[MUD-Dev] Re: Marian's Tailor vs. Psychopaths

[quzah]

From: Peck, Matthew x96724c1 <x96724 at exmail.usma.army.mil> on Saturday, October
03, 1998, 11:53 AM


>Since I bring that up, I would like to cite that as one of my theories why I
>think killing is more prevalent on MUDs.  There is simply no real
>consequence.  So you lose a few hundred points of exp. or whatever, maybe
>some items.  So what?  In real terms, very little is lost.  Life is cheap.
>I have never played on a permdeath system, perhaps someone who has could
>share their experiences.  For me, at least, I would be more hesitant to
>kill, and more prone to social interaction.  That might be just me though.


My first encounter with a mpog was a bbs game called "TeleArena". When I
played on it first, there was unrestricted player-killing, but I don't
think many people their actually killed eachother, and it was a permdeath
envoirnment. I died quite a few times just from wandering a bit too far
away, or starving to death at the city gates on the long way back from
some place; having ran out of food.

At any rate, I think I brought the first major out break of pk to the
particular place where I used to play. I don't recall why exactally
I decided to kill someone, but I doubt I had a "good" reason. It was
just something to do, so I did it. I killed scores of people, just
for kicks, and eventually, a pair of warriors used a small bug and
slaughtered me. -- Not that that would have stopped me, I would have
just played a new character so I was higher than them, and returned
the favour.

All of that aside: I really did enjoy "perm-death" much more than the
typical mud death. Death was real, and it gave you a helluva scare
when you were off fighting mob X, and mob X poisons you way way out
in the wilderness, or whatever. I actually prefer perm-death, due to
the caution it makes me have; otherwise, I tend to get careless, and
end up dying and not really caring about it.

I'm not sure exactally how to handle the rampent player killers in
a sim. I would like to see a very good law system in effect, however
that doesn't protect people who don't want to die. And lets face it,
most people do NOT enjoy getting chased through the boonies by an
individual who wants to kill their character. Even without permdeath,
no one (generalization) wants to lose their time and effort. If it
was not a true sim, I'd suggest possibly one of the following:

   %kill Boffo
   You thrust your sword towards Boffo's back; suddenly, you see
   the looming vissage of (...) the god of fate, and you realize
   that it is not Boffo's back you see before you, but your own!

   Boffo turns around with a shocked look on his face; shocked at
   the sight of your longsword, in your death grip, pin cushioning
   you, back to front.


   But death is not yours. Agony. A crowd gathers around you, they
   look down upon you; gaping and wondering. You hear them call
   for the bone man, to take your corpse away. You try and scream
   that you are not dead! You are alive! Moments later, you are
   hoisted up into the air, and tossed face down in a wagon. You
   black out...

   You awaken later, as the lid slams shut on your coffin. You
   can hear the nails being driven into the lid; you can feel
   the coffin being jostled around, and the thud as it is dropped
   into a hole. You hear the shovels full of dirt as they hit the
   lid. Soon, all is silent, save for the laughter of (...), the
   god of fate.

   %look
   It is dark, you cannot see; you cannot move; you do not breath.
   You hear a constant laughter

   %chat Hey! Someone come dig me up!
   You cannot do that.

Anyway, sorry to drag it out so, but I was having fun ;) I guess
this wouldn't work too well in a sim, but it may -- If their are
no witnesses to the true act, you could pull it off in a variety
of different ways:

   %kill boffo
   You scream in pain, a quick short scream, and the lastthing
   you see is a crossbow bolt protruding out through your chest.

Damn the timing anyway ;) Have something else kill the would-be
killer, at the moment they execute their attack. Not graceful,
but wth, it would work. As for the handling of "drop a rock on"
or the "Bear-Trap", you'd have to find something else for those,
but for direct attacks, you could pull it off. It would at least
keep the direct-attacks down to a minimum.

The "never-dying-killer" as above, would at least ruin that
character for the killer. I know they could create a new char,
but they'd have to find some less direct way to try and kill
someone. And hey, if they got bored, they could always log on
and sit in their coffin.

As for the rest of the non-direct forms of death, I am at a
loss, but for direct attacks, there should be some simple
way to handle it.
-Q-