[MUD-Dev] D&D vs. MMORPG "complexity"

[Vincent Archer]

According to Talanithus HTML:

> In effect, MMORPGs need to have the versatility of the NWN Dm
> Toolkit, with the ability to create massive encounters and
> scenarios, even if just for the members of their guild.  By

If you are restricting the events/scenario to just your friends and
guild, then you are playing NWN, and you don't need a MMOG to do
that yet.

You're touching on one of the pet designs of mine, which I do in my
armchair designer position (no longer working in the industry now).
What I called "Dungeon Keeper Online".

Principle is simple: pick a classical fantasy MMORPG design. Among
the characters classes you can create, you can create one (and only
one per account) Dungeon Master. Each Dungeon Master has a kind of
level, which gives him points. These points serve to claim,
decorate, populate and itemize a "dungeon area" (which can be
outdoor, indoor, underground, whatever).

The more popular and challenging your dungeon is, the more points
you get to improve the dungeon: larger area, higher levels, more
intricate spawns and triggers, better itemization. With a couple of
various scales to measure "popularity" and "challenge" (like popular
vote for "best dungeon", amount of player deaths per time, number of
items from the dungeon in use by active players, etc). And multiple
DM can team to offer a really big dungeon.

There's a couple of risky points in the design, and the balancing of
the dungeon system is probably relatively hard.

You also provide feedback mechanisms that encourage players to play
their adventurer in other dungeons (than their own). Cash (earned by
adventurer characters) can be spent on your dungeon (and that makes
cash have a real value to a segment of the population, which is good
for economies). Items you've found that are good can be added to
your "drop" tables.

Both gameplay feed on each other: dungeon masters need players to
grow, players get rewarded by large number of different dungeons to
explore (and ever changing areas).

Of course, even with the most carefully designed toolset, you won't
be able to prevent people from trying to design penis-shaped
dungeons with good reasons behind them... but if they're merely
obnoxious, and not good enough designers, they won't have enough
points to spend on their creations.

--
	Vincent Archer			Email:	archer at frmug.org

All men are mortal.  Socrates was mortal.  Therefore, all men are Socrates.
							(Woody Allen)

_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev