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Temporary Room States
Let people know what's going on

A friend, a while back, mentioned a game that had a system for allowing you to

change the "mood" of a room. What this was, as they described it, was like

leaving an additional bit of text in or below the room description that

described any notable temporary details that would be of interest to anyone

entering later.

I'm sure that description alone has given you the gist of this idea, but I'll

go into some design details that I think would work.

The room state would be settable by anyone, and clearable by anyone. It should

obviously be understood that doing either for no reason, or to troll would be

bad form, and excessive abuse probably punishable by admin. For various

reasons that I'm sure many of you can come up with on your own, I don't

suggest including the character's name anywhere in the room state.

When setting the room state you would give the duration (preferably in

minutes) to a maximum of 24 hours (possibly 48?). Reason for the limit

being... well... I'm sure nobody wants to run around clearing ancient room

states. After that time, it automatically clears.

Now, for those of you who didn't immediately understand why this sort of thing

would be useful, a list of possible uses:

- You've murdered someone recently. It was a *bloody mess*, and you want to

let whoever enters that room next that something awful went down there.

- You want to decorate your apartment for your special moodate. You leave a

trail of rose petals leading toward the bed, light some candles, and turn

the lights down low.

- There's a special concert going on at the Drome. The stage is lit up, and

the crowd is going wild.

- Some asshole with a gun is shooting people up on Cordoba. Everyone's bolting

down the street. You know which way not to go... or go, if you're feeling

lucky.

- The character you were interacting with has disconnected or @quit for the

night. You'd like to give them some idea of anything significant that might

have happened while they were out, but gridmailing them or leaving a note

detailing it is awkward, and maybe doesn't make sense.

The list goes on and on. Of course, it should be noted that these kinds of

things should not be used as free replacements for code that already exists,

such as graffiti, or leaving people notes.

Thoughts?

I like it. But this seems like it could be a big issue with power-posing.

For example, the "- Some asshole with a gun is shooting people up on Cordoba. Everyone's bolting down the street. You know which way not to go... or go, if you're feeling lucky.""

I don't know how I'd feel about someone setting a room state that the crowd is doing this or that.

Maybe this is something that should only be usable in rooms you own?

That would defeat the purpose, and that particular example was aimed at GMs.
Being able to actually gleam relevant information from the ambient messages that possibly involved a perception+forensics check in some cases would be pretty neat.
Give it to everyone and let them do it in any room, then. Tag each description with a player's name (visible only to GMs), and give players the ability to report a room state for abuse. It'll send the state, location, state creator's name, date/time set, and a note from the reporter (along with their name) to staff.

If you're found to be abusing it, it's revoked. Staff can decide how they want to handle that.

Bit of extra work, but it sounds to me like this would be really useful and a great RP tool. I can already see a ton of different ways I'd use it.

Oh, this is nice. Or can be.

Because if someone was killed and bleeding in the Drome or shot down in the street, there'd be blood on the street or on the floor that would need to be mopped up (heck maybe it was and there's a bloody mop trail) or there's a 'chalk line' or, the rose petals and small candles to light the way. or ribbons or whatever pointing the way.