作者：Rebecca Phoa

在小部分角色扮演游戏中，玩家可以选择扮演一个低智力的角色。

这不仅允许玩家在创建角色时有更大的自由度，也给原本中规中矩、严肃古板的游戏对话增加了一层新意。

对于许多已经发行的游戏，且有可能创建这类特殊角色的游戏，我首先想到的有如下四款：

《辐射》系列

《冰风溪谷》

《奥秘》

《无冬之夜》

无冬之夜(from tweakguides.com)

在自动配置的情况下，玩家分配给智力值的点数少得可怜，这时，DM也可能选择“强迫”玩角扮演低智商的角色。我的DM特别向一位扮演牛头骑士的玩家阐明，分配智力点数低于阈值的后果就是，在整个活动中都无法恰当交谈。

在《辐射》中扮演低智力的角色的限制是，有许多任务玩家都不能接，且不能知晓背景信息。如果玩家希望获得全面的游戏体验，不推荐扮演低智力的角色。

在《无冬之夜》中，技能点直接与玩家的智力点相关。另外，玩家不可能扮演低智力的术士，因为这类角色的智力点数下限是11.

另一个限制是游戏开发者必须在编写额外的对话上耗费大量工作和预算。因此，开发者必须慎重思考如何分配开发资金。低智力对话可以看作是增加新意的设定，可以放在低优先级的列表上。

虽然如此，我仍决定在我的个人项目中执行低智力对话。这样我不仅可以更有创意地思考，这也很适合项目的前提。

这个模块是一个轻松的冒险故事，共分成三节。故事是关于一个刚刚被裁员的下议员，决定去冒险。当时，全职工作不足，Toril目前又遭遇经济衰退。冒险貌似是玩家摆脱长期失业的唯一出路。除非你死了，那样才不必烦恼。所幸的是，一家从事冒险工作安排的公司就在离你家几个街区开外的地方，就在一个虚构的城市Armen那儿。事实上，你跟他们的老板有过一面之缘。带着简历，你希望这家公司会是你的救星。

在这个模块中，所有角色都有特定的低级对话分支选项。在第一部分，有43个NPC具有正常的和低级的对话分支选项。为了表明单个对话的量有多大，我截了下面这张图，是关于角色与 NPC Longfellow船长的谈话。

captain longfellow dialogue(from gamasutra)

无论玩家的智力点数是否低于10，各个分支选项都被编成特定的分类帐。

以下是正常智力对话的第一个分支选项。

Norm Int(from gamasutra)

以下是低智力对话第一个对话分支选项。

Low Int(from gamasutra)

现在，有人可能会认为以上二者都没有真正的特性。低智商的选项只是重复出现，以表明角色的迟钝。当我决定写低级对话，我不想让玩家扮演低智商角色，或发现有一半的事是智力正常的玩家能做而他们不能做的。《辐射》和《辐射新维加斯》都运用到了这门技巧，所以我并没有走出新路子。

进一步深入这个对话，Longfellow对低智商的角色的回应确实比正常的对话要少。通过这些小修改，我就赋予了低智力角色不同于正常智力角色以独特的个性。

captainlongfellowdialogue2(from gamasutra)

说到小修改，Longfellow船长其实并不是非常好的例子，因为他必须“以不变应万变”，且与主要任务有关。另外，不是所有的NPC对话都这么多。各个角色至少有2个对话：一个面向低智力，另一个面向正常智力。

以下对话是跟一帮小孩子展开的，因为低智力数值，玩家会不断受到质问。孩子们认为玩家是一个“不会说话的哑巴”。它也增强了要求，这三个是“可怕的三连环”。

kidsdialogue2(from gamasutra)

这个对话的正常版本仍然存在大量质问，但比较常规了。

kidsdialogue(from gamasutra)

在《辐射2》中，有这么一个对话，低智力的玩家本可以和Torr这个Klamath小镇的傻瓜来一段体面的交谈。Torr的英语说得不好，总是跟着合适或华丽的插入句。只有角色智力低下，玩家才可以接到Torr的额外任务。

除了Torr，我为低智力的角色还安排了另一个任务，是关于四个讲颠倒黑话的地精。其中一个地精是哑巴；有两个讲话近似Torr，且可以教玩家讲颠倒黑话；还有一个地精BOSS只能讲颠倒黑话。玩家必须“学习”这种语言。我允许玩家自由选择完成任务的方法。智力正常的玩家也可以接这个任务，但对他们来说比较简单。

以下是一张地精对话的截图。

goblindialogue(from gamasutra)

我的项目还有其他低智力对话的例子。到目前为止，我觉得写这些东西很有趣，我明白为什么增加工作量限制了特殊对话在商业电子游戏中的运用。开发者不但要测试正常智力的对话，还要测试低智力的对话。再加上确保所有文稿到位、任务不失败以及适时更新分类帐等等。这真是庞大的工作。

原文发表于2012年4月7日，所涉事件及数据均以当时为准。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Experimenting With Low Intelligence Dialogue

by Rebecca Phoa

[A blog post about low intelligence dialogue and my experiments with implementing it in my personal project an Neverwinter Nights module: The Job Search:  An ‘Adventurer’s Tale. This blog post is reposted from a ModDB post about my project. I hope you enjoy reading it.]

