Minigame Scripts and Things to Do Between Calls

Content minigames and mechanic minigames

A content minigame gives players a reason to be somewhere: a pool table in a bar, a metal detector on the beach, a scratch card at the counter. A mechanic minigame is a component, wired into a robbery or a door so the work takes skill instead of time. The second kind is only worth buying if your other resources can call it, so check the exports before you spend.

Keep the skill check honest

The best mechanic minigames are short, readable and hard to automate. If it takes longer than a few seconds, players will resent it every time. If it is the same three keys in the same order, a macro beats it. Configurable difficulty matters, because the check that suits a corner store is too easy for a vault.

Events give a server a reason to gather

Several listings here are events rather than single games: zombie waves, dungeon runs, dodgeball arenas and bounty boards. These pull the whole server into one place for an evening, which a roleplay map rarely does on its own. They also tend to be heavier, so look at what they cost while running rather than while idle.

Performance and placement

Activities sit where players wait, so they run in populated areas. Check the resource cost while the game is actually in use, not idle, and place them where people already gather instead of hoping a new location will draw a crowd on its own.