Link to the game that made me think of starting this. It is made of awesome. Whether this RTD will be made of awesome or not depends on if I'm awesome or not. I don't believe I am.So, this is obviously an RTD that allows you to play as a dragon and screw up the world! Or be a strangely-not-generic cuddly dragon buddy.
WARNING: BELOW IS A RANDOM MESS OF SPOILERS THAT ARE LIKELY NOT LISTED IN ANY UNDERSTANDABLE ORDER, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Humans: Yes.
Technology: Classical-Medieval-Very limited gunpowder.
Angels: Yes. Rarely seen.
Demons: Yes. Not common.
Good Gods: Yes. Many.
Neutral Gods: Yes. Many.
Evil Gods: Yes. Many.
Active gods: Kinda. You have to get their attention before they do much.
Transformations: Yes.
Magic: Yes. Lots.
Heroes: Yes. Badass ones.
Villains: Yes. Dangerous ones.
Dwarves: Yes. Rare, found only inside mountains and in certain kingdoms.
Elves: Yes. Rare, found scattered across the world, and sometimes inside of special forests.
Goblins: Yes. Uncommon.
Other monsters: Yes. Lots. I will draw from all kinds of medieval fantasy games I know. Not a lot. This is assuming you look for them, of course. They don't just walk the earth every five inches.
Magic: Yes.
Artifacts: Yes. Rare.
Curses: Yes.
Blessings: Yes.
Deadliness: Yes. There are plenty of ways to die if you stray too far from safety and ignore chances to stay safe. Don't complain if you die after doing something stupid.
These are just general rules. Don't exit the game immediately after looking at the size, just read them, they're really easy to follow.
Bold your actions. It's easy to do, taking five seconds. It's annoying for me to search through for your action if people talk a whole lot.
Strikethrough old actions, or edit them. DON'T GIVE ME TWO ACTIONS, it's annoying. Sometimes I may do the old action's result only to realize you posted another action.
Roleplaying is encouraged but not necessary.
Avoid metagaming. Lack of roleplaying may be okay, but metagaming is just bad. If you abuse too much, it will make me very upset, and thus your turns will likely turn out worse whenever possible.
For roleplaying, you may bold. But, if you bold, make sure talking has Quotation marks (" "), and roleplayish actions are Italicized.
For talking, you may use bold, italics, colored text... whatever you want, but always use Quotation marks, and make it distinct from your character's own self thought.
I do not have special formulas for how your stats will change. I will just change them on my own whims. Unless you find something extremely bullshitty, don't argue about how your stats change. If you are confused as to why your stats changed as much as they have on anything major, feel free to ask, but don't argue against my opinions on the changes unless I assumed something wrongly about your character.
Brutal actions are allowed, but avoid making them common nature. If they are, avoid talking about them in depth. Also, don't do any that would likely result in Toady or ThreeToe coming in. I will not be held responsible for your actions.
Don't do vague actions. Don't do actions that could be taken more than one way without specifying what you want to do. If you do either, I have full rights to take it how I want it and moan about it.
I will PM you if you fail to post your action. If you fail to post after you are PMed your turn will be skipped. If I have to PM you 3 times in 30 days, I'll stop PMing you and just skip your turn without a PM until you post on time 3 times in a row if you continue to fail posting. If you are skipped 3 times in a row and are skipped yet again, I'll kick you out right away and kill your character. If you are not active on the forum at all for 14 or more days and I have not been informed of you being busy for that amount of time or longer, I will kick you. Sorry, but 14 days is a long time to not be active at all.
Standard 1d6 for now. Unless there's something special that needs more, I will leave it at that. One thing to note, a 3 is nicer than most RTDs: It counts as a partial success. Meaning you have a 2/3 chance to succeed on every action. However, see below. Actions that require or use stats will face those penalties or bonuses. For example, trying to deal with someone with low Trustworthiness will face penalties to your roll.
Each of these stats can go from 0 to 100. 100 is the highest. 50 is average. Normally, they give bonuses/penalties to respective rolls at: -2 at 0-19, -1 at 20-39, 0 at 40-60, +1 at 61-80, and +2 at 81-100. But some may differ. In addition, having too much or too little of a stat may give increased penalties. Also, some may act differently than just -2 to +2.
