RPGs - A General Overview - Part 5

                       by James Judge

Welcome back, fellow adventurers. So, you've gone out and bought
an RPG or two and now you're ready to go dungeon delving. Only one
slight problem though, isn't there? You just can't get past the
first monster you come along... And you keep on getting lost in
that terribly long corridor that runs down the side of level
one...

Oh dear.

Still, here I am to give a gentle nudge to the neophyte RPGers on
how to get started in most RPGs.

The first thing you get to do in any good RPG is to create your
character or party of adventurers. Also some games give you a
ready-made party so, if you're lazy, you can get straight into the
action. You can either take this part of the game deadly
seriously, or treat it as a bit of a pain. I do the former as you
ARE creating the base statistics (ie attributes) that your
character(s) will be building on throughout the game. If you start
off with a warrior who can barely lift a pin, then he won't be
much cop when it comes to giving the big baddie a nasty crack on
the skull with the hefty sword you found earlier.

Most games will give each character at least five or six
statistics (attributes) which measure how good your character
really is. First off there are the rudimentary skills by which any
action your character performs can be measured by. These are
strength (for fighting), intelligence (for magic), dexterity (for
throwing and lock picking etc.) and constitution (for healing and
resistance to disease and poison). These scores tend to be
constant until you can get enough experience to increase some of
the stats.

The other two stats that you'll most probably find will be hit
points (HPs) and mana or spell points. The first, HPs, gives a
measure of how much your character can be injured before he dies.
This will fluctuate during the game as you get struck by
opponents, but the maximum number of HPs which your character can
have will gradually increase as he goes up levels. Mana or spell
points are a measure of how many spells you can cast before your
character becomes too exhausted to cast any more. This behaves
like the HPs, but decreases every time you cast a spell. Each
spell will require a different amount of mana and, so, you may
only be able to cast powerful spells when your character has risen
enough levels.

I keep on talking about levels. What exactly are these? Well, to
give you an idea of how powerful your characters are, they are
awarded levels when they have gained enough experience points
(XPs). XPs are awarded to the character every time he does
something major such as solve a puzzle or fight a monster.  After
he has gained enough XPs he'll go up a level and then his
statistics will rise, or you will get the chance to add a certain
number of points to his stats.  Unfortunately all of the above
numbers aren't standardised, so you may get one RPG where a score
of 10 in the strength field denotes a hulking barbarian but in
another a score of 100 means a slightly muscular gnat.  So, when
creating your character bear in mind what statistics will benefit
your character and his character class - a warrior needs strength,
a wizard intelligence, a thief dexterity and so on. In some games
(such as SSI ones) there will be a large chapter on stats and
character classes in the manual and you'll find that some
character classes have prime stats - a particular stat (or stats
for the more difficult to play character) in which you must have
above a certain number. This is good in the way that it won't let
you start the game with a wimpy warrior or a thick mage.

Oh, one last thing one character generation. Some games roll up
the statistics themselves and then give you a chance to ask for an
indefinite number of rerolls. It is often worth rerolling plenty
of times as most games I've played of this nature will one time
give out a host of low stats (ie 5,6,6,4 totalling 21 points in
all) and then the next roll give out a set of really high stats
(ie 5, 9, 12, 15 totalling 41 points - you've made an extra 21
points with a click of a button!). So, it's obviously worth
fiddling around until you are 100% happy with your character. If
you're not sure whether the game does change the amount of points
it awards every roll use a calculator and tot up the points for
two rolls, just so you don't waste your time.

Another thing to consider is just what kind of party do you want
to play with.  Take Dungeon Master, for example. Here the
recommended party is one consisting of a warrior, ninja, priest
and wizard and most people play like this. But if you like a more
fighting orientated game you could do away with the ninja and get
another warrior. Personally I like mages and magic, so I tend to
go for loads of wizards. When I played Bloodwych I played with a
group of three mages and an assassin (the next magically competent
class that could also do some serious hand-to-hand damage if given
the chance to attack an enemy from behind). This led to a slower
game and sleeping times to regain lost mana were pretty long (I
did, actually, read a large novel while my party slept throughout
the course of the game) and so this may only be for the more
patient players. For a good slash 'n' hack I could have easily
have picked two warriors and two adventurers - the game would have
been completed much quicker, but I wouldn't have gotten as much
personal satisfaction out of it.  Apart from satisfaction, also
think of your party's survival chances. If you know there will be
a section where you'll really need a few healing spells or cure
poisons then going without a priest or paladin would be a grave
mistake.  Often a lot of games also require you to have a mage as
some problems are only completable with the appropriate spell (as
in Bloodwych, Dungeon Master, Dungeons of the Unforgiven etc.).

