Role-playing technology. Part 1. Technology and magic
Role-playing technology. Part 2. Technology and technogen
Role-playing technology. Part 3. Technology in the entourage and mastering
People tend to play. Everyone who reads these lines is familiar with computer role-playing games. Role techniques and inserts are used everywhere - from business training to various events . On the role-playing games of live action, at least many have heard.
Role playing live action has a fairly rich history, a set of established techniques and models. But, since the playing worlds often have different physics, and the characters have incredible possibilities, the gameplay is inextricably linked with assumptions and conventions.
')
For example, a very problematic point is the magical interaction. The physics of our world does not allow to fully simulate all the effects of magic, and therefore it is necessary to resort to various simplifications and models of wagering.
Recently, the use of modern technologies to compensate for these restrictions can be observed more and more often at role-playing games of various degrees of scale, because the English writer Arthur Clarke said 40 years ago: “Any sufficiently developed technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
In some regions of our country, this process has been going on for more than a year, in others it has just begun. In this series of articles, the possibilities of modern technologies to improve the quality of the role-playing process and the adequacy of the wagering models used are examined, as well as known developments are shown and systematized that were used both in fantasy games and man-made games.
Why Habr? First, on Habré there are quite a lot of representatives of the social group that calls itself “role players”. For someone described things will be known, someone will learn for themselves something new and interesting. Someone, perhaps, will discover the world of live action role-playing games. Secondly, Habr - a resource first of all technical. And technology is the magic of our world.
The articles will contain several abbreviations and terms:
Recently, technology has made a leap, making available unprecedented opportunities for a wide range. The development of the element base has led to the appearance in the sale of a large range of affordable sensors, microcontrollers, radio modules and other components.
Modern electronics has a number of important properties, such as:
Consider these properties with examples. What does interactivity mean? Electronic devices have many ways to interact with the outside world through various sensors, indicators, actuators. We list the main types of sensors:
For reaction and display of its state electronics can use the following features:
In addition to interacting with the outside world, various devices often interact with each other. As a communication channel can be used:
All this allows you to create devices that even three centuries ago except magical could not be called. The manifestations of technology that surround us in everyday life - the ability to talk and see each other from a distance, automatically opening doors and the light coming on could only be explained by witchcraft.
What does “flexibility” mean? The development of microcontrollers - control microcomputers gives us the opportunity to use the full power of the software approach to design. These microcircuits contain all the main components of a computer, work according to a written program, and allow you to flexibly adjust the response to external signals, control various devices, are the “brain” of almost all intelligent technology surrounding us. However, microcontrollers have a low cost (from 25p. Per piece), and are sold in almost all stores selling radio-electronic components.
With a wide range of capabilities, the main components of electronic systems have rather small dimensions. For example, the dimensions of the same microcontrollers, as a rule, lie within the boundaries of a square with sides from half a centimeter to two centimeters, which makes it possible to build sufficiently small devices on them. Following the small dimensions of modern electronics also has low power consumption, which allows it to work autonomously for quite a long time from small batteries. Small size and autonomy make it possible to hide the technical essence of the device and arrange it in the form of a natural object (a stone, a crystal) or a magical thing (a magician's wand, a magic book).
Magic is inseparable from the worlds of fantasy, in connection with which the need to simulate and play magical influences comes up over and over again at RI. Over the long history of the Republic of Ingushetia, a number of traditional ways of solving this difficult question have emerged:
Consider them in more detail. In the cubical (dysovoy) system, the strength / success of the impact depends on the numbers drawn on the dice, after which the master determines the effect of the impact according to the rules of the game. In the card system, the impact is determined by the set of cards taken out. The effect of exposure is also determined by the rules of the game. Ritual wagering involves a certain performance - a ritual, the quality of which determines its effectiveness. The result of exposure is determined by the master. Selection of the location of the conditional impact of magic implies the determination of the location of the nth location, in fact by which the player gets him to receive the magic effect.
The considered methods have several disadvantages. It:
These shortcomings force MG to look for more adequate ways to play magical influences, and here electronics begins to come to their aid.
Let's try to list the types of magical effects and interactions. As a rule, magic is carried:
Charms can be activated in a bunch of different ways. In some worlds, you just need to read a spell, in others - spice it with a magic wand. Some charms are activated by several signs, gestures, and some complex ritual. By introducing into the game space their material carrier - an artifact with a technical filling, we get the whole range of possibilities for activating charms and their manifestations accessible to technology.
