[MUD-Dev] Alright... IF your gonan do DESIESE...

[clawrenc at cup.hp.com]

In <33c12609.450988146 at neptune>, on 06/22/97 
   at 11:11 AM, alexo at bigfoot.com (Alex Oren) said:

>Lower the aggressiveness factor of the dragon but keep it nearly
>invincible. Then, periodically, have a dragon steal an item crucial
>to the mudding society (say, something needed to train characters,
>etc.)
>
>Now players will be forced to go after the dragon...

A model I thought of a long time ago which I've always liked:

  The world is an incredibly inhospitable and deadly place.  There
exists a castle/building/other location which offers significant
protection against the dangers of the world.  Following a very regular
schedule with a variance of only a few MUD days, a dragon or similarly
nasty/unkillable meanie travels to the castle, occupies it, and
aggressively kills or removes every other living thing in it. 
Following a similarly regular schedule it then leaves for some other
place in the great dangerous outdoors.  The scheduling is arranged so
that the dragon spends roughly half the time in the castle and the
other half "somewhere else".  

  Note:  My original concept was to make the dragon a basilisk, a
creature of roughly adult doberman size but with the strength and
fortitude commonly associated with dragons, and the temperment of a
rabid shark on steroids swimming in blood.

Once that is arranged you can start having fun with the basic
structure.  You could have the movement pattern of the basilisk be
part of an annual breeding migration.  You could have more then one
basilisk.  You could have the basilisks breed in the castle.  You
could have laggardly basilisks which are a bit slow the leave once
their time is up, or aged basilisks which just don't leave at all,
waiting to die.  Next add serious and significant reasons to tempt the
players into the castle while the basilisks are still there: anything
from treasure, the only source of potable water for hundreds of miles
(cf Dune/desert), to weapon materials created as a side effect of the
basilisks habitation, etc.  

Want to get really nasty?  As a part of making the players the games
prey species, make the entire native animal ecology based on the same
interesting adult/parent life cycle as in Niven's Legacy Of Heorot. 
For those of you that don't know the book (or the african toads the
story is based on) here goes.  

Note:  Its a great book, an uncommonly fine read.  If you haven't read
it, read it before finishing this post (in which case why did I bother
to type the below?)

  Take an animal.

  Have there be massively different, on the level of grubs->beetles or
caterpillars to butterflies.

  Have it breed prodigiously.

  Have the young of the species be a prime prey/food source for the
adults.

  Have the mere presence of an adult be sufficient to prevent any
juvenile from morphing into the adult form.

  Have the adults be both violently territorial and rapacious.

Niven added to this by having the adults (he called them "Grendels")
be slightly meaner than the above descibled basilisk, /and/ possessed
of a gland which squirted a super-oxygenator into the blood stream
imparting unbelievable speed and strength to the adults.

I could see this being profitably mixed with the Aliens movie scenario
for a rollicking good time.  Just take your prey, err, players and
drop them in the middle of the local grendel/aliens...

--
J C Lawrence                           Internet: claw at null.net
(Contractor)                           Internet: coder at ibm.net
---------------(*)               Internet: clawrenc at cup.hp.com
...Honorary Member Clan McFUD -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...