Rubber Band Systems

  I almost called this article 'Rubber band zones,' but that does not really capture the idea.  The word 'zone' seems to imply something self contained, and while the concept of a single rubber band system (RBS) must be well defined and may be localized, there may be many RBS operating in the same game area.  RBS is critical in Orison to achieve the ballance between simulation of a living world where player actions change the game state on one hand, and ease of implementation on the other.

The Simplest RBS

Every RBS in Orison is designed to have a 'ground state' to which the system will eventually return in the absence of player involvement.  The simplest possible RBS would be a two-state system in which one state is the ground.  Some sort of player action could cause the state to transition into the other state and further action may be able to keep the system in this state, however, in the absense of this further action, the system will eventually transition back to its ground state.  It is desirable for a scrited event to accompany a state transition, and if it is possible for a player to interrupt this script in any way, then those interruptions must result in the system transitioning into a valid state.
By way of example:
Rats in Undertown: Ground state: Undertown is empty of NPCs.  There are NPCs in the city above who talk about their homes back in Undertown.  NPCs in the city above give PCs information about the rat infestation and reward players for rat tails and offer a large reward for a dire rat tail.  If a rat is killed inside Undertown, a one minute counter (invisible to the players) starts.  After this counter runs down, a rat is spawned at one of the rat-holes in the sewers and a rat currently in the sewers moves to take the place of the killed rat in Undertown.  If the dire rat in the center of Undertown is killed, the system moves to state 1.
Transition script from ground state to state 1: Enough rats in the sewers move back to the rat-holes and de-pop to make spaces in the sewer for the rats left in undertown.  The rats in Undertown move to take their places.  If a rat is killed during the script, then a one minute timer starts before another rat pops at the rat-holes to take its place.  NPCs in the city above walk to undertown.  (NPCs that are killed repop, as always, at the altar and make their way back to their daily routene)

A more complex RBS

State 1: Undertown is populated with NPCs who tell about the dangerous rats in the sewer and give rewards for rat-tails.  Several NPCs in the city above say that the residents of undertown give rewards for rat-tails.  Rats are on routes in the sewer, once every two minutes, a rat attacks an undertown guard, is killed, and another rat pops to take its place.  A timer starts at 20 minutes, every time a rat is killed in the sewers, one minute is added to the timer.  If the timer reaches zero, state transitions to state 2, if the timer is ever above 30 minutes then the state transitions back to ground.



Transition from state 1 to ground: You get the point.
Transition from state 1 to state 2: You get the point.
State 2: You get the point.
Transition from state 2 to state 1:  If you really don't get the point, leave a comment.