Enhancing my vocabulary

Authoring General Design Discussions
1

Hi All,

Working on a small game for the One Choice Jam. Due to the nature of the jam, I decided to get rid of most of the standard Inform verbs (I know how you all would love to see “proper responses” to the usual “standard” verbs like KISS, FART, LICK, and all the other usual four-letter-words, as well as the 70+ standard verbs built into Inform.) Sorry @rovarsson, no LICK in this game. Maybe the next one.

Since I am allowed to have only one choice in the game, that automatically implies that everything else will be 100% railroaded, in the sense that at each step only ONE command will be successful, and everything else will be rejected with an error message. To avoid the risk of people trying out ALL the usual verbs at each and every turn, I have decided to severely limit the vocabulary of the PC to keep things under control. Consider it a small experiment in simulating “freedom” in a severely restricted environment if you will.

Now a game which appears very similar to what I am doing (albeit with a LOT more freedom) is Treasures of a Slaver’s Kingdom - Details (ifdb.org). Its HELP command neatly lists the limited vocabulary of the PC which happens to be a Barbarian as well (okay, trying to be original is next to impossible, but the coincidences are piling up quickly here…)

I now have the following short list (trying to find synonyms basically). In the HELP I want to list the most “appropriate” one and add the others as alternatives using the usual understand statements in Inform.

Purpose Inform verbs Barbarian verbs
Go somewhere GO , WALK , RUN GO , MOVE , HEAD , STRIDE , MARCH , JOURNEY
Look at something LOOK LOOK, GAZE, EXAMINE, EYE
Get something GET , TAKE etc SEIZE, GRASP , GRAB , SNATCH
Let go of something DROP , THROW , DISCARD DROP , DISCARD , ABANDON , DITCH
Get the contents of something (GET / TAKE ALL FROM) LOOT, PLUNDER , PILLAGE , ROB , RAID
Give something GIVE GIVE , PRESENT , OFFER , HAND , DONATE
Talk to something (ANSWERING THAT) TALK , SPEAK , PARLEY
Attack something ATTACK , KILL etc ATTACK , STRIKE , SMITE , HACK , SLASH
Use something n/a USE

The Barbarian uses bladed weapons so attack verbs like BASH or CRUSH seem less appropriate.

Not sure if I need the USE verb, but if I do, I would be very much interested in Barbarian alternatives.

For me it is hard to judge if these verbs correctly fulfill the role I am trying to assign them. Also, some categories feel lackluster. Any good places I can go to find alternatives? And verbs which are miscategorized or probably should be dropped altogether? I basically want to go for the “Barbarian vibe” as the game above was trying to do.

Also, I might as well keep the standard Inform7 verbs as well-known alternatives (where applicable) in an attempt to not alienate the in-crowd too much.

Feedback is very much appreciated!

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Hmm, I think my global comment would be that unlike standard Inform best practice, here you might not want to include all those synonyms and just have each action represented by the main verb – for a limited-parser game, it can get confusing if the game seems to accept anything other than the small list of actions the player is specifically told are accepted, and plus, it dilutes the theme to have alternatives available.

Relatedly, I probably wouldn’t have distinct verbs for take vs take from – that distinction can be hard to communicate to players who don’t know a lot about how Inform works (the difference between putting something on a supporter vs. inserting it into a container is also like this). I’d just use the same verb and have different grammar point to different actions if it’s important to keep them distinct on the back end.

As for the specific verbs to choose:

  • GO - I like MARCH, but really, people are just going to type the directions.
  • LOOK – is this LOOK or EXAMINE? You kind of need both, and you really want both able to be abbreviated to one letter. ASSESS could work for LOOK (“a” by itself isn’t already used for anything, right?); EXAMINE is tougher, I’m honestly not coming up with anything better than Treasure’s (R)EGARD.
  • GET - SEIZE works for me, but PLUNDER as a more aggressive approach can be fun too.
  • DROP - maybe RELINQUISH?
  • GIVE - hmm, none of these seem sufficiently Conan-y to me, maybe PROFFER? PRESENT?
  • TALK - CONVERSE with? BANDY WORDS with?
    *ATTACK - I think SMITE has you covered.
  • USE - EMPLOY? EXPLOIT? I tend to shy away from USE, though.
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