[MUD-Dev] Victim Characters (was: Critiquing Muds)

[Eli Stevens {KiZurich/GreySylk}]

> From: Jon A. Lambert 
> Sent: Sunday, July 11, 1999 1:26 AM 
> Subject: Re: [MUD-Dev] Critiquing Muds

[snip]
 
> Well there are variations on this.  Mostly it depends on whether the 
> character is used for a scenario or campaign.  The murder mystery party 
> or the one-shot scenario is a good example of where consent plays a much 
> smaller role.  Generally though, main characters on RP muds are 
> considered to be long term personal investments and consent is very 
> important.  On the other hand, even long term campaigns and stories will 
> require a host of "victim" characters, which is why I think allowing 
> multiplaying is important.  Victim characters are really the RP 
> equivalent to characters flagged as PK on many HnS games.  Still, 
> flagging yourself as a victim is equivalent to consenting to non-
> consential play. There is also the area of implied consent.  Rules will 
> vary on this, but basically if a player's character is committed to and 
> insistss on performing an IC action which simply MUST result in a highly 
> adverse IC reaction, then they will be subject to those reactions.  
> As Jim Croce sang, "You don't tug on Superman's cape, you don't spit
> into the wind.  You don't pull the mask off the Lone Ranger and you don't
> mess around with black Aes Sedai" .. or something like that ;)   

What I plan to try when/if my codebase goes up is having a switch for each
character that will let them go from (for lack of better terms) "hero"
status to "grunt" status.  

Hero characters (characters with the hero switch on) will be able to
increase their skills, gain experience, and use their abilities at full
force.  However, they can also die.  (I plan on using an almost permadeath
model, to revive your character you have to waste several hours RL.)  They
could be thought of as main characters in a novel, powerful yet mortal.

Grunt characters (characters with the hero turned off), on the other hand,
cannot increase their skills or experience (or perhaps at a fraction of
their normal rate), can only use their abilities at a slightly reduced
(perhaps 90%) level, and can be resurrected for a moderate sum (more
below).  They would be the bit players, the victim characters, the walking
wounded (heh).  Their death would mean no more than a loss of gold/EQ (not
the player's EQ).

What I am envisioning is a system that allows players to go into grunt
mode when they are in their guild home.  To do so, they would pay gold
equivalent to training an NPC up to their level and outfitting them with
similar yet generic EQ.  Their Hero body would no longer be under their
control, they would control the grunt.  The grunt would be a basic and
generic soldier of their guild, more or less.  When the grunt dies the
player "wakes up" in their Hero body.  If the player brings back they
grunt body, they can "cash it in" for the gold that they put down.  The
grunt body would turn into a guard mob that would watch the guild hall, or
something.  To me that makes sense: if a guild is full of rich players,
they should be able to hire/train a bunch of grunts to fight their wars
for them.

By allowing players to become one of the faceless masses, I think that
they would be much more willing to accept defeat, because the loss would
mean little to their character/pride.  I would hope that this would help
stop the "my char is badass and never loses" mentality - if you always
play as Hero, you are gonna get killed sometime, and that should prove
humbling.

I think that my idea will fit better into the big picture that I plan for
my MUD than I am explaining here, but I'm rambling.  :)

Silence is gruntwork
Eli - mailto:c718157 at showme.missouri.edu
-Sin is the Butter on the Bread of Life, God Bless Heart Disease





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