Settings and their lack of differentiation

[JarlFrank]

Your loss.

 

[Mastermind]

Maybe, but from your description the entertainment value would last for about half an hour. Commandos-like games are more like puzzle games anyway, where you figure out a solution based on the tools you are given rather than choose your own tools and watch the game unfold based on those choices. Restricted choices add to the value of the former but would be accurately considered dumbing down in the case of the latter.

 

[CyberWhale]

So a half an hour more than we get from usual generic fantasy?

 

[Mastermind]

So a half an hour more than we get from usual generic fantasy?

Who's "we"? Even I got a good 10-15 hours' worth out of Dragon Age even though it was shit.

 

[JarlFrank]

Maybe, but from your description the entertainment value would last for about half an hour. Commandos-like games are more like puzzle games anyway, where you figure out a solution based on the tools you are given rather than choose your own tools and watch the game unfold based on those choices. Restricted choices add to the value of the former but would be accurately considered dumbing down in the case of the latter.

You obviously didn't play the game because it actually has multiple approaches you can try, you can even go with a straight combat path if you want to. It's much less rigidly puzzle-like than the first Commandos game.

 

[Mastermind]

You obviously didn't play the game because it actually has multiple approaches you can try, you can even go with a straight combat path if you want to. It's much less rigidly puzzle-like than the first Commandos game.

I said "figure out A solution", not "figure out THE solution". It would be a shitty game altogether if you had to figure out exactly just what that one intended path was.

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EnslavedElves

How many of these are about real elves? Because the first entry is about Dragon Balls and another was about Planet of Apes. None of which featured fucking elves.

 

[Damned Registrations]

I'd love to see a game with the setting from Iron Dragon's Daughter and Dragons of Babel; it's a gritty take on high fantasy in a post-industrial setting. Gargoyles try to convince college students to jump off the school rooftop for easy meals, griffins in the city get drunk because obnoxious twats feed them beer for shits and giggles, and dragons are cast iron golems that can fire missiles and use magic to possess you. Oh, and they have pilots, because they're basically super intelligent evil fighter jets. The elves are sadistic perfectly normal aristocrats that get cancer from wrought iron and even children can cast spells to kill people, if they can get their hands on a bit of hair or toenails from the victim. Shoplifters contend with anti-theft talismans and a race that has the power to walk through walls is confined to ghettoes because obviously everyone thinks they're thieving scum. It's all just combinations of pretty generic fantasy shit, but it's twisted just enough to give it style- this is why I never bitch about the classic stuff in and of itself. It's all a matter of how you use it, and something exotic will earn you novelty, but novelty doesn't get you very far on it's own.

 

[Daedalos]

Ban Fantasy, Cyberpunk and Steampunk.

Instate pure Sci-Fi settings.

 

[Naveen]

I'd still like to see some kind of prehistoric setting for a RPG. Not necessarily dinosaurs but more of a late pleistocene, neanderthal, sabretooth tiger filled world with roving tribes and shit. Insert ice age whenever necessary.

Well, there's a p&p RPG similar to that, it's called Og. I recommend reading it even if you are not going to play, it's hilarious. You play as retarded Cro-Magnons with limited vocabulary (you need to choose which words you know, only six or something like that), so if you see a tiger you can say something like "Beast-Hairy-Danger!". There is a class called (I think) "intelligent" that can choose a few more words. You daily adventures are about surviving sabretooth tigers and aliens trying to probe you.

The word you're looking for is verisimilitude: the sense that something has it's own, internally consistent logic, even if it isn't consistent with the real world.

Ah, yes, "verisimilitude", that's one of the extra words the intelligent caveman can learn.

By the way, a big problem regarding generic fantasy settings is that those setting are designed by writers, and contrary to what many people believe, writers aren't that good creating fantasy and new things since their tool (language) mostly works using previous associations. For example, if I write something like "The heroes see a castle..." I'm sure the mental image I created is one a medieval castle. Also, the "hero" is probably some knightly faggot. I doubt many of you thought about something like this

Spoiler

Or a Japanese castle for example. RPG designers grew up playing p&p RPGs or reading books, and I doubt many have the vocabulary to describe an Indian fortress. This is why visual artists are so important if you want to create something new or strange (W40K wouldn't be the same without John Blanche, or Alien without H.R.Giger). They are not limited by language and if they think "I'm going to design the stronghold of a mage", they can create this

Spoiler

Unfortunately most world designers are bookworms and nerds, and the most imaginative thing they can do is some "trope inversion", like making elves heterosexual or something. In other words, if you want a unique setting, hire a good fantasy painter and give him lots of drugs. I mean, we are talking about VIDEO games, the visual part should matter.

