11.6. Ending The Story

| Chapter 11: Out Of World Actions and Effects |

| 11.6. Ending The Story

Play can end in many ways, at the writer's discretion:

> end the story;
> end the story finally;
> end the story saying "You have reached an impasse, a stalemate";
> end the story finally saying "You have succeeded.";

The phrase "end the story" by itself will finish play, printing "*** The End ***". Using one of the phrases with "saying..." allows us to specify some other text with which to conclude. Including "finally" means that the player has earned access to AMUSING text and other notes, if any of these are provided.

We can eliminate the asterisked headline entirely by removing the rule that prints it, thus:

> The print obituary headline rule is not listed in any rulebook.

The next step is to print the player's score and, if applicable, the rank he achieved. If there is no score in the game, we can prevent a score being listed here with

> Use no scoring.

Or, if we want to allow a score but alter the way it is reported, we may remove or modify the print final score rule, as in

> The print final score rule is not listed in any rulebook.

or perhaps something like

> The chatty final score rule is listed instead of the print final score rule in for printing the player's obituary.

> This is the chatty final score rule: say "Wow, you achieved a whole [score in words] point[s] out of a possible [maximum score in words]! I'm very proud of you. This was a triumph. I'm being so sincere right now."

What happens next is normally that the player is invited to RESTART, RESTORE (from a saved game), QUIT or UNDO the last command. The presence of the question can somewhat undercut a tragedy, and Battle of Ridgefield shows another way to go out.

If we do leave the question in, the text is formed by the Table of Final Question Options, which by default looks like this:

> Table of Final Question Options

> final question wording | only if victorious | topic | final response rule | final response activity
> "RESTART" | false | "restart" | immediately restart the VM rule | --
> "RESTORE a saved game" | false | "restore" | immediately restore saved game rule | --
> "see some suggestions for AMUSING things to do" | true | "amusing" | -- | amusing a victorious player
> "QUIT" | false | "quit" | immediately quit rule | --
> "UNDO the last command" | false | "undo" | immediately undo rule | --

Because this is a table, we may alter the behavior by changing entries or continuing the table. Finality shows how we might take out the option to UNDO the last command, for instance.

Using an ending phrase that includes "finally" tells Inform to include the options that are marked "only if victorious". One common use is to let the player read some special bit of additional text, perhaps describing easter eggs he might have missed in the story or presenting some authorial notes. Xerxes demonstrates a simple AMUSING command to read final information, while Jamaica 1688 shows how to add completely new elements to the list of options.

Old-school adventures expected their adventurers to die early and die often. Labyrinth of Ghosts shows how the residue of such past attempts can be preserved into subsequent attempts, using an external file. Big Sky Country shows how a player can be resurrected by, let us say, some beneficent god, so that a player can even die more than once in the same attempt.

370
| Example Battle of Ridgefield Completely replacing the endgame text and stopping the game without giving the player a chance to restart or restore. |
WI

369
| Example Finality Not mentioning UNDO in the final set of options. |
WI

372
| Example Xerxes Offering the player a menu of things to read after winning the game. |
WI

> Building a menu is moderately tedious, so we will rely on the standard menu extensions provided. Thus: "Xerxes" Include Basic Screen Effects by Emily Short. Include Menus by Emily Short. Table of Amusing Matter
> title | subtable | description | toggle
> "Cult Revisions" | a table name | "Did you try... [paragraph break] banning the worship of Seth? [line break] of Dionysus? [line break] assigning all your priests to Re? [line break] assigning male priests to Cybele? [line break] assigning married priestesses to Hestia? [line break] identifying one god as another (e.g., Isis and Hecate)? [line break] identifying a mortal as a god (e.g., Alexander as Helios-Apollo)?" | a rule
> "Military Revisions" | a table name | "Did you try... [paragraph break] allying a Greek city-state with the Persians? (try >MEDIZE) [line break] playing Athens as a land-based power?" | a rule
Rule for amusing a victorious player: now the current menu is the Table of Amusing Matter; now the current menu title is "Things to Try"; carry out the displaying activity; clear the screen. Omitting about a half million words from this rigorous and educational but nonetheless enthralling simulation of centuries of history, culture, and religion, we will skip directly to: Athens is a room. Every turn: if the score is greater than 10000, end the story finally. When play begins: now the score is 10001. Test me with "z".

371
| Example Jamaica 1688 Adding a feature to the final question after victory, so that the player can choose to reveal notes about items in the game. |
WI

430
| Example Labyrinth of Ghosts Remembering the fates of all previous explorers of the labyrinth. |
WI

138
| Example Big Sky Country Allowing the player to continue play after a fatal accident, but penalizing him by scattering his possessions around the game map. |
WI

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