Re: [HOE] Compatibility

[Robert Holland <robert@macauley.com>]

>> * Series 7: The Contenders - the movie I can't wait to see. Basic
>> plot: Survivor, where you have 7 contestants and last person standing
>> is the winner. Set in a city. You kill the other 6 contestants (or
>> have them kill the others - point is you're alive the other 6 are
>> dead). Compatibility: make up a small city and up to 7 characters.
>> Interesting roleplaying activities for alliances if you run into
>> someone and don't just start shooting. Of course, you have to stab 'em
>> in the back sometime.
>
>The one thing that would be hard about this is that all the players are
>sitting in the same room:
>It'll be hard to form secret alliances ("Bob was whispering to Jack a
>minute ago, now all of the sudden their acting like enemies, I don't think
>so.")
>A lot of time will be spent with some of the players sitting around doing
>nothing. It's hard to run a game where the group doesn't, for the most
>part, stick together. While dealing with one part of the group, the other
>is left to twiddle its thumbs. This would be even worse if each person is
>on his/her own...
>
>Not saying that it wouldn't be a fun idea, just that there are mechanics
>issues that need to addressed.

It strikes me that, if you're the type for that sort of thing, this would be a
perfect scenario to run in IRC chat, or through a instant message service. It's
super easy for the players/GM to communicate privately. You could raise the
paranoia level to new heights if your players don't actually know each other
ahead of time, or at least don't know each other's nicknames--to start with,
each player would have only the GM's contact info, and would be provided with
info on the other players only as she met them ingame. Nobody's got a clue what
anyone else is doing when they're out of earshot--of course, another character
might happen to be "passing by" or deliberately eavesdropping on a secret
conversation, so the GM could drop him choice (and thoughtfully distorted)
pieces of other players' conversations...

Only real problem would be making sure all the players let the GM in on their
private conversations, which shouldn't be too hard if you have reasonably
trustworthy players. I know there's some online chat setups specifically
intended for roleplaying, but I don't know how many features they have for
'nonstandard' stuff like this.

--Robert Holland