Beneath the Golden Moon

A guide to interaction

As has been mentioned, this game relies heavily on characters talking to each other. This document provides information on how conversations between characters can be handled in the PBeM medium.

Asynchronous Conversations

Even with the speed of email, there are often considerable delays between a message and its reply. Given this, it is often a good idea to abandon the consequtive form of dialogue. That is, rather than making one statement, then waiting for a reply to that, it is best to make a more substantial speech, even if this means abrupt subject changes or assumptions of answers. When replying to such a message, it is best to adopt the same method; respond to each part of the message, trying to link them together as naturally as possible.

Example: A player sends the following message: "Oh, hello Grean. Glad I bumped into you; I've been meaning to ask you something. You know that new fellow, the one that came up from Burzyn the other day? Well, we all know he's up here for squire's training, though he's just a tiny lad. I heard Matty, that's right, the chambermaid, yeah, I heard Matty say that the baron saw the boy in his rooms last night, and went through two pitches of beer together! Now, what I want to know is why we've got him? I mean, his family's not kin with the Pierstels, is he? Or is he? Oh, and while I'm here, Doald wants to see you with regards that new dagger you've commissioned. Something to do with the wierd handle you want."

In response, the player of Grean sends back information on the new squire, and also acknowledges the message from Doald. The original player then resumes talking about the new squire; a disjointed conversation, but quite understandable.

Timing

The question of how game time is divided has already been covered. It is necessary, however, to make a couple of points about how this affects game play.

Unless it is necessary or highly desirable to have a conversation occur at a particular place and/or time, it is best to leave such details vague. This allows me to decide the details based on information about all the characters, and keep everything reasonable.

Meal times are an exception to this; because these are formally marked by messages from me, it causes no problems to respond and carry out a conversation during that meal.

Deciding what's important

Occasions will most certainly arise when players will wonder whether a certain conversation is important enough to warrant mail being sent to the appropriate person. For example, if a character wishes to buy some bread, does the player have to send a message to whomever plays the breadseller saying that the character is buying some bread? If not, then does the same thing apply when a character wishes to buy a poisonous herb from the apothecary?

Obviously this is a judgement call. Here are two guidelines to use: if the interaction is important to the character's plans, then it should be dealt with via messages; similarly, if an interaction would fall outside a dull day-to-day routine, it should be dealt with via messages.

Including detail

When writing messages, please try to use at least some incidental actions; one character might be an avid pacer, and another stares just over the left shoulder of whoever she's talking to, or what have you. Unless you are sure of the setting, try not to include such details; but on the other hand, feel free to invent small details.

Gossip and Messengers

Things happen, and news sometimes gets around fast. Occasionally I'll post messages which are just "gossip" that the characters hear during the course of the day. Of course, players can do this too, either directly, or indirectly by telling someone else to spread it around - whether that person (PC or NPC) does, however, is another matter.

A related idea is that of messengers. In order to be anonymous when talking to another character, it is entirely reasonable to ask another character to tell a third person a message, without passing on the identity of the first person. No doubt, of course, some people are better than others at this. The required element of trust serves to stress the point that it is a good idea to make friends, to help others, etc. These things happen in real life, and can happen in Without a Doubt also, to the benefit of the game.

jamie@kauri.vuw.ac.nz