Those marked with red are not used at character creation. Blue stuff is stuff based entirely on what your dragon's body is like.Strength: How buff you are. 50 is average dragon strength. 10 or lower is very weak, and you may die if you stay that low. 90 or more makes you sluggish, damaging your Agility by 2 points by each point above 90. 10 or lower and you cannot fly.
Agility: How quick you are and your ability to dodge attacks. 50 is average. 10 or lower and you will have to roll to move without tripping. At 90 and above, you suffer for being too agile: -2 toughness per point above.
Intelligence: How smart you are. You may be asking; "Why would a dragon need to be smart?" Well, you'd be surprised. 20 or lower is severely retarded, and you will fall into obvious traps really often without you being able to avoid them. In addition, you cannot learn magic below 10. At and above 90, you may start overthinking things.
Toughness: How much damage you can take before going down. Every 5 points gives
varied amounts of HP depending on age. 90 or higher results in -3 agility per point above. Below 20 and you'll get sick. Often.
Charisma: How well you can talk, and how well you can use your body and voice to reflect your mood. Yes, dragons can talk in this game. 90 or higher and many people will want you... in various ways ranging from trophies to... uhh... "partners".
Fame: How infamous you have become. Pretty easy to guess how that will effect you. 0 is completely unknown, 100 is known throughout the world.
Trustworthiness: How trustworthy and honor-bound you are perceived to be. This will quickly go down if you are a cruel bastard or repeatedly use cunning tactics/actions. It's hard to get this up. If this is high, expect people to make a lot of deals with you and accept a lot of your deals. If this is low, no one will trust you for anything.
Cruelty: How cruel you are perceived to be. High cruelty is cruel. Low cruelty is nice/merciful. This effects how people will interact with you. High cruelty will allow you to intimidate people easier, but will make it harder for people to believe you when you're acting nice. Lower has the exact opposite effect. This is not the same as Evilness. This is cruelty, not good/evilness. You can have a nice evil person, or a cruel good person.
Evilness: How good people perceive you to be depending on what kind of actions you make. High means you are seen as a very evil being. Low means you are seen as a good being. This will have a similar effect as Cruelty, but slightly different. This is not the same as Cruelty. You can have a nice evil person, or a cruel good person. Though it's usually Evil-cruel, or Good-nice.
Intimidation: How scary you look. As a result, how much you scare people. Higher amplifies scary actions and lessens nice actions. Lower amplifies nice actions and lessens scary actions.
Your body. How it's shaped effects how people view you, and also effects how agile or strong you are. Mostly intended for flavor. And should be picked role-playing-ish.
If you want more options for body creation, tell me.
Head: What shape your head is.
Smooth all-round: Your head is fairly smooth, with no rigid areas, and no rapidly rising or falling areas. -10 Intimidation. Female: +5 Charisma. Male: -5 Charisma.
Standard: Your head is fairly smooth, with no rigid areas, but with some quickly heightening or lowering bits. No effect.
Rough: Your head is somewhat rigid, and has some quickly heightening or lowering bits. +5 Intimidation. Female: +5 Charisma. Male: +5 Charisma.
Very Rough: Your head is very rigid, and has multiple quickly heightening or lowering bits. Scales tend to poke out a lot. +10 Intimidation. +5 Evilness. Female: +5 Charisma. Male: +10 Charisma.
Horns: Your horns, dude!
No horns: You lack horns, which is rare among dragons. -5 Evilness. +5 Charisma if Smooth all-round head.
Small horns: You have small, barely noticeable horns. No effect.
Large horns: You have long, large horns, a rarity. +5 Evilness. +5 Intimidation. -5 Charisma if Smooth all-round head, +5 if Very Rough head and male.
Single Horn: Instead of two, you have one-a rarity among Dragons, but it's not nearly as intimidating, since you look like a Unicorn. +5 Charisma, -15 Intimidation (IT LOOKS SILLY FOR GOD'S SAKE). +2 damage from head ramming.
Frontal Horns: Your horns bend forward, and partially block your face-they do nothing for your looks, but provide a valuable defensive measure. +5 Toughness, -10 Charisma.
Claws: What are your claws like?
No claws: You're clawless. Rare. Cannot attack with claws. -5 Evilness, -5 Intimidation.
Non-sharp claws: Your claws are as sharp as a human's claws are to a dog's. Your claws, with effort, can cut, but they are much duller than normal. -5 Intimidation, half claw damage.
