Dragon, choose cultural victory to make money

Chapter 319: Playing a group game in a fantasy world is super immersive
"A role-playing game played on a tabletop?"

Dean, who had finally recovered from his shock, heard the conversation between Craig and Ben.

He had never heard of role-playing on a tabletop.

The board games available on the market today are basically based on competitive games.

Whether it is Yu-Gi-Oh or Flynn Saga, the goal of the game is to defeat the opponent.

Well, maybe some people's goal in the game is not necessarily to win, their joy comes from torturing their opponents...

In short, in Dean’s understanding, board games are all about fighting and fun!
After all, the ancestors of board games, various chess games, are competitive games, and they are quite competitive, at least better than the currently popular card games.

There is no luck, only strength.

As for playing the role of an adventurer at the table, it doesn't seem very reliable.

When talking about his own work, Ben spoke faster, "Yes, it is a role-playing game played on the table. Each player creates his own character and then plays his own exclusive character to adventure in the dungeon."

"Going on an adventure into the dungeon?"

"Um... an imaginary dungeon," Ben explained, "but some small props will be used to increase the sense of immersion. Isn't that exciting? We grew up listening to all kinds of adventure stories, but not many people have the opportunity to adventure in person, so this game is designed to make up for this regret."

“It seems to make some sense.”

Ben agreed.

Craig said, "It feels like I don't have much social interaction, I don't like going out, I have a lot of schoolwork every day, and my only entertainment is to get together with a few friends and rely on fantasy to resist the difficulties in life. People like to play these things."

This made Ben confused. "Do you always talk like this?"

"I'm telling you this because that's who I am," Craig said, changing the subject. "So can I try your new game?"

"Not so good," Dean said. "It's not a finished game yet."

He thought it was a bit rude, even though he wanted to experience it.

That's Ben's new work.

However, Ben readily agreed, "Okay, games are meant to be played. Besides, a new game must go through many rounds of trial play feedback and modification before it is officially released."

"Really? Thank you so much. When can we arrange a time for the trial?"

"Just wait a moment. I'm about to get off work. I put everything I need for the new game in the treasure chest monster."

While waiting for Ben to get off work, Dean and Craig studied the Hogwarts pamphlet.

"So Gryffindor has these majors?"

In addition to the major introduction, the booklet also includes the training courses for each major.

“What is mathematical analysis?”

"Have not heard."

"What about inscriptional logic?"

"It must have something to do with the inscription."

"What about the introduction to the basic elements?"

"I took an element class, but it wasn't called that. I guess it's similar."

……

It is different from the Hogwarts I imagined. Where are the interesting courses such as Potions, Divination and Flying?

Oh, there is a flying club here, and you can also ride a magic broom.

The two of them looked at the introduction to the major and felt like a bunch of unfamiliar new terms were hitting them in the face.

They realize the first difficulty in going from high school to university and know almost nothing about the university education model.

After searching for a long time, I finally found one that looked familiar.

"Ha, college physics. I know that. I'm pretty good at it."

Craig said excitedly, pointing to the few subjects he was familiar with.

"But why is Physics in Ravenclaw House? Shouldn't Physics be studied by the smartest Slytherins?"

Compared to Craig, who knew what he needed to learn, Dean had more questions.

What major should he study?
What are the majors in Gryffindor?

Although it is introduced in the brochure, I feel that it does not provide much specific information.

Dean encountered the second difficulty in going from high school to college: he had no idea what college major to choose.

By the way, in that case, why not search it online.

You can find anything online.

However, after searching, I became even more confused.

Many majors at Hogwarts are not offered in other schools.

As for those majors that are also offered by other schools, no matter which one you search for, netizens will say "Don't study it, run away..."

"Okay, get off work, come try the game."

Just then, Ben came over, his day job finished.

The advantage of young people is that they won’t be bothered by the same trouble for too long.

