Themes and chassis

A theme is a shop’s complete look: palette, light, type, ornament, and voice. It is separate from the shop’s dialogue archetype. The archetype decides what the shopkeeper says and how the conversation branches, while the theme decides what the scene looks and sounds like. Each archetype ships with a matching default theme, and you can swap it for any other in Shop settings. A tavern archetype can run under a sci-fi console theme without touching its dialogue.

Every theme sits on one of six chassis. The chassis controls the layout structure of the vignette, while the theme dresses that structure.

The six chassis

Counter places the dialogue over a shelf grid, with a counter bar underneath. It is the classic storefront arrangement.

Bench puts a stage strip above a work surface. The shopkeeper works while the player browses.

Den shows bare rows under a trust ladder, with a curtain that opens at a set rung. Stock behind the curtain stays hidden until the shopkeeper trusts the visitor.

Stall hangs a masthead with a lantern rail and a countdown to closing. It suits shops that pack up and move on.

Menu fills the screen with stacked choices and bare rows. Browsing happens through the menu itself rather than a shelf.

Terminal renders a console readout with a list-first browse and a status rail. Shopkeeper chatter prints into the running log instead of speech bubbles.

The themes

Themes span fantasy, stylised, and sci-fi genres. The theme picker in Shop settings groups them by chassis and orders each group by genre.

On the counter chassis:

• Lamplit counter, the general store look
• Taproom counter, the tavern look
• Vellum counter, the bookseller look

On the bench chassis:

• Forge bench, the blacksmith look
• Herb bench, the apothecary look
• Sigil bench, the magic shop look
• Tack bench, the stable look

On the den chassis:

• Candlelit den, the fence look

On the stall chassis:

• Festival stall, the festival look
• Wagon stall, the caravan look

On the menu chassis:

• Red lacquer, a stylised menu in deep red
• Verdigris brass, a stylised menu in oxidised metal

On the terminal chassis:

• Cold console, a stark sci-fi readout
• Amber phosphor, a warm retro-terminal readout

The wording of the interface follows the theme. Buy and sell headers, cart labels, confirm prompts, and refusals are all voiced to match the shop, so a blacksmith seals an iron oath while a terminal executes a transaction.

Peddler bundles two display fonts and registers them with Foundry, so themed headings render the same on every client.

Accent and ambience

Each shop carries an accent color that tints the scene’s highlights. The color comes from the applied archetype rather than a field in Shop settings, and nodes in a dialogue tree can shift it mid-conversation. An accent too dark to read against the scene is lifted until it passes contrast.

Some archetypes also bring a looping ambient track that plays while the vignette is open. Ambient audio plays through Foundry’s environment audio channel on each player’s client. A client’s motion and sound-cue settings are listed in the Settings reference.