Little things that annoy you in RPG
DragonKing
Member Posts: 1,979
So here is a question I don't think I've seen asked here, what are some little things that annoy you in RPG, it can be eastern or Western since I know some of us play both types while others tend to like one and hate the other.
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A peeve of mine and this tends to be something both types of RPG, for a game that suppose to be about role playing I've seen very few ever take they class you chose into consideration or even class advancement for story elements and plot point.
Oh look magical creatures, a summon, a magical storm is happening...now let's have some random npc just information dumb on me everything about what and why it's happen. What's this? You are a level 20 wizard who can cast level 10 spells who has a large wealth of knowledge on all things arcane or spiritual and can probably break down better YOURSELF what's going on just by looking at the scene or atleast let my character participate in the talk and not just by asking stupid questions by actually making statements and observations that the npc reacts to as if it was a real person and didn't know that or over look that but nope...
You're a vampire hunter and vampires are attacking the city? So instead falling back on this is your literal specialty and the walking the lead role in this conversation,let's have the npc just do all the talking and you ask pointless questions when better time could've been spent with the pc give instructions that could've saved lives.
I get it, it's all flavor that doesn't take away how fun the game maybe but it's flavor that I personally thing actually makes it all better in my case and really makes me care for for my own PC than him just being the main character.
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A peeve of mine and this tends to be something both types of RPG, for a game that suppose to be about role playing I've seen very few ever take they class you chose into consideration or even class advancement for story elements and plot point.
Oh look magical creatures, a summon, a magical storm is happening...now let's have some random npc just information dumb on me everything about what and why it's happen. What's this? You are a level 20 wizard who can cast level 10 spells who has a large wealth of knowledge on all things arcane or spiritual and can probably break down better YOURSELF what's going on just by looking at the scene or atleast let my character participate in the talk and not just by asking stupid questions by actually making statements and observations that the npc reacts to as if it was a real person and didn't know that or over look that but nope...
You're a vampire hunter and vampires are attacking the city? So instead falling back on this is your literal specialty and the walking the lead role in this conversation,let's have the npc just do all the talking and you ask pointless questions when better time could've been spent with the pc give instructions that could've saved lives.
I get it, it's all flavor that doesn't take away how fun the game maybe but it's flavor that I personally thing actually makes it all better in my case and really makes me care for for my own PC than him just being the main character.
Post edited by Tresset on
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Comments
I totally get that. The problem, however, is that if I don't do this, if I only take elements from European mythology, then I could just as easily be accused of perpetuating eurocentrism. So, this is like being between a rock and a hard place, you have two choices and they both suck: option 1 is cultural appropriation, option 2 is eurocentrism.
Of course, I could just say "Well, I'll do whatever I want". But that's not the point. At a theoretical level, there's an actual paradox here, and I have no idea how to solve it.
Ignore the consequences and realize you can't please everybody. The people who would be most offended probably don't play video games anyway...
I get that, but I feel like it's an interesting theoretical problem nonetheless, and it would be nice if I (or someone else) could come up with a solution to it. The way I see it, one could make the case that non-European influences function as checks and balances. Instead of seeing their incorporation as cultural appropriation, one can instead see them as democratizing the fantasy genre, which arguably tends to be monopolized by European mythologies. Why shouldn't we have sphinxes and bixies next to manticores and basilisks? Why shouldn't we have imaginary cities that have architectural styles reminiscent of Ancient Egypt and China next to cities that look like Medieval European ones? These are just some of the questions that I keep asking myself. I know that these things have been done to death in countless RPGs, most of them successfully. But there's a new wave of criticism that I think makes some good points, actually. The recent controversies over Orcs and Drow are an example of this, but there's more to it. I think that the ball is now in our court ("our", in the sense of whoever thinks fantasy is a cool genre, despite all of the criticisms that can be levied against it), and it's up to us to keep this genre relevant.
