Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!shelby!portia.stanford.edu!elaine0.stanford.edu!draphsor From: draphsor@elaine0.stanford.edu (Matt Rollefson) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games Subject: Re: RPG opinions (was Re: Programmer...) Message-ID: Date: 13 Nov 90 07:32:51 GMT References: <1990Nov9.005315.16572@magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu> Sender: news@portia.Stanford.EDU (USENET News System) Organization: AIR, Stanford University Lines: 41 hirai@cs.swarthmore.edu (Eiji Hirai) writes: >In planning a more non-hack-n-slash game requires you to come up with an >entirely new way of interacting with the npc's and having to give them >motivations, etc. Not an easy task, but do-able. >In any case, there are programs out there like this. I remember playing a >game on an Apple II (IIe wasn't even out then) where you were the head of a >group of surviving rebel forces, trying to oust this evil lord who's taken >over you rland or somesuch. In any case, if you fight with him at the start >of the game, you lose big-time since your forces are just too small. >What you have to do is to recruit sympathetic forces by sending various >political messages and bribes to other lords in the area. Only by mustering >the allied forces can you even think of attacking the big bad dude. >Each lord had their own motivations so you had to figure out what sort of >deal you could cut with them individually. Sounds like fun. Although this is somewhat of a different genre - it's more like a large-scale strategy boardgame, such as Diplomacy, from the way you describe it. Role-playing in a sense, but not in a real personal level. Or do you have an individual character who has to move about the land to meet with the neighboring lords and such? Maybe my interpretation is off. >No hack-n-slash here, though I would term this an rpg game. Down with >hack-n-slash! Well, I wouldn't go that far. You have to keep the kids amused, after all! Besides, a well-implemented CRPG would be extremely complex, and therefore extremely expensive. I'd like to see the game companies stay in business. Selling to kids (and their parents) is the way to do it. >Eiji Hirai @ Mathematics Dept., Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA 19081-1397 >hirai@cs.swarthmore.edu | hirai@swarthmr.bitnet | uunet!hirai%cs.swarthmore.edu >Copyright 1990 by Eiji Hirai. All Rights Reserved. Permission to reproduce or >quote explicitly denied except on Usenet. I don't speak for Swarthmore College. -- Draphsor vo'drun-Aelf draphsor@portia.stanford.edu