Tried looking at the AckFUSS you had in your signature specfically ^^; think I tried peeking at a few other sources before I gave up…

What was gross and gory, specifically? The link in my sig is just for the code distro I maintain. Did you search for any Ack-based games here, at TMC, or elsewhere? One of the few I know is still around is SilverBridge (www.silverbridge.org).

Looked like for passing it around they had to tear out their throats? <_>

Ah just the messages displayed when someone becomes clawed – fair enough :).

Is there another way to pass around the disease (which is transmitted by a mixture of saliva and a fluid secreted by vampire and lycanthrope teeth) then biting or tearing of the skin? If there's another way to pass it around I'd love to hear it.

Well was hoping not the whole throat thing x.x; can understand biting and clawing but there's a limit to how far it goes…?

Werewolves are naturally violent creatures. All the lore surrounding them leads to the assumption that without having the blood of an uninfected individual each time they change will throw them into a sickness only counterable by drinking the blood of another. :shrug: Assuming this is the case, the tearing out of the throat of someone while under the affects of this blood lust is a very very distinct possibility.

Lots of ways - lycanthropy as a disease is more an idea of modern fiction. Here are some of the more traditional ways (taken from Wikipedia):

* Remove your clothes and wear a wolfskin belt (or an entire wolfskin).

* Rub your body with a magic salve.

* Drink rainwater from the footprint of the animal in question.

* Drink from certain enchanted streams.

* Drink a specially prepared beer and repeat a set formula.

* Recite a special incantation.

* Sleep outside on specific summer nights with the full moon shining on your face.

* Make a pact with (or incur the wrath of) the devil.

* Anoint your body with a special ointment and wear an enchanted girdle.

* Divine punishment - a curse from God or saints.

* Become excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church.

Man, I need to become excommunicated…

Nanvaent has lycanthropy as a disease. The class thing is NOT a werewolf, its a wolf.

To get lycanthropy in nan all you have to do is find the copperlake village and attack a villager. I think you have to actually get a bite attack from when they are in werewolf form, and it has to be night time*.

Can I ask why on earth you would actually want a character to *get* lycanthropy, if you weren't actually researching it code in a mud yourself?



[EDIT * I wouldn't actually recommend going to copperlake and doing this until you are around level 20-30 as you are very likely to die quickly if the werewolf attacks you]

I think some players enjoy character concepts and some form of roleplay of a character even if they aren't into intensive or heavy roleplay.

We have Lycanthropes and Vampires (among some others) coded into our game as "templates." When you contract Lycanthropy, your race doesn't actually change… Let's say you are a Guado and you catch it, then you have an act flag that is activated denoting you as having Lycanthropy/Vampirism. We have racial skills that people learn every 20 levels and appearance traits selected at creation that display a line of text at the bottom of your description indicating what you look like. That said, if you are a vampiric Guado, your description will read "Diablos is in perfect condition. He is a tall, obese, Vampiric Guado with long red hair and blue eyes." Also, the race string on the who list will read as Vampire. When in Lycan form (on full moons) the "Guado" is simply replaced with "Lycanthrope" (if I didn't remove that tag line altogether, can't remember :p ) and the who list says "Lycan" but otherwise there is no indication in regular form that you are any different. If you are level 30 and gain Lycanthropy, you maintain your level 1 and 20 Guado racial skills and gain the level 1 Lycan racial skill "Bite" for free (you miss out on your level 20 lycan skill this way) and then each level you gain a racial skill, you gain the lycan racial skill instead and no longer gain any of your Guado skills. Also, players who have lycanthropy get to set an alternate description when they change that will completely replace their normal description and they get to set a custom string for their transformation message (there are defaults that are added when they get turned, but they can customize this at any time). Also, there are numerous disadvantages to becoming a Vampire or Lycan… among them including a large exp debt and the increase of the "points" that help determine your Exp TNL. There are other, more template specific penalties, with Lycans experiencing odd pains and other such in their human form (like their lycan form trying to break out) that might cause damage or a small stat penalty. While in lycan form, the player is unable to use any equipment, quaff potions, or flee. Vampires suffer notable sunlight damage (I've pulled my poison timer from once a tick to once every 3-4 seconds with a bit of a randomizer to make it a less constant and predictable hit, and the sunlight damage works on the same timer) and during the day the bonuses they get at night are reversed. They no longer naturally regen mana, they can't gain mana from potions that restore it, etc. They gain mana (and some hp) from their feed skill.

