[MUD-Dev] Multiple Character Races

[John Buehler]

> Caliban Tiresias Darklock

> 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.

Yeah, I'm aware of this phenomenon, and it's good to include it in the
thread.  But the character design phenomenon at the beginning of the
game can be repackaged to provide the design elements without the
irrevocability of the decisions.  That is, make the decisions as you
play your character.  They aren't irrevocable, so it's not as hardcore
an activity.  I consider the lack of a hardcore process to be very
valuable.  I'm Don Quixote tilting at the windmill of the casual
gamer.

> 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.

My mythical game isn't predicated on levels, advancement or power.  I
believe those lead to enticing hardcore play.  I hope to give the
programmers interesting things to do, but not hardcore things.  If
programmers want hardcore, they should go design one of these games.
*That's* hardcore.

JB


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