[MUD-Dev] Elder Games

[Michael Hohensee]

I don't post much, but...

On Tue, 16 Mar 1999, B. Scott Boding wrote:

> What if instead of trying to reduce the power differential, you splintered your
> game world in such a way that once you "evolve" into this new form you can't
> enter certain areas but you can enter new areas? Kind of like having a portion
> of the mud world that was exclusive to these higher-beings. Depending on how you
> did it, this could even go so far as being a completely seperate realm of the
> mud and no longer had the capacity to go to the lower realms.

I like this idea, but it might seem a bit fake if you simply designate
certain areas as off limits to certain kinds of players.  How about taking
it one step further and make the separation on a room by room basis?  It
would be more difficult, but would allow you to make things infinitely
more interesting by having the two worlds "intersect" at various points.
Two players, depending on their plane of existance, could occupy the same
room, and exert influences on each others' environments, without ever
seeing one another or the same room description.  

In effect, this allows players to do the work that would otherwise have to
be done by the MUD staff or an inflexible program.  Perhaps, in certain
areas where the worlds intersect, the prayers of mortals have a benign
effect on the angels/demigods/whatever that inhabit the next plane.  In
turn, the angels can do certain things for said mortals.  The advantages
conferred by this interaction shouldn't be critical to mediocre levels of
success for the mortals, but should be useful for people at the highest
levels of power/repute/etc.

To prevent abuse, and to make things more interesting, one might make the
join between the two worlds vary in strength as a function of time.  The
strength may even vary depending on which world you're in.  (i.e. a prayer
offered at the temple of Zootie at midnight of the spring equinox might
have a stronger effect on the world of the angels than any action in the
angel world upon the mortal world at that time).  One might even make the
linkage vary as a function of distance from some center, be it an object,
a room, or even a creature.  

That's all I've got for the moment. :)

Michael Hohensee



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