[MUD-Dev] Integrating PK

[Martin Keegan]

On Mon, 23 Jun 1997, Matt Chatterley wrote:

> On Mon, 23 Jun 1997, Marian Griffith wrote:

> things, without killing them, and this is also going to be available for a
> player to teach another player a "lesson" without a sharp point. Death
> will involve a form of quest for life from the other side, and be a
> generally nasty experience.

Tell us more about the quest for life. 
  
> > fights!) it is not so bad.  What particularly rankles is being attacked
> > for no apparent (or valid) reason.
> 
> Yeah. The inherent problem here of course, is many players attack NPCs for
> no reason at all, and the same to other players. I suppose what is worth
> note is that you are to be equally reprimanded for killing an NPC or
> player in a town, and not at all outside (unless they or their guild come
> after retribution). Guild behaviour will be encouraged (ie: Fred killed
> John, are we gonna let him get away with that?!).

Having been in gang PK wars, I can confirm that they're a lot of fun.
I've seen people on the NGs saying they've had year-long wars with other
players.
  
> > Most towns would have a law to forbid carrying weapons openly. Unless you
> > are a guard or a -very- noble visitor or inhabitant. The amount of damage
> > you can do  with a simple eating knife is far less.  And those fights are
> > easier to break up for the guards.
> 
> Absolutely. Weapons are to be sheathed (possibly simply represented by
> unwielded), or put away upon entry, and being caught with a weapon openly
> in view is a punishable offence. Dodgy characters (if you've been in
> trouble here before) may well be asked to surrender weapons at the gates.

On Island, you acquired sin for walking round with a wielded weapon. You'd
occasionally get a:

Put it away, Elisheva!

message warning you that you were racking up sin and likely to be tried in
our outrageously unfair legal system.
 
> Your response is definitely valid, and most welcome - the fact that you
> don't play "PK ok" games means you have a reason for it. I have no
> objection with (and would like to think its possible to have) pk being
> allowed (not necessarily encouraged), and treated the same as NPC killng.
> :)

This is another religious issue, and luckily one on which this list does
not speak with one mind. PK is claimed to obstruct RP. If you prevent PK,
you annoy one group of players. If you restrict it, you annoy both. If you
allow it, you annoy the other group. It is not possible to build a mud
which satisfies all people.

An interesting project would be to determine the minimum number of
separate muds which together would cater for almost all tastes. You'd have
to have a PK/!PK split, a mud conducive to RP, a lowbies can/cannot
build split, skills vs XP vs no advancement, etc etc. Now, you could
probably lump the !PK, pro-RP, no advancement and powerbuilders together
on the same mud ...

Mk