27th March 2004, 4:45 PM
Ya know, I've never played one of those D&D type games. I tried finding a way to get into it, but the books I apparently need are VERY expensive, and reading them there is NO real tutorial. All the books I've seen are written with the pro in mind it seems, nothing for the complete beginner. They should do like the Magic: the gathering starter decks and provide some sort of training scenario, where the dungeon master and the players all do everything step by step exactly as the tutorial says, in order to get used to how things go for when the players go on their own. Until I find something like that, I really don't think I'll ever be able to play those games without going into a coma of confusion.
So you know LL, a game CAN be designed so that one person is the administrator or dungeon master or whatever you want to call them. However, generally those games are rare.
For example, in the average FPS, there IS the person who actually STARTS the game, and that person has the ability to basically setup the whole experience, from the number of open slots to the map to the layout of the weapons and the game type, but once it starts they are just another player. Maybe that's what you were talking about anyway? Anyway, in a game like Neverwinter Nights, the person who creates the scenario can either join in as a player letting the scripts manage everything or they can be the DM and add a human live element to the whole experience, able to dynamically alter the whole thing. In fact, Neverwinter lets one do both.
So, it depends on the game, but unless it's Mario Kart style, where the game is setup completely randomly, there are always people starting games rather than just joining them, and they customize the game to their liking.
So you know LL, a game CAN be designed so that one person is the administrator or dungeon master or whatever you want to call them. However, generally those games are rare.
For example, in the average FPS, there IS the person who actually STARTS the game, and that person has the ability to basically setup the whole experience, from the number of open slots to the map to the layout of the weapons and the game type, but once it starts they are just another player. Maybe that's what you were talking about anyway? Anyway, in a game like Neverwinter Nights, the person who creates the scenario can either join in as a player letting the scripts manage everything or they can be the DM and add a human live element to the whole experience, able to dynamically alter the whole thing. In fact, Neverwinter lets one do both.
So, it depends on the game, but unless it's Mario Kart style, where the game is setup completely randomly, there are always people starting games rather than just joining them, and they customize the game to their liking.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)