I've tried to make Vampires/Lycans powerful, but also saddled heavy with drawbacks that probably makes gaining the template more of a drawback overall. I've also added in immunity to either "disease" as selectable merits within creation (there are several merits/flaws that can be taken at creation). But despite all of the drawbacks, despite that there are no mobs you can gain this from (you have to be attacked [and killed in the case of vampirism] by a player), and despite I consider the templates to be a relatively minor aspect of the game, I find that a significant portion of the playerbase still wants to play one. I think the reason for each is up to each individual, some want it for roleplay, some want it for the "ooh, I'm a rarity" factor, some want it because they simply think Vampires or Werewolves or cool. I think there are any number of reasons, but they are certainly a popular choice, and I imagine if I didn't have such significant penalties for being one and make it pretty difficult and risky to become one, my game would be overrun with them. But since I consider the templates to be a small part of the game, and I don't want a ton of them walking around, I have taken that route. I really mostly coded them partly as a novelty, partly to appeal to that niche of players, and partly because it's always bugged me the way I've seen every other game implement usually. I find it silly to have Vampire or Werewolf listed right next to Human, or Elf, or Orc, because I don't view either as a true race since in most lore, they start out clearly as one thing (Human) and are just affected by something that modified that. An Elven Vampire should be distinguishable from a Human Vampire, etc. Its also bugged me to see it listed alongside Warrior, or Mage, or Thief… If a Human thief is turned into a vampire, does it cease to be a thief? So yeah, I found it to be an interesting challenge to figure out a better way to code them…

For the record, Heather actually is a player on my game, and has been for quite some time. I fear the system of lycanthropy being a racial template rather than being a race/class selection at creation might have spoiled her a bit in that regard…

It depends on the specifics. You might have true-bloods who were born as vampires (like in the Blade comics/movie), or perhaps those who are bitten undergo a physical transformation over time (like the Legacy of Kain series of video games). Maybe only humans can become vampires and werewolves (with elves instead turning into werefoxes, dwarves into wereboars, etc). It could even be that the mud only has humans as a base race, with the other races being things you transform into.


Possibly, but once again it depends on the specifics - if the vampire reverts to a beastial state (think "I Am Legend"), then they could indeed forget former skills. Likewise lycanthropy might be treated as a literal class change during a full moon, so that you effectively have an entirely separate skill set when transformed into your animal form.

Also note that "class" doesn't necessarily mean "profession", it's just a way of grouping abilities. If your vampires and werewolves each have their own special powers, then technically they are also classes.

I certainly understand there are definite exceptions to the "typical" nature of Vampires and Werewolves. I suppose my main issue comes from when there is no actual distinction within a game that has Vampires and Werewolves as to what they are, how they came to be. A lot of games its just like "Oh, Vampires and Werewolves, those are cool, let's add them in." If a game actually clarifies or explains why either creature is in and why they are grouped in whatever way they are, then that negates my issue :) We've worked on specific lore, origin, and explanations of both in my game, and have coded appropriately to what we define them to be.

I also understand class could mean any number of things, even race, as class is simply a "classification" of something. Most games, however, don't draw a distinction between "class" and "profession", and its in those instances, when the only classes that are selectable are professions, that I think it seems out of place to have Werewolves and Vampires sitting right alongside them if the game doesn't consider Werewolves and Vampires to be reverted to a mindless or bestial state that would justify them no longer being a thief, mage, etc.

Nevertheless, I do find discussions like this interesting, and I think could be of some benefit to anyone coming along later looking to implement Vampires/Werewolves and see some different perspectives on it :)

I'm not sure that this is hugely different from having mages, or even warriors for that matter, who spring into existence knowing how to do all this stuff. I agree that having lore is nice, but I'm not sure vampires etc. are some particular exception.

We actually explain where magic comes from, how Mages are able to manipulate said magic, the source of magic knowledge, and so on. I think generally its understood when a character creates at whatever age there is, that there is more history predating the character prior to the moment they create (otherwise, all of our new characters would have to be infants!). Vampires and Werewolves, however, generally do exist with quite a bit of lore and myth surrounding them, and even within a given fantasy or modern setting, they tend to be spectacular in some way, either through not being widely available, being inherently very powerful, being feared, and whatnot, and I think that when you have something like that, it is sometimes necessary to consider that, both code and story wise, a bit more heavily than just throwing it in.

I don't know of any specific ones, but maybe a mush would suit your tastes a little better, though from what little I know of mushes they're typically heavy on RP (sometimes there is ONLY rp with no actual combat code) but you may be able to find one that is less gory. Or if you just want the rp benefits of being a ww then play any rp encouraged mud and just pretend you're a werewolf. I understand the dislike of RP enforced muds, it takes away some of the fun of playing the game if you're constantly being griped out for asking a question about a command or something over say or tell or chat. But rp encouraged muds allow you to have the fun of RPing without all the pressure to stay in character if you just don't feel like it.

If I were still running a ROM mud I'd be tempted to add in a werewolf race that is attainable through many methods, not just the typical bite/claw method. Alas I'm currently working on a project with a friend that is more sci-fi futuristic and werewolves wouldn't exactly fit in with the theme. Maybe in the future I'll try to do something like what you're looking for but I just can't devote any time to a project like that at the moment. Inventing new races and histories of aliens and whole solar systems takes a lot of my creative energy.

I don't think heather wanted much RP at all, judging by the comment about the tells …

that's why I suggested she find an RP encouraged mud so she can choose when she wants to RP and when she just wants to screw around. I'm sure there's even a few mushes that aren't rp enforced.

Well RP would be nice if it wasn't something enforced to the extreme, I mostly see MUDs as something to play and have fun while doing it and hopefully get to know the other people around ^^; …. Don't really see there being much fun if there's a lot of stress in having to do things specifically and not being able to enjoy yourself…