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By Root 315 0

all the CRPGs feature statistics of some sort. The most basic utilized strength, dexterity, and a mental stat (usually wisdom or intelligence). These three statistics form the core of an adventurer and provide enough flexibility to allow dungeon exploration. As the classes and characters became more advanced, so, too, did the statistics. For the most part, they hewed closely to the six Dungeons & Dragons statistics. Occasionally some statistics were added, such as perception or the luck mechanic, which debuted in the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game. Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny featured qualities both negative (ranging from superstition to a violent temper) and positive (from courage to intuition, including the core statistics of strength, dexterity, wisdom, and charisma), which counterbalanced each other and affected game play (Barton 2008:243).

It wasn’t until Tangled Tales that statistics were described with adjectives instead of a score. Ultima’s Quest of the Avatar went a step further in using the player’s personality, not the character’s, to determine possible classes: shepherd (humility), tinker (sacrifice), bard (compassion), druid (justice), fighter (valor), ranger (spirituality), paladin (honor) or mage (honesty). Garriott created these rules to reinforce the moral lessons a fantasy role-playing game could impart on players at a time when tabletop role-playing games were receiving such a bad rap. The Dark Heart of Uukrul, produced by Broderbund Software in 1989, employed character creation rules using a multi-choice questionnaire rather than rolling statistics (Barton 2008:162). Darkspyre by Electronic Zoo, Elder Scrolls: Arena from U.S. Gold, and SSI’s Prophecy of the Shadow all featured a similar mechanic.

Hit points and armor class are also common in CRPGS, although some were replaced by real-time mechanics wherein the player controlled the character’s ability to dodge or hit a foe. Hit points in particular have been relegated to the background, replaced by an iconic representation: candles (e.g., Times of Lore), life stones (e.g., Might and Magic III: Isle of Terra), potion bottles (e.g., Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss), bars, meters, or a physical depiction of the character reflecting his wounds.

Beyond these two attributes for combat, there was surprisingly little innovation in CRPGs. Dragon Wars featured stun points, which have a parallel in third edition Dungeons & Dragons’ non-lethal damage. Basically, a character who takes enough stun damage loses consciousness, but doesn’t die (Barton 2008:198).

Skill systems were much less common; Advanced Dungeons & Dragons began with “secondary skills”—the term implying that the character’s class abilities were his “primary” skills. Later editions renamed secondary skills “non-weapon proficiencies” to distinguish them from the skills used to kill monsters. Secondary skills were formally introduced to the CRPG genre in New World’s Gates to Another World (Barton 2008:188). Wizard’s Crown was one of the first CRPGs to feature a skill system independent of levels.

One of the reasons Advanced Dungeons & Dragons held off on skills for so long was because common skills blurred the line between classes. The third edition formalized skill usage so that certain classes could buy skills at a cheaper rate, helping maintain the uniqueness of each class despite the skill system. CRPGs, which adopted skill systems much earlier, sometimes made the mistake of providing all classes equal access to skills, as in Sacred from Ascaron Entertainment (Barton 2008:332).

It took a long time before skills manifested as anything more than just numbers on a screen. Thief skills, which were one of the earliest quantified skills in Dungeons & Dragons, are often the most emulated, if only because they’re interesting to portray on screen. Lock-picking became an official minigame with Hillsfar, which has since become popular with console roleplaying games (e.g., Crusades of the Dark Savant).

Alignment was rarely a factor in early CRPGs. Most games had no alignment