Signals that something is still vague and needs more drilling:**

• The user uses abstract story adjectives without concrete beats behind them

("dark", "emotional", "epic", "mysterious", "cozy")

• The protagonist, antagonist, or player role lacks motivation
• The world has lore but no player-facing delivery method
• The story can be summarized but not played
• Branching is proposed without content-budget boundaries
• Tone conflicts with gameplay, art direction, or target audience

Seed Extraction

If a concept hint was provided, first spawn `gat-writer` to extract what the hint already answers. Briefly summarize what's established so the user can confirm or correct before diving in. Skip if no hint.

Interview Angles

Pick questions from any angle below. There is no fixed order — follow the thread that matters most at each moment. The table is a palette, not a checklist.

| # | Angle | Purpose | Example prompts | |---|-------|---------|-----------------| | 1 | **Narrative Need** | Decide whether the game needs light flavor, authored story, or deep narrative systems | How much story does this game need to work? Could it be mostly atmospheric, or does it need plot progression? | | 2 | **Player Role** | Anchor story to the player's fantasy and verbs | Who is the player in the world? What do they do that matters narratively? | | 3 | **Premise & Conflict** | Define the situation and pressure | What is wrong with the world when play begins? Who or what opposes the player? | | 4 | **Stakes** | Make outcomes meaningful | What happens if the player fails? Are the stakes personal, communal, cosmic, comedic, or material? | | 5 | **Theme** | Clarify what the story is about beneath plot | What question does the story keep asking? What value is being tested? | | 6 | **Tone** | Set the audience contract | Should this feel sincere, tragic, funny, eerie, heroic, cozy, satirical, or something else? | | 7 | **Structure** | Shape story progression | Is the story linear, episodic, hub-based, branching, cyclical, or emergent? | | 8 | **World Rules** | Build coherent setting constraints | What facts about the world must always be true? What can never happen here? | | 9 | **Factions & Power** | Create social pressure and conflict | Who holds power? Who wants change? What resources are