03-Nov-05 Technical Manager’s Column 2 - Skills and Trade in Adellion
I don’t get a chance to get on the forums and chat much but I do read them whenever I an opportunity. I am always amazed by how thoughtful and erudite our forum members are.
I also wanted to comment briefly on one of the issues being discussed there, that of "solo play".
I personally love solo play in big games and I suspect that there will be room for certain kinds of solo play in Adellion. However, I would like to point out a type of solo play that won't be possible and why.
I occasionally wind down at the end of my day by trundling around in an obscure little game whose name I won't bother you with, but whose initials are WoW. ;)
Now in this game I like to play a noble paladin riding around, essentially on my own. I have mining ability so I can gather my own minerals, I have metal working so I can make my own armor and weapons, I have first aid so I can heal myself from the injuries I incur in conflicts that arise from time to time. (Actually, conflict just seems to swirl around me 24/7 in that world.). I “liberate” the ill gotten gains my fallen enemies and gather untold riches, which I usually share with those around me, or trade for food, water, and the occasional flagon of mead. My character is blessed by the gods and I can heal others and myself, smite my enemies with mighty magics, turn the undead, and even bring the dead back to life.
It is a great deal of fun. It is also NOT Adellion.
Ignoring the magic, let’s run down why it is still not possible.
First of all, the concept of running around the countryside in a full suit of mail armor, with a sword, a shield, a backpack full of loot and mining equipment is silly. Our modern military runs for reasonable distances as part of boot camp training carrying up to a hundred pounds of equipment. But imagine putting on 250 pounds of armor, adding the hundred pound backpack and then run into a mine to dig for minerals, stopping occasionally to battle four and five enemies at once???
Second, let’s revisit mining. It takes a lot of time. You don’t sense where minerals are – you examine the ground and you dig – a lot. You break up rocks looking for what you want, and if you find it, you spend a lot more time digging, a lot more breaking up minerals, and eventually you get enough of what you are after to lug it to a place to sell.
Mining below ground takes a lot of skill. You have to be careful to shore up where you are digging or you could find yourself buried alive. You have to buy or cut timber that adds to the mining time. You need good light to work with, and you need to watch out for deadly gasses.
Now add to that the idea that you are going to do your own metal working. I need a forge. It usually takes a half dozen people, minimum, to make one and two people at a minimum to maintain it - one to stoke the fires and gather burnable materials, while the other works the metal continuously. The idea of a “community forge” is pretty unusual. If you build a forge you rarely let someone else use it. If a community builds one it is because someone has apprenticed himself and now has moved out to a new community where the townspeople gratefully build the forge in expectation of having someone who will be able to work with metal nearby. The person who owns and runs the forge doesn’t usually cut anyone a break on the price just because they helped make the forge either – if a community wants a smith they do the work to construct it because it is in their interests. Building a forge is a lot easier than traveling 30 miles over rough terrain to the next town where the townspeople there had the foresight to make the forge for the blacksmith.
Next, add in the warrior training. Soldiers typically train for several years in the basics of combat and only later in life do they advance far enough to earn the favor of a local lord to the point that he might reward them with a single piece of fitted armor. His weapons are generally the same as those of the people around him. Only nobility can command the money necessary to have a fine crafted blade.
Healing skills on a battlefield usually consisted of three things. A sewing needle, a bone saw, and something to bite down on to limit your screams. Now those skills I might master in a short amount of time, but I would probably kill as many people as I saved and I would be very poor at it when working on myself.
The process of learning all the plants involved in healing, and dealing with disease, how to properly gather those items, prepare them, and mix the proper dosages, without killing my patient would also take years.
Is a pattern beginning to emerge here? Adellion operates in a more realistic world. The time period is not one where there is a large nobility, and the people have been ravaged by wars. There are no giant fortunes lying around for people to casually retrieve. Animals do not spit out diamonds when killed. If you share a resource, you no longer have it. It doesn’t regenerate in a new drop in thirty seconds.
Most importantly it takes a lot of time to master skills and retain them. If you haven’t fought and exercised in a while you are not a master of the blade anymore. You might be good, but your edge is gone. The same with being a miner, a smith, or a healer. You can be good at things, but if you stop using a skill it begins deteriorating – just like in real life. It doesn’t go quickly, and some skill will always remain, but just like the champion runner – if you stop running completely for two months you are not going to win any serious races your first time back. And, if you stop for a year you will huff and puff like any beginner after the first mile. You will need to retrain to get your skill back. And it will take time and often materials. We are also realistic in that retraining time is less than original acquisition time – but it still takes time. So the wise course is not to lose the skills – focus on what you are good at and keep your skills up to date. Don’t let your skills languish or they might fail you when you need them.
Now does that mean there is no room for solo play? Absolutely not. There were many occupations that were essentially solo operations. And if you choose to direct your skills towards one of those occupations you will find that you fit into the general community and can still achieve your goal of solo play. For example, fishermen, trappers, panners for minerals, scouts, foragers, hunters, herbal gathers, and bounty hunters all led rather solitary lives.
However, don’t expect to do well as a solitary mercenary riding from town to town. Mercenaries generally traveled in bands for safety, were summoned by a lord to do a job, and were not exactly the favorites of local townspeople, who feared for their daughter’s safety. Many slipped into thievery and were hunted by the local lord’s armed militia. Armed men riding into a local lord’s lands without paying proper respect could expect to be killed if caught.
So going ronin will not be the wonderful experience that one expects from other games. However, if you want to play a gruff old trapper, a dour fisherman with his small skiff and pole, a reclusive gather of herbs, or even a slightly crazed panner for gold the options are open to you. It is not necessary to play the role of an insane hermit or a bandit to achieve solo play, nor is it necessary to don sackcloth and cover yourself in ashes and become a religious zealot wandering the world – unless you want to.
For people who don’t care much for people, society always has a few places where your contributions will be appreciated and your lack of interest in social skills is not too much of a hindrance.
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