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

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| Example Strictly Ballroom People who select partners for dance lessons each turn. |
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342
| Example Happy Hour Listing visible characters as a group, then giving some followup details in the same paragraph about specific ones. |
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Often it is best to have an entire paragraph about the characters present in a room, but suppose we're narrating a large party with a lot of people moving around. In that case, it might be better to list everyone together, then add a few salient details by way of follow-up, like this: "Happy Hour" Before listing nondescript items: say "You can see [a list of people who are marked for listing] here. "; repeat with named party running through people: now the named party is not marked for listing; let count be the number of visible other people who are carrying something; if count is 0: say paragraph break; continue the action; let index be count; repeat with holder running through visible other people who are carrying something: if index is count, say "[The holder]"; otherwise say "[the holder]"; say " has [a list of things carried by the holder]"; decrement index; make delimiter index of count. The next part could be simpler, but for rigor we will write it in such a way that it will work whether or not the serial comma is in use. This requires some extra work; feel free to skip down to the scenario if you prefer. To make delimiter (index - a number) of (count - a number), continuing or halting: if index is 0: if continuing, say ". [run paragraph on]"; otherwise say "."; otherwise if index is 1: if count is 2, say " and "; otherwise say "[optional comma] and "; otherwise: say ", ". To say optional comma: if using the serial comma option, say ","; otherwise do nothing. And now the scene: The Banquet Hall is a room. "A large cheery banner over the door (which, incidentally, vanishes when you approach it) reads: HELLO NEW INDUCTEES! WELCOME TO THE AFTERLIFE!" Fred, George, and Larry are men in the Banquet Hall. Fred carries a dry martini. Larry carries a cream puff. Matilda and Louise are women in the Banquet Hall. Definition: a person is other if it is not the player. Every turn: let wanderer be a random other person; let place be the holder of the wanderer; let next place be a random room adjacent to the place; let the way be the best route from the place to the next place; try the wanderer going the way. The Kitchen is west of the Banquet Hall. "Dominated by a pile of dirty plates which you imagine it will be someone's privilege to wash, later." Vanessa is a woman in the Kitchen. Vanessa carries a tray. On the tray is a salmon roll. The roll is edible. Test me with "z / look / g / g / g ".

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