The Open Matt Project

CRPG fun

And now for something completely different.

In the past, I have pointed out that the core of all role playing games is narrative, or story. So long as the player feels a part of the world, and is instrumental in making changes both to their avatar and to the world itself, they will be happy. In Baldur's Gate, the storyline of being Gorion's son and discovering your dark heritage is not just a McGuffin to pull you through dungeon after dungeon, but rather a fertile environment for your imagination to be intruigued by. Was Gorion really killed? Who is trying to kill me? If I leave Imoen behind, will it screw me later? This guy that knows Gorion - do I trust him? And so on...

Diablo is the most commonly compared RPG, and it's no different in this respect. Your character is faced with a less flexible plot but a far more open-ended inventory and combat environment. The world of Diablo is populated with essentially only weapons, armor, and monsters. As such, the story you're offered is one of glorious combat against seething hoards of hell-spawns bitches - and who among us hasn't felt the rush of victory from long hours with the Diablo franchise. It offers the same degree of fun because it offers the player a part in a desirable narrative and delivers it seamlessly.

The notion that you need a flesh-and-blood GM to deliver the same experience as a pen and paper RPG is just flat out wrong. I've played pen and paper RPGs since the original Chainmail set, culminating in GURPS, and I've had plenty of sit-down sessions that were great hang-outs, but hardly better RPG sessions than my time with the Fallout or Baldur's Gate franchises. The fact is that well-designed CRPGs can deliver as consistant and rich a storyline as a pen-and-paper session, without the limitations of scheduling and GM fatigue. Having GMed a lot of games, I can tell you that no matter how much imagination a human brain can offer - after 4 to 6 hours of coming up with things on the fly, the storyline tends to get a little fuzzy.

I've said 1,000 times before, but I'll say it again. Planescape: Torment was one of the best RPG experiences I have ever had - and it was a CRPG.

Posted by Matt at April 13, 2004 01:03 PM