Given all the discussion about RPG mechanics on here I just figured I'd
throw in my two cents. Personally I think the use of RPG has taken to a
broader scope. There's everything ranging from your classic RPG, using pen
and paper, you and your friends creating all the characters and scennarios
and playing through them, to what more modern gamers would consider an RPG,
a party-based game where you create none of the characters and for the most
part the game is very close-ended with a major storyline already in place,
bosses to fight, quests to perform, goals to conquer. You also have your
action RPG or ARPG, which are becoming more and more advanced as technology
becomes more powerful. Its become a very broad category of games. Having
said this I think that a gamebook style RPG will be one of the most
difficult to create and really satisfy everyone. Take sryth for example. I
am, and always have been a combat fanatic. I'm a martial arts enthusiast in
real life, and if a book doesn't have an action scene every few chapters,
its pretty much garunteed I probably won't like it. Therefore, sryth's
combat system is highly disappointing, its simply a series of dice rolls
which get very, very tedius after a while with minimal description and
detail, even after the battle ends. So far lone wolf has some of the coolest
detail to combat I've seen yet. I still play sryth for the exploration and
story factor, when it comes up nowadays, but the combat system has always
put me off from sryth slightly. The problem here is that you either have to
be a combat enthusiast or be willing to go into the realm of unrealism aka
final fantasy, later versions of dragon quest to get good techniques and
spells and the like going, or the combat falls into the trap of 99% of muds
where the unrealistic realism, learning how to bash with a shield or throw a
basic kick, for example, becomes irritating. To me, at least. I've also
never found random combat to my liking, the entire dice roll system has
always bothered me. It makes me think of someone rushing into battle
swinging wildly and hoping to god they hit something, rather than a fierce
and powerful warrior stalking into battle and striking with careful,
measured accuracy as he drives his opponent back and breaks through his
defenses. Few games can immitate that, though, and its pretty complex, so
its sort of understandable.
Then you also have your grinder types, who refuse to play an RPG unless
there's plenty of stats to grind and goals to reach. Sure you can say
there's plenty of number crunchers out there already, but I imagine not all
grinders are interested in seeing straight numbers rise, for example, I
grind to earn new techniques and spells, to power up my character in
preparation for a bonus dungeon, in certain cases to level up other party
members so they have a fighting chance in places, etc. I love exploration,
but I've always thought that gamebook and RPG mechanics just don't seem to
work out very well. I am interested to see how Thomas pulls off the
combination of mechanics though. My personal favorite is closer to the
mainstream version of RPG's as they stand now, where mostly things are
close-ended, with turn-based battles and a major overarching plot and party
of characters to control to complete said plot and side quests. This leaves
more room for plot and character development in my opinion, because the main
character can actually talk rather than just having a line about him telling
someone this, or performing that action. And it's a lot less easy to fall
into the trap that sryth always, always does with making your character look
like he'd flee from his own shadow. I'd love to see something like this done
in text form, aka planet gambro only without the very strange humor. I still
haven't figured out what it is about text RPG's, no matter how advanced, and
making them non-serious or humor-based.
Having said all this I'll definitely be checking out thomas's game when it
comes out. While I think that gamebook and RPG mechanics clash on general
principal just because the style of RPG isn't advanced enough for my tastes,
the exploration factor is also nice, and some of the scenes can be really
cool if done right and under certain mechanical conditions, aka using
disciplins in lone wolf, skills and powers in sryth. So while its not my
prefered style of RPG, I am glad to see another good-sounding text game
coming up and will definitely be checking this out. Anyhow I think I've
rambled on long enough, hopefully all of this made sense and wasn't too
contradictory, its too early in the ... uh ... noon for major thinking just
yet.
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