Riddles vs. Fight
(Note: This Text was written offline.)
I'm currently playing Icewind Dale (IWD) - with all extensions.
What strikes me, is, the amount of Fights neccessary to solve the whole problems.
I don't like that.
Me, I'm just rather a person who doesn't like fight; more: I don't think that Fighting is the Ultimate Solution for problems in General.
So, if I'd make an RPG, I'd rather involve Riddles as ways of earning Experience Points (EPs) than fights.
For me, that's a principle: Fight cannot be The Ultimate Solution. Let's take a look back in time at the 11th of September in New York: There someone took the path of Fight to solve his "problems" (although I'd rather tend to say that he mas more problems with himselv because he is a kind of mentally poor character: always focused on violence and terror, not on Love).
We see - we know - how disasterous it can be - become - to try to solve "problems" with fight - violence - terror - war.
Other examples could be Hiroshima, Nagasaki (german form of spelling the names), Vietnam, the Nazis.
What is common with these examples is, that they used violence, negating the possibility of non-violent solutions.
Back to the RPG-genre.
Personally, I think, that violence and fighting should not be presented as the only possibility to solve "problems". There are always other ways.
Sometimes the "other ways" don't work, as seen with the Nazis, or for example in the Bosnian war, where the grade of violence and what we call in german "Menschenverachtung" - in english possibly "disdain(ing) (of) humanity" - used by one party is so incredibly high, that there is seemingly no other way.
What I want to say is that we shouldn't reward fighters in giving Fighting as the only possible Solution.
We should - at least also - reward non-fighters for their kinds of ways to solve things.
To go even deeper: I mean the Learning Process.
Rewarding one particular way of acting possibly leads to letting the rewarded person stay with this way, no more looking at other possible ways of acting.
Presenting an RPG which shows fighting as the only possible way of solve things, could lead to a learning process which makes the Player keeping this way.
"Why should I talk ? I *always* reached my desired point through fighting !"
I also mean that there are kids out there who will play an RPG game.
What they will learn, that influences them.
And surely, we can always see that violence is often - im my eyes far too often - used as a Solution of things by them.
For example in the game whe all know as "Diablo". There is no solving of riddles by talking and/or negotiating.
Personally I think, we should teach the world outside that there is more than violence, fighting, terror, war.
The whole process of non-fighting solving clearly collides with the Fredom to Act. I mean, any person should be given the Right(s) to solve things in the way he/she likes to.
This is important, too.
So, if someone chooses to solve things through fighting, this Person should be given the Right to do so; if someone chooses to solve things without fighting, this Person should also be given the right to do so.
Especially in an RPG, this Freedom to Act should be clearly outlined; any good RPG requires such an "outline".
What would I do if I'd create an RPG ?
I wouldn't give penalties to fighters, but a fighter - someone who shoots first and asks later - could miss good information, or even subquests.
If the key person - no matter whether good or evil - is already dead, this key person cannot talk anymore - which could include things like hints, items, subquests, or even EPs (through negotiating, as I've seen in IWD: there was a place where the party had to speak with an undead one, and received EPs through negotiating (in fact through avoiding a fight through talking and negotiating with this one).
Maybe even the Key Person is *not* *obviously* a good Person. (Or bad)
The Real Nature of a person could be hidden or concealed; only through talking and negotiating we could learn more about this suspicious Person. Maybe this one could reveal himself/herself in the end as a mighty ally !
I remember good how Strider is presented in LOTR. He is a far suspicious person, and the people in general do *not* like him. He is an clear Outsider, who acts like a Criminal (concealing his Real Self). "Why should we like one who acts so suspicious ? Who hides in the Shadows like a Thief and Murderer ?"
Well, here my own principles clearly show up. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" /> I don't like *obvious* things, and I don't like fighting. I'm more a man of the Word, and not of the Sword.
If I had to defend myself, I'd take the Sword, when there is no other way.
But if we'd all take this Path, the whole world would fall apart into small elements of crime and violence.
The World would not be worth living in anymore.
A Good Year 2002 to Everyone ! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
