[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #163 - 25 msgs

[Colin Coghill]

On Thu, Jul 20, 2000 at 05:18:54PM -0700, Tamzen Cannoy wrote:
> 
> I'm sorry, but a stupid person cannot convincingly play a genius. If 
> you don't got things like diplomacy and tact in RL, you aren't gonna 
> be a very convincing ambassador. Etc. You gotta work with what you 
> got.

I disagree.

To me, one of the big attractions of RPGs and MUDs is that I get to
be something I'm not (in real life).

I get to experience a little of what it would be like to be able
to use magic, or be physically impressive, or be able to explore
dangerous caverns.

That, to me, is mostly the whole *point* of the things.

I don't see any fundamental difference between a character that can 
do "jump across grand canyon" or "trick ambassador fred into giving 
me land".

I think the current focus on games letting you have physical skills
that you don't otherwise have but not giving you mental skills (in game)
that you don't have comes mainly from history. I would think that most
people who played "tabletop" RPGs (and MUDs) originally tended to be
more intellectually skilled than physical, and it made sense for the 
game system to make up for physical skills but not bother with mental 
ones.

Nowadays, and in the future, I think it may balance out a little more.

I think it would be fascinating to have an RPG that let me play, say,
a hotshot lawyer. When I have no legal training myself.


Having said that, there does need to be some challenge in the game,
and given the format, it can't really be physical - so it has to be
mental.

- Colin



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