From: mmwang@adobe.com (Michael Wang)
Subject: Re: Darklands -- an RPG??
Organization: Adobe Systems Incorporated
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 18:05:14 GMT

In article <186u4qINNfpt@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> bz556@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Joshua E. Randall) writes:
>A Role Playing Game presumes that you, the player, take on the role of a
>character.  In other words, you pretend that you are the character, that
>his decisions are your decisions, and his goals, your goals.
>
>Even such vaunted paper and pencil games as Dungeons and Dragons and the
>like are hardly RPG's.  What they might be called are very detailed and
>imaginative simulations of whatever (fantasy, cyberpunk, you name it).  A
>more proper acronym for these games would be _AG, where _ is the relevant
>letter (such as C for cyberpunk or F for fantasy, which unfortunately leads
>to the unsavory abbreviation FAG) and AG stands for Adventure Gaming.
>
>Now if paper and pencil games cannot be true RPG's, then logically it
>follows that computer games which only attemp to imitate paper and pencil
>games cannot be RPG's either.
>
>The closest thing to a true RPG would be one of the "live stories" which
>often occur at gaming conventions.  For example, a couple of years ago
>there was an article in Games magazine about a Arabian Nights style game. 
>Each participant was assigned a character and a goal (or quest, if you
>will).  The players then interacted *as characters* for the rest of the
>game.  Actual rules were very few, and were handled by the GM's, who posed
>as town guards, magistrates, etc.
>
>As you see, true role-playing is much more akin to acting than to gaming
>per se.  Paper and pencil and computer games are fine--even fantastic--for
>what they are, but they are *not* RPG's.

You are right that most people playing RPGs don't do the acting part,
but that doesn't have much to do with whether you are in a "live" game
or a paper & pencil game. The "live" game just makes it more difficult
to not act out your part. But "role playing" doesn't just mean acting
out your part. In true "role playing" you act out your character based
on his or her attributes, background, history, etc. If your character
has very low intelligence, then you are supposed to act like that. If
your character has a low constitution, then you are supposed to act
like that (very sickly like). If you are paladin, then you are
supposed to act all noble-like. And so on and so forth. Most players
never understand that and therefore, just play themselves.

The best GMs are the ones that force you to play your role properly.
In other words, if you have a high charisma, the GM doesn't like you
get away with saying something like, "well, I use my high charisma to
force those thieves to leave us alone." Instead the GM forces you to
speak your part, "Begone silly knaves, canst thou not see that you are
fatally overmatched..."

Unfortunately, these things are very difficult to capture in a
computer RPG, but you can do it somewhat. Compare, for example, SSI's
gold box games with Darklands. In the gold box games, Charisma is
basically a completely worthless attribute (other than for achieving a
particular character class) because it has no effect on the gameplay.
On the other hand, Charisma does play a role in Darklands in that it
effects your success in dealing with the people in the game. You are
still missing the acting part, but at least the attribute does have
an influence on the gameplay. CRPGs have been incorporating some of
these role playing aspects into their gaming systems, but they still
have a very long way to go.


-- 
Michael Wang
mmwang@mv.us.adobe.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games