Music

[chang]

I was getting ready for bed and suddenly had this idea that's gotten me so enthused there's no way I'll be able to sleep.  I must get it out of my head.  I'm no good with writing these big posts, so please- bear with me.

  Tonight we were having a big ole party in Tuluk with dancing and music and merriment and people joined as it went along and it grew and was very much fun.  Then I thought to myself:  "Gee, chang- the people approaching this place have no idea they're about to hit a mass of PCs playing instruments and partying.  Then they arrive- and BAM its the middle of a block party."  Wouldn't it be cool if each instrument in the game (oh no- lots of rewriting) had an echo that it produced x rooms away when the room description was asked for (i.e. the room was moved into/the look command was invoked (or whatever else) )?  
  For instance, templar t is walking along and suddenly starts getting:
      The strumming of a mandolin rings from the north.
<or>
      The piping of a wooden flute chimes from inside a large, two-story      
               tavern.
<or>
       The resounding percussion of a log drum echos from outside.

or all three of them at once;  so she changes her path and checks out the music scene.  I just have visions in my head of a band playing on a corner and getting multiple echo messages multiple rooms away and PCs just flocking to it.  We were sitting one room away from the block party in Tuluk tonight and had no idea it was going on till somone 'looked' outside and we'd already missed the majority of it.  (sadness).

  A bard (or anyone?) can toggle the mode of their instrument from echoing( playing ) to nonechoing (not playing (duh)) with perhaps the use command?  Now I bet some of you RP purists out there are getting hot pants over how this is going to detract from the emote-creativity and unwitnessable splendidness that goes into being a northern bard, but the echo only chimes rooms away.  The toggle would (i imagine) also switch the instrumentalist's ldesc to an appropriate string.  The bard is still emoting/singing his/her heart out.


I've really rambled- this is bad.  I hope its clear, and I hope you all take interest.  :idea: I've got another post I'm about to throw up along the same lines.

[John]

I love the idea. The command would probably work like listen (only it would succeed 100%):
play music on|off|status.

If your not holding/wielding an instrument you get:
You don't have anything to play with.

[Lazloth]

Some items work in this fashion already, don't see why it couldn't be bootstrapped.  Thumbs up!

[HaiWolfe]

Awesome idea.  Can't think of anything wrong with it, aside from the amount of recoding it would need.

[gfair]

Echo on music instruments is cool, I hope it could be done.

But for large parties, you're literally going to see as many musical echos as you see emotes in a tavern on RPT night.  Much better that these echos are generalized as something like "the sound of a large party and music come to you from the north." or something to that effect.

For RPTs, individual echos should be squelched for the sake of enjoyment.