Multicharacter RPG's

[mattpegher]

In the dawn of RPG's we had a number of party based rpgs mostly from the D&D people but lately they have mostly dried up. Sure dungeon siege you could gather maybe, what? 4 people. NWN 1 you could get 3 controlling only one. Whats the limit with NWN2? Any old school RPGer could tell you that you need about 6 to 8 characters in a party to cover all the roles. Even when I GMed paper and dice with 3 or 4 people, I usually allowed two characters per player. This seems to be lost to new developers most of which never played paper and dice. So now everyone carries around like 20 -40 potions to do that job.

We also had to be at least somwhat reasonable with regard to what a character could carry so that you generally didn't loot stuff one of the characters could use or was so awesome you would lug it back to sell. Most cash and carry loot was in the form of cash and jewels.

Did the years of logical experience with RPG's died with Gary Gigax?

 

[Bateluer]

NWN2 is a strange beast when it comes to party members. The official parties were limited to 4 characters. However, at times in the original OC, you could have 5 or 6, and at the end game, all your party members were up at once. All with simultaneous full control. The engine is capable of allowing you control over a dozen characters, but they you run into balance issues as well as overloading the human player. Even veteran players could get overwhelmed trying to control 12 or more characters in a frenzied battle.

 

[imported_Kiwi]

My favorite series was M&M, but after MM-7, the last 1 1/2 were poor (MM-9 was about half of an actual MM game). Wizardry8 was the last out of that old school I can recall, and I never finished that one all the way to the end. Single character games such as the Elder Scrolls series seem to dominate now.

 

[mattpegher]

The thought that a lone warrior could go out and save the world all by himself is ludacris. Military history will tell you that small squads work best.

When was the last time you met a green baret, computer hacker with an MD with a fellowship in trauma.

Besides myself that is, LOL.

 

[imported_Kiwi]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
NWN2 is a strange beast ...

I wanted to play it more, but none of the principals seemed to give a rat's behind about the game players buying their product, and the BioWare staff attitude in the official forums seems very negative. Add all of that up with the bugginess of the game, the involvement of Atari as the distributor, and the horrifically nasty Sony SecureRom bugginess on top of everything, and I had to give that one up as being a real loser.

 

[Piuc2020]

Originally posted by: mattpegher
The thought that a lone warrior could go out and save the world all by himself is ludacris. Military history will tell you that small squads work best.

When was the last time you met a green baret, computer hacker with an MD with a fellowship in trauma.

Besides myself that is, LOL.

Did you spell ludacris by that on purpose or do you think that's actually how it's spelled?

Damn rappers.

 

[mattpegher]

LOL I just noticed that of course its spelled ludicrous.

Damn rappers

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: mattpegher
LOL I just noticed that of course its spelled ludicrous.

Damn rappers

It's also beret not baret.

 

[mattpegher]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: mattpegher
LOL I just noticed that of course its spelled ludicrous.

Damn rappers

It's also beret not baret.

Ok i cant spell, never could.

On that note is fallout 3 supposed to be lone character or squad?

 

[shortylickens]

Baldurs Gate 2 was the best, 6 members at any time and the balance seemed to work quite well.
Also, if you were badass at AD&D you could get by with 5 or even 4. Rarely were you ever required to have a particular member in your group to complete a certain quest. The only one who ever left me without permission was Jaheria, and she was easy to get back.


NWN2 has already been discussed a little. Act I was 3 people including main character.
Act II was 4 PLUS Shandra Jerro. She was a special character and didnt count towards party maximum.
Most of Act III was 6 people, but at the end game dungeon they all just magically appeared for some reason.

It may seem cool but actually it sucked. If your Influence with them was low enough the King of Shadows would actually lure them away and then you were fighting against them. In a really bad game you might be playing the End Battle with 3 allies and about 8 enemies, plus the Shadow King and his minions. (One of your main characters dies in the game and one character will ALWAYS betray you regardless of Influence.)

In a good game you would be playing with a crapload of allies and it was difficult to manage. The inventory screens are crap anyway, and they are especially bad for shuffling stuff back and forth between characters, trying to figure out the best equipment combos.

 

[Jumpem]

Originally posted by: mattpegher
Ok i cant spell, never could.

On that note is fallout 3 supposed to be lone character or squad?

Fallout has always been with a single character. Except for Fallout Tactics which doesn't count.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Originally posted by: Jumpem

Originally posted by: mattpegher
Ok i cant spell, never could.

On that note is fallout 3 supposed to be lone character or squad?

Fallout has always been with a single character. Except for Fallout Tactics which doesn't count.

But you still had limited control over a few henchmen and hirelings.

I really miss the old 6 person party, step 10' games like Wizardry and The Bard's Tale. The party management was a really important aspect of the game that's missing in so many modern games. You not only had to pick a good mix of characters so that all roles were covered, you then had to develop them properly so that they had varied spells and equipment and you had to manage each battle because every monster required different tactics. You just don't get that sort of depth in the one character, jack-of-all-trades game.