On a side note, those cell-phone/radio devices you referred to are being used in England as a way to hook up with strangers for some risky sexual behavior.

Sounds like a worthwhile idea for a game though Wavinator.

LOL That''s exactly what I remembered those gizmos being talked about too The idea being that instead of approaching some total stranger in the street asking them if they are gay, the "gaydar" simply buzzes or something if you meet another gay weraing one...
...go figure !

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Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !

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Original post by ahw
Yes. My point exactly ! I am just trying to avoid the "gizmo" concept because I think it''s, well, like I said "out of character".

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Out of character in a sci-fi game where implants are as common as tatoos?!?!?!

Actually, I do understand, and it does limit me to using technology as a gimmick. I have to assume, then, that all races you can interact with are on a similar standard. That''s not too hard, because they come from the post-apocalyptic remains of one great civilization, but it is a little contrived.

It would also be darned convenient, though, too.

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I dont like directing my players with big neon signs flashing "this way for the next part of the story", and I feel this is exactly what the gizmo does : "let''s cut the chase and give you the XP right now". This implies that the rest of the world is going to be boring and repetitive and can be safely ignored.

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I understand your point. But keep in mind that this isn''t really for a story. This is for an open-ended environment where you choose who to interact with, more like a sim. Sure, the missions will have story and chained together people you''re supposed to talk to, but in that sense, it''s contextually appropriate for you to know who to go to in most cases.

But for sorting out the wheat from the chaff in semi-random encounters, I like the idea of being drawn towards different people with different beacons. It even stops you from asking 100 unrelated people at the airport about something which only one of them knows about.

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Just because the player rolls the dice doesnt mean he has a chance in hell to suceed. That''s what I meant when I talke of modifiers. Just because a player has a skill doesnt mean he actually *has* a chance of succeeding if you as a DM decides that, for dramatic reasons, the player shouldnt succeed at all.

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Yes, but consider that you''re thinking like a DM, not like a player. Have inflicted upon you the desire to talk to someone in all of Paris about clueing you in on where to get advanced computers, for instance, and imagine having to wade through the sea of "nope, can''t help you responses." You''ll quickly get disgusted, and while NPCs will never number that many, consider a city that is segmented in such a way that there could be the illusion of thousands of NPCs, as they get randomly created and destroyed as they move through your boundaries of perception. Not fun.

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Case in point, my players got visited by a Goddess and one of them decided to ATTACK her (The sheer horror of playing with people like that !). Did I roll a dice ? You bet I didnt.

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LOL! I think the main difference here is that you''re creating highly specific content while I''m trying to come up with a generic system that can be turned specific, then giving you the ability to seek out those NPCs.


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Just waiting for the mothership...

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Original post by stevelat
On a side note, those cell-phone/radio devices you referred to are being used in England as a way to hook up with strangers for some risky sexual behavior.

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Original post by ahw
LOL That''s exactly what I remembered those gizmos being talked about too

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Aha! So this is a FUTURE TREND, then, no? So it is conceivable that it would spread from less libidnic uses to more everyday, practical ones? That you could have multiple wireless networks which these things operated on?

You could have criminal networks set up in constantly moving abandoned buildings in the slums, which criminals use to hook-up with other criminals. You coudl make this a religious pilgrim thing, and definitely appropriate for any faction.



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Just waiting for the mothership...

Yeah, since it does exist, it would make sense that such a gizmo could *possibly* be extended to something bigger.

But think about this : such a gizmo allow you to find people "with common interests" without openly displaying those interest. But what prevents people who want to find you to also wear those same gizmo to hunt you down ? Uh ?
Case in point : since gays have adopted the skinhead look as a defensive mimicry tactic, what prevents a skinhead to wear one of those gizmos to go gay bashing ?
Or in your game, if networks of gangsters wear one of those "tags" set on a specific frequency to avoid eavesdropping, what prevent the police forces to develop scanners that will listen in on a frequency range to spot broadcasters, and develop a database of frequently used frequencies that are used by various groups...

I dont think as a system it would be viable for very long.

Now having a database on your PDA, similar to an adress book, but that you could extend to contain more "interesting" info by loading plugins. *that* would make perfect sense, and you could use your "gizmo" system.

I think my point was just that I dont like taking out the roleplaying element when you can use it.
The only difficulty (the biggest, obviously) being to develop a new style of GUI.
But dont you think designing a new concept of GUI is a bit more interesting than reusing 20 something years old concepts ?

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Wavinator
Yes, but consider that you''re thinking like a DM, not like a player. Have inflicted upon you the desire to talk to someone in all of Paris about clueing you in on where to get advanced computers, for instance, and imagine having to wade through the sea of "nope, can''t help you responses." You''ll quickly get disgusted, and while NPCs will never number that many, consider a city that is segmented in such a way that there could be the illusion of thousands of NPCs, as they get randomly created and destroyed as they move through your boundaries of perception. Not fun.

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I think if my players are stupid enough to stay in the street and wait until statistics give them what they want, they deserve the boredom they will receive.
A good player would narrow down his "search domain" until the chances of finding someone that can help them would be significant.
That''s why I think it would be interesting/challenging to design an interface that allows the player to ask very open questions to any stranger in the street so they can go through that narrowing process.
First person you meet in town, a teenager with his mates : "Hi there, do you know guys where I can go to party in this town ?"
If you succeed your roll, they give you the name of a district where they would normally go to party. If you fail, they jsut dont know. If you fumble, they probably send you to some gangster bar where you ll probably get into a fight or worse

Of course, if you have your "hitchiker''s guide to the galaxy" handy, you could just look up "where to party" on this town and go and find out for yourself

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Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !