I wanted to see what different people thought about how much realism is needed in an RP MUD to maintain a good RP environment.

I have found that I enjoy an environment more when certainly realities are ignored. For example, games with mechanics that force me to feed and water my character don’t really appeal to me. I much prefer to ignore those mundane things and just enjoy the RP environment.  Granted, in desert or post-apocalyptic theme MUDs having to find food and water might be part of the challenge, but most of the games I have played the “You are getting hungry.” message had little to do with any IC plot-line or theme. These things serve only as little annoyances and inconveniences IMO, as food is usually ridiculously easy to get and the only challenge is to remember to always have enough. I have met others that think RP is all about realism though. Should RP be about remembering to have your character eat, drink, sleep, and relieve himself/herself or is it better to ignore or assume these things happen for the sake of focussing on plot?

Good question, and bound to provoke arguments on both sides.

Personally, I see that sort of thing as a detriment to RP. If I'm in the middle of a running gunfight with a couple of thugs on Tomin Kora, the last thing I want to think about is food. So, no thanks for those "You are getting hungry" or "You are getting thirsty" messages. It's enough to worry about those thugs plugging me with a blast from a pulse rifle, inflicting an injury and lowering my ability to successfully fight back.

Similarly, I don't want to worry about having to go to the bathroom, having to wash my hair, having to apply deodorant to my armpits or shave. I have to do that IRL occasionally as it is. No sense burdening myself with it online too.

Some elements are just best left "offscreen" in a roleplaying-focused game.

As one of my fellow Imms says on the MUD we play -- game balance before realism!

Realism has it's place, most definitely, but in the case of a "fantasy-based" MUD, there's a reason it's called "fantasy".

I can see the point about eating, as being a nuisance, it depends on the MUD, the purpose of it, etc.

I think realism has a place, but it depends on what we're talking about.

For example, most MUDs have a lot of different races - from pixies to giants - and in most RP MUDs pixies and giants can fight and do damage to each other. When, in reality, there's no way really that a pixie with a tiny thimble sword could inflict much damage on a 20-foot giant. But without balancing these races to some degree, it would cause infinite amounts of trouble.

The flipside to that logic is that giants couldn't really hit pixies either, because they'd barely be able to see them...

So once you get into logic of that sort, it's a slippery slope that will likely ruin any balance that can be achieved.

Other instances where realism might be difficult is with sleeping -- most of us in the real world need to sleep daily, but most MUDs I've seen don't really work on that principle. The simple reason, I think, is that it would be too much of a hassle to have to sleep every 12 hours or so, and then sleep for 5-8 hours to recuperate. That would mean most people would spend somewhere around a 3rd of their time sleeping. Just doesn't make sense for a game, but makes sense in the concept of realism.

So there's plenty of instances where realism can be left on the sidelines in the interests of fun, balance and gameplay.

But of course if things get too out of control, then people might find that distracting as well unless there are explanations ICly within the game for the wacky stuff going on. Balance...that's the goal, I think.

Pleos.

The mention of pixies and giants brought another point to mind. What about the size of armor? In most games I've played it doesn't matter what size your character is when it comes to using armor. A tall thin human character can kill a short fat dwarf and toss the dwarf's armor on without problem. Is this a case of balance or laziness? Surely balance could be created by making sure all of the races have an equal opportunity to have comperable armor and weapons. Would a bit of realism here help the RP environment?

On the MUD where I'm an Imm, there are various armor sizes from tiny to giant and a few steps in-between.

For the longest time, I think this was somewhat problematic, because most armor was being built for the medium-sized races - namely humans, elves, half-elves and a few others.

Very little equipment was available for the "size extremes" and this made things unbalanced.

These days the builders have added a *ton* of equipment for all the sizes, although more work constantly has to be done in this regard.

There are also spells to change a person's size that helps balance things out.

I think size of armor and weapon can be an interesting element for realism and RP. In a case like this, I think having sizes allows you to create a better mental image - if a giant and elf can wear the same things, it becomes hard to imagine it in your mind, and that degrades the overall image, in my opinion.

I've met quite a few characters that jump right off the screen - their actions, description, personality, RP, etc. puts an image of them in my mind -- something like various sizes in gear helps with this, and I think that helps an RP Mud.

Pleos.

I am 100% for realism, PROVIDING that realism is a factor of the game. Let me explain...

In most MUDs your character starts off at age 17 or there abouts. This tells me that for 17 years my character has been eating, and drinking, and hopefully getting laid, etc. Now if it is the typical fantasy world I will assume my character is pretty adept at living.

So in this instance, I would be against "You are getting hungry" and "You are getting thirsty" especially since I can live for 30 days without eating, etc. etc.

On the contrary, like someone said previously, if the theme of the game IS survival and that food is rare and water is rare, then it is definately something to add to the flavor of that world. In general, however, I doubt it is something needed.

As for armor size, weapon weight, fatigue, equipment breaking, etc. I am 100% in favor of it. Nothing is forever, especially not a sword you slam around all day long. Eventually that whetstone will wear your blade out and it will go poof.

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