I have just purchased the rulebook for the recent version of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game, and I was wondering what everyone thinks of this system. It seems VERY similar to ADAD 3rd edition, but it seems combat is swifter. I was also wondering how it would be possible to convert the system to a real time computer game withought losing a large portion of the maneuverability and action options. In real time, how would the player have time to specify that he/she wants to charge the opponent before the opportunity is lost? This came to mind when I remembered BioWare is doing the conversion. It seems that the computer game would not be half as enjoyable as the actual game. -Brent Robinson

I don''t think it can be done in real time, at least with making it like an FPS. But then it seems likely that combat would take over the game more often than not, and it would lose the depth role playing games have (or at least try for). Deus Ex attempted this, right? (haven''t played the game myself, my poor pathetic computer couldn''t handle it).
But anyway.
Probably my favorite combat model is that used in Fallout 1 & 2. It''s turn based, but not so simply implemented, with action points and initiative and everything. I think that''s a great way to do combat for RPGs, but I suppose that''s just personal preference, I know others don''t like it.

=======================================
Matt Welch

"What sounds to you like a big bloat of trashy old noise
is in fact the brilliant music of a genius--myself" ~ Iggy Pop

It can be done perfectly, as long as you dont make it real-time. That is the biggest problem... People always think games have to be in real-time to be fun. But just look at pen-and-paper. That isn''t in real-time either. Still, it is fun

We will just have to wait ''till someone gets the bright idea to just make a pen-and-paper game on the computer, with the same gameplay... (would require quite a lot of AI to figure out what you want to do I think, but heck... that''s my line of work )

Im not sure who thinks that, some of the best games have been turn based...

Just about any SquareRPG... (sort of)
Fallout Series
X-Com series...


Notice that all these games are in a series - there is a reason for that =)

Edited by - caffeine on March 11, 2001 7:02:07 AM

in X-COM: Apocalypse you can play in real-time (and its damn good to!)


Hmm... last time i read through the star wars rulebook it was very dice-based. Have that changed?


(with dice-based i mean that all your stats was given in dices.
3D+2 for example)



=======================
Game project(s):
www.fiend.cjb.net

True that it could be done turn-based, but I believe that turn-based is hard to do unless the entire game is turn based. The reason for this is that when a game makes the transition from real time to turn based, it generally loses its sense of imersion. And then, even when the whole game is turn-based, such as with Heroes of MM 3, you can still lose some of the immersion unless the transition is done EXTREMELY well. In HOMM3, I never fealt as if my actions were REALLY affecting the world, and it was a mood killer to move from combat to the game world where the ammounts of time represented were so diferent. I hope I am being clear.



Brent Robinson
"Stupidity is a virtue"-me

Edited by - Coconut on March 11, 2001 12:35:05 AM

I think interplay solved that problem great in Baldurs Gate. You can choose between real-time and turn-based combat style by having the game auto-pause between turns....my opinion is that turnbased gives, in a true RPG sense, the ability to use skills like strategy altough these skills depend on the player and not the character. Maybe ine could have the character to gain some sort of advantage depending on the strategy skill, if the system is real-time.

i dont know..it is just my humble opinion
have a nice day

--Spencer

If you think that the new Star Wars RPG rules are hard to do in real-time, remember that Wizards of the Coast (whom now own the property) changed the rules from the most modern system ever devised to resemble the most outdated (AD&D); after the original system for the game came out, it was imitated for all the space-licensed games (the Babylon 5 design was a wholesale ripoff of the design).

The original West End Games''s design for the Star Wars RPG in 1985 was groundbreaking; it only used D6''s! It was easy to learn, and they wisely realized that non-RPGers might want to pick up the game, and made it very simple to pick up. It was easy to gamemaster, and the stats were easily memorized. I will keep running my games with the original literature...

...and I hope that I can scan the 3rd Edition Rulebook to the game into PDF and share it with the world via the internet, to fight Wizards of the Coast and their anti-competitive monopoly on the games industry.