4.3. Event Scheduling

| Chapter 4: Time and Plot |

| 4.3. Event Scheduling

We can use a schedule of events to give some life to our environment: if we have a town setting, for instance, it makes sense for shops and libraries to open and close at set times; this is just what we find in IPA.

Air Conditioning Is Standard has characters who follow a timed schedule of events to interact with each other, while the player mostly wanders around missing out on the action. (Sometimes life is like that.) The same effects could have been achieved with scenes instead of clock times, but there are occasions when we do want to plan our characters' behavior to the minute rather than waiting for the player to be in the right place to observe it: in a murder mystery or a time-travel story, the exact timings might be quite significant.

We may also want to add events to the schedule during play, as in

> Instead of pushing the egg-timer: say "It begins to mark time."; the egg-timer clucks in four turns from now.

> At the time when the egg-timer clucks: say "Cluck! Cluck! Cluck! says the egg-timer."

Similarly, we can schedule things during play to happen at a specific time of day, as shown in Hour of the Wren.

See Scene Changes for more things that arrive at pre-determined times

See Ships, Trains and Elevators for a train that follows a schedule, carrying the player along if he is aboard

141
| Example IPA Shops which each have opening and closing hours, so that it is impossible to go in at the wrong times, and the player is kicked out if he overstays his welcome. |
WI

Suppose we wanted a game set in a living town, with locations opening and closing at different times of day, and business carrying on as usual. The point might be to force the player to plan his itinerary carefully to hit the right spots at the right times; or we might be writing a more contemplative piece, where part of the enjoyment came from just watching the characters wander around doing their daily business... "IPA" When play begins: now the right hand status line is "[time of day]". The time of day is 9:50 AM. A shop is a kind of room. A shop has a time called the opening hour. The opening hour of the shop is usually 8 AM. A shop has a time called the closing hour. A shop usually has closing hour 6 PM. Check going to a shop (called the target): if the time of day is before the opening hour of the target, say "[The target] is locked up until [the opening hour of the target]." instead. Check going to a shop (called the target): if the time of day is after the closing hour of the target, say "[The target] has been closed since [the closing hour of the target]." instead. Every turn when the location is a shop: let deadline be the closing hour of the location; if the deadline is before the time of day: let target be a random adjacent room which is not a shop; say "You are gently but firmly ushered out, since [the location] is closing."; move the player to the target. The Strip-mall Parking Lot is a room. "Dead Christmas trees are heaped outside the bagel shop. Strips of dirty ice survive along the curb, and in the shadows of the lamp-posts. A wet, almost illegible sheet of algebra homework is plastered to the asphalt. Pinewood Brewing Supply is at the east end of the lot." Pinewood Brewing Supply is a shop. It is east of Parking Lot. The opening hour of Pinewood Brewing Supply is 10:00 AM. The closing hour of Pinewood Brewing Supply is 3:30 PM. "Shelves and shelves of malt and hops; large glass carboys, and plastic tubing; empty bottles; bottle-caps; bottle-labeling kits; starters for vinegar, sourdough, root beer. A sweet malty smell hangs in the air." Instead of going to Brewing Supply when the time of day is before the opening hour of Brewing Supply for the second time: say "You rattle at the door again. 'Hold your horses, for crying out loud,' yells a voice from within." Noah's Bagels is a shop. It is north of the Parking Lot. The opening hour of Noah's Bagels is 6:00 AM. The closing hour of Noah's Bagels is 11:00 AM. "The selection has been somewhat picked over, leaving you with your choice of Pumpernickel, Asiago, or Everything." Test me with "e / e / n / z / s / e / z / e / z / z / e".

340
| Example Air Conditioning is Standard Uses "writing a paragraph about" to make person and object descriptions that vary considerably depending on what else is going on in the room, including some randomized NPC interactions with objects or with each other. |
WI

146
| Example Hour of the Wren Allowing the player to make an appointment, which is then kept. |
WI

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