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jackal59mo2 · 09-23-2009, 09:02 PM

The one element that I haven't seen mentioned is leveling. In my experience, even those MUDs that claim to have leveless systems still have some sort of skill growth/advancement in place, which means that new characters start out less competent in coded areas (meaning both combat and skills on MUDs that have crafting/skill codes). This does have the advantage of discouraging combat twinks, but consider what other types of characters it discourages:

- The war-weary, world-weary mercenary who knows how to fight but is sick of it.
- The skilled blacksmith with a wife and three kids (and that other wife and two more kids in the next town over that he's scrambling to keep hidden).
- The prissy jeweler who can set a stone deftly but whose fussiness drives everyone up the wall.

Instead, you get to be:
- The young recruit.
- The blacksmith's apprentice.
- The jeweler's apprentice.
- The young barmaid/novice stablehand/etc.

In many cases, I've found that it's hard to realistically generate a character out of his or her teens without doing such gyrations as "my adult character trained to be a seamstress [which she won't do because I can't create her with a realistic level of code] but is now training to be a cook because she, uh, was traumatized by a spider and now has a mortal fear of thread."

Starting yet another apprentice just doesn't appeal to me, and starting an "experienced" character that can't use any of the coded systems a MUD offers because he can't be CGed at an age-appropriate level seems like a waste of time. If I wanted to play without using skill and/or combat code, I'd play someplace without those things. Moreover, the justification for having open or obscured leveling in a role playing game (which sometimes seems to be "you're a twink until proven to be O.K.") is frankly a little insulting. Maybe it's just that, since I have played D&D four times in thirty-some year, have never played video or computer games except for Civilization and the Myst series, and don't find leveling to be at all interesting, I'm just not the target audience for many MUDs.

09-23-2009, 09:02 PM	#56
jackal59mo2 Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 45	Re: What are the differences between a MUD and a MUSH? The one element that I haven't seen mentioned is leveling. In my experience, even those MUDs that claim to have leveless systems still have some sort of skill growth/advancement in place, which means that new characters start out less competent in coded areas (meaning both combat and skills on MUDs that have crafting/skill codes). This does have the advantage of discouraging combat twinks, but consider what other types of characters it discourages: - The war-weary, world-weary mercenary who knows how to fight but is sick of it. - The skilled blacksmith with a wife and three kids (and that other wife and two more kids in the next town over that he's scrambling to keep hidden). - The prissy jeweler who can set a stone deftly but whose fussiness drives everyone up the wall. Instead, you get to be: - The young recruit. - The blacksmith's apprentice. - The jeweler's apprentice. - The young barmaid/novice stablehand/etc. In many cases, I've found that it's hard to realistically generate a character out of his or her teens without doing such gyrations as "my adult character trained to be a seamstress [which she won't do because I can't create her with a realistic level of code] but is now training to be a cook because she, uh, was traumatized by a spider and now has a mortal fear of thread." Starting yet another apprentice just doesn't appeal to me, and starting an "experienced" character that can't use any of the coded systems a MUD offers because he can't be CGed at an age-appropriate level seems like a waste of time. If I wanted to play without using skill and/or combat code, I'd play someplace without those things. Moreover, the justification for having open or obscured leveling in a role playing game (which sometimes seems to be "you're a twink until proven to be O.K.") is frankly a little insulting. Maybe it's just that, since I have played D&D four times in thirty-some year, have never played video or computer games except for Civilization and the Myst series, and don't find leveling to be at all interesting, I'm just not the target audience for many MUDs.