Option design

Options are the heart of every Stellaris event. They're the moment where the player stops reading and starts deciding — and the quality of that decision determines whether your event feels meaningful or forgettable.

This chapter covers how to design options that create genuine tension, avoid obvious "correct" choices, and connect mechanical effects to narrative action.

The three rules of option design

Before diving into patterns and templates, internalize these three rules. They apply to every option you'll ever write.

Rule 1: no obvious correct choice. Every option should have tradeoffs. If one option is clearly superior in all cases, the player isn't making a decision — they're clicking through a formality.

Rule 2: choices must flow from the story. The mechanical effects should make narrative sense. Don't bolt on "+200 minerals" to an option about studying an alien artifact — tie the reward to what the player is actually doing.

Rule 3: resource costs must match the narrative. If the event describes spending energy to power up ancient machinery, the cost should be energy credits, not research points. Players notice when the mechanics contradict the story.

Archetypes

Every option has an archetype that defines its narrative tone. This serves two purposes: it helps maintain variety across your events, and it gives generation tools context about the voice of each choice.

Archetypes should be balanced across a release, not just within a single event. Over ten events, the fearful path should win sometimes. The spiritual path should win sometimes. No archetype should be consistently punished.

Intent

Each option also carries an intent — its design purpose. Where archetype describes tone, intent describes what the option is trying to accomplish mechanically.

Common intents include:

• reward_curiosity — knowledge gain with some cost or risk
• reward_power — big immediate gain with visible downside
• risk_balance — safe, modest reward (the cautious path)
• penalty_fear — pure downside to avoid something worse
• setup_followup — hooks into a later event in the chain
• mystery_escalation — raises stakes, often through uncertainty

Intent matters because it drives effect selection. A reward_curiosity option should naturally pair with research progress and a small cost, while a reward_power option pairs with large resource gains and significant penalties.

Three reliable patterns

Most well-designed options follow one of three patterns. Learn these and you can design options for any event.

Pattern 1: mixed outcome

Every option gives something good and something bad. The player chooses which tradeoff they prefer.

# Event: "Your science team discovers a pulsing alien artifact."
options:
  - opt_key: display
    text: Display it in the capital as a symbol of our reach.
    effects:
      - category: resource_gain
        resource: unity
        amount: 100
      - category: modifier_add
        modifier_name: unsettling_artifact
        modifier_description: The alien artifact unnerves the populace.
        duration_days: 360

  - opt_key: study
    text: Assign our best minds to study it intensively.
    effects:
      - category: modifier_add
        modifier_name: intensive_research
        modifier_description: Top scientists diverted to artifact analysis.
        duration_days: 720
      - category: resource_gain
        resource: influence
        amount: -50

  - opt_key: sell
    text: Sell it to a private collector.
    effects:
      - category: resource_gain
        resource: energy
        amount: 200

No option is strictly better. Unity vs. research vs. energy — the best choice depends on your empire's current needs.

Pattern 2: different flavors

All options are rewards (or all are penalties), but they affect different things. This works because different empires and strategies value different resources.

# Event: "The derelict ship's databanks are intact!"
options:
  - opt_key: engineering
    text: Give it to Engineering — reverse-engineer the hull.
    effects:
      - category: resource_gain
        resource: alloys
        amount: 200

  - opt_key: science
    text: Give it to Science — decode the navigation logs.
    effects:
      - category: modifier_add
        modifier_name: stellar_data
        modifier_description: New stellar cartography data accelerates research.
        duration_days: 360

  - opt_key: diplomacy
    text: Give it to Diplomacy — trace the ship's origin.
    effects:
      - category: resource_gain
        resource: influence
        amount: 3

A tech-rush player picks science. A militarist picks engineering. A diplomat picks influence. All valid, all interesting.

Pattern 3: short-term vs. long-term

One option gives a big immediate reward. Another gives a smaller bonus that accumulates over time.

# Event: "Miners strike a rich vein in an unstable asteroid."
options:
  - opt_key: extract
    text: Extract it all now before the asteroid breaks apart.
    effects:
      - category: resource_gain
        resource: minerals
        amount: 300

  - opt_key: station
    text: Establish a permanent mining station.
    effects:
      - category: modifier_add
        modifier_name: stable_mining_operation
        modifier_description: Careful extraction yields steady mineral output.
        duration_days: 1080

The right choice depends on game state. Early game, you need resources now. Late game, percentage modifiers on high base production are worth far more than a flat bonus.

Anti-dominance rules

These rules prevent any single option from being strictly better than the rest. Forge World's validator enforces them:

1. One premium reward per option. Each option may have at most one of: tech unlock, follow-up event, or strong positive modifier (≥10%).
2. Tech unlock parity. If any option has a tech unlock, every competing option must have a comparably valuable reward.
3. Max two effects per option. Keep choices digestible.
4. Dominance check. No option should have strictly more rewards and strictly fewer costs than every other option.
5. Never penalize caution. The walk-away option must give a modest positive reward — never a negative modifier.
6. Safe means modest, not best. The cautious option gets the smallest total reward.

Common mistakes

Watch for these — they're the most frequent problems in option design:

YAML format

In Forge World's YAML, options live inside interaction events:

options:
  - opt_key: investigate
    text: Conduct a detailed study of the Veil.
    effects:
      - category: resource_gain
        resource: unity
        amount: 150
      - category: modifier_add
        modifier_name: curious_scientists
        modifier_description: Our scientists are energized by the discovery.
        duration_days: 720

  - opt_key: evacuate
    text: Evacuate the area and mark it off-limits.
    effects:
      - category: modifier_add
        modifier_name: cosmic_unease
        modifier_description: The crew remains unsettled by what they witnessed.
        duration_days: 1080

  - opt_key: archive
    text: Pay the energy cost to access the archive.
    effects:
      - category: resource_gain
        resource: energy
        amount: -500
      - category: research_progress
        tech_area: physics
        progress: 0.15

Note how resource costs match the narrative (energy cost → resource: energy, amount: -500), modifier names match their effects (unease = negative, curiosity = positive), and effects flow naturally from the option text.

Next steps

With option design covered, the next chapter dives into the effects system — the mechanical building blocks that make your options actually do things in the game.