Wasn’t there a recent shinobi game, shadow tactics?
Yes, and it's pretty good. But Shadow Tactics is just a real-time tactics game, I wish to see the concept used on a RPG context.
Kyl Von Kull said:
I see the appeal here but Jason is right; the trouble with this is that all your guys have the same skill set. Charlemagne’s comes are all Germanic warrior aristocrats with the same training, so how does Roland play any different from Oliver or Ogier the Dane? The system would need to find a new way to introduce a lot more complexity.
I don't think having the same skill set is a problem. Jagged Alliance 2, while not a pure RPG, manages to differentiate characters enough with the same skills base. So does Invisible Inc. Each character in these games feels unique and useful in it's own ways.
This will sound weird, but an RPG that
almost does it right is Planescape Torment. The game's central themes of Identity, beliefs, etc. are clear and permeate most of it's gameplay through dialogues, exploration and quests, making it this idyossincratic and surreal experience about "What can change the nature of a man?" and "What is the nature of a man in the first place?". But then in combat it turns into this awkward D&D mini-game of "rogue-fighter-mages" that feels ass-pulled and disconected. If they also made combat funcionality an extension of that core themes the game would be much more coherent. Then you would have Morte as the "Charismatic demon swindler" instead of "fighter", Anna the "Proud, smart but insecure orphan" instead of thief, etc and the mechanical capabilities extending from those values. Notice the game already does it in part, through some NPCs special abilities like Morte Litany of Curses or Dakkon Sword abilities, that you unlock through "dialogue quests", but in the end it's a kinda timid attempt that just adds up to this eschizoprenic feeling that the game combat don't really meshes with the rest.
And
that is a direction a supposed Charlemagne game could go, making the characters differentiate not only by martial qualities, but also their virtues and personality traits. How does a passionate paladin fights? How about a honored but troubled one? And a pious one? Damn, there is this tabletop RPG called Pendragon that already does it, and if it works in the tabletop environment (I've played it a couple times and our characters felt unique enough), I don't see how this couldn't work for the electronic form. But I digress. There is a lot of ways to implement this concept.
TL;DR: the more diverse each role in a party-based game, the more generic the ending experience tends to be, both thematic and mechanically. You will never have a great game of infiltration if the infiltrator has to share the spotlight with a fighter, a mage and a druid.
someone for arcanum conversion in ToEE engine.
