Of words and choice.

I wonder what it would be like to play a game (RPG?) in which a given conversation choice costs points. As you role play the costs shift--with one sort of answer becoming more expensive, and another sort cheaper.

For example:

If you play a gregarious character, choosing happy-go-lucky responses, these will become cheaper… but serious-minded responses or cutting sarcasm might get more expensive.

Or say you consistently choose sarcastic responses, perhaps over time these choices become cheap and easy, and when an NPC you care about is sad, you might find that you lack the conversation points to say something healing or appropriate.

There might be game and conversation context that suddenly change costs. If you are insulted, perhaps the cost for saying something angry does down and the cost for saying something nice goes up.

Some questions that need to be answered:

• How do you get points?
• What gameplay purpose does this mechanic serve?
• What happens to the points pool /after/ a conversation?
• Should this mechanic be tied to other systems? (like combat?)
• Or should this system be exclusive to conversation; a closed loop. With the side-effects strictly being the results from the interaction.
• How should character stats affect (should they?) your point pool?

I suppose this idea is trying to explore a possible answer to questions like these:

• What if conversation was more like combat?
• What if it required long-term strategy like choosing what skills to level up does?
• What if there were narrative consequences, just from the fact that you couldn't make certain kinds of choices?

Like the consequences from a warrior vs thief build. The former has to bribe or bust their way into the contents of a safe… Or rob someone while they transport the contents… The latter could just sneak in at night and pick the lock.