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Old 03-14-2008, 08:22 PM   #15
prof1515
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Re: Guidelines for an RPI mud.

Just some quick thoughts before I turn my attention to dinner. Mmmmmm...food!

Not completely true. There are examples in both combat and other areas which do not allow ample time for detailed emotes or even any emote at all. A pair of good examples would be falling and death. Both can be role-played around but at times circumstances simply do not allow for it. With the use of a climb skill, it is possible for a player to fail the skill check, resulting in a fall. The effect is sudden, as a fall would be. Additionally, it is possible for there to be areas where fall rooms exist. Stepping into them immediately sends a player into a fall to the room "below". Now, while a player can identify the potential for a fall and emote accordingly, once the actual fall is activated, they do not have the opportunity to emote before the action occurs. Some RPIs, SoI was the first I believe, use color to denote fall rooms (if the direction north is red in the exits list, it's a fall room), this allows a player to emote the necessary emotes before executing the command. However, given that the player can not ascertain what may lie beyond the fall (outside a notion based off of the present room's description), most are loathe to RP such an action. Hence, most falls occur due to unintentional causes and no emotes accompany them.

Likewise death typically does not afford one the ability to control the pace. A classic personal example I can give is a guy who walked up to the gates of an enemy fortress. He was immediately spotted by the NPC guards in the watch towers who hailed down a rain of a dozen arrows into him. Dead near-instantly, as he should be for doing such a thing and given the nature of the response.

Thus, use of the term "all systems" is not accurate in describing RPIs.

Rather than the word "experience", I would suggest aptitude, ability, or another like term which is not used by many MUDs to denote a completely different thing the way "experience" is.

That's really the heart of it though. The original RPIs were massively re-written code, so much so that aside from some familiar syntax and commands, they were almost indistinguishable from their original codebase. Rather than "RP", I would however suggest the term "code supporting the world design" to delineate it from "world design supporting the code". That would be a factual description of the process by which the code came into being. It was designed to support the features of the world design (Harshlands' world is based off the Harn gaming system world, Armageddon's gameworld has similar P&P roots). The design and implementation of perma-death code is a classic example of this. While permadeath is a feature, the "code follows world design" is a philosophy, but both are part of the defining characteristics of RPI.

Concern for others and for the community is a noble concept. I rarely question why someone cares. I typically question when people say they don't care.

Take care,

Jason
Mmmmmm...food!

Last edited by prof1515 : 03-14-2008 at 08:23 PM. Reason: Damnit, another [QUOTE] typo
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