[MUD-Dev] Multiple Character Races

[Caliban Tiresias Darklock]

John Buehler wrote:
 
> I'm trying to comprehend the value of having multiple races in a
> game world and I'd like to hear folks' opinions here.

Allow me to paraphrase Alan Cooper's jetway test from "The Inmates Are
Running the Asylum".

You are walking down a jetway toward an airplane. As you approach a
fork in the corridor, you have two choices: you may go left, into the
cockpit, or right, into the cabin.

The cockpit is a maze of dials, gauges, switches, machinery, and
complex interaction protocols. It takes great effort to understand
everything, but you are in complete control of the flight.

The cabin is smooth, rounded, and beige. You have no control over the
flight, but the most complicated thing you will encounter is a seat
belt and the biggest decision you will face is whether to have the
chicken or the fish.

Programmers always want to turn left. They accept complexity for
control.

Normal people always want to turn right. They relinquish control for
simplicity.

A complex skill web system is very much like the cockpit of an
airplane, while a race/class system is very much like the cabin. When
you ask someone "choose a race/class", it's along the lines of
"chicken or fish". When you present them with a stack of four hundred
skills that interact in millions of ways, it's along the lines of
strapping them into an airplane cockpit.

Ideally, you provide a combination. I like the way AD&D did this; they
provide a complex control set in the form of proficiencies and class
kits, but you can also ignore all that and just have the chicken. Such
a choice should probably give the "simplicity" character a significant
edge at lower levels, which becomes less pronounced as you advance.
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