Normal claws: How average. No effect.
Long claws: Your claws are larger than normal. You do 3d3 damage instead. +5 Evilness, +5 Intimidation.
Scale Color: What are your scales like?
White: People view you less evilly for being white. Commonly associated with any dragon. -5 Evilness.
Black: People view you more evilly for being black. But you are also more attractive. Commonly associated with any dragon. +5 Evilness. +5 Charisma.
Gray: Commonly associated with breathless, warrior dragons. No effect.
Red: Commonly associated with fire dragons, but rare. +5 Intimidation.
Blue: Commonly associated with water or lightning dragons. No effect.
Green: Commonly associated with poison or acid dragon. No effect.
Brown: Commonly associated with any dragon. No effect.
Purple: A rare color of dragon, thought by many to be some sort of mutant aberration. Lowers your desirability. -5 Charisma.
Gold: An extremely rare color of Dragon-associated with treasure, obviously. +5 Charisma.
Chromatic: The rarest of all dragons, 'Chromatic' means all colors of the rainbow all around, or scales that constantly change color. Mighty ones may be viewed as mortal Gods by both mortals and their kin assuming they don't already believe in one. +10 Charisma, -5 Intimidation, -5 Evil.
Chartreuse: A mix between green and yellow, this color is rare, usually associated with acid dragons. It's not anything special, though. No effect.
Periwinkle: A mix between blue and violet, this color is rare, usually associated with lightning dragons. No effect besides the silly name.
Graphite: Darker than a dark gray. Lacks the stylishness of Black, but still has the evil appearance. Rare, associated with any type of dragon. +5 Evilness.
Copper: Like the metal. Lacks the shininess though. Rare, associated with any type of dragon. No effect.
Other: If you feel there are too little colors, go ahead and suggest one. Remember, though, that I have the final say in the effects! And there may or may not be any good effects!
Body length: How long your body is.
Short: You are a smaller dragon. -10 Toughness for having a smaller body. +5 Agility for being a smaller target.
Standard: No effect.
Long: +5 Toughness from larger body, -5 Agility for being a larger target.
Very Long: Think Chinese dragons. +10 Toughness from larger body, -15 Agility for being a larger target.
Spine stiffness: How stiff your spine is.
Stiff: +10 Toughness. -15 Agility.
Standard: No effect.
Loose: -15 Toughness. +10 Agility.
Tail: What is your tail like?
None: A mutation that is widely considered negative. +10 Agility for being a smaller target, cannot use tail, -20 Charisma, -10 Intimidation.
Small: +5 Agility due to being a smaller target, -10 Charisma due to looking 'uglier'.
Standard: No effect.
Long: +5 Strength due to needing to swing a larger tail around, -5 Agility for obviously being a larger target.
Mace end: +10 Strength due to needing it to swing that tail, -10 Agility for obviously being a larger target and being more sluggish, -5 Charisma due to being less sleek, +3 damage from tail.
Blade end: The end of your tail is a wide, hardened, pointed bone double-edged blade which can cause massive gashs where it cuts. +5 agility due to accuracy, -10 strength since it's thin and light, +5 Intimidation due to it looking... intimidating, +5 damage from tail. Can dull, so be careful.
Breath: What do you breathe my good sir/ma'am? Please don't show me by breathing on me.
Fire: Standard fair for a dragon. +5 Intimidation, +5 Evilness. 1d20 damage against non-fireproof monsters, can be used every 5 turns.
Water: Heated water for boiling someone alive. Rare. 2d8 damage against non-heatproof monsters, reduced by heat resistance, Needs water each use.
Lightning: Raw lightning for shocking someone. +5 Intimidation. 2d10 damage against non-electricproof monsters, reduced by electricity resistance, only effects one target, can be used every 3 turns.
Acid: For melting people. 1d8 damage per turn for 1d5 turns against non-acidproof monsters, reduced by acid resistance, can be used every 10 turns, damage does not stack with previous breaths.
Poison: For poisoning people. +5 Evilness. 1d10 damage per turn for 2-4 turns against non-poisonproof monsters, reduced by poison resistance, can be used every 10 turns, damage does not stack with previous breaths.
