Setting Feedback
Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2016 6:40 am
I wanted to comment on your setting feedback (and slightly on the NPC one) as this is feedback and those are both awesome topics as well as both pretty darn vital to a game and its feel.
fast on the NPC one, as I was obviously not there I will not comment on what happened but on things I have seen previously at FH and WH as well as my own mistakes when I used such NPC's when I ran a game. it REALLY REALLY does create dependency, and even if the NPC's are mortal they feel like GODS to the PC's and do take away from the PC's who are supposed to be the heroes (at least that's how it was) I remember how often we would go to those NPC's for solutions and it does take power and control away from the PC's.
and the player driven NPC acknowledged royalty and titles and what not failed, interesting experiment, props for trying it, but its not fun, annoying, and it can die now.
moving into setting and this is a good one as it does tie in with the NPC's in the world. original Final Haven as well as Winter haven (and current WH for all I know) had good settings because of the chaos and danger within the world and the lack of established towns and cities (THE STUPID MILITARY IS TO BLAME IN HERE TOO!!!!!)
in OG Final haven if you played a farmer in Haven it made sense despite the danger, haven was a literal haven of resources, and the lands were wild and dangerous and there were some heroes gathering, there were not really safer places (ask the fishing village) so you were in a good place to try to make a living, and as safe as it could get in the world. (this is why armies and the military was stupid, it both detracted from the hero feel of the game and confused the setting as there were scattered crappy communities post cataclysm and everyone was struggling to get by yet we had standing armies of hundreds? when we could barely feed town? . . .really?
in current FH with so many established kingdoms and armies you really have to force yourself into a specific RP scenario to be in a terrible border shanty village full of fighting (both internal and external) with terrible things happening all the time. there is a king right over there, there are friendly armies right over there, castles and walls, safe farms and lands and towns and cities and rivers and homes etc. so many character concepts just would not be in the current setting. as well as its kinda boring, its just a normal uninteresting little village and a equally uninteresting scrap of land.
and saying we have to be out here and defend it or what not because the ENTIRE vanguard alliance cannot is made moot when NPC's show up from said supposed area that cannot help to save the day. . .really?
we won, we should have moved on, now its into epilogue territory after the trilogy were we have these great heroes out in a shanty town trying to find reasons why all we had accomplished both exists and is awesome yet cannot help us. I never read that in lord of the rings.
PS: fan of "traditional Western-European-Tolkien-esque fantasy setting"
fast on the NPC one, as I was obviously not there I will not comment on what happened but on things I have seen previously at FH and WH as well as my own mistakes when I used such NPC's when I ran a game. it REALLY REALLY does create dependency, and even if the NPC's are mortal they feel like GODS to the PC's and do take away from the PC's who are supposed to be the heroes (at least that's how it was) I remember how often we would go to those NPC's for solutions and it does take power and control away from the PC's.
and the player driven NPC acknowledged royalty and titles and what not failed, interesting experiment, props for trying it, but its not fun, annoying, and it can die now.
moving into setting and this is a good one as it does tie in with the NPC's in the world. original Final Haven as well as Winter haven (and current WH for all I know) had good settings because of the chaos and danger within the world and the lack of established towns and cities (THE STUPID MILITARY IS TO BLAME IN HERE TOO!!!!!)
in OG Final haven if you played a farmer in Haven it made sense despite the danger, haven was a literal haven of resources, and the lands were wild and dangerous and there were some heroes gathering, there were not really safer places (ask the fishing village) so you were in a good place to try to make a living, and as safe as it could get in the world. (this is why armies and the military was stupid, it both detracted from the hero feel of the game and confused the setting as there were scattered crappy communities post cataclysm and everyone was struggling to get by yet we had standing armies of hundreds? when we could barely feed town? . . .really?
in current FH with so many established kingdoms and armies you really have to force yourself into a specific RP scenario to be in a terrible border shanty village full of fighting (both internal and external) with terrible things happening all the time. there is a king right over there, there are friendly armies right over there, castles and walls, safe farms and lands and towns and cities and rivers and homes etc. so many character concepts just would not be in the current setting. as well as its kinda boring, its just a normal uninteresting little village and a equally uninteresting scrap of land.
and saying we have to be out here and defend it or what not because the ENTIRE vanguard alliance cannot is made moot when NPC's show up from said supposed area that cannot help to save the day. . .really?
we won, we should have moved on, now its into epilogue territory after the trilogy were we have these great heroes out in a shanty town trying to find reasons why all we had accomplished both exists and is awesome yet cannot help us. I never read that in lord of the rings.
PS: fan of "traditional Western-European-Tolkien-esque fantasy setting"