Tag: RPGs

#oneaday Day 763: A Question That No-One Seems To Have Asked Regarding RPGs

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Here's a stumper for all you RPG fans: exactly how much does taking one hit point of damage hurt?

It's not a particularly straightforward thing to work out, given that hit points are a representative abstraction of physical condition rather than a measurable, uh, measurement. But let's assume for a moment that it is indeed possible to measure one's own hit points. How much, then, would taking one hit point of damage hurt?

The answer to that question would largely depend on what model of hit points you are using. If you're talking Dungeons and Dragons hit points, taking one damage would fucking hurt if you're not in tip-top physical condition. The average "man in the street" sort of person (i.e. not a warrior, rogue, wizard, cleric or what have you) is regarded as a "level 0 human" and generally has something in the region of 2 or 3 hit points, if that. Level 1 wizards often only have in the region of 4 or so. As such, taking one hit point of damage as an average person following the Dungeons and Dragons model would hurt a great deal, putting you potentially up to halfway towards death (or rather, being knocked out, since people don't officially die until bleeding out to -10 hit points in D&D).

Compare and contrast with the JRPG approach to hit points, however, where totals frequently extend into the thousands and, in some cases, the tens of thousands. As a beginning character in a JRPG, you'll often have a low three-figure hit point total to start with, which will progress towards that elusive 9999 (or 99999) as you level up. Assuming that your average person hasn't really levelled up a great deal thanks to a notable lack of monsters (big spiders battled with Hoovers notwithstanding) we can work on the assumption that a single hit point's worth of damage doesn't really hurt a great deal. 'Tis but a scratch and all that.

So, since it's late and my brain is starting to shut down a little bit, let's take this to the next logical extension and consider a variety of horrific injuries to determine exactly how many HP damage they'd do following the two approaches outlined above. We're assuming that the person being injured here is not a Destiny-chosen hero who has been infused by the power of the Goddess/branded by the fal'Cie/chosen by Fate/revealed to be the wielder of the legendary blade Monado but rather, say, that man who works behind the fish counter in Sainsbury's. As such, we'll say he has 4HP in D&D and 150HP in a JRPG.

  • Getting an electric shock off an escalator handrail — D&D: 0HP, interrupt current action in surprise; JRPG: 1HP electric damage.
  • Falling out of bed while asleep — D&D: 0HP, lose "Sleep" condition; JRPG: 1HP physical damage, lose "Sleep" condition, afflict with "Embarrassment" (special moves charge slower)
  • Walking into a coffee table — D&D: 0 HP, maybe stun for a turn, staggering randomly around the room going "OUCH"; JRPG: 1HP physical damage.
  • Paper cut — D&D: 0 HP, afflict with "very mild bleeding" status, lose 1HP every 500 turns unless the cut heals (use a bandage or roll a D20 every turn, on a number between 3 and 20, it heals naturally); JRPG: 2HP physical damage.
  • Accidentally grating your fingers while attempting to grate cheese — D&D: 0HP, afflict with "very mild bleeding status" as with "paper cut" above; JRPG: 1HP physical damage.
  • Stubbing your toe — D&D: 0HP, incapacitate for a turn, remove ability to use vocal components of spells and stealth due to yelling "FAAAAAAAHHHHK!"; JRPG: 3HP physical damage.
  • Having a cat that is standing on you decide that it needs to hold on tightly with its claws — D&D: 0HP, 50% possibility of affliction with "very mild bleeding" status as with "paper cut" above, movement forbidden (you've got a cat on you); JRPG: 3HP physical damage, afflict with Rooted (you've got a cat on you).
  • Inadvertently ripping off a toenail by catching it on something — D&D: 0HP, afflict with "bleeding" status, lose 1HP every 50 turns unless the cut heals (use a bandage or roll a D20 every turn, on a number between 8 and 20, it heals naturally); JRPG: 10HP physical damage, afflict with Slow.
  • Burning your hand on the handle of a poorly-insulated saucepan — D&D: 0HP, interrupt current action, forced shouting of obscenity breaks any Stealth-related effects; JRPG: 10HP Fire damage.
  • Standing on an upturned three-prong plug — D&D: 0HP, movement forbidden for 5 turns, remove ability to use vocal components of spells and stealth due to yelling "FUCK. Cunt! ARSE! SHIT that fucking hurts. AAAAARGH."; JRPG: 15HP physical damage, afflict with Rooted.
  • Banging your head on a low ceiling even after seeing a "mind your head" sign — D&D: 0HP, dazed for one turn. temporary reduction to Wisdom and Intelligence; JRPG:10HP physical damage, 10MP magic damage for a blow to the head.
  • Getting punched in the face by some drunk dude at a bar who thought you were eyeing up his missus but in fact you were trying to read the scrawled sign on the front of that fridge that said that the cheap drinks might actually be a bit out of date — D&D: 1HP; JRPG: 25HP physical damage.
  • Suffering any sort of trauma to the testicular area — D&D: 2HP (probably won't kill you unless you've just been punched twice by a drunk dude at a bar who thought you were eyeing up his missus, but it bloody hurts), stunned for 5 turns, temporary reduction to Constitution; JRPG: 50HP physical damage, afflicted with "Stop" status as you wheeze and cough in an attempt to recover your dignity.
  • Getting stabbed in the leg, whether accidentally or deliberately — D&D: 2HP, movement rate halved; JRPG: 50HP physical damage, afflicted with "Slow".
  • Failing to escape the unwanted affections of an amorous gorilla — D&D: Your adventure is over. You have been adopted by an amorous gorilla as its mate. Any attempt to escape will result in death. JRPG: Perform a badly-executed stealth/platforming sequence to escape.
  • Getting stabbed in the face — D&D: 5HP (you will likely bleed to an unhappy -10HP death), permanent reduction to Charisma; JRPG: 100-150HP physical damage.
  • Suffering an apparently successful attempt to behead you — D&D: 14HP; JRPG: 150HP
  • Getting the smackdown from an angry God/being hit with a planet by the final boss — D&D: 50HP; JRPG: 5000HP
  • Standing quite close to the epicentre of a nuclear explosion, you know, enough to get a good view and think "ooh, that's a bit hot, I wish I'd stood back a bit more" — D&D: 998HP; JRPG: 9998HP.
  • Standing in the epicentre of a nuclear explosion — D&D: 999HP; JRPG: 9999HP.

