Let the chase begin …
…so in my text-based world (tmux), players like a group challenge – oddly (or more correctly characteristically) they like to band together to defeat a common enemy.
a textiverse
Now, borrowing heavily from Monty Python and “Ripping Yarns” by Palin and Jones, I had created an arch memesis – “The College Leopard” – a cute idea that there was an aging, mangey, near-toothless college mascot that would roam the corridors menacingly – the first leopard hunt was great fun – stuff of legends.
When the leopard retired – toothless and all shagged out, a new nemesis was born – a mascott from a rival college “The Nudgee Ocelot” arrived on the scene and has visited in-world a few times, causing great excitement and smiting many noobs. I am yet to understand inter-school rivalry, but am the first to hijack it when it is convenient 😛
For those keeping up, an Ocelot is a curiosity in itself – names a “big cat”, it is in fact the smallest of the big-cat family, and usually actually smaller than a domestic moggy – which I find amusing. I have touted the idea of the IGS Iguana, Grammar Aardvark and the TSS Thylacine – all of whom may make a cameo appearance soon also.
Friday evening (yes, after a long week at school, kids choose to play a school-hosted, school-themed MMORPG – weird but wonderful, hey) the community called for another hunt, the Ocelot was suggested as a foe so it was on.
Now I like to mix things up a little, but being a responsible DM (Dungeon Master, yeah, I know, doesn’t sound right to me either) I tweaked the ocelot so it was killable, eventually, but not without a fight. I gave it a bunch of magic points, allowed it to cast restorative spells on itself and some offensive spells on whoever chose to attack it, but had to be careful that it would not be too ferocious. I manufactured a weapon (an ocelot claw) that I then gave to the ocelot – I figured 20 of them would be useful and, depending on whether many punters showed up, there would be enough to go around.
monster/object stats
Role-playing as the ocelot is exahusting, but sort of fun – the balance between damage and sport, defeat and victory is delicate, but as the battle raged in and around St. Joe’s eCampus (did I mention this MMORPG is actually set in a future version of our school?) and as the ocelot took major hits, it discarded claws to it’s attackers.
In this round the Ocelot was defeated, but vowed to return some day (yes, it …talked, sort of, and goaded the eager terrace students on during the battle). Unfortunately, just after it was all done and dusted, my wireless dropped out and I lost my log, else I would have posted it – players were wanting to know who did what damage, who hit, when, what spells did what damage and so on.
We had a pack of kids on, some veterans, some noobs – interesting mix of classes, abilities and approaches.
The hunt involved HUGE amounts of reading, typing, and imagination, but was also a load of fun – wonderful that kids choose to immerse in this sort of world, conjuring up pictures of their surroundings using their imagination – it is refreshing to think that some of the youth of today still have imaginations that do not revolve around visual imagery.
…just thought I would share – this is ONE of the worlds I inhabit daily after all.
