Spazmo
Erudite
<A HREF="http://rpgvault.ign.com" target="_blank">RPG Vault</a> have yet again rounded up a bunch of high-profile developers and tossed them into a room to talk about RPG design. Yes, that's right, it's <a href=http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/450/450553p1.html>RPG Roundtable #2</a>! <a href=http://www.obsidianent.com>Obsidian Entertainment</a>'s <b>Mister Chris Avellone</b>, <a href=http://www.spiderwebsoftware>Spiderweb</a>'s <b>Jeff Vogel</b>, <a href=http://www.nival.com>Nival Interactive</a>'s <b>Alexander Mishulin</b>, <a href=http://www.dungeonsiege.com>Gas Powered Games</a>' <b>Steve Wartofsky</b>, <a href=http://www.pirhana-bytes.com>Pirhana Bytes</a>' <b>Kai Rosenkranz</b> and <a href=http://www.bioware.com>BioWare</a>'s <b>Mike Gallo</b> are back to talk about character development.
Funnily enough, one of the most interesting responses came from Alexander Mishulin, who isn't even an RPG designer at all, although <a href=http://www.nival.com/eng/s2_info.html>Silent Storm</a> does have a solid RPG-like character system.
<blockquote>In my opinion, it's undesirable to remove any elements that display character statistics, but at the same time, we need to consider that players continually change and that there are those who shrink from large tables of seemingly unintelligible numbers. In this case, we will need to continue to find unique and original ways to provide alternative solutions to the stats sheet. This may be through character objects as in Diablo, or through visualized increases in competence like Gothic, or visually as in Black & White. Whatever method game designers may choose, we're sure to see the continuing development of RPG stats in various directions, and we will hopefully never derive a definite answer to the question, "Which is the better system, skill-based or class-based?"</blockquote>
Both systems clearly have their strengths. It all depends on the game, really.
Spotted at <a href="http://www.bluesnews.com">Blues News</a>
Funnily enough, one of the most interesting responses came from Alexander Mishulin, who isn't even an RPG designer at all, although <a href=http://www.nival.com/eng/s2_info.html>Silent Storm</a> does have a solid RPG-like character system.
<blockquote>In my opinion, it's undesirable to remove any elements that display character statistics, but at the same time, we need to consider that players continually change and that there are those who shrink from large tables of seemingly unintelligible numbers. In this case, we will need to continue to find unique and original ways to provide alternative solutions to the stats sheet. This may be through character objects as in Diablo, or through visualized increases in competence like Gothic, or visually as in Black & White. Whatever method game designers may choose, we're sure to see the continuing development of RPG stats in various directions, and we will hopefully never derive a definite answer to the question, "Which is the better system, skill-based or class-based?"</blockquote>
Both systems clearly have their strengths. It all depends on the game, really.
Spotted at <a href="http://www.bluesnews.com">Blues News</a>
