new mechanic: insight

[neekz0r]

I fully recognize that the developers are busy, but I thought of a new mechanic that could be fun, the Insight mechanic:

Insight is a mechanic between two players to __potentially__ convey IC (mis)information about a characters motivations. It is

Insight request [player] [action] – request an insight
Insight reply [player] [emote]
Insight reject [player]

For insight request, a request is sent to the [player] target stating:

[player] is requesting insight ([success|fail]) into [action].

The player may then choose to provide an emote or reject it regardless of success., on a successful emote it should be accurate information into a characters thought process. On an unsuccessful attempt, it should be inaccurate information or rejected.

Note, there is no obligation to provide an insight, it’s simply a way to enhance RP and provide information that may or may not be true.

Note 2: there should only be a certain number of insight requests allowed in a time period.


Some examples using Trogdor and Stumpy:

Player Trogdor: insight Stumpy why is stumpy chewing on paper?
Player Stumpy sees:Trogdor is requesting insight (handidly succeeds) into why is stumpy chewing on a paper?
Player stumpy: insight reply /self is feeling hungry and isn’t very bright.

What people in the room see:
Trogdor looks at Stumpy intently, trying to divine their intentions.

Another example:
Player Trogdor: insight Stumpy why is stumpy chewing on a paper?
Player Stumpy sees: Trogdor is requesting insight (horribly fails) into why is stumpy chewing on a paper?
Player stumpy: insight reply /self is likely working on a manuscript on the various flavors of paper, and wants to be thorough. He has identified this paper as a candidate for closer inspection.

In both cases, Trogdor doesn’t know for certain why Stumpy is chewing paper, and he may be completely off track. Nor does Trogdor know if he rolled a success or not. Trogdor must now decide for himself if his insight into Stumpy’s motivations are accurate or just a figment of an overactive imagination.

[neekz0r]

feel free to poo all over this idea if you think it sucks. my life is not vested on this ideas success. that's what my hamster ball power perpetual motion machine is for.

[Murrmurs]

Having read over the OOC chat and the subsequent conversation, I have an inversion of the proposed spec: Have insight emotes be something a player can offer up to others in the scene with them --- if someone's style of RP is 'I'd like for you to get different results based upon this emote', I feel like it would be one best used by those who seek to enhance RP through it themselves rather than by being put upon others to do the added labor of writing and thinking about what they are up to.

[neekz0r]

what! that is way to simple and effective.

it could be like: insight [easy/medium/hard] [character] emote

then, the person on the receiving end would see:
[insight success] Stumpy is eating because he likes the taste of it.. OR:
[insight fail] Stumpy's actions and words are inscrutable.

[Kinaed]

I'm inclined to spec this up as something like:

emote /self flexes their biceps. [I<str>1If the observer successfully passes the specified stat roll, they will see this text.[I2If they fail, they will see this text.[x

[I<stat>1 = Insight pass text
[I2 = Insight fail text
[x = exit all codes so people can wrap the insight.

[I<stat>1 must be immediately followed by [I2, then closed by [x.
If a person doesn't use I2 and the observing party's roll fails, nothing will be shown.
Obviously, different observers can get different results based on their stats and luck.

This could replace the idea of embedded hidden emotes (which would just be a wisdom check). It should work with emote targeting too, so if you reference an obj in your inventory or a person, that should work as normal.

I'd probably use a flat difficulty based on the observer's stats rather than complicate it with easy, medium, hard since it's voluntary information already and it makes the command a bit clunky to try to account for.

[neekz0r]

Nice! Very cool. That'd give me exactly what I want.

[Kinaed]

I've moved it to the bug board for Salem's review and implementation.

[Temi]

How would people ideally like this sort of thing to be set up? As a standalone insight-type emote with a check, or as a more structured capability within emotes, to ifs and alternatives? Which would you be more likely to use?

[MUDnoob]

For my part, I think simple is good. I already mistype commands enough without them being overly complex

[astronamika]

Having read over the OOC chat and the subsequent conversation, I have an inversion of the proposed spec: Have insight emotes be something a player can offer up to others in the scene with them --- if someone's style of RP is 'I'd like for you to get different results based upon this emote', I feel like it would be one best used by those who seek to enhance RP through it themselves rather than by being put upon others to do the added labor of writing and thinking about what they are up to.

In a similar vein, sometimes I've been wanting for an emote reliant on lore when I have historical info about a character or something where it wouldn't make sense to have lore attached to a room. I use and have noticed some other people use hemotes for this, or just put it in regular emotes and let players decide if it's something their character would know, but I think a lore roll could add some fun randomness to it too and reduce the metagamey feeling of expository emotes.