Energy: A rare sort of Draconic breath that can damage nearly any foe regardless of resistance, but does not do as much as damage as a dedicated element. 2d5 damage, can be used every 5 turns.
Sonic: Concentrated sound waves for blowing people away. Does more damage to smaller creatures and structures than larger ones. 3d4 damage to small, 2d5 to medium, 1d10 to large, assuming the creatures aren't immune or resistant, can be used every 3 turns.
Tarran's Gift: For some reason, you have been birthed with the gift of life from the god of life himself. Your breath heals 20% of the max HP of those you use it on each time. Can be used every 3 turns. Cannot use on self. Cannot use if Tarran is angered or you are very evil. -20 Cruelty.
Ona's Gift: For some reason, you have been birthed with the gift of healinf from the god of medicine, healing, and nature. Your breath heals 50% of the max HP of those you use it on each time. Can be used every 10 turns. Cannot use on self. Cannot use if Ona is angered or you are very evil. -20 Cruelty.
Grandar's Justice: For some reason, the god of justice has given you the ability to do his work for him. Your breath causes different damage on people who have committed crime without the word of justice and have not been punished. It does not punish those who have only committed minor crimes or those who have not committed crime at all. Can be used every 5 turns. If evil, or if Grandar is angry at you, this breath cannot be used.
Salar's Gift: The god of the Underworld has given you the ability to breathe the undead to the underworld, where their souls should be. Your breath instantly kills undead of any strength. Has no effect on the living. Can be used every 10 turns. Cannot be used if Salar is angry at you.
Banther's Whip: The god of Pain and Punishment has given you the ability to cause great pain. Your breath makes enemies roll their toughness, and at rolls of 4 or below the enemy is stunned completely for 3 turns. Can be used every 5 turns. +5 Cruelty. Cannot be used if Banther is angry at you.
Karlos' Wealth: The god of Wealth wants you to be rich! Or someone else. Regardless, you have the ability to turn a single object made of valuable metals into metals of higher wealth. You can only transmute up one level of metal, so transmuted metals cannot be 'muted into an even higher level. Can be used every 20 turns. Cannot be used if Karlos is angry at you.
Mai'vah's Tears: The god of Weather has given you the ability to breathe compressed air at your enemies. The air does not hurt enemies, but has a 1/2 chance to knock each out, and temporarily disarms them for a turn regardless. Can be used every 5 turns. Cannot be used if Mai'vah is angry at you.
Pahhosag's Curse: The god of Chaos has given you the 'curse' of breathing raw Chaos. This stuff is wildly unpredictable... and effects the user slightly every use. Dragons that are known to have this are very disrespected. Can be used every 5 turns. +10 Evilness. Cannot be used if Pahhosag is angered.
Saharia's Cold: The god of Night and Cold has given you the ability to freeze your opponents solid. It does no damage, but forces enemies to roll dodge rolls, and if they are below 3, they will be instakilled. Cold resistant enemies are given more leeway, however, and immune enemies are not effected. Can be used every 5 turns. +5 Evilness, +5 Cruelty. Cannot be used if Saharia is angered.
Pringos' Decay: The god of Plague and Decay has given you the curse of being the bearer of some of his worst creations. Your breath either causes decay (constant HP damage of 1-8 for 3 turns but cannot kill in the first turn), or plague (enemies get negative statuses until they are cured). Dragons known to have this breath are alienated from any good or neutral being. Can be used every 5 turns. +15 Evilness, +5 Cruelty. Cannot be used if Pringos is angry at you.
None: You live without breath weapons. As a result, you are a better warrior. Though you lack a panic button. +10 Strength, +5 Agility, +10 Toughness.
Unlike most games, gender effects various things! Listed are pluses and minuses.
Male:
++Strength: +10.
-Agility: -5.
-Intelligence: -5.
++Toughness: +10.
-Charisma: -5.
--Relations from other males: Hostile, rivalry, very territorial.
-Relation from females: Indifferent, uninterested, mildly territorial.
+Doesn't need to give birth to children.
+Doesn't have to raise children.
--Doesn't get to be with children.
Overall: --, mainly from relations from opposite sex: - is two levels from a +. Not that big of a penalty, considering the alternative is people trying to mate with you all the time.
Female:
-Strength: -5.
+Agility: +5.
+Intelligence: +5.
-Toughness: -5.
+Charisma: +5.
