[MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more fun

[CJones at aagis.com]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Matthew R. Sheahan [mailto:chaos at crystal.palace.net]
> Sent: Thursday, July 09, 1998 1:19 AM
> To: mud-dev at kanga.nu
> Subject: [MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more fun
> 
> Jon A. Lambert propagated a meme to the effect of:
> > I assume that self-governance refers to extending the 
> capabilities of 
> > Player governance.  It's the nature of these "posited" mechanisms 
> > that interests me.  :)
> 
> once upon a time, i had planned out a system of "player government"
> which centered around mayoral and law-enforcement figures for the
> various settlements which function as player homelands, and so on.
> very PC, with elections and so forth, and the only real driving force
> behind it being control of PK.
> 
> i have lately decided that this is entirely too limited in scope, and
> what i now have planned is something based on adding on an entire
> layer of territorial rulership to the game.  if you're going to have
> "player government" in a medieval fantasy setting, to hell with small
> time mayors and sheriffs, let's have some noble dukes, 
> witch-kings, and barbarian warlords.  put some tools in their hands 
> for performing law enforcement and make sure people know that
overthrow 
> is an option if they don't use them.

-------- >8 snip 8<--------

> chiaroscuro

I have been considering a not dissimilar scenario, though on a smaller
scale. :-)

Imagine Bubba and his party hear about the evil wizard Boffo and his
henchmen who rule a tower over the tiny village of Smallburg. Boffo
(the scripted NPC) regularly sends his henchmen out to harass players,
kill the dumb NPCs of the village, etc. One goal of noble minded (or
greedy) players is to kill Boffo and take over the tower.

This issues I realized while planning this are:

(1) I need NPCs that can run scripts of high complexity (Boffo) and
    generic scripts of low complexity (henchmen that follow orders
    like "kill bubba", townspeople who scream at the sight of steel)

(2) Players need some mechanism to take over the tower ownership
    (which implies things like collecting the taxes, paying for
    the henchment, paying for tower upkeep, defending the realm)

(3) How do I deal with who actually owns the tower? Do I create a
    "group" or "party" identifier that gives the whole party the
    capability to administrate the tower and give orders to the 
    henchmen? If so, what happens if the party has a falling out,
    or players stop logging in regularly? (I would probably regenerate
    Boffo and transfer ownership back to him in that case.)

(4) And if I don't allow group membership, I'll have some tricky
    player who assumes control of the tower behind the party's back.

Now, the players will have some degree of control over an area. There
aren't any real boundaries unless I enforce "zones" or "realms" which, 
for me, are convenient mechanisms to make sure that objects stay in 
the correct scenario. I assume that for the players to take their 
roles and responsibilities seriously, they'll have to command their 
"tools for enforcement", the henchmen NPCs and PCs, to police the area,
collect taxes, etc. The players decide the policies, and with 
appropriate scripting, the NPCs can carry them out ("Aye, lad. Abide 
by the laws and us'll be friends.").

As the stories and rumors get passed from town to town, other players
will hear about what happened and challenge Bubba and crew in the
same way Boffo was challenged. The MUD can regenerate Boffo as 
Boffo, jr., and let him try to recapture the tower with a small 
army of henchmen (I hope this would be an automatic process).

Upside: The game starts to develop its own systems of tyrannical player
rulers, an atmosphere of achivement and competition for less powerful
players striving to rule, and laws can begin to be enforced.

Downside: I would have to ensure that I have a small army of programmers
ready to write the scripts or code to make things happen. Bubba decides
that he wants to fortify the tower, so he builds a keep around it. He
then adds traps, etc. This is definitely not something for a compiled
MUD. :-) Assassins, invisible killers, and others of that ilk will have
an easier time taking a tower than Bubba the buffed fighter-type.

Similar idea, different execution:  why not have player or scripted NPC
barbarian horde leaders, with small armies of henchment? That would
really shake up small town life. :-)

Chris