[lojban] Random Lojban game idea, should be easy to code (at least at first)

[Robin Lee Powell <rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org>]

An idea that popped into my head: an RPG where the *sole* mechanic
is conversation.  Surrounded by a war-torn world, you, the
character, took up ... the pen (or the tongue, really), to make the
world a better place by convincing people to get along.

For a first pass, all that would really be needed (besides some plot
and quests, perhaps starting in childhood as you learn how good you
are at persuiding people) would be a Lojban parser and some
counting.  Have each person have a personality based on what sorts
of words they dislike (offensive, too high-brow, too low-brow, etc;
I would expect young children to nu'i or maybe even jai with
"what?"), and have them expect/prefer certain words or phrases based
on the context.

For example, if you are mediating an argument between two kids over
a slice of cake, they're going to expect you to say {titnanba} a
lot, and maybe {vudypai} ("fair").  They'll hint at this.

Then you say some Lojban.  How well you do is based on:

1.  Does it parse?  If not, you lose.

2.  How many bad words does it contain?

3.  How many good words does it contain?

4.  The effect of relevant skills; perhaps you have high levels in a
skill that reduces the effect of bad words.  

And this results in a number, which is checked against the
difficulty of the task, and you either win or not.  What happens if
you don't is sort of an implementation detail; I imagine that you
can just try again, with a hint as to what you did wrong, but it
gets harder.

(As an aside, I imagine there would be a skill to highlight good
words, and it would become less effective the more hard-core the
situation was, so it would stop working unless you kept it up.)

At this level, the game doesn't try to check semantics at all.  I
imagine a competent coder could write this up, with a *very*
skeletal "plot", in a few hours.

Bonus points for making it web-based and having the thing store the
text people have generated for later review.  The point here
basically is to give people an excuse to use the language, with some
slight structure that rewards performance (by continuing the story)
and forces improvement in skill (cuz eventually you meet the dude
that *really* likes {nu'i}, or whatever).

-Robin

-- 
http://singinst.org/ :  Our last, best hope for a fantastic future.
Lojban (http://www.lojban.org/): The language in which "this parrot
is dead" is "ti poi spitaki cu morsi", but "this sentence is false"
is "na nei".   My personal page: http://www.digitalkingdom.org/rlp/

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