[MUD-Dev] Combat systems, the good the bad and the ugly

[Malcolm Valentine]

Subject Was Re: [MUD-Dev] Acting casual about casual gamers.

On Thu, Jul 06, 2000 at 02:08:31PM -0400, Travis Casey wrote:
<snipped past quotes>
> Looking at what I wrote and your reply, I can only come to the
> conclusion that you didn't actually read my message, but just glanced
> over it and fired off a response.  I specifically said that it's
> possible to design rules in such a way that they can handle such
> things *without* the GM having to step in constantly, then gave some
> examples from paper RPGs of features that can help handle the
> situation in question *without* GM intervention.  Indeed, I clearly
> stated twice that I was talking about systems that don't require GM
> intervention! 

  Well, my posts tend to wander a fair bit, what I was really trying to
say was that I don't think there is a "near perfect system" for most game
mechanics, combat the specific example here. After all, it takes an entire
universe to make our lives "realistic", what hope does a poor computer
have. Whilst I said your suggestions were sound, my reply was more in
general to the oversight many people seem to make in translating paper
RPG's to muds (I meant to state in my last reply that it wasn't a direct
response soley to your suggestions, sorry).

  The other problem with designing a combat system for a mud is that it
needs to accomadate expansion with little effort. When I first started
playing Car Wars, the combat system was very simple as there was one
armour type, two weapon classes (vehicular and personal), and a total
of around twelve weapons. Since then there have been hundreds of additional
things created which can be added to your vehicle, and roughly a quarter
of those bought with them additional rules for their use in the game. This
is the game I think of whenever I'm tempted to write a "special case"
clause into my mud (Though I still do implement them sometimes, the
advantage of having a computer doing the rules referencing for you).


  I also meant my last reply as a hook to anyone out there running/playing
a different combat system to gift the list with their experience of its 
benefits and drawbacks, guess I used the wrong the bait.

Cheers,
  Malcolm V.

ps, having read your followup I feel mostly to blame for my poorly 
    constructed previous reply (Not that this one is much better :) ).



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