A .tlk file (or a talk table) is a file containing text to be displayed to the player in Neverwinter Nights. Each piece of text in the file is identified by a number called a StringRef. While text can be stored in other locations, a talk table is useful when the text will be translated, as a translator would need to work with only a single file. A talk table is also useful in reducing bandwidth requirements, as a StringRef is usually a much smaller piece of data than the text it refers to.