Help with RPG games

The Witches Cat

Hi.
I have always wanted to play RPG games but never gotten round to it until now. The problem I have is that they seem so overwhelming to play with the amount of rules, classes, terms and don't even get me started on combat techniques. I get a game, play it for a while, realize I have no idea how to play it and move on to something else where I just go through the motions again.

I asked for advice before about what game to start with and people recommended Baldur's Gate 1 and 2. Stuck with that for a while and I did find it enjoyable but never quite knew what I was doing.

I tried a few online games, World of Warcraft, Lord of the rings online but I seem to be just plodding along clicking this and that hoping that everything will become clear.

Yesterday I downloaded Pillars of Eternity but again the amount of stuff I seem to need to know is overwhelming.

How do I get to understand how to play these games. I was thinking that if I just stick with one and persevere that eventually I will get the hang of it which will enable me to get into other games.
Am I right in thinking that???

Or is there a website or something that explains everything????

Can anyone help me with this as I feel I am missing out on something great and would love to really get into these type of games.

Thanks for:o:o:o reading this.

Skerries

maybe try some of the Bioware games and the various series they have
Dragon Age, Mass Effect and Knights of the Old Republic
These are some of the best games and can give you a good start to RPG's whereas the Baldurs Gates and Pillars are a more dedicated type of RPG and can be harder for beginners
Also the Elder Scrolls games such as Oblivion and Skyrim are easier to pick up and play
But do yourself a favour and try and play The Witcher games at some stage

Digital Solitude

Skyrim would be a pretty easy one to pick up I think

Mehaffey1

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Skyrim would be a pretty easy one to pick up I think

Skyrim is brilliant. Always been a Cod or other action/shooter games player until I started into Oblivion. About 15 hours into Skyrim and not even been to 3/4 of the map I'd say.

johnny_ultimate

Japanese RPGs aren't for everyone, but a lot of them are actually more approachable than western ones IMO. Very much recommend Persona 4: it has a lot of stats, systems and even its own made up vocabulary for attacks which takes a while to get into, but it's also extremely accessible and with a very welcoming learning curve. Set in the modern day so more approachable than some of the typical medieval or sci-fi fantasy stuff in other games (don't worry, there's plenty of supernatural zaniness too!). It has a heavy focus on characters and storytelling so a lot of your character's growth is based on conversations and just exploring around the town rather than fiddling about it menus (unless you get hooked on Persona fusion, which you probably will ). Turn based systems can be a good way to learn the importance of tactical concepts like buffs and debuffs, or the value of a varied party and different 'builds'. Persona is a series that really encourages experimentation too.

One you could try is Sunless Sea, which is much closer to the ones you mentioned above. It's a pretty deep and difficult RPG (one you have to restart when you die), but there's a key difference: a lot of the more convoluted RPG mechanics are translated into storytelling. So there's a sort of narrative and world-building logic built into the way your character grows and develops rather than just stats, experience and numbers. Again, it's a pretty unforgiving game, but I reckon it could help contextualise and emphasise the importance of different approaches

The Witches Cat

Skerries wrote: »

maybe try some of the Bioware games and the various series they have
Dragon Age, Mass Effect and Knights of the Old Republic
These are some of the best games and can give you a good start to RPG's whereas the Baldurs Gates and Pillars are a more dedicated type of RPG and can be harder for beginners
Also the Elder Scrolls games such as Oblivion and Skyrim are easier to pick up and play
But do yourself a favour and try and play The Witcher games at some stage

Hi. Thanks for the reply. Ive played mass effect and skyrim and KOTOR and liked them but its the likes of Pillars and Baldur's gate that I want to get in to. The more dedicated RPG as you call them.
Thanks for the reply.

humanji

I think the best thing to do is keep slogging your way through these types of games until it makes sense. It may never fully make sense, but you'll get into a rhythm and stuff will suddenly make sense as you play.

I found with Pillars of Eternity, that I replayed the starting section a few times with different characters to try and figure out what play style I liked and what the various character classes did/what the stat meant.

But I think you'll need to ignore the stats for the most part and take a more basic approach to everything, and try and figure out the various elements one at a time. Don't try and take everything in at once. The general gist is that the games don't want you to be brilliant at every skill and stat, so you've to decide which ones to focus on. In the beginning it's always difficult because you don't know what the game is like and how you want to play it. So try and keep an idea of the type of character you want to play and that may help you when it comes to choosing skills and stats and even conversation choices.

