[MUD-Dev] Guild/skill/spell relation (or "webs")

[Petri Virkkula]

	In BatMUD there is web of guilds rather than skills/spells
	though in the practice the system results a skill/spell web
	too.

	The idea behind the system is following:

	When a player creates a new character (or when he/she
	is reincarnated by a druid with reincarnation spell
	[1] he/she first chooses a race. Some of the races are invite
	only (eg. vampire race [2] requires invitation which is just
	logical). The player gets some sort default bonuses, instrinct
	skills/spells, initial skill/spell percentages, etc. based on
	the chosen race.

	After choosing a race, the player must choose
	background. There five different backgrounds available [3]:

	1) Civilized background
	2) Evil Religious background
	3) Good Religious background
	4) Magical background
	5) Nomad background

	A background represents what the player is taught by his/her
	"parents". There are 15 levels in all backgrounds, ie. the
	player must/can advance 15 levels before he/she can/must make
	the "final" choice what kind of character he/she wants to have
	(though race and background selections already limits slightly
	available choices).

	After the first 15 levels player can join one or more
	guilds. A guild might have joining requirements, for example
	"The Master Merchants" [4] guild requires that members have
	the civilized background. A guild might have other
	restrictions too: a skill/spell must have been
	practiced/studied to certain percentage, must have explored
	certain percentage of the world (see "The Association of
	Mystical Navigators" [5]), gender must be male/female,
	etc. etc.

	There can be requirements for advancing levels inside a guild
	too. A guild level often says how high percentage a
	skill/spell can be trained/studied (there is also a racial
	maximum: for example giants cannot study spells to high
	percentage). 

	A player can join to multiple guilds as long as joining
	requirements are fullfilled (and a guild might prevent
	joining to oppositing guild).

	There are more details in the system, but the net effect of it
	is that players can choose from web of guilds which directly
	results a web of skills/spells. Skills/spells are often
	granted from guilds though there are also common ones
	available to everybody.

	There is also relation between skills and spells: for example
	it is a good idea to train "Cast Fire" skill if you are using
	spells that have cast type "fire". Without knowing an
	appropriate skill, you are trusting to your luck (and luck is
	affected by various things, eg. state of the moon).

	The whole point is that there is not much web of
	skills/spells. We think that guilds is place where characters
	are taught skills/spells, and that makes the skill/spell web
	for the players. The system is already over 4 years old and
	is based on experience gathered in 4 years before it was
	introduced.


	We have still the original 4 years old design document
	(which is not up-to-date anymore) of the system. I could post
	it if it is ok to add such restriction to it that it should
	not be redistributed outside the mailing list (and the mailing
	list archives). I am not sure if a such restriction is against
	the list rules.


	Petri


	References:

	[1]
	<URL:http://www.bat.org/Batmud/mudinfo/spells/reincarnation.html>

	[2]
	<URL:http://www.bat.org/Batmud/mudinfo/races/vampire.html>

	[3]
	<URL:http://www.bat.org/Batmud/mudinfo/backgrounds/index.html>

	[4]
	<URL:http://www.bat.org/Batmud/mudinfo/guilds/the_master_merchants.html>

	[5]
	<URL:http://www.bat.org/Batmud/mudinfo/guilds/the_association_of_mystical_navigators.html>