I saw:

http://www.parc.com/research/istl/projects/dataglyphs/demo.html

on a gadget blog, and tried it out. Turned six paragraphs of text into a 2" x 2" quasi-cunieform glyph, which I then printed, mangled a bit, scanned back into my computer and had the site decode...perfectly.

I'm not exactly sure what rpg or other game application it has, but it is bizarre enough to be worth mentioning here in case someone else can come up with a bright idea for it (document security, secret messages, alternate distribution, etc.).

For reference, their idea is that you can make an e-readable text that exactly mirrors a regular document, for verification purposes. You can go in an photoshop a scanned piece of text, but you cannot so easily revise the glyph, which will then no longer match the doctored document.

Anyway, if anyone tries it, what did you think of it? Any bright ideas?

Greg Porter
BTRC

I imagine it works along the same lines as a barcode, which repeats its data several times.

The only RPG application I can think of is in making those GM only sections (which I don't really like anyway), that bit more GM only.

I also had the thought that you could make them into a graphic border element or something and thus put "secret messages" into the game, like "death to the cheese-eating surrender monkeys!" or some other waste of time that would never actually be noticed by most of the purchasers, but which you the designer find personally gratifying.

Greg Porter
BTRC

It has application for digital rights management, I suppose. You could avoid the cumbersome, annoying, and not actually very secure business that impairs uses a buyer might want that is currently fall out of favor. Instead, watermark the sold pdf with some identifying info. of the buyer's. Of course, if they remove the watermark, it's as good as filing off the serial number, showing it's an illegal copy, but not who is responsible.

I was thinking about running a shadowrun game awhile back, and this would have been perfect. I don't so much see this as having game-potential, but immersion potential.

Give them this glyph kind of early in the game.

Weaving a series of clues making a web hunt of sorts that will eventually lead to the decoding website.

I was going to have a freind of mine not in the game call the players cell phone at a specific time and leave them a clue, and then make a series of web pages they would extract clues from between games.

Any more ideas for using tech for RPG immersion?

I think that you could use some of the techniques used by alternate reality games (ARGs) - emails, text messages, IRC, physical "happenings" - to get that immersion.

A couple of websites worth looking at are:

www.unfiction.com
www.argn.com

Cheers,
Chris

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