3.9. Passers-By, Weather and Astronomical Events

| Chapter 3: Place |

| 3.9. Passers-By, Weather and Astronomical Events

Out of doors, nature is seldom still. Clouds scull by at random, as in Weathering, and provide some variety in what would otherwise be lifelessly static room descriptions. In much the same way, passers-by and other diversions make a city street a constant bustle: see Uptown Girls for this human breeze. A more nagging sense of atmosphere can be experienced in Full Moon.

Orange Cones offers traffic that is present on every road in the game unless a room is marked off with orange cones -- and this is allowed to change during play.

Night and Day and Totality each schedule celestial events to provide a changing display in the sky above, and this time running like clockwork rather than at random.

See Scene Changes for meteors and a moon-rise

131
| Example Weathering The automatic weather station atop Mt. Pisgah shows randomly fluctuating temperature, pressure and cloud cover. |
WI

132
| Example Uptown Girls A stream of random pedestrians who go by the player. |
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157
| Example Full Moon Random atmospheric events which last the duration of a scene. |
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"Full Moon" Wolf Pursuit is a scene. Wolf Pursuit begins when play begins. Every turn during Wolf Pursuit, say "[one of]A twig snaps behind you![or]The wind howls in your ears.[or]You feel chilly.[at random]". When play begins: say "You have lost your spectacles, and the lamp, and can see barely further than the next tree. Roots keep trying to trip you, too..." The Dark Forest is a room. "You are mostly aware that you are not as alone here as you would like, and that the ground is uneven." Test me with "z / z / z / z".

120
| Example Orange Cones Creating a traffic backdrop that appears in all road rooms except the one in which the player has laid down orange cones. |
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164
| Example Night and Day Cycling through a sequence of scenes to represent day and night following one another during a game. |
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144
| Example Totality To schedule an eclipse of the sun, which involves a number of related events. |
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