Taking something (past tense taken)
The taking action is the only way
an action in the Standard Rules can cause something to be carried by an actor.
It is very simple in operation (the entire carry out stage consists only of
'now the actor carries the noun') but many checks must be performed before it
can be allowed to happen.
When the player types a command, such as EAT FISH, what normally happens is
that the action understood is started - in this case, 'eating the fish'. In
some cases, though, Inform notices that the action requires the player to
be holding something in order for it to work: for instance, the fish can
only be eaten if it is held at the time. In such cases, Inform generates
a taking action first, and then (if that succeeds) moves on to the actual
request: so Inform tries 'taking the fish' and then 'eating the fish'.
A taking started in those circumstances is called 'implicit', because it
was only implicit in the original command, not called for directly.
Implicit taking is just like ordinary taking, except that the action
variable 'the thing implicitly taken' is set to the thing in question,
and that the usual report of a successful taking ('Taken.') is suppressed
as unnecessary.
Typed commands leading to this action
"take [things]"
"get [things]"
"pick up [things]"
"pick [things] up"
Named values belonging to this action
thing implicitly taken ... the name of something
Rules controlling this action
set action variables taking standard set taking variables rule
check an actor taking avoid unnecessary implicit taking rule
check an actor taking can't take yourself rule
check an actor taking can't take other people rule
check an actor taking can't take component parts rule
check an actor taking can't take people's possessions rule
check an actor taking can't take what you're inside rule
check an actor taking can't take what's already taken rule
check an actor taking can't take scenery rule
check an actor taking can only take things rule
check an actor taking can't take what's fixed in place rule
check an actor taking use player's holdall to avoid exceeding carrying capacity rule
check an actor taking can't exceed carrying capacity rule
carry out an actor taking standard taking rule
report an actor taking don't report successful implicit takes rule
report an actor taking standard report taking rule