6.5. Examining

| Chapter 6: Commands |

| 6.5. Examining

By default, examining an object shows its description, and - for devices - tells us whether the object is switched on or switched off.

This kind of additional information is not always what we want, so if we have a device whose on/off status we want to conceal, we may write

> The examine described devices rule is not listed in any rulebook.

On the other hand, there are times when we may want to add a similar line or two to the descriptions of other kinds of objects. Waxwork shows how to make containers and supporters automatically list everything they're holding when examined, while Crusoe allows us to append an "It is charred." sentence to the end of descriptions of things we have burned in the fire. Since it works by introducing a "printing the description" activity, Crusoe is also a good example to start from if we want to introduce more complex, flexible descriptions of items throughout our game.

Odin rewrites the "You see nothing special..." line with other text of our own, for items that otherwise do not have a description.

Finally, we may want to look at multiple things at once. The Left Hand of Autumn demonstrates how we might provide a different response for EXAMINE PAINTINGS than for examining each individually; Beekeeper's Apprentice provides a SEARCH command that will show the descriptions of all the scenery in the current location.

See Actions on Multiple Objects for an alternative EXAMINE ALL command

323
| Example Crusoe Adding a "printing the description of something" activity. |
WI

43
| Example Odin Replacing "You see nothing special..." with a different default message for looking at something nondescript. |
WI

In recent years there has been a strong trend towards providing unique descriptions for all implemented objects. Often this is a good idea, but there are also contexts in which we may want to discourage the player from looking too closely at some things and concentrate his attention on just a few interesting ones. The trick here is that leaving items completely undescribed leads to rather dull exchanges like this: >x table You see nothing special about the table. ...which can leave the player with the impression that the author was simply too lazy to describe everything. So it can be a good idea to replace that default message with a different one more appropriate to the game. For instance: "Odin" The House of a Mortal Farmer is a room. "Having two separate rooms, this house testifies to considerable wealth and success at agriculture." The Bedroom is inside from the House. A chair is a kind of supporter. A chair is always enterable. In the House are a table, two chairs, a basket, and a hearth. On the table is a loaf of bread. The description of a thing is usually "You give [the noun] a glance, but it is plainly beneath your attention." Because the description is attached to a whole kind ("thing"), it is really a blanket instruction about many objects at once. More specific instructions always override less specific ones, so we can easily make exceptions. For instance, the following will work correctly: The infant is a man in the basket. The description of the infant is "So strong and fat that you wonder whether one of your fellow gods is acquainted with the mistress of the house-- but it's no concern of yours, of course." Test me with "x table / x chair / x infant".

284
| Example The Left Hand of Autumn The possibility of using a [things] token opens up some interesting complications, because we may want actions on multiple items to be reported differently from actions on just one. Here we look at how to make a multiple examination command that describes groups in special ways. |
WI

68
| Example Beekeeper's Apprentice Making the SEARCH command examine all the scenery in the current location. |
WI

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