Friday, September 14, 2007
Frayed Knights: Disarmament Treatise
Here's more long-winded discussion on the development of the comedy indie RPG, Frayed Knights. This week: Working With Traps For Fun And Dismemberment!
Wanted: Indiana Jones
Ah, booby-traps. What's a dungeon without a bunch of traps? A boring dungeon, I think! And what are traps that just require a single skill-check from the party's rogue to disarm? A boring booby-trap!programming... for a crappy stand-in Because I'm all about giving the rogue class (and players who prefer rogues) some serious love, I'm basically turning the whole lock-picking / trap-disarming thing into a giant mini-game that is taking longer than I expected to program. Most of the time is being spent doing UIUI that will hopefully not resemble the final version in any way, shape, or form. Except maybe with that picture to the right of the Mark I Head-Whacker Trap. I kinda like that picture. Except if your squint, it looks like a six-legged cat is crawling under some dude's mustache. Please don't squint, I guess...
In order to test and balance things, I have to start somewhere. So I have this ugly-as-sin but (semi-) functional "Mechanical Device" screen to muck around with. Rather than show you more than just this one really ugly picture of what the screen looks like tonight, I'm just gonna tell you about it, and hope that my discussion makes you fall asleep and dream of something really cool that this MIGHT resemble someday.
Unlike the lock-picking mini-game in Oblivion, I wanted a mini-game that actually uses your characters abilities rather than requiring lightning reflexes and precognitive ability on the part of the player. It all meshes with the game system. But I wanted something that would test your own brain a little bit, too. (EDIT: Maybe mini-game is the wrong term, here... unless combat, too, is considered a mini-game. It's breaking up a task into a complete system with interesting decisions and tactics along the way.)
Ideally, you could try and max-out your character for dealing with mechanical devices as you level so you don't have to hurt your brain too much coming across mechanical puzzles that must be solved. You can brute-force it, to an extent. Or, you could neglect that entirely to make Dirk a combat-monster, and rely upon luck and your own cleverness (and expensive tools) to solve most of the puzzles (and suck up the damage on the rest).
The Game Mechanics For Mechanical Devices
The actual rules are a little complicated but concealed inside a "black box" system. But in a nutshell (well, a very large nutshell), here's the deal:
A trap is made up of components, broken up into three component categories: Triggers, Mechanisms, and Payloads. For locks, the locks replace the Triggers category. In order to disarm the trap, you have to disarm all the components in one of those three categories. You have two basic operations you can perform on any component - Disarm, and Delay. Disarm tries to render it non-operational, and Delay temporarily prevents it from activating (so you can keep trying to disarm it or work on other parts of the device). Both rely upon the usual game mechanics to determine success or failure.There are two other basic options: "Take Cover" and "Abort." I'll leave it to your imagination what the first one is for. The latter one I'll discuss in a minute.
Do I Cut the Blue Wire or the Red Wire?
The trick is that the components are all linked in various ways. When you fiddle with one component, all the linked components become more dangerous - and may cause the entire trap to go off. Or, if it is an untrapped lock, locks reset and you have to deal with the chance of a monster wandering by while you are busy picking the locks.
Beyond the basic operations, there are expendable tools you can use to assist you in your disarming efforts. For example, there's a potion that is the alchemical equivalent of liquid nitrogen. Pour it on a triggering component, and it freezes. This may allow you to reset the trigger's delay factor without affecting any of its neighbors. How well the tool works depends upon the tool and the type of component you are working with. For example, a wedge works great on a pressure plate trigger (and would give you a hefty bonus to your disarm attempt), but doesn't do much against a tripwire trigger (maybe no bonus at all).
If you abort in mid-disarming / unlocking, the whole thing will reset back to starting values... unless it is a trap, and the overall "danger" level is greater than 50%. Then there's a chance it'll go off anyway. Once the danger level crosses the 50% threshold, you either need to finish the job, or figure out a way to lower the danger level quickly before you abort. Oh, and then there's the "Take Cover" option...
Oh, and whether a trap explodes in your face or you render it harmless, you still get a drama point.
In Theory, At Least...
