Cool culture rules (happiness, oppression, rioting, addiction, etc.)

AJ · 2005-01-27T01:27:45

What makes people riot? When are they happy? What are some good ways to model how different cultures react inside the same city or country? I'd like to brainstorm some general rules and ideas for siming a society at the city level. Take three examples: An Old West town, a Big Brother 1984 Society and a medieval English town. What are some variables or stats that would help abstractly simulate these three types of places? I'm looking for interesting behaviors, useful variables and any rules you think would be cool. Assume that this is for a 4x empire game or an RPG where you'll hear about or see the events. This approach may work: Make each city composed of one or more factions Factions have stats, behaviors and special abilities Factions vye for power by taking over structures in the city Structures, in turn, improve the faction's stats, behaviors and special abilities Stats control contests, like combat or trade, depend the factions Behaviors are general things that a faction does Special abilities are new things the faction can do as long as they have some resource; for example, the police faction has an "enforce the peace" as long as they have guns and bullets; but guns and bullets alone don't let, say, a religious faction "enforce the peace" (i.e., w/o rebellion or unhappiness) Details Define a faction as: Strength - Numbers modified by weapons and physical difference Wealth - Ability to build or buy structures. Also reflects standard of living. Controls certain special abilit Identity - How likely they are to be assimilated when in the shadow of a powerful or numerous culture, how confident they are, how right they think they are Unity - Affects how much they can get things done versus quarreling with each other Moral Bearing - Basically, the faction's alignment. I use a system I call the Moral Compass that's more textured than Good-Evil / Law-Chaos, defining attitudes people have without judging them, but both would work. ...???? Each faction should also have a short list of allies and enemies, with everyone else (since there will be many) considered neutral States - Complex Stats Certain variables are too complicated to be just a linear value, so instead should be states: Health - Sick, diseased, poisoned (each has a specific remedy) Mood - Ecstatic, Happy, Content, Afraid, Rageful (each has a thing they do when in this mood, for example sports fans might riot when happy, people might hide in their homes when afraid) Average Respect - On average, this is how EVERYONE views the faction, such as Awed, Despised, Cursed, etc. This acts as a modifier to how Moral Bearing allows one faction to treat another. ...???? Inter-faction Relations Factions will have 3 (?) friends and 3 (?) enemies, which they will have an individual value for. Mixing this along with Average Respect I think gives greater tone and definition to the relations without having to define each (most factions in the world don't even know each other, and so base their opinon on how OTHERS think). Behaviors Something any faction can do. Faction to faction: Attack Trade With Peaceably Recruit - Lowers other faction's strength without changing diplomacy Impress / Enslave - Force into servitude, lowers other faction's strength but provokes conflict Protect another faction Flee the city Hide ...???? Faction to structures: Takeover - Stops the building from functioning Defend - Forces a combat contest if one faction tries to attack it Raid - Storm a building and steal its resources, increasing its own stats ...???? Factions also have interesting internal things that can happen to them: Peacably Assemble Protest Violently Die Off / Dissolve Suppress Dissent - Faction effectively loses power trying to keep its own house together Schizm - Creates new, likely antagonistic factions Create Resource / Good - Requires a building / facility; could be making food (with farms) or making moonshine (with bathtubs), whatever... [wink] Celebrate (quietly, racuously - How could just give them character) Consolidate - Increase unity and identity through group ceremonies, celebrations or group activities. This increases the group's confidence, which in turn affects how it responds to attacks or the cultural awe caused by more powerful cultures. Deconstruct - Decrease group unity and identity (rare). Usually a result of soul searching or some past crime (post-Nazi Germany is an example) Special Abilities These things ONLY a faction of a certain type can do Enforce the peace / uphold the law - Lowers crime and civil unrest. Only recognized authorities can do this, anyone else doing so is subject to challenge. Requires weapons and ammo and a Strength Reassure populace - A function of recognized authority only, can switch an allied or neutral faction's mood. Requires mass communication structures. Convert Faithful - Only religious factions can do this for themselves and allies. Raises unity. Some problems: Factions might be useful for modeling conflict, but how do you say someone is a member of multiple factions without getting messy? A group might be both a religious and a laborer faction. Should they be defined as allies? Maybe religious faction means just the staff and leaders (clergy/imams/priests/whatever), while the faithful are "allies?" So if this cops attack the religious faction, the workers, being allies, may naturally respond. I want to throw in things like addictions, vices and virtues, but couldn't really figure how it might work. How would you model addiction to TV or VR or gambling? Maybe this modifies behaviors and structures the faction owns? Thoughts or improvements?

Game Design and Theory Game Design

Started by Wavinator January 20, 2005 04:26 AM

19 comments, last by Wavinator 20 years ago

Cool culture rules (happiness, oppression, rioting, addiction, etc.)

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