Thursday, August 9, 2012

Maslows Heirarchy of needs in an RPG; My Preferred CC license

I can imagine the flack I would get making a system where the GM can enforce the Maslow's Heirarchy of needs. Its a hypothesis, I know, its just a really reasonable one comming from my observation of behavior.

What is weird is that I've used this as a format of explaining system limitations. The Basic Rules is the Resolution System, what do you call the Physical and Mental limitations? "Intermediate rules?" "Advance Rules", "Post Basic Rules?"... I'm defaulting to Intermediate Rules right now.

So my Intermediate Rules System kinda follows Maslows Heirarchy of needs as a method of organization. I start with the very basic needs: like food, shelter, water, breathing, SLEEP etc... stuff that is surprisingly common sense but one of the first rules "broken" in many systems. Something I know I may not be on the same page about is Human Limitations and Performance levels.

In Hiking (which my wife has shown interested in) and Camping, its all about managing human limitations. We are not sporty people, we are pretty practical and we get fit for the purpose of a lower cost of living and better quality of life. This is basic for everyone, to know how to get fit and know what to avoid, but surprisingly it is something you don't learn in school (especially if you look at Philippine Secondary and Higher education curriculum). You'd thing PE would have some PT.

So basic human performance and limitations are FAR from the stock and basic education of many players and many game systems. Well this is my experience when I've been listening to the adventures of others. Its weird that an All Powerful Warrior can collapse because of heat exhaution - the no. of Airsofters all decked out in Tacticool Equipment only to go down because of Poor hydration... (airsoft games are often at 30C degrees in the shade or 86F.

I guess I'm jaded by some of the experience in hiking and airsoft; how frequently someone botching up the details can ruin everything (thats why i always keep redundant guns, and -before the baby- maintain my guns). I make lists and i make journal reports, and most importantly trying to never to make the same mistake if it is a kind of mistake that can be corrected easily).

Now MHoN is pretty awesome; you can make it a psychological framework for characters. you can make it the Default/Baseline human psyche to build over and list exceptions and the rules. Well i'm doing this for the Rule Book I'm making. Of courses its CC Attribution, Non-Commercial, and Share-Alike.

A little Note on why CC BY NC SA...
The material and the medium and tools are free... the services using those tools are not. Give people the tools so that they have the means to provide a valuable service. The cheaper the tools the easier it is for people to enter into providing the service (providing the service is still work). When it comes to IP, I believe we have exhausted all the possible Ideas regarding Game Systems and begun just creating some technical iterations that have lower and lower value - as far as fantasy goes. Modeling Reality - a game system that illustrates science should be Open Source IMO and can always be improved. But as for modeling fantasy its pretty much arbitrary and is like arguing metaphysics ("how many angles can dance on the pin of a needle").

cheaper tools, for easier Job migration in a world whose needs and demands continues to shift is one of those expenses that I believe has a very good Return On Investment (depending on the common good within a society).

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