Detour

Learn about detour and return, which let you temporarily move to another node, then return.

In Yarn Spinner 3, you can use a detour statement to run content from a different node, before returning to the previous node.

Here’s an example of using the detour statement.

title: Guard
---
Guard: Have I told you my backstory?

-> Yes.
	Guard: Oh. Well, then.
-> No?
	<<detour Guard_Backstory>>

Guard: Anyway, you can't come in.
===

title: Guard_Backstory
---
Guard: It all started when I was a mere recruit.
// (five minutes of exposition omitted)
===

If the player replies ‘No?’ to the guard’s question, Yarn Spinner will detour to the Guard_Backstory node and run its contents. When the end of that node is reached, Yarn Spinner will return to the Guard node, and resume from just after the detour statement.

When you detour into a node, Yarn Spinner runs the content from that node just as if you’d used a jump statement. When you reach the end of the node, or reach a return statement, Yarn Spinner will return to just after the detour statement.

You can return early from a detoured node by using the return statement. Doing so will return to just after the detourstatement, as though the end of the node had been reached.

If Yarn Spinner reaches a return statement, and it hasn’t detoured from another node, it will stop the dialogue (that is, it will behave as though you had written a stop command.)

When you detour into a node, that node can itself detour into other nodes.

If a detoured node uses a jump command to run another node, the return stack is cleared. If you detour into a node, and that node jumps to another node, Yarn Spinner won’t return to your original detour site.