Everyone Seems to Forget Traditional Role-Playing Games.

Traditional (Pencil and Paper) Role-Playing Games (Trpgs) have in many ways been an inspiration for video games. However, Trpgs didn't disappear when video games came around, if anything they blossomed. I'm going to post about the design and discussions that came out of the Trpgs from the last 15 or so years. In some ways Trpgs dealt with a lot of the similar problems that digital designers deal with today and came up with unique solutions. Sometimes Trpgs innovated, sometimes they struggled but have always tackled problems their own unique perspective. Looking at Trpgs gives alternative perspective and framework for thinking about games and game design.

It's actually a rule that you can't talk about Role-Playing Games without mentioning Dungeons and Dragons.

Honestly, when most people talk Trpgs and videogames, they are kinda lying; because what they are really talking about is Dungeons and Dragons and video games. One-offs aside, D&D is kinda the only system that video games really 'learn' from and is sometimes held on a pedestal. In the world of Trpgs, D&D isn't a sacred cow. While D&D does provide an amazing structure and is one of the more balanced and influential rpgs, it exposes a lot of problems and frames a lot of the discussion that is had around Trpgs. You could argue that all these discussions that I'm going to bring up is really people just arguing about different aspects of D&D. Is it better to do it like D&D or change it? Is it better to have D&D books that are like this or that? What if D&D was about something else, what would it look like? In short, a lot more Trpgs other than D&D have been created and exist and do things better than D&D. They have been made, played, and revised, for years. Lots of ideas and mechanics have been tried in the last 15 years that most people around video games just haven't seemed to notice.

When most people think of indie games they think of 8-bit pixel-platformers with a pumping techno beat and maybe some weird artistic stuff. But these sort of independent and experimental games have been happening in Trpgs as well.  The amount of exploration that has happened in indie games in many ways is mirrored by things happening in Trpgs, sometimes years before it's happened in video games. These explorations were happening so much earlier than many of the developments occurring in digital games you want to draw a line relating them (but I can't find any evidence for it). Everything from exploring alternatives to fun, to strange conflict resolution systems, to simple and short or complicated simulations. They can completely eschew conventions or can be simple twists on old concepts. Trpgs aren't having a comeback, they have been there for years.

The only thing you should dread is thinking about how long you have gone without hearing about this RPG

Trpgs have their own alternate universe of conversations and ideas about what games should be and how they should work. Sometimes they ask some of the same questions videogames have struggled with for the same decade and a half and sometimes Trpgs have had a completely unique conversation. Oddly enough many people in videogames seem to not have explored or taken notice of many of these developments.

Trpgs can continue to inspire and inform designs in games. The 15 years of design and evolution can add to and improve games and the conversations around them. They will continue to provide unique solutions and interesting perspectives for all games to draw from. I know that through this series of articles you will have added new ways to take some of game designs toughest problems. It's time to return to tradition.

My other idea for the last sentence was something about being on a roll (or role)?

Best Weapons pt. 3 A smorgasbord of gun-love

Ok, so here are the runner's up to the best guns. This kinda took so long to post because of life stuff and because honestly there is no good way to really write this. Every time of like the 5 times I tried to write this all I do is this smorgasbord of "Remember this cool gun?". It just seems kinda unprofessional and amateurish to me. But honestly, I can't do it any other way to do it, and the explanations will be framed in the context of Utility and Niche. The weapons on this list expand one of those traits in an interesting way, and generally beyond what other games do.

Just as a review, 'Utility' = Gadget-ness, 'Niche' = how well it fits the role of the weapons in the game/genre.

"sweet match-cut bro"

Revolver (X-III)

Fan-firing was an interesting twist on the revolver. It kinda allows the weapon to expand its gameplay Niche and create a ‘panic mode’ for shooting the gun. It's not very efficient ammo-wise, but it definitely extended the ability of the gun from middle range to short range and definitely made the gun feel powerful. This weapon really didn't have much Utility in the game, but then again the game wasn't really going in that direction. That game was much more about being a Jason Borne comic book than anything else.

Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device (Portal)

Utility is like through the roof! But it's just not that much of a gun. Technically I could see closing portals and cutting things in half, or like using it to drop things on other things? Shooting the moon kind of worked, I guess. But honestly, it's not a weapon, and Portal isn't a game about shooting baddies. Portal is a game that is heavily deviant from the shooter formula, and is honestly better classified as an action puzzle game. That doesn't mean there is no place for a portal gun in an average shooter; having a version of a portal gun in a multiplayer CTF or KoH could be interesting.