So, if you know what the game will expect of you try to tailor
your party to those requirements. If you're playing a more
free-floating game that will allow you to change your character's
classes during the game (or even change our characters!) as in
Wizardry 7, DM, the Ultimas and many others then you can afford to
start with a group that suits how you like to play, not how the
programmers want you to play.

In the game you'll adopt your own style of playing, but there are
two things on which I can advise you which will be of great use.
The first is fighting and the second is mapping.

There is a method of fighting in all 3D-step RPGs that will give
you a huge advantage over the opponents. It doesn't work all that
well when you are faced with more than one opponent, but most of
the tough opponents only come in singles, so you'll definitely put
this to good use.

What you need is a clear area of dungeon that is two by two
squares large.  There also needs to be a pretty handy exit, just
in case everything goes wrong...

What you must do is lure a monster into this square and face them.
Hit them with everything you've got and then sidestep either left
or right. Quickly rotate to look at the square you just inhabited
and, soon enough, you'll see the monster inhabit that square. But,
he won't be facing you and you'll then be able to let loose with
all your weapons again and sidestep, just as you did last time.

If you keep repeating this you'll keep yourself and the monster in
a small 2x2 square and the opponent will barely get a look in.

But be careful, this works in most games, but in some games the
enemies' intelligence is somewhat greater and they won't follow
this pattern - they duck and dive and some may be able to
sidestep, presenting you with their business end as soon as you
see them.

Experiment with each game you get. This method works really well
in Captive with all but one monster and works equally well in most
other games I can think of.

Of course, you won't always have the luxury of a 2x2 clear area,
so do get used to fighting monsters head on, stepping back and
waiting for them to come to you. There's loads of different
tactics, but you've just got to figure them out...

Finally mapping.

Mapping isn't necessary to play any game. In fact if you've got a
good enough sense of direction and memory then you won't ever have
to put pen to paper and enjoy an uninterrupted game that doesn't
need coloured pencils and umpteen sheets of paper knocking around
the desk to complete.

But, if you are hopeless at knowing which way lies the exit and
get lost in your bath then mapping becomes essential, especially
when devious mazes crop up (like the dark ones in Crusaders Of The
Dark Savant or the invisible ones in Knightmare).

Personally I don't map and I don't really like it with new games.
If I do map a game it's usually on the second time I've played it
so that I know what order levels come in and where safe areas are
for my characters to sleep while I amend and annotate my maps.

You need three basic ingredients for efficient mapping. The first
is squared paper with 5mm large squares. Second is a host of
pencils - loads of different colours is a must. Finally you need a
really good rubber as, unless you check the length of each
corridor you traverse three or four times you'll most likely add
or miss out a step and have to redo a part of the dungeon when you
end up with two rooms occupying the same area.

You then use each square on the sheet of paper to denote a step in
the game.  Walls can be marked on the lines and all manner of
features can be represented by different colours. Your key will
change for each game, but after a level or two in one game you'll
gradually get used to your colour system and continue to use it
without (many) hitches.

For a full guide to mapping and how to map mazes properly check
out the next instalment of The Dragon's Domain where Mongoose (all
praise the high Mongoose! We are not worthy ;*>) gives us his sage
advice <ahem>.

You'll also find mapping helps to improve your sense of direction
and after a while you may be able to do away with the whole
caboodle.

Oh, one small thing about mapping - try to pause the game while
you add some items to your map - there's nothing more annoying
than adding a really long corridor, while your characters twiddle
their collective thumbs and have a group of monsters descend upon
the poor people. A rush then ensues to drop the pencil, clear the
desk, grab the mouse and invoke a few spells. It is a huge mess
normally losing you one pencil, one character and count as to how
many steps long the corridor was.

Right, that's it for this time. Next issue will probably be the
last instalment of this guide (please, don't cheer too loudly - I
am trying) where I'll do a small round-up. That is unless anyone
else comes up with some questions they'd like answered on life,
the universe and RPGs.

Until then happy RPGing!






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