but you guys (except GG) keep thinking I'm talking about 3d engines. I'm talking about game engines (including or not the 3d engine). Again, think of the gold boxes. They were the same *game* engine, which was used for many games. Same options, same layout, same interface. In one game you had a fireball, in another you had a grenade, but underneath it all it was basically the same. The settings were wildly different, so were the stories. Like GG said, RPG Maker was like that, but how old is it?
Nowadays, every game pretty much builds its own engine, maybe with luck it's reused (sort of) for 1 sequel, let alone different games on different settings.
I see what you mean.
It reminds me of the (A)D&D concept of one rule system, many worlds". Which wouldn't work with TDE, for example.
In TDE, worlds and rule sets are more or less hard-coded into one another.
I once asked an employee whether the underlying Engine of Drakensang - NOT the graphical representation ! - could be exchanged, so, that a ifferent rule system could be used for it (I was thinking of TDE 3rd edition).
She said basically "yes", but I haven't seen any mods trying to do it yet - and no examples by Radon Labs as well.
If an engine could be exchanged, then the graphical representation could remain the same, but for example user-generated rule sets could also be used. That's my dream.
This would in the essence mean that both graphical representation and underlying engine implementing the rules could be seen as two different things, perhaps even fully distinct from one another.
I do see a market there with user-generated or commercial rule sets sold as underlying rule-set-engines for games - for graphical representations, that is.
But since - and as long as they are - rule systems are only licensed, the licensing companies will sit on them like hens on theior eggs. They won't share their rule systems, because they consider them intellectual property that must be protected from ANY other use other than they allow.
So - this means that we'll never see games - read: graphical representations - with different rule sets. Atari won't give it aways - at least as long as no-one is paying them for it - and similar things can be expected from TDE, Midard ... except the generical D20 rule set (and perhaps the D6 set from West End Games, it the plan to release it in a similar fashion like the D20 set ever becomes true).
