Here is my source text:
Playroom is a room. The description of Playroom is "Along the south wall is a [bookcase] with some books."
A bookcase is in playroom. The bookcase is a container. The bookcase is fixed in place. The description of the bookcase is "You can see your favorite books here: [pigeonbook] and [greeneggs].
pigeonbook is in the bookcase. The printed name of pigeonbook is "[italic type]Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus[roman type]".
greeneggs is in the bookcase. The printed name of greeneggs is "[italic type]Green Eggs and Ham[roman type]".
Based on previous teachings, I had hoped that by putting the words in brackets in the descriptions, it would eliminate the “In the bookcase are…” message. Turns out I was wrong, as you can see.
There are actually a couple of things I would like to try doing with the bookcase. For one, I’d like it so that if the player examines the bookcase, all he/she sees is books, but if the player actually examines the books, then the titles of the books will show up. I’m fairly confident it’s feasible, as I’m quickly learning that pretty much anything is possible in writing IF, even if done in a roundabout way. However, if it’s not possible, I’m still satisfied with having just the listed books in the bookcase so long as they’re not “double-listed”, if that makes any sense. Can anyone help me? I’m looking at Room Description Control by Emily Short right now, thinking there’s something in there, but I’m having some trouble understanding it and would appreciate it if someone could dumb things down a bit for me.
Thanks for your time and knowledge, I am grateful as always.