Computer Role Playing Games: How would you design one?

[Urban Ranger]

Suppose you are in charge of a design team that's tasked with creating a new single player CRPG (none of that massive online multiplayer crap) what is your design's going to be like? Would you have

• a classless system
• single PC or multiple PCs
• skill-based or level-based character development
• abstract or tactical combat
• linear or non-linear story
• side quests
• multiple story lines and endings
• a moral or value system bulit-in
• use the same rules for the PC(s) and everybody else
• fantasy world, science fiction world, or a mix of both
• Everything else you feel worth discussing that I have missed

[Imran Siddiqui]

a classless system
single PC
skill-based AND level-based character development (like Fallout)
tactical combat
non-linear story
many side quests
multiple story lines and endings
use the same rules for the PC(s) and everybody else
science fiction world (need to get away from all those fantasy CRPGs)

I'd also make the game more dialog based, like Planescape: Torment. You'd have to figure out things through talking with people and it would make your life easier. Of course you could always bust through everything, but you'd miss the good stuff.

I'd also make a bit less epic. Not like you destroy the world system, but just like a local warlord or something. The idea that some little guy can destroy the entire underpinnings of society is a reach.

Oh, and also conspiracy theories are a must . They make good stories.

[mactbone]

What I really want, are well thought out, individual characters, set in a non-linear story. I'd like to have my character BE somebody already. Then, I choose what I want to do. There would not be just one overarching concept/big evil. There would be multiple. There could be a grand conspiracy trying to overthrow the government, a corrupt government, a war with evil forces masquerading as neighbors, etc. You would only find the complete story of one of those in one go. You may hear bits and pieces of the other parts, particularly if there are two completely opposite storylines, but you would never know the full truth unless you started over and tried a new game and chose different paths.

I still think FF6 was THE best RPG, and Planescape: Torment is a close second.

[General Ludd]

A non-linear and open setting, world, plot, and character development.

A single PC, with the possibility of AI controled companions.

I'm not sure about classes, but probably not - and if they where in use, it would only be to encourage certain paths, and not limiting at all. But I would keep most of the statistics (exp, skill points, attributes, ect..) hidden to the player.

You will be able to create the background of your character - none of this "you where the son of a great hero, blah blah blah..." crap.


The player would not control the 'main character', so to speak - I don't want the world revolving around the player, I want NPCs (including the companions of the player - if they have any) to have a voice, personalty, opinions and motives of their own and not be just some sort of mindless drone that amounts to nothing more then a new item (in the case of 'party members'), or a sign post. (in the case of regular NPCs)


Although there would be a plot, it would not be the only focus of the game, and it would be designed in a way which allows for the player to play it any way they wish, or completely ignore it if they want, for that matter.


And conversation choices (among other things) which would allow for any kind of a response to a situation. Nothing I hate more then when a game forces you into doing something which you do not want to do. It's not and RPG if it doesn't allow you to role play.

[mactbone]

Osweld, I think you want an MMORPG... You just described the everything an MMORPG is...

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by MacTBone
Osweld, I think you want an MMORPG... You just described the everything an MMORPG is...

I don't believe I included "Thousands of raving morons" in the list.

[Lemmy]

Re: Computer Role Playing Games: How would you design one?

a classless system
you classes like warrior or thief?
then no classes, have different skills instead and let the player develop them.

single PC or multiple PCs
single, companions are AI-controlled

skill-based or level-based character development
not sure what both of them exactly are, but i like the way it's done in fallout, when you advance a level you can spend skill points on about 20 different skills, the amount of skill points you can spend depends on your intelligence.

abstract or tactical combat
tactical, Fallout tactics has an interesting combat system

linear or non-linear story
non-linear to the extreme

side quests
many many many many side quests

multiple story lines and endings
off course...

a moral or value system bulit-in
like good and evil?
sure why not, but not so black and white, add in some greys

use the same rules for the PC(s) and everybody else
yes, there is nothing worse than a cheating AI

fantasy world, science fiction world, or a mix of both
sci-fi, like Imran said, get away from that fantasy stuff, post-nuclear is also getting done more now, but that is still nice

Everything else you feel worth discussing that I have missed
not right now

why are you asking, are you going to make a CRPG??? (yes?)

