Neilson ratings for GURPS Reporters Copyright (c) 1995 by Pete Schneider Journalist characters, particularly video journalists, are common to many modern and near future campaigns. I run a game set in Seattle in the year 2007 where the characters are a team of free-lance journalists who operate an on-line news service called Emerald City OnLine. I was searching for a way to quantify for them how many people were seeing their stories when it hit me that the real world media already has the perfect tool for this--Neilson ratings. I have worked out a system to provide my players with weekly Neilson ratings for their character=92s shows. First, a summary of what the numbers of a Neilson rating mean. A Neilson rating consists of 4 numbers. Example: 13.8 rating, 26 share, 1st (15th overall). The first number (the rating) represents the number of households which tuned in to watch that episode. In 1995 each rating point represents about 950,000 households. The second number (the share) is the percentage of households watching. The third and fourth numbers tell how the episode fared against its competition in its time slot on the three other networks and against all of the other programs shown for the week. I use a two-part formula to determine ratings. Ratings =3D coverage mulitplier * interest factor. The coverage multiplier is reflects the kind of distribution the characters have arranged for the story. If the story is being carried only on their on-line service, via public access cable or pirate stations, then their rating will be very small, with a maximum rating of about 1. For this level of coverage I use a multiplier of.1. If they are doing a story that will be carried on a Seattle area station, say a story about a local corporation or politician, they might get a rating as high as 5, corresponding to a coverage multiplier of .5. If they do a story about a celebrity that gets picked up by a show like Hard Copy or Entertainment Tonight or a news story carried on network nightly news broadcast or a magazine show like 60 Minutes the rating could go as high as 12 or maybe even 14. This works out to a coverage multiplier of 1 to 1.25. For a truly stupendous story, such as the O.J. Simpson freeway chase, would have a coverage multiplier of 1.5 and a potential rating of 20 or more. The second part of the equation, the interest factor, measures the inherent appeal of the story. Some rough guidelines: human interest story-lost dog travels 500 miles home, pen-pals meet after 20 years corresponding, high school sports team makes state finals, base 1. Tragedy story: children killed in house fire, popular zoo animal dies, campers killed in flash flood: base 2. Scandal: politician caught taking bribes, sports star suspended for using drugs, celebrity gets in a bar fight, base 4. Disaster story: hurricane blasts Miami, earthquake rocks Los Angeles, famine in Ethiopia: base 5. Modifiers are then added to the base number to get the final interest factor. Modifiers might include: journalists get an exclusive interview: + 1 to + 3. Journalists get a scoop-the first ones to break a big story: + 3 to + 5. The story involves criminal acts + 1, involves conspiracies + 1, involves children + 1, involves drugs +1, involves a major corporation +1, involves a minor celebrity + 1, involves a major celebrity + 3. Live action shots: + 1 to + 4 depending on the type of story. Skills and advantages are also important factors in determining the success of a story. For each successful roll against an applicable skill (photography, writing, bard, etc.) + 1, for a critical success + 2. For each failed roll, - 1, for a critical failure - 2. For advantages, total all the reaction modifiers, both positive and negative, multiply by .1, and add the total to the interest factor. Finally, roll 1d6 and add it to the interest factor. Example: my players were hired to do a story about a local company that was test marketing a new soft drink. The story aired on a Seattle station=92s weekly business program, for a coverage multiplier of 1. The story was basically a puff piece used to fill airtime so the base interest factor was 1. The reporter made a successful bard roll and the cameraman made a successful photography role, each with + 1. The on camera reporter has 2 levels of voice and 4 levels of charisma, giving him a + 6 reaction modifier. Multiplied by .1 this adds .6 to the interest factor. The die roll was 2. The final interest factor for the story was 1 (base factor) + 1 (bard success) + 1 (camera success) + .6 (reaction bonuses) + 2 (die roll) =3D 5.6. Multiplied by the coverage factor of .5 this gives a final rating of 2.53, a mildy interesting local story. Subsequently, the characters discovered that the soft drink was laced with a mildly addictive designer drug. This story achieved a much higher rating. The story was reported as a scandal, which has a base factor of 3. The team was the first to break the story, + 3 for the scoop. The story involved criminal acts, conspiracies, drugs, and a minor corporation (worth + .5), worth another + 3.5. The cameraman made his skill check, but the reporter failed his. The story was covered by the same reporter so the reaction bonus was again .6. The die roll was 4. The final interest factor for the story was 3 + 3 + 3.5 + 1 + .6 + 4 =3D 15.1. The story was picked up by CNN and run as part of their hourly cycle for a coverage multiplier of 1. This was the hottest story of the day, with a Neilson rating of 15.1.