Experiment Template

[SC Lecter]

At the last CDM, some of you expressed interest in submitting experiment ideas. So here is the template I promised.

Experiment Name
Self explanatory.

Description
A short description explaining what the experiment does. This is what is shown on the "@conduct 'list" list.

Syntax
How will the experiment be executed? Some examples include "@conduct 'experiment name" or "@conduct with/on <object> 'experiment name" or @conduct with/on <object1>, <object2>, ... , <objectN> 'experiment name." Leave blank if you're not sure. I'll figure it out.

Experiment Level
On a scale of 1-10, how hard is the experiment? The higher the level, the longer it takes to learn. Leave blank if you're not sure. Note that there is no correlation between difficulty to learn and the skills required to learn. Time forumla: time to learn = 5min + (5min x level)

Learn Noise
These are the emits shown during the lesson. There should be a minimum of 20. More for higher level experiments.

Required Skills
The skills and levels required to learn the experiment.

Required Experiments
What experiments(if any) should one know before learning this one?

Required Objects
Objects required to conduct the experiment. When the experiment is executed, the system will automatically search the environment and your inventory for these items. Things like ingredients will be used up.

Required Target(s)
This is a number. Do you execute this experiment on or with something? For example, for the Find Mass experiment, you must "@conduct with <object1> 'find mass" where the object1 is the object to be weighed.

Target Criteria
If you have required targets, do the objects have to meet certain criteria? Looking back at the Find Mass experiment, I know that objects have to be small enough to fit on a scale.

The Process
An outline/diagram of the steps one takes when executing the experiment. This can be as simple or complex as you like (or at least as complex as my abilities allow). If you want the experiment to just walk the character through the steps using emits, write up those emits. If you want it to be interactive (CYOA), include the steps and choices the character has to make. (I'll write up a more detail description of what a CYOA is below.) Don't forget to mention what happens if the experiment goes wrong (injury, damaged equipment, etc) or what happens when the experiment is successfully completed. This is probably the most complicated part of creating an experiment so if you need help or guidance, we can get together and talk about it.


I'll post an example of an experiment soon.

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CYOA - Create Your Own Adventure
CYOAs are great fun for players but take a bit of time to code. There are a few examples of these in game but you may not know what they are. For those who have done the Find Mass experiment, you'll notice that it will look something like this:

You place StoryCoder Lecter's off-white pulp fiction book on the scale and begin to balance it with weights.

The platform holding the weights rises slowly before coming to a gradual stop above the other side.
-- To add more weight, type @a.
-- To add small amount of weight, type @b.
-- To stop here, type @c.
-- To take away a small amount of weight, type @d.
-- To take away some weight, type @e.

If you want to use a CYOA for your experiment, you'll need to map out all the different possibilities. There are also a couple of limitations:

There can only be five different options at a time (a - e).
There are no delays. So if you want to perform a step and then delay for X seconds, you can't.

[Willow]

The player of Jake Knife recently asked:
I know there are "experiments in development for Arkham, but what about Cooking? Will cooking become a learnable skill and have it's own unqiue method of 'crafting' food like in some other games?

The current staffly answer is:
At this time we do not have plans to make cooking something separate. Currently any recipe-type activities are considered wither scientific or alchemy-like concoctions. Depending on what the desired end effect is (like candy that gives you an growing sweet tooth) the recipe could be classed as a spell too. It all depends on the twist you approach the recipe with.

If any of you have an idea/thought/different take on this, please do post or assist.

:) Willow

[Willow]

Experiment Name
autopsy

Description
Performing an autopsy on a corpse allows one a chance to investigate the cause of death of that thing.

Syntax
@conduct with <corpse> 'autopsy'
@conduct with <first corpse> 'autopsy' (if multiple corpses are hanging about)

Experiment Level
10 = 1 hour
NOTE: This is how long it takes to @learn this particular experiment, not how long it takes to conduct it. This does not also take into account any time needed to learn the required skills in order to @learn the experiment.

Learn Noise
fill in yet - am going to need LOTS of emits if I want someone to sit for an hour and watch these go by on the screen. I am confident I can do this.

Required Skills
biology: 1 in order to @learn
medicine: 1 in order to @learn; the higher this skill, the better the chances the autopsy can be performed successfully

Required Experiments
none, but after discussion this basic autopsy might be required before one can learn advanced autopsy extractions such as removing eyes, etc, or performing autopsies on non-human things (requiring higher biology skill levels and perhaps even other knowledge skills such as anatomy)

Required Objects
scalpel, 1 container per organ extracted (need to determine which organs), needle & thread for closure
bonus items: bone saw, rib spreader, etc. After discussion we decided that having a bonus autopsy tool that relates to the extraction of a specific organ will give a +1 bonus one's medicine skill. This bonus will help give one a chance to extract that particular organ successfully.

Required Target(s)
1 - corpse

Target Criteria
corpse objects should have a value to check against, like corpse = 1 to ensure one cannot perform an autopsy on any ole object.

The Process
1. Open corpse - use scalpel to cut an incision to get to the organs
2. a loop to extract the organs one wants, note there is a bonus tool used for each organ to increase chance of successful extraction
Choices are limited to a through e for the system:
@a brain
@b heart
@c stomach
@d liver
@e done extracting, ready to close
3. close corpse (suture)

NOTES:
If we don't allow for a way to break the loop, the CYOA will either always keep you in the loop or it'll eventually time out not allowing you to finish the procedure. IT MAY be possible to code it so that if all 5 choices are organs - the fifth choice being lungs then - and if all organs have been removed or at least attempted removal then perhaps we can break the loop then....for example: you choose @a to extract the brain, at the beginning of each extraction is a check for the existence of that organ, if it's already removed it checks if all the other organs are removed, if all are extracted then it breaks to 'do you want to close?' otherwise it just says 'you note by the empty cavity in the corpse's skill that the brain is already extracted.'

It was discussed that effects (what our insanity system is based on) could have given a character a taint (such as a blood taint from a Deep One, or some type of curse that could look like cancer, etc). These effects should carry over from the live character's body to the dead character's corpse object that the death system spawns upon death. StoryCoder Lecter found: "The death systems will build corpses based on diseases whatever. So there will be property in the corpse that will look something like "autopsy:organs = ({ <Heart:of:deep:one>, <Lung:of:deep:one>, ... })" so we simply need to build different organs for different corpses and associate them accordingly."

This means that the Autopsy CYOA, in the extraction code for each organ, will need to check in the corpse object to see which organ object to spawn if the extraction is successful. Is it a normal heart? Then spawn the normal heart object. It may turn out that we may just need to pass on the taint values from the living character to the corpse object to the extracted organ object, in that the value 'this is tainted with this effect' needs to pass on from object to object so that by the time one takes the heart and peforms 'make slide with my heart' and then performs the microscope observation of that cross section of the heart that you can see 'gee this heart has a strange microorganism infecting it! I had better go hit the books to research what that is.'

It was although brought up that this is a basic autopsy and that we might make advanced autopsy experiments or specialized extraction experiments to get other organs or to perform on aminals and aliens. We decided that all organisms that are autopsiable would have the same organs, but that their anatomy (where those are found) could be different, and therefore if you aren't familiar with shuggoth anatomy you may not be able to find the brain.

Someone also noted that one might possibly combine the autopsy experiment with a mummification spell and a curse spell to create a cursed mummy, and that then either if the curse is triggered or a future animation spell is cast on the mummy that it could come to life to cause trouble. So from a basic autopsy meant for research and investigation came all sorts of ideas for roleplay and storytelling, this being one example.

~ Willow