Additional zest make all kinds of enchanted things. They can enhance or neutralize the effects of the enchanted spells, they can be a prerequisite for the activation of the spells, and they can mag by themselves. Their possibilities are limited only by fantasy.
Separately, you can select enchanted locations. All worlds are full of stories about the sources of healing or dead water, death spots, fairy circles where you can get help or stay forever.
But the spell must be applied to the player under certain conditions and have a technical source. Select these bundles:
Artifacts can be almost any. A set of sensors that can react to the activating effect is listed above. Here are some examples:
The ability to react to touch gives us magical things that come to life when touched. The ability to transmit information at a distance gives us elf swords, reacting to the approach of the orcs. Their combination is an elvish flower, which begins to glow when its stem is touched at certain points, and when a magic lamp is lit, it lights up with the color that glows itself.
Elven flower and lamp by TG Ostranna, Moscow. AT “Second Age”, 2010
The reaction to the movement was applied in the production of talking portraits by the Ostranna creative group for the Hogwarts Seasons series of games. When a player approaches, the portrait reproduces one of the phrases pre-recorded on the flash card. As a side effect - in some portraits, players even wondered.
Ostranna made locks for the same series of TGs that reacted to the entranced cards brought to them - NFC tags. The fact of triggering or not triggering was displayed as a change in the brightness and color of the illumination of the crystals fixed on the lock.
Lock that opens with NFC tags. TG "Ostranna"
Orientation sensors, such as in telephones, allowed the same “Ostranna” to be made at the “The Witcher: have such a craft” WITNESS glove that read a sequence of gestures and signs to activate a particular spell. MEMS accelerometers tracking their position relative to the ground were mounted on the ends of the fingers and on the metacarpus gloves. When the player folded the first gesture-sign from the combination, a vibration motor was turned on in the glove at low revs, indicating that the sign was folded correctly. With the correct installation of the second character of the sequence, the vibration intensity increased. When installing the third character, the vibration motor was briefly turned on at full power, and at the same time one of the five LEDs on the wrist came on, indicating exactly which sign was applied to the person on whom the sign was applied.
From the possibility of transmitting information at a distance, a bundle of player - place naturally follows. The hidden radio beacon allows you to simulate the activation of the enchantment by visiting a secret place or a key character. Modules with a radio interface scattered around the location and the possibility of luminosity can very well play at night marsh or witch lights, which both can indicate where the treasure is buried, and get lost in three pines. The same radio beacon covering a certain area with radiation is able to simulate a place whose visit restores vital or magical powers, or vice versa has a negative effect on them.
The clock built into the radio beacon or worn by the player can make an even more tricky combination of player - place - time. As an example of such a scenario, you can bring the quest from the series “Come with this amulet to an old pine tree at midnight, and then the witch lights will show you where the Crown of the Ancients is hidden”.
All the above possibilities can equally be tied not only to player interactions and locations, but also to interactions between players and gametechs. For example, bags were made on one of the games of Ostranna, which shuddered when they were close to each other. Thus, players who did not know their counterparts in the face could identify each other in a completely “magical” way.
Role-playing technology. Part 2. Technology and technogen
Role-playing technology. Part 3. Technology in the entourage and mastering
Foreword
People tend to play. Everyone who reads these lines is familiar with computer role-playing games. Role techniques and inserts are used everywhere - from business training to various events . On the role-playing games of live action, at least many have heard.Role playing live action has a fairly rich history, a set of established techniques and models. But, since the playing worlds often have different physics, and the characters have incredible possibilities, the gameplay is inextricably linked with assumptions and conventions.
')
For example, a very problematic point is the magical interaction. The physics of our world does not allow to fully simulate all the effects of magic, and therefore it is necessary to resort to various simplifications and models of wagering.
Recently, the use of modern technologies to compensate for these restrictions can be observed more and more often at role-playing games of various degrees of scale, because the English writer Arthur Clarke said 40 years ago: “Any sufficiently developed technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
In some regions of our country, this process has been going on for more than a year, in others it has just begun. In this series of articles, the possibilities of modern technologies to improve the quality of the role-playing process and the adequacy of the wagering models used are examined, as well as known developments are shown and systematized that were used both in fantasy games and man-made games.
Why Habr? First, on Habré there are quite a lot of representatives of the social group that calls itself “role players”. For someone described things will be known, someone will learn for themselves something new and interesting. Someone, perhaps, will discover the world of live action role-playing games. Secondly, Habr - a resource first of all technical. And technology is the magic of our world.
