have computer role playing games influenced your tabletop designs ?

[GMMichael]

just wondering if computer rpg's have influenced the ways you guys think about games. could be settings or player classes/races or even mechanics. if so which games and how? the answer could of course also be no or perhaps they have made you embrace tabletop games even more for inspiration (the limitations both graphical and world as well as the temporary nature of computer games could be a turn off/template of design decisions to avoid). thoughts?

Final Fantasy IV is still the best CRPG ever. It had story, suspense, character development, mythology, epic proportions, drama, secrets, and more. Each character profession was interesting and had a unique feel. The pacing of character development is perfect. And it transcended its medium - a 16-bit Nintendo system.

If you could add roleplaying into FFIV, you'd have the perfect TRPG.

I've seen two very good adaptations of FFIV, Final Fantasy Zero and Final Fantasy d6.

When I started designing Modos RPG, I leaned heavily on Final Fantasy ideas, but also drew from Eamon, Skyrim, and D&D. The core Modos RPG system is intentionally simplistic (more like its Eamon inspiration), but one of my design goals is definitely to adapt the system to Final Fantasy-style gaming.

 

[Stormonu]

I imagine some cinematics and overworld maps have had an influence on my own fantasy worlds, but strangely I can only think of three "video" games that actually influenced my games - Atari's Adventure, Zork and Dragon's Lair.

I remember mapping out a game world ala Adventure where the main enemies were three dragons threatening the player's kingdom; the party would travel from place to place to gather the allies and gear to defeat the dragons, while facing their henchmen and paying for their gear with the gold they secretly raided from the dragon's own hoards while the beasts were out razing the countryside.

Zork provided me with ideas for cruelly twisting maps and mazeworks and introducing puzzles that couldn't be solved by brawn (and sometimes even with multiple ways built in to solve them, excluding any crazy ideas the players came up with).

Dragon's Lair provided me with stuff for traps and action scenes; to describe from my mind's eye how a battle might play out or certain deadly traps might work in a dungeon atmosphere.

 

[oxybe]

definitely. i would be insane to ignore an entire medium with as wide a scope of content as a source of inspiration.

i've been playing videogames about as long as i've been hucking d20s and like all design influences, it's more about retaining the concept and conveying the ideas rather then a direct translation of mechanics.

videogames have been borrowing design ideas from TTRPGs for years and have become the biggest entertainment industry of our time. this should say something as both have been around and interacting with the public about as long as one another (pong, likely the first real commercial videogame, came out in '72 while D&D, the first TTRPG, in '74).

i really would like to see more TTRPG designers looking hard at what concepts and ideas work in other mediums and seeing how TTRPGs can benefit from them.

 

[Jhaelen]

Ultima IV has definitely been influential for me. It was the first CRPG I know of that went beyond hack & slay.
In more recent times I really enjoyed Gothic (and Gothic 2) but I didn't feel inspired to steal anything from it for my tabletop rpg.

 

[Selkirk]

definitely. i would be insane to ignore an entire medium with as wide a scope of content as a source of inspiration.

i've been playing videogames about as long as i've been hucking d20s and like all design influences, it's more about retaining the concept and conveying the ideas rather then a direct translation of mechanics.

videogames have been borrowing design ideas from TTRPGs for years and have become the biggest entertainment industry of our time. this should say something as both have been around and interacting with the public about as long as one another (pong, likely the first real commercial videogame, came out in '72 while D&D, the first TTRPG, in '74).

i really would like to see more TTRPG designers looking hard at what concepts and ideas work in other mediums and seeing how TTRPGs can benefit from them.

completely agree. after reading (and watching ...you tube ftw-dorkland roundtable interviews are really good ) a bunch of interviews with game designers i was struck by how few of them even mentioned computer rpg's (these mentions are largely in passing..perhaps they worked on one...or a property they developed was made into a computer game). maybe the two paths really are distinctly different even though they have so many common overlaps (dragon age ttrpg is certainly different than dragon age computer game...thank gawd ). it's almost as if there is a certain stigma (or perhaps envy/jealousy might be more accurate-are our best ttrpg designers actually frustrated mmorpg designers ... ) attached to computer game work when it comes to establishing one's bonafides in ttrpg circles. in fairness many of these interviews are pretty tightly focused on ttrpg but even in 'the influences on your work' questions there is no mention of crpg's. and you know most developers have played more than their fair share of computer rpg's-maybe even WOW .

but i ramble...i'm an illustrator so the visual aspects of games really do have a great appeal. i mean i know what a party attacking an orc camp looks like in my head but it helps to see it-same as watching lord of the rings or anime. now, as to a game (and i really enjoyed this game) that i learned lessons from...ultima online. i like low xp campaigns but ultima online took low xp too ...ummm well..new lows. i spent hours chopping wood and fighting rats. starting from nothing is a tried and true rpg formula but this reminded me of my own job, it felt like work . takeaway from ultima online...start slow but not that slow .

 

[Derren]

The video games influences have been one major point why 4E failed like it did.
A video game will always be better at rigid tactical combat than a PnP. There is no sense trying to compete with it with that. Instead you have to focus on what video games can't do. Flexibility and player input.

 

[oxybe]

one thing i've noticed with TTRPG designers is that very few come from a game design-esque background, most of the ones i've looked up have degrees in things like literature, history, geography, etc... very few seem to have mathematics or game design/theory as their majors.

then again it could just be a weird artifact of where the two hobbies evolved from. the first videogames were made using things like old radar technology in a laboratory, whereas the first RPGs evolved from wargames drenched in history.

another thing to note is that higher education programs, especially focusing on game design, are a rather modern invention.

just a weird thing i noticed when looking up designers a while ago.

mind you i'm talking almost exclusively about north american TTRPG designers. i have no clue about the backgrounds of designers in the european, asian, etc... areas.

i can understand wanting to see that orc battle as i'm a very visual and tactile person. i simply work better when i see a bunch of orc minis (note im not needing these things to be pewter figures of individual orcs. a bunch of skittles or M&Ms work just as well, with maybe a dorito for a big thing) that i can move around and handle. it's just how my brain is wired.

i'm also going to say it up front: i'm a very greedy person. i've been pampered by videogames that let me be a cool-guy-hero-man right out of the starting game and kinda feel let down when my TTRPG experiences don't allow me the same without a lot of hoop-jumping. if my options are a 40$ game that tells me i have to "earn" my fun, while the other is a 40$ game that gives it to me with the statement "it can only go up from here", i will steer towards the latter over the former regardless if it's a videogame or TTRPG.

and if my options are "fun now" or "fun later", i'd much rather fun now, and once that fun's over with and immediately jump onto the next "fun now", or keep that "fun now" in storage until i'm in a mood where i really need some "fun now". because hey: you only live once.

unless you're a Buddhist. lucky buggers.

as for "flexibility and player input" that's all well and good when said out loud or typed but that's in an ideal world. very few GMs have the flexibility to allow for any given and all player input and will, if not constrain, guide their players to certain actions or outcomes. the popularity of modules and adventure paths also seem to tell me that the flexibility to do whatever you might think of isn't in actuality as high a priority as we gamers tend to make it out to be.

in truth i think all we're looking for is a good gaming experience, often with friends, often without, regardless where we get it.

and to me, more and more are TTRPGs becoming less and less of an example of good gaming experience when put in contrast to other games. the roleplay is fine and has consistently been the best part, but the game part itself is now kinda and looking worse and worse as other games and mediums evolve.