Topic

Group Causes, Street Patronage, & Street Effects

Posted this as a reply to a thread in the General forum, but guess (maybe?) it should have gone in here.

Stoot said:

"However, those won't make a *huge* difference. For sustainable truly non-solo play there need to be some societal-level mechanics (economic, social, political — even cultural). We have ideas, but I'd rather hear some of yours!"

So... o.k.!

Group Causes: Groups can dedicate themselves to one Cause, a kind of a "Mission Statement" with in-game consequences. Actions related to that Cause give the Group's members a small mood/exp bonus. Actions antithetical to the Cause take away a bit of mood, or cost a little more energy. So, maybe I create a Group whose cause is "Honoring Cosma"; members of the Group would receive a small mood/exp bonus for Donating to Shrines of Cosma, Meditating, Radiating, etc.

There would, of course, have to be a pre-made list of Causes to choose from; more could be added over time as Glitch expands. I originally imagined it as a sort of multiple-choice "Mad-Libs", where a Group's founder could build his/her own Cause from a bunch of building blocks.

Group Street-Patrons: This idea would let Groups influence a Street, without owning it. Basically, whatever Group Donates the most to a Street's Shrine over a certain threshold (so it costs something at the very least), becomes that Street's Patron for the next real-life week. At the end of the week, the Donations over the previous week are recalculated, and Patronage is either kept by the current Patron, transferred to another Group who Donated more than the current Patron, or abandoned altogether if the minimum threshold isn't reached.

The benefit of Patronage is being able to define your Street's...

... Street-Effects: For every week a Group retains Patronage of a Street, they can define one rule of reality (or "Street-Effect") for that Street, up to a logical limit (3 weeks, 7, 11, whatever). Each Effect could be chosen from a list, or even built Mad-Libs style like the idea above for Causes.

So, my Group might choose for it's first Street-Effect, "No Killing the Trees, 'kay?"; players would still be able to kill trees on my Group's Street, but the action would take longer, or be more expensive Energy-wise, etc. If my Group loses Patronage, the Effect is reset.

Oh, and a simple yea/nay Voting system for use within Groups.

That's all for now! Thanks for the great game!

Posted 20 months ago by beej beej Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • +1.
    I like the direction of these. They seem the right level of mechanics vs social aspect. Affects the world, but never world breaking.
    I like the direction of these. They seem the right level of mechanics vs social aspect. Affects the world, but never world breaking.
    Posted 20 months ago by Lord Bacon-o Subscriber! | Permalink