Meriwether: An American Epic Interview at RPGWatch
Meriwether: An American Epic Interview at RPGWatch
Interview - posted by Crooked Bee on Mon 17 June 2013, 17:46:49
Tags: Meriwether: An American EpicRPGWatch's GhanBuriGhan has interviewed Josh DeBonis, lead designer on the historical RPG Meriwether: An American Epic, which ran a successful Kickstarter campaign last December. Have a snippet from the interview:
Meriwether is scheduled for release at the end of 2013. You can find the full interview here.
RPGWatch: Meriwether, subtitled "An American Epic" is based on the Lewis & Clark expedition, which is a well-known historical event in the U.S. Could you summarize the scenario for our non-American readers, and explain why you chose it as a basis for your game?
Josh: In 1804, President Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis along with a party over 30 men, a woman, a baby, and a Newfoundland dog on a journey across the North American continent. They were looking for the Northwest Passage. They never found it, but they had an amazing adventure, made it from coast to coast, and met so many interesting people along the way.
RPGWatch: The historical setting as well as the financial support the project received by various public sources could lead gamers to the conclusion that Meriwether will be more Edutainment than game. What are the central gameplay elements that you think will make Meriwether attractive to RPG players?
Josh: It's been a constant struggle to separate Meriwether from edutainment. Yes, you will learn things playing this game. But we are approaching it first and foremost as a game, in the same way that we approach other games we design. I tend to favor elegant, distilled game mechanics that are easily approachable but have great depth to explore. This philosophy manifests itself in Meriwether in many ways; we wanted a game that won't feel too daunting to a history buff who doesn't play a lot of video games, but also will have lots of difficult choices to offer to hardcore gamers. We have shown and playtested the game at both PAX East and a Lewis and Clark convention, and had a very positive response at each. I think we are well on way to making that difficult balance a reality.
There's two parts that will be especially attractive to CRPG players. The first is our dialogue system. Our writer, Carlos Hernandez, is an incredible storyteller and he is giving a unique voice to all of the amazing characters. The conversations are a pleasure to play, but they also offer an interesting "facet" mechanic. We associate each dialogue choice with one facet of Lewis's personality-leader, soldier, diplomat, scientist, or melancholy. When you choose an option, it increases your level in that facet. Occasionally, you need to choose melancholy to keep balanced, which can often lead to an undesirable situation. The trick is to choose it at the right moment! So the facet system will couple a good story with good gameplay and provides players with a pretty unique dialogue system.
The other mechanic that I think will interest CRPG players is managing the party as a whole. You need to balance all of your resources very carefully. Will you spend your timing hunting or clearing a safe path for your boats? Will you trade your last spare rifle for horses to make your journey across the Rocky Mountains easier? The real Lewis and Clark Expedition had to think about balancing those choices every second of their voyage, and they import beautifully into our game.
RPGWatch: You have stated that in contrast to most CRPGs, combat is not a major focus in Meriwether. How did you go about creating interesting gameplay for a CRPG without this typically central gameplay element?
Josh: Personally I love combat in RPGs, but it wasn't an appropriate direction for this game. Historically, the Expedition got into one fight, and came close a couple other times, but even though they were a military expedition, they were on a mission of peace. If you look at RPG combat formally, it almost always comes down to some form of resources management-usually under the guise of trading damage for hit points. We have made the "gamey" aspects of the game very much about managing your men and materiel, which allows you to explore interesting systems in the same way that combat often does. Combat can occur in Meriwether, but it is uncommon, simple, and lethal. My favorite aspect of combat in Meriwether is our game's "dragons"-ferocious grizzly bears. Reloading is slow, so you usually only get one shot, and if you miss, you better be prepared to run!
Josh: In 1804, President Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis along with a party over 30 men, a woman, a baby, and a Newfoundland dog on a journey across the North American continent. They were looking for the Northwest Passage. They never found it, but they had an amazing adventure, made it from coast to coast, and met so many interesting people along the way.
RPGWatch: The historical setting as well as the financial support the project received by various public sources could lead gamers to the conclusion that Meriwether will be more Edutainment than game. What are the central gameplay elements that you think will make Meriwether attractive to RPG players?
Josh: It's been a constant struggle to separate Meriwether from edutainment. Yes, you will learn things playing this game. But we are approaching it first and foremost as a game, in the same way that we approach other games we design. I tend to favor elegant, distilled game mechanics that are easily approachable but have great depth to explore. This philosophy manifests itself in Meriwether in many ways; we wanted a game that won't feel too daunting to a history buff who doesn't play a lot of video games, but also will have lots of difficult choices to offer to hardcore gamers. We have shown and playtested the game at both PAX East and a Lewis and Clark convention, and had a very positive response at each. I think we are well on way to making that difficult balance a reality.
There's two parts that will be especially attractive to CRPG players. The first is our dialogue system. Our writer, Carlos Hernandez, is an incredible storyteller and he is giving a unique voice to all of the amazing characters. The conversations are a pleasure to play, but they also offer an interesting "facet" mechanic. We associate each dialogue choice with one facet of Lewis's personality-leader, soldier, diplomat, scientist, or melancholy. When you choose an option, it increases your level in that facet. Occasionally, you need to choose melancholy to keep balanced, which can often lead to an undesirable situation. The trick is to choose it at the right moment! So the facet system will couple a good story with good gameplay and provides players with a pretty unique dialogue system.
The other mechanic that I think will interest CRPG players is managing the party as a whole. You need to balance all of your resources very carefully. Will you spend your timing hunting or clearing a safe path for your boats? Will you trade your last spare rifle for horses to make your journey across the Rocky Mountains easier? The real Lewis and Clark Expedition had to think about balancing those choices every second of their voyage, and they import beautifully into our game.
RPGWatch: You have stated that in contrast to most CRPGs, combat is not a major focus in Meriwether. How did you go about creating interesting gameplay for a CRPG without this typically central gameplay element?
Josh: Personally I love combat in RPGs, but it wasn't an appropriate direction for this game. Historically, the Expedition got into one fight, and came close a couple other times, but even though they were a military expedition, they were on a mission of peace. If you look at RPG combat formally, it almost always comes down to some form of resources management-usually under the guise of trading damage for hit points. We have made the "gamey" aspects of the game very much about managing your men and materiel, which allows you to explore interesting systems in the same way that combat often does. Combat can occur in Meriwether, but it is uncommon, simple, and lethal. My favorite aspect of combat in Meriwether is our game's "dragons"-ferocious grizzly bears. Reloading is slow, so you usually only get one shot, and if you miss, you better be prepared to run!
Meriwether is scheduled for release at the end of 2013. You can find the full interview here.
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