Why the RPG Hate?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on October 14, 2011

There’s an obviously linkbait article over at IGN (which works, I’m linking to it here) which praises the upcoming Elder Scrolls title Skyrim by talking about how it doesn’t play like an RPG.  The article summary states, “Even if you think RPGs are dumb, this is a game that will command your attention.” While most […]

Filed Under: Biz, Design - Comments: 24 Comments to Read

Single-Player RPGs Do It Better When…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 16, 2011

In his excellent book, “Dungeons & Desktops: The History of Computer Role-Playing Games,” Matt Barton makes a comment I somewhat disagreed about considering the future of the genre. In it, he makes a contention echoed by a commenter yesterday that the a lot of the traditional, mechanical combat-oriented gameplay of those old-school RPGs are being […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 13 Comments to Read

Why the RPG Genre is Losing its Distinctiveness

Posted by Rampant Coyote on August 29, 2011

The top names in the mainstream games biz – many of whom have a history of producing computer and console RPGs, have now come to question the relevance of the genre. A former Interplay producer claims that RPGs always wanted to be action games at heart, but just lacked the technology to do so.  Even […]

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With Great Power Comes Greater Demands

Posted by Rampant Coyote on August 17, 2011

Long before anybody was talking about the “Uncanny Valley,” I was informed about the issue at my first post-college job, at the then new start-up Singletrac. I was one of the few “fresh” faces hired, as many of the employees were from the simulation industry. (It’s amusing that they went from simulation to games, and […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 6 Comments to Read

Gimme Details, Baby…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on August 1, 2011

I enjoyed Craig Stern’s article last week entitled, “Using Details to Craft a Coherent Game World.” Now, on a surface level, Craig sounds like he is mounts the lofty heights of Mount Obvious almost as badly as I do. Details make the world come alive? Gosh! But… if it’s so obvious, why do so many […]

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Roll a D20 to Hit: Using Dice-And-Paper Rules in a Computer RPG.

Posted by Rampant Coyote on July 7, 2011

In his email to me, Craig Stern referred to his article called “The Battle System I Wish RPGs Would Quit Using” as flame-bait. He argues that the old Dungeons & Dragons rules model has long outlived its usefulness. Left at that, he’s probably in good company – even Dungeons & Dragons itself has moved pretty […]

Filed Under: Design, Dice & Paper - Comments: 12 Comments to Read

Difficulty Levels and RPGs

Posted by Rampant Coyote on July 5, 2011

Should RPGs have difficulty levels? My knee-jerk response is to say, “Of course!” I generally prefer games with difficulty levels. Especially action-RPGs. Especially for an action-RPG like The Witcher 2, which apparently really wants you to play with a gamepad, when I really want to play with a keyboard and mouse. I have a gamepad. […]

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Character Skill vs. Player Skill

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 30, 2011

  I’m going to get a little basic right now, since not everybody who reads this blog is a computer role-playing game expert. But mainly because I’ve been putting in 12+ hour days for the day job the last two weeks, and then working on the game instead of sleeping, so “basic” is about all […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 10 Comments to Read

Ultima 9 – How It Might Have Been

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 26, 2011

Yet more historical Ultima development goodies are now avaialable at Ultima Aiera: The original documents for the “Bob White” plot for Ultima IX: Ascension.  This has been rumored and discussed for over a decade. Now you can find the … well, not the original plot for Ultima IX, but a plot that might have been. […]

Filed Under: Design, Retro - Comments: 6 Comments to Read

Rolling Your Own

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 23, 2011

Making your own character(s): For some, this is essential to the RPG experience. For others – like me – it’s no big deal. For some, it’s daunting and a reason to avoid playing RPGs altogether. I remember tournaments back in the glory days of tabletop Dungeons & Dragons where players were assigned pre-generated characters.  Or […]

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Why Dungeons?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 17, 2011

“Dungeons” – underground or otherwise deeply confined environments – are a staple of fantasy CRPGs. Of course, the dungeons we explore in fantasy RPGs bear little resemblance to real-world dungeons, but we’ve managed to broaden the term quite a bit. But why do we keep going back? We’ve been exploring dungeons for something like forty […]

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Action RPG? Big Whoop.

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 14, 2011

Craig Stern of Sinister Design (Telepath RPG) has now weighed in on the interview that pissed off so many of us with Matt Findley of InXile Entertainment. Craig Stern: “So You Created an Action RPG. Stop Congratulating Yourself.” I’ve said my piece, but I’ll just add my agreement to what Craig’s saying here. Look – […]

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Attrition and Resource Management in RPGs

Posted by Rampant Coyote on May 12, 2011

Okay, this is a topic that will probably make a lot of action gamers and casual gamers immediately start snoring. Actually, it may make a lot of people start snoring. But here I go throwing caution to the wind and talk about it anyway. It’s something I’ve touched on before, but I thought I’d elaborate […]

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Because Sometimes Convention Just Works

Posted by Rampant Coyote on May 10, 2011

A friend sent me a link to this article by a writer on the indie turn-based strategy game Battle for Wesnoth about – well, about why originality in story is often overrated: The Uses of Cliché The author states: “One of the most important lessons I’ve learned, and now teach others, is this: genre cliches […]

Filed Under: Design, Strategy Games - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

Guest Post: In Search of Sub-Creation

Posted by Rampant Coyote on May 9, 2011

And now time for a guest post – this time from Anthony Salter, AKA GameDevDad, of Viridian Games. He’s currently finishing up work on the upcoming indie RPG Inaria, which will hopefully see release very soon now. I hope you enjoy this article as much as I did. It speaks to the kind of detail […]

Filed Under: Design, Guest Posts - Comments: 18 Comments to Read

Design: Game Balance is Overrated

Posted by Rampant Coyote on May 5, 2011

I swear I’m not writing this article to justify any laziness on my part in balancing Frayed Knights. Honest! But I sometimes think that of the failings of modern RPGs to capture some of the magic of older games (and face it: as a jaded gamer who’s been playing CRPGs for decades now, it’s always […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 21 Comments to Read



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