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RPG clichés

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Armor in the PnP game Rifts worked like that. Your armor had a set amount of damage it could absorb, then it wouldn't block any more. Since you typically used high-energy weapons like particle guns and plasma rifles, that usually meant instant death. It could get to be kind of a pain to keep going through countless sets of armor, though, and repairs were ridiculously expensive; I remember after a while we started shooting guys in the head just so we could salvage their body armor. :lol: I don't know how well it would work on the computer, you might have a repair skill like lots of games with equipment deterioration offer, but overall it would probably just be lots of pointless micromanagement if you were expected to fight a lot.
 

Saint_Proverbius

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While realistic, I never really liked the idea of degenerating armor and weapons. It's always seemed like an extra layer of micromanagement to me. It works better in some games than others, but I'm constantly reminded of my sword of air in Arcanum failing on me in the middle of The Dredge. I just really didn't want to make a trip out of there to repair it and come back, so I stopped that game then and there.

Part if this has to do with Arcanum's character system. I probably would have gotten some repair skill if CPs weren't so limited and applied to everything in the character system.
 

DBL27

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Jan 2, 2003
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<groan> don't even get me started about breaking armor and weapons. While realistic, I HATE when the game does this to you. Let me give you some specific examples where it has driven me mad:

Nox: almost impossible to play as a fighter, because you had to lug around 2 or 3 pairs of armor and weapons just to make it to the next town.

Might & Magic: Much as I really liked episodes 3-7 (some of my favorites), I really got annoyed by the creatures that hit and broke equipment on your characters. I actually used a character editor to give all of my people the highest repair skill possible in 6 & 7, just so I could minimize the annoyance factor (one of the few good uses for an editor, IMO)

Morrowind: Not as bad, but I still don't like the whole concept. At least it was rare to have my armor break altogether in the midst of a dungeon.

I understand the whole "make it more realistic" concept. However, like manually having to feed characters, having to run back to town to repair stuff really does not contribute anything to my enjoyment of the game. Quite the opposite.
 

Trash

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rpg cliches and how to deal with them

After reading all the cliche posts it reminded me of a setting used in the book "perdido street station" by china mieville. He uses a huge dystopian city (somewhat reminding me of a victorian messed up london) where many races live all ruled by a cruell government.
There is plenty of rascism (one of the ruling parties is extremely anti-xenian) and distrust among the different cultures. I really liked how he scoured fantasy,mythologie and the old legends to find the species he descripes in the book.
Fantasy of late has become more and more boring to me, elves, halflings, ancient evils, mighty swords of doodle...it all seems so tired.
It would be great if game devellopers and writers used a little more imagination in creating their worlds. Mieville's book was great but even more mundane settings would provide a much needed bit of originality. How about a book in an egypt where the gods actually existed, how about an rpg set in rome during the high times of the roman empire?
Hell, the only limitation to settings is the human creativity, it's time they started using it a bit more.
Cya,

Trash
 

Megatron

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Re: rpg cliches and how to deal with them

Trash said:
a book in an egypt where the gods actually existed?

actually, terry pratchett wrote a book similair to this. Spoilers below if you haven't read it.

It's called Pyramids. It's about how peoples beliefs came true, and 50ft men with animal heads ran around the land and fought each other, gods fought in the sky for the sun etc.

But Pratchett isn't really a normal fantasy writer.

It would be good if fantasys added a bit of social commentary into them, or gave a nod to the real world. At the moment their just bed-time storys, the only difference usually is the amount of words used.
 
Self-Ejected

Kosmonaut

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  • Romance between the protagonist and the female companion. Just to make the game emotionally engaging.
  • FPS with statistics are the modern RPGs
  • Fake C&C
 

Raghar

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Re: my first post

Megatron said:
Healing items - It consists of food and potions (Not including shrines and spells). Why not add leeches, bleeding and all the other old cures they used to have?
They doesn't work.

High elves - Always snobs. Why not have some dirty, drunken elves?
They are eternally young they had a society that managed to survive well for thousand years without screwing themselves over, they have few WMDs others doesn't knows about, they are much smarter than majority of other species, they are isolationists. When they are conquering others they are killing them.

They are different species, thus they should behave differently. Have you seen someone from special army unit, or a fast response squad cop?
 

Murk

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^ Elves were also originally made as ubermenschen, they're supposed to be arrogant cuntbags who look down on everyone.

