HJ-Dune Walker
Cadet
So, it's already been made clear that Simutronics will be continuing their longstanding tradition of rewarding roleplaying in game and punishing blatant out of character activity, but I've long thought that there would be better rewards to give a roleplayer than a mere attribute or experience boost. Thus, I've been mulling over a somewhat unorthodox idea which would, admittedly, take a not insignificant amount of effort to pull off, but which could be one of the coolest features of an RP-centric game to date if done right.
- Specialized Roleplaying Characters -
First, some quick background. My prior history with DragonRealms is where I first came to admire specialized characters in the hands of skilled roleplayers. Grishnak the Goblin comes to mind, as do a number of the nobility and rulers of Elanthia brought to life by skilled GMs. I always thought, "Dang, I wish one day I might be able to prove myself and become a GM so I could get one of those parts!"
So over the years I would occasionally think, well why should it be limited only to GMs? Couldn't GMs make judgement calls and give similar powers to trusted players? Obviously concerns include liability, quality control, etc, and these are all quite viable concerns and impediments. But still I kept thinking, "Man, I wish I could play a specialized character of some sort." So now I've been recently pondering the matter once more, and I've decided I'd quite like to see discussed and analyzed. Allow me to lay it out.
- Example Scenario -
Steve plays HJ, and he roleplays an interesting and eccentric gnome wizard. Caught in the act of good roleplay, he is later rewarded by a GM with an experience bonus or some such. He continues his habits of good roleplay, and perhaps significantly later earns another bonus as well. At last, after some time let's say, he earns a third bonus for his consistantly excellent roleplay and is granted a special token for his account.
This token allows him special access to the RP Specialized Character Creator. Not just an ordinary character creator, this menu allows you to choose new and unusual character types that are specialized for roleplay over gameplay.
What kind of characters could be made with this system? Well, specialized characters that would otherwise not be possible. Perhaps you could create an undead character, a zombie or vampire or lich or some such. Special playing conditions might be placed upon such characters, such as hostility from certain NPCs, daylight weakness for vampires, or unusual undead powers and weaknesses.
Perhaps you could access races normally untenable from a gameplay point of view. A centaur, or a giant, or other humanoids that are of nature inappropriate for a normal MMO character. Perhaps you could play as an intelligent beast, a wolf, a tiger, a sea turtle, a drake, a squirrel, a fox, or many others. Perhaps your beast character could talk, perhaps not. Perhaps it could climb trees and unusual nooks and crannies. Perhaps if small it could alight on the shoulders or arms of other players' characters.
Perhaps you could make a very noticably old normal character, or one that is just a child. Perhaps you could have a crippled character, or a soldier of the watch. Perhaps you could play an elemental, or a mystical tree, or a possessed scarecrow, or a murder of crows.
- How To Make It Work? -
Clearly if a player used such a system to make a special character that existed as an alteration of a normal character, it would probably not only be unbalanced, but also technically problematic. How then could it be possible to allow someone to play a giant or a fire drake?
Clearly severe limits would have to be put in play. These specialized characters couldn't be allowed to progress through the game as normal characters might. They'd need special rulesets and likely large restrictions would have be put on powers and interactions.
So why have such characters then, if they have to be severely tied down? Well really, they're only supposed to exist for purposes of roleplay. It wouldn't matter if your centaur character couldn't wear armor or talk to quest NPCs, because the entire purpose of playing such a character would be to enhance player to player interactions and roleplaying.
- What Would Be Gained From This? -
I suppose to some this might seem like an interesting, but not very applicable, idea. I can certainly understand the wish to reserve manpower for game projects which would benefit larger numbers of players instead of putting so much effort into making a system that many people might never access and which has significant hurdles to be leapt before it could work well.
Still, I have had experiences in both DragonRealms and other games wherein unusual characters, ones outside the normal range of playable characters, brought to life by skilled roleplayers (both GM and non-GM), made quite lasting memories and so greatly impacted my gameplay and enjoyment that I still think quite fondly of those experiences, years later. I have posted before of a certain experience I shared with just such a character in DragonRealms, and based on this encounter and other, I feel that there is a potential for a new evolution in modern gaming that deserves consideration, if not active development attempts just yet.
