[MUD-Dev] Respecting NPCs

[Phillip Lenhardt]

On Thu, Oct 25, 2001 at 02:34:40PM -0700, J C Lawrence wrote:

> What about a guard who:
 
>   Always wears a red string necklace, limps slightly favouring his
>   left leg and wears the boot rolled down on that leg. Regularly
>   accepts bribes from madams, but is unequivocably ferocious with
>   prostitutes and pick pockets.  Seems to have a soft spot for
>   flower stalls.  For some reason one of the stall vendors, and it
>   varies as to which, gives him a bunch of flowers every week.
>   Its not clear why they give them (they are expensive), or what
>   determines which vendor will give them.  He always graciously
>   thanks them resulting in both sides smiling and bowing.  Its
>   also not clear why he accepts them or what he does with them,
>   except that he's been occasionally known to peel off a flower
>   and give it to a madam, who for some reason is then usually very
>   flustered.

But how many exp is he worth and what are his drops? ;)

> Taking the example guard I wrote about above, and his red string
> necklace and left leg favouring, I find the fact of those
> characteristics utterly uninteresting.  What is interesting is
> that there may be a reason (and in fact there is), and that reason
> and its implications on the guards observed behaviour and purpose
> patterns __may__ be partially determinable by a player.

I agree, I find the fact of those characteristics utterly
uninteresting as well.  I even find the implications pretty boring,
once they have been worked out.

Now, the reason for those characteristics _can_ be interesting, but
not, I think if they are merely the result of a random generator.
If the designer adds them manually to enhance his zone, that's
interesting.  If the world adds them automatically based on the
previous interactions of that guard, that can be interesting too.
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