7.8. Rules applying to more than one action

| Chapter 7: Basic Actions |

| 7.8. Rules applying to more than one action

A description can include more than one choice of action. For instance:

> examining or searching the desk

matches either of "examining the desk" or "searching the desk". We can have more than two actions, of course:

> examining, looking under or searching the desk

The actions combined like this need to be compatible with each other, at least a little. For instance, this will generate a problem message:

> waiting or searching the desk

because it makes no sense to "wait the desk". On the other hand, this is fine:

> waiting or searching

The general rule is that if we specify one or more objects ("the desk" in the above example), then each of the actions we quote must take at least that many objects.

For example, the following saves us writing the same basic rule three times over:

> Instead of examining, looking under or searching the desk: say "There's no use poking around in that old desk."

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