Re: CF: Race, Reputation and other suggestions

[Steven Lembark <lembark@wrkhors.com>]

> 
> We seem to have reached a consensus on seperating race and "class".
> So, what are our new races and classes?  We currently have:
> barbarian, cleric, dwarf, elf, fireborn, halfling, human, mage,
> monk, ninja, half-orc, priest, quetzalcoatl, swashbuckler, thief,
> viking, warrior, wizard, and wraith.  As I see it, that breaks down
> into:
> 
> Races: human, barbarian, viking, dwarf, elf, fireborn, halfling,
> half-orc, quetzalcoatl, and wraith.  I seem to recall some interest in
> adding ogre to that list also.  And various other monsters, which
> needs to be worked out more.  I suggest we should decide on a base set
> of races to start with, and add the "monster" races later.

q: why human, barbarian, viking, vs. just human?  you want to sort
   the stats for high str and con w/ low int feel free, you've got a 
   barbarian.

i'd add half ogre or half troll (latter skewed version of quietus's 
stats).  that leaves:


	human elf dwarf halfling
	half-orc half-troll
	fireborn wraith quetz.

which seems a pretty broad span of genetics.

 
> Classes: cleric, priest, mage, wizard, monk, thief, ninja, warrior,
> and swashbuckler.  Are we going to break those down into more basic
> classes and allow multiple or mixed classes?  Warrior/Wizard,
> Warrior/Thief, Priest/Warrior, etc..  Or are we just going to keep
> each combination as a seperate class?  Does that mean each different
> class and each combination class needs its own guild?
> 
> If we have multiple classes, how do we make a Fighter/Mage half
> Fighter and half Mage rather than both Fighter and Mage? 
> 
> If we have multiple classes, how do we make a Fighter/Mage half
> Fighter and half Mage rather than both Fighter and Mage?  Experience
> is already divided by experience category, so Fighter, Mage, Priest,
> and Thief experience are all seperate and players have a seperate
> level in each.  The problem with multiple classes is keeping players
> from joining all of them to learn all the skills.  Reduce experience
> gain for each additional class?  Minimum level to join another class?
> The best solution is probably to have a seperate class for each
> combination and allow only one class (at a time?)


clerics are warrier-priests.  why have a separate class for 
combinations?  just let people join the guilds.  race would 
have some effect (e.g., minimal int and wis of a quetz or 
half-troll would make it damn hard to advance far in the
magical/priest guilds).

one approach to mixing classes would be requiring some `price'
(cash or quest) to join a  guild.  there would also be some sort
of price (cash, etc) to advance w/in the guild.  therefore if you
want to be a cleric go ahead but be prepared to advance more 
slowly in both guilds due to conflicting quest/price requirements
for advancement.

at that point the guilds might break down along skill classes
into smomething like:

	priest
	mage
	fighter
	thief
	assasin (?)
	healer  (?)

make all of them farly cheap to join w/ rather minimal skills
given and some sort of `bounty' required to advance.  you can
join them all to get (minimal) skills but you will have to work
*very* hard to advance in all of them.  if someone is willing
to put in the time they might become well-advanced in all of 
the classes -- but only after a large amount of work on the 
individual quests, etc, for each guild.

since everyone is born with a certian amount of cash in hand
why not just make sure it's enough to join at least one of
the guilds, and make the entry fee pretty much the same -- 
whatever difficulty the first quest to advance to level1 in 
the guild is?  result is that anyone can wake up, walk into
at least one guild and get some useful skills (probably everyone
would go into the fighters first to learn how to use the
weapon they were born with).  after that they can make some
cash and branch out.  for example a wraith might join the 
fighters first but would use their first cash to buy into the 
mage's guild and soon after into the priestly guild.  after 
that most of their advancement prices would go to the mage and
priest guilds.

this seems reasonable, since it might be that someone would find
it an interesting challange to advance equally in all guilds.
at least with this method they could try...  wouldn't hurt to
have a mid-level preist-mage-thief in the house.

it might also make sense to have knowlege of some skills born
into different races.  e.g., all but fireborn would know at
least basic weapon skills (say how to use whatever they were
born with) by default.  quetz would be born knowing how to 
*cast* spells (e.g., burning hands) but not how to *learn*
any new ones (needs to join guild for that).  

everyone would be born knowing how to pray (don't need preistly
artifact for that) so that they can join a cult but, again, not
knowing how to read the prayer books to learn prayers (gotta join
the guild so they can show you how to read prayers).

if `hiding' skills come from the thiefs guild then most people
would find it worthwhile to join the thief's guild and get at
least to the 1st level or so to learn hiding.  after that they'd
probably leave this guild alone and go back to hacking monsters,
etc.  healing guild might be interesting -- preist gets spell
that only effects themselves, healers can cure/protect other 
people.  might make gaea-worshippers more valuable in partys,
they'd know how to make the balms of healing or cast regneration
at other people.

it would also make some sense to have god-alignment/race restrictions
on a class.  e.g., worshippers of devourers or ruggilli would be
heavily shunned from the healer guild (this makes it possible but
quite difficult for them to bypass the spell restrictions on 
protection or healing).  half-trolls and half-orcs would be welcome
as assasins and thieves but have a difficult time with mage and
prests, etc.  they might not be forbidden but their advancement
price would be higher (basically they would have to bribe someone
to get past the 1st or 2nd level).

	
other thing i like about this approach is that coding it isn't too
onerous:  the user has certian static stats for the guild and the
advancement only has to check the statis stuff (e.g., current level)
and see if the price has been made (i.e., dumped on an alter for the
purpose).  after that the skills, etc, given by the guild just get
added to the user's static list of skills and they're done with it.
most of the work would go into the altars for deciding what has to
be dropped to get up to which level.

-- 
 Steven Lembark                                   2930 W. Palmer St.
                                                 Chicago, IL  60647
 lembark@wrkhors.com                                   800-762-1582
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