Now, since I haven't actually been able to TEST any of this yet, it's all still kinda theoretical. On paper, it sounds totally awesome and amazing, and I'm already mentally preparing my acceptance speech for the awards I'm gonna get for it. But the reality of game development always falls very, very short of the idea, and I realize the whole thing may end up being a stinky useless mess by the time I'm done. I may end up resolving all traps with a boring automated skill check that the player doesn't even have to make - I can just pop up a window that says, "Oh, by the way, as you came down the hall you found and disabled three fiendishly cunning traps that left you in awe of the viciousness of their designers. Take 300 experience points."
Yeah. How's that for a Plan B? The utter lack of risk management on this project should reveal to you that I am, if not the worst game producer in the world, at least in the same league.
UPDATE: If you want to see an example of this system in action, in text with all the math and numbers showing, check out this post.
(Vaguely) Related Words. Occasionally With Pictures.
* RPG Design: The Brute-Force Problem
* Making a Rogue-Friendly RPG, Part I: Rogues Get No Respect!
* Making a Rogue-Friendly RPG, Part II: The Rogue's Role
* Making a Rogue-Friendly RPG, Part III: Beyond Lock-Picking
* Designing a Computer RPG Rule System
Am I An Embarassment To RPG Fans Everywhere? Let Me Know On The Forums!
Labels: Frayed Knights, Game Design, Roleplaying Games
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 2:00 AM (Permalink)
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This is probably the coolest trap mechanic I've ever seen. I hope you keep at it. (Heck, if you feel like making a quick standalone game to playtest it, I'd happily try it)
I can see one potential complaint: make sure that once you've dismantled a trap, the player has a reasonable chance of stealing its parts. (Maybe to set up traps of his own) If I disarm a poison dart trap, for example, I ought to be able to steal the poison darts.
Another possibility: if a trap can't be disarmed, maybe it can be made less lethal? Freeze a bottle of poison gas solid, or apply Nerf to a swinging blade trap.
Speaking of traps, I highly recommend Adam Cadre's Lock and Key, if you're not familiar with it. It's a text game where you build an escape-proof dungeon. A little iterative (Die, tinker, die, tinker...), but lots of fun.
I can see one potential complaint: make sure that once you've dismantled a trap, the player has a reasonable chance of stealing its parts. (Maybe to set up traps of his own) If I disarm a poison dart trap, for example, I ought to be able to steal the poison darts.
Another possibility: if a trap can't be disarmed, maybe it can be made less lethal? Freeze a bottle of poison gas solid, or apply Nerf to a swinging blade trap.
Speaking of traps, I highly recommend Adam Cadre's Lock and Key, if you're not familiar with it. It's a text game where you build an escape-proof dungeon. A little iterative (Die, tinker, die, tinker...), but lots of fun.
make sure that once you've dismantled a trap, the player has a reasonable chance of stealing its parts. (Maybe to set up traps of his own) If I disarm a poison dart trap, for example, I ought to be able to steal the poison darts.
Huh. You know, I remember feeling the exactly the same way (with Wizardry 7, amongst other games) about not being able to take weapons from dead enemies. And I remember being very frustrated by it. I think I'll have to add loot to the traps, now.
Great idea, John!
Another possibility: if a trap can't be disarmed, maybe it can be made less lethal? Freeze a bottle of poison gas solid, or apply Nerf to a swinging blade trap.
I don't think I'll be able to have this fully implemented to the level that you are thinking of, but any payloads you disarm will not hit you if the trap goes off. So if you are facing a combo of gas and spikes, but disarm the gas, you'll only have the spikes to worry about if the trap goes off on you.
Speaking of traps, I highly recommend Adam Cadre's Lock and Key,
I think I just heard about that one a little while ago, and I haven't tried it yet. Gonna have to. Thanks for the tip!
Huh. You know, I remember feeling the exactly the same way (with Wizardry 7, amongst other games) about not being able to take weapons from dead enemies. And I remember being very frustrated by it. I think I'll have to add loot to the traps, now.
Great idea, John!
Another possibility: if a trap can't be disarmed, maybe it can be made less lethal? Freeze a bottle of poison gas solid, or apply Nerf to a swinging blade trap.
