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Old 08-30-2002, 03:41 PM   #21
Enzo
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Some of these things will be virtually impossible to do at my MUD. Character history amd choices affect it the most, but clothing worn and food eaten... The equipment we wear for leveling is all strictly OOC. Some of the newbie areas have dresses for the men to wear, and they really can't do anything about it. Sometimes people (like me) just RP their clothes whatever they want it to be. Then again, some MUDs have your IC clothes be the equipment you're wearing. Food is also the same way how often do you see a player eat chicken wings in a MUD? Especially when the MUD is like mine, based of a series taking place in a old-time or something like that. How would you make those things possible?
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Old 08-30-2002, 04:40 PM   #22
Jazuela
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They're objects with emits, just like any other object with emits. Unless I'm not understanding the question right.

Assuming there's some way of emoting...and an "eat" or "bite" command...

You could sniff the food object, smell it, taste it, touch it, glance at it, and any other thing your command system allows. The food would be sold at the local tavern or inn - a bowl of stew, or a cup of tea - and when you're done eating/drinking you'd either drop the empty dish in the trash or sell it back to the barkeep or whatever.

The food object would technically be a container, which would empty out with specific emits whenever the "eat" or "bite" command was applied to it.

And so...

glance bowl

You glance at a small wooden bowl.

l in bowl

You look inside a small wooden bowl.
There appears to be several spoonsful of stew left.

eat bowl

You lift a spoon from the bowl to your mouth and take a bite of stew.

(what other people see):

Jazuela takes a spoonful of stew from her bowl.

eat bowl

The succulent, juicy meat catches at the corner of your lips as you take another bite of stew.

(what other people see):

A drop of stew catches at the corner of Jazuela's lips as she takes another bite from her bowl.

eat bowl

You finish a bowl of soup.

l in bowl

There appears to be nothing in the small wooden bowl.

and so on and so forth - preferably with several different random emits for the "eat" command.

Or you could just use it as a prop and "act" it all out with emote or act or whichever command your system supports.
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Old 08-30-2002, 04:52 PM   #23
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I haven't spent much time on muds that have specific leveling equipment in a while, but that is a good point.  A game with equipment to hunt down does limit the rp you can do with it, unless you work pretty hard to restring (if the game you're on allows it) all your equipment.  Which then becomes pointless when you level up a little more.

I worked with a coder once who was creating layered clothing.  Only the middle layer could carry any stats to boost or hurt the player.  The top and undergarmet layer were for roleplay purposes only, with objects throughout the areas intended for such use.  A nice way to keep the leveling equipment idea alive without sacrificing rp.

As for food, I'm not sure of this, but don't most games have some foods around?  And even if they don't, couldn't you just use emotes?  If you are on a game with hunger codes, when you are brand new and can't afford much, you may have a hard time rping it out.  But I recall once having a character on a mud with a hunger code who only ate certain types of foods.  Couldn't stand stuff that was squishy or soupy, just didn't like the texture of it.  No beef stews or puddings.  Random, semi-pointless bit of rp, but part of her personality.  So rping food can work.

I suppose the point of Illiandra's post is just to use whatever you can to create your rp.  Not just your emotes or your clothing or your food or your histories.  Anything that can be IC in the game you're in, make it part of your character and your character choices.

*wanders off trying to decide how she can rp out a sweet, paladin of good young woman who is level 45 when the only good equipment happens to be a bloody dagger, a fires of hell light, a pair of troll hide gloves, a human scalp helmet, and braided entrails for a belt*
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Old 08-30-2002, 07:39 PM   #24
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My point exactly.

