You can't use multiple objects with that verb?

I have a “collection of carved pawns” item for a group of game pieces, that holds several pawns. I’m trying to allow the player to “examine pawns” to a brief list of them all, but I’m running into trouble.
Using “>x pawns” gives me the error “You can’t use multiple objects with that verb.”

Done some searching here and in the documentation, but just can’t seem to nut this out.
Could someone give me a hand here, or perhaps direct me to the section of the in-program documentation that would help me to solve this?

This is what I’m using so far (with the mess of me trying out things stripped out):

[code]“Pawn Testing”

The Study is a room.

The stone table is a supporter in the Study. “You can see a [stone table] here, with a grid etched into the top[if the stone table supports something], [a collection of carved pawns] set up on it as though for a game[end if].”
The description is “The stone table has a a grid etched into the top[if the stone table supports something], currently set up for a game of something[end if].”

A collection of carved pawns is on the stone table. It is a closed unopenable container.
The description is “A collection of pawns[if the noun is carried by the player] ([otherwise] (including [end if][a list of pawns in the collection of pawns]).”
Understand “pawns” or “collection of pawns” as the collection of pawns.

The describe what’s on scenery supporters in room descriptions rule is not listed in any rulebook.
Rule for printing room description details of something: do nothing instead.
After deciding the scope of the player when the location is the Study: place the contents of the collection of carved pawns in scope.
After deciding the scope of the player when the collection of carved pawns is held: place the contents of the collection of carved pawns in scope.

A pawn is a kind of thing.
A warrior, a queen, a thief, a mage are pawns.

When play begins:
repeat with P running through pawns:
move P to the collection of carved pawns.[/code]
I can now see the list of pawns when examining with a longer name for the collection, and can examine them individually, but I keep running into that “multiple objects” problem…

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated (:

Try

Understand "pawns" as collection of carved pawns. 

to see if that redirects.

I tried that one, no dice. Also tried

Understand "[pawns]" as the collection of pawns.

but that just gives the same error message ):

That Understand line is already in place.

Do you want the player to be able to TAKE TWO PAWNS? Because if not, you could change the plural of “pawn” to something ridiculous, so that “pawns” only means the collection.

1 Like

Have you tried:

Does the player mean doing something with the collection of carved pawns: It is likely;

I tried that one, craiglocke ):

This one though :

That worked perfectly! I don’t think actions on multiple pawns is necessary - that’s why I’ve got the collection, instead - so this fixes everything. Thank you!

No problem! I did this in Scroll Thief (changing the plural of “door” to “asdfasdf”), so that you can examine the “double doors” even if there are other doors nearby. So far I’ve never seen anyone actually try to use multiple doors with the same verb so it’s safe.

FWIW I think making the collection a closed container could lead to trouble. Take this:

Another approach would be to make the pawns part of the collection; that way they’re automatically in scope when the collection is in scope, and you don’t have to worry about adding them manually, which could be fragile. You can also zap the room description details line, since parts of things (unlike visible contents of containers) aren’t automatically listed in room descriptions. You do lose the thing where the pawns are automatically listed after the collection when you take inventory, so you have to add a special rules for that based on §18.13 of Writing with Inform, so there’s a tradeoff. But I think this is a little less likely to break.

[code]“Pawn Testing”

The Study is a room.

The stone table is a supporter in the Study. “You can see a [stone table] here, with a grid etched into the top[if the stone table supports something], [a collection of carved pawns] set up on it as though for a game[end if].”
The description is “The stone table has a a grid etched into the top[if the stone table supports something], currently set up for a game of something[end if].”

A collection of carved pawns is on the stone table.
The description is “A collection of pawns[if the item described is carried by the player] ([otherwise] (including [end if][a list of pawns incorporated by the collection of pawns]).”
Understand “pawns” or “collection of pawns” as the collection of pawns.

The describe what’s on scenery supporters in room descriptions rule is not listed in any rulebook.

A pawn is a kind of thing. The plural of pawn is asdfasdf.

A warrior, a queen, a thief, a mage are pawns.

When play begins:
now every pawn is part of the collection of carved pawns.

Instead of taking a pawn incorporated by the collection of carved pawns:
say “There’s no reason to break up the collection.”

After printing the name of the collection of pawns while listing contents of yourself:
say " ([a list of pawns incorporated by the collection of pawns])".[/code]

Matt’s suggestion is good. Stick 'em together with glue instead of keeping them in a clear cigar box!