[MUD-Dev] Non-traditional monsters?

[eric]

From: "Jack Britt" <mud at experimentzero.org>
> From: "Brandon J. Van Every" <vanevery at 3DProgrammer.com>
>> Jack Britt wrote:

>>> While orcs, goblins and dragons will definitely be featured, I'd
>>> like to pull things from other cultures.

>> Because it's late for me, I failed to zoom in on the true nature
>> of your request.  "Other cultures."  I'd ask, what's so important
>> about other cultures?  Are you interested in the mythological
>> structure of other cultures?  In which case I'd think orcs
>> etc. would be rather dissonant.

> The reason I ask is that I think 95% of MUDs share the same
> monsters. Orc, goblins, trolls, dragons, etc. Its all based on

...

> incredibly rich and diverse place, I'd like to use mythology and
> legends from other non-Tolkein, non-Western beliefs for parts of
> the MUD.

I think globally you'll find that all human cultures will share
these same concepts and lore. Tolkien was a great story teller and
managed to dazzle us with a very intense trilogy with a very deep
background, but he didn't invent orcs and dragons.

Why bother to impart any prior culture, whatever feelings you have
towards orcs and dragons, someone else will have towards X and
Y. Whatever that ends up being.

Personally I get extremely annoyed when people just "rename" things
to somehow create a new theme. Story telling isn't quite that
simple, and no matter how much you wish to change blue to nurfel,
its still blue to me. Its has scales, it breaths fire, its a
dragon. Of course this whole plot was used to excess long before
AD&D came out with 16 varieties of the beholder.  (Think Bards Tale,
where every creature had a variety of every color. Its still alive
today in such great games as Final Fantasy X.)

My advice would be to avoid cheating by bartering in story devices
that have been done to death. You want new and unique? Make new
powers and new concepts, and don't give them a name, let them tell
the story by just being.  I'd much rather hear a player say fire
lizard that breaths death, than <yawn> another red dragon died to my
sword of vanquishing. Where is the entertainment, where is the story
there?

Zombies, trolls, dragons these are merely story telling
devices. Zombies are fearsome and feel no pain, they just keep
coming, humans *do* feel pain so zombies are fearsome. Trolls
regenerate so they don't fear death either, compared to a human who
does fear death and certainly fears death when facing a troll in
battle. And dragons they are universally known in all cultures and
are fearsome and powerful everywhere. It saddens me to no end to see
dragons become no more than a lizard pet in games like UO, because
as a game object they have so much more to offer. Personally I feel
the names to be totally unimportant, and you'll find these devices
(undead, regenerating creature, fire breathing cunning lizard) in
every culture. If you are going to use pacific islander lore, you
might as well just use a random name generator, unless your target
audience is in fact pacific islanders.

Faced with similar ideas I've decided to just do away with designer
names all together. The acid spitting frog will be called the acid
spitting frog until some creative player gives it a name that
sticks. Of course the fire breathing lizard will no doubt retrieve
its rightful name of dragon simply because players will bring that
with them.

HTH

















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