17.25. Choosing notable locale objects for something

| Chapter 17: Activities |

| 17.25. Choosing notable locale objects for something

1. When it happens. See "printing the locale description". This activity is expected to decide which items ought to be mentioned in a locale description for a given room, enterable container or enterable supporter, and to give each item a priority, which is a number ranging upwards from 1 (which is the top priority). The lower the priority number, the earlier the mention, or at least, the earlier the opportunity to be mentioned: it's up to other activities whether to give it a paragraph of its own or not. This activity only makes something a candidate, and decides what order the candidates will be tried in.

2. The default behaviour. By default, this activity contains only the "standard notable locale objects rule". This chooses exactly those items directly contained by the locale, assigning all of them priority 5. Note that this includes scenery, and other probably unwanted items - those will be excluded later.

3. Examples. (a) In the Misty Moorlands, only large items on the ground are visible through the mist:

> A thing can be large or small. A thing is usually small. The stepladder is a large thing in the Misty Moorlands.

> Rule for choosing notable locale objects for the Misty Moorlands:
> repeat with item running through large things in the Misty Moorlands:
> set the locale priority of the item to 5.

> Report taking a small thing in the Misty Moorlands:
> say "You grope blindly in the mist and pick up [the noun]." instead.

Note the special phrase

> set the locale priority of the item to 5;

which should be used only in rules for locale activities. It makes the given item a candidate and sets its priority. (Setting the priority to 0 forces an item not to be a candidate, and can thus undo the effect of previous rules.)

345
| Example Low Light An object that is only visible and manipulable when a bright light fixture is on. |
RB

346
| Example Casino Banale Creating room descriptions and object descriptions that change as the player learns new facts and pieces things together. |
RB

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