Another thing to keep in mind is the party you have with you. It can be awkward at first to find the perfect set, but you want to make sure you're balanced. And by that I mean, you want everyone to compliment each other. If you play a mage, then you'll want a fighter or two to stand between you and the enemy. They'll soak up the damage while you cast spells. And you'll need someone or some way of healing people in an emergency, so that you can all keep fighting.

Once you get the right balance, fights become more strategic and you get a lot more out of them that them simply being something that interrupts the story.

Does any of that help? Are there any specific things that are causing confusion?

YouSavedMyLife

Tyranny was released last week which is a more simplified version of Pillars of Eternity, its also made by the same dev team. The one thing i found "hard" to get a handle on was the amount of different stats in the game and how spells and abilities are affected by then in both offense and defense. I played through PoE and currently playing Tyranny and sometimes during combat i still have to go into the menu and find out what stat is going to be affected by my spell. But the good thing is the information is all there in the menu's, you just have to mouse over words to find out what they mean.

So yeah, get Tyranny if you dont mind dropping 30-40 quid on it. Its a far less complex and much more streamlined version of PoE

Glebee

At the time I seem to recall enjoying the Icewind Dale games more than Baldurs Gate for some reason and I loved Baldurs Gate. OK I suppose there basically the same game mechanics just with snow..

ShadowHearth

Tried hack and slash RPGs? Something like Diablo 3, Grim Down and torchlight? They are not as complicated and have great sense of rpg progression.

Retr0gamer

Probably best to start with a JRPG if you don't have the time to invest in a western RPG.

I find western RPGs you can't just give it a quick 30 minute go. You really have to just give then a whole day/evening. Sit down with nothing else to do and figure them out. They can be slow for anything to happen so you really have to give them a lot of time.

As mentioned Diablo might be a better starting point. Straight to the combat, no nonsense with stories and questlines although the aren't for everyone, I myself have never really clicked with loot based games.

The Witches Cat

humanji wrote: »

I think the best thing to do is keep slogging your way through these types of games until it makes sense. It may never fully make sense, but you'll get into a rhythm and stuff will suddenly make sense as you play.

I found with Pillars of Eternity, that I replayed the starting section a few times with different characters to try and figure out what play style I liked and what the various character classes did/what the stat meant.

But I think you'll need to ignore the stats for the most part and take a more basic approach to everything, and try and figure out the various elements one at a time. Don't try and take everything in at once. The general gist is that the games don't want you to be brilliant at every skill and stat, so you've to decide which ones to focus on. In the beginning it's always difficult because you don't know what the game is like and how you want to play it. So try and keep an idea of the type of character you want to play and that may help you when it comes to choosing skills and stats and even conversation choices.

Another thing to keep in mind is the party you have with you. It can be awkward at first to find the perfect set, but you want to make sure you're balanced. And by that I mean, you want everyone to compliment each other. If you play a mage, then you'll want a fighter or two to stand between you and the enemy. They'll soak up the damage while you cast spells. And you'll need someone or some way of healing people in an emergency, so that you can all keep fighting.

Once you get the right balance, fights become more strategic and you get a lot more out of them that them simply being something that interrupts the story.

Does any of that help? Are there any specific things that are causing confusion?

Hi
Thanks for all that info. I really appreciate it. I think your right about playing through and figuring it out. Little things have started to come to me and starting to understand it a bit better.
I really had no idea about the turn based combat and the scoring. I have watched a few youtube videos about how it works and to be honest I was sorry I did. Talk about complicated. It very nearly put me off. As you said I think the best thing to do is play and figure as I go.
Thanks again for your help.

Zillah

YouSavedMyLife wrote: »

Tyranny was released last week which is a more simplified version of Pillars of Eternity, its also made by the same dev team. The one thing i found "hard" to get a handle on was the amount of different stats in the game and how spells and abilities are affected by then in both offense and defense. I played through PoE and currently playing Tyranny and sometimes during combat i still have to go into the menu and find out what stat is going to be affected by my spell. But the good thing is the information is all there in the menu's, you just have to mouse over words to find out what they mean.

So yeah, get Tyranny if you dont mind dropping 30-40 quid on it. Its a far less complex and much more streamlined version of PoE

I found Tyranny's combat system to be completely confusing, as a veteran from BG1 days. I still don't know how the hit roll works. Their magic system isn't exactly the most intuitive. I think it's actually a really bad recommendation for someone struggling to understand how rpgs work.

OP I think you are correct that you need to just stick with it and soldier on. You can always google for bits that you find confusing.