[Moral Hazard]

a classless system, since you would only be one person having to chose a class doesn't make a lot of sense in my opinion.

Single player character as mention before, but you would be able to pick up party members as the game progressed, which you could control in combat; but at the same time they would retain some independence. You would be able to manage thier inventory and send them into the worst part of battle, but this might piss them off, as might say if you treated them like fodder or pack horses. They also might get pissy if you ignore thier input or did things they disagreed with. The NPCs would also have lots of personality (built through out the game) and every NPC would have a long quest associated with them. Of course there would be friction between your party members.

skill-based, think fallout with more traits.

tactical combat, again very similar to fallout.

Well, there would be lots of side quests; but there would be one main quest, but the majority of the time it would just be in the background (Fallout 2) and would unfurl as the game progressed. It would allow for different paths, but in the end you would end up in the same place, at which point you could chose an ending, some choices might be eliminated by your previous actions.

There wouldn't really be a value system built in, if their was it would be hidden. Of course different people would treat you differently according your actions, what quests you took etc.

I wouldn't go with Sci-Fi or Fantasy but would probably take a historical time period (Old West, Pirates Carribean, an Ancient Culture) and use lots of poetic license. Magic would play a minor role, except in the ancient culture.

Other things would include only being able to rest in obviously safe places, such as inns or miles away from anywhere. As to cut down on the total of amount of combat per dungeon. If there was magic it would either be reagent based or spell point based, probably a mix of the two.

I might even bring back food in the manner it was handled in Ultima 7, hunting for food was a lot of fun; and it really brought out Iolo's character, fat pig. Actually, I wouldn't bring it back.

Probably the most important thing would be to find an equitable balance between gold and experience; I would probably do this by letting you use experience to buy Skill points, In the same manner you would use gold to buy weapons and and really valuable stuff. You would also not gain more experience by being an altruist (ala AD&D) but you would gain 'reputation' or friends in the town for the gold you forfeited, at the same time people might try and use you for being too altruistic.

All in all it would have a really complex interpersonal structure, and would end up being a really buggy piece of crap, because the publisher would realize that the amount of money I was spending would never justify, and force me to release it early

[Moral Hazard]

Oh one last things there would be loads and loads of dialogue, and dungeons would be situated near towns (80% of your time would be spent in town, of course there would be fighting in town), and none of them would be that long by themselves. Except maybe the last one.

And about the begining your character's past would either never be discussed, or be of almost no weight. Probably the second option because I would'nt be sure how to start without some brief intro about yourself.

[loinburger]

classless system

Sort of. It would be something like Daggerfall, where your character is determined by his/her/its various skills. There would be a lot of predefined classes, like Pirate or Superman, with their predefined skill sets, but the player wouldn't be limited to these by any means.

single PC or multiple PCs

Single.

skill-based or level-based character development

Both. Your skills increase automatically as you use them, for example, if your primary skill is Running then if you Run a lot your skill will increase. As your skills increase your level increases, which allows you to pick additional Perks and maybe increase your Stats. However, your Perk and Stat increases MUST be related to the skills that you have increased. So, if somebody is trying to cheat the system (like in Daggerfall) by making Running their primary skill, then they can quickly increase their level by just running around. However, the Perks and Stat increases that they then have access to are only related to their Running skill. So, my Level 500 Runner would be a pretty useless character, and would get killed by any Level 5 Asswhupper who happened along.

You aren't stuck with the skills that you started out with, though. If my only skill is Running but I hack a lot of people up with an axe, then my Axe skill will become more intrinsic to my character.

abstract or tactical combat

Tactical. Where else would the 3D graphics come in?

linear or non-linear story

Non-linear. If somebody plays the game twice, they should get two significantly different gaming experiences.

side quests

Sure, but the PC would determine which quests are "side quests" and which are "main quests." If my character's class is Ice Cream Truck Driver, then my main quests will involve selling ice cream and my side quests will involve killing monsters. The reverse would be true if my character's class were Asswhupper.

multiple story lines and endings

Yup, this would help make the story non-linear.

a moral or value system bulit-in

Maybe. I'm not dead set against them, but at the same time I'm not gung-ho on them.

use the same rules for the PC(s) and everybody else

Sure, unless my character's class is God or perhaps Satan, in which case rules wouldn't apply to me.

fantasy world, science fiction world, or a mix of both

Dunno. Probably fantasy.

