Conviction Chronicles blog post #42 - The Lawbreaker’s Edict : Taboo Roulette

 I'm making a blogpost to one aspects of Lawbreaker's Edict since it's bigger than the rest. The way this motive works is the killer will be able to select 1 out of 26 law changes to shake up the game which will be permanent. The only way this gets into effect is if they survive the trial they caused. The general idea is to make it highly dynamic so the Lawbreaker's Edict is more lively based on the personality of whoever gained the motive bonus.

 -- Taboo Roulette --

This, like I said before, has the most dynamic actions involved. Until the end of the trial, these will be in effect. One the trial is over the taboo actions are reset and there is 54 different taboos that can go into effect. Everybody has a unique one. How it works is it uses Influence Points for most of them. Breaking the action removes an influence point, and if there are none then the person dies. Obviously I took inspiration from the danganronpa anime, but changed enough to make it stand on it's own. Might as well go over each one. Once it's broken at least once, it's revealed to the whole cast. I have to add some code to this, mainly for gaining evidence every time someone breaks a taboo and some other code.

0-20: location blockers.

This isn't only used for Taboo Roulette. Once I finish all of Lawbreaker's Edict then I'll go into it. But this will prevent a certain area/object from being interacted with. This also keeps in mind if a bomb from Relic Cache went off to disable the area already. These are mostly the most weak of the taboos depending on what was selected. There is mostly always a way around it if you think hard enough but it does limit how the player and characters tackle certain things. 

21. Talking Alone.

This is made to drastically decrease the social gameplay to force the character/player into a different dynamic.

22. Receiving a gift.

It's easier to trigger than talking alone but still allows some sort of connection for bonding.

23. Sharing evidence.

Utterly breaks certain ways to approach the trial and forces the player/character to use a more emotional approach. 

24. Eating any food at the cafe.

It's simple enough; Force some vital actions to only happen when spending more resources. I was thinking of doing a "you cannot eat at all" type of deal, but that was too powerful by itself.

25. Taking any drugs.

Mostly limits recovery for everybody but Jade outside putting yourself/themselves at higher risk.

26. Eating any food NOT from the cafe.

This one is stronger than 24 as it's more broad with less direct control, but it is easier to hide.

27. If a certain someone is dead before the trial starts, you die.

Some of these will have certain death if broken, this is one of them. Actively forces the character to become a protector to another, where it can be abused and spotted with an alignment shift with how they treat each other to exploit.

28. If a certain person is alive before the trial starts, you die. 

Same as above but for aggression, it causes a forced action. Since there is multiple ways to deal with murder and others, it's not as bad as it could be. It is a ticking timer.

29. Having 3 items at once kills you (at end of day)

The items are fully reset, so all items in the inventory are thrown out when this is gained. Makes it more about keeping it in mind to deal with it and to use the storage box. Like many things, it's calculated at the end of the day so it's not accidentally spammed. 

30. Having over 5 influence points.

This is a hard influence point limit where it lowers it back down. Prevents snowballing.

31. Starting an argument in a trial.

Overall the idea is to force the user to become more passive instead of direct.

32. Having anything bloody in your storage box, calculated at the end of the day.

This allows for stronger manipulation where the storage box becomes a liability where it has a cost of always checking and saving energy for it.

33. Having your toilet clogged, calculated at the end of the day.

Made to be simple, since there is no way to unclog it normally and there is a random time limit on when it resets, it can create a ticking timeclock easily.

34. Having your bathtub not filled with normal water, calculated at the end of the day.

Same as above but with the bathtub.

35. Not voting for yourself during the execution vote leads to instant death.

Forces instant risk where the user has to actively control how they are viewed by others, especially in the late game when individual votes matter more. It's easy to get around this to do a sign of no confidence for an execution where everybody has exactly 1 vote.

36. Having anybody use the furnace, calculated at the end of the day.

It's a ticking time clock, but it allows everybody to know when the furnace was used instead of spending time near it to know. Gives the user a stronger alibi since it would have been exposed if someone used it or not.

37. Entering the same room twice a day, your dorm room doesn't count. Also it has to be in the front door without any opposition. 

The way this works is every time a door is used outside the dorm doors, it tracks how much the users impacted by this enter it and triggers if it's used more than once with entering. Airvents are fair game, and if the door has some sort of trap that activates but still lets the person through, then it doesn't count it for this. In most cases it means only being able to go to one place once per day which becomes harmful due to needing to commit with the hospital/workspace/crafting/shopping/etc.

38. Losing influence in a trial.

Made to be more punishing so those who do badly in arguments. Since the default is 3 and if there is 0 once this triggers, it kills, it can be damaging. 

39. Gaining evidence in a trial.

The idea is the player can choose to accept evidence or not during the trial when it's brought up, where this forces a more emotional playstyle instead of a logical one.

40-42. Showing certain emotions during a trial. Once per trial.

The emotional system planned for trials would be dynamic, where this forces certain emotions not to be shown unless under more stress. Makes it harder to pinpoint how they are feeling, and easier to use emotions against them.

43. Must have a certain amount of cash per night, increases every day. Resets if fails.

How this works is every user has a limit that triggers once they gain this. Every night it gains 10 cash for the check and starts at 10. If it fails it resets to 10, if not it keeps going. Allows for an easier estimation of how strong economically someone is. 

44. Saying a certain person's name during the trial.

The idea is the user cannot target or protect a certain person during the whole trial, but this also is an alibi that can boost anything claimed as starting certain things has more of a cost.

45. Having 0 cash means instant death. 

Makes the economy side much more impactful.

46. Having the most cash in the group.

Same as above but there is more direct comparisons for how much wealth someone has.

47. Having the most influence points in the group. 

Same as above where it gives a good definition of how strong the group is as a whole compared to yourself.

48. If a certain person is dead after the trial ends, you die.

This activates if the person is alive before the trial but dies later. Gives more risk vs reward with trying to protect someone vs killing them off before the trial begins.

49. If a certain person is alive after the trial ends, you die.

Same as above but even riskier if they have a strong social standing.

50. If a certain person gets more votes than you during the trial, you die. If you have the most votes for the execution vote, you live.

The idea here is it forces the user to kill the certain someone, make them look better with protection, or to make themselves look worse on purpose.

51. If a certain person gets less votes than you in in the trial, you die.

Actively forces the user to have the certain person alive and disliked enough to be voted off. Extremely strict but allows the full time to plan around it.

52. If there is a unanimous vote for the execution vote, you die. unless you are voted to die, then you are the only survivor.

Same with 50 where there is a way to make yourself look worse for an easy out, but overall the user is forced to be more dynamic with manipulation, throwing away their vote, blackmailing someone into throwing their vote away, etc.

53. If a trial vote is fully split where everybody has 1 vote each in the trial, you die.

One idea I have for the trials is if the execution vote is fully split where everyone has 1 vote each, an execution doesn't happen. This forces at least someone to actively go against it.

Anything else?

Still have to finish some stuff with this to make sure it works well. Some of these aren't implemented yet since the trials have to be made for them to work. The Lawbreaker’s Edict has a bunch left to do as well, and it's going to have the most code to implement outside maybe one that has to do with strings. Other than that it's going well enough. This aspect of Lawbreaker's Edict wasn't the first to be implemented, but the longest. I do have certain things planned, but I'll get to it after Lawbreaker is implemented fully.