[MUD-Dev] Re: Role-playing [was Re: several messages]

[Nathan Yospe]

On Wed, 14 May 1997 clawrenc at cup.hp.com wrote:

:In <Pine.LNX.3.96.970511212615.930N-100000 at mpc.dyn.ml.org>, on
:05/11/97 
:   at 01:48 PM, Matt Chatterley <root at mpc.dyn.ml.org> said:
:
:>On Sun, 11 May 1997, Adam Wiggins wrote:
:
:>> [big dumb ogre types 'look':]
:>> You see here a big pile of coins.
:>> 
:>> [human types 'look':]
:>> You see here several hundred coins.
:>> 
:>> [Rain Man types 'look':]
:>> You see here 327 coins, one of which has a small scratch on its underside.
:
:We've debated this area of how or even if intelligence should be
:represented inside the game world.  My own view is that it shouldn't
:even be touched.  Leave that to the humans.  The concept of the system
:attempting to represent anything more than the base physical
:capabilities of the character body in question gives me the heebies.

Whereas I enthusiasticly embrace it, to the point that your character will
begin to react instinctively in key with their nature, unless you assert
concious control and restrain them. And even sometimes then. If you are
enraged enough, and a berzerker, trying to calm down isn't going to do you
a hell of a lot of good. Like most berzerkers, you are going to have to
know enough not to walk in to those sort of situations. (I posted a bit
back with an example involving my most rage prone species getting drawn
into a barfight in spite of a player's objections.) I do take perception,
as well as physical sensory capability, into account, and accent upon this
perception is inherent in my internal markup language. Training yourself
for perception helps quite a bit, and often your descriptions of the world
are relative to your _emotional_ perceptions, to the point that racially
specific descriptions can be imbeded into text. As can descriptions cued
to other factors, including specific familiarities, skills, and so forth.
Locksmiths by training, for example, might recognize the manufacturer of a
specific lock.

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  /_  / / ) /_  /_) / ) /| /| / /\            First Light of a Nova Dawn
 /   / / \ /_  /_) / \ /-|/ |/ /_/            Final Night of a World Gone
Nathan F. Yospe - University of Hawaii Dept of Physics - yospe at hawaii.edu