[MUD-Dev] Unique items vs. item references

[Brandon J. Van Every]

shren wrote:

>   A Ring
>     That lets you regenerate
>     Lets you do lots of damage
>     Makes you blind and deaf

> A player finding such an item who thinks about in character has to
> wonder about who designed such a bizarre item.

Morrowind contains a rather deliberate "Boots Of Blinding Speed."
You move 5x as fast as normal, but you can't see a damn thing!
<groan> It really is pretty damn funny the first tiem you put it on.
Or really irritating... "You, you, YOU said you were going to give
me... BOOTS OF BLINDING SPEED!!!"  One of those djinni-style
promises, careful what you wish for!  Actually, the item is useful
for route movement from town to town.  For some reason you can still
see your navigation map while wearing the boots, so it's possible to
run rapidly from one place to another if you've already mapped the
way.  You might stumble into a monster, but odds are you'll outrun
it.  I don't think anything can chase you at 5x speed, so it's only
a question of whether you get stuck on a terrain feature or
something.  Generally speaking the roads are clear.

You could do a lot with bad puns.  A "Rod Of Fly Fishing?"

> Who would include property 3, or finish the item when he found
> that the item would have it?  Random items are often total
> non-sequitors, the only response is, "huh?"

"Boots Of Blinding Speed" work because they were manually crafted as
a quest item.  An author set up a joke with a punchline.


Cheers,                         www.3DProgrammer.com
Brandon Van Every               Seattle, WA

20% of the world is real.
80% is gobbledygook we make up inside our own heads.


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