Human Shield said:
But then the player will always know the right things to ask and what he will do if actions are not taken. He gets to pick and choose an outcome he likes instead of reacting to the world (what PnP games try and do when the DM alters things).
If the character has the abilities needed to pick and choose, I don't see a problem with letting the player pick and choose. In the case of betrayal, it might take an attentive character to discover the betrayal, or perhaps the would-be betrayer might stay loyal to a charismatic character. Or perhaps the betrayal is cancelled when certain events play out, and all of those might not be the kind of events that such a player would willingly subject their character to once they know about them in advance.
Guess I would like to see a survivalist RPG where you never know what exploration will produce.
Never? I think a non-random main plot and a bunch of non-random locations works well enough as long as there's the opportunity to 'wander the wastes' looking for danger and loot. Fallout 1 & 2 did this rather well, but I would've liked to see the random elements better balanced to the character's offensive and defensive abilities.
It might be fun with an RPG where a non-random main plot contains virtually no loot or combat, so if the player wants the character to become dangerous they'd have to advance the character by 'wandering the wastes' in search for better weapons and armour. They would then be free to advance the plot in the non-random locations whenever they feel that they're able to defeat the local enemy. Fallout was a bit nice in this regard, and supplied the best weapons and armours in the non-random locations, which was probably much appreciated by those who wanted to kick ass without having to scour the wastes for powerful weapons and the ammo needed for them.
The player could also choose to use diplomacy or stealth to advance the plot, but that wouldn't require powerful weapons and armour, and thus the player wouldn't have to wander the wastes except when moving from one location to another. And since they would be somewhat vulnerable, perhaps they'd prefer to stick to caravans, or perhaps utilize some wilderness skill to avoid dangers. Fallout was a bit boring in that regard, as the Outdoorsman skill wasn't very useful for avoiding dangerous encounters, and there wasn't much point in avoiding the ones that weren't dangerous, since those were sources of XP. I blame D&D for making "kill for XP" a CRPG standard.
Random doesn't have to mean cheap. What if the weather is random and because of rain sneaking into a building is now harder, or a storm lost a caravan and a new quest is created to find the stuff. Or the success of a thief guild depending on the skill rolls of its members.
I guess I am talking about random elements playing a part in, overall, a much more dynamic and reactive world.
Sounds like a dream to me. Wonderful yet very difficult to achieve. And even if you can design a game this way, you'd have to balance the random elements so that the character can survive them, or the fun factor might go down the drain as the player has to rely more on luck than character stats.
If you have a world map you could create roving bands of enemies that move around the map according to semi-randomized behavior, and if they find a town they might attack, and if the player clears an area of such bands, it might stay safe for a while. Towns could then complain about recent attacks and travellers from other towns might have news of attacks on those towns, and whether the attackers or the town won, and how much was destroyed or looted. Kind of a more advanced Majesty.
For extra punch you could program the travellers to be merchants (affecting the supplies of local shops), mercenaries (defends towns/caravans) and people relevant to the main plot. They could then be able to tell the player where they have been and where they plan to go, and perhaps why they would plan to go to a certain place. Mercenaries might for instance cash in on attacks on a town and decide to not move for a while, or move to a nearby town that was recently attacked by raiders who then got away, or follow a merchant to some other town.
Depending on the sneakiness of raiders a town might have some forward warning of a coming attack, and mercenaries would then have a reason to stay and wait for the attack unless the raiders appear to be too tough. Raiders would also not be likely to head for a town that would be too difficult to attack, unless perhaps they manage to merge with other groups which should of course be handled by having the leaders duel each other for supremacy as they bump into each other in the wilderness. :twisted:
In the end though, nothing of this is needed for making a good old fashioned non-linear story RPG. But I like to dream.
