Grammar:Adjectives & Synonyms

When you describe an object, a player may try referring to that object using any of the words in your description. So for instance let's say you've created an asset named antique chair. And then, you've described it as "an antique Victorian armchair carved of supple walnut and upholstered with purple embroidery". Now, though you might want players to refer to it as "antique chair", they're just as likely to use any of the other words in your description, and they'll likely be frustrated if those words don't work. The solution is to add adjectives and synonyms to your asset definition. You can use as many adjectives and synonyms as you like. (Though, if you had multiple chairs, you might run into issues of disambiguation. We'll discuss that elsewhere.) Here's how you might define your antique chair.

In this first example, let's say that we haven't defined any adjectives or synonyms.

MyGame.createAsset({
  class: "Chair",
  name: "antique chair",
  place: "Sitting Room",
  indefinite_article: "an",
  description:
    "It's an antique Victorian armchair carved of supple walnut and upholstered with purple embroidery.",
  synonyms: [],
  adjectives: [],
});

And here's what happens if a player tries to use any of the words in your description.

You can see an antique chair here. > examine antique chair It's an antique Victorian armchair carved of supple walnut and upholstered with purple embroidery. > x carved chair I don't know the word carved. > x embroidery There doesn't appear to be any embroidery present.

Frustrating, right? To address that, we'll add all the adjectives and synonyms.

MyGame.createAsset({
  class: "Chair",
  name: "antique chair",
  place: "Sitting Room",
  indefinite_article: "an",
  description:
    "It's an antique Victorian armchair carved of supple walnut and upholstered with purple embroidery.",
  synonyms: ["armchair", "embroidery", "upholstery"],
  adjectives: [
    "walnut",
    "victorian",
    "antique",
    "purple",
    "embroidered",
    "upholstered",
    "supple",
    "carved",
  ],
});

You can see an antique chair here. > examine chair It's an antique Victorian armchair carved of supple walnut and upholstered with purple embroidery. > x supple walnut It's an antique Victorian armchair carved of supple walnut and upholstered with purple embroidery. > x embroidery It's an antique Victorian armchair carved of supple walnut and upholstered with purple embroidery. > x purple uphostery It's an antique Victorian armchair carved of supple walnut and upholstered with purple embroidery.

This way, the player doesn't get punished with frustrating error messages for using the descriptive words. If it seems a little dull getting back the same description for every word – well, you can always make separate objects, say for the upholstery or the carvings in the wood.