[MUD-Dev] Non-combat advancement and roleplay

[Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt]

On Mon, 25 Jun 2001, rayzam wrote:
 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Brian 'Psychochild' Green" <brian at psychochild.org>
> To: <mud-dev at kanga.nu>
> Sent: Monday, June 25, 2001 2:12 AM
> Subject: [MUD-Dev] Non-combat advancement and roleplay
 
>> I had a thought about non-combat advancement and roleplay I
>> thought I'd share with the list.  Perhaps this could spur some
>> good discussions.

>> The core of my proposed system is a stat that is recorded on the
>> player.  This stat, called "Prestige", determines how you can
>> interact with others.

>> If someone has a much greater prestige than you, you cannot
>> affect them though violent actions.  You can try to attack them,
>> but some in-game mechanism rebuffs you (or even kills you).  If
>> someone has much less prestige than you do, then you know they
>> cannot affect you.  If someone has about as much prestige as you
>> do, then "normal" rules apply. Obviously, there should be some
>> way to measure comparative prestige levels in the game.


>> Of course, the devil's in the details.  How do players accumulate
>> this prestige?

>> In the concept I thought out, it comes from multiple sources.  To
>> simplify the example, we'll consider prestige from two sources,
>> rank and deeds.

If you infer prestige from rank, you will have problems. Many of
your examples also seem to require that you introduce permadeath in
the game. If the king is killed, he is no longer king? If he is
still king, what can then cast the king from the throne other than
assasination?

I propose that the prestige be player run, and that rank is derived
from prestige. You will not be ablt to be mayor, unless your
prestige is above a certain level. The players are then asked to
'vote' for, say 10 levels of prestige. They can then put other
pleyrs in a different levels;

  10 : Buffo the king
  9  : First Minister Billy
  ..
  7  : Malicor, the evil mage.
  ..
  5  : Mary the heroine of the city, who broke the orc invasion
  4  : Jonas the good city Mayor.
  ..
  1: : Your grandfather, the old hero.

This way, the players (if base if large enough, and the system gets
sortof tamper-proof), the sum of prestige points will allow you to
fight for _positions_ with other persons, only if you have
comparably the same amount of prestige (or if you have a 'higher'
position).

It will be the position that carries the benefits, as you have
stated; favor of the gods, court mages that protect you in your
castle, gards in your castle, people standing up to you in the city
if youre attacked, cheap goods at the ironmonger etc.

This way, the prestige system is really about the rank you can hold
with a given prestige, and the perks that come with that 'rank'.
Rank can be as abstract as 'favored person in a city'.

Your prestige idea is also fun because you can really put noncombat
skills such as bards singing to use in a prestige system.

Hans Henrik Stærfeldt   |    bombman at diku.dk    | work:  hhs at cbs.dtu.dk      |
Address:                |___  +45 40383492    __|__       +45 45252425     __|
DTU, Kemitorvet,        | Scientific programmer at Center for Biological     |
bygn 208, CBS.          |  Sequence Analysis, Technical University of Denmark|

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