Damaging items was RE: [MUD-Dev] New Bartle article

[Travis Casey]

msew writes:
> At 22:02 02/25/2001 -0800, Brian Hook wrote:

>> This is simply a balancing issue.  Just because the obvious items
>> will be damaged/need repair doesn't mean that casters can't have a
>> similar drain placed upon them.  Just as melee classes have a
>> constant money drain (repair), casters could have something similar
>> (magic enhancing items wear out and need to be recharged, etc.).
>> The item dependency issue of casters vs. non-casters is exaggerated
>> quite a bit in Everquest.  This can be solved reasonably trivially
>> without too much hassle if it's made a goal early on by the
>> designers.

> I agree in theory with that :-) but from the muds I have played on
> they tried and tried to get it "balanced", with either holy symbols
> that cost $$ and had structure and components for the magic using
> classes.  Even with those drains in, the tanks would also have more
> of a burden on them.

If you really wanted to put a monetary burden on magic, you could
follow the sorts of requirements that many of the real-world grimoires
have: vellum made from a virgin goat to write the symbols for this
spell on, a dagger of pure silver that has never been used for this
spell (which, of course, implies that you need a *new* pure silver
dagger every time you use the spell), and so on.

For *real* fun, you could get into requirements on the caster
him/herself -- many of the grimoires describe rituals where the caster
is required to spend weeks or even months in seclusion alternately
meditating, fasting, etc., and doing no other magic during that time.
Put in requirements like that, and probably almost no one will play a
mage, even if they have killer spells.

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


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