Hi Paul, Exactly. Triditional computer games are fixed to a certain story line,are often fixed to specific characters, and is only as flexable as the developer made it. Therefore often times you will find yourself stuck in a fairly linear game where you complete x numbers of levels, fight the mmain boss, and the game is over with.
With a roll playing game it is far more open ended. I might go as far to say it is nearly endless, unlimited, in what you can and can't do in the game. All it requires is a good gamemaster, gm, who is good at coming up with new ideas for adventures, situations, etc and allows the group to play out a campaign for weeks, months, and even years with the same characters. Its only limited by the imagination of the gamemaster and his/her group members. For example, during the 1990's Lucas Arts released an FPS game called Jedi Knight. One of its selling points was it was suppose to include some RPG game mechanics. While it did have some RPG game mechanics the truth was it was still rather limited in a lot of ways. One of the ways it was limited is number of light side verses dark side encounters. One of the ways it was limited is how the game story changed depending on if you decided to play as a light side Jedi or dark side Sith. Throughout the game there were a number of civilians, encounters, who were in some sort of trouble. If you rescued him/her you would gain light side experience points. If you ignored them your alignment would switch from good to neutral which didn't give you any light side or dark side points.If you chose to kill them or injure them you would gain dark side points and your alignment would eventually become evil. After you gained x number of dark side points you could select a dark side power such as force lightning and train it up to sith master. The odd thing is that Kiles associates like Jan, who shows up to help him out of certain situations, doesn' seem to care if Kile is on the light side or dark side. Its simply business as usual. The problem with this design was that it didn't really change the course of the story nor the attitudes of the non-player characters. The only major difference was when Kile took on the Sith he could throw force lightning, use force choke, and other dark side powers at them. If Kile won the game there was a little cutscene where Kile becomes the new Dark Lord of the Sith.Otherwise he doesn't have or use those powers and you get a different cutscene where Kile beats the Sith and then decides to leave the Jedi Order. Were this a paper and pen version of the game the gamemaster could step in at any time of the story and begin altering events around what the player does. If Kile goes over to the dark side the gamemaster would not only change his alignment to evil, but might work up a new plot where he joins the Sith instead of sleying them. Perhaps the player might be given the choice to sley the Sith or join them in their plans. Kile could attack Jan and other allies if he chose, and might gain extra dark side experience points for killing his former friends. He might pretend to join Jeric and the other Sith only to sley them at a later point getting more dark side points for deceit and betrayal which are both dark side skills. Bottom line, in a true roll playing game the gamemaster could and would step in to alter the story as needed which would be different than the way some other gamemaster and group might play that same adventure. While there are adventure guides etc there is no rule saying that a gamemaster and group has to follow the script exactly and can change it as desired. Make sense? Cheers! On 6/16/12, Paul Lemm <[email protected]> wrote: > Now that sounds like a seriously fun and interesting game. I see the point > you make about the difference between the computer game and the role play > though as I guess with the computer game although there is an element of > freedom in some games you still ultimately have to follow the path/story > line set out by the game but with the role play you can bend the story to > fit around the players and like the game you mentioned with some creative > thinking and a good imagination can make. For a very interesting game. > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of dark > Sent: 16 June 2012 14:13 > To: Gamers Discussion list > Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Redistributing RPG Source Books > > Hi Paul. > > Well not everything! is decided by dice, indeed the better games I've > played > > are the ones were dice are a guide rather than being the strict rules. It's > > odd though, I don't enjoy in character rp in online games, but I love doing > > it off line with a human gm. > > I think it's because a human gm is as adaptable as you are, and can run a > plot with your characters at the center. > > for instance, each week I play a game of Mutants and masterminds, a > superhero themed game. my character uses a battle suit similar to Iron man, > > but has the distadvantage of not knowing anything about it, ---- indeed > he's > > a professional pianist. So there is repeated bickering betwene him and the > suit's ai (played by the gm), with the gm occasionally doing things > including developing powers that are quite unexpected. > > This is something that just wouldn't be possible online, but off line works > > great, especially as the plot has involved my character finding out more > and > > more about his suit. > > What's also fun, is the plot is adaptive. For instance, we went to the > alternative evil dimention and fought off our evil duplicate selves. Sinse > however for various confusing reasons my character is the only true and > natural born human, mine was the only evil duplicate not to be banished, > sent to hell or otherwise got rid off, sinse once out of his suit he was > pretty easy to deal with. > > This back fired though sinse he's now come to normal earth, stolen a spare > copy of a suit in the same series to mine, and is threatening to enact a > ritual to make himself into a god. > > fights are also great fun, sinse it's not just a matter of swing and hit, > but often a matter of how much we can literally out think our opponents. > > For example, on one occasion we were fighting enemies who protected > themselves with a large domed force field. At first, we started firing > lasers through the field, but then they modified it to be impervious to > energy as well as physical attacks. so, my character flew into the air on > his jets and slammed into the ground, coming up under the bottom of the > domed field, ---- where I proceeded to use my explosive weapon (the field > also limited the blast). > > that's the sort of thingI find fun in an rp fight, thinking adaptively, and > > something which you really couldn't do without an actual human gm playing > the enemies. > > Of course, rp is like antyhing else, and really good when done well, but > not > > so great when done badly, and played by a rules lawyer or someone who has > no > > sense of plot or drama. > > But, i do appreciate it when it's done properly, and would highly recommend > > finding a group and giving it a go, ---- not the least because all you need > > is something to write your character sheet on, some way of rolling dice, (I > > use a laptop, ms word and the gma dice program), and your imagination, and > optionally a copy of the rules, though I've certainly played games where I > found the rules from other players as I went along, rather than knowing > them > > before hand, because when done well in rp the rules and the dice should > serve the plot, not be the be all and end all of the game. > > Beware the grue! > > Dark. > > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > [email protected]. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to [email protected]. > > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > [email protected]. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to [email protected]. > --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. 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