[MUD-Dev] Maintaining fiction.

[Trump]

I was spurred to write this by the discussion of perma death on
MUD-Dev a while back, but forgot to actually post it....

Fake death is a fiction breaker.  The most important reason to want to
have perma death is to keep the all important fiction alive (We are
talking about RPGs here right?)  I guess you really need to decide
early on how important RP is to your game.  Most games which profess
to be RPGs are really just adventure games(AG) in a fantasy setting.

When I played D&D in gradeschool it was an adventure game.  We ran
around with our +5 swords and killed Orcs and Dragons.  It was fun.
All the characters in the group had the motivations of killing things
and getting xp and loot.  The plot was just a thread that tied the
whole thing together.... a backdrop against which we fought the evil
ememy.

When I played in college it was a RP game.  The paladin still wanted
to slay the evil wizard and save the princess, but the thief just
wanted to collect the loot so he could blow it on wine and women,
while the cleric tried to convert convince him to give up his wicked
ways and embrace relegion.  At both times D&D had elements of a RPG
and an Adventure Game (AG), but the focus was totally different.

Lets look at Everquest.  Its almost entirely an AG.  What little RP
that happens is usually centers around lowbie Ogres and Trolls.  Why
is that?  I'd say it's because they have a defined role which can be
played out, and there is very little to break the fiction.  Mindlessly
kill most things around your town and eat them.  That's pretty much
how most people would roleplay an Ogre.  That's what lowbies in EQ do.

Lets compare this to a Dark Elf cleric.   The player envisions the role
of a Cleric of Innoruuk as spreading hate and distrust while trying to
convert anyone he can to his religion and probably killing those he cant
convert.   He wanders into East Commons and runs into a few humans.   The
conversation might proceed like this...

  "Dude heal us!"

  "I use my powers only to aid the followers of Innoruuk.  Embrace the
  religion of my master and I will assist you."

  "Ummm, I think I worship Quellos or something, there's no button to
  change it, but if you want....  /shout Innuruuk rulez!  Now group
  with us, we'll get ph4t xp off the orcs!"

After assisting the humans for a while he is killed by one of the
human guards wandering the zone.  He comes back and decides to kill
the humans he was grouped with in retribution, finding they cannot be
attacked.  He decieves them and pretends he will heal them as they
fight orcs.  Instead he lets them die.  Now his groupmates /petition.
A GM comes and threatens to suspend his account for intentionally
causing an xp death, which is a violation of the PnP.

Bah, that example didnt come out as well as I had hoped, but I'm sure
you all know how the fiction is broken.  Any attempt to actually
roleplay is stifled and one is quickly forced into playing EQ as a
flat AG or quitting altogether.

My thought is that games like this should not be allowed to call
themselves RPGs.  In order to actually have an RPG you must keep in
character at all times.  NEVER break character.  This starts with the
failings of the devs and bleeds into the minds of the players.  When
you refer to a monsters as a MOB you are breaking character.  Players
start talking about MOBs too.  It's no longer the evil zombie who must
be thwarted, it's now just a level 2 MOB worth 100xp and drops 2-5
gold.  There is no roleplay there.

Seeing that you have 415 of 533 hit points left is BAD.  How can you
suspend disbelief and just roleplay when you know that a sword does
12-14 damage and you have 40 hit points?  Suddenly someone hitting you
with it isnt scary anymore.  It's just math.  Give some feedback, but
hide the numbers.  If they are found out, so what, but dont put them
out there for everyone to see.

In order to create a game that actually fosters RP you must start with
the Devs.  Call them something else.  Many MUDs use Immortals - this
works.  Now they cant talk about things like NPCs or the 'net.  You
must develop an in character to out of character dictionary.

One such dictionary:

  The 'net - Ethereal Plane
  ISP connection - Silver cord
  Lock-up - Violent severing of the Silver cord
  Dollars - Souls of dead presidents
  Game account - Visa
  Real life person - Soul
  Ping - Silver cord length (measured in knots)
  Lag - Ethereal storms or winds
  Real world - Otherworld
  Email - Messenger
  NPC - Native / Host
  Graphics - Ethereal vision
  Log (in) - Posses a native
  Log (out) - Dispossess a native/Sleep
  Mouse - Wand
  Mouse click - Wand tap
  Game developers - Ministry of tourism
  Bug - Anomaly
  Account Cancellation - Banishment

A sample translation:

  "This NPC is trapped in a wall and I cant click on him with my
  mouse. My ISP is crappy today, my ping is about four hundred and I
  have lots of lag. I think I'll just log and send an email to the
  developers about this bug."

  "This native is stuck in a wall so I cant tap him with my wand. My
  silver cord is not very strong today and is over four hundred knots
  long, so I am suffering from the ethereal winds. I think I'll just
  go to sleep now and send a messenger to the ministry of tourism
  about this anomaly."

