[MUD-Dev] Character Restraint & Capture.

[Michael Sellers]

Jim Purbrick wrote:
> Jester wrote:

>> Character Restraint & Capture

>> I am considering this system for two reasons; As a method of
>> bringing PKers to justice via some sort of bounty hunting system.

> A middle ground may be to allow capture, but with the option of
> escape by the restrained player. The capture becomes a quest which
> the player can work through to escape. Maybe the escape requires a
> lot of roleplaying to complete, so the PKer is punished for
> greifing by having to take part in the theatre of the world. It
> still forces the player to do something they don't want and so is
> punishment, but it's not as brutal as forcing complete
> inactivity. An alternative escape route might be through rescue,
> making the capture a storyline that other players can be involved
> in.

An approach I've always wanted to try goes something like this: when
you're captured (by bounty hunters or town guards, etc.), you're put
in a holding cell, stripped of all items but one weapon, staff,
etc., but at full strength.  You spend just a moment in the holding
cell -- just enough time to sting a bit, but not so much time that
you log off in frustration (and if you did log off, you'd be right
back there when you logged in again).

After 10-30 seconds, the side of the cell opens up onto an arena
floor.  There you've been paired with a monster of approximately
your power level.  To get out of the arena, you have to kill the
monster or be killed by it.  If you kill it, you're transported
outside the city walls and appear with all your possessions, but
only a few hp.  If you're killed, you appear outside the city walls
with a few hp and only your one weapon.

Multiple people may be in the arena at the same time too.  It might
be that all you have to do to get out is to kill *some* monster, not
necessarily "yours."  But yours will be targetting you at any rate.

Finally, other PCs are encouraged to sit in the arena and watch,
jeer, make bets, etc. (but not affect anyone on the arena floor with
spells).  In effect, the griefers and others that often hold the
more mild-mannered players in some fear now become objects of
entertainment, thus somewhat de-fanging them.  And yet the players
so captured aren't held in a game-killing blank cell or anything
like that; and their punishment fits their crime.

Anyway, I've never playtested that, but it's something I've always
wanted to try out.

Mike Sellers
Online Alchemy
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