[MUD-Dev] Remote client connection

[Travis Casey]

Tuesday, June 20, 2000, 2:34:24 PM, John Buehler wrote:

JB> Lee Sheldon
JB> Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2000 9:54 AM

>> The snowball factor is involved here.  The less I play, the more I'm
>> penalized, the less I want to play.

JB>   Try this on for size: that as you advance in skill, you don't advance in
JB> personal power.  You don't go from a child with a pointed stick to superman
JB> with a nuclear weapon.  You go from a novice swordsman to an experienced
JB> swordsman.  Your hit points don't go up.  You remain as mortal as always,
JB> and your personal power level (ability to kill others) doesn't go up nearly
JB> as dramatically as in EverQuest.  Instead of a 50:1 power ratio as you
JB> advance to the pinnacle of accomplishment, you only advance perhaps 3:1.

Note that there are many paper RPGs that already do something much
like this, and can be used as a model -- indeed, the D&D-style games
where a moderately experienced character can take on four or five
newbies easily, and a very experienced character can taken on dozens,
is more the exception than the rule in paper RPGs these days.

JB>   Given such a scheme, those of moderate skill and those of accomplished
JB> skill can still stand side by side and take part in combat situations - or
JB> any other situation that might pop up.  The disparity is minimized.  Now
JB> you don't have to worry about falling behind.  Similarly, we don't have to
JB> worry about play areas that are dedicated to those of a given power level
JB> and other oddities.  The stratification of game society is greatly
JB> minimized.

Yep.  And that's exactly why some paper RPGs started moving away from the
D&D model -- to allow greater mixing of "low level" and "high level"
characters.  Where under a D&D model, a 1st level character is nothing
but a liability to a high-level party, under this sort of model a
beginner can be useful to any party.

--
       |\      _,,,---,,_    Travis S. Casey  <efindel at earthlink.net>
 ZZzz  /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_   No one agrees with me.  Not even me.
      |,4-  ) )-,_..;\ (  `'-'
     '---''(_/--'  `-'\_)   





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