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Old 04-06-2013, 11:16 PM   #7
Jazuela
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Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: New England
Posts: 849
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Re: LFM: skill-based game with RP

It really sounds like what you're looking for, with the exception of the permadeath issue, is an RPI. But you don't want permadeath, so that leaves RPIs out of the equation. They fit all your other criteria though, and I don't know of any other type of games that do. Armageddon in particular has a robust crafting system, you won't find people mindlessly grinding, or level-whoring, or hunting parties among people for whom it would make very little IC sense for them to hunt in the first place (such as, a city-based assassin, for example).

The roleplay can get stressful at times, but usually it's the scene itself and whatever rp people are putting into it, that's stressful. Not much of the childish OOC shenanigans you sometimes find in some games (though these shenanigans occur in ALL games to some extent - Arm isn't innocent by any means, but I've found there's simply less of it there). Plus it's free with no perks for pay. Any donations go toward the cost of the server, no one gets paid and you get nothing in return for the donation except the admin's thanks and the knowledge that youv'e helped keep the game running. They don't ever ask for donations either.

Death is permanent, however because of the in-game culture and possibilities for play, it's not nearly as "traumatic" as that might sound. It stings, definitely, when you lose a character. Especially if you manage to have one last awhile and form tight RP groups. But when they die, you pick something new, something different, something you haven't tried yet and were wondering what it'd be like. Maybe a different city, or maybe not a city at all. Maybe you want to try and play a character who gets neck-deep into politics; maybe you want to try a sneaky back-alley thief who spends most of his life in near-starvation and is looking for a way out of the alleys and into respectability.

It's because of that variety, that regular players of Arm don't generally get too bent out of shape when their characters die. Because they usually have another concept lined up and ready to submit the next day.

The combat system started out as a diku, but has been tweaked significantly. It's still recognizeable if you're familiar with diku, but you would also notice the differences immediately.

The learning curve for Arm is steep, but there's a helper system where you can ask veteran volunteers to give you assistance on pretty much anything from syntax on moving around, to pointing out the helpfiles, to what you're supposed to do when a guy in a blue robe, flanked by a pair of half-giant soldiers, comes into the bar, to how to find the grocer, to how to find a method of earning coins.

So you have your choice of self-reliance, using the help files and guides on the web, or contacting a helper (usually live via a special help chat set up on their main website).

It might not be your thing afterall, and it's definitely not for everyone. But the worst that happens if you don't like it, is you waste a few hours of your life trying. You do that anyway when you play internet games
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