Withmore is a city of more than 80,000,000 citizens, with the largest majority being present in Red sector. At any point in time on major streets, there are tens of thousands of people meandering about, but we have a playerbase that is significantly smaller than that.
So how do you react when you see something that seems unusual on a character in that area, despite there being so many people about that we are technologically incapable of simulating?
This problem is called small worlding, or more specifically when you pick out someone in a crowd for being suspicious when in reality that person would not stand out at all. Or when we use our knowledge of game mechanics to single someone out.
The fact is, despite the game mechanics, thousands of people enter the city every day from various backgrounds, wealth, and more. And not only that, tens of thousands of people are born in the city every day never being an immy.
It is our responsibility to enforce the narrative that this is a diverse, populated city and to not exploit the relatively small playerbase based on our predispositions of knowing game systems or how things are codedly presented.
Examples of small worlding include:
* Thinking every new character in the game is an immigrant. While that represents the majority of our game mechanics, it is not representative of the game world. * Going into a bar and saying that it's empty when it has no players. There are hundreds of people there. * Blocking a doorway of a public place to stop every single shroud that matches a certain description. * Thinking there are only a few fixers, gangers, etc because there are a limited number of players in that role. There are thousands. * Acting as if a player is the only one who could rat you out when doing a public crime. Ambpop does and will report crimes to the WJF. * Treating disguise items like wigs and contacts as out of place and warranting suspicion. Plenty of people do it for cosmetic reasons.
And many more examples that fall outside this scope. A quick litmus test if you think you are about to say something small-worldy is to say what your character would say in the context of real life. If it sounds cheesy or unrealistic, then you need to dial it back. Saying someone is an immy is unrealistic and silly, saying someone looks like they need help is positive and appropriate.
SEE ALSO: help rules help disguise help crime help roleplaying help theme help cyberpunk help expectations *Last Updated: 12/14/21 by Mirage*
