So my game does have wells and outhouses in the towns. I plan to make wells be an alternative source of recovering HP and MP if the player doesn't want to stay at the inn and just wants to hurry along. But for the life of me, I'm having a hard time figuring out what outhouses would do. Right now, out houses have a door that when the player clicks them, the main char basically says 1 of 3 random lines about not needing to go right now. But maybe someone can come up with a plausible way for me to make outhouses interactive?
When I was in the military, I'd encounter all kinds of bits of information scrawled on the walls of porta-johns. Maybe you can have the player learn of treasures or of powerful monsters or useful NPCs by reading graffiti on the walls of outhouses.
They used to put garbage in the pit... use them to dispose of worthless inventory items... Although I like the graffiti idea a lot
What about removing long-lasting status effects ("You are no longer poisoned") or giving long-term buffs like "You feel lighter - Agility/Dodge +1" or "That's a load off your mind - +1 to magic/int/mana"
I find outhouses to be a particularly distasteful form of restoration. In my game, I went the Final Fantasy way and made the Tent item the quick and easy replacement for resting in an inn.
I'd probably try to make many of them different somehow. For example, when the player interacts with a door, any of the following could happen depending on which outhouse they visit: Player: [random comment about the outhouse] Some Guy Inside: Whoa, somebody's in here, pal. (or) Do you mind, what I'm doing in here is private! (etc) Player: Actually...just a minute. (player disappears inside for a few seconds, reemerges, sets self switch on the outhouse because repeat-using it would be silly) Player: Whoa, somebody left something here! (gain potion or other item, but would YOU drink a potion you found in an outhouse?) Then again, I'm pretty guilty of adding too much random crap for the player to interact with in my game, mainly because I think it's fun to find those kinds of things. Edit: The graffiti idea somebody suggested could be pretty interesting. Maybe the player goes in and instead of finding a bathroom potion, they find scrawlings about some hidden treasure or other rumor that could lead to hidden goodies. Basically, a reward for exploration. "the combination to the corrupt mayor's safe is 12345 - a disgruntled servant"
Main character, before entering an outhouse: Man, being a hero is stressful. * Enters outhouse. Fadeout. Fade in. Exits outhouse. * Main character: Phew! I feel good now! A weight has been lifted. Back on topic, yeah, random graffitis or writings could be clues about something in the game.
This... idea is actually really good! I also figured out a way to make outhouses and wells work for my game. If the player uses the well, they drink from it and regain 100 MP. With your idea... thinking aside from my thought of recovering only 100 HP, of setting up such a random variable. But I gotta figure out how to make the self switch reset after a certain amount of time hmm... Edit: Ah I've figured that out! Will simply use a variable.
I remember that in Persona 3, you could use the restroom at school with a small chance to get a temporary status boost in upcoming battles. Most of the time it would just play a brief scene and nothing else would happen, but the occasional bonus for role playing another small part of the student experience was fun. Normally I’d consider that to be a bit of a frivolous addition, but since the Persona series does a lot of other work to immerse the player in that sort of role playing, I think it worked out well. Then there was the part where you have to sneak into the school at night to investigate some strange events. I decided that the middle of this covert mission was the ideal time for my character to take a bathroom break. Got a good laugh when my party members complained about it. “Now, of all times? Really, dude?”
Bit of a strange place to save your progress maybe? Would be quite funny though "Before I leave town I need a potty break, nothing worse than getting caught short" *embarrassed face*
In West of Loathing, there were Spitoons. Not outhouses, though they were disgusting and had disgusting if interesting treasures. Anyway, Outhouses...No More Heroes had bathrooms for saving, especially near the boss rooms. Borderlands had them as Chests of low quality equipment, which also counts for spawning the tiny loot men. Final Fantasy XV used camps, which were free compared to inns but lacked the EXP multiplier. But unless you have a Gassy state that increases enemy spawn rates or a Brown Pants state that alters dialogue, not sure what Outhouses can do besides flavor.
Maybe the outhouse adds a positive state like better evasion for X steps but also a small chance of picking up an infection or getting bitten by an outhouse spider?
This actually gives me a few ideas for a few of my games. The way I would implement them, beyond occasional toilet humor, would be to give the party a temporary stat boost via a state. The state would only last for X turns or X battles, or by chance if damaged, and you would have to fight X battles or consume X food items before you could use them. On that note, you could have food items confer a state that boosts specific stats, with X amount of food eaten adding onto a variable that, when it hits a certain number, applies an invisible state that reduces the effectiveness of food buffs and allows for outhouse use. (Alternatively, food acts as a healing item, and overeating reduces the healing effect.)