Oh you're white, but are you of Irish decent? No? So you can't use anything from Celtic mythology or you're culturally appropriating their stuff.
Oh you're not German? You better not touch those grim fairytales then!!!
You're black but not Yoruban? You better stay away from the Orisha.
Its effing stupid...
That's not cultural appropriation anymore than feminazis are feminists. A lot of dumb people will make that argument, but its a straw-man example at best.
Yeah, I think I understand where you're coming from. The thing is, that calling a problem "stupid" doesn't solve that problem. Maybe I'm looking at this in a different way because I'm used to dealing with "stupid" problems in my line of work (philosophy). For example, consider the following puzzle: if you have a heap of sand, and you remove one grain, is it still a heap? Of course it is. Remove another one, then another one, until there's none left. Is it still a heap? Of course not, there's no grains. So far, so good. Here's the question: when did it cease to be a heap? When you removed the last grain? But a single grain of sand is not a heap, it's just a single grain. Did it become a heap when you added two grains? No, because two grains of sand are not a heap, they're just a pair. So, when does a small collection of sand grains become a heap? Which grain is the one that makes the difference? This is admittedly a stupid problem from the point of view of common sense, after all, who cares? But theoretically, this problem motivated the development of fuzzy logic, and that logic has real world applications, for example it has been used to make more efficient washing machines. I'd say that the problem of cultural appropriation vs eurocentrism, without aspiring to similar results, does have the potential of motivating the creation of new fantasy worlds. If anything, they might provide new sources of entertainment.
This is a talk for politics channel not here, so I'm leaving it at this, except the amount of ish I've seen called cultural appropriation not including the times I've been called out for "cultural appropriation" I've seen the so called "strawman" used this way. How many uses of the strawman does it take to break a camel's back?
And this is just the things I deal with anecdotally... Let's not even mention other forums of creativity that I don't know the ends and out of such as music and fashion where it probably got tossed around the most for clothing choice, hair styles and such.
It's a heap as soon as it's too much of a hassle to count the damned things!
When a setting's races are all, or nearly all, humanoid. I'll also add settings here that have a healthy number of non-humanoid races, but none of them are playable (Hello Mass effect).
or even in bg2 with the wellyn kid in the graveyard, it is entirely possible that you could have raise dead by that moment and it would have been neat as an RPG element to bring him back to life to he could be with his parents again ( perhaps giving your team a +1 to REP ) but nope, if you are an NPC sucks to be you
or nalia's father for example, lol, sorry nalia for losing your pops, but damn girl, he's RIGHT THERE, chillin ( literally ) on that weird pilar thing, not chunked, probably "just" bit the dust, and seriously YOU ARE A WEALTHY FAMILY, does no one have the funds to revive this guy? how high of a level could he have possibly been? i would say a best this guy was level 7 if that, and yet even up to level 10 it ONLY costs 800 gold to revive someone, which is less than one suit of platemail, and yet when you help nalia clear out the fortress she gives you a whopping 10650 GP LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL, couldn't use even a fraction of those funds to revive your dad? seriously, the health/insurance program of the realms in complete shite
oh, oh! speaking about more RICH people.... Anomen, like come on buddy, come on buddy. Does your father get that crunk that he can afford to own such a huge house with a guard outside, but yet again not be able to afford a raise dead spell for his daughter? Did whoever use disintegrate on his daughter hence the reason why she is a pile of sand in a jar? like come on man, i really REALLY doubt she had any level in adventuring so again, less money that half the cost for platemail and she should be back and at 'em like nothing ever happened
now when it comes to khalid i can ALMOST accept it, first it is possible that you might not be high enough level to have raise dead especially if you start fresh with 89 000 XP, but even if you start with 161 000 jaheira can get that harper version of raise dead by then, and doesn't even try. Now jaheira claims that his "body is to mutilated beyond revival" or some jargon, which seems a bit weak but understandable knowing that the culprit was mr irenicus and there could have been some possibility of perma death with his magic, but they really did put a lot of effort into jaheira's quest in bg2 so i will give it a weak pass
