theotherplayer

# The Other Player

**You are not alone in this world.**

A horror mod built around one enemy, designed to look like **another player**. He joins and leaves the server, shows up in TAB, follows you through the forest, ducks behind trees when you turn, watches you through your windows... and sometimes decides to hunt you.

> `Rowan_Vale17 joined the game`
>
> You press TAB. He is really there. You look for him. Nothing.
> Later, behind a tree, someone crouches. You look away for a second. When you look back, he's gone.

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## The stalker

- **Looks like a player** (vanilla model, walk cycle and crouch, player-style name tag) until you get close: cracked porcelain mask with a carved grin, hollow sockets, black hood, pale hands, a bloody knife, two dim pupils you only notice in the dark.
- **13 behaviours**: observing, watching, stealth, hiding, window watching, following, retreating, investigating, hunting, attacking, searching, disappearing.
- **Real line of sight** (field of view, walls, leaves, distance, darkness). He freezes while you look at him and moves when you look away. He never vanishes while anyone can see him.
- **Fake presence**: vanilla "joined / left the game" messages and a TAB entry. `/list` includes him. Ghost, brief and active sessions.
- **Moves like a person**: he sidesteps arrows, opens doors and gates that block him, takes detours, recovers when stuck (hop, open, detour, slip past unseen), avoids lava, fire and cactus, and cannot cross **salt**.
- **Lots of body language**: 10 idle and reaction animations (head snap, looking at his own hands, admiring the knife, a slow wave, twitching, cracking his neck, sniffing the air, dazzled by light, dodging) and three different knife strikes. When he stares, his head is tilted and his arms hang dead. When he runs, he runs wrong.
- **Ambient events with no body**: a door opening by itself, footsteps getting closer behind you, a whisper, a knock. Waking up after a night sometimes isn't peaceful.
- **Dread audio and effects** (client side): 5 intensity levels, heartbeat, the "silence" that mutes the world, fog that closes in, camera shake, one rare jumpscare.

## Rowan's story
Eight torn pages (English and Spanish) tell what happened to the player who started this world and was left alone in it. Pages 1-3 wait in **abandoned camps**, 4-6 in the **Hollow Shrine**, 7 is scattered through dungeon-type chests, and the last one only goes to whoever survives or kills a stalker they called.

## The Hollow Codex
A book that **writes itself as you learn**. Craft it with a **Book + Ink Sac + 2 Grave Dust**, right click and read.

- A heavy leather cover that swings open, real page turns, text typed out by an unseen pen, candle flicker, drifting dust and an eye on the first page that follows your cursor.
- **12 chapters** (English/Spanish): the legend of Rowan, how the other player behaves, journals, camps and the shrine, every offering, the calling, the Great Circle, salt/light/mask, how to end him, the trophy... and two secret ones.
- **Chapters you must earn**: three are open from the start; the rest stay sealed behind an unreadable script until you discover what they talk about (carry a mask shard, a vial, salt, chalk, his drops, light the ritual...).
- **Secret chapter "The Name"**: sign a book with his name. **"The Last Entry"**: read all eight journal pages, or kill a greater stalker.
- **Hidden ink**: some lines are only smudges until a **lit black candle** burns close to you.
- Progress is saved with the player and kept after death.

## Structures
- **Abandoned Camp**: ripped tent, dead fire, bed, blood trail, signs, a skull on a fence, and a chest with the first pages and the **Mask Shard**.
- **Hollow Shrine**: blackstone platform, crying-obsidian ring, four candle pillars, riddle signs, a chest, and the **Hollow Altar**.

## Calling him
The altar asks for four things, one of each:
1. **Blood**: craft an *Empty Vial* (glass bottle + iron nugget) and draw blood from a living animal. It hurts.
2. A **mask shard**, found only in abandoned camps.
3. A **black candle.**
4. **His name**: write `Rowan_Vale17` in a book and sign it.

Place them on the altar, wait for **night**, light it with flint and steel. The circle paints itself in blood, every flame nearby dies, darkness and a blood-red silence fall, lightning flashes, smoke gathers... and he steps out of it, stares at you, and hunts.

### The Great Ritual
Add three optional offerings (**Grave Dust**, a **skeleton skull**, an **eye of ender**) and draw the **great circle** by touching the altar with **Ritual Chalk**: the chalk paints a nine-block sigil on the ground by itself. Then light the altar. A storm breaks, a huge circle of blood paints itself across the ground, three bolts of lightning strike the ring, and a much stronger stalker steps out.

### He can be killed (only when called)
Summoned stalkers are mortal. The normal one drops **Stalker Essence** (and sometimes his **knife**). The greater one drops the **Stalker Trophy**, his **Mask**, **Rowan's Knife** and more Essence.

- **Stalker Trophy**: a pedestal with his mask on top. The mask slowly turns to face you, tilts its head when you come close, and its eyes light up.
- **Stalker's Mask** (helmet): wear his own face and he hesitates to hunt you.
- **Rowan's Knife**: iron-level blade that slows whoever it cuts.

## Defences and tools
- **Flashlight** (iron, glass pane, redstone, battery): a real moving light. The beam lights the blocks you point at and follows the camera. It dazzles a charging stalker, exposes a hiding one and, against a summoned one, hurts. Runs on charge; a **Battery** in your inventory refills it by itself.
- **Salt** (dried kelp + bone meal): a line of salt on the floor stops him. He cannot cross it and recoils; after a few tries he gives up.
- **Ritual Chalk** and **Grave Dust** (dropped by the undead, or ground from bone meal and soul sand).

## Advancements
A small story tree: first page, mask shard, blood, salt, flashlight, chalk, the ritual, the great ritual, surviving, killing him, the trophy, wearing his mask, and the Codex.

## Multiplayer
Everything that matters (behaviour, targeting, spawning, damage and the ritual) runs on the server. Works in singleplayer, LAN and dedicated Forge servers (**required on both sides**). One stalker per server.

## Configuration (`otherplayer-common.toml`)
Name, enable/disable, fake presence, grace period (default 10 min), frequency, intensity ceiling, attacks on/off, non-lethal mode, damage scale, hits per chase, peaceful behaviour, jumpscares and dynamic music.

## Commands (OP level 2)
`/otherplayer status | join | leave | spawn [type] | place <dx> <dz> <state> | state <state> | clear | intensity <0-1|auto> | ritual [fill|great] | codex open|all|reset|unlock <chapter> | scare <type> <n> | dread <0-4> | anim <id> | ambient`

## Compatible versions
- **Minecraft**: **1.20.1** (only this version)
- **Mod loader**: **Forge 47.2.0 or newer** (built and tested on 47.4.10)
- **Java**: 17
- **Side**: client **and** server (required on both)
- **Dependencies**: none besides Forge
- **Not supported**: Fabric, Quilt, NeoForge, other Minecraft versions

It adds one entity (the stalker), a handful of blocks (altar, trophy, salt, floor marks) and items, two small structures and an advancement tree. No dimension and no other world generation. It does not replace any vanilla behaviour, so it should sit next to most mods; the fake player entry in TAB can look odd with mods that rewrite the player list.

## Status
the mod is completely new. Please report anything that feels too easy, too hard, not scary enough or any bug found.

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