[MUD-Dev] An idea for breaking away from the HP/Mana mindset

[Ryan P.]

At 09:57 PM 4/1/00 -0600, Eli Stevens wrote:
>Characters have six statistics that fill similar roles to the DnD six, and
>three relating to their reputation, where lowers scores are not neccissarily
>undesirable (having a low fame, for example, means you are recognized less
>by strangers, but it makes it harder to get into office...).  The reputation
>stats are not as conflict oriented, so I won't be paying as much attention
>to them here.  I will probably ramble on about them later.  ;)
>
>The traditional six are:
>Body:
>  Strength
>  Dexterity
>  Constitution
>
>Mind:
>  Intellegence
>  Wisdom
>  Willpower (Charisma being accounted for by some of the reputations stats)

Just a small point, but I think willpower and wisdom are very closely
related and
there really isn't a need for both unless you have a very specific difference
(although it doesn't appear so in the rest of your message) that would require
the two to be split.

As for Charisma, I think this still could be implemented as a regular
stat--perhaps
if they are badly wounded (bloody, nasty, puss coming out, etc.) the player's
charisma stat would suffer because of it. Charisma can be interpreted in many
ways and thus if it went below the consciousness level, you could simply
attribute
it to too many open wounds and that kinda thing.

[snip]
>Since scores can never reach zero by this method (except by rounding
>errors), there would have to be a cutoff point where the damaged player can
>no longer function.  Note that if ANY stat dropped below this line, they
>would drop uncnscious (be it from lack of strength/coordination/mental
>drive, blood loss, etc.).  Just from some initial number juggling, I think
>that .5 might work out well.
>
>        Hits taken before unconsciousness with a Con of:
>Damage \  Con: 1   Con: 2
>.9        6 hits   13 hits
>.8        3 hits   6 hits
>.7        1 hit    3 hits
>
>They act pretty much as one would think with double the Con resulting in
>double the amount of blows taken, except that the higher Con can shrug off
>powerful attacks better.  I think it makes sense, because it means that
>dragons can take out normal folk right away, while warrior heroes can last a
>few rounds.  I also like it because once someone starts loosing, it gets
>harder to even it out, which makes sense to me.  It gives backstabs an
>effect without having them do massive damage.  A warrior might take a
>defensive approach and let the opponent tire out (attacking would take a
>small bit of Str, Dex).  Another aspect that appeals to me is that two mages
>can battle without doing any physical damage at all.  Once one mage
>overexerts him/herself or gets too mentally battered, it is over and the
>mage is unconscious.  While a mage could not outfight a sterotypical orc
>physically, the orc's low Int/Wis would make it a prime target for a
>confusion spell.  It allows mages and psionicists to fight on their own
>level, instead of everything having to boil down to physical damage.

I like the fact that there is no solid, set in stone, amount of hit points with
this system. HPs can make the outcome of a battle very predictable.
However, I do still think there is a need for them, and I'll go into more
detail
at the end.

>Advancement would come in as better weapon proficiencies, skills, and such
>(I am envisionins a levelless MUD, but this could be adapted to levels, I
>think).  If Boffo has the Dagger weapon proficiency at .9 and we considered
>Str and Dex to be equally important to wielding a dagger, then his attack
>roll might look like:
>
>((Str: 1.5) ^ (.5)) * ((Dex: 1.0) ^ (.5)) * (Dagger: .9) = 1.1
>
>Where if he was using a Club with the same skill (but the club being a Str
>weapon):
>
>((Str: 1.5) ^ (.8)) * ((Dex: 1.0) ^ (.2)) * (Club: .9) = 1.24
>
>It would seem that the club would be the superior choice, but keep in mind
>that the club would also impose a larger penalty against Str the more Boffo
>swung it (it would tire him more).  I think I need to juggle some more
>numbers, and see how this might work out in the long run.  The defender's
>roll would be based on the armor worn, Dex, etc. etc.

This is a very excellent system, however it would seem to take massive amounts
of trial-and-error and testing to find a suitable weapon. Unless, of
course, you
gave some major hints as to how a weapon is going to affect your stats.
Or as well, you could make every weapon that is remotely similar to one another
(example, any two-handed cleaving weapon) have similar stat decays (?).

>From a purely conservative standpoint, I think getting rid of HPs completely
would be very shocking and many players who are complacent with a set system
won't like it (I'd say the type of people that like to try radically new
things such
as this are maybe 1%). It's almost a paradox to me; I like the idea very much
but to rely simply on stats for life support seems awkward, but to add HPs into
this system probably would not make sense either. (Ok, I'm unconscious but
I still have x HPs left.)

Keep working at it, I'm sure you can come up with a happy medium that will be
more welcoming to the complacent mudders, yet intriguing to the radical ones.

--Ryan



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