Killing! Magic! Rant! Incoherence!

In most RPG's, you are pretty much forced to play as a hardcase murderous lunatic. After all, the standard fare in most quests is to simply enter a dungeon/warehouse/mansion and hack your way to the foozle at the end of it. No options. Supposedly, "adventuring" literally translates to "butchering the population of a smaller city as a daily routine". Why isn't there any other options? Why can't I use my alchemical prowess to put the guards asleep? Why can't I lure them away with my enchanted bardsong? Scare them away with illusions? In short, why can't I play a pacifist?

This is something Bloodlines did pretty well. There was no xp for sheer killing, meaning that you didn't miss out on something if you distracted the people guarding that door by throwing a soda can into an alley. In the quest areas, you didn't explore every nook and cranny like a homocidal maniac on the hunt for another couple of bipedal xp. Instead, you had several logical reasons to avoid combat. You had the Masquerade the uphold, maybe you simply wanted to avoid getting hurt and, of course, the quests often called for nonviolent solutions. Try to apply some realism to RPG's (or believability, if you don't like the sound of "realism"); you've been sent by the Thieves Guild to steal the Ruby of Arcane Prowess from the Wizard's Tower, why would you necessarily want to kill everyone inside when you could simply use stealth and deceit? I mean, if nothing else, don't you think the wizards would want to investigate why all of sudden one of their chapters had been wiped out? Also, should you be spotted by the guards, it's not very likely they'd charge full head and skewer you with every sharp object they could possibly get their hands on either, but rather, they'd probably try to arrest you or something (and then you'd be incarcerated, which is either game over or a possibility to escape).

And if I want to be violent, why must I KILL people? Why can't I simply knock them unconcious and tie them up? While clearly lacking in other areas ToEE is one of the precious few games that allows for subdual damage but morbidly enough, you don't seem to get any xp before the creature in question rests in pieces.

Another thing which nags me is magic, and I guess it's correlated with the compulsive killing. For all their often impressive repertoire of spells, spellcasters in most CRPG's really only do three things; they deal damage, they buff, and they heal. Furthermore, the scaling inherent in these games means that as you progress, most spells become utterly useless a few levels ahead (I mean, did you ever use spells like Acid Splash or Heal Minor Wounds past level 1, or even then?). For me, this rips away much of the "magic" in magic, making it more a question of mechanics and the continual increase in damage die than unlocking the mysteries of the universe Sadly, it makes dabbling in magic to learn a few useful tricks is pretty much pointless, as that magic missile of yours won't stand a chance against the hordes cyberdragons you'll be fighting on a daily basis once you're a Fighter 18/Blackguard 17/Red Dragon Disciple 20.
I've recently gotten into "Death Gate", which is a neat little 95' DOS game based on the Death Gate Cycle series of books by Weiss & Hickman. Point and click adventure, yes, but you've gotta love the magic system. For example, there is one instance where you have to cast a "Heat" spell on a machine so it warms up to critical levels, setting off an alarm which distracts the guard so you can sneak past. There are other spells that allow you to travel inside paintings and whatnot, and that's just the cool and mysterious stuff magic should allow you to do. In such a system, sacrificing some combat manouvers for some magic insight would be something interesting.

Incoherent rant +1.

 

Actually, I think a lot of these things would come about naturally if only combat had some common sense to it.

Getting cut by a sword hurts like a bitch, and it carries a very real possibility of injuring you for life. Sure, if you're wounded beyond the capabilities of band aid, restorative magic/cybernetics would do the trick, but that's expensive like hell, and even if you know the appropriate spells/technological expertise the components required are rare and likely to dig a hole deeper than your pocket. In this environment you'd be terrified of entering combat. Meaning, that when combat happens, you'd have to think, and it would be exciting like hell. You'd try to utilize advantages, instead of just standing there in the middle of the fray; why not jump up on that table and use that spear of yours to keep the enemy at a distance? Heck, there would actually be a point in fleeing from combat.

For this to work, fights would have to be few and far between. You'd be actively trying to avoid violence whenever possible, there'd actually be incentive to send the rogue on a scouting mission, or use whatever dirty trick available to reach your goals.

But the kids don't want that. I call it the failure of the free market.

 

I believe there's a difference between, say, games like Diablo and games like Fallout. Diablo never tried to be something that it wasn't. It didn't promise profound dialogue, choices and consequences, in-depth character backgrounds or the possibility to join the Prime Evils. It was a roguelike dungeon romp, all about looting and grinding, and it did it splendidly. Fallout was mean to be a completely different flavor, and managed to be something of a masterpiece at what it did. Yes, there was the possibility to grind and hunt phat l3wt, though the sense of urgency due to the time limit may have stymied that somewhat. What it did present however, was several ways to reach victory, including pacifist support to the point where it's theoretically possible to finish the game without having traded a single punch or fired a single bullet. This may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it's sure nice that the option is there, and that the only way to reach victory isn't the slightly overdone "hack yourself through hordes of enemies until you reach the main foozle" concept.

 

I meant the original Fallout. Never played Fallout 2 past the Temple of Trials or whatsitname.

Besides, my point was essentially to point to a difference in focus between games.

 

It isn't an RPG if you can't kill any children!