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<H1>Re: [MUD-Dev] Depth of realism</H1>
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<LI><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI>
<LI><em>Subject</em>: Re: [MUD-Dev] Depth of realism</LI>
<LI><em>From</em>: Jo Dillon <<A HREF="mailto:emily#thelonious,new.ox.ac.uk">emily#thelonious,new.ox.ac.uk</A>></LI>
<LI><em>Date</em>: Sun, 21 Nov 1999 11:51:41 +0000</LI>
<LI><em>Mail-Followup-To</em>: mud-dev#kanga,nu</LI>
<LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI>
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<PRE>
Travis S. Casey (efindel#io,com) spake thusly:
> Except that in a true medieval setting, there is no army to join -- at
> best there may be mercenary companies about. A medieval army consists
> pretty much of knights and levies -- the levies being untrained peasants
> who are basically drafted when needed. The idea of the modern
> "standing army" didn't come about until later. You could have mercenary
> groups as alternatives to "guilds" or "clans," though -- in the real world
> medieval mercenaries who couldn't get work often made a living as bandits.
> In a fantasy world, they'd probably adventure.
Of course, you could stretch the timescale slightly and pull in early
Renaissance Italy - say around 1300. Then you do get a citizen's militia.
Or you could have an Anglo-Saxon setup with housecarls - they're a standing
army but you don't need to be born noble to join them. And, as you say,
mercenary companies are a pretty good bet as well; they could be the equal
of any knights.
>
> I think you're confusing realism and detail here. A battle doesn't have
> to be handled on a per-person basis -- it could be handled with "units" of
> each army instead of individuals. The battle becomes more abstract in
> this way, but the results may still be realistic.
You could also have a system whereby individuals are generated out of a unit
only when someone actually takes an interest in them - e.g.
Colonel Buffy the player character looks at a unit of pikemen and tells one
of them to accompany him. Boffo Blackadder is then generated and joins Buffy
as a servant.
> Also, on a medieval mud, medieval army sizes should be used. Until the
> late part of the medieval period, few battles involved more than a few
> hundred people total. You can break those up into units of 10 or so, and
> have only 10 to 50 units to handle for most battles.
I'd have thought a couple of thousand and up more typical - it depends which
area and time you're talking about of course.
> be generals? If so, a more abstract system may work better. You may even
> want to handle battles through a mechanism divorced from the mud, such as
> a matrix game with one of the admins as a referee. Do you want the PCs to
> be soldiers in an army? Give them orders, run things on the "unit" level,
> but break up the units in any area where the PCs are into individuals.
> Most of the battle gets handled on the unit level, but the players don't
> see that.
Ideally you'd want to allow both :)
--
Jo
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<li><strong><A NAME="00480" HREF="msg00480.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Depth of realism</A></strong>
<ul compact><li><em>From:</em> J C Lawrence <claw@cp.net></li></ul>
<li><strong><A NAME="00455" HREF="msg00455.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Depth of realism</A></strong>
<ul compact><li><em>From:</em> Marian Griffith <gryphon@iaehv.nl></li></ul>
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<LI><STRONG><A NAME="00348" HREF="msg00348.html">[MUD-Dev] Depth of realism</A></STRONG>
<UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> "Joe Kingry" <jkingry@uwaterloo.ca></LI></UL></LI>
<LI><STRONG><A NAME="00401" HREF="msg00401.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Depth of realism</A></STRONG>
<UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> "Travis S. Casey" <efindel@io.com></LI></UL></LI>
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<ul><li>Thread context:
<BLOCKQUOTE><UL>
<LI><STRONG>Re: [MUD-Dev] Depth of realism</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM>
<ul compact>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00378" HREF="msg00378.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Depth of realism</A></strong>,
Mik Clarke <a href="mailto:mikclrk@attglobal.net">mikclrk@attglobal.net</a>, Thu 18 Nov 1999, 21:11 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00381" HREF="msg00381.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Depth of realism</A></strong>,
Matthew Mihaly <a href="mailto:diablo@best.com">diablo@best.com</a>, Thu 18 Nov 1999, 22:00 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00433" HREF="msg00433.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Depth of realism</A></strong>,
Marian Griffith <a href="mailto:gryphon@iaehv.nl">gryphon@iaehv.nl</a>, Sun 21 Nov 1999, 22:18 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
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</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00401" HREF="msg00401.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Depth of realism</A></strong>,
Travis S. Casey <a href="mailto:efindel@io.com">efindel@io.com</a>, Fri 19 Nov 1999, 18:26 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00434" HREF="msg00434.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Depth of realism</A></strong>,
Jo Dillon <a href="mailto:emily@thelonious.new.ox.ac.uk">emily@thelonious.new.ox.ac.uk</a>, Sun 21 Nov 1999, 22:18 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00455" HREF="msg00455.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Depth of realism</A></strong>,
Marian Griffith <a href="mailto:gryphon@iaehv.nl">gryphon@iaehv.nl</a>, Mon 22 Nov 1999, 23:02 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00457" HREF="msg00457.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Depth of realism</A></strong>,
Matthew Mihaly <a href="mailto:diablo@best.com">diablo@best.com</a>, Tue 23 Nov 1999, 03:37 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00460" HREF="msg00460.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Depth of realism</A></strong>,
Wendy Winkler <a href="mailto:dionyza@peace.tbcnet.com">dionyza@peace.tbcnet.com</a>, Tue 23 Nov 1999, 03:37 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00463" HREF="msg00463.html">Re[2]: [MUD-Dev] Depth of realism</A></strong>,
Travis Casey <a href="mailto:efindel@io.com">efindel@io.com</a>, Tue 23 Nov 1999, 16:45 GMT
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