| Chapter 16: Understanding |

| 16.6. Actions applying to kinds of value

Almost all actions apply to things: the player picks them up, pushes them, looks at them and so on. Only occasionally do we need to recognise other kinds of value: but when we do, we can, as in the example called "Safety":

> "Safety"

> The Vault is a room. "Snug yet paranoid, this represents the state of the art in cheerless security." The Safe is here. "A mammoth safe, with a dial which can spin to any number, has pride of place. It must weigh about the same as a small car, so don't get any ideas." In the Safe is a silver florin. The Safe is closed and fixed in place. Understand "dial" as the Safe.

> Spinning it to is an action applying to one thing and one number. Check spinning it to: if the noun is not the Safe then say "[The noun] does not spin." instead. Report spinning it to: say "Click! and nothing else happens."

> Understand "spin [something] to [a number]" as spinning it to.

> After spinning the closed Safe to 1384: change the Safe to open; say "Clonk! and the safe door swings slowly open, revealing [list of things in the Safe]."

The substitution "[a number]" matches any number (actually any whole number that is not too large) typed by the player. Inform checks the various kinds being used to make sure that everything matches, so, for instance, this would be disallowed:

> Understand "spin [something] to [something]" as spinning it to.

231
| Example Tom's Midnight Garden A clock kind that can be set to any time using "the time understood"; may be turned on and off; and will advance itself only when running. Time on the face is also reported differently depending on whether the clock is analog or digital.

232
| Example Ibid. A system which allows the author to assign footnotes to descriptions, and permits the player to retrieve them again by number, using "the number understood". Footnotes will automatically number themselves, according to the order in which the player discovers them.

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