[MUD-Dev] Git out the boar spear, Martha!

[clawrenc at cup.hp.com]

In <199707010038.TAA18340 at dfw-ix6.ix.netcom.com>, on 06/30/97 
   at 05:48 PM, "Jon A. Lambert" <jlsysinc at ix.netcom.com> said:

>> From: clawrenc at cup.hp.com
>> Subject: [MUD-Dev]  Git out the boar spear, Martha!
>>    at 12:56 PM, Matt Chatterley <root at mpc.dyn.ml.org> said:

>> >The thread(s) upon hunger/food/nutrition a short while ago were very
>> >popular and quite highly contested - I'd like to raise another issue
>> >of that - the gathering of food, and specifically, implementation of
>> >some way to hunt.
>> 
>> For this area I fall into the grunt player camp.  I expect my
>> cahracter, outside of unsusual circumsatances (forced march across a
>> desert etc), to take care of his own nutrition without requiring my
>> attention or direct involvement as player.  Possibly this is because I
>> try and handle feeding my own body in much the same manner -- utterly
>> ignorable automaticities.  Eating is a bother and an unfortunately
>> necessary waste of time.  (Conveniently ignoring my own gourmand
>> tendencies which I see as entirely seperate -- eating for pleasure as
>> vs nutrition which I can't see translating into a text MUD well at
>> all)

>I think this may well fall into theme.  It may be convenient to
>assume ALL characters can hunt if your game world is
>primitive/historic.   If you do a modern/future theme, this skill may
>be more unusual and  having it as a survival skill might make a game
>difference.

In a modern/future world I would presume the skill was "Ability to
read a menu and order food."  I rarely see the yobos outside McDonalds
chasing down the local wildlife with for food (well, other than the
femme's).

>Hunting down parts for the food replicator...hmm

Quite.

>> That "chance of being ill" piece is interesting.  Why should a
>> character get ill from eating a freshly killed carcass?  Parasites? 
>> There are amazingly few that can survive a human digestional system
>> long enough to be real bother.
>>

>I not sure.  Maybe I'm misinformed.  I thought there was good reason
>to drain the blood from that boar before eating.  

It removes a number of blood-born parasites, as well as keeping the
meat fresh for far longer.

>I also remember 
>something about people having digestive reactions to horse blood.

???  Not heard of that one.

>Perhaps certain creatures require special preparation, like Fugoo.

Now there's an interesting sub-theme for a primitive world game:
knowledge of how to prepare edible food from the otherwise noxious and
actively poisonous stuffs available.  I'd find this evern more
interesting if you forced the human player to learn that X needed Y
tratment while Q needed R treatment etc,

>> There is considerable evidence (I find supportable) that Homo Sapiens
>> is by nature a cursorial hunter.  What is a cursorial hunter I hear
>> you cry in bewilderment?  Very simple:  A cursorial hunter is a hunter
>> which hunts its prey by running (jogging actually) it into the ground. 
> 
>I spend much of my time hunting down my cursor. :)

I gave up on ever catching my mouse.  I caught it sleeping one night,
turned it upside down, and nailed the bugger to the desk on its back.

>> Several "primitive" tribes continue to hunt this way to this day.  
> 
>There may be some modern anecdotal evidence to support this.   Did
>you ever see a pack of children hunt down an ice-cream truck?

Images of sugar-frenzied teenagers hunting down and devouring the last
Frosty Freeze on the planet in a mad rush of glittering eyes and bad
teeth...

--
J C Lawrence                           Internet: claw at null.net
(Contractor)                           Internet: coder at ibm.net
---------------(*)               Internet: clawrenc at cup.hp.com
...Honorary Member Clan McFUD -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...