10.9. Heat

| Chapter 10: Physics: Substances, Ropes, Energy and Weight |

| 10.9. Heat

Since we prefer not to simulate burnt skin, and it is unsporting to kill a player outright merely for touching a hot object, heat is mostly used as a reason why something cannot be picked up at a given moment. This very basic puzzle is demonstrated in Grilling.

With the naked eye, it is not always easy to detect what is too hot to touch - a point made in both Masochism Deli, where the only solution is to keep picking up potatoes until one doesn't burn, and in Hot Glass Looks Like Cold Glass, where infrared goggles turn the scales.

If a hot object is not to be touched, will it stay hot forever? It might well, if it is a steak on an electric grill, but not if it is a recently-baked apple pie sitting on a window-sill. Entropy simulates the gradual return of temperature to equilibrium.

See Electricity and Magnetism for items which shouldn't be touched because they are hot in a different way

85
| Example Grilling A grill, from which the player is not allowed to take anything lest he burn himself. |
WI

315
| Example Masochism Deli Multiple potatoes, with rules to make the player drop the hot potato first and pick it up last. |
WI

Here the player has several potatoes; we would like to make him more likely to drop the hot one, and more likely to pick up the cold one, all else being equal. At the same time, we want to phrase our rules so that they don't make the player try to take something he's already holding, or drop something he isn't. So: "Masochism Deli" The Masochism Deli is a room. "Recent restructurings of corporate policy restrict the 'lunch hour' to exactly thirty-two minutes, which means that no one has time to go out. Instead, you and your coworkers eat here, in the company's very own themed lunch room." The plural of potato is potatoes. A potato is a kind of thing. A potato is edible. Temperature is a kind of value. The temperatures are hot and cold. A potato has a temperature. A potato is usually cold. Understand the temperature property as describing a potato. Before printing the name of a potato (called subject): say "[temperature of subject] ". Before printing the plural name of a potato (called subject): say "[temperature of subject] ". Does the player mean dropping a hot potato which is carried by the player: it is very likely. Does the player mean taking a cold potato which is not carried by the player: it is very likely. The player carries three potatoes. After dropping a hot potato: say "The guy from Cube B sneers at your lack of potato-holding stamina." When play begins: now a random potato is hot. Test me with "inventory / drop potato / g / g / get potato / g / i / get potato".

318
| Example Hot Glass Looks Like Cold Glass Responding to references to a property that the player isn't yet allowed to mention (or when not to use "understand as a mistake"). |
WI

182
| Example Entropy All objects in the game have a heat, but if not kept insulated they will tend toward room temperature (and at a somewhat exaggerated rate). |
WI

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