Caution: The ideas contained herein are dangerous to the status quo and familiarity of the game. Please read at your own RISK.
I write this with much trepidation; it started as I approached my personal one year anniversary of playing Planeshift, and I wanted to take a look back, do some introspection, review the progress of the game, and discuss the current state of things. I've voiced my opinion about many issues, the topics of many various threads and I know that I am in the minority opinion on many of these things. Still, this being a tiny fragment of the internet, I feel empowered to make my voice heard, regardless of the inevitable backlash which will follow. All I ask is, please be civil, do not flame. The ideas I'm about to propose are indeed heretical, noncomformist, and would require an absolute clearing of the slate on much of the development of the game in favor of a system that works. I understand that this will be perceived by many as a threat. I do not intend to threaten your feeling of security. In fact, I intend to liberate you from it.
Many of the issues being debated throughout this forum I feel can be boiled down to one clear, underlying problem. That is the ever present disparity and expanding gulf between the mechanical side of the game and the intended purpose of the game, which was once stated as Role Play. In essence, the mechanics do nothing to promote, advocate, or aid in fostering role play, and in many cases actually impede upon it.
Read through any one of the many stories posted under the Roleplaying (Communitive Storywriting) heading. Go ahead, I'm patient, I can wait... finished? Good. You see, that is what I and I have to believe at least two other players expect from our gameplay. Do those stories derive from the mechanics? The simple answer is 'No', those stories in fact ignore mechanics in favor of narrative. That is, according to the stated purpose of this game, an absolute crime and a crying shame. I say, give me a mechanical system from which such narratives can emerge from naturally.
One way to combat this issue is to implement the element of risk. Risk is nowhere apparent within the context of this game. There is, in fact, no way for a character to 'lose' anything, that is unless the player is willing to let it happen. You want to avoid godmodding? Implement risk into the system. Let me touch on some fundamental points in the game where risk should be a crucial element, but is glaringly missing.
Combat: For starters, combat should be a RARE occurrence, and should be DANGEROUS to the combatants. Encounters with mobs should be an event, in which the player feels the strain and stress of their character, who is fighting for their very lives against brutal, wild creatures. To begin, lets do away with the static spawn points and docile herds of mobs who just stand there waiting to be slaughtered. An elegant solution would be to spawn mobs at a map's edge, as individuals or in small groups, and have them migrate across the map to a different edge via a randomly generated but reasonable path. Timid and docile creatures would stray away from adventurers, while more aggressive creatures would seek them out. Doesn't that sound FUN? Furthermore, lets do away with the hitpoint system in favor of a system that accounts for how an actual living body functions. Being hit in the arm with a steel battle axe for 49.85 damage is a ludicrous statement. Being hit in the arm with a steel battle axe, cutting through flesh and bone, severing nerves and tendons, losing your grip on your shield or weapon, going into shock from the pain and blood loss, even losing the limb completely, that is all reasonable, dangerous, risky, and makes for a good story. Give me a combat system where I can aim my attacks for weakpoints, cripple opponents, go for a kill shot, dodge, parry, counter. Give me a combat system that has lasting, detrimental effects on my character. Loss of limbs, nerve damage, scars.
Magic: Magic in this game is entirely too easy, and carries no risk. Magic should be an absolutely risky artform, as you are using arcane forces, playing with the elemental forces of the universe. It shouldn't be such an easy task. It should also have detrimental, long lasting effects on your character, via mechanics. As it stands, I can just stand on a rock and blast helpless creatures into oblivion with a machine gun spray of fireballs, with no risk or repercussions. So it drains MP, but what effect does that have on my character? Why doesn't she get drowsy, or grow feeble from the exertion? Give the character tangible consequences for their actions, don't rely on the player to RP it out. Make RP an undeniable, integral part of gameplay. Let's close the gap between grinders and RPers. Perhaps a riskier system may be a Vancian, or a ritual magic system, where spells must be prepared beforehand and thus are limited. Spells which weaken a character upon casting would be favorable too.
Death: In conclusion, where it belongs, Death. Death, as it stands, is a joke. It's either a minor inconvenience or is shortcut back to town. It's only a real problem to a new player who is lost in the DR for the first time. I understand that there are plans to make the DR a less navigable place, with entrances and exits shifting at random, a nebulous labyrinth, a real ordeal to traverse, so I won't discuss that. What I will ask for is a game mechanic which enforces Permanent Death. Make Permanent Death a real risk that characters and players both must face and suffer, whether it be through criminal execution, assassination, or strictly being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Of course, this would require more settings discussion on what exactly can cause permanent death.
I expect the popular argument against these changes will be, "But Aramara! I've spent years grinding away turning my helpless peasant into an almighty demigod, I don't want to LOSE my character!"
Learn to lose, learn to live.
I'd love to discuss other options for a gaming system that doesn't include leveling through endless grinding, but perhaps that's for a separate thread.
