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Originally written by Lady Davida:

While we're on this topic, is Thuryl pronounced THUR-ill, or THUR-isle, or THUR-eel, or thur-EEL, or what?

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Basically, your scenario consisted of 3 dungeons. One forked to the other two. Or didn't fork, because you had to do west/south before north. The question in my mind vis a vis this this article, then, is: would it really have hurt to allow the player to go either south or north once they got to the guardpost?

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perhaps a scout who went south/west (sneaking through magical routes like ithik and phaedra did up north) tells the players there's a demon threat to the south/west... so if they clear the north side first you can say "well, you could go on to the slith city, but there's demons coming up behind you unless you finish them off".

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I just think that I am not alone in wanting the interactive part to remain a standby of RPG/scenario design. The most important player interaction that occurs is in character/party creation, not in deciding whether to taste the chef's cookies or kick his ass(though these choices are a bonus as well)!

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Besides that, it is not about BoA players used to feeling like they are in (complete) control adn being angry that we/they are not. It is about (C)RPG veterans, like myself, used to having some interaction with our CRPGs...being able to create our OWN characters according to OUR tastes adn taking them on wonderful adventures designed by others.

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But as much as I liked EM I was turned off a bit that so much work went into the technical aspects(cutscenes) which did little for me, while the 'meat' of the scenario consisted of a single mini-dungeon and a couple other fights(don't want to be too spoily here).

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Agreed. I think you are misreading me here. I have no problem with such background details as "Your merry band decided to take a break from adventuring. A small vacation in the province of Suchandsuch when something strange happens..." or whatever. What turns ME off, and this is purely a matter of personal taste, is stuff along the lines of "This scenario is not only designed for singletons but SPECIFICALLY for the singleton I have crerated and included in the zip file as a saved game." or Cut scenes that feeature my party in a 10 minute discussion with some Nietzche-clone in which they are trying to convince him that radical skepticism(bordering on solopsism) is the ONLY rational way to view life or somesuch nonsense.

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BoE players have well and truly been there and done that dozens of times before.

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Yes...WE have and it never gets old :D (unlike linear, being led by the nose through someone's creative vision type scenarios).

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The basic engine is so well-understood that most experienced players know exactly what the optimal strategies are for every kind of combat (to the point where some players habitually take level-1 parties into level-20 scenarios). BoA will be in the same situation before long.

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While I agree with you about the weakness of the BoE engine in this regard(but fail to see how this refutes my points!?),

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I am not so sure that BoA will become old-hat as quickly. It seems that BoA is capable of about 20 times what BoE was capable of but maybe I am wrong(I have only really been glossing over the Avernumscript stuff).

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I absolutely DETEST linearity, even though I recognise that it is, to a certain degree, unavoidable. I think that anytime a designer imposes severe restrictions on the party or tries to usurp the party(putting words into their mouths and motivations into their adventuring etc.) this is just plain egotism. Rather than writing a book where he is free and expected to create all the characters, the plot, the dialogue etc. and decide what devices are employed to tell his story, he tries to force his grand creative vision into what SHOULD be an interactive venture.

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Computer RPGs, moreso than P&P RPGs, are tactical simulators. The goal is to improve your character(s) by overcoming obstacles.

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Plot CAN be an incidental bonus to a scenario or CRPG, as can well developed NPCs and such but it is not integral to a good scenario no matter what the poetry-reading, new-age spirtualist-intellectuals will try and tell you.

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These are GAMES. You take the "GAME" out of "Role Playing Game" and you are left with drama club or improvisational storytelling(which are NOT role playing GAMES).

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RPGs are, like it or not, primarily number-crunching, die-rolling, character-building(and character-challenging if you are a scenario designer) affairs. I, and I suspect just about everyone who plays CRPGs, enjoy the thrill of bypassing that "first level dungeon" of goblins and heading right for that orc Chieftain's cave(which I am not supposed to be able to do until AFTER defeating the goblins), figuring out a legal way to beat that dungeon and then reaping the rewards of my unorthodox decision.

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