Soo… something less like a game stat, more like an actual relationship?
Trust:
Most people will let you gain trust over a while, and if you do something seriously wrong you’ll lose it again around 5 times as fast.
Need:
Anyway the more pressing a person’s Need is, the more they tend to let down their guard if it’s fulfilled.
But on the other hand they might not even reveal a need unless a certain level of trust has been reached already.
That is pretty questy but maybe something like love languages (Words/compliments, Gifts/bribes, Help/quests, Touch/love scenarios, and… something something) could be used to diversify it a bit?
Ethics:
What if quests done and actions taken resulted (multi-axial) alignments, and those affected the questions npcs would ask (pointedly ask?) and how much they trusted you from the beginning and/or if they decided to later in a developed relationship decided to have a Conversation?
Trade vs Gifts
I think strangers will trade, but that in relationships the exchanges are prolonged over time.
How much time it’s okay to prolong things depend on the level of Trust.
So what if Gifts can be exchanged over time and if players give npcs something they’d just go ‘thanks?’ and it’s only much later that players will discover if it resulted in anything positive, like the right sort of gossip about hidden quest Z or something?
Soo… something less like a game stat, more like an actual relationship?
Trust: Most people will let you gain trust over a while, and if you do something seriously wrong you’ll lose it again around 5 times as fast.
Need: Anyway the more pressing a person’s Need is, the more they tend to let down their guard if it’s fulfilled. But on the other hand they might not even reveal a need unless a certain level of trust has been reached already. That is pretty questy but maybe something like love languages (Words/compliments, Gifts/bribes, Help/quests, Touch/love scenarios, and… something something) could be used to diversify it a bit?
Ethics: What if quests done and actions taken resulted (multi-axial) alignments, and those affected the questions npcs would ask (pointedly ask?) and how much they trusted you from the beginning and/or if they decided to later in a developed relationship decided to have a Conversation?
Trade vs Gifts I think strangers will trade, but that in relationships the exchanges are prolonged over time. How much time it’s okay to prolong things depend on the level of Trust. So what if Gifts can be exchanged over time and if players give npcs something they’d just go ‘thanks?’ and it’s only much later that players will discover if it resulted in anything positive, like the right sort of gossip about hidden quest Z or something?