+Relations from males: Indifferent, interested, mildly territorial.
--Relation from other females: Hostile, uninterested, very territorial.
-Needs to give birth to children.
-Has to raise children.
++Gets to stay with own children.
Overall: No bonuses or minuses.
If you think I'm being unfair to females... then consider females are smarter than males. If you still consider me being unfair, then, well, I don't care and you should complain to someone else.
To be blunt, there is no goal. So you will have to make some up for yourself.
However, if you can't think of any, how about these:
Keep and maintain 80 or more Fame for 20 or more turns.
Have 40+ children before growing too old. (Male)
Have 20+ children before growing too old. (Female)
Kill 5 or more other dragons.
Take over 3 or more kingdoms.
Kill 10 or more heroes.
Befriend a kingdom(s).
Be worshiped widely as a god.
Survive godly wrath 3 or more times.
Kill 500 or more people.
Live to max age or further.
Become a high-mage dragon.
Get 400000 golds worth of loot.
Find a very powerful artifact.
Let me be blunt: I'm not a specialist for dragons. I know little besides movies and roguelikes. And a little reading. And dragons vary so much. So, I'll tell you right now what the dragons are in this game:
Body: Scaly. Wings are scaly. They are Europeans, but with the long body you can also be a Chinese-like dragon. They have 4 limbs: 2 legs and 2 arms. They have large wings. They have a tail. Their body starts out about the size of a large dog, and gets to be as long as a large stone tower you see in castles while being as wide as 2 horses. Their neck and chest has no vulnerable spot, and dragons are really hard to kill. However, like all animals, hitting the neck can still be very devastating hitting some big artery or the bone. And, also like all animals, getting lots of cuts can bring down a dragon purely by bleeding. Dragons are carnivores, but are facultative carnivores, meaning they mainly eat meat, but if they can find enough plant food, they will eat it instead. They will, however, face some temporary digestive problems if they eat plant food, but it won't take too long for their stomach to calm down. Dragons have claws, which are pretty damn sharp. Dragons have some ability to gently move small objects, but there is a limit.
Mood: Dragons love gold, but they aren't eternally entranced by gold; enough resisting and they loose all appetite for it. Dragons aren't evil, but the type of actions they do usually look evil in the eyes of humans. Dragons are smart enough to learn which actions humans view as bad. Whether or not they choose to adjust their actions to avoid doing those actions depends on them. Dragons don't know English initially, but can learn if they want to. Dragons will get an urge to mate when they grow old enough, and will feel depressed if they avoid it, but it can be drowned in other pleasures if intense enough. Dragons are nearly as intelligent as humans. Young dragons are very passive, and rarely actively cause violence. Those who do are trouble kids, and trouble kids tend to be very violent when they grow up. Dragons tend to either DESPISE insults or barely care at all. Similarly, dragons tend to be very trustworthy or not trustworthy at all.
Territoriality: Dragons are defensive of their territory. Unless they willingly allow someone on their territory, or there is a member of the opposite sex (every dragon wants to make babies badly since dragons are so spread out) and they have not had bad experiences with him/her, they WILL GO CRAZY if other dragons are in their territory. They may try to kill other dragons, but most of the time they will either maul them (but not kill them) or make very, very threatening warnings.
Desperation: All dragons have a "Desperation Drive". Wherein they will loose all feeling of pain, and go berserk (where the player cannot control their dragon). This has very little chance of saving them, but it will likely kill the offender. And there still is a chance for them to survive. Desperation Drive activates if all of these are true: Is bleeding (internally or externally). Is in severe pain. Is wounded. No escape route. Enemy is still around, in melee. Enemy still superior. Enemy, to your knowledge, cannot be reasoned with. The player's dragon will get huge buffs to attack, but utterly looses the ability to defend him/herself (won't dodge). In addition, the player will gain 20 more HP. Though that HP WILL ONLY LAST AS LONG AS YOU ARE BERSERK. It will go away if you ever exit berserk. This means you will die if below 20 HP before it stops, since that HP is temporary.
Mini-spoiler, GO!
Note:
Damage is 1/4 the value for babies.
Damage is halved for Children.
Damage is reduced by 1/4 for Teenagers.
Anyway, standard damage for body parts for adults:
Unmodified claws: 3d2. Uses Agility.
Long claws: 3d3. Uses Agility.
