I took a civil service test today to get a job in the university library system. The last 5 questions on the test came with a handout explaining a 5-digit system for classifying materials in the u's library system. At first it looked kinda crazy to me, but after a moment it clicked: Hot damn, this is just like a UWP!
For those of you not in the know, every world in Trav has a seven digit number that packs all the key data into a small package. This number is called the Universal World Profile. For example, if I were to say that the planet Restubuss IX has a UWP of C5558F9-9 you'd know that you were dealing with a medium-sized world that's home to a billion people living under the thumb of middling-tech space nazis.
This library classification was the same deal. So while other folks taking the test might have been scrambling to wrap their brain around the concept, I already had a working knowledge of the basic scheme. I was the first guy done with the test and out the door. I usually hate that guy, but this time I got to be that guy.
Megadungeon Map
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click to enlargeThe players find this somewhere in the megadungeon, showing
how the areas connect, where the Gate of Six Keys is and where the keys are.
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For example, if I were to say that the planet Restubuss IX has a UWP of C5558F9-9 you'd know that you were dealing with a medium-sized world that's home to a billion people living under the thumb of middling-tech space nazis.
ReplyDeletePlease tell me you pulled that example from memory - that your knowledge of UWP is so good that you just made that example up on the spot and didn't look anything up.
On second thought don't tell me anything. I'm just going to believe that you made that up on the spot.
One of the most basic (but useful) bits in my toolbox as an interviewer is something I learned from Ultima IV ... Games have useful stuff in 'em :)
ReplyDelete(And, on a slightly more eerie note, I know of at least three instances in which GURPS Russia has been recommended as part of a college course in Russian history or Slavic studies)
That's ultra-cool. Your previous blog, where to start, inspired me to find a copy of Starter Traveller and The New Era, but I'm still taking it all in.
ReplyDeleteC'mon s.john, spill the derned trick already! We're in suspense here.
ReplyDeleteAnd you got the job. Right?
ReplyDeleteOh, it's not even a trick, really, it's so basic ... It's just about zeroing in on nouns that the subject has used (even if they aren't anywhere on your question list). Or, phrasing it as a rule of thumb: If the interviewee isn't opening up, ask them directly about the most recent noun they used that isn't them :)
ReplyDeletePhrased that way, there isn't much to it ... and there isn't. But experience has shown me that it opens people up who aren't inclined to be opened.
There are more important rules, of course, but that noun technique is a golden addition to the toolkit. When I was interviewing professionally (when I was an editor at a computer-game magazine, eons ago), it almost defined my approach, because computer-game designers are, IMO, even tougher nuts to crack (as far as non-marketing substance goes) than RPG designers.
The origins in Ultima IV are that it's the quickest path to unlocking virtually anything an NPC has to say. Just pick a noun from their last sentence and put a question mark at the end.