[MUD-Dev] Procedural Storytelling WAS Re: Self-Sufficient Worlds

[Zak Jarvis]

> From: Paul Schwanz - Enterprise Services [Paul.Schwanz at east.sun.com]
> Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2000 1:10 PM

> Hmmm.  Is "interactive story" really the same thing as "simulated life?"
I'm
> not saying that it isn't.  I don't know.  But it seems that you've chosen
to
> define it as such.

I'm working on a more detailed response to this thread; it's caused me to
finally put down all the details for what I've mentioned.  But I'll try and
describe a really broad overview now.  A much more detailed document will
be forthcoming.

Currently, this is nothing but a thought experiment for me. I'm still
trying to make sure all the gears are oiled, all the springs are tight and
that the hands don't spin off like helicopter blades slashing everything in
the room. It's important to note here that I'm devising the system for
large scale games. I don't really feel like the effort to create a system
like this is justified in smaller scale games (less than 500 simultaneous
connects).

There are three interlocking systems involved: the Drama simulator, the
task and interaction generator and the moral system.

The function of the Drama simulator is to track and guide NPCs. NPCs have
their basic psychology, motivations and goals defined. The simulator tracks
their interactions with each other in their attempts to reach their goals.

One of the tools available to NPCs to reach their goals is interaction and
employment of player characters. Most tasks given to players are generated
with parallel tasks for another online player, and the two tasks are
interwoven.

A simple example would be a player (who shall be dubbed Benoit) given the
task of finding another player who is currently online and interacting with
the task system (we'll call him Thurmond).

Grant me, for the moment, that there are compelling reasons for the players
to complete these tasks. The system isn't fully fleshed out yet.

Benoit belongs to a sect of radical Theotechs who are morally opposed to
the incipient technology of teleportation. The temple of Heisenberg
recently recruited an expert in the field of traumatic psychoplastics
(Thurmond) to help complete their next teleporter which will be capable of
sending live creatures. They feel this is wrong because it undermines the
value of clones by removing the need for maturation. The Theotechs send
Benoit to meet with Thurmond and bring him into a meeting with one of their
high priests. Benoit must convince him to meet the priest, and it will
likely be difficult. He must not divulge the location of the meeting.

In parallel, Thurmond is informed by a cenobite that the Theotechs have
dispatched an envoy to meet him. They probably will try to lure him to a
place where he can be captured or killed. Thurmond must meet with this
envoy and attempt to determine the place they're trying to get him to go
to, but he mustn't go, this way other agents can be sent to the meeting
place to deal with the enemy. Those agents might well be players, perhaps
augmented with NPC's if there aren't enough players available for the task.

At this point, (I'll assume for this example) the players meet and the
moral system is engaged.

Benoit feels he must lie to convince Thurmond. Lying in this case has a
game mechanic through the moral system. To lie, the player simply
designates a statement as a lie. Other players or NPCs have a chance of
detecting lies. Lies must be told successfully for a character to reach
certain moral states which might be required for some organizations or
tasks. A lie is considered successful if it is used during a task, is not
detected, and the task succeeds. Benoit is in a shady organization, and he
needs to be skilled at lying to advance. He's lied a number of times in the
past, been caught a few times, succeeded a few times, and is now relatively
proficient.

Benoit is easily able to find Thurmond, and they chat for a time. Each
circling around the issue they both know is underlying the meeting.
Finally, Benoit makes his ploy. He invites Thurmond for a drink where they
can discuss the matter more fully -- it's obvious Thurmond knows why he's
here. Benoit lies about where the restaurant is. (It's not really a
restaurant). Thurmond doesn't detect the lie, but intuits that he's just
been told the position of the ambush. He feigns a RL emergency, and quickly
leaves to inform his temple of the ambush spot. Unfortunately, Benoit also
returns to his taskmaster to inform of the failure, and so the ambush team
is pulled and no ambushing of any kind happens that day.
--

The role of the Drama simulator in that example is determining the goals
and defenses of the competing organizations.

There are a number of systems here that I've not fleshed out yet.  Things
like information exchange between players and the system. Plus, I don't
have any of the mechanics in a concrete form yet. However, I think that's
enough detail for further discussion of the idea.

-Zak Jarvis
 http://www.voidmonster.com





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