Eurekie?
Or, i'm an idiot
Ofttimes, in expanding a system, we start seeing patterns in the domain. I had one of those revelations. Before, the system was dividing encounters by type: combat, social, exploration, etc. I realized that basically, encounters in general boil down to this pattern:
show setup / environment / participants
character or npc takes an action
show the result of that action or show more information if the action calls for it
continue showing action / reaction / more info
continue until a closing point reached - a conversation terminates or an enemy dies, surrenders, runs off or character does the same, etc.
So i’m refactoring for an uber-encounter setup that honors the participant action / re-action, and allows any type of action (not giving a menu of options based on type). This should allow for emergent, surprising stuff. 75% code reduction! 75. Shows how one should direct Claude towards architectural problem-solving and not just “patches”.
also:
🎰 You encounter a vintage slot machine in the merchant camp
It looks completely ordinary...
🔍 PERCEPTION CHECK: Sigrid Battleaxe examines it...
Rolled 14 (1d20+0) vs DC 16
✗ FAILED! It looks perfectly normal.
You approach to investigate...
🎰 SURPRISE! The a vintage slot machine suddenly ATTACKS!
It’s a Slot Machine Mimic!
⚠️ AMBUSHED: The mimic attacks first! -2 to your AC this round
💬 Slot Machine Mimic: “Stop staring! I’m average height for my... species!”
💬 Slot Machine Mimic: *freezes* “Did you see that?! Something moved!”
