5 ms·

> It seems odd to try to build an RPG in a procedural world. It’s hard to build an immersive world, when it wasn’t hand crafted to fit the story. The entire ge

by setr 3y ago

> It seems odd to try to build an RPG in a procedural world. It’s hard to build an immersive world, when it wasn’t hand crafted to fit the story. The entire genre of roguelikes is a counterexample

jader201 3y ago
I mention it in another comment, but I think it depends on your definition of RPG. I think of RPGs as games that are RPGs first: JRPGs and Western RPGs (Elder Scrolls, Baldur’s Gate, etc.) with rich stories. I don’t really think of roguelikes as RPGs. But again, the definition will always be argued, and not trying to push my definition on others. My main point is that, to me, RPG often implies a rich story, and I think a generated world (including those in roguelikes) has a tough time matching the richness of the stories in hand-crafted RPGs.
- setr 3y ago
  From my PoV I find roguelikes to be a stronger form of roleplaying and immersion; the difference is in where the roleplaying occurs — in the play itself. I’ve never found navigating limited narrative trees to be nearly as involved; you’re just going through someone else’s story. The same occurs playing tabletop as well. When the DM comes out with his whole big narrative and players with complex backstories, versus a vague broadly defined setting that is forced to dynamically adapt to player actions, the latter always forges a stronger bond with the character being played. Though the risk with the game in question is that NMS is/was exactly not a dynamically adapting setting; when they said random generation they meant it, and with no internal consistency between various systems you end up with… random shit happening for random reasons and no actionable or narrative control over any of it. Dwarf fortress is really probably the ideal in terms of procgen producing not just serviceable RPG narratives, but actually interesting ones

by setr 3y ago

jader201 3y ago

I mention it in another comment, but I think it depends on your definition of RPG. I think of RPGs as games that are RPGs first: JRPGs and Western RPGs (Elder Scrolls, Baldur’s Gate, etc.) with rich stories. I don’t really think of roguelikes as RPGs. But again, the definition will always be argued, and not trying to push my definition on others. My main point is that, to me, RPG often implies a rich story, and I think a generated world (including those in roguelikes) has a tough time matching the richness of the stories in hand-crafted RPGs.

setr 3y ago
From my PoV I find roguelikes to be a stronger form of roleplaying and immersion; the difference is in where the roleplaying occurs — in the play itself. I’ve never found navigating limited narrative trees to be nearly as involved; you’re just going through someone else’s story. The same occurs playing tabletop as well. When the DM comes out with his whole big narrative and players with complex backstories, versus a vague broadly defined setting that is forced to dynamically adapt to player actions, the latter always forges a stronger bond with the character being played. Though the risk with the game in question is that NMS is/was exactly not a dynamically adapting setting; when they said random generation they meant it, and with no internal consistency between various systems you end up with… random shit happening for random reasons and no actionable or narrative control over any of it. Dwarf fortress is really probably the ideal in terms of procgen producing not just serviceable RPG narratives, but actually interesting ones