Quick Question for the Silencer

[Zipp]

Hey, just a question for anyone who cares to share their input. Would you rather be given conversation options when having a conversation with different outcomes, or have to roll the die to decide your dialouge skill?

[Oiseau]

If the different outcomes are important to later success/failure at critical junctures, then the player must be given the choice. Random dialog is acceptable if it's just filler plot-development which doesn't affect gameplay/chances of success.

The Oiseau has spoken. ;D

[Doomy]

Agreed. I think the game will flow better if you allow players to experiment in their information-gathering rather than relying on dice. This will do more to encourage experimentation.
I think everyone who plays gamebooks finds it rather annoying when they find out they missed something vital just because a dice roll went the wrong way. Especially if this only becomes apparent a long time after the event!

[Sol]

Yes, also the player can feel that he has received more credit for the successful completion of an adventure when it was due to his own cunning. A player likes to feel that he is asking the "right" questions and making intelligent decisions - just a little ego-boost for the player.



Some kind of intelligence score could still be useful in the same way Lone Wolf uses Divination - occassional "gimme" information. Or there could be a sort of Charisma Score where the player can try to "bluff" past a combat (perhaps this would not be available all the time).

[Zipp]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I've decided to let the player decide in conversations where it goes. However, with some answers that don't lead to a defenite decision, there is a die roll involved after the fact that decides not what you say, but the NPC's reaction.

Sol, thanks for the ideas on intelligent points and so forth. I'll keep them in mind (and I like the concept) but I think the book has enough rules as is. This sounds a bit like what I was trying to do with skills, and I took them out due to complications.

[Sol]

Usually less is more! Of course the real deciding factor is where *you* want the focus. Wherever you put the focus will surely determine the flavour of your whole series! Via con Kai! Ariba!

[Sol]

It also occurs to me that your replay value will go up if you allow a conversation to go in a few different ways. It might be impossible to get the whole picture on just one play-through (which might be very interesting). In one run-though, you find out what is going on in the top-secret lab. In another, you find out that -something- is going on, but gather some serious insight into a certain NPC's true motives. In a third incarnation, maybe you find out neither of these, but happen upon instead your enemy's strategic plans. Etc!

Go with it! This will be a bang-up book!

[Zipp]

I have been playing with that idea as well. Really, I'm not far enough in yet to see where I'd use it.

But I think you'll all be surprised where the story ends up going. Of course, it won't go there for a book or two or three or four or five...

It's going well, by the way. I just finished part 5 of 10 that will make up section 1 (of book 1). Then I have to read through the whole thing, finalize the writing and the page numbers, a bit of combat play testing and then I send it out to Sol for posting.

I think I'm getting the hang of this. The next section shouldn't take as long.

[LWhistorian]

Yeah, I agree with having more choices. It would be really aggravating if I wanted to tell somebody off and I was prohibited from doing so by a dice roll that force me to be polite. I know you can't have an infinite number of dialogue choices but it might be fun to throw in a few insult opportunities to give people a chance to talk back to characters that they might dislike.

[Zipp]

Here's a tip for anyone who plays section one:

Insults are sometimes the best way to pretend you have rank

Logic behind this: Higher ups are assholes.