Influential Games
On a game designer's forum today, I was questioned about my influences. Because I don't know that I've ever blogged on this particular issue, I thought I'd repost my answer for your reading pleasure!
Obviously, Restoration and Shardfall hold special places in my heart. Beyond that:
TRINITY, formerly Aeon, is by far my favorite tabletop RPG. While the aesthetic takes a little while to digest and there really isn't one major hook to tie it together, that's also what makes it great. Trinity's plausibility and reality is tied up in the fact that it developed as a world. It has a history, and more to the point, it has an EVOLUTION.
With something like the Matrix, the whole world can be explained in one or two concepts, and one or two events. While that can be good for a movie, it doesn't make for terribly good tabletop gaming.
Trinity is a science fiction world for people who love tabletop storytelling. It's rich and vivid, full of opportunities for surprise and story, detailed enough to give the storyteller threads to pull on, and open enough that there's always something completely different you could be getting into.
Plus, it deals with a great many science fiction concepts by turning them on their head! Wonderful!
WEREWOLF: THE APOCALYPSE, because Mark Rein-Hagen made a man out of me...
ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS 2ND ED., just because...
WRAITH: THE OBLIVION, because it's the goddamned Shakespearian tragedy of tabletop. There's a perfect game right there, shadows and all - proof positive that tabletop RPG's are high art. Too bad it was an emotional piledriver that nobody wanted to play...
FINAL FANTASY VII, because I cried when... well, you know when.
SPACE QUEST, and you don't have to ask...
HALO, because the world sucked me right in and because it's a game I can actually play...
MAGIC: THE GATHERING held my attention until it got crazy...
THE BARD'S TALE captured my imagination as a young teen, and I played it with my Uncle...
...and STARCRAFT, because the story, the world, and the gameplay all came together perfectly with my own dork sensibilities. And because of siege tanks.
Obviously, Restoration and Shardfall hold special places in my heart. Beyond that:
TRINITY, formerly Aeon, is by far my favorite tabletop RPG. While the aesthetic takes a little while to digest and there really isn't one major hook to tie it together, that's also what makes it great. Trinity's plausibility and reality is tied up in the fact that it developed as a world. It has a history, and more to the point, it has an EVOLUTION.
With something like the Matrix, the whole world can be explained in one or two concepts, and one or two events. While that can be good for a movie, it doesn't make for terribly good tabletop gaming.
Trinity is a science fiction world for people who love tabletop storytelling. It's rich and vivid, full of opportunities for surprise and story, detailed enough to give the storyteller threads to pull on, and open enough that there's always something completely different you could be getting into.
Plus, it deals with a great many science fiction concepts by turning them on their head! Wonderful!
WEREWOLF: THE APOCALYPSE, because Mark Rein-Hagen made a man out of me...
ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS 2ND ED., just because...
WRAITH: THE OBLIVION, because it's the goddamned Shakespearian tragedy of tabletop. There's a perfect game right there, shadows and all - proof positive that tabletop RPG's are high art. Too bad it was an emotional piledriver that nobody wanted to play...
FINAL FANTASY VII, because I cried when... well, you know when.
SPACE QUEST, and you don't have to ask...
HALO, because the world sucked me right in and because it's a game I can actually play...
MAGIC: THE GATHERING held my attention until it got crazy...
THE BARD'S TALE captured my imagination as a young teen, and I played it with my Uncle...
...and STARCRAFT, because the story, the world, and the gameplay all came together perfectly with my own dork sensibilities. And because of siege tanks.
A lot of these games although they are clearly fiction are extremely fascinating. I have played all of these games except for one. I think that Halo was the most intriguing as far as the story goes. Definitely influential in its own weird sort of way.
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Great article ...Thanks for your great information, the contents are quiet interesting.I will be waiting for your next post.
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