Don''t worry, soon the medevilness seen in many RPGs will eventually die out.

I''m currently designing a RPG game and the setting is quite complex. Looks like the past, but is really the future. There is a great deal of magic, features character classes, and my very own "think system".

If you want me to explain my "think system" in my RPG then e-mail me at Kingzoolerius666@netscape.net

~~~ Signature: ~~
"Satan sent me to destroy the video game industry." - Trigger(my alter ego)
"God is a game designer too and his game, ''Life'' " - Me
"Squirrles make me horny." - Sean Randy Rowlen Uranus

Now help me out if i''m wrong but would RPG basically mean you play as a character(s) where they can advance in their abilities?

If so then there are plenty of hybrids around now.

System shock 1 & 2, Deus Ex, Tron 2.
Action RPG''s I think they are called. I''ve played all of them and they are set in the future or in a computer in the case of tron. Deus Ex is more close future i guess. Could even be modern if you believe in conspiracies. Anyway... you can get upgrades, gain new skills, system shock had spells. With tron and Deus ex, you start off as a plain character and you can get new abilities as time goes on. in System shock, you had a choice of 3 careers: PSI, Marine, ... i forget.

Well, for an idea, i''ve got a topic up about books you''d like to see made into an MMO.

But just for other general ideas here are...

Space opera (i.e E&B EVE)
Victorian England(sherlock holmes era)
Renassaince (3 Muscateers)
Mythology (as mentioned above)
High Fantasy (final fantasy type, maybe anime)
Oriental
Western
Industrial America
High Seas
Sci-Fi (modern) (Terminator etc)
Sci-Fi (classic) (1950''s sci fi)
Horror (you play against the evil)
Horror (you play as the monsters...i.e white wolf)
Cartoon (silly like looney toons)
Cartoon (serious like transformers, GI Joe)
WW2
Alternate Earth History (Crimson skies)
Near Future (Shadowrun)
Cyber Punk
Combinations of the above.

hey robert you forgot video games (like tron or .//hack sign for ex)

it''s very important, because it''s the more flexible

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
be good
be evil
but do it WELL
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

eh sorry nobody''s perfect.

From my perspective, i think RPGs tend to have fantasy/medieval themes because the genre sells so well, especially now with the Lord of the Rings movies out and about creating a buzz.

If you think about it, there really is no reason you couldnt apply the concept to any time period. Personally I think it would be odd to have a wild west rpg, but hey, you never know

for the wild west rpg there is wild arms series on PS1 and PS2
i know there is another too
but they are all japan and not pure www (wild wild west) and there is some cross with other settings

there is not so much stereotype in jap rpg from settings

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
be good
be evil
but do it WELL
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I think part of the appeal is that it seems like anything based in the future should be based in our future... in other words, a realistic future. Traditional RPGs deal with magic, and attempts to incorporate magic in real futures (like Anarchy Online) just seem odd and pathetic. Note that magic and futuristic technology can work well together if it''s clear the future is not ours -- see Star Wars ("a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away") and its Force. Interestingly, it also has lightsabers -- futuristic swords. Lucas took what''s cool about medieval-magic fantasy and incorporated it into a futuristic world. Speaking of Star Wars and RPGs: KotOR for PC in November, cannot wait!

So I would suggest that while medieval-magic fantasy is overdone (or at least done heavily), futuristic settings are also overdone because they all rely on possible futures, not alternate futures. You cannot adequately place Star Wars in the future because you''d have to explain what the Force is doing now, in the present. But placing it somewhere remote, you can just say there''s always been a Force some people can manipulate. You can create or destroy whatever rules you wish, to explain the universe. Honestly this type of setting does not have nearly the exposure it warrants.

~CGameProgrammer( );

A great solo player futuristic crpg is Anachronox. If anyone''s intrested you can check it out at www.planetanachronox.com.

I compleetely agree with CGameProgrammer. Most PC RPGs are set either in Earth's alternative pasts or possible futures. A good bunch of Japanese/Korean RPGs offer a more variety in their settings because most simply pick a story and tell it as a RPG, and over there it's more common to see made-up worlds in marketable stories (games, comics, cartoons). If you look at other Western media, like movies, cartoons or comics you'll also see that 99.999% of them are set in Earth, or slight variations of it, in different time periods. So game designers are not to take the blame alone: it's a more cultural thing among fiction writters.

My opinion: in the Americas and Europe, writers tend to stick to known settings to write their stories, and while they might add one or two twists to spice up the story, they'll hardly go all the way to create a whole new one. many Western writters look down on writters that deviate too much from the known world. It's some sort of resistance, and decades ago sci-fi faced lots of it.

Stories that went against that tradition entirely managed to fascinate hordes of people, who were dazzled by the "new". As examples Tolkien and George Lucas. This also explains the success anime and manga are getting outside Japan. But the tradition in using known settings, fearing that the public may not react well to an unfamiliar world, still remains strong today. It's just that Tolkien-esque and Sci-fi-esque settings became so spread and known, that they too became "safe settings" the public is familiar with.

[edited by - M3d10n on September 29, 2003 11:36:38 AM]