Should you find yourself suffering any of these injuries, though, fear not; for a good night's sleep cures all ills, as everyone knows. Unless you're already dead, in which case you'd better get on good terms with your local Cleric or purchase some Phoenix Down.

#oneaday Day 686: The Times, They Have Changed

Been playing a selection of games recently. Besides the bullet hell joy I mentioned yesterday, I've also been playing L.A. Noire on PC and Neverwinter Nights 2 along with a bunch of emulated games that were absolutely totally positively legal to download. Between these games, I've been getting a pretty diverse gaming experience, and it's also allowed me to reflect on how much gaming has changed over the years.

Let's focus specifically on Neverwinter Nights 2 for a moment. Structurally, it's relatively similar to the RPGs we see BioWare coming out with today (despite being developed by Obsidian) but the pacing is completely different to what we see in something like Mass Effect or even Dragon Age, its nearest "modern" equivalent.

Remember the fantasy cliche of the lead character starting as a farmhand or something and eventually becoming some sort of godslayer by the end of the game? That's pretty much what Neverwinter Nights 2 does. You start the game in a small wetlands village in the middle of nowhere, just as their annual Harvest Fair is taking place. And before anything exciting happens at all, you have to go around the fair, complete several mundane tasks and, in collaboration with your party members, complete a number of simple challenges to introduce you to the basics of combat, magic and the like.

It works well mechanically, but in terms of that immediate "BAM!" factor that draws you in to the game, it's somewhat lacking. Gamers looking for some sort of immediate gratification or heroics will probably find themselves disappointed for at least an hour or two before Plot Starts Happening.

It was the same in the earlier D&D titles like Baldur's Gate. The first couple of hours of Baldur's Gate were spent inside the walls of Candlekeep, doing errands for wizards and clearing out basements of rats. RPG cliche stuff — and the sort of thing we don't tend to find ourselves doing too much these days because people want to get straight to the heroics. And that's fair enough.

What the snail-like openings for these games do provide, though, is a brilliant sense of unease once you finally get out into the world to embark on your quest. You may have been able to best the local hard men in the Harvest Brawl, but what are you going to do when something that actually wants to kill you comes lurching at you?

The answer, in all likelihood, is die. This particular breed of RPG isn't afraid to kick your ass right up until about level 5 or so — only then do you start getting to a stage where you can hold your own in a fight. And you level a lot slower than you do in a JRPG.

This is something of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, early combats become an exercise in managing your very limited capabilities, and simple victories over wild creatures feel like you've achieved something. This is realistic. Imagine if a wolf attacked you right now. Would you be able to handle it? If you did manage to survive the encounter without your throat being torn out, you'd feel pretty badass, right? That's what happens in Neverwinter Nights 2.

The flip-side to this is that the second your curiosity gets the better of you and you wander blindly through a door you perhaps shouldn't, you're immediately confronted by a dude who shouts "I AM AN EVIL WIZARD!" and promptly proceeds to obliterate you with spells you won't be using for a good 40 hours yet. This, too, is realistic (leaving aside the whole "magic isn't real" thing) but is also immensely frustrating, particularly as the autosave system in Neverwinter Nights 2 and, indeed, the Baldur's Gate series is best described as "erratic" and "unpredictable". It's very easy to lose lots of progress because of one stupid act if you don't get into the habit of perpetually whacking that F12 (quicksave) key when things start looking a bit hairy.

Is this good or bad? It's certainly different. In playing Neverwinter Nights 2, I've had to adjust my mindset to a somewhat more "hardcore RPG" configuration. Rather than being able to charge in blindly to a situation, safe in the knowledge that if it all goes horribly wrong, I'll simply resume from a moment before the fight and try again, I have to think. I have to pause. I have to strategise. I usually have to turn off the Party AI function because the other characters are overly fond of running in to the middle of a large group of enemies before getting their appendages hacked off within a matter of seconds.

It's certainly a different approach. Frustrating AI aside, it makes you a much more cautious player, which is sort of fun. The Souls series is based on this concept, after all, though executed somewhat differently. It also means that when you do reach the high levels of badassdom, you really feel like you earned them, rather than the more gradual trickle-feed approach which JRPGs' rapid levelling provides.

It's an approach that won't be to everyone's taste — and those who crave the immediacy of modern games will likely switch off the game the first time they're downed by a pathetic skeleton minion, never to return. But perseverance and patience are key, and once you get your head around that, there's a rewarding experience to be had.

Neverwinter Nights 2's basic campaign is regarded by some as "not great" — particularly in comparison to its expansion packs, which are supposedly excellent — but I've been enjoying it so far. Already we have some strong characterisation in the party members — something Obsidian is always good at — and a few hints of what the Big Plot might be, though no sign of whatever the Big Bad might be as yet. I am still only on the game's first act, however, so there's plenty of time for epic stupidity to occur along the way, and I'll be looking forward to it.

In the meantime, there's bandits to kill, skeletons to shatter into pieces and zombies to get diseased by.