I’ve actually played one single brief-ish campaign of D&D, about 15 years ago, but it honestly never occurred to me that there actually wasn’t any PvP. Of course you’re right, but somehow I never realized it. Somehow I always thought there might be the potential for… well, not just betrayals and such (I’m sure that does happen from time to time), but out-and-out PvP combat, even between friends. It is, after all, only a game, and certainly best pals can duke it out in any number of FPS and fighting games with no harm done to the friendship.
Personally, I’d love to play an iteration of Badass that allowed for PvP when the circumstances were right, but of course any such version of Badass would have to make explicitly clear upfront that such a thing would be allowed, if indeed most people are used to collaborative RPGs rather than competitive ones.
That certainly made the whole thing painless to play. What fluff content Pat did inject was always hugely entertaining, but as a player you didn’t have to invest more than five or ten minutes a day to play well, though you could blow hours at a time making goofy MSPaint illustrations and typing up outrageous rants about cloacas if you really wanted to.
I myself lean toward a preference for meaty content, rather than simplicity, but that probably makes me a better player than game designer.
But you’re right: everyone needs to be on-board if PvP is to be included.
I did not. Now that I’ve read it, my first thought is that some editor needs to take a whack at it, since it takes about four times as many words as it needs to say what it has to say. And that’s coming from me, of all people.
But it does reinforce the point. Still and all, there is a market for PvP. I guess it makes sense that most of those games (like Halo and Destiny and such) don’t have anything like permadeath, since it’s a pain to lose something that you’ve invested lots of time and effort in creating.
But remember that Dark Zone section of The Division that @codinghorror mentioned? That’s exactly the vibe I was hoping people would embrace in the darker rounds of BDW. Too bad nobody was into it. I certainly would have indulged my dark side there. I have zero interest in The Division as it’s been described to me, but that Dark Zone bit sounds intriguing, if translated into the context of a more interesting genre.
I wonder if we can increase interest in such a thing for people like you (and me, honestly) with a two-pronged approach: a substantial lowering of the stakes by making the consequences of death and defeat relatively trivial to overcome so the vanquished can easily respawn into the game to begin plotting revenge; and also by more heavily advertising the potential for such shenanigans to be part of the fun?
I wonder. I think we beat up on him a bit too much last time. A couple of moments in the game got a trifle querulous. I surely hope he’ll do another one, but it wouldn’t shock me if it felt like a bit more trouble than it’s worth. I’ve walked a couple of yards in his shoes before, and yet even I have been known to complain about the free ice cream before.
Between you, me, and the lamppost, though… even though I’d never expect or ask anyone to follow suit, I personally would PayPal the guy $50 to run another BSD for a couple of weeks. It’s that much fun, and so worth it!
