![]() | Chapter 8: Change | ![]() ![]() |
8.9. Moving the player |
The player is a thing, too, and can also be moved, which has the effect of instantaneous transportation, without the need for a suitable map connection to the new location. For instance:
move the player to the Bodleian Library
This will ordinarily result in a room description of the Bodleian Library being printed up, but that might not always be desirable. For instance:
Instead of waiting in the Schola Maleficorum: say "A bored demon catches your eye (they really do have very inquisitive fingers) and throws you back out into the Antechamber."; move the player to the Antechamber, without printing a room description.
Thus tacking on the option "without printing a room description", remembering to add the comma, omits the description which would otherwise be produced. A compromise is to use the option "printing an abbreviated room description": this gives a full description if the player has never been here before, but only a brief one if it is a familiar scene.
We will see further examples of phrase options such as "without printing a room description", which can modify the normal behaviour of phrases, in subsequent chapters.
The player's point of view can also be moved by shifting to another character. Suppose the story features two people, Alice and Bob, and the player at the keyboard is giving commands to Alice, and seeing everything from her point of view. The phrase:
change the player to Bob
switches the perspective so that now Bob is the one controlled by the human player, and it's Bob's point of view which counts. The human being at the keyboard may feel a sense of having jumped abruptly from place to place, but in fact neither Alice nor Bob has moved.
| ![]() ![]() ![]() Multiple player characters who take turns controlling the action. |
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