10.7. Multiple beginnings and repeats

| Chapter 10: Scenes |

| 10.7. Multiple beginnings and repeats

It is quite allowed for a scene to be linked to several other scenes, and this is useful if several alternate strands of plot are being brought together in a common resolution scene:

> Bittersweet Ending begins when Stranger's Rejection ends.
> Bittersweet Ending begins when Stranger's Acceptance ends.

and we can also have the same scene beginning when a condition holds. In general, it will begin the first time it gets any chance to do so.

All scenes are ordinarily set up so that they can happen only once. But sometimes we want them to repeat. Suppose the train calls not once only, but every twenty minutes. We could set this up with two scenes linked back to back like so:

> Train Stop is a recurring scene. Train Wait is a recurring scene.
> Train Wait begins when play begins.
> Train Stop begins when Train Wait ends.
> Train Wait begins when Train Stop ends.

The difference here is that these scenes have been declared as "recurring". In all other respects they are the same as any other scene.

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| 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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Suppose we want to have a sequence of nights and days in our game, with one scene to govern each daylight condition. "Night and Day" The sun is a backdrop. It is everywhere. The description is "Currently out of sight." Night is a recurring scene. Night begins when play begins. Night begins when Dusk ends. Night ends when the time since Night began is 3 minutes. Notice that our two conditions for the beginning of Night are not in conflict: it will be night-time when the game begins, and then night will also recur every time the Dusk scene ends. When Night begins: say "The sun falls below the horizon and the temperature drops abruptly to well below zero."; now the description of the sun is "Currently out of sight." Dawn is a recurring scene. Dawn begins when Night ends. Dawn ends when the time since Dawn began is 1 minute. When Dawn begins: say "The sun appears on the horizon."; now the description of the sun is "It is tiny and weak.". Day is a recurring scene. Day begins when Dawn ends. Day ends when the time since Day began is 3 minutes. When Day begins: say "The sun is now properly up." Dusk is a recurring scene. Dusk begins when Day ends. Dusk ends when the time since Dusk began is 1 minute. When Dusk begins: say "The sun has passed across the sky and is on the verge of setting." Cratered Landscape is a room. "The ground here is [if Night is happening]dim silver, with the craters visible as darker splotches[otherwise]the color of dried blood; here and there it is also rippled by impact craters[end if]. The horizon curves visibly." Test me with "z / z / z / look / x sun / z / z / z / z / z / z / z". If we run this example and then have a look at the scenes index, we'll see that the cycle is listed through thus: Night (recurring) Dawn (recurring) Day (recurring) Dusk (recurring) Night with the second "Night" in italics, to indicate that it is a repetition of the same scene that has already been listed above.

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| Example Pine 3 Pine: Allowing the player to visit aspects of the past in memory and describe these events to the princess, as a break from the marriage-proposal scene. |
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