Uptown Girls
Example 132
★★★Suppose we have an urban space we want to populate with random passers-by. These should have a range of characteristics and not always be described in the same way; and once the player has noticed one, he should be able to look at her further, until another pedestrian crosses his path.
"Uptown Girls"
Riverside Drive is a room. "There's a pleasant late-afternoon view of the Hudson, and a snap in the air, and you would rather be here than anywhere."
Instead of going a direction, say "Oh, you know where you're going; no need to deviate from the usual path."
Instead of waiting, say "You stroll along enjoying the November crispness."
It gets a little annoying to have a random event occurring every single turn of play, so let's introduce some randomness to determine how often the message appears:
Every turn when a random chance of 1 in 3 succeeds:
reset passerby;
choose a random row in the Table of Atmospheric Events;
say "[event entry][paragraph break]"
Table of Atmospheric Events
| event |
| "Slowly [a passerby] strolls by, turning to look at you as she passes." |
| "Some [passerby] nearly bumps into you." |
| "You dodge to avoid [a passerby]." |
| "You weave around [a passerby], who has stalled to look into a window." |
| "There's a ruckus as one of the ubiquitous taxis nearly collides with [a passerby] crossing the street." |
| "[The passerby] beside you waves to a friend across the street." |
| "To your left, [a passerby] drops her purse, and swears as she retrieves it." |
Hair color is a kind of value. A person has hair color. the hair colors are red-headed, brunette, blonde.
Height is a kind of value. A person has height. The heights are tall, medium-height, short.
Grooming is a kind of value. A person has grooming. The groomings are messy and tidy.
To reset passerby:
now the hair color of the passerby is a random hair color;
now the height of the passerby is a random height;
now the grooming of the passerby is a random grooming.
The passerby is a woman in Riverside Drive. The passerby is scenery. Understand "woman" or "lady" as the passerby. The printed name of the passerby is "[one of]woman[or]lady[purely at random]".
At this point we borrow some techniques from later to describe the woman with a random combination of characteristics, and to let the player refer to her by those traits:
Before printing the name of the passerby:
if a random chance of 1 in 4 succeeds, say "[height] ";
if a random chance of 1 in 4 succeeds, say "[grooming] ";
if a random chance of 1 in 4 succeeds, say "[hair color] ".
Understand the hair color property as describing the passerby. Understand the height property as describing the passerby. Understand the grooming property as describing the passerby.
If we also wanted each of those combinations to mean some more specifically-described woman:
Instead of examining a passerby:
repeat through Table of Passerby Descriptions:
if hair entry is the hair color of the passerby and height entry is the height of the passerby and grooming entry is the grooming of the passerby, say "[description entry][paragraph break]".
Table of Passerby Descriptions
| hair | height | grooming | description |
| red-headed | tall | messy | "An older woman with long red hippie-hair poking out of a ponytail in straggles, and bent to hide how tall she is." |
| red-headed | medium-height | messy | "A shaggy red-head with shingled hair." |
| red-headed | short | messy | "Almost an urchin, and very young, with ginger hair and a smudged nose and far too many freckles." |
| red-headed | tall | tidy | "A precise career woman with henna-red hair." |
| red-headed | medium-height | tidy | "Her hair is red in the way that lollipops and fire trucks are red: not by nature but by art. The rest of her clothing is pretty ordinary, though." |
| red-headed | short | tidy | "Thin and small in every sense, with chin-length red-hair. Even high heels do not bring her head much above your shoulder." |
| brunette | tall | messy | "A Juno-esque woman with dark hair, wearing something resembling a tent." |
| brunette | medium-height | messy | "An unremarkable woman with dark brown hair and the aura of needing a wash." |
| brunette | short | messy | "There are mustard stains on the t-shirt of this short brown-haired woman. Estimated age ca. 40. Possibly homeless." |
| brunette | tall | tidy | "A leggy brunette in business attire." |
| brunette | medium-height | tidy | "Medium-height, brown-haired, generally nondescript." |
| brunette | short | tidy | "A neat little dark-haired girl." |
| blonde | tall | messy | "A tall blonde of about thirteen who looks as though she has not yet figured out how to get her wardrobe to catch up with her rate of growth. Her t-shirt and her pants are too short." |
| blonde | medium-height | messy | "Black leather pants and the wall-o-hair look." |
| blonde | short | messy | "One of those shocking platinum blonde types, with a tiger-patterned skirt. Reeally trashy." |
| blonde | tall | tidy | "Elfin and severe, with perfectly straight hair falling to the middle of the back." |
| blonde | medium-height | tidy | "A rounded, Marilyn-esque blonde." |
| blonde | short | tidy | "Pin-precise in a blue-and-white striped suit and a boyish haircut." |
Test me with "z / z / x passerby / z / z / x passerby".
Test me with "z / z / x passerby / z / z / x passerby".
Riverside Drive
There's a pleasant late-afternoon view of the Hudson, and a snap in the air, and you would rather be here than anywhere.
>(Testing.)
>[1] z
You stroll along enjoying the November crispness.
>[2] z
You stroll along enjoying the November crispness.
>[3] x passerby
An older woman with long red hippie-hair poking out of a ponytail in straggles, and bent to hide how tall she is.
There's a ruckus as one of the ubiquitous taxis nearly collides with a tidy lady crossing the street.
>[4] z
You stroll along enjoying the November crispness.
>[5] z
You stroll along enjoying the November crispness.
You weave around a short messy blonde lady, who has stalled to look into a window.
>[6] x passerby
One of those shocking platinum blonde types, with a tiger-patterned skirt. Reeally trashy.
There's a pleasant late-afternoon view of the Hudson, and a snap in the air, and you would rather be here than anywhere.
>(Testing.)
>[1] z
You stroll along enjoying the November crispness.
>[2] z
You stroll along enjoying the November crispness.
>[3] x passerby
An older woman with long red hippie-hair poking out of a ponytail in straggles, and bent to hide how tall she is.
There's a ruckus as one of the ubiquitous taxis nearly collides with a tidy lady crossing the street.
>[4] z
You stroll along enjoying the November crispness.
>[5] z
You stroll along enjoying the November crispness.
You weave around a short messy blonde lady, who has stalled to look into a window.
>[6] x passerby
One of those shocking platinum blonde types, with a tiger-patterned skirt. Reeally trashy.