[MUD-Dev] Graphic MUDS/Ultima Online

[Nathan Yospe]

On Mon, 11 Aug 1997, Richard Woolcock wrote:

:Matt Chatterley wrote:
:> 
:> Yup! This is where one vital change in outlook is a key starting point.
:> Weapons are NOT separate entities in their own right. ANYTHING you can
:> lift and swipe with is a weapon! Just a sword is better designed for
:> cutting than a chair you grabbed in the inn.

:Why use the chair?  If you're an 8 foot ogre, you could use the innkeeper.

:You swing the Innkeeper over your head, striking the drunkard hard.
:The Innkeeper's skull shatters under the impact of the blow.
:The Innkeeper is dead!

:The drunkard hits you with a bottle.
:The bottle shatters as it strikes your head.

:You swing the corpse of the Innkeeper in a wide arc, missing the drunkard.

:The drunkard hits you with a broken bottle.

:Etc...

:Now watch the mess you make in a bar-room brawl...

This sort of thing can become essential in my game - the following is a
newbie character I started in the game in a location with no available
weaponry: (faked this time, not perfectly accurate)

You crawl onto the beach. Dozens of trees hang over the water, and the
ground is made of rocks about the size of your head. Several creatures
with black shells and clawed, bladed limbs scurry toward you. They are
about 20 cm long, and have lizardlike mouths filled with needlelike teeth.
Faceted red eyes gleam. One of the crablike creatures reaches you and
snaps at your foot. {grab crab} You grab at the crablike creature and it
pinches onto your hand with a three fingered claw. You jerk back in
revulsion, and the creature looses its grip, flying into a rock behind
you. The other creatures hesitate, and the crablike creature twitches on
the rock, leaking green-gray fluid. {stand} You clamber to your feet, and
the crablike creatures back away from you. Out of the corner of your eye,
you see several of them crowding closer behind you. {throw rock at
creature behind} You grab a rock from the ground at your feet and heft it,
then, with a twist and a lunge, fling it in the direction of one of the
crablike creatures. The rock smashes the creature's shell, and green-gray
fluid gushes. The creature twitches once, then stops. Several other
creatures attack the now dead bodies of the two that you have killed.

"You? We can't take you," said the Dean, glaring at the Librarian.
"You don't know a thing about guerilla warfare." - Reaper Man,
Nathan F. Yospe  Registered Looney                   by Terry Pratchett
yospe at hawaii.edu   http://www2.hawaii.edu/~yospe           Meow