Design the conversation beneath the words before writing the words.
Use this model:
Goal → Tactic → Counter-tactic → Information / power change → New tactic
Dialogue becomes dramatic when speakers use language to do things to one another.
Inputs
Use available:
- speakers
- relationship
- scene objective
- current emotional state
- secrets
- information asymmetry
- stakes
- power imbalance
- required reveal
- player choice constraints
- established voice
Separate Four Layers
For each important line or beat distinguish:
- Literal content — what is said.
- Intent — what the speaker is trying to achieve.
- Subtext — what the exchange communicates without stating directly.
- Effect — what changes in the other person or situation.
Example:
Literal: Are you staying for dinner?
Intent: prevent the other person from leaving.
Subtext: I want you here but do not want to admit how much.
Effect: forces the other person to answer the relationship question indirectly.
Speaker Model
For each speaker define:
- immediate goal
- desired answer or action from the other person
- feared outcome
- tactic at scene start
- what they will not say directly
- what they know
- what they falsely believe
- what emotional exposure they avoid
- leverage they possess
- relationship-specific constraints
Tactics
Use active verbs.
Examples:
- persuade
- threaten
- reassure
- provoke
- seduce
- shame
- flatter
- stall
- conceal
- test
- accuse
- bargain
- recruit
- dominate
- submit strategically
- deflect
- confess selectively
- bait
- dismiss
Avoid intentions like talk about the murder. That is a topic, not a tactic.
Beat Changes
A beat changes when at least one of these changes:
- tactic
- subject because of pressure
- power
- information
- emotional exposure
- objective
- relationship state
Do not let speakers repeat the same tactic indefinitely.
Subtext
Subtext is not mandatory obscurity. Characters can speak directly when directness is dramatically meaningful.
Use subtext especially when:
- vulnerability is dangerous
- status constrains speech
- characters distrust one another
- desire conflicts with self-image
- one person is testing another
- social rules prohibit the real topic
Information Asymmetry
Track separately:
- what speaker A knows
- what speaker B knows
- what each thinks the other knows
- what the audience/player knows
Many strong conversations are powered by mismatches between these states.
Power
Power can come from:
- rank
- physical control
- information
- emotional dependency
- moral authority
- money
- institutional backing
- social audience
- willingness to walk away
Track shifts during the dialogue. The person speaking most is not necessarily the person with power.
Interactive Procedure
- Define each speaker's immediate goal.
- Identify the central incompatibility.
- Define what each speaker cannot or will not say directly.
- Identify starting tactics.
- Establish information and power asymmetries.
- Build 3–7 beat changes.
- Define the turn in the conversation.
- Define the exit state.
- Only then generate dialogue if requested.
When the designer has not decided an intent, offer meaningfully different options rather than stylistic variants.
Output
Conversation purpose
Speaker intents
For each speaker: goal, fear, hidden need, starting tactic, constraint.
Information / power map
Beat map
| Beat | Speaker | Intent | Tactic | What changes |
|---|
Turn
Exit state
Subtext notes
Voice constraints
Only if supplied or relevant.
Optional line generation
Only when requested.
Failure Modes
Avoid:
- giving both speakers the same objective
- confusing topic with intent
- making every line maximally witty
- stating every emotion directly
- subtext so obscure that causality disappears
- dialogue that transfers information nobody needs to say
- repeating tactics without consequence
- ignoring power and relationship context
- using voice quirks as a substitute for dramatic purpose
Final Quality Check
Verify that:
- each major speaker wants something from the exchange
- tactics are active and distinct
- information asymmetry is understood
- at least one beat changes power, information, tactic, or emotional exposure
- the conversation has an exit state different from its entry state