Hi! I wanted to ask you about the following: Imagine you have lost your wallet. You are looking for it, but no matter how hard you look you don''t find it. Suddenly, a friend of yours drops by and found your wallet. Now, imagine the same topic in an rpg surrounding. The problem: you can''t find your wallet. Solution: coincidence. The problem is being solved by forces you can''t control. Would this kind of solution be acceptable in an rpg? This sort of coincidence happens, though not quite often, that''s why I ask. Danias Teenok, Pendragon Studios

of course it''s acceptable, you just said it could happen in real life!

but, on the other hand people might of thought it was obvious you were going to catch up with the wallet later, because otherwise you would''nt have dropped it in the game (if you had any control over whether it happened).
Thats a thought.

DX++ The DirectX Programming Site

You''re talking about promoting gameplay interferance yes? So the player is doing something and something rare will happen that will help them in a slight or significant way. Would a correct example be where the character lost a scroll to this place but accidentially stumbled accross another character who knew where it was?

Are you talking about using saftey back-ups by any chance Haha, yes i think its a very good idea! Go for it.

I love Game Design and it loves me back.

Our Goal is "Fun"!

I totally agree, coincidence is fine in an rpg. Many people complain about the amount of coincidence in stories, but they forget that the whole reason a story is exciting is because it is about something incredible that rarely happens. An rpg is the same thing. And about what stevenmarky said, you counter obviousness by throwing in somethings that no one would expect. Say for example the main character promises a friend he'll come back to save him before the raiders get here. The users would expect you to make it back just in time to save them, to make the story exciting. What would actually happen is you don't make it in time, and you find your friend's dead body lying in the town. After something like that the user wouldn't know what to expect, and would make the rest of the story that much more exciting.

And btw, I'm assuming you're making an rpg because of this topic, and I'd like to suggest that you kill off at least one of the main characters in the game. It's a rare game where the main characters die.

Edited by - HappyDude on September 2, 2000 1:00:27 PM