I have returned to an novel that I began working on two years ago and began planning about six years ago.
No one reads this rubbish I know, but forcing myself to put something out there forces me to write more.
So…Experience Points…the introduction…if you do happen to read it…feel free to respond…or don’t. I’m writing this sucker anyway.
Experience.
Kill the dragon; earn the points.
Open the chest, solve the riddle and complete the quest.
Learn new skills like lock picking and increase your health level.
Get the experience points – learn the trade – buy the pack mule so you can carry more potions and weapons into battle – take the ride on the wagon from the pleasant, green kingdom to the dirty desert one. Save the townsfolk from the orc army, accept the reward graciously and take the experience points, then massacre every person in the village, rob them, and take the experience points. Sell all the stolen goods to a merchant, kill him, rob him and collect the points.
Or don’t.
If you aren’t a strong fighter then just take the reward, and head on into the wilderness. Develop your skills and you can return, with sword in hand and bloody murder in mind.
No matter which way you decide, the adventure continues. But every kill, every deed good or evil brings you closer to that level-up, after which you will be fitter, stronger, faster and smarter. Maybe then you can attack the medusa and continue the central quest instead of sliding into these side adventures and committing mass, bloody murder just for the experience points.
Upgrade weapons and armour every chance you get, make sure you know a little first aid because you will need to patch up your wounds as often as you receive them. Keep your sword and bow in good condition. Or your laser rifle and flash grenades if the game world is sci-fi instead of fantasy. Sometimes the pack mule is a robot slave, and the townsfolk might be the brave inhabitants of Pluto instead of desert dwellers, but the outcome is the same. Either way, if you are given the chance to kill them, you probably will, for the experience and to soothe that little voice in your sleep deprived or drug addled head that says ‘go on, kill them…see what happens.’
I have spent many hours in these worlds, from Buck Rogers, in which your party of space adventurers was represented by a lone, long striding figure on a two dimensional map, all the way through to Morrowind, where the first person perspective, beautiful graphics and sound effects, make it far, far too easy to simply forget that there is a real world just behind your back.
The modern RPG is massive, with totally free access to all areas of the huge game world, hundreds of fully interactive characters and probably an infinite number of randomly spawned battles that can be fought. It’s impossible to complete every quest in these games, because, to snag an example from the ether, to complete one you have to keep the old guy in the mill alive and well. To complete a different quest, you need him dead. Sometimes you can let him live, complete that quest, then double back and kill him to finish the other, but not always. Picture every choice you can make on a flow chart, two options coming from the first step. Then two from each of these, and two from them etc.
Eventually, someone must die when you would need them alive later. This basic flow chart operates with just the live/die paradox. Multiply it all adding in different ways you talk to the character, and even the way you have set up your own hero. Did you make him lean towards the evil? Well, that might affect the way the
priest talks to you. Are you wearing that real tough armour you stole from the dead fisherman? Careful around his family if you have.
These worlds are massive, and every action has a reaction further down the path. The role-playing game gives this virtual life a second chance, something missing from the real world.
When the credits role you can return to step one. With the live/die paradox still alive, but maybe this time you are neutral, and didn’t enter the mill with sword drawn. And this, of course, changes everything again. I mean, what if the evil character entered with no weapon visible. You write a note and put in on the corkboard next to the PC. NEXT TIME, you will be evil, but cautious. And then, buddy, you’re hooked. Welcome to RPG immortality. Every option taken to ensure you have taken every possible quest, in as many different guises as necessary.
I have thought long and hard about the RPG universe, and have been playing this genre of game all my life. From Sega to PC, I’ve run them through, never tiring of the seemingly random battles, dodgy graphics, repetitive music and the scorn of my friends who would lash out and buy the latest first person shooter while I patiently walked through the mental flow chart of quest and side quest, trying to get them all.
With this in mind, I accepted the call to arms, a chance to again wage war on a sometimes unsuspecting world, to save the townsfolk or to burn their village down to the bloody stumps. Adventure. Travel, quests. Deciding the next direction, the best way to deal with the drunken sailor at the docks near the ocean side castle.
Adventure, excitement and growth through experience.
Change…
…and combat.
A chance to travel around, seeking adventure and treasure in a world where the central storyline was so difficult to find you could waste a lifetime on the side quests. Millions, literally, millions of fully interactive characters litter the world, and each one of them might have a deed needing doing. Every town is in danger of an orc army massing on the horizon, and every town needs a stalwart adventurer to save them. For the experience, and the reward. And the chance to get them on side before slaughtering all of them and taking their goods.
All for the experience points, and of course we only need those to get strong enough to attack and defeat the medusa, to continue our quest, and to quench our thirst for the adventure.
To finally see the credits roll, maybe smoke a joint and wonder what was missed.
This is where the difference is. In the game, you re-start with a different class and race, picking different skills so you seem more the hugging type than the mugging type. And this time, maybe you wont slay the old guy who asked you to carry some grain to the village in the endless desert…and maybe that desert really isn’t endless…and the orc lands in the south, you must have missed something there…and that sea captain, there must be a way of melting his heart instead of hacking him to pieces before stealing his boat.
There are infinite possibilities in a fully rendered three dimensional world, with full colour and stereo surround sound. Millions of characters all waiting for an adventurer to approach. Because each person, each character, has something they need done and maybe you can help as many as you can, and maybe they can push your central quest a little bit further, and maybe…and maybe…
