| Chapter 7: Basic Actions |

| 7.15. Kinds of action

Especially when people need to react to events going on around them, it is helpful to be able to categorise actions into whole areas of behaviour. The following example, indebted to the late Georgette Heyer, is suggestive:

> "Dearth and the Maiden"

> The Chequers Inn is a room. "The room is panelled and ceilinged in oak, with blue curtains to the windows and blue cushions on the high-backed settle by the fire."

> An oil painting is in the Inn. "An oil painting hangs upon one wall, a lascivious work from the Indes in which a very bendy, sloe-eyed courtesan - but no."

> A man called Mr Carr is in the Inn. "Standing bashfully aside is one Mr Carr, who we have been led to understand is by profession a Highwayman (yet whose visage oddly recalls Lord John Carstares, disgraced eldest son of the Earl of Wyncham)."

> Kissing Mr Carr is unmaidenly behaviour. Doing something to the painting is unmaidenly behaviour.

> Instead of unmaidenly behaviour in the Inn, say "How unmaidenly! Why, one might just as wantonly strip a rose of its petals, letting each fragrant leaf flutter slowly to the ground."

Here a new kind of action called "unmaidenly behaviour" has been created and then used in the description of an instead rule. The convenience of this approach is that when further actions suddenly occur to us as also being unmaidenly - say, attacking Mr Carr - we only need to add a single line:

> Attacking Mr Carr is unmaidenly behaviour.

And this will automatically be reflected in any rules which concern the consequences of failing to be ladylike.

Note that we were only allowed to say that "Kissing Mr Carr is unmaidenly behaviour." because Inform already knew from earlier sentences that Mr Carr was a person, and therefore that "kissing Mr Carr" made sense as a description of an action.

91
| Example Mimicry People who must be greeted before conversation can begin.

Suppose we want to add a sense of some conversational flow, so that the player is forced to acknowledge the presence of people before beginning detailed conversations with them. We collect all speech actions into a single category: "Mimicry" Asking someone about something is speech. Telling someone about something is speech. Answering someone that something is speech. Asking someone for something is speech. And then write a general rule. Before speech in the presence of an ungreeted person: try waving hands. One complication is that "asking someone to try doing something", which describes commands such as FRED, GO SOUTH, cannot be made into a kind of action. This requires its own rule: Before asking someone to try doing something in the presence of an ungreeted person: try waving hands. Now we define what greetings are going to look like: Check waving hands: if the player can see someone who is not the player, do nothing; otherwise say "You are alone." instead. Carry out waving hands: say "You nod hello to [the list of ungreeted people who can be seen by the player]."; now every ungreeted person who can be seen by the player is greeted. The block waving hands rule is not listed in the check waving hands rulebook. Because of the way we've defined the command, this will now also work if the player waves. A person can be greeted or ungreeted. A person is usually ungreeted. The player is greeted. And now the scenario: The International Convention of Mimes is a room. Lester, Harold, Geoff, Kwame, and Peter are men in the Convention. Elouise is a woman in the Convention. The Invisible Box is an enterable container in the Convention. "You can detect, from the way people keep leaning on it, an invisible box in the middle of the room." Lester carries a bowler hat. Instead of speech in the presence of someone: describe poor reception. Definition: a person is other if it is not the player. At 9:01 AM: move Phineas to the location; say "A mime called Phineas appears from the non-existent bathroom." Phineas is a man. A persuasion rule: describe poor reception; persuasion fails. To describe poor reception: if the player is in the Invisible box, say "Everyone convulses with silent laughter as you try to shout from within the invisible box."; otherwise say "You attempt to convey your meaning with gesture and interpretive dance, but [the list of visible other people] scorn[if the number of visible other people is 1]s[end if] your performance, refusing to respond." Test me with "ask lester about work / lester, east / ask lester for bowler / lester, nice not talking to you / get in box / ask lester for hat / phineas, east".

Previous | Contents | Next