Cheat Sheet

Conversations

• Write your fic like normal until you want to add a chat conversation
• Start conversations with -- fm: your-config-name -- and end them with -- end --
  • Use any number of dashes or hyphens
  • Config names can be anything, but can't have spaces
  • If you want multiple conversations to look the same as each other, use the same config name

-- fm: your-config-name --
username: Message goes here.
-- end --

Messages

• Messages are just a username, a colon, and the message text: username: Message goes here.
  • Messages from the same user can go on following lines without a username
• Usernames are short names for someone in a chat
  • They can have any characters except for spaces, colons (:), or brackets ([ ])
  • Usernames can be replaced with longer names when the chat is rendered by Fictional Messenger
• Blank lines are fine
• Lines starting with // are comments and won't appear in the output
• Messages are formatted using Markdown
  • e.g. username: **This is in bold,** and _this is in italics_.
  • username: [this is a link](https://example.com)
  • username: ![this is an image. the text here will be the image's alt text](https://picsum.photos/200)

-- fm: your-config-name --
jane: This is a message from Jane.
This is a another message from Jane.

// This line is a comment and won't appear in the output.

username: You can make parts of messages **bold** or _italics_
Put links like this: [link text here](https://example.com)
Put images like this: ![image alt text here](https://picsum.photos/200.jpg)
-- end --

Timestamps

• Message timestamps are optional
• Timestamps go before or after a username:
  • [1:23am] username: message
  • username [23:59]: message
• Times can be in 12-hour or 24-hour formats. Seconds are optional:
  • These are all the same time: [1:30pm], [13:30], [1:30:00 pm], [13:30:00]
• Dates must be in either year-month-day or month-day form, separated by dashes:
  • 1999-12-31, 12-31
• Dates must include a time:
  • [1999-12-31 11:59 pm], [12-31 23:59]
• Relative timestamps will set the time based on the last timestamp entered.
  • [+1h] will be one hour after the last entered timestamp
  • [+ 1d 2h 3m 4s] will be one day, two hours, three minutes, and four seconds after the last entered timestamp
• Timestamps will be displayed as specifically as you enter them
  • If you only use relative timestamps, then only relative times will be shown
    • e.g. just now, twelve minutes ago, six months ago
  • If you only use times, then times with relative dates will be shown:
    • e.g. 1:30 PM, Yesterday, 10:01 AM, Two years ago, 10:00 PM
  • If you only use months, days, and times, then dates and times with relative years will be shown:
    • e.g. Dec 3, 12:01 AM, Two years ago, April 1, 4:45 PM
  • If you use years, months, days, and times, then dates and times will be shown in absolute format:
    • e.g. 1999 Dec 31, 11:59 PM
• Timestamps may not be more specific than the first timestamp in a conversation
  • If your first timestamp is [12:00pm], then a later timestamp with [2000-01-01 1:00am] will result in an error
• Timestamps must always move forward in time, not backwards
  • (Sorry, time travelers.)
• Messages without timestamps will be automatically given a timestamp 30 seconds later than the last message
  • This can be altered with the message-interval attribute, or mi for short
    • [message-interval = +1m30s] will make messages be one minute and thirty seconds apart
    • [mi=+2h] will make messages be two hours apart

-- fm: your-config-name --

// A timestamp that sets the start date and time of the conversation
[1999-12-31 01:00:00 am]

username: This message will have the above timestamp.

[5:30am] username: This timestamp will use the current conversation's current date,
so it's now Dec. 31, 1999, at 5:30 AM.

username: Timestamps are in [year-month-day hour:minute:second] format.
Years and dates are optional. Time can be 12-hour or 24-hour.

[+1h] username: This is a relative timestamp. It'll make this message be an hour after the previous one.
[+1d 2h 3m 4s] username: This message is one day, two hours, three minutes, and four seconds after.

other-username: Messages without timestamps will be moved forward 30 seconds from the last message's timestamp.
This can be controlled like:

[message-interval = +1h]

other-username: So now each message is one hour after the last.

// Shorthand for message-interval:
[mi=+1m30s]

other-username: Now messages are 1 minute and 30 seconds apart.

// This last timestamp will set the conversation timestamp, the time at which the conversation is being read
[2999-12-31 01:00:00 am]

// Now it's the distant future. All timestamps will be shown as full dates and times, instead of e.g. "Just now" or "Yesterday at 3:30 PM"
-- end --

Attributes

• Attributes can change how messages or conversations look or act
• Attributes have the format [name = value], where name is the name of the attribute and value is what the attribute is set to
• Most attributes are specific to particular styles, so check out your chosen style's docs for details
• Universal attributes are:
  • message-interval
    • Short Name: mi
    • Location: Conversation attribute or message attribute
    • Value: Any valid relative timestamp
    • Default Value: +30s
    • Examples: [mi = +2m 30s], [message-interval = +0]
    • Description: Sets the interval that timestamps will automatically advance for messages without timestamps.
  • markdown
    • Short Name: md
    • Location: Conversation attribute or message attribute
    • Value: on or off
    • Default Value: on
    • Examples: [md=off], [markdown = on]
    • Description: Controls whether Markdown parsing in messages is enabled. If set on a message, will only affect that message. If set on a conversation, will affect all following messages.

-- fm: your-config-name --
[message-interval = +0s] username: Messages will now be zero seconds apart.

[md=off] username: This message won't use Markdown, so **this** and _this_ will appear exactly as written.
-- end --