[Tutor] Best way to save a D&D-like game's state?

[boB Stepp]

On Fri, May 21, 2021 at 8:52 PM Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>
> On Fri, 21 May 2021 19:25:29 -0500, boB Stepp <robertvstepp at gmail.com>
> declaimed the following:
>
> >I am contemplating the design of a D&D-like game where I will
>
>         You may have to expand on what you consider a "D&D-like" game. To me, a
> true (desktop) RPG (AD&D [to date me], RuneQuest 2 [RQ3, and RQ:Roleplaying
> in Glorantha], Traveller) only have whatever statistics the players have on
> their character sheets, and whatever memory the gamemaster retains of the
> sessions. The games themselves are free-format -- anything may be
> encountered, treasures are fully random including artifacts, etc.

You may date me as well!  I started out with "Chainmail" and
"Blackmoor" booklets when I first played as a player, not a DM.

In a well-designed D&D campaign, IMO, most things of any importance
are pre-placed with at least a rough outline of how world events are
to develop time-wise.  This can be taken to as granular a design as
one has patience and inclination.  How free-form the DM makes it can
vary considerably.  Of course in classic paper, pencil and dice D&D
much of the fun comes from the spontaneous role playing by everyone.
Of course this is truly impossible to capture in its entirety with a
program.  But, nonetheless, I would like to explore the truly
difficult problem of allowing the program to be a mediator of the
players' actions and allow their range of activities to be as
unfettered as possible.  I don't know how far I will make it in such a
difficult problem, but its difficulty along with some ideas I wish to
explore are what makes it attractive to me.  Of course the big issue
is interpreting natural language.  If this can be done for at least a
reasonable subset of such language most typical actions that
adventurers might attempt can be resolved rather mechanistically.

The reason I am suspecting the data involved might grow significantly
is that if I allow the players to seriously do whatever they want then
I need to record and be able to restore how they have altered the
state of their environment.  For instance they might scrawl on a
dungeon wall, "Kilroy was here!".  Where and how that was done should
be storable and recreatable if someone revisits that location.  Or as
you say if someone empties the treasure chest then those items need to
be tracked, including if the players make alterations to such items.
Of course common stuff of no real importance need not be scrupulously
tracked *until* a player character acquires such item(s).

The real humdinger is how to manage conversations in a free-form way
that isn't highly constrained from a very limited number of choices
and to make such conversations flow sensibly.  Even creating something
even remotely satisfying to a player would be a huge, possibly
insoluble, challenge.

Anyway this is what the ever foolish boB is interested in exploring.
I may go nowhere, but in the process of exploring I am certain I will
learn much.  And if I am successful to any reasonable degree then what
I learn and create will be useful for other challenges.

Cheers!
boB Stepp