After hearing that I could try it out, I immediately put the question of what major to study out of my mind.

In fact, there is no need to worry too much. As for profession, you can't choose whatever you want. Luck always plays a significant role at every important juncture in life.

"Shall we just try it out here?"

"Of course, where else would we go?"

Ben said as he took out one item after another from the treasure chest monster, and soon they were spread all over the ground.

It was the first time Dean had seen a board game that required so many props.

In addition to the props, Ben also took out a booklet, which was much thicker than the Hogwarts introduction booklet.

"What is this?" Dean asked curiously.

"The rule book."

"Rule book!" Dean was so scared that his voice broke.

"Yes, if you want to experience an interesting adventure, you definitely need rich rules to support it."

“This whole book is just rules?”

"Do not."

"That's good." Dean breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't want to be more tired than going to school by playing a game.

"This is just a player rule book for you guys to use."

"What do you mean?" Dean suddenly had a bad feeling.

Ben then pulled out two more books, "This one is for me, and this one introduces monsters."

Now even Craig couldn't hold it anymore.

"You mean, in order to play this game, you need three books of rules."

"Pretty much. These are the main rule books. You can play with these three. As for some of the more detailed rules, you don't have to worry about them for now."

"Are there any other rules?" Craig and Dean looked at each other, and they quickly reached a consensus that this game might not be popular.

Although they don't know how to design games, in their simple understanding from the perspective of players, the more complicated the rules are and the more difficult the design is to use, the less likely it is to be popular.

Next, Ben "briefly" introduced the gameplay of this board game to the two trial mice.

The introduction lasted about half an hour.

"Now that we know this, we can start playing games."

Dean and Craig were dizzy.

I sorted out my thoughts a bit.

"So, you are the dungeon lord. What you will encounter in the entire dungeon and the specific small rules are all decided by you."

Ben nodded, "That's what I mean, but I can't change everything, there's also the script!"

"Then we are the players, and we have to design our own characters, races, professions, attributes, background stories, and then go on adventures in your dungeons."

"Very correct!"

“In the dungeon, we may encounter treasures, fight monsters, puzzles, emergencies, and other characters, and the other characters are also played by you.”

"exactly!"

“Then during the adventure, the character we play can level up, improve attributes, obtain equipment, become stronger, and eventually clear the entire dungeon or reach the end of the story.”

"You guys have understood everything and are simply the best players."

Afraid that Craig and Dean would find it boring and not want to play, Ben used encouraging teaching methods comparable to those used by early childhood teachers.

In fact, he also knew that the rules of this game were a bit complicated, and he didn't intend to make it so complicated at the beginning.

However, as the design progressed, I found that many places could not be simplified at all.

In order to keep the game playable, he chose to make the rules so complicated.

After figuring out what this board game was all about, Dean and Craig changed their initial views.

It seems to be quite interesting and not as boring as I thought.

"Although there are a few more rules, you will be able to learn them quickly as long as you play around a little."

Ben used a set of pre-made plot models to piece together his first map.

The two-man adventurer team consisting of Dean and Craig began their first adventure with some difficulties.

Two hours later, it was getting dark.

"The tall ogre in front of you uses a giant stick to attack you, causing 13 points of damage. Adventurer Dean cannot withstand such a strong attack and falls to the ground, unable to get up again..."

Ben described the battle situation with great emotion.

In order to be a good dungeon lord, he even learned some dubbing to enhance the player's sense of immersion.

"Are we going to be wiped out now?" Dean couldn't believe it.

"Yes, your team is wiped out. This adventure ends here."

"But we've just arrived at the entrance to the dungeon!" Craig shouted, "Is it possible that I can use one gold coin to buy a resurrection scroll for my character, and even better, a few legendary equipment."

Craig chose to solve the problem in the most Craig way possible.

"Of course not!"

Ben immediately refused. "This is not a game that pays for numbers."

