How to Narrate Tooltips in Games: CK3, EU5, BG3, Stellaris

Tooltips are where strategy games and RPGs keep their rules. The event text tells you a story; the tooltip on each option tells you what it will actually cost you. They are also the smallest, densest text in the game, and they disappear the moment your mouse moves.

Here is a practical way to narrate tooltips in games, with notes for Crusader Kings III, Europa Universalis V, Baldur's Gate 3 and Stellaris, plus an honest word on tooltips inside tooltips.

Before you start

You need two things: Corvo Reader installed (the Free plan needs no card) and your game in the right display mode.

One setting matters: run your game in Borderless Windowed or Windowed mode. In exclusive fullscreen, Windows keeps the game's picture away from other apps, so there is nothing for Corvo Reader to read. The setting is usually in the game's video or display options.

Narrate any tooltip in three steps

1. Hover over the thing you want explained, so the tooltip opens.
2. Press Ctrl+Shift+E. Corvo Reader takes a still picture of your screen at that moment, so the tooltip stays put while you draw, even though your mouse moves.
3. Draw a box around the tooltip text. Corvo reads it aloud in a natural voice.

That is the whole method. A tip: box only the tooltip, not the window behind it. A tight box keeps stray numbers and button labels out of what you hear.

Nested tooltips: you box what's on screen

Paradox games and many RPGs put tooltips inside tooltips: a highlighted word in one tooltip opens another that explains it. Corvo Reader reads what is visible on your screen. It doesn't open nested tooltips for you or follow links inside them, so the approach is to open the layer you want in the game first, then box it.

1. Open the first tooltip and read it with Ctrl+Shift+E if you want to.
2. Use the game's own way to keep it open (more on that per game below), then hover the highlighted term so the nested tooltip appears.
3. Press Ctrl+Shift+E again and box the new tooltip.

If two tooltips overlap, your box picks up whatever text is inside it, from both. Box the top one carefully, or move it so it doesn't cover the other.

Game by game

Crusader Kings III

CK3 is the tooltip game: every event option has one, and they link to game concepts with tooltips of their own. CK3 was designed with tooltip lock settings. As described before launch, a timer lock pins a tooltip after a second or two so you can move into it, and an action lock lets you pin and unpin with the middle mouse button. Sliders control the delays. Lock the tooltip, open the nested one, then box it.

For events, save the event window as a region. Saved regions read with one key, so each new event is one press away. If you prefer a mod, the CK3 UI Accessibility collection on the Steam Workshop has a Text to Speech mod that reads events and option tooltips with Windows voices. More in our CK3 guide.

Europa Universalis V

EU5's heaviest reading is in its modifier breakdowns: long lists of where a number comes from, often in small type. The text size doesn't matter once you are listening, so box the breakdown and let it read. If a tooltip is long enough to lose the thread, Summarize on paid plans gives you the short version. See the EU5 guide.

Baldur's Gate 3

BG3 voices its conversations but not its tooltips: spells, actions, items, conditions and level-up choices are all text, and there is no built-in text to speech on PC. Hover a spell or item, press Ctrl+Shift+E and box it. During level-up, where the description pane sits in the same place, save that pane as a region and step through the options one key at a time. More in our BG3 guide.

Stellaris

Stellaris can already read tooltips aloud. In the settings' Accessibility tab, turn on Text to speech and Text to speech (Tooltips), and it reads with your Windows voice. Try that first. If you would rather hear a natural AI voice, turn the game's option off (so two voices don't overlap) and box tooltips with Corvo Reader instead. Details in our Stellaris guide.

Saved regions: for tooltips that appear in the same place

Hover tooltips follow your mouse, so they are usually quickest to box each time. Some games show details in a fixed panel instead: a level-up description pane, an event window, an inventory detail panel. For those, save the area as a region once. After that, one key reads whatever is showing there.

Long tooltips and second languages

On paid plans, Summarize turns a long tooltip or event into the short version, and Translate reads it in another language. The Free plan gives you standard neural voices for 20 minutes of narration a week; Core ($6.99), Plus ($12.99) and Max ($24.99) a month add weekly premium-voice minutes and unlimited standard voices.

Who this helps

Narrating tooltips helps most when reading is the hard part: players with dyslexia, ADHD or visual fatigue, or anyone at the end of a long day at a screen. The rules of the game stay the same. You just hear them.

Frequently asked questions

Can Corvo Reader open nested tooltips by itself?

No. It reads what is on your screen. Open or lock the nested tooltip in the game, then press Ctrl+Shift+E and box it.

Will the tooltip disappear when I move the mouse to draw?

No. Corvo Reader takes a still picture of the screen when you press the hotkey, and you draw on that picture.

Does it work in other games?

Yes. It works with any PC game on Windows that shows text on screen, as long as the game runs in Borderless or Windowed mode. See all our game guides.

Do I need mods?

No. Corvo Reader runs outside the game and never changes its files.