Goblin Squad Member
|
In regards to the comments brought up in "X would be cool...." thread, would anyone else be interested in Plagues, Disasters and Good Fortune?
Imagine beggars move into the village. Beggars can be fed, clothed and sheltered and cared for, some might become actual workers, others will remain beggars, but overall they are just there to pump for information in most games. Players might even disguise themselves as Beggars to get into a city or a district relatively unmolested (flea-bites don't count) or to hide from an enemy player.
Beggars can be easily placated with some bread and cheap wine and some copper coins, but ignored, they might turn into an actual physical threat, mugging people, stealing from merchants, so on and so forth.
But what about their diseases? Players might not pay much attention to the guys in rags in the seedier part of town, but what happens when some start turning up dead from the plague ... in the grainary? Suddenly, the primary food source of the town is now unclean and has to be either purified by magical or alchemical means, or burnt down and rebuilt.
What about all the bread and flour made before the bodies were discovered? Is the disease now in the food or is it safe to eat? Suddenly people are afraid of what they are eating, or if it's in their houses, is the bread/flour being eaten by vermin such as rats or mice? Can rats spread the plague to the PCs and their NPCs?
What happens if the algorhytm running the seasons decides "Hey, time for a drought!" and the amount of water in the region is vastly reduced? Suddenly the rivers are reduced to a trickle, the streams and ponds have all dried up, the fish-farms are stuffed, crops are withering in the fields and people are dying of thirst.
Players with access to fresh water are suddenly besieged by NPCs desperate for their supplies, paying through the nose if the PCs were fortunate enough to have their supply protected somehow, or risking outright mayhem as NPCs attack them if not so fortunate.
Players who can create water via magic suddenly are in high demand, using Create Water to slowly, painfully refill the town's water-containers, and black marketeers will go after any source they can find and charge ludicrous amounts.
The flip-side to this is the Seasons of Plenty. That same Algorhytm decides "Hey, it's time for a bumper crop!" and the farms in that region are producing more food than the people can possibly eat, the livestock are exploding with newborn (not literally!) and 'wild' resources such as the forests and monters within are producing large or possibly high-quality resources when Players track them down.
A lot of people remember the WoW Plague and the Wrath of the Lich King World Events fondly, and being able to log in to completely unscheduled 'regional events' would be a nice way to keep players on their toes, although perhaps having the 'bad touch' events such as plagues/droughts/fires/monster invasions/Satyr bachelor parties to the following levels.
FREQUENT/OFTEN/COMMON/UNCOMMON/RARELY
Once or twice every three months (real time), perhaps, with certain events more likely to happen during specific seasons?
|
Goblin Squad Member
|
*bumps* Again stating I have absolutely zero programming skill and/or knowledge here, so can anyone say if this idea is good, bad or unworkable? I think it would add a bit more depth and chaos to the game, making it more plausible for people to be crafters and encouraging stockpiling items for the inevitable region-shaking event.
Even better if resources have a finite lifespan if not 'used' within that timeframe. Fresh Food could only last two or three Real Life days once removed from their nodes, Lumber could turn into a substance useful only for firewood if left for longer, so on and so forth.
Once 'used', either to make something or refined into from a 'Resource' into a 'Product' they could have indefinite lifespans, but turning all your Lumber into Planks might not help the people wanting the other Products could have been turned into.
|
Goblin Squad Member
|
These all sound like really interesting ideas, but this brings to mind my Facebook gaming experiences (stay with me here).
I have played quite a few Facebook games, and all of them have a roughly similar model. Get you to log in every day. Look at Farmville, Cityville, Yoville, Whoville, Whyville, Whatnowville, and Wejustwantyourmoneyville. All have mechanics where you have to log in daily in order to succeed at the game, but without fail I end up getting bored with them very quickly.
The idea of logging in to chop wood and stockpile bandages in order to avoid the zombie horde in a game doesn't appeal to me because I already do that every month in real life. For me logging in to a game should be escapism, not realism.
Having said that, regional events or holidays based on Golarion would be awesome. I have a lot of fond memories of the WoW holiday events, and Golarion has a lot of gods and holidays that we could have a lot of fun with.
Seasons would also be a lot of fun as they would provide a palette change, but I don't know if I'd want to deal with stockpiling food or the other fiddly bits. I want to play a hero, and in my mind handling the day to day of a kingdom can be delegated to a NPC. "You there, you're my new Civil Advisor. Keep the peasants happy and productive."