Contacting

[X-D]

I'm really failing to see how the key command is supposed to solve anything.

three short PCs in dark hooded cloaks stand here.

You don't know any of the sdescs and the mdescs don;t share any keywords with the sdesc...well, maybe they do, but they are 10-20 line mdescs....have fun.

[Majikal]

Definitely ran into this problem as well.

Twice this week I've held a conversation with someone IG for 20+ minutes, all the while I'm disecting their mdesc and playing the keyword game. Okay, he's skinny with long black hair.. skinny doesn't work, lithe, slender, wiry, scrawny, narrow, damnit.. okay... fuck it.

>contact dude-sitting-right-across-from-me
You contact the rawboned, atramental-haired man with the Way.

You send a telepathic message to the rawboned, atramental-haired man with the Way.
     "You sneaky sdesc having sonva bitch.."

This is definitely not as farfetched as I made it out to be. Lots of folks make their sdesc not sync up with their mdesc, most do it unintentionally (I think). So in these cases, I sniff the shit out of some sdesc's.

[Fathi]

if a person psi sniffs me, the chances of my character not killing him decrease instantly. If they mask the psi sniff with a bit of a mention via the way. I'm just fine with it, my character assumes that the person contacted mine to relay the sentence. But when it's an obvious psi sniff, the respect for their life just ... plummets. Any possible arrangements that "could've" been achieved dont, any kind of trust that could've been built, does not.

This is a pretty dumb, negative-nancy way of looking at things.

Unless you're playing a mindbender, how do you know who contacted you? How do you know what's an "obvious psi sniff?"

[Agent_137]

if a person psi sniffs me, the chances of my character not killing him decrease instantly. If they mask the psi sniff with a bit of a mention via the way. I'm just fine with it, my character assumes that the person contacted mine to relay the sentence. But when it's an obvious psi sniff, the respect for their life just ... plummets. Any possible arrangements that "could've" been achieved dont, any kind of trust that could've been built, does not.

I assume you mean all that ICly, because it's possible ICly to reach out and touch the mind of someone nearby and get a vague picture their person. So if one is hooded and barriered and someone breaks through all that to his face, the character should be mad, not the player. The character should assume it's the person nearby and that it's not just a coincidence. Keep it IC.

[brytta.leofa]

If you're trying to conceal your identity (raiding whilst wrapped in swaddling cloths, say), I guess it's reasonable to be offended if you think your victim has just contacted you.  Of course you can't TELL who the contacter was unless he sends something, but...

If you gain a certain amount of identifying information from the Way, the consequences cut both ways.  But it should be an in-character offense, not an OOC one.

[Dar]

if a person psi sniffs me, the chances of my character not killing him decrease instantly. If they mask the psi sniff with a bit of a mention via the way. I'm just fine with it, my character assumes that the person contacted mine to relay the sentence. But when it's an obvious psi sniff, the respect for their life just ... plummets. Any possible arrangements that "could've" been achieved dont, any kind of trust that could've been built, does not.

I assume you mean all that ICly, because it's possible ICly to reach out and touch the mind of someone nearby and get a vague picture their person. So if one is hooded and barriered and someone breaks through all that to his face, the character should be mad, not the player. The character should assume it's the person nearby and that it's not just a coincidence. Keep it IC.

That's why I said "identity conscious people" like RF or criminals?

And to reply to Fathi, most of the time it's obvious, it just is. Sure it's not a 100% certainty, but Zalanthas isnt much for criminal law and assumed innocence.

[Twilight]

• I've seen non-psi's that I couldn't contact, at all, ever, with a character that had maxed, or near maxed contact.  I have had people I could vary rarely contact, while they where sitting in the same room even.  Barrier is fine, it just might not be fine for your character.
• I don't see why one would usually bother to psi sniff.  Stop writing down people's sdesc and use your memory...you may find that you have far less use for sdesc that you might otherwise believe if you constantly forget people's.
• I really don't get the deal with raiders and such who then want to go live in polite society or civilization.  Maybe my vision of a post-apocalyptic wasteland is different than yours, but if you are an outlaw, 99% of the time you should live like one (unless you are say, preying only on the citizens of the other citystate) rather than try to live some dual identity lifestyle.

[Saellyn]

Yep. I agree with Gunnerblaster there. It's been mentioned before that just because the code lets you do it, doesn't mean it's always cool to do so. I remember there was a thread on the GDB where people were throwing in the opinion that backstabbing a single target multiple times was cool, since there were no coded barriers to it. Much later after that, I did exactly that with a character and the staff curtly asked me not to do that. Why? Because they held me to a higher standard. Contacting a cloaked figure in the same room with you is doable, but I think it's pretty uncool when it's for the express purpose of looking at their sdesc.

I think it would be great if some of the old code was plugged in to the current incarnation of contacting hooded figures. Before, you would get "you contact such-and-such cloaked, hooded figure", and receive their sdesc in subsequent communication through the way, if I remember correctly. I think I'd personally like it that way.

Oh, and for the record, I can say that I've never, ever done the whole contact figure; break thing because I think it's lame as hell.
That's my 2 'sid, take it as you will.

I like this.  If you contact a Raider, believe me, you shouldn't get the guys SDesc and then run to Lord Templar OMGI'mawesomesauce and go "Yeah, the ragged, filthy elf raided me last week." That's dumb.