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

[Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com]

From: shren [mailto:shren at io.com] 
 
> Consider this - when a 'magic sword' drops, generate 50 bonuses or
> powers that it can have, and make one active per level.  So if I'm
> a 5th level character, and I find a sword, I only get access to
> (and can only see) the first 5 bonuses on it.  The first 5 bonuses
> might be really bad and the other 45 might be really bad (and thus
> the weapon is junk.)  The first 5 might be great and the rest
> so-so - in which case it's a perfect weapon for me.  Or I might
> find a weapon that is a wonderful weapon at level 50, because all
> of the bonuses add up nicely for some class or skillset.  It's
> still not overpowering for me to have such a thing, however,
> because I can only access 1/10th of the item's potential.

That's a nice idea. I've played games where monsters are coin only
loot, which is intended to be given to crafters in return for their
work. It all sounds very nice, but in the instances I've played
there has been a dramatic oversight. It pretty much killed any
incentive I had to go and kill things as most of the reward was
gone. No longer was there any reason to kill hard creatures, one may
as well bottom feed xp. Also since everyones equipment was pretty
much identikit, there was no way of separating oneself from the
other level 20 fighters. A recipe for boredom, and another example
of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

So whilst coin loot only may well benefit crafters, its not a
panacea, and poorly handled I'm sure it will drive out other
demographics. Whether or not the crafters will want to play when
there is no one to sell to but other crafters, is an open question.

Dan
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