Re: CF: Usless Items (was Map integration)

[swedel@Tymnet.COM (Scott Wedel)]

James Cameron wrote:
> I disagree.  Real life adventures have clues that mean nothing.  Good
> dungeon design principles involve clues that lead to either nothing or
> to minor quests.  Read Larry Niven's Dream Park for some interesting
> examples.
> 
> I like the idea of leaving creative useless clues around, be they keys,
> books, or anything.  The sense of mystery is good for game play.  Take
> away that mystery with "everything must have it's place" and you have
> created an artificial universe that isn't nearly so interesting.

This inspired me to realize how one in real life sometimes distinguishes
between junk and useful for things like keys.  Keys are not simply out of
a material.  There are all sorts of details such as size of key, style of
key, precision of key, lightly or heavily used, expensive or cheap and so
on.  The same is true of locks.  Thus, the problems with keys is not that
they exist or that sometimes they are meaningless, the real problem is that
they are described with so little detail.  If the description of the lock
suggested which key or type of key might work then if player later finds
a suitable key then player might remember the door which wanted that type
of key.

Most of us can tell the difference between a house and a car key.  An
observant person can tell the manufacturer of the car from the key.  A
key to a safe deposit box may look similar to a key to a master lock,
but they are clearly different.

							sdw

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