TehomCD
commented
5 years ago I removed the system not to abuse, but because it provided no clear advantage for the work in maintaining it. I would want the system to be a clear win before it'd be implemented again.
Something like this would definitely need to be tied very heavily to social clout. It would be completely unacceptable for me to have such an obviously socially focused command that isn't clearly dominated by the characters specifically specialized to do so. It would need to be balanced around campaigns of support and detraction, spearheaded by those characters.
Investigation of it, with the creation of clues pertaining to it, would need to be clearly defined. Exact impact of goals for any gossip campaign succeeding or failing, in terms of impact on npcs, would need to be defined.
ApostateCD
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. As I understand, rumors/gossip was removed because some players were abusing it (though I do not know how). A way to remedy this would be to give players more options to control what gets seen by the larger public.
Describe the solution you'd like Rumors and gossip can be gatekeeped by players. How it would work is that when someone creates a rumor or gossip, initially only staff and those with Propaganda 6 or Streetwise 6 can see it. At this stage players are given the option to 'promote' or 'squelch' it, basically voting to ether let others see the rumors or to prevent it. If it is promoted enough or remains on the list without getting enough squelch votes, then it goes to those with Propaganda or Streetwise 5 or 6 for another round of voting. And this keeps going until it hits 0, in which case anyone can see it regardless of skill.
Promote uses Propaganda, while Squelch uses Intimidation.
Players could also be given the option to prevent certain players from spreading rumors or gossip. A command called ostracize could be used to make NPCs less likely to listen to that player, creating a scaling prestige or AP cost the more people have ostracized them. This would have to include some way to tell who spread rumors, maybe a way to investigate rumors for the origin.