forcing you to make choices which you might not necessary like
This can be simply cruel. Some players may just go for 'which path gives me max exp' and be happy with their decision... For me I would stop playing if I would have to decide which one of my children will get killed (basically on my command).
With less drastic situations I wouldn't have so much problems. You could have to decide who inherits everything. This could even lead to your son killing your daughter for the money... but it was not you who gave the command. I would still think about how I could have handled it better... but I would continue to play in this case. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />
For the trolley thing... I would be fine with having to choose on this one. What would bother me is... does the game judge you? And how? Who says what is right or wrong in this situation? (For me it would be wrong to push the fat guy... but if I know and love one of the five people I would be tempted to do wrong to save him or her. It is not a matter of numbers. Five is not better than one.) So in this situation there could be people who like or dislike you for your action. You could even have to live with consequences like not being able to buy/sell at the greatest blacksmith in the country since it was his son you pushed onto the tracks. But the game should not tell you that it was right or wrong what you did. You just miss the opportunity to do one thing. But you should then be rewarded for saving the five with something you would not get otherwise.
If done right moral dilemmas can greatly help to get players immersed.
For the 'hint thing'. If you don't know the five people nor the fat guy then it does not make sense to give you hints on what will happen. If you know them then hints could just be reminders of who they are so you can think about the possible consequences.
If going with Karma points hints could be finger points from a god. "Push this guy to please me."
Would you want Karma Points or something along those lines as Nemisis hinted ?
As I understand Karma points it is just a way to measure how good or bad you are with shades of grey in between.
If you want to measure the players 'position' to one god or two opposing gods (or even kingdoms) then something like Karma points would be suited. Adjust it every time you do something that pleases this god... or something he dislikes.
Instead of a message popping up you could use visual clues when gaining/loosing Karma points. A light beam, sparkles in the air, everything gets gloomy for a brief moment, 'blackness' drips around you to give you the shivers or delight your heart... Visual clues could get stronger if you gain more points or get closer to being very very good/bad.
If your game has different races and different groups in these races then a good reputation system that keeps track of how you are doing against each race and group would be better.
Just make sure the player understands why people like/dislike him.
Quests/Actions that influence your reputation towards races could have optional hints (in dialog or floating text when you kill someone) so you don't miss it.
