A frustration with computer rpgs
May. 31st, 2021 02:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI played a lot of Kingmaker
a lot
and I find it increasingly frustrating that you can show mercy
but
only to specific named characters
after you have a fight.
Sometimes you get a chance to offer to let them walk away. That's good.
There are Neutral Good options focused on the possibility of redemption
which is great
even though it usually means killing them later when they come back for revenge.
But if the character is just tagged 'bandit' or some such
they either kill or die.
It's kind of messed up.
And one time there's a big fight in a temple
and I am not going to fight on holy ground
(TCBOO)
so I used spells to restrain all the attackers, they can't move, they're stuck now and could reasonably be considered defeated
but the fight does not end
the NPCs just beat each other to death
even though everyone there was Lawful Good to Neutral Good priests and paladins of a Neutral Good deity who is not on the whole big into slaughter.
It was really nasty.
Because it's a computer game, it has specific conditions built in, and none of them involve
noticing they're all your prisoners now.
With a tabletop game you can ask your GM and things can go off the rails. You can use the feats that make you more Merciful, especially if Sarenrae is in any way your goddess. You can use spells in nifty innovative ways.
Computer says no.
And I played a Wizard but then found this particular game doesnt let you do much of the stuff that makes being a wizard look fun. Limited range of spells. I just threw fire and lightning around. ... and accidentally killed my team mates because even with nice big red templates showing area etc I manage to, basically, bomb them, kind of a lot. I should not get to play with such toys. But, I dont know that end of the spellbook so well. Yet here, kabooms are what you've got.
I dont know, maybe the subtler versions are in there and I didnt notice.
But.
I have played enough turn by turn combat rounds to get really frustrated with them. I keep wanting to be kinder than the game allows. I feel there are options one could reasonably take that are somewhere in between killing them all and letting them all go, especially after one has constructed jails all over ones kingdom. And the way most characters dont get a chance is creepy.
Some of that would be true on tabletop with humans, mostly the combat stuff. Fights take so much longer than conversations. I'm sure there are conversations games, but the assumptions of Pathfinder are heavy into combat and I had to buy a bunch of expansions to get some social options in.
Other stuff is because computer. The fun of rpgs is collaborative storytelling. Computer rails just... aren't enough.
/thoughts on computer games.
I'm probably going to keep playing them. I like the turn based combat for not relying on my reflexes. I like that I dont get motion sick with the view Pathfinder uses, I need to find the right keywords for finding more like that.
But I like the story best when it is not all or even much about hitting things.
... so I might like a different genre better.
a lot
and I find it increasingly frustrating that you can show mercy
but
only to specific named characters
after you have a fight.
Sometimes you get a chance to offer to let them walk away. That's good.
There are Neutral Good options focused on the possibility of redemption
which is great
even though it usually means killing them later when they come back for revenge.
But if the character is just tagged 'bandit' or some such
they either kill or die.
It's kind of messed up.
And one time there's a big fight in a temple
and I am not going to fight on holy ground
(TCBOO)
so I used spells to restrain all the attackers, they can't move, they're stuck now and could reasonably be considered defeated
but the fight does not end
the NPCs just beat each other to death
even though everyone there was Lawful Good to Neutral Good priests and paladins of a Neutral Good deity who is not on the whole big into slaughter.
It was really nasty.
Because it's a computer game, it has specific conditions built in, and none of them involve
noticing they're all your prisoners now.
With a tabletop game you can ask your GM and things can go off the rails. You can use the feats that make you more Merciful, especially if Sarenrae is in any way your goddess. You can use spells in nifty innovative ways.
Computer says no.
And I played a Wizard but then found this particular game doesnt let you do much of the stuff that makes being a wizard look fun. Limited range of spells. I just threw fire and lightning around. ... and accidentally killed my team mates because even with nice big red templates showing area etc I manage to, basically, bomb them, kind of a lot. I should not get to play with such toys. But, I dont know that end of the spellbook so well. Yet here, kabooms are what you've got.
I dont know, maybe the subtler versions are in there and I didnt notice.
But.
I have played enough turn by turn combat rounds to get really frustrated with them. I keep wanting to be kinder than the game allows. I feel there are options one could reasonably take that are somewhere in between killing them all and letting them all go, especially after one has constructed jails all over ones kingdom. And the way most characters dont get a chance is creepy.
Some of that would be true on tabletop with humans, mostly the combat stuff. Fights take so much longer than conversations. I'm sure there are conversations games, but the assumptions of Pathfinder are heavy into combat and I had to buy a bunch of expansions to get some social options in.
Other stuff is because computer. The fun of rpgs is collaborative storytelling. Computer rails just... aren't enough.
/thoughts on computer games.
I'm probably going to keep playing them. I like the turn based combat for not relying on my reflexes. I like that I dont get motion sick with the view Pathfinder uses, I need to find the right keywords for finding more like that.
But I like the story best when it is not all or even much about hitting things.
... so I might like a different genre better.