Displaying Variables

Of course, setting variables isn't very useful by itself. They need to affect the course of a story somehow. The simplest way they can do this is simply being inserted into the story. You can display the contents of a variable using an insert.

The passage source below:

name: 'Chris'
--
"Hi, {name}," your guide greets you.

Will display as: "Hi, Chris," your guide greets you. This example is a little silly, since you could just as easily write Chris where name is. But the advantage of storing it in a variable is that you could keep using name later in your story. You could also use this, for example, to allow the player to choose a gender (or lack thereof) and then use the correct pronouns throughout the story.

Variable inserts do not allow any parameters, as introduced in Link Inserts; the name of the variable acts as the insert name.¹

You Cannot Put Expressions In An Insert

The following will not display as you might expect:

cash: 3
--
"Sorry, but I decided that I want {cash + 2} dollars for it," the salesman replies.

Expressions like this are not allowed in variable inserts-- you may only enter the name of a variable. It's simple enough to accomplish this with a temporary variable:

cash: 3
_unreasonablePrice: cash + 3
--
"Sorry, but I decided that I want {_unreasonablePrice} for it," the salesman replies.