Adding a separate line for lists in room desc [solved]

Hello all,

I want to have all the NPCs listed in a separate line in the room description, so I can give them actions. Example:

I saw an example once for something similar, but I can’t think of what keyword to search on. How do I get a separate line in room descriptions, preferably before listing contents, where I can call out NPCs, and give them bonus text? Corollary: How do I remove NPCs from the list of room contents?

This might seem like a newbie answer, but it seems like you’re asking for phrases like this:

Say "Some text.[line break]Some more text on a new line.[paragraph break]Yet more text in a new paragraph (two lines down).".

Also, I guess that you can probably declare “Now Marcy Darcy is mentioned.” to unlist them, or saying that they’re “not marked for listing”.

…but when it comes specifically to mentioning what they do, you might look into “reporting” what they do, as in:

Report an actor taking the vase:
Say "Some guy has nicked the vase!".

That should make their actions list in their own paragraph.

I was probably not clear in my initial statement.

By default, NPCs are listed in with the items. I want to have them pulled out into a separate line.

IE:

I am guessing this has to involve messing with the rules for listing the contents of a room.

In addition to that, I want to replace the default text for listing NPCs.

I could just add that to the room description and cut them from content listing, but I would prefer a more robust solution so the NPCs can wander.

Look at chapter 17.22 (the “writing a paragraph about…” activity) and its examples.

Try these things:

Rule for writing a paragraph about Darcy:
   Say "You can see Darcy here.";
   Now Darcy is mentioned.

Rule for writing a paragraph about a person (called the NPC):
   Say "You can see [the NPC] here.";
   Now the NPC is mentioned.

Rule for writing a paragraph about a dancing person (called the NPC):
   Say "You can see [the NPC] dancing with wild abandon.";
   Now the NPC is mentioned.

However, I don’t know how to group several NPCs together in one separate listing, without “messing with the rules”, because that’s changing the standard format.

Exactly what I needed! Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

The “rule for writing a paragraph about” does this; if your rule for writing a paragraph about Nancy also mentions Jared, then neither Nancy nor Jared will appear in the “You can also see” listing. See the bit of the documentation zarf linked.

Yes, but he seemed to mean writing an automated section. …but later I figured it could be done with “Repeat with NPC through every person in the location:” lines, so you don’t need to change rules for that.