What do you need to know to "run the risk?" (RPG-like)

AJ · 2005-10-14T17:29:33

Random events are always a double-edged sword in game design. On the one hand you can keep players excited by the "what's behind the next corner" feel, especially if they're replaying. On the other hand, random events can seem so arbitrary that they're completely unfair, even stupid. So what would you need to know to manage these random situations: 1) You're flying a ship whose engine has been blasted to pieces and patched back together. The engineer warns that repairs will probably only hold for another 3 or 4 days, and leaking radiation may even attract predatory pirates. 2) When you get to port, astroengineering firms tell you they can fix your ship, but ultimate repair prices depend on what they find. Some are more reputable than others, and this can not only affect the price, but whether or not they're incompetent/sneaky enough to do more damage as they try to fix things. 3) Later, you're one of several ships racing to claim rich asteroids in a newly opened system. Initial scans reveal possible promising rocks, but never a guarantee. You have to weigh the risk of deploying and defending a mining team to test drill each candidate versus covering a larger range of territory. With each candidate, the estimated yeild spikes and dips as the team drills samples, so what looked barren or promising can ultimately turn out, days later, to be a wash or gold strike. 4) You dock with a derelict starship. Registry records show it was a lost transport, possibly working for blacklisted research company. On board is a silent mutation which doesn't manifest until days later. One by one your crew begin to become withdrawn or extremely violent, and you must race against time before your ship becomes yet another derelict. What do you need to know in these situations to weigh the risk? Is a simple percentage or set of percentages with attached outcome descriptions enough, or too ham-fisted?

Game Design and Theory Game Design

Started by Wavinator October 12, 2005 01:44 AM

9 comments, last by serratemplar 19 years, 3 months ago

serratemplar

1,656

October 14, 2005 05:29 PM

This may have all been said, but I feel it and wanted it to be concise:

Wavinator: EVERY idea you had in your initial post for this thread sounded like a really cool random event/encounter. I think the odds of any given event that could result in the catastrophic change-of-game (like DEATH for instance) should be very very low odds (1 out of 10000 or something tiny) so that it shows up over the course of gameplay but not even once a session. More like..once every two weeks of playing. =)

Glad to see you're back to spamming the forums with awesome game design ideas.

What do you need to know to "run the risk?" (RPG-like)

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What do you need to know to "run the risk?" (RPG-like)

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