7.16. Social Groups

| Chapter 7: Other Characters |

| 7.16. Social Groups

Crowds of characters introduce new challenges, because we often want to show them interacting with one another, or to describe individuals in less detail when a whole group is present.

Strictly Ballroom gives us a set of characters who pair off each turn, making sure to mention each one once, and leaving one unfortunate person behind as a wallflower: this exemplifies how we might use a behavioral rule not to dictate the behavior of each individual separately but rather to model a whole group together. Happy Hour does calculate movements for characters individually, but then collates the descriptions, creating a single paragraph to describe whatever group is currently in the room.

Characters can also have complicated attitudes to one another, and it can be helpful to use relations to track these. Unthinkable Alliances demonstrates the grouping of characters into alliance factions, while The Abolition of Love provides a host of relations to track love affairs, marriages, memberships in families, and mere mutual respect.

Emma combines these two effects: its characters move between social groups depending on how they feel about the others in their particular talking circle, and descriptions change depending on who is where in the room.

Lugubrious Pete's Delicatessen simulates a queue at a deli, in which the customers who most impress Pete get served first.

See Traveling Characters for groups of characters who move around and have their movements collated into a joint description

176
| Example Strictly Ballroom People who select partners for dance lessons each turn. |
WI

342
| Example Happy Hour Listing visible characters as a group, then giving some followup details in the same paragraph about specific ones. |
WI

229
| Example Unthinkable Alliances People are to be grouped into alliances. To kiss someone is to join his or her faction, which may make a grand alliance; to strike them is to give notice of quitting, and to become a lone wolf. |
WI

232
| Example The Abolition of Love A thorough exploration of all the kinds of relations established so far, with the syntax to set and unset them. |
WI

339
| Example Emma Social dynamics in which groups of people form and circulate during a party. |
WI

426
| Example Lugubrious Pete's Delicatessen In this evocation of supermarket deli counter life, a list is used as a queue to keep track of who is waiting to be served. |
WI

First, to set the scene: "Lugubrious Pete's Delicatessen" The Supermarket is west of the Delicatessen Counter. Lugubrious Pete is in the Delicatessen. "Lugubrious Pete, dolefully slicing meats and cheeses, serves at the counter." Alice, Beth, Gemma, Delia, and Eliza are women in the Supermarket. The deli queue is a list of objects that varies. Two processes compete here: one that fills the queue, the other which will empty it. The first process is the one which brings shoppers in to the counter, joining the back of the queue, which is where "add ... to ..." puts new entries by default: Every turn when a woman is in the Supermarket and a random chance of 2 in 3 succeeds (this is the customer arriving rule): let the customer be a random woman in the Supermarket; now the customer is in the Delicatessen; if the player is in the Supermarket, say "[The customer] walks into the Delicatessen."; if the player is in the Delicatessen, say "[The customer] comes in from the Supermarket, and [if the number of entries in the deli queue is 0]can't believe her luck. The counter is free![otherwise]resignedly queues behind [the deli queue]."; add the customer to the deli queue. The competing process is the one which serves shoppers and thus gets rid of them again: unfortunately, it is slower. But Pete is fair if inefficient, and serves the customers in strict order of arrival. Each served customer is removed from the front of the list, and the others therefore all move up a place. Every turn when the number of entries in the deli queue is not 0 and a random chance of 1 in 3 succeeds (this is the customer being served rule): let the customer be entry 1 of the deli queue; if the player is in the Delicatessen, say "Pete gives a droopy expression as he serves [customer], who nevertheless brightens and leaves."; if the player is in the Supermarket, say "[customer] emerges cheerfully from the Delicatessen Counter, and goes about her regular shopping."; now the customer is in the Supermarket; remove entry 1 from the deli queue. Instead of waiting in the Delicatessen when the number of entries in the deli queue is not 0, say "Time passes, for [deli queue] quite as much as for yourself." Test me with "wait / wait / wait / east / wait / wait / wait / wait / wait". That completes the example, but here is a variation to show that queues need not empty from the front. The Deli already looks a pretty sexist establishment, with the customers all being women, but it is about to get a whole lot worse: Modesty is a kind of value. The modesties are positively prim, buttoned up, modest, flirty, revealing and downright immodest. Every woman has a modesty. Alice is positively prim. Beth is downright immodest. Gemma is modest. Delia is flirty. Eliza is revealing. We could then rewrite the service rule like so: Every turn when the number of entries in the deli queue is not 0 and a random chance of 1 in 3 succeeds (this is the customer being served rule): let Pete's preference be the deli queue; sort Pete's preference in reverse modesty order; let the customer be entry 1 of Pete's preference; let the first in line be entry 1 of the deli queue; if the player is in the Delicatessen, say "[if the customer is the first in line]Pete gives a droopy expression as he serves [the customer], who nevertheless brightens and leaves.[otherwise]Outrageously, Pete scans the queue, notices [the customer] in her [modesty of the customer] clothes, and serves her next, while [the first in line] glares at him."; if the player is in the Supermarket, say "[The customer] emerges cheerfully from the Delicatessen Counter, and goes about her regular shopping."; now the customer is in the Supermarket; remove the customer from the deli queue. It is now heartbreakingly difficult for Alice to obtain her sliced chorizo sausage.

Previous | Contents | Next