Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Sabin_Stargem May 28, 2009 7:54:55	Roguelike: A videogame in which a random protagonist would descend into a massive dungeon and complete a task, then return to the surface. Each level of a dungeon is randomized, featuring all kinds of creatures and objects. Death is a constant companion of the player, who is in a do or die situation - win, and you may cherish a victory accomplished by your will and experience. Fail, and the remains of your character will serve as a marker of shame or a bad case of luck. Whatever the situation, roguelikes are one of the older genres of videogame. Resistant to change, yet varied in their layouts, monsters, and ideas, they are a very good indication of a truly deadly dungeon crawl. As such, I will present an idea here concerning D&D and roguelikes. One of the biggest facets of D&D was the concept of survival and combat, which has been present in all editions of it that I am aware of. As such, it makes sense to me that most roguelikes have their rules and concepts based upon D&D as a foundation. The players of roguelikes are a dedicated (if stuffy) lot - one of them played a single roguelike for 16 years before successfully winning a game. Another one made an 300+ page story of their adventure. All in all, it strikes me that roguelikes have a lot of potential, especially if a commercial power took an interest in the idea. There are many reasons, practical by nature. The first is that by nature, roguelikes allow players to make many different characters and test them in random and difficult situations. The rewards are also randomized, which in turn has the player determining how they ought to use their character's abilities and resources to the fullest. In this context, a roguelike is a good foundation for having races and classes tested for combat - if Wizards were to record the results and watch the forums, they could collect live and relatively accurate data. This would be likely to improve balance, and increase the rate of playtesting various character types substantially. By itself, this is a shallow reasoning for making a roguelike, but I think that an official Roguelike would also help players and DMs figure out how D&D in combat work: by being allowed to play through with any number of characters and see what happens, their creativity and experience with situations in a hostile environment would make them better players in my opinion. Show how minions, D20s, items, and so on would work. Sometimes, observation and plain old repetition is the best teacher, and a roguelike is one of those things that can pull it off. In of itself, these are excellent points for entertaining players and showing them the neatness of 4th Edition. Yet, it is a sure bet that the corporate trolls would not consider the concept without something that is accountable: So here it is - integrate the roguelike with the character builder and DDI service, and you would be able to further increase the value, or incentive, of purchasing a subscription. Money is good, so it makes sense to bundle in a feature to the DDI program that can entertain players when they aren't playing D&D. By officially funding their own roguelike, Wizards of the Coast can have a good way of inducting players into D&D. In my case, I couldn't get into D&D because I didn't understand how it worked, nor did I have a clue of the options it presented. A means of correcting that problem for newcomers would make it possible to attract more players. That is my unrealistic idea. I hope it provokes some thought of how videogames and D&D are not mutually exclusive. Here are the cliff notes for why a Roguelike is good for D&D: *Increasing the rate of character playtesting *Balancing D&D *Demonstrating D&D combat mechanics to players *Showing what monsters and situations can do to a player *Incentive to subscribe into DDI *Integration with the Character Builder charactersheets *Granting a better roguelike for the world to play with **Showing off the flavor & nature of various settings, like Planescape and Eberron. **Induct newcomers into seeing how games of D&D plays battlewise, without the need of a D&D group. Ellora the Archer - Her story http://sites.google.com/site/sabinstargem/Home/ElloratheArcher.pdf?attredirects=0
#2 arderkrag May 28, 2009 7:57:31	All in all, it strikes me that roguelikes have a lot of potential, especially if a commercial power took an interest in the idea. If you're speaking in general, then this has happened, it's called Diablo I & II (and soon III). If you're speaking in D&D terms, don't hold your breath. I've been hoping for an official rogue-like for some time.
#3 Sabin_Stargem May 28, 2009 8:15:31	Yup, Diablo is the father of the truly popular roguelikes. That said, I still would like to see more turn-based and quality roguelikes. Unfortunately, the vast majority of roguelikes are unfriendly in terms of interface, which is one of the reasons why Diablo has trumped them commercially. The other reasons have to do with the real-time gameplay and the distinct atmosphere of Diablo, in my opinion. I originally titled the topic "Something that will never happen: An official Roguelike". Still, a part of me holds some hope for the future of roguelikes.