To research combatless RPGs you really should play a Harvest Moon (Back to Nature, Save the Homeland, and Magical Melody are the best) and play the free trial of A Tale in the Desert combatless MMO. Yes those both have important sim aspects. The other possibility is to replace combat with mini-game type play, more speedpuzzle or racing kinda of things than sim. Or for that matter adventure-game-like puzzles like Myst Online. ATiTD and Myst Online don't have a lot of story, but I think they could be combined well with more story, either linear or interactive. Harvest Moon has some interactive story, but more story and more grown-up topics would be better.

Personally I think RPGs are best when they have a mix of combat gameplay, non-combat gameplay, and story. I'm basically a pacifist, and it used to disturb me that most gaming is based on slaughtering things, especially humanoid opponents. It would be even worse if I was a vegetarian. It doesn't bother me now because I've gotten used to the idea that combat in games is mainly a metaphorical expression of strategic puzzles, it's not really about actual death. I've spent the past 3 days gleefully blowing away zombies, then playing the other side and using my zombie army to eat everyone's brains.

Could you call a date SIM an RPG?

Only if you're the chosen one and have to save the world through dating.

Although, if you are indeed trying to set up a RPG around dating I recommended a book called (ironically enough) "The Game" - http://www.amazon.com/Game-Penetrating-Secret-Society-Artists/dp/0060554738

You could consider an adventure game to be an RPG without combat, particularly if it includes character-building elements. If I were trying to design such a game I would therefore look to developing more complex puzzles like those sometimes seen in oldschool adventure games.

These usually work in a few ways:

1. Obtain the correct items, and use them in the correct way at the correct location. Items in an adventure game will often have multiple uses ranging from merely amusing to giving you slight advantages, right through to being essential to progress. The trick therefore is to create interesting situations where the player will have to think about what items are at their disposal (or could be acquired somewhere within the game world) as well as how to use those items to solve their problem.
   
   An example might go as follows:
   
   Jill encounters a flooded hallway and can not progress along it to where they need to go. There is a drain in the hallway, but new water is constantly flowing in from a pipe.
   
   Jill remembers that there was a wrench in one of the other rooms, which at the time she used to knock out a annoying but harmless drunkard (amusing but non-essential function) before discarding. After going back to collect the wrench Jill is able to shut off the pipe, allowing the water to drain away so she can progress.
   
   
   • There should be a fairly large range of items available to the player, although they should not necessarily need all of them.
   
   
   • Items should have multiple -- preferably interesting -- potential uses within the game world, but probably shouldn't do more than one or two things that are essential to progressing.
   
   
   • The uses of items -- particularly when the use in question is essential to progression, less so for things that are just amusing -- should either be logical and intuitive, or strongly hinted at by the game world. Preferably both.
   
   
   • There should be a system in place such that an item essential to progression can never be lost, or can always be retrieved. If there are other uses for an essential item they should not consume the item unless there are many of the item available; the player should never get stuck because they used an essential item for one of its not-essential purposes.


2. Talk another character into doing what the player needs.
   
   This might involve:
   
   • Getting the other character to do something to directly aid you, or to give you a required item. "Sure, I'll open the door for you!" "Here's that wrench you needed."
   
   
   • Getting, or tricking the other character into doing something to indirectly aid you. You might for example tell a guard about a problem at a local school, causing him to leave his post to check on his child, and allowing you to get at what he was looking after.
   
   
   • Getting a hint or instructions for solving a problem. "Well, you could shut off that pipe if you had a wrench..."
   
   Talking to another character is of course also an excellent way to convey your story to the player.
   


3. Manipulating the game world to achieve a desired effect. An example might be pulling a lever to open a closed drain (rather than using the wrench, which is a collectible item), or placing a chair so that a door can't be opened. This is very similar to using an item or set of items, and all the same suggestions apply.

Hope that helps! [smile]

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Original post by Storyyeller Only if you're the chosen one and have to save the world through dating.

*eyeroll* RPGs definitely do not require a chosen one to save the world, that's the just the most cliched story they can have. I would definitely say some dating sims are RPGs.

If you're looking beyond combat something else you might consider would be the life-sim/RPG games like Cute Knight, My Pet Protector and (to some extent) Kudos, where gameplay is heavily based around stat management. You can provide a lot of different spontaneous situations for the player to respond to, still tell a story with multiple endings (based on stats) and scale gameplay around challenges versus skills the player can level.

Quote:

Original post by: Eric Seiler In many RPGs the world is a place of strife and you, through the player character, must fulfill some form of hero's story to save it. This typically means starting out small or weak and relatively unknown, overcoming many obstacles which leads to growth, to eventually overcome the antagonist in some sort of climactic battle.

In this you have already assumed combat needs to take place (that is: "some sort of climactic battle"). So it is therefore impossible to not have combat in the resulting game. Also, the "Hero's Journy" is only one plot progression, and this also strongly suggests combat.

There are many other stroy patterns other than the Hero's Journy and these kinds of story can also be made into game plots. How about a Fall from Grace plot pattern where the player's character becomes corrupted. Or an film noir investigation type plot of intreuge and betrayal.

By only using plots that are geared towards combat, it is obvious that trying to not have combat in such situations will be hard. But, if you instead start from a plot pattern that does not requier combat, then it is also equally obvious that making it without combat will be much easier.

And besides, ti is not that combat occurs at all in these game, it is that the central focus of these game seems to be about combat (dungeon crawling). Combat, might occur in these other types of games, but it is no longer the central focus of the game (and the central focus of a role playing game should be about playing a role).

Quote:

Original post by sunandshadow Quote: Original post by Storyyeller Only if you're the chosen one and have to save the world through dating. *eyeroll* RPGs definitely do not require a chosen one to save the world, that's the just the most cliched story they can have. I would definitely say some dating sims are RPGs.

I was joking.

Quote:

Original post by Storyyeller Quote: Original post by sunandshadow Quote: Original post by Storyyeller Only if you're the chosen one and have to save the world through dating. *eyeroll* RPGs definitely do not require a chosen one to save the world, that's the just the most cliched story they can have. I would definitely say some dating sims are RPGs. I was joking.

Good, lol.