As discussed in my previous columns, Bootleggers is not the most realistic of games. In the past we have had safe houses where you would raise your chances of survival at a high cost of building one. The idea being that the safe house was where you slept at night.
Now we have no place for the players to rest their heads when they log off for the night. But what changes would be made to the game if there was a shop that sold beds? Depending upon the amount of money you spent on your bed would depend upon the quality of sleep your character could have.
This could provide a variety of in game benefits. A character who had a better quality of sleep could complete crimes faster, with a higher rate of success and with more rewards than one which had a bad nights sleep.
The quality of sleep affects everyone in the real world so why not on Bootleggers? Bed shops could become another commodity which players could own and make money from. Or it could be a state owned franchise thus taking more money out of the game. There are many possible ways this could be done.
But what happens when we bring the element of sleep and 'tiredness' into a shoot out? A more tired character would be less accurate with their gun. Or their dodging of bullets would be worse. Private Investigators might not like the idea of working whilst the character is asleep. Maybe they would provide false information as a form of revenge for working all night? Or they might work harder if there was an option to offer more money.
All of our characters work out regularly at the gym. The idea behind the ten minute cool down period could be due to two elements, your character is working out solidly for ten minutes or your character is resting for ten minutes after a particularly strenuous workout. But what if there was a 'tiredness' rating on your home page? This would mean you couldn't work out as often as it would tire your character out faster and sleep would be needed. This would slow down guns being trained and would add a new dimension to the very popular feature.
Consider if your character is asleep when someone attempts to shoot you they would be able to coup de grâce a character. A one bullet kill. Which would mean players would be less likely to sleep. But what if you had to sleep? At least eight hours every four days or die? That is very realistic. Also if your character had gone without sleep this would cause complications in the day to day running of the game. Organized Crimes are more likely to fail as are petty crimes. Just some more food for thought for you all. As always, good luck and happy ranking!
