FolioTier 1

choice

Player decision — present a list of options that branch the story.

Parameters

Parameter	Kind	Required	Default	Notes
prompt	string	no	—	Optional prompt rendered above the option list. Omit for a bare option list (the canonical 'silent menu' shape — Ren'Py creators sometimes use this as a quick branch).
option label (per child line)	string	yes	—	Each child line is `option "<label>"` followed by an optional `-> <scene-target>`. The label is the button text the player sees. With a scene target, picking the option jumps the story to that scene; without one, the option records the pick and execution advances to the next step in the same scene (the Folio shape for a decorative Ren'Py menu whose branches are `pass`).
option guard (`if <cond>` tail per option)	expression	no	—	Optional per-option `if <cond>` tail (after the scene target if one is present) hides the option when the condition is false. The condition is a Folio expression (`flag`, `not flag`, `count >= 3`, `a and b`, etc.). Hidden options never render in the player; they don't count against the visible option list and the player never sees them.

Canonical example

Folio

choice "What do you do?":
  option "Go inside" -> living-room
  option "Stay on the porch" -> porch-wait if mood >= 3
  option "Glance around"
  option "Leave" -> end

Ren'Py

menu:
    "What do you do?"
    "Go inside":
        jump living_room
    "Stay on the porch" if mood >= 3:
        jump porch_wait
    "Glance around":
        pass
    "Leave":
        return

choice is Folio's menu — the branching primitive. The header line opens the block (choice [prompt]:); each indented option line is one button. Two shapes are supported per option: with -> <target> the option routes the story to that scene; without it the option records the pick and execution advances inline to the next step in the same scene.

Notes

Options are rendered in source order. Each option line can carry an if <cond> tail (after the scene target if one is present) so the option only appears when the condition is true — that's the supported way to do a conditional choice. The condition follows the same Folio expression grammar as a top-level if verb (bare identifier, not <ident>, comparison, and / or). Hidden options never render in the player. Don't try to wrap option lines in an outer if; the parser doesn't support nesting choice options inside other block constructs.

choice "Pick one":
  option "Always visible" -> a
  option "Only after first run" -> b if visited
  option "High mood only" -> c if mood >= 3

Target-less (inline-advance) options

An option line without -> <target> records the player's pick and then advances to the next step in the same scene — no scene jump, no episode end. This is the Folio shape for a decorative Ren'Py menu: a menu: whose if/elif branches are pass, where the menu exists to give the player a moment of agency but the next line of dialogue plays regardless of which option was picked.

choice "":
  option "I'm just looking around"
  option "Your bra is showing a little"
p "Get out of my room right now!"

Inline-advance options accept the same do <effects> and if <cond> tails as routing options; they just omit the -> clause.

Importer behaviour

The importer maps Ren'Py's menu: to choice: 1:1 for the simple shape above, including Ren'Py's "text" if <cond>: guarded options (the condition lowers from Ren'Py syntax — True → true, False → false — when the shape is a bare identifier, negated identifier, or a comparison with a bool/numeric literal; anything else falls through to AI translation). Menus with embedded code (Python in option bodies, non-jump actions, set between options) lower into a choice plus a small per-option scene that runs the body before the routing — see the migration report for the per-fragment translation.

The decorative-choice pattern (call screen my_menu(...) followed by an if/elif chain whose every branch is pass) lowers to inline target-less options. The migration report's AI translator recognises this shape and emits the target-less form.

Parameters

Canonical example

Notes

Target-less (inline-advance) options

Importer behaviour

See also