The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games - Michael J. Tresca [103]
Gates to Another World was one of the first CRPGs to unveil the results of unlimited level progression, with hundred of enemies and weapon bonuses numbering in the double digits (Barton 2008:188).
Pool of Radiance was the most faithful adaptation of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules to the CRPG platforms. Racial restrictions were present, complete with level caps, taking fantasy role-playing games back to their roots but also representing a step back in their development.
CRPGs really pushed the envelope with the possibilities of multiple class combinations. Multiclassing debuted with Wizardry, where characters could select a combination of other classes. Prestige classes, which were a part of the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons, were presaged by Wizardry, Bard’s Tale, Phantasie, and Realms of Darkness (Barton 2008:71). Bard’s Tale went even further, allowing characters to combine four classes to join a fifth prestige class without the holdover of experience point penalties for multi-classing. Other games that allowed “prestige” classes included Trial by Fire, published by Sierra On-line in 1990 (Barton 2008:230). Baldur’s Gate featured the official third edition CRPG version of the prestige classes. After reaching 20th level and doing enough research about their past (which cost gold, of course), the characters could join prestige classes.
Conclusion
CRPGs continued the evolutionary path of Dungeons & Dragons, improving and experimenting with the rules, often bending them beyond their original intent. Rules that might be rarely used in a tabletop game suddenly became very important in CRPGs. For example, age limits on characters existed in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons but were not a major factor in play—only a handful of monsters were capable of aging characters prematurely. But in a CRPG clicking quickly through its own timeline, it was entirely possible for characters to age and die (Barton 2008:324).
Other rules were tried and ultimately discarded. Reading text from manuals, mimicking a game master reading text aloud, was abandoned as computer processing power caught up. Computers now convey narrative by displaying text, having a narrator read the text aloud, or simply show a sufficiently detailed graphical representation that needs no narration. Similarly, mapping a dungeon—a staple of Original Dungeons & Dragons—became obsolete with automappers that are now a standard part of every CRPG.
The accelerated design cycle of CRPGs is most evident in the rules governing races and classes. Multiclassing rules were discarded, and eventually any race was allowed to play any class. Alignment, originally a tool to keep errant players in line with their character’s role, shifted from an insignificant label to a much more complex means of interacting with the game universe.
Just as Dungeons & Dragons shifted focus from simulation to storytelling to a hybrid between the two, the pendulum for CRPGs followed the same path ... only to revert to a simulation focus again with the advent of console gaming. The industry is still largely figuring out what works and what doesn’t (Mechner 2007:115). With story-focused games like Heavy Rain, there’s hope that future CRPGs will put the “role” back in role-playing.
EIGHT
MASSIVE MULTIPLAYER ONLINE ROLE-PLAYING GAMES
You can form a party like you do in a D&D game, but your party can only “kind of” cooperate with each other. It’s just not the same thing as actually being together in a group and doing it. Something gets lost in the translation [Dave Arneson, 2004].
Introduction
Massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) arose out of several influences. Strictly speaking, they are graphical multi-user dungeons (MUDs), but that’s an oversimplification. In fact, MMORPGs are more a blend of computer role-playing