Because we're allowing the player to order things that they can't currently see, we need to borrow a special kind of grammar from the Understanding chapter. All our orderable items in this example are toys, so "any toy" means any object of the toy kind, whether or not it is in view at the moment:
if the cost of the noun is greater than the price of the player, say "You only have [price of the player], while [the noun] would cost [cost of the noun]." instead.
Carry out ordering:
move the noun to the player;
decrease the price of the player by the cost of the noun.
So much for the general rules for this scenario. Now we move on to particulars: the actual items the player is allowed to order. Each item will have a description, a price, and a difficulty representing how skilled the player must be in order to make use of that item.
Since we are going to use price and difficulty in the table that defines our juggling equipment, we need to mention these kinds of value before the line that says how toys are defined.
The plural of toy is toys. A toy is a kind of thing. Some toys are defined by the Table of Juggling Equipment.
Table of Juggling Equipment
toy cost restriction description difficulty outcome
an economy bounce ball set $10.00 "comes in set of three" "A fairly ordinary rubber ball, solid color." moderate "You create of the balls a cascade of moving color."
an acrylic contact ball $14.00 "should be bought with ball polish" "A large clear ball, not for throwing but for using in various hand tricks." hard "You rotate the ball between your fingers and pass it over the backs of your hands."
a UV-reactive contact ball $55.00 "appears to glow in dark rooms" "Similar to the ordinary acrylic contact ball, but UV-reactive." hard "The ball glows as it passes between your fingers and over the backs of your hands, rolls up to your wrist, snaps through the air-- all apparently of its own accord."
a ball polish set $10.00 "useful only with acrylic contact balls" "Three bottles of polish and a rag for keeping acrylic contact balls scratch-free." hard "You juggle the polish bottles with difficulty, since they are full of sloshing liquid."
a teaching beanbag set $8.00 "set of three" "Soft, easily-juggled bag." easy "You juggle the beanbags with basic competence."
a stage ball set $13.50 "comes in set of three" "Not much different in appearance from the economy bounce ball, but larger so as to be visible from a stage." moderate "You create of the balls a cascade of moving color, visible from quite a distance."
a fireball set $33.00 "will not be sold to minors" "A ball has wicking and a fuel-source inside so that it will burn while being juggled." hard "You juggle the fireballs rapidly, careful never to hold any of them a moment longer than necessary."
Notice that we are allowed to define "description" and other already-known properties in the table as well.
{**}Backstage is a room. "A muffled black room with felt on the floors and walls. A glowing sign over the stage door says SHOW IN PROGRESS."
The Juggling Equipment Catalog is a thing in Backstage.
Instead of examining the Catalog:
say "You read through the offerings, including: [paragraph break]";
now right hand status line is "Budget: [price of the player]";
now left hand status line is "[location], feeling [if the difficulty of player is easy]incompetent[end if][if the difficulty of player is moderate]moderately skilled[end if][if the difficulty of player is hard]highly skilled[end if]".
And of course this will be no fun unless the player is allowed to use the equipment:
if the noun is not a toy listed in the Table of Juggling Equipment, say "You can't juggle [a noun]!" instead;
if the difficulty of the noun is greater than the difficulty of the player, say "You're not quite ready to juggle something like [the noun]. Better to start with an easier toy." instead.