The next big thing in role-playing will be powered by Pragma
February 15, 2024There was a moment when I began to doubt my approach to role-playing Lilly Peacock. The doubt bubbled up maybe 20 minutes into an hour-long play session of Lightforge Games‘ still-early-in-development, still-unnamed social- and narrative-driven RPG.
Peacock, my character, brutally backstabbed a potential ally, and then (somewhat ineptly) parkoured his way across a graveyard toward another enemy—only to bounce into a candelabra and set himself ablaze. It seemed like everything was going wrong.
But then Lightforge Games CEO Matt Schembari, our game’s Guide, indicated a clutch of enemies staring at Peacock in disbelief—and pointed out that I could set them on fire.
It was a perfect example of how a tabletop game that lives in the players’ imagination and is guided by another person can go unexpected places that no computer-based RPG can, no matter how many options the developers program.
More importantly, it shows how game development is evolving. Where once graphics defined what people looked at and played, these days there’s increasing interest and focus on how well a game handles its online experiences.
