#Vampire:Bloodlines

[dicecast]

Idea i would do if I ever had a Patreon

I’d do a historical lets play of the history of Western RPGs, starting with Ultima IV and going unto the current age, looking at Ultima VII affected Baldur’s Gate I, the changes between BG I and II, how Planescape Torment changed up the formula, the different branch of the family tree that was the first two Fallout Games, how Arcanum was in many ways the last gasp of the old era, how Neverwinter Knights and Vampire:Bloodlines both brought about the modern RPG, how Jade Empire is this underappreciated middle ground between old bioware and new, and of course how Mass Effect, Dragon Age, New Vegas, The Witcher Trilogy and Pillars of Eternity/Tyranny all represent different aspects of the original promise of Baldur’s Gate now divided, and hyper specialized, with the Troika branch sadly forgotten.   How Mask of the Betrayer and Knights of the Old Republic II form a Trilogy with Planescape Torment that is kinda entirely different from what everybody else is doing. Meanwhile Ultima VIII and Ultima IX crashed and burned for very different reasons.  

I’m really interested in the “losers” of the RPGS, what didn’t really influence the others, Arcanum, Vampire, and Jade Empire, who are all doing interesting things but didn’t really effect those around them.  

 And of course how WRPGs I feel fall into three families, First there are those descended from Ultima listed above.  Then there is the great alternative approach, the Elder Scrolls series, an entirely different philosophy to roleplaying which is in many ways diametrically opposed to that of the Ultima School, and you can look at each Elder Scrolls game as a response to the prevalent RPGs of its time, currently we are in the Skyrim age.  Just look at Fallout III vs. New Vegas.  And of course between these two forces are the centrists (seriously look at their game themes) of the Deus Ex School, which in my mind is the first Deus Ex Game, the System Shock Games, and the First two Thief Games for an entirely different view of roleplaying, a attempted third way which....died and is no longer present.  

  Then we talk about its intersection with Japanese Roleplaying games, where they mix and clash and break, and in particular the Souls series, which seems to look at Western RPGs and offer a different approach, combining it with Zelda of all things.   Or how the choice decisions of Silent Hill 2 likely influence the design of Dark Souls in terms of roleplaying, and in the next few years expect more Dark Sousl style roleplaying to seep over to WRPGS 

Over the course of it I would want to look at the sort of challenges and narrative choices facing the genre, how storytelling and characterization different from era to era, how choice and gameplay change and intertwine over the course of time, how Pillars of Eternity actually owes more to Dragon Age than Baldur’s Gate, how the earliest games were designed as D&D computer Games while the latter are computer RPGs from the ground up, how the changing culture of the audience has changed the games, how politics have always been part of these games from the start and noticing how they different (Seriously look at the 8 virtues and tell me that isn’t political) and if there are any common themes or ideas some or all of these games are interested in?  The Avellone Trilogy (KOTOR 2, PT, Mask) all are interested in the nature of the protagonist as an entity, KOTOR 1 and BG are interested in the nature of a chosen one, Fallout and Arcanum are interested in a Ebs and Flows reading of history, Dragon Age is about applying modern sensibilities to a medieval world, while Mass Effect is about consequences.  Meanwhile the Elder Scrolls are about player agency, the Witcher is about telling the story of a single character, and Deus Ex and New Vegas are about the breakdown of American society. 

As a point of contrast we could also look at the divnity series and how every game seems to be doing something completely different, and you can measure the trends in RPGS based on what crazy idea Divinity is doing now.  

Equally important are the mechanical themes of freedom and choice, Arcanum gives you this vastly complicated ruleset to make a totally unique character and most players won’t use any of it, while Fallout tries to make each perk has usefulness.  What really are the benefits of a Dialogue Wheel vs. the Tree?  How are Mass Effect’s Choices different from Planescapes?  And when you divide Mechanics and story rigidly as games like the Witcher, Dragon Age, and Pillars do, what do you gain and what do you lose vs. integrating them as Baldur’s Gate does?  

   Then how each game approaches settings, characters, alignment, and worldbuilding, looking at the standard Europeon fantasy setting and see how that plays out across games, how different BG, PT, KOTOR and Vampire are for being set in established worlds while Pillars, Dragon Age and Mass Effect must introduce their world.  How the threadbare worldbuilding of the Witcher and Jade Empire compares to the detailed work of the Elder Scrolls, and how the world changes in Ultima vs. that of Fallout.  

   The eventual goal of this problem would be to determine what is an Western RPG, can that label even exist, and what make all of the games I mentioned feel connected and how do they work.  I’d been looking at their different approached to the main character, how they can be complete ciphers like in Fallout or the Elder Scrolls, to semi personalities like Mass Effect or Deus Ex, organically created characters like Dragon Age II, or fully realized characters like the Witcher or Planescape torment. Above all though is the question of choices, what makes a choice significant, what is a role and how can you play it, and finally how can you craft a story using those two as elements.  Also seeing how these games respond to each other is fascinating, like how Knights of the Old Republican II is a deconstruction of the first one, or how New Vegas challenges the assumptions of Fallout as a whole (Chris Avellone likes this evidently).   Speaking of CA, he once said that when you insert options in a game for the player, you need to give them an opportunity to use them, otherwise you are just leaving them feeling frustrated and resentful.  Is this true, and what other rules can you learn by looking at all of these games as one.  Does character appearance matter and how has it changed.  And how valuable is it to have different play experiences depending on my character, Vampire being one extreme with Bioshock being another.  

Sometimes I post things I wish I could do in the vain home that A) Some millionaire with free time see this and feels randomly compelled to fund me as part of a “Horatio Alger” cosplay” B) a massively talented person sees this idea and makes it for me so I can enjoy it C) I remember it for later in case I ever somehow get money in my life.  But hey, if you would be interested in this idea let me know, maybe i could get a loan to do this.  

[ska-suggestions]

Who has cursed the men of this world to seek rat flesh for consumption?

What kind of Vampire:Bloodlines "The Beast that hungers within" nonsense is this?

[dicecast]

New Series:Blast from the Past

Welcome to a new series i call Blast from the Past a trip into gaming nostalgia.  Basically I’ve been replaying a lot of classic games, particularly Western RPGs, and there are some radically different design choices then vs. now.  So I wanted to talk about them, how as Computer role playing games changed?  

    Now this is important, I am not trying to say that older games are better and we should all bemoan the loss of such great classical era before everything was ruined because no, a lot classic games had terrible choices and recent WRPG have have introduced lost of cool innovations.  Nor am I saying “Man, they were so fucking primitive back then”  because sometimes there are old ideas that nobody expanded upon and we should. . I’m more just pondering what is different, how it changes, and if you could do it today.  Most of the old games I will be looking at are

Baldur’s Gate 

Planescape Torment

Thief 1 and 2

Ultima

.....those are the games i am doing the analysis of honestly, that is where the bulk of the reviewing is going to come from, but I will also be doing

Knights of the Old Republic 

The far superior Knights of the Old Republic II

Morrowind

Deus Ex

Fallout 1 and Fallout 2

Jade Empire

Vampire:Bloodlines

Icewind Dale

And occasionally neverwinter knights

Might even talk about Arcanum

I will be comparing these too

Dragon Age

Mass Effect

The Witcher

Oblivion/Skyrim

Pillars of Eternity

Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition

And if I can get my hands on them

Torment: Tides of Numeria

Tyranny

Dishonored

Hope you enjoy

@elfgirlechoes