e-Heroes: Do CRPGs, console, & arcade games influence your D&D game?

[AFGNCAAP]

With some of the Final Fantasy d20 threads that I've seen around here, as well as some of the Ultima threads, I got to thinking about the impact of CRPGs, console games, & even arcade games on tabletop gaming.

How much of an impact have computer RPGs, console games, & arcade games had on your games/campaigns? Do you get campaign ideas from them? Do you base campaigns in those settings? Do you simply borrow a few names and concepts from them?

For example, did your PC have a miniature giant space hamster named Boo (ala Baldur's Gate)? Did your female fighter PC wield a sword, wear blue, & call herself a "Valkyrie" (ala Gauntlet)? Has your DM given you a magical elven sword that glows blue, and uses magic words such as "rezrov" (ala Zork)? Did your DM use town names such as Sorpigal or Sandsobar (Might & Magic)? Was the BBEG wizard you fought named Werdna (ala Wizardry)? Did your PCs have to quest for the Codex of Infinite Wisdom or fight the Shadowlords (ala Ultima)?

What do you have to say?

 

[Umbran]

I don't use CRPG material much, personally. I don't steal the plots, nor do I use the settings. I may, on occasion, steal the concept of a magic item here or there. But I steal concepts for magic items from Star Trek too, so that's not saying much

I think CRPG's may have impacted the hobby somewhat more in terms of what players expect from the game than in terms of the game's content. There's perhaps a significant number of players who have come to RPGs from the computer side, and want games that play in a fasion similar to the computer games.

Mind you, the computer games were originally built to mimic the RPGs in the first place, so it becomes a bit circular...

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

I would say that when playing Mutants and Masterminds, then yes, I am influenced by outside things. And that includes all sorts of characters, games, whatever. For instance, I'd more than happily create a Mutants and Masterminds character named Ryu, who was a martial artist with an energy blast.

But in D&D, not so much. I tend to use the books I buy or suggestions from the DM to create my characters.

 

[Bloodsparrow]

There are two ways that CRPGs have impacted my roll playing experiences...

Playing MMOGs like Everquest have made me very hesatent to play Clerics and healer types. (Other then Bards.) In an MMOG, if you don't keep up with the healing, everybody's doomed. And if you're just no good at it, boy you'll hear about it. I am way too conserned with keeping the party buffed and healed, to the exclusion of other things.

I'm slowly getting over this now, as I'm currently playing a Cleric/Rogue, and have been told by my party that I can actually back off on the healing a bit.

The only other way that computer games have had an impact is...

I play a lot of Blizzard games. (As you can probably tell from my Avatar if you also play a lot of Blizzard games.) So, in one particular game, when my character scouted ahead and saw an Ettin... I called it an Ogre when I reported back to my party... Much to the amusement of my DM.

 

[The_Universe]

CRPGs (and computer games in general) have a large effect on my campaign. I lifted the honorable, shamanistic orc thing straight out of WarCraft III.

One of my players played an elven fighter/ranger named Link, and even demanded that he be from a village called Hyrule! In our D20 Modern campaign, he played a vampire hunter with an affinity for whips a la Simon Belmont...the characters evenutally gained personality of their own, but lifting from games has become very common, here!

 

[shadow]

Well, I occasionally base things off console rpgs, but I try to avoid ripping them off directly. For example, I once played a foul mouthed chain smoking pilot in a pulp rpg. The character was based loosely on Final Fantasy 7's Cid Highwind. I've also had a mysterious thief/assassin npc based on FF3 (6)'s Shadow, and introduced an evil psionic villian based loosely on FF7's Sephiroth. I try to emulate the concept, not make a carbon copy of the video game character.

 

[Wombat]

Actually the only influence I have seen in my games is the other way around.

One of my players is trying to figure out how to map one of my campaigns to fit into NWN.

We have found little enough of interest in the CRPGs to excite or interest us.

 

[Psion]

Well, I don't do blatant homages like you mention in your post. But I do consider Final Fantasy VI and VII to be two astonishinly imaginiative peices of work, and they have joined Dying Earth, Tolkien, and Jack Kirby as central influences to my D&D games.

Though other console and computer games don't earn near this level of admiration from me, some have eminently nickable bits. Frex, I think the idea of waypoints from Diablo II is pretty cool and was integrating it into a new gameworld I a was making. Master of Magic game me a few ideas for my Second World game. And sometimes when an interesting situation crops up in a tactical game like SMAC, MOOII, or Warlords, I'll use it as the basis for the backdrop of the setting.

 

[Dirigible]

I use CRPGs fairly shamelessly. Especially BG series, upon which one of my current campaigns is *loosesly* based. Gonna do an Iron Kingdoms soon, too, so expect to see a lot of Arcanum in there.
I played a character based on the Nameless One a while back... that was fun.

 

[takyris]

Most of my players came to the game after not a ton of RPG experience, but after a LOT of CRPG experience. So I'm sort of in the other boat.

It used to hurt their roleplaying -- in a CRPG, the quest waits until you're ready to go after it, so they'd say things like, "Yeah, we need to go buy some stuff, but we'll be back to help you clear those giant spiders out of your house in a day or two," with the expectation that the helpless homeowner would still be standing in the same five-foot square when they got back to her.

It also made them less likely to run away. Even though they know intellectually that reloading is not an option, there are few CRPGs that have any kind of way for you to lose a battle without being screwed -- unless it's a cutscreen battle that you know is scripted. This sometimes resulted in players feeling frustrated when they got captured or whupped -- when I thought that they should have run.

They also often didn't realize consciously that they didn't HAVE to take quests, or that they could modify them. They would say, "Nope, we agreed to go get the chalice for the priestess, that's the only definition of victory," so it never occurred to them, even when things got dangerous, to team up with some mercenaries from the tavern, hire a diviner to teleport them right to the chalice, find out why the priestess can't go get the chalice herself, and so on.

Now that they've got a little more experience, they're much better at these things. We still have lighter notes, though:

ME: As you hand the chalice back to the priestess, her eyes light up. "Thank you so much! And here's the 500 gold I promised.

Player1: No, no, killing zombies is its own reward. I don't need any money.

Player2: Those were some tough zombies. Couldn't you give us a little more?

Player3: Cough up some more gold, or I'll cut your throat!