Fundamentals of Game Design Journal Entry 19

I really dislike a lot of current action/RPG mix games. In particular the ones that try and use DnD rules. They just don’t work, DnD it just to complex to be able to be able accurately portrayed in a game engine. The thing with DnD is how open it is to being modified by the players as well as the DM. The players have the choice to do anything they want and they can change the rules of the game as the want to (with the DMs permission) but the rules in a computer game are static, based on the limitations of the engine.

Even if you see a game like Neverwinter Nights that has a set up that allows for player to play a game created and controlled by a DM the DM needs to have the skills of senor game designer in order to allow the game to progress smoothly. Not to mention the skills needed to be able to go into the game and tweak classes and races the way they want them to be, even making items in the development tools are heavily restricting.

I would love to see a game that give as much freedom as possible in changing it to how the players want it to be. Give it a huge amount of customisability, have the classes and races statistics easy to access and modify. Have a verity of rules of different/alternative rules that can be chosen at the DMs leisure – this would require a large amount of focus groups in order to find out what players want.