[MUD-Dev] Poisons (was Foods)

[Matt Chatterley]

On Tue, 26 Aug 1997, Travis Casey wrote:

> > Kristen Koster <kkoster at origin.ea.com> wrote:
> > 
> > I've always had a soft spot for thieves and assassins so one of the 
> > things I've been playing around with is a more realistic poison system 
> > than just -5hp per tick or even subtle variations on that theme. After 
> > some research, I've got a rather complicated idea but I've been 
> > striving to streamline it and ensure its playability. Any suggestions 
> > or comments will be appreciated.
> 
> [various good ideas on how to do poisons deleted for brevity]
> 
> For those for whom it's an option, abandoning the traditional hit point
> system can open up new possibilities for poisons.  I've used a (pencil-
> and-paper) system in which damage reduced the character's Health attribute,
> and a Health of zero resulted in death.  Poisons were given six basic
> characteristics: 

[Snip alternate deas, which are also very good, and nicely simplified to a
reasonable point]

I intend to handle this as a subset of general 'chemistry' or 'alchemy'
(you may have seen the discussions on this in various threads a short
while ago).

Basically you can ingest any chemical, with exceptions (for instance, you
cannot each a big rock without crushing it to dust or at least smaller
pieces). Besides their other effects and reactions, chemicals will also
react with living organisms (differently with different races, or at
least some different races; for instance a Troll would not suffer much
from ingesting sulphur, but a human probably would).

These will also react together if several chemicals are ingested in rapid
succession (to produce the original, cumulative, and side-effects in
various proportions).

This will probably work much like Kristen's original post - with a list of
set effects, which can be combined and doled out in various portions.

Obviously this allows for the creation of 'alchoholic' compounds, as well
as magic potions and so forth, and anything with negative effects can be
considered a poison. It may also be possible to extract poison from
creatures - undecided on this as of yet.

Regards,
	-Matt Chatterley
	http://user.itl.net/~neddy/index.html
"Speak softly and carry a big stick." -Theodore Roosevelt