Re: PBM design and formulae - a summary

From: skrenta@rt.com (Rich Skrenta)

Date: Tue, 29 Jun 1993 12:49:48 +0000

desj@ccr-p.ida.org (David desJardins) writes:
> Make it possible for players to be noncombatants, which
> can't be attacked.  Or provide large non-player forces which protect
> nonaggressive players from aggressive ones.  Or provide disincentives in
> the game system for large players to attack small ones.

Getting this right (or even getting it to work) is harder than it looks.

Some choices:

1)  Safe havens, where anyone issuing ATTACK will be
	    slaughtered by beefy GM units.

2)  Safe havens where ATTACK is not allowed.

3)  Allow a player to declare himself a non-combatant, giving up
	    ATTACK, but also preventing other players from attacking him.

Combat-free zones provide havens for killers as well as peaceful merchants.
I don't know what to make of #3.

The last suggestion is to provide "disincentives".  Olympia has few
incentives for combat other than the items taken from the victim, or
perhaps the ransom collected if a major character is captured.  There
are no "prestige points" or such that I can withhold.  So it's difficult
to restrict the benefits of combat without stepping on the game physics.

A few have suggested using an alignment system to separate the peaceful
from the killers:

A character can be good, neutral or evil.
	Characters begin as good.
	Attacking a good makes one evil.
	Anyone can attack evil.
	If a good attacks a neutral, the good becomes neutral also.

Incentives must be coupled to this, such as having beefy guard units in
safe havens protect goods, ignore neutrals, and attack evils.

All of this ignores attacks that don't use the ATTACK order, however,
such as magical attacks, spying, stealing, persuasion, etc.  And what
about the "peaceful" merchant supplying your arch-enemy with swords
and warmounts?

Uck.

So I conclude that dealing with aggressors is far outside of the scope
of any automated GM system.  It's up to the players to post guard units,
establish safe havens, compile lists of known criminals, etc.

Which is exactly what they did in Olympia I.

--
Rich Skrenta <skrenta@rt.com>

References

Re: PBM design and formulae - a summary
desj@ccr-p.ida.org (David desJardins)
Mon, 28 Jun 1993 20:30:42 +0000