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

[Adam Wiggins]

On Thu, 3 Sep 1998, quzah wrote:
> Pirate had the lay trap ability. Upon x level of ability, you could lay
> traps down that would smack anything that entered the room. It was fun
> to stand atop a shaft, and drop them to the rooms below. Any wandering
> about would hit them... One such shaft led into the dwarven mines, and
> the daycare area. Standard newbie-ish zones. Even funner was to stand
> in the bottom of the shaft hidden, while your pal dropped them into the
> room from above. That way, you could actually be IN the room when some
> person hit them. You never triggered them on exiting a room, so you
> were safe from, since they didn't check for setting the trap off when
> the trap itself entered the room, just when players/mobs entered.

Ya, definitely.  Similar fun: on Shadowdale you couldn't make traps, in
fact they were extremelly rare and only came from a high level zone
(Ravenloft).  The traps were hidden until they got set off (they had a
high chance to do so on both entry and exixt), and they did MASS amounts
of damage, eq fragging, and so forth.  Very nasty.  Anyhow once set off,
they became visible (ie, "A blade-trap lies here", "An acid trap lies
here") and someone strong could pick them up.  So high level players would
frequently have fun by carting them back to town and dropping them in busy
areas.  People would walk into the room, see the trap (which does not
indicate it's disarmed in its description), and - freeze.  They'd stand
perfectly still trying to figure out what the hell they were going to do.
After there were 6 or 8 people in the room all standing there holding
their breaths, they'd usually figure out that it wasn't going to go off.

More fun: on Arctic assassins had a "trap" skill which they could use on
any container.  They only got a chance to learn when someone set off their
trap... but since it frequently poisoned you (which was very dangerous, as
poison did mass amount of damage there) no one really wanted to help
someone learn.  So, they'd trap chests and things and then just leave them
lying around invitingly in a busy area.  Your typical mudder always looks
inside every container they happen across, so it wasn't long before
someone would try to open it, and the assassin would get their chance to
learn.  A good assassin training this skill was a deadly sight to behold -
five or six newbies stumbling around clutching pricked fingers saying, "I
don't feel so good..."  Now you know why your mother always said, "Don't
pick that up!  You don't know where it's been..."

Adam