[MUD-Dev] The Best Guy on the Mud Thing

[Ilya]

On Tue, 21 Sep 1999 05:07:14 -0500, Greg Miller wrote:

))Dundee wrote:
))> I don't like character-building systems.  I think if the world isn't
))> interesting *after* you have a maxed-out, top-level, highest-skill,
))> whatever character then it probably isn't a very interesting world.
))
))Ah, so you're looking to create an interesting world rather than an
))interesting game... From that point of view, it sounds like it might be
))a very workable system. I guess this sory of highlights the fact that,
))when talking about a mechanic, it's a good idea to describe your design
))goals before the design itself.

Sorry I missed this detail in the flood of recent messages, but I
would like to jump in about that first part with maxed/toplevel/etc.

First, I'll grant that the world must be interesting apart from 
power.  I'm fascinated by all the other things to do, things I've
worked hard to add to my own system (politics and social stuff
especially, along with crafts and common non-combat things).

Second, I know there are always some limits somewhere, but it
seems to me there are plenty of ways to create a system where
there is simply no such thing as maxing out.  Skills, spells,
levels, whatever -- remove limits, move away from the 0-100
percent based model (or one of its analogs) etc.

Maybe stats and HP would be unmodifiable, or just barely
modifiable based on powerful magics (or maybe modifiable by
painful redistribution, but always with a heavy price).  The
rest move to an open-ended scale.  I've seen it work in at
least one game for several real life years, if not more, and
that was a _long_ time ago.

Just a thought.

--
  Ilya, Game Commandos     http://www.gamecommandos.com     





_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev maillist  -  MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
http://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev