[MUD-Dev] Reusable plots for quests

[Travis S. Casey]

On Thu, 23 Oct 1997 coder at ibm.net wrote:
> On 20/10/97 at 09:54 AM, "Travis Casey" <efindel at polaris.net> said:
> 
> >IMHO, a mud should not have a "steady-state" position -- if it does, then
> >the players can't really change the world in any significant way, and all
> >their actions are for naught.  While this might be realistic, it's
> >definitely
> >not fitting in the heroic mold.  (Of course, if your mud isn't supposed
> >to be in the heroic mold, it may be appropriate for the actions of the
> >PCs to never have any significant effect.)
> 
> <<Much of what follows is of course, obvious, but I think it bears
> spelling out as it allows concetration on the internal wrangling of the
> steady state.>>
> 
> I don't think this is possible if there is any form of game continuity
> (echoes of the evolution threads that ran a while back?).  Consider, if it
> is possible for players to fundamentally affect and change the game, and
> the game does not have a steady state, then the game will progressively
> mutate over time until it becomes utterly alien to its initial
> incarnation.  Ignoring all the really interesting aspects and problems of
> this, the game design problem is that your inital game design is now no
> longer applicable, and you have little to no (I suspect guaranteed no, due
> to the character of the changes players will attempt to effect in attempt
> to better their positions) probability that any aspect of your initial
> game design will pertain to the new game world.
>
> Consider: Could you make a game which was playable in Flatland but which
> was also equally playable in out RL world, __and__ in the interesting
> warps of time and space about a black whole, __and_ in a high magic world
> etc etc etc?

Umm... there's a long way between "the players should be able to change
the world in significant ways" and "the players should be able to
change the world in fundamental ways."  Most games aren't going to allow
the players to change the "laws of nature" of the setting, and I'd
definitely say that they *shouldn't* allow the players to do that.

The game will definitely change over time, but the parameters within 
which that change can be made don't have to be infinitely broad.  
 
> Thus you can have a game which is set, perhaps, in the Rebel Alliance
> against Darth Vader, The Rebel's are never totally defeated, and Darth
> Vader never actually dies.  The game then occurs within the defined steady
> state of the war.  What particular planets are on what side, who lives,
> who doesn't, and what the curent power balance is, is all in flux with the
> curves asymptotic on both sides.

That's what I meant by not having a steady state -- not that *nothing*
should be constant, but that the players should be able to do things which
have lasting effects.  (In contrast to most muds today, where almost
nothing that players do has a lasting effect.)

This does, however, bring up another topic -- namely, why *not* have a 
mud which changes in fundamental ways over time?  What if the rebels *can*
defeat Vader and the Empire?  Is this necessarily a bad thing?

There's no reason we major theme of a mud couldn't change over time.  In
the case of our example, once the Empire is defeated, the rebels still
have to try to put together a government, deal with any other forces that
try to step into the power vacuum left, and possibly perform "mopping-up"
actions against any organized pockets of resistance that might be left.

A good example of this sort of thing is the TV show Babylon 5 -- the
series started out by building up towards a war against the alien 
Shadows.  The war came about, was fought, and ended.  However, there
were still problems left behind -- incipient civil wars in the Earth
Dominion and among the Minbari castes.  At the close of last season,
both of those plot lines were (mostly) resolved, leaving the stage open
for something else.

The same sort of thing has been done in many novel and movie series,
although rarely to the same extent.  It's a common staple of paper
RPG games as well.

Of course, in doing a mud like that, you'd probably lose some players
at the transition points -- some may not be interested in sticking
around once the current "part" wraps up.
--
       |\      _,,,---,,_        Travis S. Casey  <efindel at io.com>
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