Haunting, Burial, and Exorcism
Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2013 11:02 pmProposal: Haunting, Burial, and Exorcism
Rationale: Exploring the wilderness is one of the pleasures of this game, and those who enjoy walking around regularly encounter raided claims featuring the skeletons of former inhabitants. Such finds are very entertaining, as they raise a great many questions about what led to the killing. Sadly, that information can't currently be known. I propose a cluster of minor changes that would add greatly to this experience.
First, I propose that skeletons should not ever degrade or decompose unless intentionally buried by another character. Burial could require the erection of a headstone of some form, and could include optional coffins and other accoutrements. This would also add the possibility of optional nondescript headstones and the burial of coffins containing goods, making for the possibility of treasure hunting.
Second, unburied skeletons, after a set period of time, could spawn ghosts, animated skeletons, or demons depending on the strength of the murdered character, thus allowing for a haunting of murder sites. Such creatures could be killed, but they would respawn periodically until the site was cleansed.
Third, a high-tier skill budding off from Theology - Exorcism or something similar - could be introduced with various cleansing recipes. Exorcism could serve as something of a counterpoint to witchcraft, as well. An exorcist could then properly bury a skeleton and cleanse a haunted murder site, thus allowing also for a bit of high-level professional specialization, something a community game really requires.
Fourth, the exorcism skill (or, perhaps, the theology skill) could allow for the recognition of another category of actions displayed by tracking: sins, or something equally appropriate to the historical context. A sin such as murder would remain trackable for vastly longer periods of time, allowing for an explorer the opportunity to uncover the reasons leading to a killing. A second option would be to allow murdered characters to append a death-note to their own skeletons after being killed, assuming they could read and write.
Such a system would add a great deal of depth to pure exploration, and would also add to the danger (and thus entertainment) of exploring the ruins of other players' homesteads.
Rationale: Exploring the wilderness is one of the pleasures of this game, and those who enjoy walking around regularly encounter raided claims featuring the skeletons of former inhabitants. Such finds are very entertaining, as they raise a great many questions about what led to the killing. Sadly, that information can't currently be known. I propose a cluster of minor changes that would add greatly to this experience.
First, I propose that skeletons should not ever degrade or decompose unless intentionally buried by another character. Burial could require the erection of a headstone of some form, and could include optional coffins and other accoutrements. This would also add the possibility of optional nondescript headstones and the burial of coffins containing goods, making for the possibility of treasure hunting.
Second, unburied skeletons, after a set period of time, could spawn ghosts, animated skeletons, or demons depending on the strength of the murdered character, thus allowing for a haunting of murder sites. Such creatures could be killed, but they would respawn periodically until the site was cleansed.
Third, a high-tier skill budding off from Theology - Exorcism or something similar - could be introduced with various cleansing recipes. Exorcism could serve as something of a counterpoint to witchcraft, as well. An exorcist could then properly bury a skeleton and cleanse a haunted murder site, thus allowing also for a bit of high-level professional specialization, something a community game really requires.
Fourth, the exorcism skill (or, perhaps, the theology skill) could allow for the recognition of another category of actions displayed by tracking: sins, or something equally appropriate to the historical context. A sin such as murder would remain trackable for vastly longer periods of time, allowing for an explorer the opportunity to uncover the reasons leading to a killing. A second option would be to allow murdered characters to append a death-note to their own skeletons after being killed, assuming they could read and write.
Such a system would add a great deal of depth to pure exploration, and would also add to the danger (and thus entertainment) of exploring the ruins of other players' homesteads.
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