[MUD-Dev] Character development [was Re: ]

[Matt Chatterley]

On Tue, 14 Apr 1998, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:
> On 08:06 PM 4/14/98 +0000, I personally witnessed s001gmu at nova.wright.edu
> jumping up to say:

> >One large problem to overcome is the players who wander over from other
> >muds and see no guilds.  The first thing they are going to do is call for
> >guilds, and push towards them.
> 
> You know, in the AD&D system, at a certain level you start getting
> 'followers' and the ability to build a 'stronghold'. Maybe something like
> this could be ported over to MUDs; at a given level, you can build and
> 'own' some sort of personal construct within certain boundaries that would
> expand slightly as you rose in level. You could add special sorts of rooms
> at higher levels. Each of these things would cost something, probably
> really huge amounts of money or specific types of expensive items, and what
> you could build and own would change based on your
> race/class/skills/whatever and give some variety. I'm going to expand on
> this a little using the idea of a standard AD&D clone MUD with the 1-50
> level structure we all remember from Dikus.

I have some similar notions, which are theoretically an extension of the
'High Mortal' or 'Avatar' positions for 'high level' players, which exist
on many h/s muds. After performing suitable deeds, and possessing enough
wealth in a suitable country (eg: a Kingdom), a player has the potential
to be noticed by the ruler of said kingdom, and inducted into the nobility
(as a knight if renound as a warrior, otherwise in a civil post of some
sort). This gives them an area of land to rule, and to maintain.

Peon players (basically everyone else) can also purchase land, and hire
followers - nobles with land will acquire followers (generally farmers and
settlers, admittedly) over time, based on the amount of land they have,
and will be able to collect tax in various forms from them, in return for
protecting them from invaders. There are various other options available.

The hiring of followers (mercenaries) is quite an important point
actually, since it is not recommended for you to adventure on your own,
and you may not always have sufficient PC backup, so hiring some
cannonfodder is very desirable. :)

[Snip example]

--
Regards,
	-Matt Chatterley
Spod: http://user.super.net.uk/~neddy/spod/spod.html