Author Topic: Advice for utilizing one of my creations (A Half-Life RPG)?  (Read 3920 times)

FrodoLlama

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Advice for utilizing one of my creations (A Half-Life RPG)?
« on: September 03, 2010, 07:40:17 PM »
Greetings! I have arrived directly into the beginning of my weekend and so am ready to do some more work on a project of mine. You can probably guess what it is. I'm assuming that if you're reading this, you've either played a game in the Half-Life series or have seen JOHN FREEMAN SAVER OF HUMENS.
Either way, I've got everything done as far as weapons (crossbows to land mines to bee-guns) but I'd like as much assistance as I can get with the following:
If you played HL...
1. What did you enjoy about it?
2. What DIDN'T you enjoy about it?
3. Basically, what would draw you into a Black Mesa, Combine Earth, Zombie Shooting RPG if you had never heard of HL?
4. How should one create atmosphere devoid of colored lights and interesting architecture?
5. I’m mostly keeping this away from the characters in the actual games. …What should I do about the G-Man?

If you didn't play HL...
1. Do you have any advice when it comes to postapocalyptic, alien run worlds?
2. Do you have any random advice on this topic in general?

Mckma

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Re: Advice for utilizing one of my creations (A Half-Life RPG)?
« Reply #1 on: September 03, 2010, 08:00:17 PM »
1.  I liked it because it was a challenging FPS without being too difficult (not much help for an RPG), but the "puzzles" were neat too.  I enjoyed working through and really just doing the next thing that comes up.  Also, finding the weapon caches were fun, but that wouldn't work as well in the RPG (as you would basically roll for that)
2.  I didn't really enjoy Xen (or however you spell it).  I would probably leave that out.  Also, the voices of all the people were kind of annoying, but I think it would be amusing if you included them with their "catchphrases"
3.  I don't really know, I think it would be difficult to capture what I enjoyed which was just running and gunning.  I feel like the enjoyment of RPGs is the role-playing, which would feel weird in the Half-Life setting.  Though I would be intrigued (having played the game) if you had us play soldiers trying to survive between Gordon Freeman's Rampage, the alien destruction, and the army's bombing (I mean face it, they are kind of screwed in any direction).
4.  Not really sure what you're asking, nor what the style of game is going to be, so I can't really give any input.  The "maze-y" confusion of the game is hard to pull off in an RPG
5.  Depending on who the characters are playing, I would leave out the G-Man.  I feel he is only really important to Gordon Freeman, or potentially people playing as Gordon Freeman "replacements."

All in all, I'm impressed that you're trying this, because I think it would be really tough to pull off (at least to keep in the same style of run-and-gun like the game).  I did enjoy the physics puzzles of the second game, but once again, it wouldn't necessarily work as well in a pen and paper.

If you give me a better feel for what you want to do, I could give some more input...

FrodoLlama

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Re: Advice for utilizing one of my creations (A Half-Life RPG)?
« Reply #2 on: September 03, 2010, 08:12:23 PM »
Well, in HL, it is mostly colored lights and architecture that create the atmospheric "feel" of the game.
Also, I'm thinking that several good scenario-types would work for this particular RPG:
-Scientists/guards/army guys/whoever caught up in the Black Mesa Incident
-Rebels trying to escape or destroy a City
-Gordon Freeman's "replacements" being sent on missions
-Regular people dealing with sudden aliens on their doorsteps and really short wars
-Civil Protection or Combine trying to keep rebels in line
-CP being stranded in an area without much protection (say... The Coast) and having to get back to safety.
-Ehh... That's all I've got.

FrodoLlama

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Re: Advice for utilizing one of my creations (A Half-Life RPG)?
« Reply #3 on: September 03, 2010, 09:43:37 PM »
And, just to specify, I'm trying to find a way to give the game a run-gun-shoot-espionage-army-takeover-whatever feel, lacking the graphics and themes that the video games have at their disposable simply by being video games.
Basically, intense.