[MUD-Dev] Re: UBE/high: Re: FW: UBE/high: Re: W IRED: Kilers

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Marian's Tailor Problem seems to me to be a case of "how do we enable
Buffy to prevent Bubba ruining her fun without ruining Bubba's fun when
both players are enacting different but valid facets of the game?"

For the case in point, Buffy enjoys role-playing a tailor in a medieval
setting. Bubba enjoys role-playing a strong fighter in a medieval setting.
I'm assuming both Bubba and Buffy are valued players (i.e. you don't
particularly want either of them quit) and that you don't want to
drop either facet of the game (tailoring or fighting).

There are certain stipulations in that medieval setting though. By
chosing to play a mud with a medieval setting, Buffy has chosen to
allow medieval-type things to happen to her. Presumably if she wanted
to play in a safe environment, she wouldn't be playing a mud that
didn't provide one in the first place. So, I assume that her choice
to play in a mud where player vs. player combat is unrestricted means
that she has no objection to player vs. player combat involving her
provided that said combat is appropriate to the setting (e.g. she
insulted the head of the local thieves guild).

Heading back to the Tailor Problem, Buffy is running her little tailor
shop quite happily and in walks Bubba. He kills her easily, raids her
shop for loot and departs. There's now a question of motivation -
there may nothing wrong with this if it is valid, in-theme, in-character
roleplay - for example if Buffy had previously done something to insult
Bubba or one of his friends or followers and Bubba was exacting revenge.
If it's simply Bubba being a vile idiot and harrassing Buffy for
out-of-character reasons, then Buffy should be able to file OOC
complaints and there should be OOC methods of punishing Bubba.
I think the core of the tailor problem is in the valid, in-character
motivations, because these require game-world mechanisms and can't 
be dismissed so easily.

Buffy wants to be a tailor, happily designing and selling clothes. It
might be valid roleplay for Bubba to turn regularly on destroy and loot
missions. What in-character, in-setting methods can be put in place
that will allow Buffy respite from such attacks without requiring her
to become a tougher fighter than Bubba?

(I don't consider the options of simply blocking player-killing and
player-stealing because they are out-of-character, artificial methods
which block valid roleplay situations. Besides, as I mentioned above,
Buffy has specificly chosen to play her tailor on a mud that
allows this sort of thing rather than on a "safe" mud.)

So, what mechanisms could/should be implemented to enable Buffy to
protect herself from attack?

Buffy could hire a guard to protect her shop. Of course this would
require that the shop make enough money to pay the guard, and that
the guard is tough enough to be a deterrent for Bubba. Depending on
setting details, she may be able to hire a mage to protect her
shop and property with various spells. Or indeed she may be able to
draw on player friends to do these tasks for her, for free. This
could be a problem when she's just starting out and doesn't know
anybody and/or can't afford much.

In-theme law can be used to discourage such attacks on good citizens
of the city. Bubba might have a valid roleplay grudge against Buffy
but he's also much less likely to carry out an attack in a place where
guards are likely to respond quickly to disturbances and punishments
for crimes are strong enough to deter. In a medieval setting, the
penalty for murder is likely to be execution - the possible penalties
involved in death could potentially be more detrimental to a fighter
than to a tailor (e.g. stat reductions are common). Consider also
banishment from the city - leaving Bubba bereft of the support the
city provides (this requires that the city provide something of
value to Bubba in the first place). The point here is that in a
"civilised" city such as one in which tailoring is a valid business
occupation needs to provide legislative measures that protect the
businesses from attack. Similarly, a more feudal environment like
a being tailor to a Lord in his castle should bestow the Lord's
protection on the tailor.

Another good social mechanism is things like clans, secret societies
and the like. Buffy is a member of the Chain Clan so an attack upon
Buffy is considered an attack upon the Clan and the Clan will therefore
enact terrible revenge upon the perpetrator. This may depend upon
Buffy's value to the Clan of course. Other forms of revenge may also
be possible - what if there are assassins available who could be
contracted by Buffy to kill Bubba? If he fears this sort of reprisal
he will be less likely to carry out the attack in the first place.

Depending on the reasons for Bubba's attack, attacks can be 
discouraged by finding ways to remove or minise the rewards for the
attack. If Bubba's reasons are not personal, but motivated instead
for profit - i.e. Bubba is a thug/thief type of person and is
raiding for fun and profit - then reducing those profits reduces the
chances of Buffy being attacked. If Bubba is attacking, looting the
place and then selling off the loot for profit then ways are needed
to make the loot either less valuable or less sell-able so that the
rewards do not justify the risk so well.

Give Buffy a way to mark her equipment as hers so that stealing and
selling it off is not trivial. Make the equipment undesirable to 
non-tailors - why would someone pay much money for a set of needles
and a dummy that will only be useful to another tailor? Allow Buffy 
to add a safe and locked storerooms to her shop so that the majority 
of her cash and/or goods are much more difficult to steal in a 
smash-and-grab operation. Allow her to purchase "safe" places elsewhere 
to store materials and garments so that they can't be taken in a raid 
on the shop. Such safe places could even be things like warehouses run 
by npcs or other places exactly for this purpose and thus much more 
secure than your average shop.

There is a compromise here in how much this restricts Bubba's enjoyment
of being a thug and killing who he pleases. He has more to take into
account before embarking on murderous incursions into civilised areas,
but this is in general fully appropriate to the setting. He can enjoy
being a thug in the mountain passes or forests, way-laying travellers;
or in those smaller, less civilised places where tailors don't mind
a bit of combat and expect to need some combat training to survive,
or in those darker, cheaper, poorer parts of the city where Buffy would
be stupid to wander unaided in the first place.

I think that as long as your game and setting allow a certain style
of play, and there is an element of realism in that style of play
then you need to make sure that the setting is realised in sufficient
detail that the style of play in question is rewarding. That means
providing appropriate social measures to protect certain play styles
from being overly spoiled by other play styles but at the same time
it means making sure that those other play styles are still enjoyable
even with those measures in place. The only other choice is to drop
one or other style completely.

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