Interactive Story provides two types of actions: explicit and implicit.

Explicit actions are displayed directly to the reader and this is the classical approach for interactive fiction. The reader must select one of the actions in order to progress the story. Explicit actions can be descriptive and usually offer a choice in the direction of the narative.

Implicit actions offer an indirect approach for story progression, where the reader must construct the next course of action based on clues in the narrative. An implicit action consists of a verb applied to a scene object or inventory item with an optional preposition applied to a different object or item. For example "open door" or "open door with key". To progress the story, the reader must select from a list of verbs, prepositions, objects and items and construct a possible course of action. This approach provides a greater level of immersion for the reader, providing a sense of authorship to the narrative.

Interactive Story automatically determines when an implicit command is valid based upon the items in the readers inventory and the objects associated with the current scene.

Due to the free form nature of implicit commands, it is possible for the reader to construct an action that is illogical or has not been considered by the author. This nonsensical input will illicit a default "Nothing happens" response. You can also provide your own responses to nonsensical input by selecting "Nonsensical" from the verb list. These responses can have all the properties of a normal action, allowing for an alternate narrative to unfold if the reader is unable to guess the correct course of action. The responses will be played in the order they are defined in the IS editor. You can use the ^ button to change the ordering within an event group.