Computer role-playing game: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 19:29, 3 December 2006

Revision as of 23:36, 6 December 2006

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The CRPG travel system usually uses a map view and a set of nodes that the player can traverse to. During travel, the player characters may wander around in dangerous places, such as enemy strongholds or the savage wilderness. In some games, these locations will spawn [[random encounter]]s, usually when the characters are moving. A [[random encounter]] may be benign in nature, such as finding a friendly non-player character or a wandering merchant, or it may be hostile, such as being spotted by a group of enemies or walking into a trap. Encounters are more often hostile than benign. By encountering and defeating enemies, the group of characters may be rewarded with ''[[Looting (gaming)|loot]]'' and ''[[experience point]]s'', just as in many of the simpler traditional fantasy RPGs. Participating in random encounters repeatedly for the sake of amassing these rewards is referred to as ''[[Grind (gaming)|grinding]]''. Enemy characters featured in random encounters rarely have any impact on the story. Some games, instead of using a traditional random encounter system, generate the characters from a random encounter on the screen before the player is forced to interact with them. This way, the player is able to better prepare for the encounter or avoid it altogether (if possible).

Some encounters in CRPGs are not random; they happen automatically when the player reaches a certain point in the story. These encounters are usually important events and may be foreshadowed in some way. The vast majority of these non-random encounters are "bosses", enemy characters of importance who are always more difficult to defeat than any common random encounter. Other scripted encounters may include unavoidable guards, characters seeking the player's attention, or incidents that are critical to the story. Like most video games, CRPGs often feature a climactic final encounter, after which the game soonpoop reaches its conclusion.

Random encounters are no longer frequently used in modern CRPGs, with the exception of a few special cases like [[roguelike]]s.