The hero, gender and looks

Who the hero is

The hero is the character the reader plays as. A novella has just one: assign another and the role leaves the previous one by itself. What the reader decides — looks, gender, name — is up to you to turn on; without it they play the hero exactly as you drew them.

All of this is set in Novella → Looks, outfits & gender, in the “Hero and roles” section. The same section sits on the Hero tab of an Action block, so you can assign the hero without leaving the scene.

1. On the left, open Novella, then the “Looks, outfits & gender” tab.
2. In “Hero - the reader plays as them”, pick a character.
3. Tick what the reader decides: “The reader types a name - {player_name}” and “Gender to pick (She | He)”.
4. Click “Put at the start” — a “Who are you?” screen lands in the first scene of the first chapter, before the first line. If it’s already there, you’ll see where it stands and a “Show” button instead.

The reader’s name

With “The reader types a name” ticked, the “Who are you?” screen asks “What’s your name?” as its second step. A name is up to 24 characters; if the field is left empty, the hero keeps the name from the story.

The typed name replaces {player_name} in lines — write it right in the text: “Hi, {player_name}!”. The name plate above the hero’s lines shows it too.

The name is kept in the “Hero name” variable on the Vars tab. Its starting value is the hero’s name: Play uses it too until you type another.

AI voice-over skips any line containing {player_name}: only the reader knows the name, so a voice can’t say it in advance.

A gender to pick and word forms

With “Gender to pick (She | He)” ticked, the reader decides who to be on the “Who are you?” screen. That needs a version of the hero in the other gender: on the Appearance tab of the hero’s card, the table gets a column for the second gender. An empty cell says “Not drawn” and has “Draw from base”; that’s generation and costs credits. Which gender the hero is drawn as is set by the “Main gender” row above the table.

Words that depend on the hero’s gender are written in a line as a token: {@hero:prince|princess} — the masculine form first, then the feminine. A pronoun needs just one form: {@hero:he} becomes “she” if the reader picked She. Instead of “hero” you can write the name of another character with a gender to pick: {@Alex:his|her}.

A branch by gender takes a condition: the “if” list has a gender group with a character-gender check — pick the character and “she” or “he”.

Looks

A look is a different appearance of the same character: skin, hair, features. Clothes are outfits, which are separate. Any character can have looks, not just the hero, and they’re added on the Appearance tab of the character’s card.

Each table cell needs just a neutral: missing emotions use it. Once at least one look exists, a row of portraits appears above the card’s tabs: a click switches the card to that look, and “+ Look” adds another.

1. Open the character’s card and its Appearance tab.
2. In the “Add a look” row, click a ready look or “Custom look…” — a look row appears in the table.
3. Type the look’s name and its appearance: skin, hair, features — no clothes.
4. Fill the cell: “Draw from base” draws the neutral as an edit of the main character (that’s generation), and “Open” takes you to the look’s card, where you can upload frames yourself.

Choice screens

Screens where the reader picks something are steps of an Action block. The Hero tab in the block editor holds the story-start steps; the two appearance screens are on the Character tab.

“Who are you?” creates the hero: the reader flips through the hero’s looks with arrows (with a gender to pick, also She and He), types a name if you allowed it, and confirms: “Are you sure?” — “Yes” or “Change”. If the hero has looks, the step has a “Looks in «Who are you?»” grid under it: untick a look that shouldn’t be on this screen.

“What is your name?” asks just for the name, without looks; it works even without a hero. “Hints” asks “Show hints?” — whether choice options show stat icons. The reader only sees this step if some variable has “Icon on choice options” on; place it once, at the start of the story.

“Look pick” lets the reader choose a look for any character that has looks; tick under the step what to offer, and the default look is always in the choice. “Outfit pick” chooses an outfit from the character’s outfits: tick “Pickable” under the step for the ones to choose from. Both choices last the whole story.

1. In Dialogs, press “Action” under the timeline of the node you need.
2. In the block editor, open the Hero or Character tab and click the step you need.
3. For “Look pick” and “Outfit pick”, choose the character in the step’s row and, if you like, type your own screen title.
4. Press Play and go through the screen yourself.

Looks in conditions and in the plot

The look choice is kept in a “Look · Name” variable and the outfit choice in “Outfit · Name”; both show on the Vars tab. Pick such a variable in an “if” condition and the value is offered as a list of looks by name, the default one first.

To change a look in the plot — a transformation, a disguise — use the “Outfit, pose & look” step on the Character tab: pick the look in its field. It lasts until the chapter ends, and with “for good” ticked, into the next chapters too. “Reader choice” brings back the look the reader picked.

If you have monetization enabled, looks and outfits can be paid: prices are set on the same “Looks, outfits & gender” tab, in “Look and outfit prices”. The default look and the base outfit are always free.

Frequently asked questions

Can the hero have just a name, with no choice of looks? Yes: place a “What is your name?” step instead of “Who are you?”.

Where do I change the hero’s own gender? On the Appearance tab of the hero’s card, in the “Main gender” row: She or He.

What are love interests? The story’s romance options — “+ Love interest” in “Hero and roles”. If a love interest has “gender to pick” ticked, the same section offers “Put it” for the “Who do you want to meet?” question: the reader picks guys or girls.

Are look names translated? Yes: if the novella has translations, language tabs appear above the table on the Appearance tab — that’s where version names and look names go in each language. An empty field means the reader sees the original.