Supporting RP+PG

[Huibai]

former
: Subject: [MUD-Dev] RP=MUSH/PG=MUD

[':>' is Caliban I believe]
:> completely valid, and both have their place and their uses.
:> But I'm of the opinion that if we balance the playing field a
:> little more, placing roughly equal emphasis on all four areas,
:> we could create a GS which could support both roleplaying
:> and 'powergaming' -- in fact, a GS which could allow each

I am in the camp of those trying to support both play styles.
Personally, I admit to being a powergamer - that's where I get
my kicks.  However, I'm leaning now to a philosophy of being
'in-character' for the mud, whether or not it's exactly playing a
role.  I think that if all players knew to behave as if they belong
in the game world (speak in 'thee' and 'thou' or whatever the
local customs) then it wouldn't matter if they were playing a
role or just being themselves.  I play as myself, making all the
decisions that I would make, except that I am a dwarf from the
Great Southern Forest clan instead of a whitey from Ohio. :)

I want to hear from some more strictly RP-oriented people to
know if that would be feasible.  If I'm running around just killing
goblins to work on my sword-swinging skill, would it bother you
if I didn't follow a storyline for myself? If I act like a person who
belongs in Goodhaven town while I'm there to heal, would that
be sufficiently respecting the roleplayers' goals in the game?

In bars and taverns, however, all race languages are 100% 
understood, and OOC/RL conversation is thus supported as
well as permitted.  I.e. out in the world, you should be a part
of it, but come back and have a beer and chill if you want to
get off-theme.  Viable? Dreaming?  Need input, Stephanie...

[':' is Brandon Cline]
: One problem I see, like you said, is that no one has spend a
: great deal of time making a portion of the "mud base" that would
: fit any environment and not need extra modification to be useable.
: The part that I see fitting this best is the world structure.  The
: implementation of "rooms" and such on the standard mud has to
: some extent not needed great modification throughout the develop-
: ments of muds.

Having rewritten everything from scratch, my partner and I are
interested in whatever theories you have about the above.  I have
only LP implementation experience; he has none whatsoever.  
Yet we have strayed far from what I consider to be standard. 

: Rooms though are very simplified representations of a world base,
: they are limited in what actions you can simulatate within them,
: and inevitably force the rest of the mud base to be as simplified
: as they are. So, if starting from this point, you create a complex
: world base, throwing out "rooms" all together, and implement a
: coordinate based world representation,

Looking at the difference between an Object and a Room, we've
steadily let the Room code dwindle until now the only difference
between them is that the Room can handle 'exits' in a special
manner.  The inherit went from 12k to 1501 bytes.  We use the
Room now more as a formal declaration of the object's place in
the hierarchy of the universe than a need for its features.  We do
not have a coord-based system; however, it does differ from the
standard room orientation and offer a few coord-looking features.

: it would then make sense to create easily modified "systems" to
: control skills, combat, mobiles, objects, etc. The "system" itself
: would not be modified actually, but the objects it controls would be.

Having reduced rooms to utmost in simplicity, I am hoping that the
"systems" work out exactly as you've suggested above.  I do see
how they all depend on our room features (mobiles wandering, 
ranged combat, skills with non-local effects, spatial awareness),
but I still am missing what I need to [not] be doing so that I don't
favor one style of play over the other.  I plan on thorough introduction
/help files, but I also want the system to support the attitude I hope
the players will adopt.  Any suggestions are eagerly welcomed.

: So, in a sense you would have a system, complex enough to support
: role playing and such, like a mush, but structured enough, to allow for
: hack and slash, power gaming or a hybrid of both.... 

I can probably satisfy the latter, but I have only played one RP-based
mud (which happened to be a MUSH of course:).  What are a couple
things that role players are going to look for to support them in their
goals?  I've already been struck by lots of good ideas from this list,
e.g. livings with inherent 'tendencies' in lieu of hardcoded sequences
of action.

: Probably not the best explantion I could have given,
: but post ideas, questions etc, and I'll try and clarify.  

ball's in your court now, amigo...
-John G.
----
"Try to look unimportant, for the enemy may be low on ammo."
#10 of Murphy's Laws of Combat