Role Players

when playing video games there are a few constants in my life. I love going back and popping in an oldie but goodie, sometimes I just need to blow stuff up, and other times, I prefer hacking and whacking like Butcher Pete and his long sharp pen-errrrr knife.

rarely ever though do I want to get immersed in some mystical far off land of prissy elves, racist humans, and isolationist dwarfs, and idiot orks. The Era of steel blades and chainmail just flat do not do it for me. I did not enjoy playing Final Fantasy 1 at all, and Dragon Warrior... forget it.

Later in life I went back to these oldies because I forced my way through more modern RPGs, but there is still a huge problem with them.

Magic. call it what you will, but every role playing video game has Magic of some sort. Some kind of ability that turns ordinary people into gods among men. even in Sci Fi oriented games like Parasite Eve there was magic (mitohondial Powers). and it is a crutch that you can not ignore in order to complete the game.

Fallout 2 was the first RPG game I came across that had no magic per say in it, and it was a wonderful experience. Only equipment and training mattered. the post apocolyptic science fiction setting was welcome as well. I would love to see more such games with a set up. level building to invovle "getting better" at stuff, great equipment, an immersive story, but no Magic system. that includes the Force for you KOTOR fans, and Parasite energy for the PE club.

I want to keep my RPGs real.