I still haven’t gotten a solution to the prop-gift problem, although I have decided that prop-gifts should be doled out one at a time. I haven’t decided if they should be obtained one at a time.
But I see a connection with the other problem I’m working on: promises. Both gifts and promises require some sort of linkage between one encounter and a later one. This leads me to consider an extension to the existing concept of Prerequisites and Disqualifiers. I’m thinking of something like “Entailment”, or perhaps some kind of chaining structure. This would allow me to attach one encounter to another as a necessary followup to the first.
However, this is complicated by another consideration: the option chosen by the player. If Encounter A takes place, then Encounter B might be necessitated only if the player chooses Option #2. Thus, consequential encounters must be attached to options, not encounters.
I certainly have the screen space to add these feature to the Encounter Editor, and the data structure for Options can easily take some additions. But can the Engine handle the modification? I haven’t even written the Engine yet; all I have is a test facility that tests individual options and their reactions. But in order for this to be functional, I must first get the Engine written, and that has to be done in JavaScript on the delivery page. It seems as if everything is tied together. Nevertheless, I think that I’ll first modify the Encounter Editor to include the Consequence Encounter feature.