Spreading Known Information
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Is bringing back some form of the IG bulletin board an option?
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I might recommend a rumor system of some kind, more dynamic than having to manually edit a massive database, but containing that functionality. I've been talking to a friend of mine who's writing a similar system;
It generates rumours based on creatures killed, what the PCs were killed by, if they killed another PC while in party with them, stole something, or even social acts, all depending what events it's hooked into.
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Then NPCs on seeing the PC have a chance of speaking the rumour back, which is randomly pieced together based on the rumour type, and then potentially modified by the accent filter.
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It assigns a weighting to the rumour, whichis based on the CR of the creature involved in the case of monster killing. It also gives the rumour a DC check for them to know. The higher the rumour weighting is, the more important the NPC "thinks" it is, so they say back that one.
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It stores up to 10, and the rumour played back is the highest weighted on the NPC that can make the DC to know it.
As I understand it, the rumors themselves are saved to a database (either a NWNX database or a DB item on the PC.) Since this is done in game, I don't think it would be too difficult to add a DM tool that allows DMs to add custom rumors based on recent events.
Alternately, the 'dynamic' aspect could be forgone completely, and it could be DM-added rumors only.
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I like this idea a lot and think it could help make the world feel more like living as a result. Would your friend be willing to write a system for us? :)
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I'm not sure. I think he's busy with his own stuff. I could ask, however, if the DMs would like? If nothing else, I may be able to get more information on the specifics of the system.
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A DM faction.
I really liked the player initiatives throughout the years maintaining newspapers but they never kept it up. And who is to blame them? It's tedious work that can lose its charm quick. That is why I think this would be suited to a DM faction and not a player faction. As an example it can be some sort of monastery of Oghman scribes situated in Arabel.
Firstly, it would provide some motivation:
-uniforms
-official status
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-a major plotline/story arc where individual scribes can pursue personal goals (battling sources of misinformation and hoarding of knowledge)
-they would be in some ways similar to the mage's guild, but their interests encompass many things: city statistics, histories of war, noble families and their past, knowledge about an array of non-magical crafts, geography- unlike the library forum, they would have a dedicated DM(s) who would offer a bit more than a tidbit of information- and when the DM does not want to divulge something so easily, they use the opportunity to send the scribe on a quest for the information (or even a long term plot)
- in the end, the information trickles down through the scribes' work for the public's enjoyment or important use
- you could even scrap the monastery idea and make this simply an extension of the city library
In the end, what you have is a bunch of motivated, involved characters who are more than willing to increase and update the available knowledge and general lore available to the playerbase. Perhaps you can even allow them to do this IG rather than through a forum. Just like the posters on the floor that we used to be able to edit, the scholar faction's base (monastery, library) can have items that can be changed in game (books, newspapers, inscriptions) for characters to peruse. It would be a common destination for players to drop by every next day to see what the scribes are up to, and to gather a good understanding of current events.
Edit: Ranks could be very important too. At first everyone is a simple scribe tasked with recording all the mundane information happening around town (Jim's cat ran up the tree again, an increase of muggings in the south, Kreswell slipped on a banana peel), maintaining a newspaper and dealing with the simple inquiries adventurers have.
Then they could be promoted and all of a sudden the NPC superiors are more forthcoming with lore and information which the character is now privy to. The higher scholar could even specialize in certain knowledge like smithing, or history of some far away realm, etc etc and as a result many DM factions and player factions would be drawn to a scholar of a higher ranking as an authority on whatever it is they're after…anyways you get the gist of it
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DM's being able to run a script to update a list of random commoner NPC one-liners sounds like a cool idea.
Perhaps even adding the possibility of setting expiration dates for rumors, too?
The way it is now, you're hearing about Gondegal or w/e taking over arabel if you talk to some NPC's in game(an example). This doesn't even make sense anymore and if you had set an expiration date it could have been auto-wiped from the quote pool.
Perhaps the quote database is something that needs only to run once per reset to save resources? I dunno.
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If anyone wants to put together some rumors or recent events for me to put into the server PM them over.
Don't do one at a time please, send over a few at once so my inbox doesn't get clogged up!
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While the general opinion seems to be that forum notification of commmon knowledge is unwanted, I for one, think its appropriate. COMMON knowledge should not have to be FOIG.
It seems crazy for people to have to spend their limited playtime running about to get info that "everyone" might know. Why make getting "into" CoA more difficult?
I'd much rather check common rumours/news while commuting with one eye on the road ( 8) ) than waste 30min of playtime. -
no one says you can't do both?
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Common knowledge is common knowledge, and should be easily available, in rumours IG and on the forum. Not all knowledge is common knowledge, but significant events should be
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I've updated the commoner convos in East, The Slums and Central - I'll look at doing more of the weekend and adding in some of the ideas people have mentioned in this thread.
Good work team.
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I'd also advise mucking with the guards conversations, as well, though that's likely more difficult. Some of them still have pre-Civil War information. Specifically the one near the East-to-Slums transition, haven't checked any of the others.
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Good shout, forgot about those.