Classic versus learning: a computerized RPG system

[George the Flea]

Contracycle:

One device that RPG's have used in the past would be much more accessible on a computer than it has been in tabletop.  Some games allow you to take a skill with which you can assess someone elses rating.  This usually appears in games where the player does know their own rating but the ratings of others are hidden.  Then the player with this power can make a taks roll to assess a potential opponent and see how they match up.  This is a bit of a problem in tabletop because it usually requires an actual roll be made, which can be time consuming.  A computerised implementation could easily do that in that in the background.

That is a damn good idea.  We will definitely implement that.

Frex, if you are playing the role of a soldier you should probably be able to discuss the operational characteristics of weapons.  If this data is concealed behind an impentrable representation, once again you are validated by the system as having this knowledge but may have trouble immersing into the role, because you cannot actually think about those things yourself.

Actually it occurs to me that another opportunity in CRPG thats hard to do in tabletop would be to open up only those areas of data that correspond to a players expertise.

That makes a lot of sense.  I hadn't really considered the problem between character knowledge (as opposed to what the character can do) versus player knowledge of in-game things (as opposed to what the player knows the character can do).  I'll definitely try to work in something that makes it easier for the player to figure out things that the character would just know.

The kind of problem I was worrying about was when someone is sufficiently interested to try to investigate this deeply, and then hits a brick wall preventing them from doing so.  By contrast, if the system can be examined, the player than develops an expertise that reflects and accords with the characters supposed expertise - game and reality are more in sync,  and thus IMO immersion and identification are more likely.

Ah, gotcha.  I'll have to see where this would best fit into the game.  I wonder if perhaps it could be designed so that knowing the mechanics of the system intimately wouldn't be required for those who weren't interested, but were available in a manual or something outside of the game for those that were interested.  Or would it work better integrated into the game?  Hmmm.  I'll have to think about it.

I can understand why computer games have a tendency to go toward location-keyed special effects and so on, and its noit as if I think the idea is totally unusable, but its another convention that might bear some examination.

Good point.  Since the game is based on a college campus, there will definitely be some places that make sense to go to in order to find out stuff.  We're also definitely trying to figure out how to populate the game with just random NPC's which go about their own business and have nothing to do with plot or the player's character.  This is slightly tricky since the game engine we're using doesn't support time lapsing (which is necessary in order to properly populate classrooms, the library, etc.), but we will hopefully find a way.

Thanks for your input!  That was really helpful stuff.

Mike:

Thanks for the heads up.  I'll try and take a look at Darklands and Ultima Underground.

M.J. Young:

Thanks for the resource titles.  I have been browsing slowly through the articles here on the Forge as I have time and need.  Hopefully once I start getting planning a little further under way and don't have to spend so much time on this thread I'll be able to do more outside research on the topic of RPG theory.  :-)

Very interesting stuff; hadn't ever really thought about it until I stumbled across the Forge just a little bit ago.