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Author Topic: Lowering Wisdom?  (Read 7509 times)

irmo

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Re: Lowering Wisdom?
« Reply #30 on: February 20, 2009, 09:56:19 pm »

The CCS thus would be low heart, low wisdom, while your Liberal Judges would have high heart, high wisdom. Wisdom would then be a barrier to recruitment, and possibly some of the more powerful or dangerous actions could have a minimum Heart - Wisdom requirement. It could be called Commitment or something, with some text for what their current Commitment is and how it was calculated. Under this system, it wouldn't quite be "Liberals hate Wisdom", just that your insane ones do.

I like this. I have trouble seeing a Liberal Judge raiding the courthouse with a shotgun. They're useful people to know (very good sleepers) but heavily invested in working within the system. The LCS has more ambitious goals.

One logical place for it to come into the gameplay is the "Stay at (location) as a sleeper/Join the active LCS" decision. If Wisdom > your recruiter's Persuasion, or 2*Wisdom > your Persuasion + their Heart, or some such constraint, you don't get the second option. (Of course you can always recruit them out of hiding later, once you gain a few points of Persuasion.) Conversely, high Wisdom ought to protect sleepers from getting caught, because, again, they know how to work within the system.

The stat that distinguishes CCS guys and Arch-Conservatives would then be some kind of right-wing fascist corporate tool equivalent of Juice. Possibly "Balls"--it's male-centric and sort of redneckish and thus anathema to liberals, but conveys the concept well.

One thing this greatly changes is the mechanics of brainwashingdispensing enlightenment--it's now all about raising Heart. Juice/Balls would act as a shield against Heart changes, so you'd, um, break their Balls with torture, then bring in Mr. Nice Guy to start raising Heart to the point that you could recruit. It might still make sense to have some effect on Wisdom, so that you could brainwash someone to be an effective sleeper (carefully avoid depleting their Wisdom) or a fanatical killer (cut off all their reasons for living, fill them with rage, point them at your enemies, and stand back). The trick then is to brainwash people before the kidnapping is noticed, but gently enough that they're not obviously messed up in the head when they come back. This would probably require some more interrogation options.
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EuchreJack

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Re: Lowering Wisdom?
« Reply #31 on: February 21, 2009, 11:03:06 am »

Nice set-up for the Ball-Buster joke! ;D

E. Albright

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Re: Lowering Wisdom?
« Reply #32 on: February 21, 2009, 01:00:49 pm »

I like this. I have trouble seeing a Liberal Judge raiding the courthouse with a shotgun. They're useful people to know (very good sleepers) but heavily invested in working within the system. The LCS has more ambitious goals.

One logical place for it to come into the gameplay is the "Stay at (location) as a sleeper/Join the active LCS" decision. If Wisdom > your recruiter's Persuasion, or 2*Wisdom > your Persuasion + their Heart, or some such constraint, you don't get the second option. (Of course you can always recruit them out of hiding later, once you gain a few points of Persuasion.) Conversely, high Wisdom ought to protect sleepers from getting caught, because, again, they know how to work within the system.

I do like this, though I'm not willing to give up on Wisdom as acceptance of Conservative ideology and framing (as well as a certain degree of callous self-interest) as a foil to Heart's Liberal ideology (as well as senseless empathy). Tying these values (selfishness vs. empathy) to specific political ideologies is very much in keeping with the idea that this is to be a political satire, and by leaving it as two stats instead of one, you end up with engaged Moderates who understand both well needing to have one of the two refuted to make them choose sides, whereas those Moderates who don't care about either are just plain apathetic until a convincing case is made for one ideology (even if the other ideology isn't explicitly denounced).

Make a new stat for it and call it Radicalism or Conformity; this could replace the profession-based recruitment difficulty differences which currently present a limited version of the same idea. A CCS Boss would have a massive Radicalism (or if you prefer, minimal Conformity), whereas pretty much every other Arch-Conservative (and e.g. Judges/Lawyers/Police of all alignments) would have the opposite.  It pretty much boils down to "how much you buy into the existing system". If you have a comfortable place in it, you can't be arsed to give up your job and go live in a homeless shelter (let alone assault the local precinct) just to make the country meet your political ideals; that's what voting (or at absolutely most, clandestine activism w/o radically changing your lifestyle) is for. If you're a social reject/dropout, you've got less invested in maintaining the status quo, and also less to lose by sudden, massive changes in your life.

A good Conformist would also be better at persuading/recruiting other Conformists, and worse at snagging Radicals. This could (sensibly, IMO) make it a bit harder for e.g. the Janitor to flip an Anchor or CEO; if you want to get someone like that you probably need at least an Office Worker, if not a Corporate Manager. Conformists would probably also do a better job at recruiting new sleepers than new active members, and vice versa with Radicals. Artisanal "re-education" would presumably completely Radicalize someone.

(Radicalism would definitely do well to be modified by Juice/Balls/Whatever; nothing encourages a non-conformist lifestyle like living it. It'd also mean that having that News Anchor filling your head with Conservative ideas could indirectly make you less Radical, and more likely to pine for a cubical. Hmm... this is a good point. If we're looking at Radicalism as being a means to determine if you'd do risky/violent actions, having the Police Negotiator crushing your Juice would make it more like to push your Radicalism down (or Conformity up) to the point where you'd be more likely to surrender, which would naturally be the less Radical course of action when confronted by Police. However, your average e.g. Gang Member who was extremely Radical to start with is probably still going to be too Radical to give up, unlike, say, that nice Conformist Programmer.)
« Last Edit: February 21, 2009, 01:38:04 pm by E. Albright »
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Rezan

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Re: Lowering Wisdom?
« Reply #33 on: February 21, 2009, 01:11:55 pm »

Personally I think it'd be MORE likely for a "wise" judge to appreciate the ideology keeping his main job, working "undercover" as it were, than otherwise. I can't imagine a judge holding up a bunch of Conservatives at gunpoint; but most certainly can imagine him helping Liberals out during trials.. So maybe it should be a matter of whether one can recruit someone to the group or have them work as sleepers?
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Little

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Re: Lowering Wisdom?
« Reply #34 on: February 21, 2009, 07:56:15 pm »

This all sounds good. Maybe when a certain ratio of heart/conformity occurs, the liberal begins having doubts...and if it keeps progressing lower, he leaves in the search of a 9-5 job. You'd have to start ground-up, recruiting Transients and Crackheads, and as society shifts L, conformity would lower, allowing you to recruit more valuable players.
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