[Divunal-author] half-burnt crumbs from the toaster of creatvity

[Allen Short]

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After last night's session on Divunal development, i've been thinking
about what sort of environments we want out players' adventures to
occur in. Realizing we wanted a wide range of possibilities, i started
to make lists. So, here are some possibilities; hopefully this will
spark someone's imagination:

Terrain/Climate
----

Desert: salt flats, sand/rock, arctic
Tropical/jungle
Coast: salt marsh, beach, cliffs/rocky
Mountaintops
Underwater
Tundra/permafrost
Valley/rivers
Space: planetary orbits, asteroids

Constructs
----
Office buildings
Residential: homes, apartments, hotels
Libraries (of course!)
Food storage/markets/restaurants
Communications facilities, radio towers
Research labs (think Black Mesa)
Military installations
Spacecraft: colony ships, warships, orbiters
Sailing/steam ships
Clocktowers
Cathedrals/temples/stadiums 
Zeppelin docks
Factories, warehouses
Power stations: hydroelectric, coal/oil/gas, nuclear, geothermal,
                satellite


And then there's the question of the aesthetic sense and tech level of
the world under consideration; does it use the internal combustion
engine, does it have electricity? does it tend more towards columns
and balconies and scrollwork, or does it look like something out of
the Gernsback Continuum, or maybe it's all ziggurats? 

Anyway. Establishing a basic "feel" for a place should help with the
zero-story aspects of the game; without atmosphere, there's very
little traction for the imagination and it may well degenerate into
Nethack with less randomness. 

So, other open questions: answering these up front is probably not
essential, but will be something players bump up against in one way or
another eventually --

- How many worlds are there?
- Are there reasons to hang out in other worlds than the library when
  not actively treasure-hunting?
- If I take my loot out the front door of the library and drop
  it... what happens?
- How do warpgates get opened to new worlds? 
- Who set up the warpgates and why?
- Do we ever get to meet them?
- Are there legitimate (i.e. non-griefer) reasons for players to be on
  opposite "sides" of an issue? Obviously players will compete for
resources and territory; I suppose a better questions is "what
incentives do players have to work together?".

Final crazy idea: When players die, their container holding their
Stuff gets teleported back to their rooms. What if we made it so that
the teleporting-bit was just a smooth box with no straps or anything,
and you had to buy a carrying case for it if you wanted to wear it on
your back? otherwise, you'd have to carry it and couldn't hold much
else. And of course, when you die, your backpack will stay put...

Anyway. Hope this helps get things started.

Allen

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