[MUD-Dev] Resets, repops and quests

[clawrenc at cup.hp.com]

In <199706040413.SAA10442 at mail.pixi.com>, on 06/03/97 
   at 09:20 PM, "Huibai" <ashen at pixi.com> said:

> clawrenc at cup.hp.com:

>: A standard solution for me would be:
>:   Go steal an Orcish body.  
>:   Walk into the Orc village unassaulted.
>:   Find the shaman.
>:   Steal his body.
>:   Take the egg.

>What was the story on why players have this ability?

I've never really bothered to derive a background story (mostly due to
the fact that as a player I never pay attention to them).  A while ago
I posted a possible world model however:

--<cut>--

Tho I haven't cleaned up the details, the presentation I have in mind
is very much that the shared reality experienced in the MUD is a
physical construct resulting purely from the mutual mental actions of
the players.  Probably this will be presented in much the manner of
(all) the players being once near-omnipitent (demi-)gods who were
mutually responsible for the initial creation of the universe, but are
now much descended from their former stature and power and
concomittantly bereft of much of their memory.

--<cut>--

and:

--<cut>--

My debate is over whether I should even postulate the existance of
Sim-Peeps, virtual or realised.  My tendancy is to arrange the world
so that players are the only actual intelligences in the game, and
that this is a known feature of the world (cf a multi-player Myst).
Then mobiles become the shadows of deranged and descended
intelligences (cf Heinleinian Puppet Masters, David-brin-esque raised
chimps/dogs, demons nailed to this weary mortal coil).

--<cut>--

>Is it all players?  

Yes.

>Are they super-beings using earthly
>bodies like chess pieces in a cosmic game?  

In many ways, yes.

>Or are
>they Queens for hive-like parasites?  

Take any one of the current religous models which posulated immortal
spirits and reincarnation.  Now make the "spirits" concious of the
reincarnation process and all its fillips, as well as capable of
controlling multiple bodies at a time in a pinch.

>Mine is that only RPers get this ability (one one body
>per, I'm afraid :-\) - since that would ruin many of the quests, I
>think, if it were as easy as the above.  

Its not quite that easy, and yes, the whole deal of racial hatred,
physical limitations, visual apparancies etc can become moot.  Note
that in the above case it *may* be a lot easier to run a flat out
assault, chop the shaman into chop suey with your sword and walk off
with the treasure.  The fun bit is that there is very very very little
way to tell which approach might be easier or more effective up front
-- especially since another player may have stolen the shaman's body
himself and will fight you tooth and nail.

>Or is there a formidable
>power struggle involved in stealing a body?

Stealing a body is non-trivial and potentially extrmely expensive (it
can very nearly result in character death).  It involves persuading
the current owner that he no longer wants it.  If the current owner is
unwilling to ber persuaded this may involve a lengthy and expensive
will power fight.  A losing owner may also just kill the body himself
rather than give it up.  A wannabe owner may physically assault and
damage the body as a method of weakening the current owner's ties to
the body with the idea of stealing the body and then healing it
afterward.

--
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...