Leeches/bandages/salves have been used by quite a few games too (hell, Ultima Underworld !!!)

Glad to see someone dug up this thread as I rather do like it. Anyway, my own additions:

Gigantic cave systems that seem to stretch for eternity with a surprising amount of gold and treasure lying around everywhere.

Intro sequences with some kind of uber NPC that handles shit for you like nothing but then gets either sucker-punched or just fades away from the story (Gorion in BG1 being an easy example).

Swords always being the number 1 weapon choice, especially if its a d&d game (heh, Torment not withstanding).

Priests of some god of war/battle-clerics.
 

zenbitz

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Feb 2, 2009
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295
bhlaab said:
I'm sick of Necromancers always being evil

PS:T?

I would be into a game where you had to summon skeletons and raise zombies to hold off the genocidal elves and halflings.
 

zenbitz

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bhlaab said:
I'm sick of Necromancers always being evil

PS:T?

I would be into a game where you had to summon skeletons and raise zombies to hold off the genocidal elves and halflings.
 

zenbitz

Scholar
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Messages
295
bhlaab said:
I'm sick of Necromancers always being evil

PS:T?

I would be into a game where you had to summon skeletons and raise zombies to hold off the genocidal elves and halflings.
 

Phelot

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These old threads are the bomb!

My additions:

Aliens that speak English/act human

(I'm sure this has been mentioned before, but I hate it sooo much) critters dropping gold when they shouldn't be i.e. wolves

Saving the world from an enemy that doesn't have a good reason to destroy the world.
 

Phelot

Arcane
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Messages
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These old threads are the bomb!

My additions:

Aliens that speak English/act human

(I'm sure this has been mentioned before, but I hate it sooo much) critters dropping gold when they shouldn't be i.e. wolves

Saving the world from an enemy that doesn't have a good reason to destroy the world.
 

Jools

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Spazmo said:
[snip]So what other cliches can be found in most any RPG? What other gameplay elements return so often that they become an expected part of any RPG?

Lava (why there must always be a lava level/dungeon/area?);
Sewers (see above);
Brothels (and the sexual hints they entail are even more annoying: ffs, make it explicit or leave it out!);
Epidemies (usually used as cheap plot devices to lock out some area or bla bla bla);
Squatting when Stealthing (why do characters have to assume a pooing stance, when stealthing?);
Skills that do not work on bosses (this is a totally retarded thing that always annoyed me: why do developers provide me with tons of spell which I can only use on trash mobs?);

Just to name a few...
 
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I'm seeing a lot of criticisms of 'the ancient evil [TM]' from around 2003, and I agree, but surely that's one point on which BG2 is worth a mention for the Biodocs actually subverting rather than using a cliche, for once? It's more of an 'ancient evil gets wtfpwned by new guy who wants to use its soul (or it's offspring's soul) for his own revenge quest'' villain.
 
Joined
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I'm seeing a lot of criticisms of 'the ancient evil [TM]' from around 2003, and I agree, but surely that's one point on which BG2 is worth a mention for the Biodocs actually subverting rather than using a cliche, for once? It's more of an 'ancient evil gets wtfpwned by new guy who wants to use its soul (or it's offspring's soul) for his own revenge quest'' villain.
 
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Kosmonaut

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I'm seeing a lot of criticisms of 'the ancient evil [TM]' from around 2003, and I agree, but surely that's one point on which BG2 is worth a mention for the Biodocs actually subverting rather than using a cliche, for once? It's more of an 'ancient evil gets wtfpwned by new guy who wants to use its soul (or it's offspring's soul) for his own revenge quest'' villain
 
Self-Ejected

Kosmonaut

Lost in Space
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I'm seeing a lot of criticisms of 'the ancient evil [TM]' from around 2003, and I agree, but surely that's one point on which BG2 is worth a mention for the Biodocs actually subverting rather than using a cliche, for once? It's more of an 'ancient evil gets wtfpwned by new guy who wants to use its soul (or it's offspring's soul) for his own revenge quest'' villain
 

soggie

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Aug 20, 2009
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I kind of enjoyed Warcraft 3's story about Athas' transformation into evil-dom. The premise I mean. How about an RPG where the PC begins as a humble farm boy and end up amassing power to perform an "evil deed" which would ironically stabilize the world for a long time to come.
 

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