The Trouble With Using D&D Rules In Videogames?

An anonymous reader writes "There's a new article on kuro5hin.org about the trouble with porting pencil and paper RPG games (such as d20 3.5) to RPG video games. One such rules-snatching video game is examined, The Temple of Elemental Evil. The article is also an introduction to a new RPG Standards Compliance system that is currently under development and will be online soon, in hopes of bridging the gap between computers and those lovable PnP evenings we all enjoy."

Comments

Neverwinter Night

[wmacgyver]

Neverwinter Night, and the two follow up expansion packs did a wonderful job recreating d20 RPG on PCs.

Re:The problem is

[crashfrog]

How is this roleplaying?

You don't think that, in real life, a soldier might notice that those with halberds tended to win more engagements, and therefore might choose to adopt its use himself?

I'm not saying that everybody who powergames considers themselves playing a role, or thinks about their character. But it is possible to play a character motivated by a need to win battles, and for that character, optimizing combat effectiveness isn't munchkinism, it's exactly what their character would do.

But no. To you, if they're not keeping intimate detail about every little bit of tedium that occurs in their lives, and are spending more time wondering how the dragon makes them feel as opposed to how to slay it, they're some kind of subgamer. Never mind that there's a number of real-life people who approach their own lives with a certain aim of maximizing effectiveness in whatever field they choose.

If you want to act, there's a number of venues for you to do so (I have). I suggest you start by getting involved in your local community theatre. But the rest of us at your table are a little more concerned about solving the problems set out for us by the GM than dealing with your in-character histronics.