Dhruin
SasqWatch
Have to agree with Brother None...we've done "official" (whatever that really means) Legend diaries, Broken hourglass and more back at RPGDot.
Character-Creation rules would not have been possible and would not have made sense in a CRPG.
I'm now listing some of the "Talents" my P&P character, a Hesinde-priest (godess of knowledge, magic and arts), has, that would be really hard if not impossible to implement. Especially if you consider implementing meaningful situations in which to use them:
Flying (on a flying carpet, a dragon etc.), Self-Control (psychic resistance against pain, temper, etc.), Hiding, Etiquette, Fishing, Weatherforecast, farming, woodcraft, leathercraft, cooking, 10 different languages and 6 writing-systems on different skill levels
Now some knowledge-talents that would be totally useless in a CRPG, unless maybe you consider hiring arround 100 writers just to write the dialogue of the game:
Anatomy, Boardgames, Geography, Historical knowledge, Theological knowledge, smelting knowledge (!), Magical knowledge, Mechanics, Philosophy, calculating, judical knowledge (!), Legends, language science (!), statecraft (!).
Let me now list some magical abilities (spells and rituals) that would be hard or impossible to implement (especially if you consider all the details contained in the detailed descriptions):
Abvenum (purify food, also of must)
Aerofugo (creates a vacuum)
Aerogelo (make somebody real breathless)
(Aufgeblasen) = Inflated and lifted (somebodies cheeks begin to fill with air, until he involuntarily flies away, without any other damage)
Aureolus (makes something shine with a golden blaze)
(Auge) Eye of the Limbus (let's the magician travel to a strange void between the different "spheres", different levels of cosmos)
Auris Nasis Occulus (create small, unsophisticated illusions)
As you can see I am just done with the Letter A... (they'ss implement arround 40 of a total of 200 spells. and of these every spell does something genuinly different))
Another important point is that (in 4th Edition P&P TDE) you don't choose a "dwarve", "warrior" or a "thorwalian" anymore as your class, but you choose a set of race, culture and professian. So you might be a dwarven warrior, that has gown up in Thorwal (which is of course extremely unlikely).
In total there are 15 races, 46 cultures with arround 100-150 special variants, and of course ca. 75 professions with arround, hmm, maybe 300 variants and under-classes, which makes a total of arround 500 thousand combinations, although of course many are highly unlikely if not impossible.
There are arround 30 mage-academies, 30 warrior academies, different academiies for soldiers, arround 25 different priests, maybe 10 kinds of shamans, all with their own kinds of rituals....
the list goes on.
Why do germans hate it in what they call crpgs, but their most popular rpg has a beautiful and intricate system for it? Weird-o's.
This game is intended NOT for harcore C-RPG gamers like me. To me, that's sad, but I must accept this decision, because everyone believes that games for hardcore C-RPG gamers won't sell.
What sells instead are simplified games like DS, Sacred, Blizzard's games ...
And if they add character creation the players who want a strong story go ballistic because more possible starting characters means less focused story.
For those who want to have a strong story instead of a boring medieval world simulator like Morrowind. Isn´t it logical that it´s much easier to write a great story about one specific hero instead of 2^n different possible starting characters? Open endedness is fine for me, but only as far as it doesn´t get in the way of the story.For those cinematic cut-scenes right? For those "rpg" fans who want to play a movie?
For those who want to have a strong story instead of a boring medieval world simulator like Morrowind. Isn´t it logical that it´s much easier to write a great story about one specific hero instead of 2^n different possible starting characters? Open endedness is fine for me, but only as far as it doesn´t get in the way of the story.
Of course it is also a bussiness decision, if you implement a feature only a small fracture of the users in going to use, then your putting efford into the wrong features. Its as easy as that.
Of course it is also a bussiness decision, if you implement a feature only a small fracture of the users in going to use, then your putting efford into the wrong features. Its as easy as that.
And I don't really understand why you can't appreciate the notion, that another reason is making the work of the authors easier, since they allways stress what a story-driven game this is gonna be (I believe them). Especially NPC reactions are so much easier to predict, if you only have 27 possible constellations, not thousands.
But why don't you just go ahead and ask your question in the official English forums, I'm sure you'll get an answer from Radon Labs (sooner or rather later).
What I forgot, of course, is how much easier it is to provide an initial story for your character, how and why he came to Ferdok, etc. (which is gonna be especially interesting for the Tulamidyan and Thorwalian archetypes). To provide this kind of detailed backstory in a consistent and coherent manner is completely impossible if you've got a real TDE-Editor .
You can also stress the uniqueness of the different archetypes in the course of the adventure way better if you know what you're dealing with.
P.P.P.P.S. If you want to roleplay play P&P, CRPGs are not suited for real roleplaying, thats why I don't expect them to provide it (I also have nothing against trying, of course)
And as you can see here they were actually at one stage thinking about implementing "real" character generation.
And as you can see here they were actually at one stage thinking about implementing "real" character generation.