[MUD-Dev] Re: Administrative notes

[Miroslav Silovic]

> [On 05/11/97 Marian Griffith <gryphon at iaehv.nl> said]
> 
> >The simple way to get rid of combat twinks is to have a real (gamewise)
> >cost attached to it. Make armour and weaponry expensive to get and
> >maintain. Don't give it away for free with each corpse, but make players
> >purchase it with a armourer and weaponssmith. Make money hard to get at,
> >and make not having it a hazardous lifestyle (e.g. characters can really
> >starve to death if they don't eat enough, or the right things). Don't
> >reincarnate characters when they get killed but make that dependent on
> >the actions of other players. If you don't have friends then your
> >characters won't last long. That should make players who are looking to
> >fight think twice and give players who don't want to other things to do.
> 
> I think this the appropriate way to go.  The only difficulty with this
> approach is maintaining the risk involved with non-combative activities. 
> Risk is crucial for a good game because you can't really have players
> getting reward for typing in ten commands correctly.  This is what is so
> attractive about combat for both implementor and player; it provides
> substantial risk with possible reward.

I actually disagree here - 'roleplaying' is *not* getting reward for risk.
It's being a character of one's choice, and for the most occupations, risk
is simply not a part of them. Being an innkeeper is not risky - well, you
need a pair of huge guys to guard the inn, and keep the trouble away,
of course. Same goes for bankers. Healers are iminently non-risky, except
that they can contract diseases from players - why change that? Certainly
not for the dubious value of turning a role-playing game into a strategic
one.

> For example, a healer type should simply heal.   It's a bit contradictory
> to job title if that player must also go out into the world and actually
> kill.  Now, you can't have that same player sitting in the middle of town
> square healer non threatening injured players while leveling up a storm.

But if you made a roleplaying MUD, you won't *HAVE* a bunch of players
leveling up a storm. If a player is so injured that he needs a healer
(for instance, after a raid to an orc village), he'd either have to be
carried to the town (I find the idea of heavily bleeding player walking
150 squares rather silly), or the healer will have to be brought to the
player. So the scenario, in the role-playing setting would be:

party is heavily injured, near the orc village. Some players, in decent
shape are guarding them, while another one is sent to the city to fetch
the healer. They take a pair of fastest horses, so that that can change
them (for greater speed), while the desperate defenders are holding off
the attack of regrouped orcs. Healer comes to the group and helps.

Of course, healers will /mostly/ be in the cities, because safety is
their natural environment.

> Another solution could involve metal health.  Lack of mental health could
> be equally debilitating as an equal lack of physical health.  Thus, a mage
> or cleric could cause great harm to themselves using the skills they are
> suppose to use.  Spell use would cause great strain on your mental
> faculties... and perhaps even insanity.

Again, I don't see how that would add to their characters. Even if madness
would be fun to roleplay (as all the people here who play WhiteWolf games
know :) )

> One other idea I've been toying with would be to keep track of who
> attacked a mobile.  An attack would be anything that was intended to
> result ultimately in the mobile's demise.  Upon the mobile's death, each
> player who successfully attacked the creature would receive an EQUAL
> amount experience.  A fighter would receive experience for using his axe,
> a mage would gain experience for casting susceptible spells, and a cleric
> would receive experience for casting heals on his fellow party members
> (indirect attack on the mobile).  Thus, each individual would be awarded
> equally for their contribution to the team effort.

Again, this looks like a fun idea, but it still does not contribute to the
/roleplaying/. For one, it doesn't answer the central question: why are
they killing that mob? :)

	Miro