Curious about what people want...

[Nikech]

Originally posted by karakth
I like to fall in the middle, having a group of good characters adventuring together and fighting monsters, sharing tales around a fire and saving each other\'s lives. I hope this\'ll be available in PS.

Me too, pure RP gets boring, pure hack n\' slash get boring even faster. Encouraging party play would help against powergamers, at least it more RP in a party.

[karakth]

Let\'s take 2 examples of the same situation, one with Hack n\' Slash and the other without:

The situation:
A party includes players A,B and C. A and C are good friends.

A == Male
B == Female
C == Male

A has been trying to get the attention of B for a while now, but tends to be a little overprotective of her and generally likes to show off.
C is also trying to get the attention of B, but doesn\'t try to show off or be overprotective of B.
B is a strongly independent woman, and over the past few weeks has grown attracted to C and annoyed at A.

Without Hack n\' Slash:

A,B, and C find themselves in a tavern sipping ale at the same table. All of them hae had a little bit too much to drink, and C and B are smiling at each other and mostly ignoring A. This angers A and he rises from the table and leaves. C decides to follow him to see what was wrong, and perhaps talk to him about the situation with B. A sees him coming up the stairs and in a sudden pang of jealousy lurches forward and pushes C down the stairs. C lands and breaks his kneck, and dies instantly.

With Hack n\' Slash:

The party finds itself wandering the stone labyrinths, talking queitly of the dangers in these labyrinths. Suddenly the party fins itself surrounded by monsters, and start a desperate fight. A stays at B\'s side, helping her fight off monsters which she could have easily stopped on her own. C finds himself surrounded by monsters on all sides and in desperate need of help. Only A notices, and is about to help him when B pushes A out of the way for space to swing her quaterstaff. In a sudden burst of jealousy, A pretends not to see C and C ends up dead.

The Result:

The result in both cases is that A starts to feel guilty about what he did, and the story plays itself out from there.

Now, which situation would be funnest to play? The aim of RPing is to obtain as much entertainment from the dramatic situations happening in the game. As seen from this example, Hack n\' Slash served to boost the dramatic scope of the session.

[Draklar]

I thought that hack n\' slash is nothing but bashing monsters...
going for a quest during which you have to kill monsters is roleplay. Get your facts straight.
Sometimes hunting monsters is roleplay as well
but in moment when you go kill monsters all the time to gain exp and items then it\'s hack n\' slash

[slabertooch]

Originally posted by Draklar
I thought that hack n\' slash is nothing but bashing monsters...
going for a quest during which you have to kill monsters is roleplay. Get your facts straight.
Sometimes hunting monsters is roleplay as well
but in moment when you go kill monsters all the time to gain exp and items then it\'s hack n\' slash

I agree with that, I think that\'s closer to what I meant than what I wrote, sorry for any confusion.  Skill progession should be about roleplaying not killing monsters.  In D&D the dm would assign level points and other goodies based on how well you roleplayed (least that was how we played) and whoever stayed in character the best got bonuses.  That is what I mean by rewarding the roleplayer.  I don\'t see how killing monsters has anything to do with skill progession, unless you are a warrior or combat related class.  Why would a blacksmith need to kill monsters to increase his smithing skills?

[karakth]

Luckily for us the only way a blacksmith can increase his blacksmithing skills in PS is by blacksmithing. So the only people who gain skills by Hack n\' Slash are Warriors and Mages. But hang on...With mindless hack n\' slash...Isn\'t it easy for powergamers to say:

\"Well, I am training and testing myself, and I feel that the best way to do that is by surviving in the Stone Labyrinths, going blade to claw with monsters every day.\"

So where do you draw the line between powergamer and roleplayer, exactly?

[Draklar]

if he says such things, then he probably roleplays...
but if he simply goes, bashes monsters and doesn\'t do anything else, then he\'s a pure hack&slash\'er

[karakth]

So what you\'re saying is that the only difference between an RPer and a pure Hack n\' Slasher is fancy words?

[Draklar]

no, that\'s not what I said. But I\'m not going to explain this to you. I said what should be said. Just read my posts.

[slabertooch]

I think the difference between a PGer and a RPer is, simply a RP is involved in the community.  Yes powergaming is a part of roleplaying, in the sense that everyone should be striving to better themselves for the sake of the party.  However a person that \"levels\" or increases their skills just for notoriety, I wuold label a PG.  Keep in mind that alot of PGs are also grief players, liking nothing better then \"pwning\" someone.  I have no problem wwith someone bettering themselves in the game, provided that the intention is to make the game better with their increased involvement.

[Samoth]

I didn\'t think there were levels in PS.  You should get better at skills the more you practice.  But if the devs just limit how much better a player gets at the high levels, after a while the power players will loose the thrill.  The juice for the power player is always more power.  At some point you either feed it with other power or the player will go away.

[vector212]

it seems like everyone thinks that people who play rpgs to fight pretty much thinks they have something to prove. But I guess personally it would make the game a lot more interesting if there were at least some sembalance of action. I\'m not knocking rping... but I think there needs to be a balance... personally A Tale In The Desert doesn\'t really appeal to me... it just seems too... boring. It may be a very nice game... but it\'s just not for me. I really like the idea of being able to do quite well in this game when you never actually need to fight. but I\'d prefer leveling and etc... I guess that\'s just me though.

[Syzerian]

one of the best rping moments i have had was on dungeon siege amazingly
there were 5 of us
me a level 101 archer
a level 98 melee fighter
a level 84 melee fighter
a level 109 nature mage
a level 87 combat mage

we were playing on utraen peninsula and were going to slay the dragon. we had great fun messing around and working together. we tryed to act like we would if we were really in the game. the nature mage was hit by a fire ball and ran around screaming \"im on fire help help!\" then the combat mage casts \'meteor\' and goes \"quick run away!\" then one of the fighters died and we all crowded around his corpse greiving his death till he respawns

for me theres nothing better than getting a squad of good rpers and going hunting

although i would probably be spending most of my time in the temple talking