What's the best way of setting a new player at the start of play?

[Shadow Wolf]

If I've defined a new player-character, let's say George:

---
George is a male player character. Rule for printing the name of
George: say "George". George carries an umbrella and wears a top hat.
---

and I wish to have the player start the game as George, rather than
yourself, what's the best way of doing this?

The obvious way is:

---
When play begins: change the player to George.
---

Unfortunately, this leaves George stuck in the darkness. "change the
player to George; move George to the location." results in a
programming error, and "move george to the location; change the player
to george" still leaves George stuck in darkness.

How do I automatically set George to be the player and make sure he's
in the correct location (whatever that happens to be) at the beginning
of the game?

[John W. Kennedy]

It looks to me as though the player cannot be set "when play starts".
The following inartistic kludge seems to work.

===========================================================================
"George"

Nil Room is a room. "This room has no characteristics whatsoever."

Whimsy Room is a room. "This room is decorated in a miscellany of styles."

George is a male player-character. George carries an umbrella and wears
a top hat. George is in the Nil Room.

Before looking:
if George is in the Nil Room begin;
move George to the Whimsy Room;

change the player to George;

try looking instead;
end if.
===========================================================================

--
John W. Kennedy
"The blind rulers of Logres
Nourished the land on a fallacy of rational virtue."
-- Charles Williams. "Taliessin through Logres: Prelude"

[Andrew Plotkin]

Here, John W. Kennedy <jwk...@attglobal.net> wrote:
> It looks to me as though the player cannot be set "when play
> starts".

What did you try? This works:

When play begins:
change the player to Steve.

(However, simply saying "The player is Steve" has no effect. This
surprised me.)

--Z

--
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
If the Bush administration hasn't thrown you in military prison without trial,
it's for one reason: they don't feel like it. Not because you're patriotic.

[Andrew Plotkin]

Here, Andrew Plotkin <erky...@eblong.com> wrote:
> Here, John W. Kennedy <jwk...@attglobal.net> wrote:
> > It looks to me as though the player cannot be set "when play
> > starts".
>
> What did you try? This works:
>
> When play begins:
> change the player to Steve.

Sorry, missed the first part of the question, about setting Steve's
location.

The full text of my sample was:

------------
The Kitchen is a room.
An apple and a pear are in the kitchen.

Steve is a player-character in the Kitchen. The description of Steve
is "Steve is great."

When play begins:
change the player to Steve.

------------

This works, starting Steve in the Kitchen as the player. (A showme of
the room lists Steve as "yourself", but examining yourself reveals
that it is in fact Steve.)

[Shadow Wolf]

John W. Kennedy wrote:
> It looks to me as though the player cannot be set "when play starts".
> The following inartistic kludge seems to work.
>
>

OK, your example helped me write a better one:

George is a male player-character. Rule for printing the name of
George: say "George". George carries an umbrella and wears a top hat.

Before looking for the first time:
move George to the location; [By the time you try looking, the first
location has been set]

change the player to George;

remove yourself from play; [Need to get rid of the extraneous
"yourself" object.]
try looking instead.

The Example is a room.