[MUD-Dev] Re: roleplaying farmers?

[Mike L Kesl]

This post is a bit messed, because, as it was my first, it got sent back
to me with the error message about not being able to post. That was a
while ago, and my brain is to jumbled to check over what I said or try to
make it clear, so I will just send it off shamelessly.

 > The question that comes to my mind here, is what is it that the MUD
 > system itself needs to provide? Perhaps I'm being too cynical, but it
 > seems to me that in order for such a flexible MUD to work, allowing lots
 > of people to role-play lots of different types of roles, you need the
 > cooperation of the player-base so as to not mess up the role-playing.
 > For example, if someone role-plays a farmer, there are likely lots and
 > lots of ways where nasty players could mess up that role-play. Burn
 > the farm, kill the animals, pollute the water supply, pour salt all
 > over the fields, attack the farmer, etc., etc.
 
 Well, the way I have always seen it handled, handled it myself as a
 player, and encouraged handling of it as an admin, is that if a certain
 "nasty player" were to do nasty things, they would not get away with it. I
 have always thought and allowed/suggested thatthe players themselves take
 care of the problem, that is the roleplaying environment I have created
 and hope to create again, except this time with much more mechanics. i.e.,
 in my old mud the idea of being a farmer would have been unheard of
 because of code limitations. However, in the new system, if someone was a
 farmer and some jerk ruined his crops, then that jerk would be in for some
 punishment, decided by the farmer, and his friends...and his family and
 whoever else wanted a piece of the action. And even after exacting
 retribution this ordeal might not end, could go on to form other
 friendships and rivalries, or just die out. So many things could happen,
 the long term ones mostly decided by the players' roleplay.
 
 > To my cynical mind, the problems only go away if you can manage to keep
 > out of the game all those players who would want to mess it up. Assuming
 > that, what features need to be added to the MUD system to make the
 > role-play easier? Start with somthing that *just* has emote support - what
 > would be the next step? What are the sequence of steps that the MUD
 > builder could go through to make the game more and more fun for the
 > roleplayers?
 
 As I see it, any person can roleplay a "problematic" character and be
 allowed in the game. They may be killed by a posse, ending their
 character's life, but that is part of the life. Roleplaying such a
 character can be fun, as can roleplaying the other side, I think both are
 needed in human controlled form. On the other hand if a person is playing
 a problematic character and can not deal with his/her character being
 killed every time days after creation, then they will either find a new
 place to play, or become excessively and out of character-ly problematic.
 In the latter case, I would simply ban them, they do not understand the
 game and the roleplay involved.
 
 > Sure, you could say things like "implement farming", "implement economies",
 > "implement ecologies", etc., but those are an immense amount of work, and
 > we haven't yet proved that such a MUD would be of any interest to anyone.
 > So, lets start smaller, and make sure that what we could end up with is
 > of interest to role-players, so that the implementation effort isn't just
 > going to be wasted.
 
 I plan on giving such things a great chance of being implemented. It may
 be work, but it will be fun. And I have seen a good handful of muds that
 give the _sort_ of thing I want while still being greatly successful. I
 see there being great differences in mud types out there, and most often
 in my old mudding days, I would not even telnet to 98% percent of the muds
 on the mudconnector listing. As far as starting smaller...well, yeah I
 suppose that is one way to do it, but I plan on creating an advanced
 world, starting out with tools that builders(who are usually good rp
 players) can use to begin the rich world while I develop new mechanisms
 for interacting with that already designed flexible world. I guess this is
 kind of like what you are saying. In my opinion a mud is something like
 80% atmosphere (players and world) and 20% code. Yeah I want to spend all
 my time on the 20%, because that is my job. I also feel that the
 atmosphere is very much based on this 20% of the mud's "worth". A great
 world can be created if the code allows it, and good players will play at
 such a mud, knowing it will be worthwhile...
 
 > -- 
 > Chris Gray     cg at ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA
 
 Mike L Kesl
 Post #1 Hi!
 
 Introduction:
 I am in the planning stage of development a java mud. It will have a text
 interface, but allow tile based and vr interfaces easily for those that
 wish it (not me). I have played a lot of rom and envy muds, and like the
 ones I played that were modified for "roleplay" (about 00.1% of them). A
 good example would be Erwin Andreason's and Oliver Jowletts mud AR, which
 has undergone huge changes, making it pretty unrecognizable from it's
 base. So, my mud will reflect what I have played and liked, but what I
 have liked is a very tiny part of what exists, and is not attainable by
 downloading some mud's code base. Specifically, I want a big and rich
 world, with lively mobs. I want to include many systems in the world,
 verging on it being a simulation game. I want to allow builders, non-coder
 types and anyone who wants, the chance at creating the world and stuff in
 it if they so desire, by creating a great set of tools and an interface to
 the java code through the security bits, polymorphism, and inheritance.
 There are a million other things, I had not planned on posting just yet.

p.s. Does anyone have suggestions on systems/rules I can consult freely
in order to give my game balance. Even if it mean creating my own rules.
And I do not mean some generic system with vague rules. I am looking more
for something precise. Any resources concerning such things would be great

Thanks for reading
Mike L Kesl