SmartMonsters' Bulletin Boards
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By Pam, Meghan, Leon, Roy, Caroline, Lisa

There's more than one playing style in TriadCity. Levels and armor don't always have to be the focus of gameplay. You can explore for its own sake. It looks like there's going to be an Explorer Role which we hope will bring new Skills.

The craft of exploration in TC is like urbex - the Urban Exploration hobby IRL which takes people into abandoned buildings, unused steam tunnels, fallen-down old movie theaters, decrepit subways. We look for hidden entrances to obscure places, then go there for its own sake. But also sometimes to solve puzzles which benefit the community.

By exploring and puzzle-solving we figured out how to defeat bad colds. That was the most fun some of us have ever had playing RPGs. We had to find a long chain of items/clothes/passwords, then figure out how to use them, then solve more puzzles, to get into the camouflaged biotech lab where vaccinations are stored. Then we had to figure out how to vaccinate NPCs without them attacking us. That's led to more mysteries. Now we're trying to discover how to open the round golden door guarded by Achilles. Do we have to repair him somehow? We're not sure but we're looking for parts. Where does that door go? We think it might be the CCC HQ but nobody knows.

How to be an Explorer:

- Look at every Item and every direction.
- Look at all the 'nouns'.
- Smell, taste, touch, listen.
- Crawl when necessary.
- Pick Items from trees and bushes.
- Open drawers, look inside. Close them. Open and close doors. Sometimes things happen.
- Move things from where you find them. Drag them if necessary. You're looking for hidden doors.
- Write down graffiti, badge numbers, the comments NPCs make. Sometimes locks open by Saying the right combination of words.
- Bring a permanent light source. Infrared goggles, the infravision tattoo. Bring an AG water source with fountain water from SI, a rope for climbing, a good knife for cutting, an AG bag with breadfruit or waybread. Bring a med kit with bandages and syrettes for anti-paralysis. Bring bug bombs because you never know.
- So far we've never had to fight anything. The danger is getting trapped when you can't find your way out. It's probably good to have some RPs for recall if you're stuck.
- So far the only Skill we've needed is See Skill. We've not yet had to Lockpick, but, we imagine there must be some times when we'll have to.
- We've found a lot of things we don't yet know what to do with. Broken robots, machine parts, card keys, plus objects we just don't understand. We believe we'll find uses for these, as we did for the things that were needed to enter the bio lab.

IMPORTANT! Don't share secrets outside your group. We know this is clannish. But this is one area where spoilers really spoil. If ppl post solutions to puzzles, there are no more puzzles.

The decision whether to share lore re the more difficult or obscure puzzles is dicey 'cos normally we like to share everything, but in this case probably not. For Explorers whose reward as players is finding hidden things and figuring them out, the fun genuinely is ruined if you can look up answers in the forum. You'll need to share info among team members working as a group to solve puzzles, but thanks for being cool and not broadcasting too widely.

You're asked (by signs and a bulletin board) not to share the location of the Explorers guild suite.

SmartMonsters' Bulletin Boards Post early, post often.

SmartMonsters' Bulletin Boards
Post early, post often.