§17.15. Understanding things by their properties
Items are ordinarily understood only by their original given names. For instance, if we have:
In the Herb Garden is a china pot.
then the player could refer to this as "pot", "china pot" or "china". We can embellish this by adding extra forms:
Understand "chinese pot" or "chinese vase" as the china pot.
But suppose the pot changes its nature in the course of play? If we have:
The china pot can be unbroken or broken. The china pot is unbroken.
After dropping the china pot:
say "Crack!";
now the china pot is broken;
now the printed name of the pot is "broken pot".
So now the player would reasonably expect to call it "broken pot", a wording which would have been rejected before. We can achieve this by writing:
Understand the unbroken property as describing the pot.
which allows "unbroken" or "broken" to describe the pot, depending on its state. And, since the player might well use a different adjective but with the same idea in mind, we can even add:
Understand "shattered" or "cracked" or "smashed" as broken. Understand "pristine" as unbroken.
This is something of a toy example, but the feature looks rather more useful when there are more pots than just one:
"Terracotta"
A flowerpot is a kind of thing. A flowerpot can be unbroken or broken. Understand the broken property as describing a flowerpot.
After dropping an unbroken flowerpot:
say "Crack!";
now the noun is broken;
now the printed name of the noun is "broken flowerpot";
now the printed plural name of the noun is "broken flowerpots".
The Herb Garden is a room. In the Herb Garden are ten unbroken flowerpots.
We then have the dialogue:
Herb Garden
You can see ten flowerpots here.
>get two flowerpots
flowerpot: Taken.
flowerpot: Taken.
>drop all
flowerpot: Crack!
flowerpot: Crack!
>look
Herb Garden
You can see two broken flowerpots and eight flowerpots here.
>get an unbroken flowerpot
Taken.
and so on and so forth.
There are in fact two slightly different forms of this kind of sentence:
Understand the broken property as describing a flowerpot.
Understand the broken property as referring to a flowerpot.
The only difference is that in the "describing" case, the property's name alone can mean the thing in question - so "take unbroken" will work; whereas, in the "referring to", the property's name can only be used as an adjective preceding the name of thing itself - so "take unbroken flowerpot" will work but "take unbroken" will not.
"Hymenaeus"
A torch is kind of thing. Understand the lit property as describing a torch. Understand "lighted" or "flaming" or "burning" as lit. Understand "extinguished" as unlit. A torch is usually lit.
Before printing the name of a lit torch, say "flaming ".
Before printing the name of an unlit torch, say "extinguished ".
The Wedding Procession is a room.
Orpheus is a man in the Wedding Procession. Orpheus carries a torch.
Eurydice is a woman in the Wedding Procession. Eurydice carries a torch.
Rule for writing a paragraph about someone (called target):
say "[The target] carries [a list of things carried by the target]."
Every turn:
if a random chance of 1 in 2 succeeds and a torch is lit:
let target torch be a random lit torch;
now the target torch is unlit;
say "Aquilo blows down from the north, extinguishing the torch carried by [the holder of the target torch]."
Instead of examining a lit torch:
say "It casts a bright glow over [the holder of the noun]."
Instead of examining an unlit torch:
say "[The holder of the noun] is looking at it disconsolately, obviously worried about the omens."
Test me with "z / z / z / look / x flaming torch / x extinguished torch".
| ExampleHymenaeus Understanding "flaming torch" and "extinguished torch" to refer to torches when lit and unlit.
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"Hymenaeus"
A torch is kind of thing. Understand the lit property as describing a torch. Understand "lighted" or "flaming" or "burning" as lit. Understand "extinguished" as unlit. A torch is usually lit.
Before printing the name of a lit torch, say "flaming ".
Before printing the name of an unlit torch, say "extinguished ".
The Wedding Procession is a room.
Orpheus is a man in the Wedding Procession. Orpheus carries a torch.
Eurydice is a woman in the Wedding Procession. Eurydice carries a torch.
Rule for writing a paragraph about someone (called target):
say "[The target] carries [a list of things carried by the target]."
Every turn:
if a random chance of 1 in 2 succeeds and a torch is lit:
let target torch be a random lit torch;
now the target torch is unlit;
say "Aquilo blows down from the north, extinguishing the torch carried by [the holder of the target torch]."
Instead of examining a lit torch:
say "It casts a bright glow over [the holder of the noun]."
Instead of examining an unlit torch:
say "[The holder of the noun] is looking at it disconsolately, obviously worried about the omens."
Test me with "z / z / z / look / x flaming torch / x extinguished torch".
"Hymenaeus"
A torch is kind of thing. Understand the lit property as describing a torch. Understand "lighted" or "flaming" or "burning" as lit. Understand "extinguished" as unlit. A torch is usually lit.
Before printing the name of a lit torch, say "flaming ".
Before printing the name of an unlit torch, say "extinguished ".
The Wedding Procession is a room.
Orpheus is a man in the Wedding Procession. Orpheus carries a torch.
Eurydice is a woman in the Wedding Procession. Eurydice carries a torch.
Rule for writing a paragraph about someone (called target):
say "[The target] carries [a list of things carried by the target]."
Every turn:
if a random chance of 1 in 2 succeeds and a torch is lit:
let target torch be a random lit torch;
now the target torch is unlit;
say "Aquilo blows down from the north, extinguishing the torch carried by [the holder of the target torch]."
Instead of examining a lit torch:
say "It casts a bright glow over [the holder of the noun]."
Instead of examining an unlit torch:
say "[The holder of the noun] is looking at it disconsolately, obviously worried about the omens."
Test me with "z / z / z / look / x flaming torch / x extinguished torch".
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| ExampleAspect Understanding aspect ratios (a unit) in the names of televisions.
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|  ExampleTerracottissima The flowerpots once again, but this time arranged so that after the first breakage all undamaged pots are said to be "unbroken", to distinguish them from the others.
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|  ExamplePeers The peers of the English realm come in six flavours - Baron, Viscount, Earl, Marquess, Duke and Prince - and must always be addressed properly. While a peerage is for life, it may at the royal pleasure be promoted.
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