I don't think I'll be able to have this fully implemented to the level that you are thinking of, but any payloads you disarm will not hit you if the trap goes off. So if you are facing a combo of gas and spikes, but disarm the gas, you'll only have the spikes to worry about if the trap goes off on you.
Speaking of traps, I highly recommend Adam Cadre's Lock and Key,
I think I just heard about that one a little while ago, and I haven't tried it yet. Gonna have to. Thanks for the tip!
If you're willing to make this a little more complicated, you might be able to make traps more easily bypassed by people who aren't interested in the trap mini-game: Add a discovery phase to the trap system.
The idea is that when you spot a trap, you only spot one part of a trap: the trigger, or the payload. If you know where all the triggers and all the payloads are, your party has an excellent chance of being able to proceed without triggering it. (Unless they're running, or in battle, etc) If you only know where one piece is, you have a worse but non-zero chance.
If you want to increase your chances of not setting it off, or if you want to disarm it (and be absolutely safe and potentially get loot), then you need to find all the parts. In your diagram, each part is connected to the next in a chain. Discovery can go either way on the chain.
For example, let's say Dirk spots a pressure plate. Just seeing that alerts him to a trap, and gives him a chance of not setting the trap off. He decides to investigate, and gets a screen like above, except only the plate is visible, and a line coming off it. He can then try to discover the next part of the trap. If successful, he sees the spring assembly and a line. He can then trace along the line to find the rest of the trap.
That ought to be fast and relatively easy. Items like magnets, divining rods, etc. can help greatly improve his chances. Once Dirk has found the whole trap, he can choose to take his (much better) chances and proceed, or he can try to disarm it to be absolutely sure. It would keep the mini-game at a minimum for people who aren't interested in it, and make it longer and more interesting for those who are.
This would also give you some leeway with the drama: you can make it impossible to find half the trap. Since you mention Indiana Jones, half the fun of that scene is that he knew there was *some* kind of trap under the idol. He knew the trigger, but not the payload, and he just had to take his chances...
The idea is that when you spot a trap, you only spot one part of a trap: the trigger, or the payload. If you know where all the triggers and all the payloads are, your party has an excellent chance of being able to proceed without triggering it. (Unless they're running, or in battle, etc) If you only know where one piece is, you have a worse but non-zero chance.
If you want to increase your chances of not setting it off, or if you want to disarm it (and be absolutely safe and potentially get loot), then you need to find all the parts. In your diagram, each part is connected to the next in a chain. Discovery can go either way on the chain.
For example, let's say Dirk spots a pressure plate. Just seeing that alerts him to a trap, and gives him a chance of not setting the trap off. He decides to investigate, and gets a screen like above, except only the plate is visible, and a line coming off it. He can then try to discover the next part of the trap. If successful, he sees the spring assembly and a line. He can then trace along the line to find the rest of the trap.
That ought to be fast and relatively easy. Items like magnets, divining rods, etc. can help greatly improve his chances. Once Dirk has found the whole trap, he can choose to take his (much better) chances and proceed, or he can try to disarm it to be absolutely sure. It would keep the mini-game at a minimum for people who aren't interested in it, and make it longer and more interesting for those who are.
This would also give you some leeway with the drama: you can make it impossible to find half the trap. Since you mention Indiana Jones, half the fun of that scene is that he knew there was *some* kind of trap under the idol. He knew the trigger, but not the payload, and he just had to take his chances...
Thanks for your comments, John!
I managed to get the prototype working pretty well last night - still ignoring inventory items, but the main actions are working correctly for now, and the trap payloads are hitting when the trap goes off.
It still needs some work, but then (once I've cleared out some other major tasks, like the conversation system) I'm going to try and go back and experiment with some of these suggestions.
I still haven't tried out Lock and Key yet, though. I definitely want to take a look at it.
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I managed to get the prototype working pretty well last night - still ignoring inventory items, but the main actions are working correctly for now, and the trap payloads are hitting when the trap goes off.
It still needs some work, but then (once I've cleared out some other major tasks, like the conversation system) I'm going to try and go back and experiment with some of these suggestions.
I still haven't tried out Lock and Key yet, though. I definitely want to take a look at it.
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