[MUD-Dev] Fair/Unfair? Scenarios (fwd)

[Marian Griffith]

In <URL:/archives/meow?group+local.muddev> on Thu 16 Dec, Adam Wiggins wrote:

> On Thu, 16 Dec 1999, J C Lawrence wrote:
> > Consider the example I posited a little later in that post:

> >   Of course a battle royal ensues across the tradionally tranquial
> >   streets and squares of Rue, that utopian dream of bucolic
> >   simplicity, and our young newbie, knowing nothing of this, walks
> >   into the middle of the fray, finds himself lost and both a head
> >   shorter and dead, tho possibly not in that order.

> > Now this is explicitly a _different_ situation than the simple
> > instance of a room with three exits, two of which are death traps
> > (cf Craft of Adventure).  Not to belabour the point, the difference
> > is between pre-designed game instances whicha re dangerous to the
> > player (the room with three exits), or happenstance occurances which 
> > *might* be dengerous to the player.

> > Now the game designer has some obvious responsibilities in the
> > 3ExitRoom, but what responsibilities does he have in the
> > BandsofBubba scenario?

> I would say that if the world is open-ended enough to allow this sort of
> scenario (and most are, although such happenings are rare), you should
> also provide the players mechanisms for aquiring information about these
> dynamic aspects.  That is to say, someone writing an area can enter, "There
> is a signpost warning you of great danger ahead" into the static room
> description, but cannot do anything about the above.

Actually, it is not that difficult to do. At least it does not seem
difficult to me (but what do I know ;).
If a big bad dragon comes to town,  all you have to do  is make any
inhabitant of the town  that is of lower power than the dragon  run
screaming from it, shouting things like "HELP! The green dragon has
come to eat us all!"  (ok, so it is not good proza, but I guess you
get the point :)  Any player approaching the danger will first meet
a tide of city inhabitants screaming in panic and running the other
way. Then he has to cross some rooms that are deserted and ominous-
ly quiet.  It would not be too hard I think, to have the dragon (or
any other danger) make some noises  that can be heard several rooms
away.

> All players need are some simple tools to be able to aquire information about
> their world without needing it to come from a room description.  For example,
> the ability to "scan" is something left out of many muds, which I consider
> a serious problem.

I think 'scan' is a crude way to work around the -real- problem that
most muds do not have any from of  'line of sight'  You can not look
into the next room,  even if it is supposed to be the same street or
market square. The implementations I have seen allow players to look
around corners, which is equally silly as the absence of scan.

Marian
--
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...

Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey




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