SpellsT: @_WizardSchool school | @_WizardSchool sphere

##</code><code>##

Aura: visible &_color | @_Emotion | @_Align
Resist: immune | is &_roll:1d100 % magic resistant | has no resistance

##</code><code>##

my %game_data;
open( IN, "<", "game_data.txt" ) or die "game_data.txt: $!";
while (<IN>) {
    chomp;
    my ( $key, @values ) = split( /\s*[:|]\s*/ );
    $game_data{$key} = [ @values ];
}
close IN;

my %init_func = {
    color = sub { my $val=some_simple_op(); return $val},
    roll = \&roll,
    ...
}

for my $key ( keys %game_data ) {
    my @replace_vals = ();
    for my $val ( @{$game_data{$key}} ) {
        if ( $val =~ /[@&]_\S+/ ) {  # need to split and process
            my @words = split ' ', $val;
            $val = '';
            for my $wrd ( @wrds ) {
                if ( $wrd =~ /\@_(\S+)/ ) {
                    my $refkey = $1;
                    if ( exists( $game_data{$refkey} )) {
                        my $n = @{$game_data{$refkey}};
                        $wrd = $game_data{$refkey}[rand $n];
                    } else {
                        warn "No $refkey in game_data for $key\n";
                    }
                }
                elsif ( $wrd =~ /\&_(\S+)/ ) {
                    my ( $refkey, @args ) = split /[:,]/, $1;
                    if ( exists( $init_func{$refkey} )) {
                        $wrd = $init_func{$refkey}->(@args);
                    } else {
                        warn "No $refkey function for $key\n";
                    }
                }
                $val .= "$wrd ";
            }
        }
        push @replace_vals, $val;
    }
    $game_data{$key} = [ @replace_vals ];
}