Anansi

Most races have an active ability you trigger with a keybind. This guide explains how abilities work, how cooldowns behave, and what to expect from each built-in ability type.

Activating an ability

Press R (default) to activate your race's ability. If your race has no ability, nothing happens.

You can rebind this in Options → Controls → Storytime.

Cooldowns

After using an ability, it enters a cooldown period before you can use it again. The cooldown length is set per-race in the race's JSON definition and is measured in game ticks (20 ticks = 1 second).

Cooldowns persist through disconnects. If you log out during a cooldown, it will still be active when you log back in.

Ability types

Storytime ships with three built-in ability types. Server owners and modpack creators can configure these per-race through datapacks.

Transform (storytime:transform)

You transform into another entity. Your model changes to that entity's model, and your stats temporarily reflect the entity's natural attributes.

  • Toggle mode — if no duration is set, press R again to revert.
  • Timed mode — if a duration is set, the transformation ends automatically after that many ticks.

You cannot transform while already transformed in timed mode. In toggle mode, the keybind switches back.

Last Stand (storytime:last_stand)

A two-phase defensive ability, typically configured to trigger when your health is low.

Phase 1 applies powerful buffs — Strength, Resistance, Regeneration, Speed — for a short window. Some races configure this ability to trigger automatically when you take fatal damage.

Phase 2 starts immediately after Phase 1 ends. It applies debuffs (Nausea, Slowness) for a longer period, preventing you from spamming the ability.

Whether you can activate this manually or only through the automatic threshold depends on how your race is configured.

Spell Cast (storytime:spell_cast)

Casts a spell in one of four modes, depending on how your race configured it:

Mode Effect
projectile Fires a projectile (fireball, arrow, snowball, etc.) in the direction you are looking
self Applies potion effects directly to you
aoe Applies effects to all entities within a radius around you
beam Hits the first entity directly in your line of sight

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