 

[Haraldur]

A modern day, "urban fantasy" setting could make for an interesting CRPG. There is a hidden world that exists just around the corner or just behind that old house on the hill -- but most people just can't see it. Obviously the main PC would become one such individual who can see and interact with this other world.

Harry Potter. Has it been done?

As a fan of Discworld MUD, I would like to see a graphical, single-player Discworld CRPG. Perhaps a GURPS Discworld CRPG. If the player-character is an assassin, then the in-game tutorial could be based on "the Run", with a conspiracy-based story introduced via assassination contracts.

EDIT: And backgrounds could include "Scholarship Boy", "Foreign Prince", "Poor Nobility" and the like.

 

[Gord]

Well, there's The Secret World.

As close as it gets to a modern day, "urban fantasy" setting. It takes elements from myth, folklore and literature and mashes it together to one big horror/mystery/conspiracy best-off.
It's an MMO, sadly, but at least one that can be enjoyed in single-player. The RPG parts are not particularly strong, but some of the quests (the investigation missions) are great.
Might be worth looking at (hint: sometimes there are trial keys available over at the TSW thread in the MMO forum), it's subscription free, you only pay once for the (large) base game and then for DLC missions or (largely cosmetic) additional content.

 

[:Flash:]

Historical eras and civilizations are numerous in our own worl.
Aztecs, Conquistadors, muslims empires, ancient rome, medieval japan, cold war, industrial revolution, people revolution, pirates, colonization, rebelling from the colonization etc... are just a few example amongs many.

I remember an RPG that must have come out about 2000ish, which played in the Ancient Philippines, and which was actually created by a Philippine dev studio. The engine was Infinity-Engine like. I played the demo, but never the full version. I have never heard of this game on the Codex and can't remember its name.
It got some pretty good reviews on the HotU forums, which is where I stumbled upon it. ( Unkillable Cat rezaf)
I'm not entirely sure it was the Philippines, but definitely East Asia, and the developer was from the same country as the location of the game.

 

[V_K]

I remember an RPG that must have come out about 2000ish, which played in the Ancient Philippines, and which was actually created by a Philippine dev studio. The engine was Infinity-Engine like. I played the demo, but never the full version. I have never heard of this game on the Codex and can't remember its name.
It got some pretty good reviews on the HotU forums, which is where I stumbled upon it. ( Unkillable Cat rezaf)
I'm not entirely sure it was the Philippines, but definitely East Asia, and the developer was from the same country as the location of the game.

I believe you mean this one.

 

[JarlFrank]

History RPGs have huge potential, especially if you combine it with mythology and legend, and make supernatural things people used to believe in real. Ancient Mesopotamia with Mesopotamian demons, Aztec world with vengeful gods (kinda like Conquistador where curses actually worked and there was a Mayan underworld quest-thing), stuff like that. Cold War can also be fun, as proven by Hammer & Sickle. Personally, I'd love a WW2 RPG with Silent Storm combat, and a Wolfenstein plot with nazi supersoldiers and occultist wizards.

 

[:Flash:]

I believe you mean this one.

Exactly, that's the one.

 

[Telengard]

Sometimes, in my darker moments, I think that absolutely any historical RPG could get past the censors simply by the design team teaming up with a hair stylist and the best hair rigger on the market, and then not skimping on character graphics. Have boatloads of realistic hair models with realistic hair physics. Finally, put a little high fantasy adventure town area at the start. Not much real content, but a lot of sandboxy stuff in the tiny area. That way the three-quarters of the audience who are absolutely obsessed with such things could play dolly in their little high fantasy playpen that they never get around to leaving.

And then there would be a door at the edge of town, where once you go through the real RPG starts. Kind of like a nursery area for when the adults go play.

