A Standardized Schema for Transporting Authorial Intent Across Multi-Agentic Systems

Narrative Context Protocol (NCP) is an open, standardized JSON schema explicitly designed to transport and preserve authorial intent across diverse multi-agent storytelling systems. Developed through collaboration with the Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California, NCP reliably captures and conveys narrative context, artistic voice, and thematic coherence across platforms, mediums, and autonomous agents.

This repository publishes the open Dramatica storyform schema for film, television, theatre, novels, games, and interactive experiences. Treat it as the canonical reference for holding narrative context (the author’s intent) across mediums and for building your own tools—there is no standalone app here.

NCP is curated by The Dramatica Co.—the merger of Write Bros. Inc. and Narrative First Inc.—as the open-source edition of the Dramatica® storyform. By placing the canonical Dramatica structure in a permissive repository, the project ensures that anyone can study, implement, and extend the model without gatekeeping.

At its core, NCP provides a structured yet adaptable schema, ensuring narratives retain their logical consistency and emotional depth, even when interpreted or extended by numerous interacting agents. By encoding narrative elements into clear, universally understood representations, NCP maintains the original intent of the author throughout dynamic, distributed narrative environments.

NCP is transport-focused: it standardizes how storyform context is represented so different tools can exchange the same structural intent without semantic drift.

Built upon proven narrative theories and driven by emerging advancements in AI storytelling, NCP simplifies and standardizes complex narrative exchanges. It empowers storytellers, technologists, and creative communities in film, gaming, literature, interactive media, and generative AI environments to collaborate freely—without sacrificing coherence, authenticity, or the original author's vision.

As storytelling mediums evolve rapidly, maintaining a structured yet adaptable narrative model becomes increasingly vital. NCP meets this challenge by providing a comprehensive yet adaptable framework that supports narrative coherence while accommodating the complexities and dynamic requirements of modern storytelling methodologies.

By clearly delineating narrative structure (Subtext) from presentation (Storytelling), NCP preserves authorial intent while enabling adaptable delivery across diverse storytelling platforms.

NCP also includes an optional story.ideation layer (character, theme, plot, genre) so creators can capture early concepts before committing to full storyform structure.

As AI-driven storytelling rapidly evolves, crucial questions emerge about authorship, originality, and rights. NCP addresses these concerns transparently, embedding authorial intent within its structure, ensuring creators' original decisions remain clearly documented and respected.

By borrowing concepts familiar to collaborative software development—such as transparent tracking of narrative revisions and collaborative decision-making—NCP preserves the integrity and clarity of each author's contributions. This open and collaborative approach safeguards authorship while fostering creativity and innovation.

With NCP, the often informal process of giving and receiving notes transforms into a clearly documented system. Creators' decisions are recorded, attributed, and protected, preserving the integrity and originality of their contributions. By maintaining authorial intent at its core, NCP not only safeguards authorship but also provides a robust and respectful foundation for collaborative storytelling in an increasingly AI-driven creative environment.

✅ Open Dramatica Storyform – Direct access to the canonical Dramatica® model for community use.
✅ Open-Source Standard – Available for use, modification, and integration into various storytelling platforms.
✅ Scalable Narrative Structure – A flexible yet structured approach to narrative construction, complete with clearly defined key components.
✅ Beginner Ideation Layer – Optional free-flow concept nodes for character, theme, plot, and genre before formal narrative authoring.
✅ Industry-Wide Adoption – Designed for use across film, gaming, AI, and interactive fiction.
✅ Writer Protections – Captures authorial intent, ensuring clear attribution and rights tracking.
✅ Extensible & Customizable: Ships with canonical Dramatica® terminology while supporting mappings to frameworks like the Hero’s Journey, Save the Cat!, and more...
✅ Interoperability: Easily exchange narrative data between platforms.

In 2025, Write Brothers®—creators of Dramatica® and Movie Magic Screenwriter—joined forces with Narrative First. This merger combines decades of story-development expertise with cutting-edge AI narrative research to deliver the Subtxt/Dramatica platform, a state-of-the-art system for generative storytelling. The unified platform powers NCP implementations, ensuring structured stories and rich authorial metadata for AI workflows.

Begin by reading the complete Specification

Install validation dependencies and run fixture checks:

npm install
npm run validate:schema

examples/legacy/ contains migration samples and is intentionally excluded from canonical validation. examples/example-mapping.json is a mapping fragment example, not a full schema document. Use /VALIDATION.md for validating your own NCP files and CI setup.

• Complete Storyform template: blank-slate NCP fixture with canonical Storypoint Appreciations excluding Event and Progression labels, plus Signpost-only Storybeats (no Progression/Event Storybeats). narrative_function is intentionally omitted so teams can fill in only what they need.

If you found this repository and want to validate your own NCP JSON, do this:

1. Clone this repo and run:

npm install

2. Validate your file directly against the canonical schema:

npm run validate:file -- /path/to/your-ncp.json

3. If validation fails, fix the reported fields and run the same command again.
4. If you maintain your own repository, copy the CI pattern from /VALIDATION.md so every PR validates NCP automatically.

narrative-context-protocol/
├── README.md
├── SPECIFICATION.md
├── COPYRIGHT.md
├── CONTRIBUTING.md
├── HISTORY.md
├── LICENSE.md
├── schema/
│   ├── ncp-schema.json
│   └── ncp-schema.yaml
├── examples/
│   ├── example-story.json
│   ├── ideation-beginner.json
│   ├── anora.json
│   ├── the-shawshank-redemption.json
│   ├── complete-storyform-template.json
│   ├── example-mapping.json
│   ├── invalid/
│   │   ├── ideation-missing-domain.json
│   │   ├── ideation-node-missing-summary.json
│   │   ├── narrative-status-invalid.json
│   │   └── signpost-sequence-out-of-range.json
│   └── legacy/
│       ├── anora-legacy.json
│       └── the-shawshank-redemption-legacy.json
├── docs/
│   ├── terminology/
│   │   ├── 01.perspectives.md
│   │   ├── 02.appreciations-of-narrative.md
│   │   ├── 03.narrative-functions.md
│   │   ├── 04.dynamics.md
│   │   ├── 05.vectors.md
│   │   └── 10.dramatica-translation.md
│   └── narrative-context-protocol-schema.md
├── tests/
│   └── validate-schema.js
└── .gitignore

NCP is released under the MIT License (see LICENSE.md) to maintain openness while ensuring proper attribution.

The development and refinement of NCP are stewarded by The Dramatica Co., aligning the open-source model with the official Dramatica® tooling roadmap. Contributions and modifications are encouraged, and governance policies are outlined in CONTRIBUTING.md.

For further information, collaboration, or licensing inquiries, contact The Dramatica Co. at [email protected]

Happy storytelling!