Forcing specific person to verb token?

Authoring Inform 7
1

I am currently experimenting with text substitutions—or rather "[We] [are] [now] experimenting with text substitutions" :slight_smile: I use [verb] tokens, leaving the person and tense open, to define globally, as in:

When play begins: now the story viewpoint is third person singular.

I get the cases where the [verb] follows and refers to a specific [noun], which defines its person, but I don’t know how to handle cases where there is no noun, as in:

The Kitchen is a room.

The blood is fixed in place in the Kitchen. The description of the blood is "The blood; the endless, omnipresent blood! [The location] [reek] of it. Your keen senses [revolt]."

To reek is a verb. To revolt is a verb.

which produces:

I understand that [reek] becomes “reeks” because of [the location] being singular. I also understand that [revolt] also refers to the last object mentioned, the location again.

So, the question is, how can I force a third person plural to the token [reek]?

I know I can force a different tense by using the token “[adapt the verb whatever in the past tense]” but I don’t know how to adapt the verb in a specific person.

BONUS QUESTION: I wonder how [reek] would have worked for a room called The Niagara Falls; is there a way to say that a room name is plural?

Thanks in advance.

2

You can force a plural like this:

Say "Your keen senses [regarding 2][revolt]."

Or perhaps more aesthetically,

To say plural: say "[regarding 2]".

Say "Your keen senses [plural][revolt]."

You can declare rooms to be plural-named just like any other thing.

1 Like
3

Wow!

Where do you even find this piece of information?!?

Thanks!

4

Agreement with a number is mentioned in 14.5 of Writing with Inform.

To check that rooms can be plural-named (as I was pretty sure they could be), I just tried it out:

Niagara Falls is a plural-named room. "[Niagara Falls] [are] here."
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Double post deleted

6

Oh, I see! You are referring to this example:

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Yes, that’s what I meant.

8

For what is worth, it is actually possible to adapt a verb in a specific person with [adapt the verb revolt from the third person plural].

It is described just above the one for adapting in a specific tense, in the “Verbs as values” chapter of the documentation.

9

So, it’s adapt “in the X tense,” but “from the Y person.” OK, that’s why it didn’t work for me.