[Discuss] Too many good guys in BM?

[Nate Shupe]

>From: Timothy Collett <danaris at mac.com>
>Reply-To: BattleMaster general discussion list 
><discuss at news.battlemaster.org>
>To: BattleMaster general discussion list <discuss at news.battlemaster.org>
>Subject: Re: [Discuss] Too many good guys in BM?
>Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2007 09:07:02 -0400
>
>I see various reasons behind this.
>
>One (perhaps the most obvious) is that most people don't want to be
>seen as the bad guy.  People *like* being the hero--or, at least, the
>dutiful servant--and getting the praise such a role deserves.
>
>Alex gave another: it's just easier that way.
>
>Another (perhaps the most cynical) is that BattleMaster does not
>reward evil.  If you do bad things, you will likely be looked down
>upon as not worthy of holding power and positions, unless you happen
>to have a whole lot of loyal followers.
>
>...Perhaps this needs to be changed somehow; perhaps we need to have
>possibilities only open to people willing to do evil...though I'm not
>sure just how to implement it. (Ooh, an idea just occurred to me,
>though...it would involve adding more ways to reduce your honour
>without reducing your prestige, and then adding options only
>available to people with high prestige and very low honour...)
>
>As an aside, I am currently playing one character who is pretending
>to be the dutiful servant, supporting the realm, while actually
>covertly seeking to build a power base (a really big one!) and
>looking for just the right time to strike....to topple empires.
>
>Timothy Collett
>Anaris Family
>
This actually makes me recall a previous post about replacing honor/prestige 
with adjectives rather than numerically representing it.  Perhaps another 
new stat, somewhat similar to repute, could be added.  Your person gives 
gold to somebody?  Add a point to this attribute.  Your person tries to 
assassinate somebody?  Take a point.  Leads a rebellion, or becomes bitter 
after being protested out of an election?  Rebels generally aren't too 
great, and being kicked out would make most bitter- a point for each.

Different scenarios would to different things, but there would be this one 
attribute that would control good and evil.  The attribute might be 
converted into an adjective to show how evil somebody is (ex: 40-50 = 
mischievious,  or something of that sort); it might even be good to make it 
an unknown variable.  This would throw off people who try to do a good deed 
here and there to use somebody to their advantage, but not letting them know 
whether or not they might lose the ability to do some action.

Or, just tie it into your repute.  Generally, your evilness if not going to 
form an aura around the world, but is going to be more localized anyways 
(Unless you're Distorted Psych in his earlier days maybe.).  Additionally, 
it would give this newly developing feature a little more meaning; however, 
it would need an overhaul.  Firstly, repute goes down or up far too easily, 
and based on things to do with the feudal system more than character 
morality.
Second, and this would be no matter where this attribute is tied in, there 
would need to be so much coding added in order to leave a running impression 
of the character.  Almost every little action would need a little subaction 
to determine if it was good or evil, and then tally it in to the character.

As for honor and prestige like you suggested, it does indeed reduce the 
headaches of trying to figure out all the parameters; however, it's just not 
sitting well, at least with me personally.  Branching it into honor is fine, 
but prestige is more so how well known somebody is.  A dictator of Evil 
Racist Bastards Republic might be a son of a bitch, but he's still 
prestigous because he's the ruler of an entire country.



Anyways, aside from a new attribute, I think that many are reluctant to be 
"evil" because that reputation carries over to their entire family, at least 
in the eyes of many realms.  Unfortunately, you can't just demand for people 
to stop RPing poorly.

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