How much Survival do you like in your RPGs?

[lgromanowski]

I kinda like Survival Mechanics, but sometimes I think they only translate to monotony or farming/grinding.

Here's a list of some features:
-Eating/Drinking
-Sleeping
-First Aid
-Social Survival
-Consumable Recharging (fetch more X to do Y)

Personally, I am leaning towards just Sleeping, but I am curious as to what really is good enough for some folks.

I think that survival elements are amazing as a concept, and terrible in implementation. Eventually they always become repetitive and irritating. If they could be pulled off well though, I'd enjoy them.

Every Survival mechanic should have some sort of reason to not take care of it - otherwise, it's just another step the PC has to take. It feels incredibly artificial and I can't figure out a good reason to have many other than to put more steps in the player's way.

I think that you find it wrong.

It's question about what is your game. For p&p RPG there is so called "power 19".

http://socratesrpg.blogspot.com/2006/01 ... -pt-1.html

This is how you "designe" game. You don't just throw random elements. In most of cRPGs there is just no space left for survival. OTOH I could enjoy more planing, survival and economy in MW. Traveling could be a little bit more cool

I think that you find it wrong.

It's question about what is your game. For p&p RPG there is so called "power 19".

http://socratesrpg.blogspot.com/2006/01 ... -pt-1.html

This is how you "designe" game. You don't just throw random elements. In most of cRPGs there is just no space left for survival. OTOH I could enjoy more planing, survival and economy in MW. Traveling could be a little bit more cool

Using "Socratic" as a descriptor already has my book-smarts irked....

I'm not talking about general design, but in the context of the high level spec, you're right. I had an old sage tell me about it - I've never looked back - I assure you, I don't throw in random stuff. I'm light-hearted and motivated, but I'm not a fool. :O

Back to that though - it's possible a lot I've seen are a result of "Feature Creep", but I suppose I'm thinking about my two CRPG projects and trying to distinguish them from other games.

A little; food/water and sleeping. In morrowind I like necessities of morrowind.