RPG's have been around for a while. It's a really funny thing. You could hear "I've just used up my mana replenishing HP for my team, " and it would be so common, you wouldn't even know which game they were playing. However, 20 years ago, "mana" was the bread-like thing in the ark, and HP was a novelist that had a cool last name (Lovecraft for you lame-o's). Now almost every game have some kind of hp and some kinda mana and some kinda hp replenishing thing.
The idea I've got today isn't to eliminate the tradition and make a game without hp or experience or levels, which are great for a progressive interactive game, but just to change the environment a bit. Make RPG's for sports, or racing, or cooking. No, no, not like the way they do it now, an action game with some skills, and some stats for cars and players. Like a real RPG, with random encounters, items, HP's, and missions.
Look how cool it would work out. You "walk around" with your car on the world map, and randomly encounter 3 patrol cars. The first round, you were surprised and the three patrol cars bump you for 15 damage total. It's your turn, and you cast "turn into alley," the spell misses one patrol car, but causes the remainding two to crash into obstacles dealing 30 damage each and removing them from the chase. The last enemy casts "NOS," bumps into you from behind, and forces you to use your own NOS, minus 20 mana and 20 health for you. You use the item oil, and cause the enemy to slide on the slick pavement and crash into a parked car. Victory! You gain 70 gp and 100 exp and find "motor oil". You see, it'll work.
Okay, whatever... right? It's just the same ol' stuff, except some unimportant stuff are changed around. But with this, you can do a lotta cool things with an already accepted system. Developers wouldn't have to waste money on trying out different systems and testing it out to make sure it's fun then changing the whole thing when it isn't. They get to focus on the story and the graphics. You know how some people like to see cool car chases, but aren't nimble enough with their gaming thumbs to be good at racing games? Well, the random battles can be like a racing simulation, but controlled by an AI. Games are supposed to make people feel like they are a part of the action. Programmers can make that part of the action really cool, without making it too hard for players to enjoy it.
Also, with a new environment, the RPG genre would have more ways to innovate. Say you have a basketball rpg game, where positioning matters a lot. If you can make a rpg outta that, future sword-and-magic rpg games would be able to incorporate some positioning ideas in different ways than before.
If the Japanese can make season-long drama's about random stuff like cooking and hair-cutting and architecture, why are rpg's always in the same fantasy world? Here is a system that has withstood the trial of time, but kept away from its true potential. So equip your compiler, cast level 3 haste on your party, and make us a cool game!
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