This example does include a number of features that we haven't met yet, particularly rulebooks. Nonetheless, the basic idea should be relatively clear. Our premise is that the player is faced with a series of disgruntled furnishings, none of which want to be responsible for supporting the cold, hot, drippy, or spiky objects lying around the room.
The Dining Room is a room. "A room of handsome proportions, with an octagonal dining table on a fine parquet floor. The original set of chairs has been taken away, leaving only a red velvet dining chair and a blue suede armchair."
The fussy table is a supporter in the Dining Room. It is scenery. The description is "It's hypochondriac: the result of a sojourn in a superior antique shop, where it picked up the scent of almond oil, words like provenance, and a secretive shame about being resurfaced.
Chairs don't get along with it.
In its mellowest moods, after a really good dusting, it will mention, casually, a cabinet it once knew, which was twelve feet tall, came from the Winter Palace, and had an asking price of $350K."
A chair is a kind of supporter with carrying capacity 1. A chair is enterable. A chair is usually scenery. Understand "chair" as a chair.
The blue suede armchair and the red velvet dining chair are chairs in the Dining Room. The description of the blue suede is "Quiet, mellow, and with a lingering aroma of clove cigarettes, and possibly something less legal. It doesn't sit up straight, and doesn't let anyone else do so either." The red velvet has the description "In temperament, in bearing, in everything it is the opposite of the blue suede chair. It is concerned for its duty all the time, has a rigidly straight back, and pokes diners in the spine when it suspects them of overdoing things."
A thing can be spiky or smooth. The cleated left shoe is a wearable spiky thing. It is worn by the player. The cleated right shoe is a wearable spiky thing. It is worn.
Definition: a thing is unpleasant if it is scalding or it is cold or it is spiky or it is drippy.
Definition: a supporter is occupied if something is on it.
Definition: something is contented if it is not concerned.
Definition: a chair is concerned if something unpleasant is on it.
Definition: the table is concerned if something drippy is on it or something scalding is on it or something spiky is on it.
Definition: the ceramic tile is concerned if something spiky is on it.
Definition: a room is concerned if something drippy is in it or something scalding is in it or something spiky is in it or someone which is in it is wearing a spiky thing.
Before printing the name of a drippy thing: say "drippy ". Before printing the name of a cold thing: say "cold ". Before printing the name of a scalding thing: say "scalding ".
if something (called the offending item) on the table is drippy:
say "'Help! Get me a coaster!' screams the table[if the table is visible], its veneer squirming under [the offending item][otherwise] from the Dining Room[end if].";
rule succeeds;
if something (called the offending item) on the red chair is drippy:
say "'Oh dear,' murmurs the red chair, as [the offending item] drips into its velvety seat. 'Oh dear, I will have a damp spot. This is so very -- what will people think?'";
rule succeeds;
if something (called the offending item) on the visible armchair is drippy:
say "[The offending item] visibly begins degrading the suede where it sits. The armchair is tactfully silent.";
rule succeeds;
if a drippy thing (called the offending item) is in the location and the player is in the Dining Room:
say "'Cripes,' says the parquet. 'No one mind me at all. Just leave that [offending item] right here. You know I'm the most valuable thing in the room?'";
rule succeeds.
A complaint rule:
if a cold dry thing (called the offending item) is on the table:
say "The table shivers under [the offending item].";
rule succeeds.
A complaint rule:
if something (called the offending item) on the table is scalding:
say "'Hey!' protests the table, practically smoking at [the offending item]. 'Heard of a trivet?'";
rule succeeds;
if something (called the offending item) on the armchair is scalding:
say "The armchair doesn't complain about [the offending item]; it just begins, quietly, to give off warm sweet clouds of blue steam, as though its inner opium-nature had been released.";
rule succeeds;
if something (called the offending item) in the Dining Room is scalding:
say "'Yes indeed,' [if the location is the Dining Room]says[otherwise]bellows[end if] the parquet. 'That [offending item] won't leave any sort of mark what-so-ever.'";
rule succeeds.
A complaint rule:
if something (called the offending item) on the table is spiky:
say "The table holds very very very still lest [the offending item] mar its finish. But its resentment is palpable.";
rule succeeds;
if something (called the offending item) on the velvet chair is spiky:
say "[The offending item] stabs the velvet of the red velvet chair, which draws itself up even more sharply in a pose of dutiful martyrdom.";
rule succeeds;
if something (called the offending item) which is spiky is on the ceramic tile:
say "'[The offending item] itches!' cries the ceramic tile.";
rule succeeds;
if something (called the offending item) in the location is spiky:
say "'[The offending item] should not be on a parquet floor,' sings the parquet floor sadly.";
rule succeeds;
if someone (called the offending person) in the location is wearing something spiky and the location is the Dining Room:
say "The parquet floor mutters about the things people wear to walk on parquet floors these days.";
Moreover, every time the player gets close to resolving this issue, their unhelpful companion Alison brings in something else inconvenient. We can use the counting of contented supporters to decide when the player is getting close to winning and it's time for her to bring something else...
The Tidy Kitchen is south of the Dining Room. Alison is a woman in the Tidy Kitchen. The kettle is a scalding thing. The ceramic tile is a cold portable supporter. It has carrying capacity 1. The platter is a scalding portable supporter. It has carrying capacity 1. The glass of ice water is a cold, drippy thing.
say "Just then the kettle boils in the kitchen. Whistling chirpily, Alison brings it in and sets it down smack on [the next victim], then goes back out.";
Test me with "i / take off left shoe / get the glass / put the glass on the platter / get the tile / drop the tile / get the kettle / put the kettle on tile / sit on the blue armchair".