[MUD-Dev] Justifying twinking

[Travis Casey]

On Friday, April 28, 2000, adam at treyarch.com wrote:
> On Fri, 28 Apr 2000, J C Lawrence wrote:
>> > Travis S. Casey wrote:

>> >> To me, it seems ridiculous -- no real squirrel or rat is likely
>> >> to inflict significant harm on a normal, healthy, awake & aware
>> >> adult human even *without* armor and weapons.
>> 
>> Anybody who has bathed a cat knows how effective a small, fluffy
>> cuddly big-eyed pettable small animal can be in its own defense.
>> Anybody that has walked too near a nesting goose will also know just
>> how fearsome an opponent a gander can make (a critter whose only
>> "real" weapon is a rather dull beak).

> Yes, but in all of these examples (including Christopher's coon and
> posum stories), your goal was not to *kill* the creature, but rather
> to do something with it (take it somewhere, or wash behind its ears, or
> whatever).

> My guess is that any full-grown adult who put on a full suit of "armor"
> (body padding and maybe a catcher's mask), grabbed a baseball bat, then
> went out and found any small mamal with the purpose of pummeling it
> to death would probably not have the slightest chance of taking more than
> scratches from the creature before it was unconscious.

> Now, actually getting one to sit still long enough for you to smack it with
> the bat is another matter altogether.

Yep -- small and fast == very hard to hit.  You'll note that I never
said that they're easy to kill, just that they're not likely to
seriously hurt a human.  That's why people hunting small animals use
ranged weapons -- trying to kill one with a sword or club is going to
take way more running around chasing it than it's worth.

> Another argument for not putting these sorts of "newbie targets" into a mud
> is obvious looking at this example:

>     Pummeling small furry animals does not a hero make.

Definitely.  Of course, that only matters if your players want to be
heroes, but many of them do.

It just feels ridiculous.  Who fantasizes about being a rat-catcher or
squirrel-hunter?  Well, probably someone does, but not many people do.

--
       |\      _,,,---,,_        Travis S. Casey  <efindel at io.com>
 ZZzz  /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_   No one agrees with me.  Not even me.
      |,4-  ) )-,_..;\ (  `'-'
     '---''(_/--'  `-'\_)





_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
http://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev