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On true role-playing (?)


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Woke up after some weird hallucinatory mumbo jumbo and my friends are dead, which is a shame. Things are getting a little psychedelic but other than that things are more or less fine, I guess. Onward to elsewhere, hopefully someone has a cure.

 

Happened upon some woods of some sort, blue chaps are bumbling about. Encounters - fought a lone wolf, then a mini-pack of the things, several chef-nappers and a trio of Xaurip. Some of these fights were a little protracted without assistance but none were particularly threatening.

 

What's that? A bear? Likely to be a tough character, to be sure, but I see no reason why one bear would accomplish what several armed men could not.

Death. Every time.

~ In the spirit of true role-playing, wouldn't opting to avoid this particular battle next time around (Test of Iron) be kind of wrong? I mean, effectively it's save scumming, isn't it?

Without the hindsight granted by "previous otherwise identical lives" characters I create would venture in to that cave every single time.

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Isolated cat,

here have a cookie, you made me smile ^^

He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster . . .

when you gaze long into the abyss the abyss also gazes into you

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Jesus how much do I hate the term 'save-scumming.'

 

it's a perfectly rational thing to do. And if you don't want to do it, then don't.

 

No biggie, but too many posts seem to concern how other people interact with a single-player experience. That and social justice wankery.

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sonsofgygax.JPG

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If you spoke to the people in the area you probably would avoid the cave until you get some help.

From role-playing perspective you would have to go in completely blind, and you shouldn't restart the game ever to get the 'perfect role playing experience'. That's how it is in every single static/non-random/pre-scripted game.

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From role playing perspective. What you know is it is a cave. The guy running out of the cave thought he saw a bear. His "friend" did not make it out. As a savvy adventurer I wonder, is it one tired old bear, is it a sow with her cubs, is it a sow with two yearling cubs who haven't moved out yet. As a heavy role player it never occurred to me to go into a cave alone and this without any pre-exposure to how tough the bear was. Hey I just got out of a cave, need to get to town and get myself oriented and equipped and, maybe, find some help. Maybe if you are some city dwelling scholar type rushing in blindly would make sense, but if you have any wilderness smarts you definitely would not.

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From role playing perspective. What you know is it is a cave. The guy running out of the cave thought he saw a bear. His "friend" did not make it out. As a savvy adventurer I wonder, is it one tired old bear, is it a sow with her cubs, is it a sow with two yearling cubs who haven't moved out yet. As a heavy role player it never occurred to me to go into a cave alone and this without any pre-exposure to how tough the bear was. Hey I just got out of a cave, need to get to town and get myself oriented and equipped and, maybe, find some help. Maybe if you are some city dwelling scholar type rushing in blindly would make sense, but if you have any wilderness smarts you definitely would not.

100% this.

Role-playing means playing the game with your character's perspective. If you think your character, alone, tired and ill-prepared, is able to fight a wild bear under unknown circumstances then you're not truly role-playing, you're playing this game like most players do and who expect their characters to be the fearless, killing machines right off from the start. Even if you had some fighting experience in real-life, would you go out there alone and ill-equipped to fight a wild bear? Specially just after being warned that its a potentially aggressive animal because it just "claimed" one life?

 

I'm not trying to insult you OP, just trying to give you a new perspective on role-playing. Practice makes perfect after all.

Edited by IvoryOwl
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Without the hindsight granted by "previous otherwise identical lives" characters I create would venture in to that cave every single time.

 

Well what are you complaining about then? It sounds to me that your characters are destined to die at the hands of this bear. A true roleplayer would simply accept that. These characters were not fit for the harsh world of Pillars of Eternity.

 

Now, you could of course create a hero that would not fight that bear on his own. But I don't know. Seems like a cop-out.

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I would have you know that in Finland, the only socially acceptable way to deal with an angry bear is to challenge it to a wrestling match.

Is there lots of booze involved? I refuse to watch a wrestling match between man and bear without BOTH being drunk beyond hope!  :p

 

*Images them charging at each other, shouting and roaring, only to trip on a rock and landing flat on the floor afterwards*

Challenger: ZzZzZzZ

Bear: ZzZzZ *grunt* ZzZ

Edited by IvoryOwl
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Woke up after some weird hallucinatory mumbo jumbo and my friends are dead, which is a shame. Things are getting a little psychedelic but other than that things are more or less fine, I guess. Onward to elsewhere, hopefully someone has a cure.

 

Happened upon some woods of some sort, blue chaps are bumbling about. Encounters - fought a lone wolf, then a mini-pack of the things, several chef-nappers and a trio of Xaurip. Some of these fights were a little protracted without assistance but none were particularly threatening.

 

What's that? A bear? Likely to be a tough character, to be sure, but I see no reason why one bear would accomplish what several armed men could not.

 

Death. Every time.

 

~ In the spirit of true role-playing, wouldn't opting to avoid this particular battle next time around (Test of Iron) be kind of wrong? I mean, effectively it's save scumming, isn't it?

 

Without the hindsight granted by "previous otherwise identical lives" characters I create would venture in to that cave every single time.

 

That's pretty much it. We'd like to think of "hardcore" style play as a triumph of survivalism on the part of the game's protagonist, but in an actual practical sense the only thing it tests in games like this is omnesience of the person controlling the character. Which itself isn't a bad thing; it's still a more difficult thing to do and that does give some people satisfaction.

 

The hardcore feeling is more authentic in roguelikes and games with procedurally generated stuff, because your memory of what happened the previous time won't help you for the next run, except in a very general "lessons learned" kind of sense.

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LOL - even granting your character would wander into the cave to see what's there, unless you're roleplaying incredibly stupid, I'd suggest he'd decide to not make eye contact and back away slowly. At least, that's what my character did when she got into that cave all alone and having been thoroughly traumatized by the death of two companions as well as having the odd and at that time unexplained experience she had.

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I sort of understand what you mean. 

 

It's similar to the notation that an adventure game is no longer an adventure once you beat it for the first time, since on the 2nd playthrough you've known most if not all mechanics in the game

 

If your character could outrun the bear chasing and escape from the cave / fake death / some npc save you but throw you into prison/ etc., it would be more rpgish than watcher died and now reload.

 

You cannot just reroll a character and start from where you die like tabletop does neither. Think crpg as a storytelling choose your own adventure game rather than rpg.

Edited by sorrowofwind
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Stealth is your friend in dangerous environments - if you stealth into the cave and see how big that bear is (and its cub if playing on hard) it gives you the Khalid option immediately and once safely outside again you can mark the cave on your map for stew later when you have some assistance.

 

Better part of valor!  :yes:

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Nomadic Wayfarer of the Obsidian Order


 

Not all those that wander are lost...

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