Unmodified mouth: 1d12. Uses Strength.
Unmodified tail: 2d5. Uses Agility.
Mace tail: 2d5+3. Uses Agility.
Blade tail: 2d5+5. Uses Agility.
Ramming: Depends on situation. Uses Strength.
An attacker will also get a bonus to damage if their dice minus the opposing side's defense dice is equal to:
+1-2: No bonus.
+3: +20% Dam.
+4: +50% Dam.
>=+5: +100% Dam.
Don't worry, this spoiler may fill up with more stuff.
Eventually.
So it's not likely destined to oblivion.
Name: You may use anything. Try to keep it sane. Don't use multiple SSSes, dragons to not speak in snake voice.
This may prove useful, but don't consider it essential. You can choose whatever the hell you want.
Gender: Select your gender. See spoiler above.
Body: Select your body. See spoiler above.
Head:
Horns:
Claws:
Scale Color:
Body length:
Spine stiffness:
Tail:
Breath:
Stats: All non-red. REMEMBER TO FACTOR IN YOUR GENDER AND BODY PARTS PLEASE. And remember to add a plus or minus so I can quickly tell that you are getting it from your body part or gender. Each stat starts at 50 points. And you have 20 bonus points. So in total you have 270 points to work with.
Strength: 50
Agility: 50
Intelligence: 50
Toughness: 50
Charisma: 50
Roleplaying: If you want to add roleplaying information, here's where to add it to:
Personality: Your personality. Here, this may help:
http://www.gurusoftware.com/GuruNet/Personal/Factors.htm Mother background: What is your mother like? If the same mother as another player's, you will both be born in the same spot.
Father background: What was your father like? You may never see him, but if you do, this will seriously effect what the encounter will be like.
You may notice a lack of your own background. The reason is because you're not even out of your egg yet.
Players:
1:
Repulsion2:
KineseN3:
Dwarmin4:
IronyOwl5:
Jetex19116:
SeriousConcentrate7:
Tiruin8:
Draignean9:
Nicholas102410:
zomara0292Waiting list:
RTD
Spinal_Taper
Ghazkull
Caellath
Donuts
Below is the scenarios I let everyone pick at the start. Tensions won. Thus, Tensions is what the game's world will be like.
There are many scenarios you can start from, but you can only choose one.
Peace: The world is without war. Where animals and humans thrive. Where riches increase and do not lower. Heroes are unneeded and are mostly non-existent. Villains are laughable. This is extremely easy, and is very casual until someone starts wrecking shit. Will you ruin or improve this world?
Perfect Earth: The world is largely peaceful besides a few wars. Riches vary extremely from city to city. Like earth in this age. Cities are largely independent, but alliances are around. Causing trouble will invoke retaliation from their allies and their heroes. Villains are causing trouble once and a while, but not often. This is somewhat difficult. How will you make yourself known?
Tensions: The world is near breaking point. Men arm and exploit the lands. Cash is flowing freely and quickly, but will freeze at the mere sight of conflict. This world will erupt into war very quickly if you aren't soft. Heroes are widely needed and are abundant. Same with villains. This is mildly difficult. Will you forge your destiny through fire, claw, magic, or gold?
Hellstorm: The world is in a bitter struggle. The world is being exploited in a deteriorating rate. Men are dying left and right. Dragons are in the way, and are hunted if they cause even a small amount of trouble. On the other hand, they are also hired once and a while. Heroes and Villains are everywhere. This is pretty difficult. Will you make a place in this self-destructing world? Or will you be among the statistics of the dead?
The Abyss: The world is falling apart. Man has called their gods to the fight. The world is nearly a wasteland with many people without homes. Dragons are becoming extinct, and gods are killing even if slightly irked. The world isn't going to last much longer. The world is so bad that there is almost no difference between "Hero" and "Villain" This is absurdly difficult. Will you survive?
Wasteland: The world has collapsed. Humans are extinct. Many animals and plants are, too, and many are on their way. The gods have disappeared from the face of the earth, since no one follows them and thus they do not exist. What gold is left is fought for in bitter struggle. Dragons are down to double digits and falling. The world looks upon the dragons to save what's left by learning whatever magic they can to restore what they can. This will be a struggle to even live to maturity. Wil-can you save the earth? Note, this will be missing a lot of interaction, mostly with humans.