Documentation

• Section: Compass Hiatus
• Section: Miscellany
• Example: ** Testing Area - A touching story about a lone cattle prod.
• Example: * Lax Security - Forget the keycards. Just ask a coworker to let you in.

Section: Compass Hiatus


The craft of writing holds that if a journey doesn't advance the plot or deepen relationships, the journey should be skipped with a sentence or two. This extension defines the verbs VISIT, ATTEND, GO TO, and FIND in accordance with this writing advice by plucking the character from one location and setting him in another, bypassing the need for cardinal directions. The author may also free herself and her players from geographical concerns altogether by simply not connecting locations together with cardinal directions, and concentrate her efforts on story concerns.

The author can still provide guidance to the player by asserting certain regions of the work as off-limits. Each region has a "gatekeeper", which is either a character whose explicit permission (or temporary invitation) is required, or, is an item the player must be carrying, to enter the region. Individual rooms may be declared "public" so that they may always be entered by the player. For example, outside the entrance to a secure building would typically be public.

Whether a room is public or not may be changed by the author during the game. Changing the gatekeepers is also done directly. (A region is public when its gatekeeper is "nothing".) Invitations and permissions however are changed via the actions PERMIT, FORBID, and INVITE. Invitations are temporary, expiring when the invitee leaves the region. Permitting a character grants a permanent invitation, or at least until the gatekeeper forbids the character.
    now the gatekeeper of Dune is Leto Atreides;
    now the courtyard entrance is public;
    try Leto forbidding the Harkonnens from Dune;
    try Leto permitting Paul Atreides to Dune;
    try the Fremen inviting Duncan Idaho to the desert.


These Actions work equally well with PCs and NPCs. PCs can themselves become -- and cease to be -- gatekeepers. For example, if we would allow our player to claim regions as his own:
    Understand "claim [any region]" as claiming.
    Claiming is an action applying to one visible object.
    Carry out claiming: now the gatekeeper of the noun is the actor.
    Report claiming: say "You claim [the noun] for Spain!"


Modifying our player's inventory to list these many new resources is almost certainly in order. We'll need a new rule for each.
    First carry out taking inventory:
        if the number of player-owned regions is not 0, say "You own [list of player-owned regions].";
        otherwise say "You don't own any real estate. Even your apartment is rented."

    First carry out taking inventory:
        repeat through the table of Invitations begin;
            say "[The invitor entry] [if the temporary entry is true]invites[otherwise]permits[end if] [invitee entry][if there is a place entry] to [place entry][otherwise] anywhere[end if].";
        end repeat.

A testing command, "list invitations", is provided. It will list all permissions and invitations currently held by anyone, anywhere.

Each say statement in this extension is in the following amenable table for easy replacement.
    Table P2V - Permission To Visit Messages (amended)
    p2v-message message
    need-not-move "Already here."
    forbidden-to-visit "Actor requires gatekeeper's permission to enter."
    lacks-authority "Actor lacks the authority."
    soft-hiatus " * * * "


Compass directions are still supported, of course. Permissions are checked when moving thus.