Simple way to paralyze the player?

Is there a simple way to paralyze the player? I.E. they can look and examine but nothing else?

First thought: make a scene called “Paralyzed” and use code instead of doing anything except looking or examining while Paralyzed is happening...

There are likely different ways depending on exactly what you want to accomplish.

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That works for me, didn’t occur to me to make a scene.

Thank you!

You can also replace that conditional with anything you like.

Instead of doing anything except looking or examining when the Flux Incapacitor is switched on:

Note that this will not affect out-of-world actions, which don’t use the Instead rulebook. This is usually what you want: even if the narrator is paralyzed, the player should still be able to RESTORE or TRANSCRIPT ON.

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Quick note from someone who’s paralyzed many a player: You need to decide if “taking inventory” should be in the code @HanonO and @Draconis are referring to. Basically, should a paralyzed player be allowed to check inventory? There are other actions to consider as well, I think. Just saying, be thorough.

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WAIT is another natural one to allow. :)

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One trick I’ve used before:

To decide whether the player needs to touch something:
    if the noun is not nothing and the action requires a touchable noun, yes;
    if the second noun is not nothing and the action requires a touchable second noun, yes;
    no.

A variation on this is used in Scroll Thief to automatically block all actions that would involve e.g. touching the stars (TOUCH STARS, TASTE STARS, GET STARS, TURN STARS, UNLOCK ME WITH STARS, etc).

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I’d note that Inform has it’s own ideas, some of which seem odd to me, about which actions require a touchable noun. Listening to something does, for example. So do the various conversation actions.

edit… (Sorry, I didn’t notice this thread was 6 months old.)

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