[MUD-Dev] Re: CGDC, a summary

[Chris Gray]

[Travis S. Casey:]

:Vultures.  These are people who PK because they've found it to be
:    an easy way to gain experience, money, equipment, or whatever.
:    There are several things about most muds which make this strategy
:    effective:

I think I'm less worried about these. If someone is role-playing, and
is wandering around with good equipment and/or lots of money, then it
should be part of their role to be worried about ambush by thieves, etc.
A rich merchant would normally have some guards when travelling with
wealth or goods. When wandering around town, they would likely not be
carrying much of value. An attack by a PK-er can be within the roles
being played, even if the PK-er isn't actively role-playing.

:3.  Bullies.  These players PK because they enjoy messing things up
:    for other people.  Some of them restrict their activities to
:    certain others, based on either in-game or out-of-game
:    considerations.  These tend to be the most vociferous opponents of
:    non-PK systems, and are the most likely to look for loopholes that
:    will allow them to kill other PCs when they're not supposed to be
:    able to.  Bullies are encouraged by traditional mud systems, since
:    they can "safely" go after lower-level characters.

My brief thinking here has a possible solution, but it is expensive in terms
of some real person's time. Allow players to have a 'bully' command. This
lets them identify another character as a bully. Having done that identification,
the bully can no longer kill the character. However, the damage (and note of
kill if it would have happened) is still computed, and the motions of the
combat are still gone through. The result is remembered. At some later point
in town, an admin, or possibly a representative of a player-run justice
agency, has to make a choice as to whether or not the call of 'bully' was
justified (don't ask me how!). If it was, the remembered damage, etc. is
discarded. If not, the damage is made real, including possibly killing the
character and dumping the corpse at the site of death, and giving the
aquitted bully first choice of loot.

This isn't a very pretty solution, and it has loopholes (like the character
hiding all goods, so that at bully-resolution time the loot is not at all
what it was at the time of the attack), but perhaps with some work it might
be better. E.g. if a character falsly cries 'bully' too many times (perhaps
only once?), then they can't do it for a while. Then of course you would get
the real bullies just trying to get characters to utter the false call.

--
Chris Gray   cg at ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA


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MUD-Dev: Advancing an unrealised future.