The articles will contain several abbreviations and terms:
- RI - role-playing games
- PRI - polygon role-playing game
- MG - workshop group
- TG - creative group
- master - the person in charge of a certain part or aspect of the game (magic master, location master, AHC master)
- igrotech - igrotehnichesky character. Essentially an analogue of NPC in computer games
- wroling - immersing a player in the role of your character, including emotional background, mentality and actions
- Deroling is a reverse wroling process. Player dropout from his role
- progruz - the transfer of master information to the player, which the player must have in connection with his role
Modern electronics and its capabilities
Recently, technology has made a leap, making available unprecedented opportunities for a wide range. The development of the element base has led to the appearance in the sale of a large range of affordable sensors, microcontrollers, radio modules and other components.
Modern electronics has a number of important properties, such as:
- interactivity
- flexibility
- availability
- small size
- autonomy
- Entourage
Consider these properties with examples. What does interactivity mean? Electronic devices have many ways to interact with the outside world through various sensors, indicators, actuators. We list the main types of sensors:
- Touch (touch sensors)
- Illumination brightness (photosensors)
- Sound (microphones)
- Movement (PIR-sensors)
- Orientation and movement (accelerometers and gyroscopes)
- Magnetic field (electronic compasses)
- Distances (laser and ultrasonic range finders)
- Approaches and intersections (LED and laser optocouplers)
- Images (cameras, optical readers)
For reaction and display of its state electronics can use the following features:
- Light (monochrome and multi-color LEDs, lasers)
- Sound (tweeters, speakers, sirens)
- Mechanical (servos and other mechatronic elements, vibration motors)
- Graphic (digital indicators, graphic monochrome and color screens)
In addition to interacting with the outside world, various devices often interact with each other. As a communication channel can be used:
- Radio channel (radio modules for “raw” data transfer, Bluetooth, ZigBee, Wi-Fi modules)
- Optical channel (infrared and laser transceivers)
- Magnetic field (contactless RFID / NFC readers, improvised designs)
- Wired interfaces (contact readers iButton, interfaces UART, I 2 C, SPI, other)
All this allows you to create devices that even three centuries ago except magical could not be called. The manifestations of technology that surround us in everyday life - the ability to talk and see each other from a distance, automatically opening doors and the light coming on could only be explained by witchcraft.
What does “flexibility” mean? The development of microcontrollers - control microcomputers gives us the opportunity to use the full power of the software approach to design. These microcircuits contain all the main components of a computer, work according to a written program, and allow you to flexibly adjust the response to external signals, control various devices, are the “brain” of almost all intelligent technology surrounding us. However, microcontrollers have a low cost (from 25p. Per piece), and are sold in almost all stores selling radio-electronic components.
With a wide range of capabilities, the main components of electronic systems have rather small dimensions. For example, the dimensions of the same microcontrollers, as a rule, lie within the boundaries of a square with sides from half a centimeter to two centimeters, which makes it possible to build sufficiently small devices on them. Following the small dimensions of modern electronics also has low power consumption, which allows it to work autonomously for quite a long time from small batteries. Small size and autonomy make it possible to hide the technical essence of the device and arrange it in the form of a natural object (a stone, a crystal) or a magical thing (a magician's wand, a magic book).
Traditional magic in role-playing games
Magic is inseparable from the worlds of fantasy, in connection with which the need to simulate and play magical influences comes up over and over again at RI. Over the long history of the Republic of Ingushetia, a number of traditional ways of solving this difficult question have emerged:
- cube system (DnD, board, cabinet games)
- card system (board, cabinet and field games)
- ritual wagering with the sight of the masters
- selection of the location of the conditional effect of magic
Consider them in more detail. In the cubical (dysovoy) system, the strength / success of the impact depends on the numbers drawn on the dice, after which the master determines the effect of the impact according to the rules of the game. In the card system, the impact is determined by the set of cards taken out. The effect of exposure is also determined by the rules of the game. Ritual wagering involves a certain performance - a ritual, the quality of which determines its effectiveness. The result of exposure is determined by the master. Selection of the location of the conditional impact of magic implies the determination of the location of the nth location, in fact by which the player gets him to receive the magic effect.
The considered methods have several disadvantages. It:
- Duroling. The need for physical actions that are not characteristic of the character knocks the player out of the role
- The non-obviousness of the result. The result of the magical effect does not manifest itself physically.
