Role-playing

{{#pagesubtitle: Indeed, there they all Behave in a Most Curious Manner, always talking of a Land other than their Own...}}

Role-play has become an important part of life on LegendMUD. The server is not really designed as a consistent themed role-playing universe, but rather as many discrete representations of history, wherein characters travel through time. This has been both the greatest asset and greatest hindrance to role-playing on LegendMUD.

Currently, some of the principal venues for role-play include themed clans, which engage in wars, alliances, and rivalries; the development of interesting historical characters; and role-playing the idea of time travel itself. Interpersonal relationships in character have become a fact of life on the mud, to the point where we've had several weddings and many 'mud children.'

Legend has several enhancements to the code in that encourage rp--here's a list of several of them.

The Out Of Character Lounge

A place to go outside the game, to converse and discuss.

The Wild Boar Tavern is an out-of-character space that can be reached from anywhere in the mud by simply typing OOC. It offers a cash bar, a piano lounge, a gift shop, a small restaurant, and an auditorium. Typing IC returns you to the main mud exactly where you were.

While you are OOC, ticks do not affect you--nor can fights take place in the Wild Boar Tavern. It's simply a safe place to come to talk to people. Privacy is often available there, and even though it is not required to locate here when not in character, it has become a popular spot for relaxation, as well as for non-game related conversations and debates.

The Auditorium has hosted Lecture Series as well as mud meetings on issues of game design or mud society. Players have gathered there for singalongs, Halloween stories, and even jam sessions.

The Gift Shop offers a list of items for sale such as stuffed animals, greeting cards, and other gifts. Some of these can be sent via mudmail to anyone on the mud as a token of affection (well, excepting the 'swift kick in the pants' item).

The Speech System

A state-of-the-art conversation system that reads like real prose.

Legend has a speech system that permits the use of moods, and presents text in a more legible format. Designed to be more readable and to encourage immersion in the fictional world of the mud.

Speech commands are automatically formatted with capitalization, and with full stops placed at the end, unless other punctuation was used. In addition, the common format of

Player says, 'Hi.'

will vary, with the tag (the 'Player says' part) appearing at either the start or end of the speech, or in the case of speeches with multiple sentences, in the middle:

'Hi,' Player says. 'What's your name?'

Using moods, players can enter in one of over 100 different moods to alter their speech tags, which then selects from several possible speech tags for the selected mood, allowing people to speak wistfully, angrily, looking down their nose at the plebes, or one of many other possible combinations:

'Hi,' Player says warmly. 'What's your name?'

Player Description System

An optional method for players to appear to others.

Players on Legend do not have to be just their name. If they so choose, they can request to register long and short descriptions, so that other people in the game see them as 'a short bald woman' or some such. Once these descriptions are registered, the player can turn them on and off as they desire, but may not alter them, unless a role-playing event of great magnitude takes place, and the change is reported in The Legendary Times‏‎. Unlike other muds where one must apply for a character and give descriptions immediately, Legend encourages you to build your role-play into an established character, and the entire system is completely optional.

The Clan System

Themed groups that engage in role-play

On Legend player-killing is permitted under the control of a player-kill system (formerly called 'clanning' on Legend). Pk-enabled characters may choose to engage in player vs. player combat, and they may only attack other pk-enabled characters within a certain level range. There is a duel system in place for those who do not want to be permanently pk-enabled. However, the free form clan system on Legend allows almost anyone to join a clan.

There are multiple clans currently possible on Legend, and any group of 3 players can get together and form a new one if there is a slot open. An official clan can build their own clan hall, purchase a bulletin board, contribute to a clan bank account to pay for the hall, and converse on a private clan channel, and of course gains a sense of identity in the mud community.

Many clans are quite active in role-playing, often basing their actions upon codes of ethics, religious fervor, or in-character hatreds. See the Clan System page for more details.