[MUD-Dev] Striving for originality

[Sanvean]

On Tue, 4 Jun 2002, Matt Chatterley wrote:
<introductory verbiage snipped)
 
> A magic system based on material components, syllable-stringing
> and gestures (or any of these) might require real brain power
> behind it, quick thinking and creativity from a player (I'm
> certainly planning some sort of free form magical interaction
> along these lines), but to gain this new style of play, will it
> take too long for the average player to pick up and use? Instead
> of typing 'fireball <target>', they find that they have to acquire
> the spell, its ingredients, and then perform the right sequence to
> use it .. would this put them off?

We haven't had any trouble with a complex magick system, and I've
gone so far as to complicate it further by thinking how spells
interact with each other and the environment -- for example, one
sector type dampens most spells, while another doubles most travel
related spells.  Players have reacted to these systems
enthusiastically.  Do remember that as some players gather such
knowledge, they'll be passing it along to others, so not everyone
will be coming into it cold.

One approach, though, might be to have some basic cantrips and small
spells that aren't so complicated, and which act as introductions to
the concepts that will be involved in higher level (and accordingly
more complex and powerful) spells.

A magic system is one of the places where you can seriously make or
break a game's atmosphere.

> Is time-scheduling a good thing for a semi action centered game?
> Initiative based handling of combat allows sequencing of attacks,
> and a structured approach to what can sometimes simply become a
> speed-typing competition. Or will the lack of macro-able
> situations and more complex combat requiring some planning and
> forward thinking not be appealing to people who want to play the
> barbarian hero and rampage a path of destruction through hordes of
> orcs?
 
> The old player-killing chestnut pops up too -- should I choose to
> allow or disallow it? If disallowed, should it be in-game
> 'illegal', out-game 'illegal' (fairly pointless?) or just not
> possible? What can this add to a games atmosphere -- and does it
> scale badly to certain playerbase sizes?

I'm pro player killing, because there's a significant chunk of
players for whom it's important. However, (imo, as with all of
this), you want to avoid scenarios where more powerful players sit
in some location killing newbies just for chuckles --I've hit games
where that happens, and it's discouraging to the point where I've
moved on, rather quickly, to a less frustrating environment, and I
suspect that reaction is not atypical.

I hope that's somewhat useful.

Sanvean
http://www.armageddon.org
Armageddon MUD.  Roleplay required.

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