- Uncontrolled wagering resulting from the previous item
- The inconvenience of conventions. For example, applied at the "Baldurs Gate" in 2007. With all its indisputable advantages, the rationing system forced non-magical characters to wait for the end of the collision, while magicians measured their mortgages step by step. This expectation could last from a few minutes during an ordinary skirmish, to an hour and a half at the final battle.
- The need for the presence of a controlling game store or master in most cases
These shortcomings force MG to look for more adequate ways to play magical influences, and here electronics begins to come to their aid.
Magic and technology
Let's try to list the types of magical effects and interactions. As a rule, magic is carried:
- Enchantment as such. Protective, attacking, treating, etc.
- Charmed things. All sorts of artifacts, amulets, etc.
- Enchanted locations. Magic curtains, cursed and holy places, etc.
Charms can be activated in a bunch of different ways. In some worlds, you just need to read a spell, in others - spice it with a magic wand. Some charms are activated by several signs, gestures, and some complex ritual. By introducing into the game space their material carrier - an artifact with a technical filling, we get the whole range of possibilities for activating charms and their manifestations accessible to technology.
Additional zest make all kinds of enchanted things. They can enhance or neutralize the effects of the enchanted spells, they can be a prerequisite for the activation of the spells, and they can mag by themselves. Their possibilities are limited only by fantasy.
Separately, you can select enchanted locations. All worlds are full of stories about the sources of healing or dead water, death spots, fairy circles where you can get help or stay forever.
But the spell must be applied to the player under certain conditions and have a technical source. Select these bundles:
- Player - Artifact
- Player - Place
- Player - Time
- Player - Player / Gametech
Artifacts can be almost any. A set of sensors that can react to the activating effect is listed above. Here are some examples:
The ability to react to touch gives us magical things that come to life when touched. The ability to transmit information at a distance gives us elf swords, reacting to the approach of the orcs. Their combination is an elvish flower, which begins to glow when its stem is touched at certain points, and when a magic lamp is lit, it lights up with the color that glows itself.
Elven flower and lamp by TG Ostranna, Moscow. AT “Second Age”, 2010
The reaction to the movement was applied in the production of talking portraits by the Ostranna creative group for the Hogwarts Seasons series of games. When a player approaches, the portrait reproduces one of the phrases pre-recorded on the flash card. As a side effect - in some portraits, players even wondered.
Ostranna made locks for the same series of TGs that reacted to the entranced cards brought to them - NFC tags. The fact of triggering or not triggering was displayed as a change in the brightness and color of the illumination of the crystals fixed on the lock.
Lock that opens with NFC tags. TG "Ostranna"
Orientation sensors, such as in telephones, allowed the same “Ostranna” to be made at the “The Witcher: have such a craft” WITNESS glove that read a sequence of gestures and signs to activate a particular spell. MEMS accelerometers tracking their position relative to the ground were mounted on the ends of the fingers and on the metacarpus gloves. When the player folded the first gesture-sign from the combination, a vibration motor was turned on in the glove at low revs, indicating that the sign was folded correctly. With the correct installation of the second character of the sequence, the vibration intensity increased. When installing the third character, the vibration motor was briefly turned on at full power, and at the same time one of the five LEDs on the wrist came on, indicating exactly which sign was applied to the person on whom the sign was applied.
From the possibility of transmitting information at a distance, a bundle of player - place naturally follows. The hidden radio beacon allows you to simulate the activation of the enchantment by visiting a secret place or a key character. Modules with a radio interface scattered around the location and the possibility of luminosity can very well play at night marsh or witch lights, which both can indicate where the treasure is buried, and get lost in three pines. The same radio beacon covering a certain area with radiation is able to simulate a place whose visit restores vital or magical powers, or vice versa has a negative effect on them.
The clock built into the radio beacon or worn by the player can make an even more tricky combination of player - place - time. As an example of such a scenario, you can bring the quest from the series “Come with this amulet to an old pine tree at midnight, and then the witch lights will show you where the Crown of the Ancients is hidden”.
All the above possibilities can equally be tied not only to player interactions and locations, but also to interactions between players and gametechs. For example, bags were made on one of the games of Ostranna, which shuddered when they were close to each other. Thus, players who did not know their counterparts in the face could identify each other in a completely “magical” way.
Role-playing technology. Part 2. Technology and technogen
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/209342/
All Articles