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Old 09-05-2002, 04:20 PM   #6
Jazuela
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: New England
Posts: 849
Jazuela will become famous soon enoughJazuela will become famous soon enough
Very true Sapphar. I don't "need" combat mechanics, as long as my character never needs to get involved in combat. If part of the game requires being confronted with a combat situation, however, I wouldn't be capable/remotely interested in playing unless there was an actual manual combat system. Even in situations like PKing - if my character automatically tries to attack, just because someone attacked me, I would really - REALLY - hate that. It would be the single-most significant thing that would drive me from the game. Reason being, once you have an autocombat system, it's no longer roleplaying. It's sitting there are your computer watching the game's mechanics do all the work until one party is dead.

I checked out a couple of MUSH places, but the ones I looked at seem to have no skill commands at all - and are, instead, pure roleplay. I LOVE roleplay. It's the reason I'm interested in gaming in the first place. But I want roleplay with skills that I can get better with (whether by practicing in them or training in them, or being taught by other characters, etc.). Actual skills that show up when you type SKILLS or STATS or whatever, where you can see not only what your character is capable of, but whether or not they're any good at it.

If I'm a novice, compared to someone who has full mastery, I'd like to know that - and not just because Lord So-and-so says so. Someone who is learning to be a master armsman, or leathercrafter, or mage, or cook, knows enough about the skill to judge that "compared to my observations of this other person, I suck goose eggs" or "compared to my observations of the guy who taught me this skill, I'll probably be better than he is in an hour or two." That's where numeric skill "scores" can really help me out.

So if I have 20 ranks of weaponsmithing, and it's possible to have 400 ranks, then I know I have a long way to go before I can make anything worthwhile. If I have 40 ranks of hiding, and it's only possible to have 40 ranks, then I know I ain't gonna ever get any better - I'm the best anyone can possibly be, and I can work on mastering something else.

Even if this info is written out verbally - "You are a master craftsman in the skill of cooking." or "You are barely a novice, with many things to learn before you can consider yourself a journeyman" would be helpful.

So you see, I'm not ALL that picky - but these things need to have some significance in the game I pick. Room descriptions that include things in their descriptions should have at least SOME of those things in each room. I don't think it's necessary to have a sky and a floor "object" - but if there's a room that makes a fuss about how incredibly gorgeous the horizon is, then I should certainly be able to "look horizon" and see an incredibly gorgeous description.

Roleplay - I can find excellent roleplay as I've discovered in many games - Inferno and Armageddon are only two that I've mentioned though there are plenty of others. But when I get into one of the others, and become bombarded by OOC "tells" from well-wishers and helpful veterans, it completely and totally destroys my "suspension of disbelief" and I make a beeline to another game. If I want help, I would ask for it and be grateful for whatever help I get. But if I'm not asking, it's because I don't wanna know. It also means I don't wanna hear the OOC conversations back and forth among other people either. That's what chat rooms are for. Or "RP-encouraged" games are for.

I LOVE mechanics that work. I LOVE room descriptions that are fully interactive. I think dynamic systems are the best thing since sliced bread, though dynamics aren't necessary for me to enjoy the game. I love details into which I can really sink my teeth and become engrossed in my character's surroundings. I can even put up with a "list" of what people are wearing rather than have them included in the description paragraph...though it is a bit jarring at first.
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