[MUD-Dev] Maintaining fiction.

[Matt Chatterley]

> From: Travis Casey <efindel at earthlink.net>
> shren wrote:
>> On Wed, 30 May 2001 SavantKnowsAll at cs.com wrote:

>>> The most important reason to /not/ have permadeath is because
>>> nobody plays to lose, and nobody is going to pay to play a game
>>> where they can permanently lose an investment.  Yes, persistant
>>> characters are an investment - of your time, and money.

>> I play a game where I can permanently lose my character.  Try not
>> to speak in such broad generalizations when they arn't true.

> For that matter, if no one was willing to play a game where they
> could permanently lose an investment, Las Vegas would be a ghost
> town.

This whole question is quite interesting to me, as (I may have
mentioned) I'm in the process of developing my own server, for
fun. Actually, its always been interesting, but now its relevant,
too ;)

I'm contemplating working some aspects of my server more like a
'game engine' (I recently wrote most of the innards of a very
configurable/flexible Roguelike game, which wouldn't hold plot or
script centrally, working more like an engine which takes and works
with given game data), and so, upon death (of any living creature),
one handler would process the event. This might mean that the
creature is re-spawned, passed to an interactive 'death' procedure,
held as a spectator for a while, or killed off forever (its config
file, if a 'mob' being moved to an archive). In a way, similar to
how a game like Quake 3 deals with player death or bot death (the
same, but the player one shows you information and waits for a
mouseclick).

The game which I plan to write it for is slowly evolving, and will
likely be more roleplay orientated than automated gameplay; using
elements of both. In such a roleplay setting, it might be the norm
for permadeath to occur, with various chances of technological (or
magical) reprieve after the event.

What implications would this kind of Permadeath (PD) have? Other
characters may have the power to ressurect your character. What if
they choose that In-Character (IC) it would be wrong for their
character to do so? What if they try but fail? If these abilities
were rare and well sought after, imagine how rich you could become?

This would have effects on both IC and OOC (out of character) play -
someone refusing ICly to ressurect you for IC reasons might cause
(would cause!) OOC conflict. OOC politics would more than likely
influence such an IC decision (especially if the power were rare or
even dangerous to use).

Thoughts?

-Matt
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