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The appeal of d&d based crpgs
- Thread starter eli
- Start date
Gregz
Arcane
eli
Learned
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i am asking what is the valued difference in that when it is an inherently different experience for the worse in most cases because it is much less flexible compared to its original concept?
When I was fairly young (*violin music begins playing*) I used to sit and read classic D&D/AD&D modules all by myself. I had a friend who liked D&D, too, but he and I rarely actually played it because two people just isn't enough. So I mostly sat alone and dreamed about what it would be like actually playing through these adventures.
Fast-forward about five years, and personal computers now had the capability of simulating D&D to a reasonable degree. It started with games like Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord and reached its crescendo with games like Temple of Elemental Evil. After that, all the stupid story-based and identity-defined crap from BioWare and others started taking over, but that's another story.
The point is that the experience of taking a party of characters you create and pitting them against a set sequence of locales, challenges and adventures is what D&D is all about, and computer RPGs finally allowed and still allow me to do this. Modern games like PF:KM and Solasta are getting better and better at it again, and for them I'm thankful.
Fast-forward about five years, and personal computers now had the capability of simulating D&D to a reasonable degree. It started with games like Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord and reached its crescendo with games like Temple of Elemental Evil. After that, all the stupid story-based and identity-defined crap from BioWare and others started taking over, but that's another story.
The point is that the experience of taking a party of characters you create and pitting them against a set sequence of locales, challenges and adventures is what D&D is all about, and computer RPGs finally allowed and still allow me to do this. Modern games like PF:KM and Solasta are getting better and better at it again, and for them I'm thankful.
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Aka play Icewind Dale.
IWD is one of the very, very few CRPGs that I've actually played more than once.
KeighnMcDeath
RPG Codex Boomer
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I think I played the Pools series several times and on multiple platforms.
Citizen
Guest
Citizen said:
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Well, first off they are completely different experiences and secondly it's fairly hard to organise a game.
To make it fun you need 5 people invested in learning a complex ruleset and meeting up regularly in person to play for hours. In addition to that, and often the deal breaker, someone needs to put in a shit-ton of work to DM.
In the end you are often left with the question of why not just playing some other boardgame.
To make it fun you need 5 people invested in learning a complex ruleset and meeting up regularly in person to play for hours. In addition to that, and often the deal breaker, someone needs to put in a shit-ton of work to DM.
In the end you are often left with the question of why not just playing some other boardgame.
PapaPetro
Guest
D&D CRPGs (or Tabletop CRPGs in general) provide you with a digital DM to run your game.
It's the one I've played most times, except Diablo 2, but that is only because D2 has seven classes and you can only play one at a time.
Machocruz
Arcane
I have a group I play tabletop with, so my perspective is:
The spectrum of possibilities isn't as wide in CRPGs, and actual role-play isn't possible or possible to nearly the same extent, but one advantage is that of deciding on, creating, and coordinating the whole party yourself. No one has to hope someone else in the group will play a healer, you make it happen. Or not if you don't want. Maybe you want to have an all barbarian team, or whatever.
Then there are things that come from video games, like open worlds as we know them, which are not how PnP games are structured or intended to be played. So if you like Elder Scrolls or Ultima 7, you have to go to a video game for that. Or find the .04%er DM and group that are ok with you going off and pretending to be a farmer picking cabbage. Good luck.
And the visualization of actions and events that you can only see in your mind's eye.
The tactile pleasure of input and feedback by themselves, which aren't much acknowledged. We like to hit the buttons and see the thing happen. Some people would hit the buttons even if there was nothing on the screen, or no monitor!
The spectrum of possibilities isn't as wide in CRPGs, and actual role-play isn't possible or possible to nearly the same extent, but one advantage is that of deciding on, creating, and coordinating the whole party yourself. No one has to hope someone else in the group will play a healer, you make it happen. Or not if you don't want. Maybe you want to have an all barbarian team, or whatever.
Then there are things that come from video games, like open worlds as we know them, which are not how PnP games are structured or intended to be played. So if you like Elder Scrolls or Ultima 7, you have to go to a video game for that. Or find the .04%er DM and group that are ok with you going off and pretending to be a farmer picking cabbage. Good luck.
And the visualization of actions and events that you can only see in your mind's eye.
The tactile pleasure of input and feedback by themselves, which aren't much acknowledged. We like to hit the buttons and see the thing happen. Some people would hit the buttons even if there was nothing on the screen, or no monitor!
