Example
of Using the Dialogue Engine
In
this example, I’ll use indented smaller text to show the game
mechanics behind this short dialogue game situation.
The detective is approaching an old
homeless man on the street in a Seattle attempting to find out if he
has seen a suspect in the recent stabbing in the area. The homeless
man will not trust the detective, at least initially
Old
man
Personality
= rolled 2D6 = 7 = guardian [from Character Generator]
Guardian
- They seek perfection and to protect culture, society, and whatever
they do.
However,
if experiencing great stress, a Guardian becomes more of a Lone Wolf.
Lone
Wolf - They seek to be original and unique.
The
old man will be a minor character in terms of
importance.
vocal
level = rolled 1D6 = 1 quiet ; rolled 1 = range, rolled 3 = middle
range ; rolled 3 = texture, rolled 3 = twangy texture ; rolled 5 =
word imagery, rolled 1 = cold, abstract word imagery.
The
old man with a guardian personality speaks quietly, with a
middle-range twangy voice, and uses
cold
and abstract word imagery.
‘Excuse me sir. Have you seen this
man,’ you ask, showing the old homeless man the picture on your
smartphone.
Hesitant,
distrust; rolls a 1 = Pause often and cautious. Speaks little and
guarded
The old man moved back from the
picture, as if the image was dangerous or grotesque.
Quietly he spoke. ‘What ... did he
do?” he asked in a twangy southern accent voice.
What
is the old man’s motivation? Motivation rolls 3D6 = 12 defense
mechanism, rolls a 13 = restoring a past wrong (from Motivation
Generator]
The
old man is speaking little, guarded, slowly, and cautiously because
in the past he said something
that
came back to haunt him.
The
lone wolf in him caused by the increased past trauma is telling him
to ‘Leave me alone’.
‘He may have done something very
bad,” you say trying to read the old man’s face.
The
old man will remember that experience feeling guilt at first and then
hurt. Guilt roll 10 = sweating; Hurt roll 16, uneven steps, weak
stumble, collapse.
The old man began to sweat. He seemed
to brace himself on his old possession filled shopping cart.
‘I don’t like it ... when good
people ... get blamed ... for bad things.’
I
used the ‘I don’t like’ as suggested as guardian common words
spoken.