Paint Gun (Tag: the Power of Paint)

The Paint Gun in Tag has as much Utility as the gravity gun and has a great potential to have a gameplay Niche in a traditional shooter. However, it was never fully realized beyond a puzzle gun. As the name implies, Tag's gun shoots paint, and that paint imparts the surfaces with different properties when walked on like speed, jump-y-ness, and walk-on-walls-and-ceilings-like-having-magnetic-boots-in-space. This gun doesn't really have a Niche in a shooter, but the mechanic definitely makes it conducive to area denial mechanics. Electro-conductive paint, or flammable paint or paint that bounces bullets or reflects lasers. These could all work as a way to add the traditional gameplay niche to this weapon. I haven't seen much done with this idea lately, but I can always hope.

Needler (Halo)

This one goes on the list for having a surprisingly unique Niche. Most guns in modern shooters are built around the concept of being good at a particular range (or sometimes just plain better). The Needler is cool because it still has a clear roll, but it's decidedly not based on range, it's good against targets that are exposed. The gun forces players to take cover. This is a fairly interesting concept to put into a gun and to have it move off the traditional vectors of range and damage.

If you can't pick a videogame, just pick Arnold!

Rocket Launcher (multiple iterations)

Putting this gun on the list is kinda cheating because every game uses the rocket launcher slightly differently. Many games use the weapon beyond its gameplay Niche and expand it's Utility. Sometimes they let you destroy terrain, other times they lock-on to enemies/vehicles, other games let you ‘rocket jump’... in the end it's always a powerful and creates an epic moment. Theses uses often make the weapon something that trumps someone's strategy, creates an easy 'pass' on an otherwise hard encounter, or is used to explore or access parts of the terrain that players. The Rocket Launcher often seems to capture the imagination of designers and the ultimate power that can be achieved in an action game.

So important they put it on the cover!

Bow and Arrow (Thief)

It just works so well with the game. The arrow options all support the core of the game. While not  having the same Niche as the most shooters, it does serve the game and work in combat. Thief is a game about stealth. It's still game about power, like shooters, but that power is derived from being unseen. The bow allows for stealth and opens up additional options in the game, it just had a fair amount of utility. The bow works kind of as a limited resource cheat to turn off lights or distract guards and even shoot ropes.  A lot of games include bows and arrows or crossbows but rarely think of anything to do with it beyond 'shooting a thing without much noise,' and maybe 'working underwater' (and also isn't hitscan).

Shooting so far away you can barely see what you are doing!

Sniper Rifle (Battlefield)

The sniper rifles in the Battlefield series were interesting because of the extreme range you could engage targets and how designers balanced that power. There was something awesome about tracking and shooting a guy from what seemed like a mile away while compensating for the bullet drop and leading the other player. This didn't really add any utility to the weapon, but it did add a bit of depth and verisimilitude. This design choice also had little impact on the niche of the weapons as a whole. It really shows a moment where designers recognized something they could do differently without drastically altering the game.

Blink (Dishonored)

Dishonored wasn't the first game to use Blink but it was the first to really use it well. The ability to teleport combined with stealth really helped to take a lot of the waiting out of being sneaky, and the whole game really had some clever ways to Blink (Also the game had almost no ventilation shafts and this is a stealth game!). Blink complimented combat allowing players to out-maneuver or sometimes just close distance with enemies. This all may seem kinda obvious but upon analysis it actually works in both a utility way and works on the gameplay niche of the sword. If you look at it as a 'blink and sword' as a single weapon it is definitely has decent marks in both Niche and Utility.

Electro Bolt Plasmid (Bioshock)

At first it seems like this weapon just sort of phones in Utility and Niche; look it's a stun gun that is also a door-key! but what makes this weapon really shine is that the designers really paid attention to the environment that this gun was used in. In a flooded and decaying dystopia, this becomes a weapon of opportunity allowing you to stun entire pools of water. Oh, and those turrets and cameras? Well, Electro Bolt is your way to start hacking those machinations of the system. It's not a one trick pony tool-weapon; it is multi use in many forms.

***

In review I think this list does a great job of showing how different guns can be seen through the concept of Utility and Niche (and that even those that seem to skirt around that idea still fit in). But I'm pretty sure this will never be my favorite article I put up here; it still feels kinda amateurish and 'gushy'. Basically this isn't as objective as I would like; but I think that even at the very least this article shows the rigor that Utility and Niche has as a way to analyse weapons in action games.