 

[Trash]

Ban Fantasy, Cyberpunk and Steampunk.

Instate pure Sci-Fi settings.

Hope you like your Mass Effect. Seriously though, there have been quite a few amazing SF rpg's in the past. The Buck Roger's games with their proud 50's pulp roots, B.A.T.'s wierd space opera vibe, Hard Nova's massive gameworld, Megatraveller with its wide variety of planets, cities, colonies and lifeless moons in a massive feudal empire and Spacewrecked with its early stranded on a dying spaceship theme. Just a few that spring to mind. The draught of the rpg genre unfortunately also meant an end to this and the change of gaming from a fringe hobby to a genuine industry also meant that devs and publishers stopped experimenting and doing quircky stuff. Unfortunately. I genuinly expected more to come after the phenomenal success of the Mass Effect trilogy. Alas.

 

[Semper]

writers aren't that good creating fantasy and new things since their tool (language) mostly works using previous associations. For example, if I write something like "The heroes see a castle..." I'm sure the mental image I created is one a medieval castle. RPG designers grew up playing p&p RPGs or reading books, and I doubt many have the vocabulary to describe an Indian fortress..

you mean like this?
"the heroes see an indian castle..."

 

[Excidium II]

Sometimes, in my darker moments, I think that absolutely any historical RPG could get past the censors simply by the design team teaming up with a hair stylist and the best hair rigger on the market, and then not skimping on character graphics. Have boatloads of realistic hair models with realistic hair physics. Finally, put a little high fantasy adventure town area at the start. Not much real content, but a lot of sandboxy stuff in the tiny area. That way the three-quarters of the audience who are absolutely obsessed with such things could play dolly in their little high fantasy playpen that they never get around to leaving.

And then there would be a door at the edge of town, where once you go through the real RPG starts. Kind of like a nursery area for when the adults go play.

What do you have against hairstyles, let it all out

 

[Telengard]

What do you have against hairstyles, let it all out

Ok, sure, I'll go on a rant about hairstyles.

*

Why is it 3/4 of the feedback on RPGs is about hairstyles? Complaints about lack of variety, lack of colorization options, lack of real hair movement? I mean, come on, it's hair. Hair. I'll say that again: hair.

I mean, I know people don't really understand game design, so they graft on to things they do understand. But still, hair. I could understand if people were complaining about the dirt on a wasteland character's clothing not looking like it was dirty and stinky enough. Because proper man stink, that is a man thing to complain about. But no, it's all hair this and hair that. And I keep thinking: What are you all, girls?

But then I calm down and take a deep breath, and remind myself that they're all probably just repressed homosexuals with a barbie doll fetish, and everything feels much better.

 

[JarlFrank]

I like games with in-depth hairstyle customization. :3

 

[Lhynn]

The Witcher did it. Birthright did it. Fucking Perumov did it, lol. Nowadays you'll have a harder time finding a fantasy setting where humans and "good" demihumans are happily and peacefully coexisting. You're really out of the loop.

Even the most generic settings always feature elves purposefully exterminating humans, they are just filed under "the bad kind of elves". More often than not, for this reason alone.

Why do you and other people keep bringing up books as if they were a valid example in any conversation concerning cRPGs?

 

[Excidium II]

Ok, sure, I'll go on a rant about hairstyles.

*

Why is it 3/4 of the feedback on RPGs is about hairstyles? Complaints about lack of variety, lack of colorization options, lack of real hair movement? I mean, come on, it's hair. Hair. I'll say that again: hair.

I mean, I know people don't really understand game design, so they graft on to things they do understand. But still, hair. I could understand if people were complaining about the dirt on a wasteland character's clothing not looking like it was dirty and stinky enough. Because proper man stink, that is a man thing to complain about. But no, it's all hair this and hair that. And I keep thinking: What are you all, girls?

But then I calm down and take a deep breath, and remind myself that they're all probably just repressed homosexuals with a barbie doll fetish, and everything feels much better.

Nobody wants to play a character with stupid hair or hair that doesn't match the 2d portrait.

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

Nobody wants to play a character with hair that doesn't match the 2d portrait.

True dat. I hate this shit.