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

[adam at treyarch.com]

On Sun, 2 Apr 2000, Ryan P. wrote:
> 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)
> 
> 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.

The thing that I like best about this system is the ability for a character
to be "disabled" by many methods, not just dropping unconscious, or dead.

Charisma might actually be interesting here if it had a strong effect on
leadership.  That is to say, your foes are a group of four goblins, three of
which are regular goblin warriors, and one of which is a goblin chief (or
something).  The charisma stat of the warriors dropping doesn't matter, because
they aren't leading anything.  But the coherency of the group as a whole
will be strongly affected by its leader's charisma stat, so the wise thing
to do would be to attack the chief immediately and try to 'beat him down'
to the point that he's not a very inspiring leader, causing his followers to
fight less effectively, or possibly just run away altogether.

Of course, to balance this, you might want to make it that attacking a group's
leader causes the groupmembers to fight *harder* as long as their leader
is still in good shape.  So there are multiple strategies to ponder when
fighting a group like this.  (And, of course, how to organize your own
group.)

Adam





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