In a handful of video role-playing games, the player can choose to play a character of low intelligence.

Not only does this allow for greater freedom to the player in building a character, but it also adds another layer of texture to video game dialogue that would otherwise be written properly and sometimes with little humour.

Of the many games developed, off the top of my head, only these titles come to mind whereby it is possible to be play as this specific character build.

The Fallout series of games

Icewind Dale 2

Arcanum

Neverwinter Nights

DMs may also opt to ‘force’ players to role-play a low intelligence character in PnP should the player allocate an unfortunate dice roll score to the intelligence statistic. My DM in particular explained to one of the players who rolled a minotaur paladin, the consequences of allocating an intelligence score below a threshold—not talking properly throughout the entire campaign.

A limitation of playing a low intelligence character in Fallout is that many side quests will be unavailable to you, and that background information will be withheld. In this case, playing a low intelligence character is not recommended if you want the full experience of the game.

In Neverwinter Nights, skills points are directly related to your intelligence statistic. It is also not possible to play a low intelligence wizard as the lowest statistic in intelligence for this class is 11.

Another limitation is the amount of work and budget game developers must devote to writing all the extra dialogues. This creates a situation where the developer needs to think hard about where to allocate funds. Low intelligence dialogue can be seen as a novelty and can find itself on the low priority list.

That being said, I decided for my personal project to implement low intelligence dialogue. Not only would this allow me to stretch creatively, but it also fit well with the project’s premise.

The module is a light hearted adventure story split into three acts about a newly downsized commoner who decides to get into the adventuring business. Full time jobs are scarce and Toril is currently suffering an economic downturn. Adventuring seems to be the player’s only way out of long term unemployment. Unless you die, then you won’t have to worry. Luckily, a company that specializes in adventure job placement is just a few blocks from your home in the fictional city of Armen. In fact, you have an appointment with their manager. Resumé in hand, you hope they are your solution.

Every character in the module will have specific low intelligence branches. In the first part, there are 43 npcs that need branches for normal and low intelligence dialogues. To give an idea how large individual dialogues can end up, here is a screenshot of the npc Captain Longfellow’s conversation.

Each of these branches are scripted to specific journal entries and whether or not the player has an intelligence of at least 10, or if the player has lower than 10 intelligence.

This is what the first branch of dialogue looks in normal intelligence:

This is what the first branch of dialogue looks in low intelligence:

At this point, one might be concerned that is no real individuality to either of them. The low dialogue options are just rewritten to reflect a dumb character. When I decided to write low intelligence dialogues, I didn’t want players to play a low intelligence character and find out they couldn’t do half the things a normal intelligence character could do. This technique was implemented in Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas, so I am not treading new ground here.

Drilling down further into this dialogue, Longfellow does respond to a low intelligence character by noting the player’s less than proper speech. These small modifications are how I individualize a low intelligence character from a normal intelligence character.

Captain Longfellow is not actually a very good example of these small modifications, since he needs to be this ‘one size fits all character’ and is pertinent to the main quest. Not all npc dialogues are this large however. Each character has at least 2 dialogues: one for low and one for normal.

This dialogue is with a bunch of children whereby the player gets heckled repeatedly because of the low intelligence statistic. The children acknowledge that the player is a ‘dumb dumb.’ It also reinforces the claim that these three are the ‘trifecta of terror.’

The normal intelligence version of this dialogue still has a ton of heckling; however the heckling is more general.

In Fallout 2, there was one conversation where a player with low intelligence could have a decent conversation. This was with Torr, the town fool of Klamath. Torr spoke in broken English which was followed by proper if flowery sentences in parentheses. The player could engage Torr and get an additional quest only if the player had a low intelligence.

In spirit of Torr, the quest I created for low intelligence characters involves four goblins who speak pig Latin. One goblin is mute; two can speak similar to Torr and can teach the player pig Latin and the fourth—the boss can only speak pig Latin. The player must ‘learn’ the language. Or not. I give the player the freedom to choose how they want to play the quest out. Players of normal intelligence can also carry out this quest, but it is simpler for them.

I am considering allowing wizards/sorcerers/clerics/bards to cast a plot spell (Comprehend Languages) through dialogue to communicate with the goblins. I’m not sure if I’m willing to do this yet, but it would add another interesting layer to the quest.

Here is a screenshot of one of the goblin’s dialogues.

These are examples of the low intelligence dialogues I am implementing in my project. So far, it’s been fun writing them and I understand why the increased workload limits statistic specific dialogue implementation in commercial video games. Not only do you need to test the normal intelligence dialogues, but also you’ll need to test the low intelligence dialogues. Plus making sure all the scripts fire, the quests don’t fail, and the journal entries update properly, and so on. It is a lot of work.（source:gamasutra)