Humm.. i think i''d have to agree with Keith here, for the most part. It''s really downright hard to make two computers talk to eachother, and anticipate all the things you''ll need to make them work together.. try a computer and a human! Man, that''s near impossible.

The problem is.. people don''t always spell correctly. I mean, lookin over your posts there, NightWraith, i see several misspelled, commonly-used words. I know, you''re no english major.. neither am i. but, the computer will expect a strict english input. Subject first, then verb, then predicate. And no one talks like that in real life. So until we have the ability to make something as infinately diverse as humanity itself, then it''s pointless to make an attempt, because it''ll always fail.

So what do you do? You make the communication more INTELLIGENT. i mean, baldur''s gate had a few choices of text. "Give me that!" "give me that now?" "could i please have it" "if you do not hand that over to me this instant, i shall strike you down and take it from your cold, lifeless hand while my god smiles down upon me for killing a villianous scum such as yourself!".

yeah.. right. But did you ever play through as a theif? Same exact choices for talking. As a mage.. same thing!!! As a good character, same.. as a bad.. SAME! no variation at ALL. Do you think a good character talking to an evil one would say the same things as an evil talking to another evil? I highly doubt that.

So what does this teach us? perhaps having more than one character in a party will make a difference! You can have bob the fighter talk to and even bully around the gnome who''s got the key you need. Or you can send James the theif in to threaten the gnome, and say a few wily comments to get the key. Or perhaps tim, your trusted sorcerer will go forth, bedazzle the create with some simplistic magical effect, levitate the creature, and turn him upside down and around a few times, to get the key. Or perhaps you''ll send yourself, the ranger in.. and tell him about your mission and how important that key it, and how you''re really against shooting people in the back, but you''ll give him 5 seconds head start to run before you kill him if he doesn''t hand over the key.

And perhaps bullying a character senselessly have consequences. Perhaps they give you the key, reluctantly. So you walk off thinking job well done. However, they run around you, and go tell the big boss man you''re coming, and that they took the key from him.. and the bossman sends out some of his finest warriors to eat your brains from your skulls!
This would give good characters a reason for playing good, and getting the key in a GOOD way. And it would give evil characters a real chance to roleplay EVIL. threaten the gnome with a poisoned dagger to the back should he tell the bossman you''re coming for him. Let him know you have people watching him at all times, set to report back to you via a magic crystal network, and showing him a gem you found earlier that day I mean, evils need to be able to lie, cheat, and steal their way into things.. as well as charm their way out of them So come on.. let''s have some communication more to that effect! that way, while the game may still be the same, the characters at least act differently to different people!

J

I suppose the answer to the original question (what do you want to roleplay) belongs in the writing forum as much as here, but here''s my 2+ bits:

This month I''m tired of epics. You know, where the player is the chosen one and has to save the world from a generic evil overlord. Epics are fun, but the market (or at least my hard drive) is saturated.

Recently browsing the web in search of ideas I came across two games that I thought were interesting and hadn''t been done as a CRPG (to my knowledge). In both cases the interestng things are not the game mechanics as much as the settings and typical stories.

One is Paranoia. I understand there is some sort of multiplayer text version being built. I like it because it''s silly and fun. I also like how it has multiple layers of motives for the characters. A CRPG with a similar format wouldn''t need to be the sci-fi Logan''s Run setting, any setting would do so long as the player had multiple conflicting goals, party members that couldn''t be trusted, and temporary death.

The other is Kult, which seems to vary from gross-out horror to religious/philosophical existentialism, depending on how it''s used. It''s different. I was reading some items from a mailing list by some GMs and they were expressing how fun it was to take a group of players that knew nothing about the game. It starts out like normal life and then the GM starts mucking with their heads by twisting ''reality''. And I think that would make an excellent horror crpg. Let the player think he''s making up some normal RPG type characters and then start mucking with things in ways hinted but not mentioned in the rulebook - keep it subtle and slow, and it could make a great game.