Slylandro
Scholar
- Joined
- Nov 27, 2005
- Messages
- 705
This topic is admittedly a dead horse, but I don't think the aspect of character progression has been covered that much yet. Is character progression necessary for a game to qualify as an RPG? What really are the "minimum requirements" so to speak? If Gothic II or PS: T or maybe Arcanum had no leveling scheme (the most common form of character progression), would they still be RPGs? Or would they be more akin to adventure games? Is there really a difference? This is more of a hypothetical situation, as I can't think of an offhand undisputable example of such an RPG.
A recent thread made by a games developer discussed the possibility of an RPG without combat, and a side question posed was if it would still be an RPG. Most believed yes it would still be one. So this question takes it one step further, if it's an RPG if it does not contain character progression. Is it still an RPG then, regardless of whether or not it has combat? Everything else is still in there-- dialogue trees with genuine branches (with few or no "loops"), choices and consequences, multiple solutions to a given quest, etc. To clarify one last bit, when I say character progression, I mean everything that typically entails-- acquired/learned skills, spells, "feats," "prestige classes," even basic things like hitpoints, etc. Your character does not gain any new abilities so to speak, even though you may gain new knowledge. If you have any spells or skills, they are already present at the beginning of the game, and you have a set aptitutde in them. But there is no character progression, the character does not advance in the sense of gaining new abilities or strengthening his/her capacity to use existing ones.
A recent thread made by a games developer discussed the possibility of an RPG without combat, and a side question posed was if it would still be an RPG. Most believed yes it would still be one. So this question takes it one step further, if it's an RPG if it does not contain character progression. Is it still an RPG then, regardless of whether or not it has combat? Everything else is still in there-- dialogue trees with genuine branches (with few or no "loops"), choices and consequences, multiple solutions to a given quest, etc. To clarify one last bit, when I say character progression, I mean everything that typically entails-- acquired/learned skills, spells, "feats," "prestige classes," even basic things like hitpoints, etc. Your character does not gain any new abilities so to speak, even though you may gain new knowledge. If you have any spells or skills, they are already present at the beginning of the game, and you have a set aptitutde in them. But there is no character progression, the character does not advance in the sense of gaining new abilities or strengthening his/her capacity to use existing ones.