RPG: Should every random event be relevant?

AJ · 2004-10-26T04:09:09

Just looking for general opinions here... Consider an open-ended RPG where there are random missions and random events to supplement the main storyline. Two questions: 1) Should every random event have a gameplay point-- that is, some reward or something you can do with the event that makes it personally meaningful? Here's an example: You're orbiting a planet and detect that there's a ship below. You land and find that the crew is missing without a trace. You determine that the ship has only been sitting here for a few days. For the heck of it, you search around the surrounding map and find nothing-- no bodies, no equipment, no tracks, nothing. If you're a law abiding player there's not much you can do about this. If you're a pirate, you could possibly steal the ship, but if it was just a worthless shuttle there may not be much of a point. The game leaves you with a mystery that you can only answer with your imagination. Should such an event always lead to something momentous-- such as clues that lead to the crew being trapped as a rescue scenario, or held hostage by natives or whatever? Should there always be a meaningful explanation to why something happens in the game? 2) Would you prefer events that have a point / reward to be flagged somehow by the game if there were random events like the one listed above? Modifying the above: As you orbit the planet you get a faint, fading distress call that seems to have come from a certain grid area of the planet. By gameplay convention you automatically know that whenever you get a message it means that there's a series of plot points/events and potential reward. You land, find the shuttle empty, successfully scan for clues and follow them to a cave, where you find that a crew of wounded scientists has been trapped in a collapsed tunnel. At this point you can rescue them, extort them, steal their ship, etc.

Game Design and Theory Game Design

Started by Wavinator October 20, 2004 01:28 AM

21 comments, last by trapdoor 20 years, 3 months ago

Spoonbender

1,258

October 23, 2004 06:13 PM

I dont think every event has to be part of a quest or mission, or offer some reward. But it should be relevant to the player.

Lay down some hints as to what happened to the ships crew, but without asking the player to actually solve the mystery, and without giving any real answers. It can make the game much more immersive, if it gives you the feeling that things are happening outside of the player's sphere of influence. If you visit a planet and see a ship with no crew, you might not be able to do something about it, (except many steal the ship), but you can snoop around a bit, and discover a few clues as to what happened, just out of curiosity, or because you want to know what's going on in the galaxy.

Dunam

174

October 25, 2004 07:19 PM

First of all, yes every 'random event' should have some significance. Otherwise why did you spend creating it and why am I spending my time on it? Does it need to be momentous? Course not. However it should be meaningful.

The deserted ship creates questions for the player:
What happened to the crew? What kind of crew manned this ship? What is that sticky gooey stuff coming out of those crates?

Random events are somewhat like a small sidestory in a book, kinda like tom bombadil (http://www.cas.unt.edu/~hargrove/bombadil.html) in lord of the rings. That website, incidently, describes the effect of such a side passage. It can be an enigma, if you carefully cultivate the mystery and leave just enough crew or an anomaly that makes the player think that because of some game bug the crew didn't load.

trapdoor

130

October 26, 2004 04:09 AM

I also think that by having a world that has events that don't include the player yet they may hear of them, may also drown out what the player might be trying to accomplish. This may not be a bad thing though, if the story is designed to almost force the player out of the average and become noticed. If there are equal ammounts of NPC's chatting about being attacked or being rescued, the player may at first feel like whatever they do doesn't matter as another NPC hero will save the day. But if they get noticed for something they do, they may strive to become known throughout the galaxy, which may also attract unwanted attention.

iKonquest.com - Web-based strategy.End of Line

RPG: Should every random event be relevant?

This topic is closed to new replies.

Popular Topics

Recommended Tutorials

RPG: Should every random event be relevant?

This topic is closed to new replies.

Popular Topics

Recommended Tutorials

Reticulating splines