Giving The Player Choices, and Taking Them Away

[optimum45]

My story takes the Hero into a situation where (I had planned) to give them a series of questions, the answers of which would lead them to what their "personal hero" would look like.  Then I ran into a creative issue.

The story, as I have it written, requires the hero to have certain specific skills to accomplish certain things.  While I want to give my players the freedom to choose their own destiny, I also do have to control certain aspects of the players skill development to allow the Hero to fill his unique role.

Would it be better to force the player into one specific class (which does "ascend" and change over time, so this one class isn't just one static class.  It's more like a class array) to keep consistency with Story Telling?  Or should I give the player more freedoms, and adapt the story around more broad, potential choices?  The latter requires a huge re-write, but that's the easy part for me, or this wouldn't even be a choice.

 

[Warpmind]

"Give me the courage to change what I must change, the strength to endure what I cannot change, and the wisdom to know the difference."

If the character needs a certain set of skills at given points of the story, then that's not something the player can get to choose away. However, every problem can be viewed from more than one angle - let's say you let the player choose from three different classes, with very different approaches to things; who's to say that the knight's Shield Bash skill isn't as effective to open a locked door as the thief's Lockpick skill, or the mage's Fireball? And for that matter, why would such a skill be prohibited by class, as such, if tools can compensate for lack of inherent ability?

Find the balance that *feels* right between Grace and Free Will.

 

[Kvich]

This in basic really boils down to balance issues, that unfortunately don't have an easy answer to the.

Depending on the skill(s) the player need, couldn't they learn them no matter what class they pick?

If the hero needs to fulfill a very specific and unique role, it may be better to force a player into it, than allowing them to pick and choose.

 

[optimum45]

You guys are both absolutely correct.  It boils down to two story situations.

The Hero is forced into a situation where they must, alone, survive multiple consecutive battles in a no-win scenario.  My healing items are class restricted also.  It could be "impossible" for a pure attacking Mage to overcome, due to just the inability to stand and fight that long.  It could be impossible for a pure tanker to stand that long without healing as well.  The scene would lose a lot if one could just "obliterate" them all and never be, or feel, threatened.  This is the main one.

You guys might have solved the second one, and I thank you.  

 

[Trihan]

Change the encounters according to the class chosen, such that they are a challenge but still doable for that class.

 

[Warpmind]

For the first scenario, here's a thought - the continuous grinding battle is unwinnable *if played straight*.
The hero can, however, use more or less surreptitious means of tweaking the odds - such as, say, having a cask of poisoned wine delivered to the opposition in advance, calling in a favor from a local spellcaster for a healing or two between battles, "persuading" some of the opponents to throw the fight, etc.

It's all highly contextual; these three examples might work very well in something like a gladiatorial arena, while the two latter might not work so well if the hero is charging up a prison tower (though poisoning a shipment of wine could still work wonders) halfway through the game...

 

[Ralpf]

Change the encounters according to the class chosen, such that they are a challenge but still doable for that class.

I was thinking the same thing, if the encounters are different (but more or less equal in difficulty) based on the class chosen then that problem is non-existent.

 

[optimum45]

The general idea of the scene starts after the Hero's group wins a large scale battle on the field, and advances into the enemy castle.  A rather disturbing event happens right off that separates the Hero from most of his allies.  These five people left are pre-determined.  You can't escape, so you choose to push forward.  Over the course of the event, your allies fall away, either to grant a diversion or just outright die.  At the end, you are alone, facing 10 soldiers, and two bosses over 4 waves.  You must overcome 3 of those waves, on your own.  The fourth, well, that'd be telling.

This part of the story is vital to multiple character arcs, and ends several of them.  The Main Hero Class, as written, can overcome this challenge if they're creative.  Other classes...I can foresee having significant difficulty with this, based on the balance I already have.  I'm not sure what to do.

A single full heal would likely be enough.  I could just make one of his friends give him something really important to them, that he can only use once.  Like a "Momento" or something.  Have the game run a check if the class can heal or not, and if not, the friend can "sense" that he may "need" it and give it to him.  That seems weak, but it's just a thought.

 

[Wavelength]

Tailor the enemies to the player's class.  Maybe the warrior needs to take down three big enemies in the first "wave", whereas the mage goes up against six smaller ones (that they can blow up with a couple good AoE spells) as well as one larger one (that would present more difficulty and excitement), and a healer would find themself in a situation where a few benevolent spirits come to their aid and it's the healer's job to keep the spirits alive while they damage the (extremely powerful groups of) enemies.

Not only do you solve your problem and remove the limits on player freedom, but you also create extra replay value with these slightly-divergent sequences.