Placing Rumors

[Gallinaar]

I'd be interested to know where and how you folks place your 'rumors' into RealmWorks.

I'm toying with the idea that they should show up when the trigger topic is selected.

Rumors may be:

• person specific - so can be listed with the person text
• building specific - listed within the building text
• area specific - could be listed in with area topic info, but only need rumor not the whole area
• region specific - same as above
• country specific - same as above

...and so on.

I'm currently using 'Plot Hook' as the category as its seems to be the closest match. By using 'CountryName Rumors' or 'AreaName Rumors' as a topic it shows up in the content links listing when the text relevant to the rumor is present. Each 'rumor topic' has one snippet per rumor.

Is this how do you deal with rumors?
Are there alternatives?
Should we have/do we need/can we create a 'Rumors' category?

Edit: Ah! Found out where to create categories...

 

[Cornelius]

You can give a snippet a value of truth (true, partially true, untrue). So you can add the rumors to the topics they belong to. So if they hear rumors about Obama, they can find them under the topic Obama.

to do this select the snippet and either press F9 or use icon at the end to open the snippet options menu. there you can select the thruth level.

 

[EightBitz]

You can also tie a GM note to the snippet to identify it as a rumor.

 

[EightBitz]

You can also add a new section to a given topic, and place all your rumors in that section.

 

[Gallinaar]

I get the idea of rumors with single individuals. That's the easy bit. What I'm looking for are ways of dealing with rumors that can be 'heard' countrywide, or in a specific region. If these were only tied to an individual, they wouldn't show up anywhere else.

Didn't know about the GM Note option. Thanks for that, will look into it. My first thought though is that I'm not so much looking to 'identify' as get the rumor to be revealed in the Content Links or Governed Content at the right-hand side. Using a new category may be the way to go.

Not yet investigated sections of topics. Interesting. Will check that out - thanks 8bitz.

 

[EightBitz]

Say there's a rumor about Paul Bunyan that can be heard in Texas. Two ideas come to mind.

1) Place the rumor under the topic of Paul Bunyan. Within the snippet, include something like: "Paul Bunyan is a giant (Heard while in Texas.)" As long as the Texas topic already exists, that will create an automatic link from that snippet.

2) Place the rumor under the topic of Texas. "Paul Bunyan is a giant." As long as the Paul Bunyan topic already exists, that snippet will automatically link.

I would do it one of these two ways, because you're keeping the information with its relevant topic. But if a new category still makes sense to you, then by all means, proceed as such.

 

[Viral Platypus]

I'd put the rumor in a snippit with the person/place/thing that it's about. Change the truth level. Then add in any relationships to link in people/whatnot who would know about the information. This would allow people to encounter the rumor from any of those sources and you can then reveal it. If it's important enough, you can reference the topic and the rumor in a plot point in the adventure, so when they get to that point, you remember where it is.

 

[Viral Platypus]

If everyone knows about it, just auto-reveal it. As soon as you reveal the main article, the players will see the rumor. Don't wait for the players to go searching for it. They'll automatically hear about it when they start inquiring about the person or place or when they hear about it for the first time.

If you want to make sure you mention it create a specific plot point and link the person in question into it to make sure they are brought up in conversation.

 

[Silveras]

The trick is whether the information can be learned from multiple sources.

You can simply add the same information to each source as something to be revealed, or you can add a topic for each Rumor (or Clue, or whatever) and link to these from the sources. The latter is the approach I have used.

 

[Mystic Lemur]

Rumors are odd. From a GM perspective, I'd want the rumors to be listed in the area that the players are likely to hear them. If they travel to Magnimar, they're likely to want to know "What's the word on the street?" not "What do the people of Magnimar think of Geb?"

However, as a player, if I'm looking up a topic to see what my character/party has heard about it, I'd like to know all the rumors I've heard no matter where I heard them.

So as a world builder, I need to place the rumors in the topics where they are heard, and the topics they relate to. Is there any way link topics so that when I reveal a rumor in Magnimar about Geb the snippet is revealed in both topics? Could this be handled with a relationship category I could set up and then reveal?

 

[Cornelius]

You can also add a new section to a given topic, and place all your rumors in that section.

I would do it like this also. It will require you to add it also in the individual topic, but this way if the question is asked, what is the rumor on the street you can just look into the place topic, or the encounter topic.