Empathy system

[Simon Kamber]

I'm playing around a bit with using a mechanic to represent a character's empathy.

The game I'm trying to create is geared towards narrativism, but with a relatively simple fortune-in-the-middle system for actual conflict resolution. The setting is a modern war setting.


My idea with the mechanic is to allow the player to choose a value for the characters empathy, without any character-generation restrictions, and be allowed to change this value whenever it fits the character. A higher empathy would have a double-sided effect. On one side, it would make the character more able to "feel" the emotions of others, on the other, he might find himself unable to perform certain actions.

What I'm unsure about is wether or not it's a good idea to have a mechanic that could basically end up dictating to the player that "no, your character cannot get himself to shoot that defenseless person". On that matter I'd appreciate some input. Any experiences or opinions?

[lumpley]

Instead of "no you can't," a high Empathy could make it more expensive somehow. You still get to take the action, but there are more or worse consequences the higher your Empathy.

edit: Welcome to the Forge!

-Vincent

[Sydney Freedberg]

You should check out the similar (but not identical) concepts in Kirt Dankmyer's game Unsung, about which there're a bunch of threads on the Forge as well. (His Forge alias is "Xiombarg," if you want to PM him).

[Troy_Costisick]

Heya,

Welcome to the Forge!

Instead of "no you can't," a high Empathy could make it more expensive somehow. You still get to take the action, but there are more or worse consequences the higher your Empathy.

Just what I was going to say.  Try creating a scale that slides with the bonus of empathy only inversely.  Perhaps having a low Empathy makes certain actions easier to take?  Provide both a bonus and a pentalty for each and you are forcing the Players to make a choice right from the begining- a good thing.  One other thing tho, do you plan for other tough choices to be eplored by the PCs later on in the game?  I mean within the system that is.

Peace,

-Troy

[Thor]

I recently read a post on 20 X 20 room about playing Wuthering Heights one of the things I had forgotten was that the traits needed to be rolled over in some instances and under in others. something like this might make sense for you.

[Simon Kamber]

Instead of "no you can't," a high Empathy could make it more expensive somehow. You still get to take the action, but there are more or worse consequences the higher your Empathy.

Sounds like a good idea. I might be able to adjust other parts of the character's stats to allow that "consequence" to take effect.

edit: Welcome to the Forge!

Thanks. I've been lurking here for a while, but decided it was time to get to participating :)

Just what I was going to say. Try creating a scale that slides with the bonus of empathy only inversely. Perhaps having a low Empathy makes certain actions easier to take?

The basic idea is good, but I can't really think of anything that gets gradually easier because the character is more cold. It seems more fitting to have defying one's sense of empathy take a toll on the character.


Thanks for the replies :)

[Troy_Costisick]

Heya,

The basic idea is good, but I can't really think of anything that gets gradually easier because the character is more cold.

How about screwing people over? Or taking advantage of the weak?  The less empathy you have, the easier it is to overcome the difficulty od doing such things.  Just a thought, if you wanted to incorporate both a high and low mechanic :)

Peace,

-Troy

[Simon Kamber]

How about screwing people over? Or taking advantage of the weak?  The less empathy you have, the easier it is to overcome the difficulty od doing such things.  Just a thought, if you wanted to incorporate both a high and low mechanic :)

Yup, that's exactly my intention. I'm just unsure if it feels too forced to have the mechanics dictate that the characters simply cannot get themselves to do something. I'll most likely end up doing that, but allowing the players to override the decision at some cost to the character. I thought you meant something like the instinct attribute in Unsung, where it was more like a regular attribute that simply made the character better at some things.

Oh, and I forgot to adress your question in the previous post:

One other thing tho, do you plan for other tough choices to be eplored by the PCs later on in the game? I mean within the system that is.

I don't have anything in mind specifically for the system. I'm planning for the premise to be dictated by the scenario, rather than the system. But the empathy thing is going to be one of the central parts of the system.