The dictionary

The dictionary holds the player’s own words. A dictionary entry is a named text token you drop into a line — their home town, their pet’s name, what they call their sword — and it reads the same in every language, because the player wrote it.

What it is, and what it is not

A dictionary token is a piece of text with a key. You write [city] in a line, and the player reads “Madrid”, or “Boston”, or whatever they typed.

It is not translated. It has no per-language column in the localization table and never will. That is the whole point: when the player types “Madrid”, the German build must also say “Madrid”. Their words are their words. Everything else the player reads — dialogue, choices, screen labels — goes through the localization tables described in Localization. The dictionary is the one thing that does not.

Creating an entry

Open Tools > Beasty VN > Editor, go to the Dictionary tab and press + Add Term.

Field	What it is
Key	The token name, written without brackets: `city`. You use it in text as `[city]`.
Default value	What the token reads as until something sets it. The same in every language.
Player editable	If on, the player may change this term at runtime from the game’s customization screen.

Leave Player editable off for a token you set from the story and the player never touches.

Using it in a line

Write the key in square brackets, anywhere in the text of a Dialogue block:

maya "So you're from [city]? I've never been."

The same works in any authored text that resolves tokens, including a character’s display name.

Setting it

Three ways, depending on who decides the value.

You decide it. Use the Set dictionary block (palette category State). Pick the token, type the value. In the text script:

dict city = "Madrid"

The player decides it, in the story. Use the Ask -> dictionary block (palette category Input). It is a self-contained stop: it shows a question line — with an optional speaker, like any dialogue line — and opens the input box at the same moment. It has a default used when the player leaves the box blank, and a required flag that rejects a blank answer instead.

ask dict city "Where are you from?"

The player decides it, in the options. Turn on Player editable and the token appears on the game’s customization screen, where they can set it whenever they like.

However it is set, the value is written into the shared variable store under the token’s key, where it shadows your default. So it is saved with the game, and it rewinds with everything else, and you did nothing to make that happen. See Variables and conditions.

Dictionary token or String variable?

They live in the same store and a condition can read either. The difference is what you mean by them, and the editor follows your intent: the dictionary pickers only offer you dictionary entries, and the variable pickers only offer you variables.

Use a dictionary token when the value is text the player reads back, in their own words, that must survive a language switch untranslated:

the town they come from
their pet’s name
the name they gave their ship

Use a String variable when the value is game state you branch on:

chapter = "two"
faction = "rebels" (an Enum variable, with its allowed values listed)
anything a choice, a door or a quest is gated on

If you find yourself writing a condition on a dictionary token, you probably wanted a variable. If you find yourself printing a variable in a line and worrying about the translator changing it, you wanted a dictionary token.