Now that you have the basic vocabulary you must build your game around
the fact that you dont ever want to injure your player's ability to
suspend thier disbelief.  Build a premiss that covers up for some of
the limitations you are facing.

  "Welcome to the Telthys Ministry of Tourism infomation booth.

In case you have never heard of Telthys before, it is a land of Orcs,
Ogres, Goblins and Dwarves.  An enchanted land, where wizards rival
the powers of the gods themselves.  It is a land of beautiful forests
and war torn castles.  A world where the natives live out scenes from
our fairytales.

Unfortunately there is no physical link between this world and
Telthys.  So, I'm sure you are wondering how you are going to be able
to go on a tour of this land.  We have been in contact with the
archmagi of Telthys and have developed a method for allowing you to
take control of one of the natives of their land.  We hate to say it,
but most of the natives of Telthys are fairly weak minded, it should
be easy for you to take control of some of them.

The archmagi are assisting us because they need your help.  We
mentioned that the natives are not too bright.  That's an
understatment.  Most of them are about as smart as a parrot, they can
speak, but that's about it.  This being the case the generals are
having a bit of trouble finding competant leadership for their armies.
It's nearly impossible to find people who are competant enough to do
anything that requires thought.  Therefore you have been invited to
help them.  To think for them.  To shape their future."

Now that you have prevented the devs and the game itself from ruining
the immersion you must tackle the players. They can be one of the
biggest enemies of roleplay.

  "Every culture has it's own language, or at least it's own
  dialect. Ours is no different. Travelers from the Astral realm
  usually speak in a dialect very similar to our own. We ask those
  visitors to respect our culture and our ways, to use our words. If
  they refuse, they will likely encounter much hostility from the
  natives and may be banished without hesitation should they continue
  to be dsruptive."

In addition to sanctioning of those who refuse to RP, you also want to
reward those who do.  If your game centers around interaction with the
gods you are rewarded by faithful service to your chosen deity.
Obviously all gods, even those who are attuned to death and myschif
will still be annoyed by OOC activity.  Those who roleplay, do smart
things and do generous things can gain direct in game benefits from
the gods, something that simply would not happen in an AG.

Since your patron god is looking out for you if you have a problem
with the game you /prey instead of /report.  Leaders of guilds and
other exemplary players who gain the favor of the gods are granted
sainthood, along with this comes a variety of holy powers.  If you are
having trouble with something, like being stuck in wall when you prey
to your god it's likely that one of these saints will come to assist
you instead of the god himself.  Now the majority of ingame Customer
Service is has just been rolled into the fiction, even part of the
game itself.  Even bugs wont necessarily force you to break character.
So now we _finally_ get to perma death.  No matter how many times
you've hit the spacebar to revive in Quake fake death will break the
immersion.  If you, like I, consider this to be a vary bad thing you
must avoid it.

Obviously the first thing you need to do is make it relatively hard to
die.  But this cuts both ways.  If you make it hard for players to die
you must make it hard for NPCs to die or risk losing immersion.  So
you need alternatives to death. Win/Lose scenarios that do not inculde
someone dying.

  1.  Drop and run.  If you make it so that someone carrying nothing
  will always outrun someone carrying weapons then you have a less
  harsh win/lose situation.  You can drop all your loot and run away.

  2.  Surrender/Ransom.  Put in a button that will offer surrender.
  If accepted the system takes over and the winner gets 1000 gold for
  ransom and the loser is safely transported back to down.  (Much like
  what happens with fake death in many games).  If the winner is
  expecting 10gold in loot accepting surrender will be, by far, the
  better option.

Separating the player from the character by making it a possessed-host
model you lighten the impact of that permenant death.  You need only
possess a new host.  The new host can come with an apporpriate
selection of equipment and skills already developed so it's no big
deal, but you still want there to be some fear of death.  Once again
this can be tied into the fiction.  The gods are not pleased by you
allowing the natives to die, so you will not be allowed to possess one
that was the same level as the one you left.  However if you decide to
dispossess your host while he is healthy you can switch to another of
similar power.  Thus allowing you to escape the evil class/level
treadmill, and focus on roleplaying and having fun.

Damn, I'm at 10k characters in this already... heh, but I guess it's
important that when designing a game thats a real RPG, not just an AG
you understand that they system in an RPG is just a set of tools.  The
D&D books are nothing more than tools.  There is no content there, ALL
the content comes from the people.  In the case of a typical single
player CRPG you are looking at a D&D module.  Its got a story there
most of the RP is scripted.  If you want to build a real Online
Roleplaying game you need to build the tools and the backdrop that
will allow the players to take on the roles they want.  If they are
uncertain of what role they want you need to present them with
suggestions... like participating in the backstory.  If they dont want
to participate, the tools to allow them to do what they want should be
there as well.

-Azeraab at dies-irae.org

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