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Old 05-13-2008, 09:43 PM   #37
Bakha
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Re: Quick, short descriptions

I'm going to quickly throw out more ideas on my earlier one about cultural knowledge being a skill:

You could also differentiate between various classes of cultural knowledge: low and high. For instance, someone with a "low" cultural knowledge in the United States would probably be able to differentiate between powdered cocaine, powdered meth, and powdered heroin whereas a highbrow wouldn't. Converse, the highbrow would know the difference between a nice Alexander Valley Cab and an Australian Merlot.

Anyway, I know this is all getting very simulationist and offtopic for the OP's original intent, but I thought I'd throw the idea out there.

I should add, as I think my views are associated with the RPI viewpoint for the most part, that my suggestions don't really mirror RPI implementation. In an RPI, the broader, vaguer context would be coded, as LoD discussed in his post, with the "cultural" knowledge being gained ICly and ingame. There would never be a point where one's character codedly recognized the proper name for a generic looking object. The only problem with an RPI in this is that it makes veteran players who have a broad OOC knowledge of the game have an advantage over newbies who don't have that knowledge. An example that comes to mind from Armageddon is the IC lore surrounding "spice" (which Arm's version of drugs). I remember playing my first druggie PC whose background stated that he had been addicted to some specific spices for quite some time. Unfortunately, when faced with:
a pinch of golden brown spice
a pinch of viscous black spice
a pinch of moldy green spice
My addict couldn't tell you which of the spices was actually his spice of choice. Now, after playing that PC through his life and discovering all of this knowledge ICly, I was able to apply that knowledge to future underworld characters, but the problem is that OOC knowledge impacted my IC concept.

Anyway, I know I'm veering dangerously close to the RPI vs. The World thread, but I'm really just approaching this from a theoretical game design standpoint now.

Very cool original post to spark all of this, btw.
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