Imagine your party getting into a fight in a dungeon room. When the noise dies down, there is another question to think about: who else might have heard it? I’ve been working on that possibility in AIDM, and on keeping the uncertainty that makes it interesting.
The idea is an optional way for nearby creatures to react to the sound of a fight and come to investigate. I want the rooms around you to feel connected, with the possibility that what happens in one place could matter somewhere else. It should still be your choice whether that belongs in your campaign.
That one idea has meant returning to several smaller problems. A creature needs to make its way through the actual passageways, including bends and ordinary doors. It should be responding to something it heard, without somehow knowing where an unseen character has gone. And the game should not spoil the moment by announcing the identity of someone your party has not seen.
Yesterday’s changes went through several passes at those connections: getting around winding passages, dealing with a blocked route, and keeping information about unseen creatures out of the player’s view. It is a good example of where the time goes on this project. A single moment that might feel natural during a game can depend on several other things behaving sensibly together.
I’m also working on a small clue for the party when something unseen actually moves nearby. The aim is to let you hear that something is happening without handing you its name or a complete picture of the room beyond. Chat and spoken narration are both part of that work. I want it to leave you with a choice: wait, investigate, prepare, or decide it is time to leave.
The changes are together in the build I’m testing, but I still need to check the whole encounter in live play, including when the sound reaches the player and how the spoken clue feels. Having the pieces in place is one step. Finding out whether they create the right moment at the table is the next.
If your party heard movement beyond the next door, how much would you want the DM to tell you before you decided what to do?
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