Also, the mud I play allows you to either target a social at a person or to add a 1 word modifier at the end of most emotes. So you can grin innocently or grin evilly or whatever without requiring 50 different grin type socials like some muds I've seen. Really useful for doing short and sweet stuff

As for foods and eq and such, the mud I play has numerous crafting skills so if it exists, chances are you can craft something that fits your RP needs. Steel armor is statistically the same as silver armor, which you choose to wear can be used to RP your char's personal preference if nothing else (unless one type of metal was all that was available, of course). Many types of food exist, so it's entirely possible to play a vegetarian or only eat steaks, or whatever. And in the case of the above mentioned soup, you actually have to hold a spoon to be able to eat it, or you can just grab a bowl and drink it like a heathen. It's too bad that to most players, skills and money are more important than interesting RP. We could do some really neat stuff if anyone ever felt like doing it, but for the most part people don't bother to RP intensely unless they can get something out of the other guy or they're bored.
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Old 09-14-2002, 10:54 PM   #25
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Old 09-15-2002, 01:24 AM   #26
Enzo
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That is one of the things in RP I really like. A player may be good/bad and he can do good/bad things (There are limits though). One of the leaders in the "Evil" guild on our MUD acutally helped rescue one of the guild leaders in another guild which he serves to fight against. He could of easily of killed the leader, but didn't. This just helps get others unaware of your evil intentions if you don't want them knowing, or just to do it for a specific reason. But the BEST thing "Good Roleplay" That's what I like.
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Old 09-27-2002, 12:36 AM   #27
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I love some of the comments that have been made on here...I just had a couple of my own.

1) On emoting, I understand that it can get annoying to see people *only* built-in socials, all the time. But I still think there are times when yes, a grin is just a grin. And sometimes, when someone grins, you have no idea whether it's an innocent grin or a smug grin or if they're amused or just want you to shut up and leave them alone. Except by context, which is conveyed by the situation and the conversation, not what the person types in an emote. There are situations where an emote is appropriate and situations where it isn't. Sometimes I want to use a shrug social that displays "you shrug helplessly" and sometimes I want to emote "shrugs her shoulders and spreads her hands in front of her in a gesture of helplessness."

2) I could not agree more that evil people shouldn't be utterly evil, all the time. The fact is, some of the worst twinks are people who go around being mean to everyone and pking at random and then claim "hey i'm just roleplaying evil." The heck you are. You're roleplaying idiocy.

Yes, evil people do bad things. But even serial killers look normal sometimes. Wild pk is not evil rp. Real evil is very hard to pull off well. I am no expert, but I think one of the most crucial things about the evil frame of mind is a profound selfishness. What does this mean? There are two things that make people "evil": consistently doing things we think are bad in situations where we think they're inappropriate, and believing that their actions are okay, or even right.

For example, why is Paladin good? He kills, which is often considered a bad thing to do. But his motives are rooted in selflessness and a willingness to help others or kill those who oppress the weak. This makes him Good. A villain is bad because he kills for a reason society as a whole considers inappropriate, such as greed, or because he believes himself superior to the people he hurts. Many societies consider selfishness, the placing of the self before others, to be a negative trait, and therefore evil actions are those that hurt other people and place the self before the wellbeing of those others.

The concept of what actions are bad varies from culture to culture. But generally most cultures will agree that the person doing these actions is not bad if the person has selfless motives. The point is, evil is rooted in motive, not action. If you kill people at random and have no real background that supports the idea that you're evil, you're not roleplaying evil, you're just making people angry. A good rper will start by creating a background and a character that has a good reason to do evil things, and goals and motives that will lead him to do evil things naturally.

It's also important to remember that the world is not usually black and white. Perhaps the evil player has a soft spot for puppies, or is a particularly caring father, or is especially helpful with the youngsters in his guild or clan. Evil people aren't all evil, all the time, and assuming they are probably just means that the character in question hasn't been fleshed out enough. And in many types of evil characters, what's really interesting about them is that while the world sees their actions as cruel and wrong, to *them* their actions make perfect sense. It's not just their actions that are twisted- it's their whole worldview.

One last thing. Do I roleplay evil well? Not really. That's why I don't do it very often. *grin*
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