The Dr. K– Project - Narrative Intelligence - page 135

Actor classes are determined by a mixture of physical characteristics and
character roles.

Actions

Actions are the final element type. An action is an internal event, an action
occurring within the scene. This is distinct from actions external to the scene,
such as the transformation of an element to a different state as a result of user
interaction. External actions are not represented by action elements.
Actions can have a number of props and actors associated with them. These
associated elements are not explicit elements, rather they are denoted by the set
of classes to which they belong. Actions also provide some simple grammat-
ical elements used to construct English text. Some sample actions and their
associated elements:
walk to: [

∼ action, ∼ blocking ] ( [ ∼ actor, ∼ character ], “moves towards”,

∼ ∼

[ prop, furniture ] )

attack: [ ∼ action, ∼ harm]([ ∼ actor, ∼ character ], “attacks”, [ ∼ actor,

∼ victim ] )

play: [ ∼ action, ∼ gambol]([ ∼ actor, ∼ child ], “is playing” )

And some action classes:
∼ action:{*action,walkto,attack,play}

∼

blocking: { *blocking, walk to, walk to actor, walk from actor }

∼ harm: { *harm, damage, attack, attack with }

Like props and actors, actions are subject to transformations into different
states. At the same time, the props and actors associated with an action may
change state.
Actions do not have specific temporal associations. A set of actions does
not necessarily occur in the order they are listed.
At this point it should become clear to the reader that the framework pro-
vided by these different element types can potentially result in a number of
troublesome situations. These situations include:
- An action which requires the existence of a prop or actor element that does

not currently exist. A character enters from a doorway that is not present
in the scene.