new command: Skillcheck <skill>

[Lystianna]

I was on my bard earlier today (or maybe it was last night) and was doing my usual bit of acrobatical poses. Then I realized "Hmm. I don't have a dex of 20, and even if I did; this character would probably slip and fall, get hurt, or at least drop a juggled item (or catch it wrong) every so often. Then I thought about combat RP, which I engaged in exactly once.

Basically my idea is to use a command, which I'm labelling 'skillcheck' for the moment to let the game determine how successful your character is going to be at something you're contemplating doing ICly BEFORE you write the pose.

I know what you're thinking. What's to stop someone from using this to like... powergame by determining the likely outcome of using something on another player? Simple: in my proposed version, there's no target involved. A specific example of how I personally would use this is skillcheck dex; which will then give me a generic feedback on how well I would do with something involving dexterity; such as juggling or acrobatics.

Skillcheck cha, on the other hand, would help me determine how far my character sticks their foot in their mouth while trying to chat up someone at a local tavern.

spellcheck single-edged blades would tell me if they cut off their own hand, or demolish their (non-PC, non-NPC) target if I was writing a pose of them practicing their sword work.

You guys get the idea. It's basically for calculating, based on character stats, applicable bonuses and penalties, how likely you are to get an astounding success or a catastrophic failure (and anything in between) on trying to use your skills and stats in an emote.

[Harroghty]

This is something we could reasonably include via soft code on an object. Kind of like dice allow PCs to compare rolls based upon the cold, emotionless machine calculations of the game; we could make something that would let people use the game help their RP and it maybe would have an option to share the outcome with others present with an echo?

[Yemin]

I'm curious why you present power emoting with this idea as a negative thing. On a MUD I played perhaps some 6 years ago which has arguably the most involved roleplay mechanics I've ever experienced this exact thing was used to determine whether you could say, tackle someone to the ground or poke them in the chest. A step above most of the socials that exist on most muds far as I can see.

I feel it would add great utility to resolving conflict rp without actual combat and increase emersion with the other use that you've already mentioned.

I'd personally be against sharing the roll result with the room. If it was a contest between two or more players, only the players involved really need to see the nuts and bolts under the hood.

[Lystianna]

This is something we could reasonably include via soft code on an object. Kind of like dice allow PCs to compare rolls based upon the cold, emotionless machine calculations of the game; we could make something that would let people use the game help their RP and it maybe would have an option to share the outcome with others present with an echo?

Nah. I don't think echoing is a good idear. Even though it would be a way of keeping the user honest; it would also create a lot of spam. I'm also none too keen on it being on an object that players have to keep in their inventory; as (a) they'd have to find and acquire it ICly, which makes little sense to me; and (b) no one would actually use it because in a lot of characters' cases, especially lowbies, inventory space is at a premium.

I'm curious why you present power emoting with this idea as a negative thing.

During my first draft, on mobile, I'd planned to make it a targettable command; which would have the MU give the skill user(s) the probable outcome of, for example, trying to use Single-Edged Blade on player B. Since I never intended to have the results shared with the room, I changed my mind after I wrote this part 'cuz it sounded like a way for one player to try and figure out the relative strength and weaknesses of an intended PC vic.

[Grenwyn]

I'm not opposed to echoes; I think this could have some potential for social skills.

Code: Select all

smote spreads his arms wide and says "I caught a fish thiiiiiis big!"
rollpersuasion
Fyzul is clearly telling the truth.

Repeat for a dance-off with acrobatics, etc. (Not sure how this might work for opposed checks.)

Code: Select all

smote tries to do a waltz across the pews in the sanctuary.
rollacrobatics
Fyzul is astonishingly clumsy!
smote trips over the back of a pew and disappears with a loud crash.

You'd have some risk of the mechanics replacing roleplaying; however, you'd also have the benefit of being able to derive roleplay from mechanics, which can be a ton of fun.

The mechanic would take a bit of getting used to, certainly.

[Terrock]

I wouldn't mind this at all. I have seen it on another game I played and it resulted in some interesting RPs. Though they had the option of all concerned players (such as in a VS instance) showing the stats/relevant skills. It was purely for rp though and even someone with better skills could fail/lose agaist someone comparably worse ones.

That being said - as a solution to the item/inventory problem. Could something perhaps be softcoded to give a +1 to inventory. This would eliminate the inventory concern as it in essence only frees up enough room to exist.

As another option - perhaps this code can come standard on any aura communication objects as virtually everyone has one, so there would be no need for extra inventory

[Lystianna]

As another option - perhaps this code can come standard on any aura communication objects as virtually everyone has one, so there would be no need for extra inventory

I am in support of this notion.

[Harroghty]

We had the same idea of putting something on the amulet of communication when we kicked this around. We had a few ideas about what would be the most useful check, the way to employ it, and what had potential for abuse. I am not sure this is going to happen anytime soon, but I will test some things and see what comes of it in time.