Adventurer Groups [was Affecting the World]

[s001gmu at nova.wright.edu]

Date: Tue, 25 Nov 1997 09:26:28 +0000 (PST8PDT)
From: "Jon A. Lambert" <jlsysinc at ix.netcom.com>


First off, what's with all the repeats of the original of this message?
List admin?

<snip reasons for adding semi-realistic consequences to combat, which I
 agree with whole-heartedly>

>An overlong example (the gist of some places I'm going with healing):
>
>--The aftermath of the battle--
># look at Bubba
>Bubba lies unconscious on the stone floor. You notice his left leg is bent in
>a awkward and unnatural angle. You see bone protruding through his leather
>leggings.  A pool of blood is rapidly forming around him. 

something to consider, for those of us who are not very medically oriented,
would be a 'diagnose' and or 'prescribe' skill, to be used here.

Diagnose would give some info on what kind of wound(s) or situation(s) could
cause the given symptom(s), and Prescribe would suggest some treatments, based
off of the characters skill set (IE: if I have no clue how to set a bone, 
but I know how to tie a turnicate, it should suggest the latter, with the
note that it's not the best solution, and more help should be sought!).

Firstaid is a good first start, and could probably be skipped from the 
list of things to do under the prescription.  It's one of those things that
any player living in modern society has an inkling should be done first.

># apply firstaid Bubba 
>Bubba is no longer bleeding. 
># remove leggings Bubba. 
>You remove Bubba's leather leggings. 
># look at Bubba 
>Bubba lies unconscious on the stone floor. You notice his left leg is bent 
>in a awkward and unnatural angle. You see bone protruding from his left 
>leg. You notice a heart-shaped tattoo bearing the inscription "Mum" on his 
>right leg. 
># grin 
>You grin. 
># consider cast 'bone ways' Bubba left leg 
>This action would be routine. The wound appears to be beyond the capability 
>of that spell.  
># consider cast 'bone ways true' Bubba left leg 
>This action would be moderately difficult. The wound appears to be within 
>the capability of that spell.  
># cast 'bone ways true' Bubba left leg 
>..... 
>You have failed to cast the spell. 
># apply firstaid Bubba left leg 
>You set Bubba's broken left leg. 

># get 'mirkannon' from pouch left side 

this line is what got me thinking about the 'diagnose' and 'prescription'
skills.  What is 'mirkannon'?  how do I know that this is the time to use
it?  how do I apply it?  am I, as a Player, supposed to know all this?!
I think the 'puter should be able to provide me with a few hints on how to
play my character.  Good players, who have been playing healers for a long
time, can easily skip the diagnose and prescribe steps, and jump right to
the treatment.

>You open the the belt pouch on your left side and get out the vial of 
>mirkannon. You are holding the vial of mirkannon in your left hand. 
># apply mirkannon Bubba left leg 
>You apply the salve of mirkannon to Bubba's left leg. 
>...etc.. 

<more snipage>

now, how to actually code up something like diagnose and prescribe, well,
that's a whole other can of worms I'm not going to delve into very much. 
With a combat system where you can cause such damage, it should be only a 
little more than trivial to have the computer do some diagnostics, post 
damage infliction, to come up with a few ways to treat the damage.  I 
envision something along the lines of the computer has a character in 
condition A, which consists of damage to some list of components.  The 
computer also has a list of herbs, salves, treatments, spells, etc, available 
to the healer (either on hand or that they know will do the trick, if they can 
just get ahold of them!), which all treat various conditions.  The computer 
uses some algorithm (based on the healer's skill, I'd presume), to generate a 
list of treatments, with possible substitutions and suitable warnings about
them.  Though I suppose the level of knowledge about a given treatement 
should also be based on the character's skill... maybe a new healer heard 
that you can use willow bark in place of mirkannon, but doesn't know that 
willow bark is only aspirin! :)  Whatever.  There are a lot of details 
that are a lot more involved than I care to get, atm, so I will just 
leave it at a that.  

-Greg