October 1997
- Carnage, scripting newbie guides Koster, Raph
- Carnage, scripting newbie guides Nathan Yospe
- Carnage, scripting newbie guides Chris Gray
- Carnage, scripting newbie guides ##Make Nylander
- Carnage, scripting newbie guides ##Make Nylander
- Usability and interface and who the hell is supposed to clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- 101 Spells Not Worth Memorizing clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- more classes (Usability and interface and who the Brian Price
- more classes (Usability and interface and who the Matt Chatterley
- more classes (Usability and interface and who the coder@ibm.net
- Stranger in a Strange Land (was Usability and interface and Maddy
- Tablets. Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Stranger in a Strange Land (was Usability and interface clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- Usability and interface ... Marian Griffith
- Usability and interface ... Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Usability and interface ... Broly
- Usability and interface ... Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Usability and interface ... Derrick Jones
- Usability and interface ... coder@ibm.net
- Usability and interface ... Derrick Jones
- Usability and interface ... coder@ibm.net
- Usability and interface ... coder@ibm.net
- Usability and interface ... Marian Griffith
On Mon 06 Oct, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:
> On Sun, 5 Oct 1997 03:37:39 PST8PDT, Marian Griffith <gryphon@iaehv.nl>
> wrote:
> >On Wed 24 Sep, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:
>> skill for either of the above. I agree, musicians are a nice thing, they
> >> contribute vastly to the enjoyment of the world; but why do we actually
> >> need game mechanics to handle it?
> >Basically this is the same question as:
> >Why bother with descriptions on rooms and monsters in a (traditional)
> >mud at all? It does not add anything to the game, which is all about
> >killing monsters.
> Actually, that's not the same question at all. I'm saying that
> atmosphere is a wonderful thing and we need it in our games, but there
> are a lot of things that aren't specifically *game* components and don't
> need a skill or attribute allotted to them.
[example of comeliness stat snipped for brevity]
> If you have a stat for it, why? Skill space is usually limited. Even if
> it isn't, you only have so much memory and so much disk, so why store
> skills that have no real game use?
Here is the big question of course. You say that a comeliness stat or
a music skill has no real game use. Others may not agree with you on
this point.
> The comeliness attribute struck me as
> highly stupid. The proper way to handle this is to use a description,
> not a statistic. Just like in any game, if there's no statistic to
> handle it you just fill it in.
It might matter if comeliness affects the way other people respond
to you. E.g if the shopkeepers habitually charge you twice as much
because the assume that a character that ugly must be stupid also.
And they might refuse to deal with certain characters that do not
their idea of beauty. There are plenty of reasons to have a come-
liness stat. I do agree that if the players are mature enough to
handle a free form roleplaying game such things are superfluous.
> Fishing? No problem. You wanna be a
> fisherman, you're a fisherman. How good or how bad is up to you. Music?
> Same thing. Golf? Likewise. (I mean, talk about a useless skill.)
The same could be said for combat... (not the useless skill but the
fact that it is up to the player to decide how good or how bad)
> A description is not a statistic to which game mechanics are applied.
> Fishing and music and golf, likewise. In fact, ANY artistic talent
> should probably be looked at with a skeptical eye before assigning a
> skill to it. 'Painting'? Okay, with a high painting skill, I could do
> portraits. But what about more abstract works? Designs? Scrollwork? Can
> you really assign a percentage to that? Can you realistically put a
> number in the place of a description?
It all depends on the game, the goal of the game and on the players.
marian
--
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...
Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey
- Turn-based Combat Jon A. Lambert
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- OT: I'm moving! coder@ibm.net
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- The Trap Collection clawrenc@cup.hp.com
- Learning through failure Jon A. Lambert
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- THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO UNLAWFUL CARNAL KNOWLEDGE FOR FANTASY ROLE-PLAYING GAMES clawrenc@cup.hp.com
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- OT: Usability and interface and who the hell is suppo coder@ibm.net
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Derrick Jones
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- Mud governance Koster, Raph
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- Mud governance Koster, Raph
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- OT: Usability and interface and who the hell is su Jon A. Lambert
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Marian Griffith
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Derrick Jones
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) coder@ibm.net
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Nathan Yospe
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Marian Griffith
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Sauron
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) coder@ibm.net
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Marian Griffith
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) coder@ibm.net
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Brandon J. Rickman
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Derrick Jones
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Jon A. Lambert
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Adam Wiggins
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Derrick Jones
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Derrick Jones
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Derrick Jones
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) coder@ibm.net
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) coder@ibm.net
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Sauron
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Marian Griffith
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Marian Griffith
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Jon A. Lambert
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) coder@ibm.net
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Vadim Tkachenko
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Sauron
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Stephen Zepp
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Matt Chatterley
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Vadim Tkachenko
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Stephen Zepp
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) coder@ibm.net
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Matt Chatterley
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) coder@ibm.net
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Alex Oren
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Alex Oren
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Koster, Raph
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Chris Gray
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Richard Woolcock
- Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface) Stephen Zepp
- META: List burp coder@ibm.net
- To catch a mage (was fear of magic) Derrick Jones
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- To catch a mage (was fear of magic) coder@ibm.net
- To catch a mage (was fear of magic) coder@ibm.net
- To catch a mage (was fear of magic) Derrick Jones
- To catch a mage (was fear of magic) coder@ibm.net
- To catch a mage (was fear of magic) Derrick Jones
- To catch a mage (was fear of magic) coder@ibm.net
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- string parsing Felix A. Croes
- string parsing Chris Gray
- string parsing Felix A. Croes
- string parsing Jon A. Lambert
- string parsing Felix A. Croes
- string parsing Chris Gray
- string parsing Felix A. Croes
- string parsing Chris Gray
- string parsing Felix A. Croes
- string parsing Chris Gray
- string parsing coder@ibm.net
- string parsing Felix A. Croes
- string parsing coder@ibm.net
- string parsing Chris Gray
- string parsing coder@ibm.net
- string parsing Chris Gray
- string parsing coder@ibm.net
- string parsing Jon A. Lambert
- string parsing Adam Wiggins
- string parsing Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- string parsing Chris Gray
- string parsing Felix A. Croes
- string parsing Nathan Yospe
- string parsing Felix A. Croes
- string parsing Nathan Yospe
- string parsing coder@ibm.net
- string parsing Chris Gray
- string parsing Nathan Yospe
- string parsing Chris Gray
- string parsing coder@ibm.net
- Idea: Hive-mind monster coder@ibm.net
- Idea: Hive-mind monster Adam Wiggins
- Idea: Hive-mind monster coder@ibm.net
- Idea: Hive-mind monster Sauron
- Idea: Hive-mind monster Derrick Jones
- Idea: Hive-mind monster Michael Hohensee
- Idea: Hive-mind monster Brandon J. Rickman
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- Idea: Hive-mind monster Derrick Jones
- Idea: Hive-mind monster coder@ibm.net
- Idea: Hive-mind monster coder@ibm.net
- Idea: Hive-mind monster coder@ibm.net
- Skill Listing - Part II Jon A. Lambert
- Skill Listing - Part II Derrick Jones
- Skill Listing - Part I Jon A. Lambert
- Poison List - Part II Jon A. Lambert
- Poison List - Part III Jon A. Lambert
- Poison List - Part IV Jon A. Lambert
- Poison List - Part I Jon A. Lambert