Barter Barter

Example 207

★★★

Allowing characters other than the player to give objects to one another, accounting for the possibility that some items may not be desired by the intended recipients.

By default, if we make no modifications, telling one player to give something to another will fail, even if persuasion succeeds. This is because the default behavior of the GIVE command is interrupted by the "block giving rule" -- since in many cases we do not want people to exchange objects freely.

However, suppose that we do want characters to be able to exchange articles freely: we allow persuasion to succeed and turn off the "block giving rule".

Play/modify in Borogove

Play in Quixe

"Barter Barter"

The block giving rule is not listed in the check giving it to rules.

A persuasion rule for asking people to try giving: persuasion succeeds.

The Trading Post is a room.

Meriwether Lewis is a man in the Trading Post. He carries a fluffy handmade quilt and a bag of beans. The beans are edible.

William Clark is a man in the Trading Post. He carries leather slippers, a journal, and a loaf of bread. The bread is edible. The slippers are wearable.

Instead of examining someone:

say "[The noun] is carrying [the list of things carried by the noun]."

And now we might want to implement a way to keep track of whether the recipient character wants what's being offered:

Check someone trying giving something to someone (this is the sneering refusal rule):
   if the second noun dislikes the noun, stop the action.
 
Unsuccessful attempt by someone trying doing something:
   if the reason the action failed is the sneering refusal rule, say "'Would you care for [the noun]?' [the person asked] asks solicitously of [the second noun].
 
But [the second noun] refuses [the noun] disdainfully.";
   otherwise say "[The person asked] just appears bewildered by this improbable instruction."
 
Distaste relates one person to various things. The verb to dislike means the distaste relation.
 
Clark dislikes the beans. Lewis dislikes the bread.

Since we've defined this as a relation, we could change what the characters like and dislike during the course of the game, freely; for instance, characters might grow hungry and suddenly like all the edible articles.

Test me with "x lewis / x clark / clark, give the slippers to lewis / clark, give the bread to lewis".

Test me with "x lewis / x clark / clark, give the slippers to lewis / clark, give the bread to lewis".

Trading Post
You can see Meriwether Lewis and William Clark here.

>(Testing.)

>[1] x lewis
Meriwether Lewis is carrying the fluffy handmade quilt and the bag of beans.

>[2] x clark
William Clark is carrying leather slippers, the journal and the loaf of bread.

>[3] clark, give the slippers to lewis
William Clark gives leather slippers to Meriwether Lewis.

>[4] clark, give the bread to lewis
"Would you care for the loaf of bread?" William Clark asks solicitously of Meriwether Lewis.

But Meriwether Lewis refuses the loaf of bread disdainfully.