Dialogue

Overview

Dialogue is the main way to play, and the most direct: you talk directly to the judge. As a side note, you can also address your opponent, but the judge might penalize you for it. Use Dialogue when you want to make an argument in your own words. Your message is visible to all participants, the judge responds, and the debate record is updated.

Reading the Judge

The judge is not necessarily neutral. Depending on the scenario, judges have varying personalities borne out of core values and formative experiences. A judge may be biased towards order, mercy, tradition, power, novelty, or some other concern. The game attempts to reward persuading the particular judge in front of you: the Scorer later grades how effectively you did that, not whether the judge's preferences were morally correct.

What is Good Dialogue?

Good Dialogue usually does one job well:

• Answers the judge's current concern.
• Explains why your desired ruling makes sense.
• Challenges your opponent's framing.
• Connects a card back to your case.
• Makes one clear point at the right time.

Don't argue both sides unless you are doing it for a clear reason. The game rewards moving the judge toward your side, not writing the fairest summary of the dilemma.

Naughty Words

moral.games does not do semantic censoring, but if you use naughty words, your character will say one of the following:

• "I have nothing interesting to add."
• "I seem to have lost my train of thought. Apologies."
• "Let the record show I have nothing new to add."
• "I have searched my mind and found only dust."
• "There was an argument on the tip of my tongue a moment ago, I swear it."