[MUD-Dev] Playing catch-up with levels

[Vincent Archer]

According to jfreeman at soe.sony.com:

> I think it's not even close to being done, and possibly here to
> stay.  Players migrate to it, even when given a pure free-form skill
> system.  They make "fighters", "mages", "clerics" and "thieves" out
> of whatver system you give them.  Regardless of the genre.

> You try to give them more and different... and they work-around your
> "obnoxious designs" to get back to what they really want: classes.

Then why not work with that? Take the best of both worlds: a full
freeform skill based system *with* classes and level?

Before you say that's a contradiction in terms, take a minute to
picture the following system:

  Take something like UO's skill system. You've got a variety of
  skills that complement each other, or not. Each skill goes from 0
  to 100, and you have a maximum of 700 points of skill. That's your
  freeform, levelless skill system.

Odds are that most people will bring most of their useful skills to
their max, with only a couple at low levels for utility (the 7xGM
syndrome). There's going to be popular templates. "Tanks", who max
their defense, body resistance, parry, dodge, shield, taunt, etc...

So, in front of the system, place a templating system: Pick the 5
highest skills of the character, and find a match among a library of
templates. Divide the skill total by 10, at the same time. So, your
highest skills are offense, defense, sword, twohanded, and
maneuvers?  Those 5 skills make a "Swordsman" template, so people
see you're a swordsman. And the sum of your skills is 334, so you're
33rd level Swordsman (with some secondary variations, so not every
33rd level swordsman is like every other). If no template applies,
then you're an adventurer (and people wonder what kind of exotic
skillset you might have).

Play an unusual, but succesful profile? Get it recognised on
whatever boards are popular for the game, attract the developper's
attention, and get it enshrined in the game (like Asheron's Call "Og
Mage", named from the character who demonstrated the strength of
that profile).

There you are: classes & levels, along with totally freeform skills.
The template, being known, can even guide people, while others will
simply stumble along playing, falling "naturally" into a specific
template.

--
	Vincent Archer			Email:	archer at frmug.org

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