As a designer who pursues the game itself more than profit, Ben hates value-based pay-to-play games like "Road to Conquest".

He thought the game was off to a bad start.

Since the game came out, a lot of imitators have emerged. Compared with how to make the game interesting, these people care more about how to make players spend more money.

This is completely different from the idea that people like him think, that as long as the game is well made, people will buy it.

"Okay." Craig shrugged.
"What do you think of this way of playing?" Ben asked eagerly. Ben had shown it to his uncle and other people in the toy store before, and the reviews were quite polarized.

Those who like it think that this is simply the future of board games and will definitely create a whole new category.

For those who don’t like it, playing it feels like torture and they simply can’t understand what the fun is in it.

As for Ben himself, he thought it was good enough, but not good enough and did not meet the standards in his mind, so he delayed it for a long time and still did not officially launch it.

Craig was the first to give his opinion, "It's quite interesting, if the players can immerse themselves in it, but it's very tiring to play. It took us a long time to reach the entrance of the dungeon."

"That's true. If you want to clear a dungeon completely, you may need to play it several times, or even dozens of times, to complete the entire adventure. But the long journey is also part of the charm of adventure, isn't it? And there are save files. As long as the dungeon lord is willing, you can start again from the save file after the team is wiped out."

It's too frustrating to see your team wiped out after playing for several months, so this book has added a more user-friendly design.

"And it's too much trouble to record all my attributes in a notebook."

Craig pointed out another area of ​​discomfort for him, but he also offered a solution.

"We have a small construct in our family. It is a practice that all family members have to make when they learn to make constructs. It is only about ten centimeters tall and has almost no combat capabilities, but it can perform simple actions. It should also be able to carry illusions that display attributes. This seems much more convenient."

Ben immediately took note of it. "Very good advice. Thank you so much. It was definitely the right decision to let you try it out."

He didn't know there was such a thing as a small construct.

“Is it expensive?”

"Um, it shouldn't be expensive, I'm not sure," Craig replied, "because we don't sell it to the public, and no one buys it anyway. But they are all exercises, very simple, anyone who is new to making constructs can do it."

“That shouldn’t be expensive.”

Ben was very satisfied, which was great news.

In order to make this desktop adventure more immersive, he took great pains to design monster models, prop models, and plots of land that can be used to create different scenes. If you add player characters with their own display and actions, it would be perfect.

"Well, I have a problem."

Dean said weakly.

"Go ahead." Ben was in a good mood now.

“Although this game is pretty good to play, I feel that it lacks the sense of randomness in adventure, and there is no such surprise as ‘it’s possible to do this’.”

"I know, but I'm never sure how to solve this problem." Ben sighed.

The basis of this game is a bunch of complicated numerical calculations. If the numbers are not enough, it is not enough. Indeed, there is not much of a "sense of adventure".

"I mean, what if we add some randomness? For example, when I was playing just now, I wanted to open the door, but you said that I didn't have enough strength to open it. But if there is a little randomness in the process, maybe the door is of poor quality, so I opened it. I'm just giving an example."

"The dungeon lord's task is too heavy."

"Or maybe this," Dean had an idea, "we leave it to luck, the dice. What do you think of the dice?"

"dice?"

"Just like my strength is 9, and the requirement to open the door is 12, I can roll the dice to decide. If it is greater than a certain number, such as greater than 5, I can open the door. The greater the difference in strength, the lower the probability of success of the dice."

Dean's ideas flowed like a fountain.

"When I was doing multiple-choice questions in the past, I would use dice to decide if I didn't know the answer to a question. So, what if everything in this game can be decided by dice? The damage of skills, whether persuasion is successful, the amount of healing, and even basic attributes can also have a variety of dice with different numbers of sides..."

As he was talking, Dean noticed Ben was staring at him and asked nervously, "Are my thoughts too weird?"

"No, no, you're a genius."

Ben hugged Dean and almost kissed him.

(End of this chapter)