Issues from the digests and Wout's list

[S001GMU at nova.wright.edu]

Date: Mon, 28 Apr 1997 19:47:12 +0000 (PST8PDT)
From: clawrenc at cup.hp.com

>In <3.0.32.19970425220738.00a20440 at mail.tenetwork.com>, on 04/25/97 
>   at 10:20 PM, Jeff Kesselman <jeffk at tenetwork.com> said:
>
> <matriarchs vs. patriarchs>
>
>>In msot RPGs it is a given that the
>>players ARE playign the exceptional, abnormal people in society...

Actually, I would argue that.  Most systems I know of allow for the possibility
that the players want to be something other then Gods in the making.  The base 
case is that they are above average, but there are methods built in to most 
systems to try something else.  Creation point based systems are probably
the most flexible (simply lower or raise the number of points @ creation!)

>I'm not overly keen on that view, at least certainly not to the extent
>to which it is commonly taken where Thrud the barbarian warrior can
>bench press 4,000lbs _and_ walk 600 miles a day, _and_ master six lore
>books before dinner, _and_ ... 

I do agree here.  There's exceptional, and then there's EXCEPTIONAL.
I am fond of the 'characters are a cut above everyon else' view, but not
to the point where they are minor deities.

>                           ... I'm much keener on the
>everybody-is-more-or-less-the-same and then make specific fairly minor
>exceptions for the skills and abilities they have gained thru play
>(also ignoring species/race/sex/etc distinctions).

's entirely a matter of oppinion, and a good system will be flexible to the
point where that can be determined on a game by game basis.  For MUDs that's
not as easy to do, but still possible.  Would depend on how you divide up
the code.. but any particular instance of the MUD would have a set situation
(IE: JC gives me a copy of his Mud code, I tweak the creation system and
reballance the mechanics and poof, we have a power play game.  Tweek being
the key word).  Again, a creation point system might lend itself well to
something like that...

-Greg