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From: west@uts.am.reading.UUCP (Jeremy West)
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Inanimate ego/intelligence
Message-ID: <122@uts.am.reading.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 8-Jul-85 04:56:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: uts.122
Posted: Mon Jul  8 04:56:11 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 12-Jul-85 00:27:06 EDT
Reply-To: west@uts.am.reading.UUCP (Jeremy West)
Organization: Reading University, UK
Lines: 98

Keywords:
Xpath: reading uts.am gateway.cs

I have long been amused by the rather foolish sword ego rules in
AD&D, but have recently been unfortunate enuff to play under a DM
who takes them seriously. Here is my plea for help!

Background:

     A human split class 6/6 FTR/CL picks up a book (foolish) and
promptly looses all but 2 xp, 1 in each class. DM rules he is a
first level FT with first level CL abilities. He seeks devine
advice, changes his name to Bookworm and sets forth, content in
the knowledge that he must advance again as a FTR until he reaches
sixth level whereupon he MUST revert to being a CL.

The problem:

    (and with a different DM...)

    At fourth level FTR, he (and the party) are slept and kidnapped
for sacrifice; escape and eventually clear out the baddies - with the
help of a rusty old sword found in the tunnels by the dungeon cells.
You guessed it, the sword is intelligent and very egotistical. Okay,
no problem... until I get to the end of the adventure and try to recover
my old magic. No way! Sh*t! Never mind, win some loose some. But then
I am told the swords ego is 19. I CAN'T overcome this bugger until I
reach 21st level. And I CAN'T reach 21st level cos I have to revert to
being a cleric at sixth! This is where the fun starts.

The question:

       How do you play ego weapons?
       
The character does not wish to keep the sword - apart from loss of magic
(nasty but part of the game) Bookworm is a chaotic who is now imprisoned
by the will of another - surely the ultimate horror for a chaotic?
But, if Bookworm is not under the absolute sway of the sword
all the time, it can hardly 'force into combat' or any other
manifestation of ego. So he has to be either possesed by the sword,
or else he simply physically cannot let go of it!

If possession, things are tough for my character, since when he reaches
sixth level all advancement will cease; but, being controlled by the sword
he daren't change class, seek help or anything. Not as much fun to play
as the character I used to play - I'd rather play a character I have
developed than one imposed from above. I acknowledge that I could
develop him into a character worth playing, but when he can't use or
take any magic, can't use or take any xp and is limited in his
spending opportunities (since he is not in a campaign)....... sigh.

If the latter (unable to let go, in constant fear of ego shock if he
disobays the sword, but able at least to rationalise his dilemma), I can
at least try to manouver so as to dispose of the darn thing.

Obviously I would like to believe that ego items can only influence
their "owners" if actually on the person of the victim.  Thus, the
means of control is the threat of 19 points of damage per segment!
This implies that even telepathic items cannot read minds (but use
mental "radio waves" to contact others) and so the item cannot know
(but could guess - it is intelligent after all) what the user is thinking.
But at least the user can attempt to overthrow the yoke of oppression,
just as a 'humble +1 sword can be a vocal martyr' (sword ego rules),
so the unfortunate character can try to oppose the item, making
insubordinate comments, attempting to walk into anti-magic shells etc.

And if the item (in the persona of the DM) fails to see the outcome
of the character's action... then the character is free, or the comment
will pass un-noticed and the player has some feeling that the game is
still fun after all!

So, what does everyone think? How to play ego items so they are still
FUN, even if they offer the odd disadvantage from time to time.

Personally, I would ignore ego, but give the item some habits /
side-effects / disadvantages which may be outweighed by the benefits /
advantages of possessing the item. The sword in question is +3 and has
a 'heal' 1/day. Very useful, but the potential loss of freedom of
action is too high a price for this particular character. If, on the
other hand, the sword constrained me to never accepting healing
from others - or some similar penalty in keeping with the sword's
history and purpose, the trade would be more likely to be acceptable
to the character and hence to the player. I don't mind taking knocks,
but the game must still be fun.

A second question arising from this matter is this:

Would a Chaotic/Neutral sword (most seem to presume items are absolutely
faithful to their alignment) 'possess' another C/N when freedom from
abitrary restriction seems to be a fundamental axiom of the chaotic
nature?

Anyway, this is already far too long, but I hope it sparks some
discussion...

Jerry

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