I realize this has the possibility to get contentious, but I want to try and have the conversation anyway.
Most of the MU*s I’ve played on have had rules strongly limiting, or outright barring, PvP. Usually, there are IC explanations for why this conflict is prohibited: you might be in a city with a massive police/guard presence, or you’re bound by some supernatural spell that doesn’t permit violence between the oathtakers, or you might just be somewhat civilized and have non-violent ways of resolving disputes.
Until very recently, these were the only games I was interested in. Despite my nom de plume here, most of my MU* characters are fairly skittish, and practically none of them have any real combat skills. I remember Achaea too well to be comfortable with the wild west of full PvP.
Enter Silent Heaven. Without getting too deeply into the lore, for context: folks are stuck somewhere together, and there’s not a lot of law and order. PvP is constrained, but it’s not off the table. People can, and do, receive really serious injuries.
I spent about a week on a character there talking shit, alienating other characters left and right, and generally painting an enormous target on my back (I also frequently asked folks some questions OOC to make sure my character’s antagonism was enjoyable to deal with, and not a chore; let nobody say I’m utterly incapable of learning).
And yesterday, my hopes and dreams came true. My character had the shit beat out of her, was brought back from the brink by some people, and then was subjected to even more trauma. So now, suddenly, my character is scared. She’s angry like she was before, but she’s afraid to let it out. She’s cowering in front of people she mouthed off to. There is so much room for realistic growth that feels unforced by the necessity of narrative. And, at least according to folks who I scened with last night, this character arc is interesting and enjoyable for others.
Now, I’m not advocating for unrestrained PvP where you can kill off characters or steal all their stuff or anything like that. And I’m not advocating that games change their PvP rules! I’m interested in seeing whether there’s a conversation to be had about the benefits of, well, implementing “talk shit, get hit” mechanics. Do any of y’all have a history in games that did it well? Games that did it poorly? Do you have ideas for implementations of PvP and injuries that you’d like to see, or ones you would rather do without? I know a lot of y’all have been in the hobby for A While Now and have probably seen all sorts of styles of play.
I’m curious to hear from everyone, if y’all have opinions!