Reply if topic entry not found in table

How do I get my NPC to reply when asked about something if that something is not in the table? I would like the recipient of the question to look puzzled, or say “What?”. etc. I can’t find a phrase that responds to a missing topic entry.

After asking Barak about a topic listed in the Table of Briefing Answers:
	say "[answer entry].";	

Instead of asking Barak about nothing listed in the Table of Briefing Answers:
	say " 'What?' ";
 
Table of Briefing Answers
Topic	Answer
"room/inn/stables"	"Don't worry about it. It's been taken care of for you"  
"morning" or "leaving"	"At dawn, right after breakfast. You have a busy day ahead of you"
"breakfast/food"	"Probably not as good as this. I'll see what Bork can whip up"
"bork/bartender"	"Bork owns the Inn. He has served the king faithfully for years"
"chapel" 	"[description of chapel_answer]"  
"Cuthberts" 	"[description of cuthberts_answer]"  
"Triskelion/weapon"	"[description of Triskelion_answer]"
"team" or "former team"	"[description of team_answer]"
"previous team"	"[description of team_answer]"

When I try following code:

Instead of asking Barak about something not listed in the Table of Briefing Answers, say "What?".

I get:
Problem. You wrote ‘Instead of asking Barak about something not listed in the Table fo Briefing Answers’ , which seems to introduce a rule taking effect only if the action is ‘asking Barak about something not listed in the Table fo Briefing Answers’. But that did not make sense as a description of an action. I am unable to place this rule into any rulebook.
I have tried to catch various errors and report a reply, but I get a compile error. The rule that is fired last is the Block Asking rule.

Any suggestions?

1 Like

How about the following?

Instead of asking Barak about a snippet when the topic understood is not a topic listed in the Table of Briefing Answers:
    ...

Otisdog,
I will have to try that. I got it to work just now with the following:

Instead of asking Barak about a topic listed in the Table of Briefing Answers:
	say "[answer entry][line break]";

Instead of asking Barak about a topic,
		say "[one of]'What?'[or]He gives you a puzzled expression.[or]He looks at you in puzzlement.[or]He looks at you curiously and says, 'Have you had too much to drink?'[or]'Huh?'[at random]".

I think it works because the ‘can’t find’ case is more generic than the topic in the table.

1 Like

Correct.

1 Like