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Date: Sat, 02 Dec 2000 19:19:47 -0700
From: Jasper McChesney <jasperm@student.umass.edu>
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Subject: Re: Will IF gamers not support this style? (semi-long)
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An important distinction I think needs to be made is that between
table-top role-play *adventuring* and any other RPing.  AD&D is an
adventure RPG, as are most to one degree or another.  Adventure RPGs
are where *adventurers* (strangely enough) wander around, slay things,
and help people (or, occasionally, hurt them).  They are about epic
quests and the like, and they always involve larger-than-life characters
who are superhuman (by the mechanics of the system if not some real
game-world thing).  Adventuring games tend to focus on combat, and on
stats and such, but this is secondary to the design behind them.

This is not to say that adventure RPGs don't have "real" role-playing
in them, but rather that it is a certain sort of RPing.  Most table-top
RPGs are heavily adventure oriented, but even the "worst" of these can
have a lot of real role-playing going on (including AD&D) -- it's just
not necessarily the central premise as described by the rules.

Computer RPGs are typically adaptations of these adventure RPGs.  But,
they can't ever hope to capture the less adventure-oriented aspect of
them.  Likewise, table-top games that are not at all adventure RPGs
cannot be ported to traditional CRPGs very well at all.  With an
emphasis on interaction, a solo-play game has to go beyond what we
normally think of as a CRPG: stats and wandering unknown lands don't
work with "Luois XIV's Court" very well.  To do *that*, you need
something with a bigger (computer) adventure-game feel.  IF is capable
of just this, but can still retain some of the table-top RPG influence
and not turn these games entirely into computer adventures (I hope my
double usage of "adventure" isn't too confusing here).

One game that beautifully merged the two genres (AD&D type RPG and
IF type adventure game) was the Hero Quest series.  You slew monsters,
solved quests, and raised your skills, but you also talked to people
(a little anyway) and solved puzzles ala any computer adventure games.
And, to top it all off, it was driven by a text-based parser!  If
we jsut replaced the graphics with text, I think we wouldn't have a
bad "IF RPG" on our hands.

PS. With all this slinging about of terms like "RPG" and "Advneture;"
Isn't it odd that computer "Adventure" games are really more frequently
puzzle games and "Role Playing Games" are really more about the
adventuring (or action I suppose)?