Everything else you feel worth discussing that I have missed

The game's story would be partially time-driven, not just event-driven. So, let's say your character spends all of his/her/its time selling ice cream; while you're doing so, Mon*Star or Mumra or whoever is still enacting plans for world domination. Unless you can stop them with the healing powers of ice cream (or possibly hot fudge), then some other hero will have to dispatch them. Or possibly they will conquer the world. Tough to say.

Also, you wouldn't be restricted to being "good" or "evil", or "lawful" or "chaotic", or whatever the hell else you might get pigeonholed as. Maybe you want to kill Mumra in order to vanquish his evil, or maybe you want to kill him in order to steal his powers and conquer the world yourself. Maybe you're selling ice cream out of the goodness of your heart, or maybe you're selling ice cream because you're a capitalist swine. It's up to you.

Finally, you would be able to lead armies into battle and whatnot, either through being hired as a general by a king, by becoming king, by becoming an evil warlord bent on world domination, or whatever.

[Dis]

I'd just hire the Fallout and Baldur's gate programmers and force them to make a good game.

[Dis]

a classless system: I like classes. Although strictly skill based has it's advantages. I probably would make it similar to fallout (only a few different races- humans, mutants, robots, animals etc.)

single PC or multiple PCs. Multiple with a protaganist. ala Baldur's gate- the system worked well.

skill-based or level-based character development. I'm not sure what you mean. I would have both.

abstract or tactical combat. Tactical

linear or non-linear story: nonlinear of course

side quests: you bet

multiple story lines and endings: is there any other way?

a moral or value system bulit-in: never thought of this. Might be interesting, but I'm not sure how to implement it.

use the same rules for the PC(s) and everybody else: I'm not sure what you are asking.

fantasy world, science fiction world, or a mix of both. A mix might be interesting. Spells and guns. What more do you want? . maybe something like Anarchy online (although I haven't played it myself)


One other thing. I want to committ more crimes. . Murder and stealing just isn't enough. . Fallout was great for being bad. I would like to expand on that some more. Drugs, sex, prostitutes. Yeah fallout kicked ass.

[Mr. President]

Single PC, non-linear story, lots of conversation and interaction. Either fantasy or science fiction world, but not both in the same game (Space Quest just got stupid with all the time-travelling). But those're the kinds of things I look for in RPGs, which may not be what the majority of people look for.

[Grumbold]

From a quick skim through we all seem to be saying similar things. I far prefer the non-proprietary Western RPG's like Daggerfall and Fallout to either the awful D&D system or the prescripted Eastern RPG's where you experience the story rather than influencing anything. Of the two I would have to slightly favour the Fallout experience for its turn based tactical combat where you actually have some time to carefully consider your moves. It's just a shame that in the end the power armor and big gun approach becomes totally dominant. Now if only it could have had the sheer scale of random things to do and places to see that Daggerfall did.

I confess that oone of my dream games would be a Fallout (3?) where at the end of the main plot you can continue to nurse and protect your favourite settlement. Scouring the wilderness looking for medicines, metals or whatever they need most to thrive. Your final 'score' would be the size of the town by the time you die of old age Even a Sim-Wasteland without the RPG plot would be a must-buy.

[Lemmy]

what would be nice is if you can own property or something like that, or a store, where you can set what to buy and what to sell for what price.
Then when you come back after a while you can pick up the money the store made, minus the store attendant's salary off course.

I confess that oone of my dream games would be a Fallout (3?) where at the end of the main plot you can continue to nurse and protect your favourite settlement. Scouring the wilderness looking for medicines, metals or whatever they need most to thrive.

that would be nice