Here’s an interesting topic I’ve never seen explored: video game RPG systems, and what makes each good. I’ll admit that the reason I haven’t seen it discussed much online is probably because most people really aren’t interested. But that’s what makes me different, I guess. The subject is interesting to me. Tally Ho!

CRPGs go back decades, and I certainly don’t plan on talking about every Elder Scrolls or JRPG title out there. I’ve chosen five, and I’m going to hit them in alphabetical order because I want to avoid any qualitative assessments.

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

I can’t say why, but I still get the warm fuzzies when I think of Troika.  Arcanum came out in 2001. I never progressed very far in the game’s plot, and the battles in the game never felt fun, but the actual rules system surrounding character creation drew me in far more than the gameplay did.

You could choose a race, gender, and then a background. The various backgrounds function much like traits in Fallout’s SPECIAL system, granting both a benefit and a detriment to your character.

Characters in Arcanum have four physical stats (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Beauty) and four mental stats (Intelligence, Perception, Willpower, Charisma) The game’s skills are organized into four categories. Combat skills include bow, dodge, melee, and throwing. Thieving skills include concealment, pickpocket, silent move, and spot trap. Social skills include gambling, haggling, persuasion, and healing. Yeah – I’m not sure why healing got grouped in there either. Lastly are technological skills, which include firearms, pick lock, repair, and arm/disarm traps. Lastly, fate points are sometimes awarded which allow players to guarantee a critical hit, heal all damage, or succeed in a skill check.

In the steampunk world of Arcanum, magick and technology exist as opposing forces. If you’re a technologist magic doesn’t work as well on you, and your aptitude for anything magical is poor, and the reverse holds true. A technologist can study the disciplines of herbology, chemistry, electricity, explosives, mechanical, therapeutics, weapon/armor smithing, and gun smithing. A mage can study any of the colleges of magic: conveyance, divination, force, mental, meta, morph, nature, summoning, temporal, black or white necromantic, and any of the four elemental colleges. Each of the technological disciplines and each of the magical colleges have numerous schematics and spells.

Maybe its my background as a tabletop RPG player, but I’m inordinately interested in systems such as these. Typically, they either work really well, or else crash and burn. The obvious complexity in Arcana’s rules system fascinates me, and I’m sorry that I didn’t go further with the game.

Baldur’s Gate 2 / Temple of Elemental Evil

I’m grouping Baldur’s Gate and Temple of Elemental Evil in this case because they both use the Dungeons & Dragons ruleset. Baldur’s Gate 2 used Dungeons and Dragons second edition rules, and gave you some fantastic options for customizing your character. I’ve created more multi-classed and dual-classed characters in Baldur’s Gate than I can shake a stick at. The character kits and proficiencies you could choose allowed you to have a wizard who used a bow, a kensai/invoker, or a cleric who could backstab. I’ve tried a number of weird and powerful combinations, and they’re a lot of fun.

Temple of Elemental Evil was plagued with bugs, but it had such a wonderfully-realized interpretation of the Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 ruleset that it was hard not to love it. It was a true turn-based game, unlike the pause-based gameplay of Baldur’s Gate, but it allowed for so many tactical decisions. You could use a ready action to have your archer shoot any enemy wizards who began casting a spell so as to interrupt them. You could use a charge action to get the additional movement before an attack, and accept both the attack bonus and defense penalties that came along with the charge. You could even make the always-useful five-foot adjust. Those of us already familiar with Dungeons and Dragon’s tabletop rules took to the gameplay like a fish to water. Too bad so many parts of the game were buggy.

It’s hard for me to talk about D&D games without mentioning Neverwinter Nights, so… Neverwinter Nights. Yes, I spent a solid year in the creation toolkit almost nightly building my own adventure, but the actual gameplay was nothing compared to ToEE and BG 2.

Dragon Age: Origins

Although much of the goodwill I once had for Dragon Age was worn away by the Awakening expansion, the game did a lot of things right, and the new ruleset created for the game works very well. Having such a well-made RPG with only three character classes is unheard of, but works very well. I love the way that the thief’s backstab works; strategic combat games so often ignore the direction a character is facing. The system of spells, talents, and skills is terrific: trap-making, herbalism, and poison-making are all well-implemented, and I’m a fan of the way area effect spells work. I’m glad to use the cones and burst-area spells, but I wish the game had some line-effect spells like lightning bolt and Aganazzer’s Scorcher from Baldur’s Gate.

SPECIAL

The SPECIAL system is used in the Fallout games, and is based largely on GURPS. The various Fallout games have used many minor variations on the SPECIAL system, but the core seven attributes, percentage-based skills, and perks aquired as you level up have remained a constant. The system’s name is an acronym which draws its name from the seven core attributes: Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck.

Ultima V

This system is 25 years old. It’s old school, and it works. One of the main things that had always stuck out to me is the fact that occasionally, one of my faster characters would end up attacking twice before an enemy would get a turn. There’s a speed mechanic in place that takes your character’s dexterity and the weapon he’s using into account when calculating whose turn it is.

Doing a bit more research online, I uncovered this document (pdf) which explains a lot about how the system works. Very well designed in my opinion.

I’d like to give an honorable mention to Dungeon Siege, Elder Scrolls, and any other systems that employ an improve-skills-as-you-use-them methodology. I’ve always liked that approach.