What you’re describing sounds like a difference in mate value. It’s a combination of any desirable traits like looks, fertility, resources, or anything else. We might spot an apparent difference in two mate values, but the US doesn’t have many rules or norms around mismatched pairs. Other cultures might though, with rules around bride price and such.

Most animals are pretty good about assessing their own mate value from physical and social signaling and tend settle into matched pairs more often than not. There are some cool social experiments that repeatedly prove this out, but I don’t have any links handy.

And pants!

Oh hell yeah! NPCs trick my players all the time. Commanders, strangers, witnesses, priests, anybody might have an ulterior motive or secret agenda.

Best advice I have is just trust. Player characters don’t need to trust every non-player character but the human players at the table absolutely have to know they can trust you the human GM.

When my NPCs pull some shady stuff, like the reveal last session that leader of the crusade has been plotting to betray the PC crusaders for the entire campaign, that reveal always comes with a huge smile from me. “Yeah y’all, this dude is terrible! But now your characters are on to him and I can’t wait to see how they take him down!”

I’m not pulling one over on my players, I’m inviting them to a party I’ve been planning for ages and now we all get to find out what happens next.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox

Whenever efficiency increases consumption increases. Better steam engines mean more coal consumption. Faster cheaper RAM means more RAM consumption.

The average roleplaying game rulebook is like a vehicle repair manual except all the part names come from a mixed up swirl of foreign mythologies or experimental science concepts. Not every kid has the patience, the mental agility, or the lack of more interesting social distractions necessary to internalize those rules and run a game for their friends.

300pg Tome: drops on the table with a loud thud

Old Gamer: There’s a game in there kid. Greatest game you’ll ever play. If you have the will to find it…

My guess is you’re being downvoted because you claim AI is the coolest invention since the internet, but ironically you present that claim to a corner of the internet instead of inside the safety of a prompt window. Some may find this ironic because instead of asking the “almost resembling consciousness” to generate an almost resembling answer, you opted to consult a primary source instead. Some folks might see this as the behavior of someone so close to figuring it out…

The New Enlightenment does awesome theory heavy videos on economics, politics, game theory, etc. It’s like a free economics course and it sparked an interest in the subject for me. . https://youtube.com/@thenewenlightenmentwithash8465