General News - Putting the Role in Role-Playing

Josh Sawyer talked about the role in role-playing at the Game Industry Conference October 6th, 2017 in Poznan, Poland:

What Are We Talking About?

• The importance of characters and their roles.
• What is a role?
• How do we make space for roles?

• Case studies: Icewind Dale, Fallout: New Vegas, and Pillars of Eternity

• How to best represent roles in games.

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Thanks Farflame!

More information.

Is there a video for that conference?

Interesting. We just were talking about roleplaying in another recent news thread.

It is an interesting topic.

I like that Josh identified

skill checks as 'win' condition

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as a problem.

Skill checks should enable possibilities not automatically resolve a situation. Like a bluff may mislead a character which opens up a possibility to advance a problem your character is trying to resolve but is now an actual problem (you've lied) you need to manage going forward.

One of the things I liked from the FATE gaming system is that failure doesn't mean the action stops; failure carries the story forward just as much as successes; albeit in a different way.

"Brief History of Role-Playing Games:
Little Wars and Chainmail
Dungeons & Dragons
Wizardry and Ultima
Bard’s Tale, Phantasie, Might & Magic
The Gold Box Series
Fallout and Baldur’s Gate"

What's fun is what's buried under the carpet or even not known.

"Look for opportunities to reward the player for their choices." Sigh, the best role play is in player head, so punish him for his little dream is the worst idea. For some role playing space, choices should NEVER BE a challenge.

I had good hope for PoE2 despite PoE1 was a half disappointment, now I wonder. Ha well, not that important, role-play always been minor aspect in my playing of RPG. My own role always felt the best for me and the more fun to play in RPG video games. the problem is more when dev want stop me play my own role, that is when choices feel crap.

Talking of a bias.

The study cases are assumed to display the features required to match the preset conclusion.

Study cases: Diablo, Assassin's creed : origins, The Surge.

Dasale said:

"Look for opportunities to reward the player for their choices." .

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It is a characteristic in games.
Gaming is about choices and consequences.