but THEN in ToB to make up for it, you can raise the child's dad in saradush as an RPG element instead with no fuss
if enemies were smart ( especially big time or boss enemies ) they should have some "paid" staff or people ready to go with a resurrection spell anytime they bite the dust, to me that would only make sense, but nope, notta, no insurance for the big bads, if you want to get rich in the realms, start a contingent resurrection business and i'm sure you would be a millionaire easy for all those filthy nobles and rich folk
seriously, games that use "perma death" as a lead point for a plot point in a world where not only do towns and cities provide resurrection services but even your own PARTY at a whim is just silly as hell, and a bit cringe when there is raise dead and resurrection all over the place, and yet lol whoops, can't use that as an option, because ya know, 800 gold, that is just too unfordable to use to raise someone, but giving a random party over 10k for basically failing to save someone is all good lewlz
I only find the ability to revive the dead annoying in contexts like you just mentioned, the ability to do so isn't the problem, the story ignores that your character maybe a class that can literally do it. So story points like that have no emotional impact. I have nothing to say about gorion because I don't know how long it took them to retrieve the body because I still find it stupid that after the attack and the murder of his father, the ward didn't try to go back to the keep for help.
Yet with Khalid it made perfect sense to me, it shows that there's actually a time limit on how long before death can't be undone even though we don't technically know how long he had been dead.
But on this note, a peeve of mine is, so you're telling me a cleric can raise the dead, a freaking druid can raise the dead, even a freaking shaman can do it....but... A necromancer, the literal class/job/profession that is basically the poster boy for dead, death, and undead magic sometimes in some some stories both life and death magic, literally wouldn't have a way to do it? The very class dedicated to study of the dead wouldn't find a way to bring the soul back and give someone a second life, maybe for a plot or a scheme, or maybe as a key or trump card against some noble/elite who just lost their loved one and is grieving. Yet here comes a necromancer with the power to revive the dead for a price.
I agree that is true of the game world of Baldur's Gate (and of Dungeons and Dragons in general) but I still pick and choose the parts I like and try to block out the parts I don't. I have no problem with sentient undead but anything where you can come back to life as if death were a minor inconvenience just seems dumb to me. So I always play no reloads and all deaths are final.
That's a good one
Heroes: We will stand against the Dragon King! Let us equip ourselves and we will fight for you!
Villagers: OK great, healing potions are 100gp, swords are 1,000 gp, heavy armour is 10,000 gp etc, what do you want to buy?
And yet I remain undefeated
Free market economy at it's finest! ?
That's what EEKeeper is for!
I don't know if anyone remembers this, but in Baldur's Gate 1 there's an NPC in a tavern in Beregost that confronts your party and he tells you that adventurers always ruin the local economy by selling the magical items that find in dungeons. I thought that was brilliant. The economy in most RPGs doesn't make any sense. How is it that there's no inflation? And when you sell truckloads of the same item to the local merchants, or when you buy hundreds of potions, this doesn't affect supply and demand?
It does to a minor extent. The 1st item you sell to a merchant is worth more as long as they don't already have that item in stock. You can use that to your advantage by selling multiple items simultaneously, rather than one at a time.
Edit: I use this to effect at the beginning of BG1. The shortbows and bastard swords you get from hobgoblins are the prime example of this.
Edit of edit: Gems and jewelry are exempt from this. Their value is set.
not being able to solve quests in alternative, and especially non-combat ways;
not being able to use skills and spells outside of combat, for roleplaying or quest advancing purposes;
a leveling up system where you hardly get to do anything advancing your character at some levels;
not providing the option of being able to talk to, and possibly even befriend, powerful creatures such as dragons and giants (they're always in the game just for you to kill and loot);
any notion of time-travel.