So tell me what you think! I'm curious to hear your opinions.
~Dune~
- Specialized Roleplaying Characters -
First, some quick background. My prior history with DragonRealms is where I first came to admire specialized characters in the hands of skilled roleplayers. Grishnak the Goblin comes to mind, as do a number of the nobility and rulers of Elanthia brought to life by skilled GMs. I always thought, "Dang, I wish one day I might be able to prove myself and become a GM so I could get one of those parts!"
So over the years I would occasionally think, well why should it be limited only to GMs? Couldn't GMs make judgement calls and give similar powers to trusted players? Obviously concerns include liability, quality control, etc, and these are all quite viable concerns and impediments. But still I kept thinking, "Man, I wish I could play a specialized character of some sort." So now I've been recently pondering the matter once more, and I've decided I'd quite like to see discussed and analyzed. Allow me to lay it out.
- Example Scenario -
Steve plays HJ, and he roleplays an interesting and eccentric gnome wizard. Caught in the act of good roleplay, he is later rewarded by a GM with an experience bonus or some such. He continues his habits of good roleplay, and perhaps significantly later earns another bonus as well. At last, after some time let's say, he earns a third bonus for his consistantly excellent roleplay and is granted a special token for his account.
This token allows him special access to the RP Specialized Character Creator. Not just an ordinary character creator, this menu allows you to choose new and unusual character types that are specialized for roleplay over gameplay.
What kind of characters could be made with this system? Well, specialized characters that would otherwise not be possible. Perhaps you could create an undead character, a zombie or vampire or lich or some such. Special playing conditions might be placed upon such characters, such as hostility from certain NPCs, daylight weakness for vampires, or unusual undead powers and weaknesses.
Perhaps you could access races normally untenable from a gameplay point of view. A centaur, or a giant, or other humanoids that are of nature inappropriate for a normal MMO character. Perhaps you could play as an intelligent beast, a wolf, a tiger, a sea turtle, a drake, a squirrel, a fox, or many others. Perhaps your beast character could talk, perhaps not. Perhaps it could climb trees and unusual nooks and crannies. Perhaps if small it could alight on the shoulders or arms of other players' characters.
Perhaps you could make a very noticably old normal character, or one that is just a child. Perhaps you could have a crippled character, or a soldier of the watch. Perhaps you could play an elemental, or a mystical tree, or a possessed scarecrow, or a murder of crows.
- How To Make It Work? -
Clearly if a player used such a system to make a special character that existed as an alteration of a normal character, it would probably not only be unbalanced, but also technically problematic. How then could it be possible to allow someone to play a giant or a fire drake?
Clearly severe limits would have to be put in play. These specialized characters couldn't be allowed to progress through the game as normal characters might. They'd need special rulesets and likely large restrictions would have be put on powers and interactions.
So why have such characters then, if they have to be severely tied down? Well really, they're only supposed to exist for purposes of roleplay. It wouldn't matter if your centaur character couldn't wear armor or talk to quest NPCs, because the entire purpose of playing such a character would be to enhance player to player interactions and roleplaying.
- What Would Be Gained From This? -
I suppose to some this might seem like an interesting, but not very applicable, idea. I can certainly understand the wish to reserve manpower for game projects which would benefit larger numbers of players instead of putting so much effort into making a system that many people might never access and which has significant hurdles to be leapt before it could work well.
Still, I have had experiences in both DragonRealms and other games wherein unusual characters, ones outside the normal range of playable characters, brought to life by skilled roleplayers (both GM and non-GM), made quite lasting memories and so greatly impacted my gameplay and enjoyment that I still think quite fondly of those experiences, years later. I have posted before of a certain experience I shared with just such a character in DragonRealms, and based on this encounter and other, I feel that there is a potential for a new evolution in modern gaming that deserves consideration, if not active development attempts just yet.
So tell me what you think! I'm curious to hear your opinions.
~Dune~