Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
permits the character to cast any combination of spells that she knows, as often as
she likes, until her mana is gone.
Skills and Special Capabilities
In addition to the basic human-like characteristics—strength, intelligence, beauty,
and so on—most RPGs let characters use and improve special skills and capabilities.
CRPGs allow the player's character to learn new skills over time, a rarity in other
genres. The best-designed games allow the player to attempt to learn as many skills
as she wants, restricted only by the time available, though her character's aptitude
in that skill will be based on previously assigned characterization attributes. You
may want to allow characters to specialize, especially if the character practices a set
of interrelated skills, while unpracticed skills gradually decline. For example, learn-
ing one skill, basic carpentry, could provide a solid basis for developing another,
such as constructing buildings, whereas learning basic gardening would not.
OBTAINING NEW SKILLS
Skills are somewhat analogous to the unit upgrades of strategy games; like unit
upgrades, they allow a character to do something that he could not do before or
to do it more effectively. The unit upgrade process in a strategy game is typically
called research, whereas in a CRPG, acquisition of a skill is called learning.
Sometimes a new skill (or the right to choose a new skill) is simply granted as
a reward for having achieved a certain amount of experience. However, you can
also require the player to seek out a mentor NPC who will teach the new skill to the
character in exchange for money—similar to the cost of research in strategy games.
The analogy between skills in CRPGs and unit upgrades in strategy games is not
exact, however, for the following reasons:
■
In CRPGs, a skill earned by a character is
permanent
and stays with that charac-
ter as long as he lives (and usually survives reincarnation as well). In strategy
games, a unit upgrade ordinarily lasts only for the duration of the current mission
or level.
■
In a strategy game, an upgrade normally applies to all units of a given type, or
sometimes to the player's entire army and economic system. In a CRPG, a new skill
applies to exactly one character, the one who learned the skill. It's the difference
between an industrial and a personal advance. CRPG skills are individual, like the
ability to play music, rather than industrial, like an improved engine. Each charac-
ter has to have his own record of skills learned to date.
■
CRPG skill upgrades usually happen instantly, whereas research in a strategy
game normally takes time. Although instant learning is completely unrealistic for
something like archery or playing music, nobody wants to sit and watch while her
character practices. Strategy game research doesn't have this problem because
research happens parallel to other activities.