Generic-Giant-Spider
Guest
Before D&D became cool it was to enjoy the experience without the need for aligning schedules of others.
After D&D became cool it's to avoid the capeshit infiltrators and their goddamn girlfriends.
After D&D became cool it's to avoid the capeshit infiltrators and their goddamn girlfriends.
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Although all CRPGs are ultimately derivatives of Dungeons & Dragons, they differ in fundamental ways from the genre's originator, due to the inherent nature of the medium of a computer being used by a single individual versus the medium of pen-and-paper with multiple people.
CRPG mechanics ideally take advantage of the fact that a computer can easily emulate rules that are too computationally ponderous to find general use in pen-and-paper RPGs. This is especially true for logistics, where the computer can easily track encumbrance and its effects, inventory limitations in terms of weight/volume/spaces, food/hunger, water/thirst, sleep/fatigue/stamina, equipment deterioration & repair, a day/night cycle, lighting and the impact of darkness. Similarly, turn-based combat can return to the RPG genre's roots in miniatures wargaming, with tactical content and complexity far in excess of what would be feasible in pen-and-paper RPGs, which need to abstract and simplify combat to avoid prohibitive duration.
Contrariwise, pen-and-paper RPGs are able to take advantage of being controlled by a human Dungeon Master both to engage in improvisational adaptation during gameplay in response to player decisions and to undergo preparation between game sessions to adjust for player decisions steering the campaign in different directions. Computer RPGs, by contrast, are unable to engage in any kind of adaptation or preparation aside from the programming and content they are designed with, in consequence of which they allow for narrative decisions only through the strait-jacket of scripting.
Both CRPGs and pen-and-paper RPGs should play to their strengths rather than their weaknesses.
ADULF HITLOR FAN KLUB
Arcane
B-but p-proper CRPGs are always turn-based because that emulates the tabletop experience.
They can be married to some extent, that's what NWN/NWN2 persistent worlds did. My experience with a party of real human beings in an NWN2 persistent world remains a stand-out experience in my gaming life. To have the virtual world come alive around you and interact with you intelligently, while at the same time you have the benefits of the computer (graphical realization of the virtual world) in a shared experience, is nonpareil.
It continues to baffle my why devs haven't iterated more on that idea. No money in it I guess (I mean compared to the bigger audiences they chased in that period with MMOs and more dumbed-down RPGs and open world games)? Hopefully indies will make more of it in the future.
It continues to baffle my why devs haven't iterated more on that idea. No money in it I guess (I mean compared to the bigger audiences they chased in that period with MMOs and more dumbed-down RPGs and open world games)? Hopefully indies will make more of it in the future.
eli
Learned
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yeah, I really don't understand why we don't see more NWN-like games anymore.
Of all the several tabletop rpg systems I have played, D&D rules are the worst (this, or some weird weeaboo homebrew). Lot of paperwork and rule checking.
But since they are quite precise combat-wize, they fit very well in a computer game.
But since they are quite precise combat-wize, they fit very well in a computer game.
nlfortier
Esturia Games
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2020
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- 128
I love playing tabletop RPGs, but with two young kids, it can be difficult to find 3+ hours to set aside for a session. With CRPGs I can play for an hour or so after the kids are in bed and get a similar experience. Honestly, that's part of the reason I began developing my own game. I missed DMing and world-building.
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The Jester
Cipher
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It's a Nostalgy in mankind's subconscious for the simpler times of the past, when Jesus was man's lord and savior and one could draw a clear line between good and evil with an sword.
It is the man's desire to return to the past to be able to serve the honorable king of the nation with complete loyalty. He wants to believe that the world can still be a simple black and white place.
Because in today's modern world he does not see a place for himself.
So he looks back, to the time of the legends, the time of noble men in silver armor and demons, the times when it did not matter how hopeless destiny seemed, the times when it did not matter how much of the world was swallowed up by darkness, as long as the man had his unquestionable faith, he would always found the string of light in the black storm.
Or so he was told.
It is the man's desire to return to the past to be able to serve the honorable king of the nation with complete loyalty. He wants to believe that the world can still be a simple black and white place.
Because in today's modern world he does not see a place for himself.
So he looks back, to the time of the legends, the time of noble men in silver armor and demons, the times when it did not matter how hopeless destiny seemed, the times when it did not matter how much of the world was swallowed up by darkness, as long as the man had his unquestionable faith, he would always found the string of light in the black storm.
Or so he was told.
Just kidding, it's all about fucking busty Elfs and shit.
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