Learning brain surgery by shooting douchebags in the neck: The oddities of Roleplaying
I was playing Fallout: New Vegas not long ago and was in the process of finding a new brain for a robot dog when something dawned on me. I was talking to a scientist about something or other when a speech option that relied on my science skill popped up. Before choosing it I decided to read what my character would be saying and realized I had no fucking idea what the hell he was talking about. Something about made up neural links and mind melding, subjects of study that a life of beating people with nail boards and injecting psycho into my eyes clearly prepared me for. I also noticed the distinct lack of an option to embed a fire ax in the scientist's forehead, an action which I felt would have been much more in line with the mentality of my character.
It's this moment and others that make me realize just how strange some of the abstractions of role playing have become. You see, I gained that high science skill not by studying the dusty ruins of museums or raiding the libraries of forgotten universities, but by shooting douche bags in the neck. In a literal sense I gained xp by killing enemies and chose to spend it by leveling up my science skill, which seems fine on the surface but look at it in the context of the game. In the game I'm a hulking, ultra-violent brute that drew not just scientific aptitude but actual knowledge and data from the aether by means of a length of lead pipe and a homeless man's shins. Add to that the fact that I can level up my ability to use guns, and really anything else, through the same medium and you have a strange system in which what you get better at has no real correlation with what you do. And in a role playing game this almost certainly isn't a good thing.
Beyond the strangeness of level up mechanics are the more subtle but in someway more glaring oddities of skill checks. I understand them, of course; they're a hold over from the paper and pen days when there was no real lock to pick or computer to hack, just a few numbers and dice fighting to the death behind a Dungeon master's cardboard, dragon bedecked, privacy shield thing. But now-a-days there are locks and computers and all manner of clever little mini-games for me to fiddle with and skill checks are rapidly becoming obsolete. Again, using New Vegas as an example, why is it that I can't even try to open certain locks without a specific amount of skill in lock pick? Why is it that the game feels the need to slap my hands away when ever I so much as look at a hard lock? Wouldn't it make more sense to simply make the mini-game harder or easier depending on my lockpick level? What does it equate to in game? Does my character just stare, dumbfounded, at the lock and somehow know, without ever trying to pick it, that it's too difficult for him? Or how about speech options? Where I am given a specific option, meaning my character conceived of it, but am unable to use it effectively without a specific speech skill level. If my character conceives of the correct option, what exactly does he do if he doesn't have the right level, engrave it on hardened dog shit and smack the guy in the face with it?
Now there is obviously some need for abstractions in role playing. Giving the player the ability to do everything based on their personal skill wouldn't make for much of a game, but there are things that can be done to limit the abstractions and give players a greater sense of accomplishment. After all, is it better to grind against raiders with a rifle in order to raise your lock pick or to simply try picking a lot of locks?
Level up stats based on action, not on pure xp.
It makes sense doesn't it? You get good at the things you do a lot rather then getting good at whatever you chose to get good at regardless of action. But wait, you cry, hours of hoping up and down in to raise acrobatics in Oblivion replaying in your mind, wouldn't that let people game the system? Perhaps, but let think about this. If I spend a few hours in Oblivion, fighting with summoned creatures in order to level up my sword skill, is that really that different from a prize fighter sparing before a big fight? Does practicing a skill in order to improve it really constitute “gaming the system”? And what of the alternative? Where I can spend a few hours trying to pick a lock in fallout and end up as a hand to hand master by some strange application of metaphysical “skill” units.
Where possible, keep things realistic.
I don't mean strictly realistic, as in remove magic and fantasy, but if it's possible to remove abstractions, it should be done with extreme prejudice. Lets take my robot dog example. As it is, my knowledge of robo-canine veterinary practices is summoned from the beyond by my science skill, rather then any sort of acquired knowledge. Now, wouldn't it make more sense to actually acquire that information some how? Imagine if all those useless books you find sitting around in houses and buildings could be read. It wouldn't have to be a full book or anything, maybe just a few sentences that summarizes what you read. Then, if the opportunity to use the information that your character learned by reading the book ever came up, it would give you the option where there normally wouldn't be one. This alone would act to give books a purpose, expand the lore of the world (by what was written in them), and remove a needless abstraction.
This can be applied to skill checks as well. Where possible, don't say just declare “You can't do that”, just structure the game so that it's difficult or unwise to do so. Many RPG's already do this with areas by making the enemies that inhabit the area too difficult to beat at first, rather then simply throwing up an invisible wall and saying “you must recovered X Bear flanks before proceeding”, so why not do the same with skills? Rather then saying “you can't hack this computer” and slapping my hands away, just adjust the difficulty of the mini-game depending on my character's skill level. Give me less chances to screw up or make the gameplay more challenging. Rather then saying “you can't wield this weapon until your skill is X”, just make it more difficult to wield; you can make my aim more shaky, my swing slower or my punch less powerful, but don't go all crazy grandma on me and refuse to let me even hold the thing. Simulating a character's incompetence is much more reasonable then outright denying me something.
These things won't remove the abstractions in RPG's completely, but they will at least limit them to the necessary and perhaps even help to create a deeper, more “real” feeling game world.
Author
Topic: Learning brain surgery by shooting douchebags in the neck (Read 6878 times)