Forgetting faces and eavesdropping

[Zisrith]

If you spend enough time without seeing a person, when you see them again, the name you set for them will be gone, and in the character's description would be included the words "This person looks familiar", and you would either have to figure out who they are based on their description, circumstance, or their equipment, or you would have to be re-introduced. Also, the time it takes to forget a face will decrease as a character ages.

If people are talking privately in building or another room, you can engage in an unending project(like resting is) called eavesdropping, where you can attempt to listen through a door to hear the conversation inside. If they're whispering to one another, all you would hear is "unintelligible mumbling". Engaging in the project would appear to other witnesses in the area as something like "You see a man in his twenties press his ear against the door to Boring Hall", and those who would object to it could drag them away from the door.

[Kelli]

I love both ideas and have thought about both myself.

[Indigo]

Yeah, I love two of them, as well, but the eavesdropping one.... lol,, it would make some things much more interesting. I bet a lot of blabs would show up.

[Doug R.]

I'm for eavesdropping, but not so sure about forgetting. For one, unless you have a disease of some sort, even if it's been decades, you're not going to forget who your closest friends are. There would need to be some metric to separate casual acquaintances from true friends.

[Arenti]

I'm against both. People have been forced sort of to go inside to talk about private things now why would you also do something against that again? People have to build rooms especially to have some private time? Besides what reason does it have?

[Piscator]

Well, if we had a eavesdropping project, we could reform the current system so that overhearing someone is only possible if you actually try to eavesdrop (with a chance of success that matters).

[Arenti]

Alright but only if it doesn't count for buildings.

[Piscator]

If you could only hear normal talk through walls, but no whispering, you would still have your privacy.

[Arenti]

So you actually force people to whisper in their own home? Thats not right. Besides all over Cantr laws will get added to not eavesdrop. So again whats the use besides forcing people to whisper even in their own home. This will only get more people locked up in towns. And killed in certain towns.

[Zisrith]

I play a number of outlaws, and I often have to leave the area I plan to strike before doing so in order to talk about battle plans. This would add the chance of getting caught to unwary pirates, and definitely another level of realism, as nosy people really *do* exist in real life. If we're going to toss out ideas because they're inconvenient to the players, what the hell do we need food for?

Also, since it would be obvious that the person is eavesdropping, the people who must speak privately would either have to take extra precautions, or count on their fellow townspeople to deal with any would-be snoops.

As for forgetting faces, I haven't quite thought how they would be distinguished from one another, but I don't think it's realistic you remember people whose names you don't know and saw do something, or those who you briefly met and then parted ways. Perhaps, if the longer period of time you spend with someone, the likelihood of forgetting them is small until you're a crumbling old-timer.