OK, let's recap:
• There's nothing inevitable about Tank/Healer/DPS or Defender/Leader/Striker/Controller.
• You can't find good examples of those roles in the fantasy literature that inspired D&D (and thus MMOs). You can't find it in comic books or Star Wars, either.
• Tanks emerged because early D&D created a popular class (the magic user) that could not survive under ordinary circumstances.
Which brings us to...
Whither Healers?
I'll be brief here, because the healer role grows from the same root as the tank role, only more directly: Gary Gygax's simulationist streak.
The simulationist in Gary followed a very reasonable line of thinking: If you get stabbed nearly to death, it should take you days or weeks to recover.
What could be more reasonable than that? It makes perfect sense. But as anyone who has run a long-term campaign knows, long recuperation times can be hell on the ongoing narrative. It's no fun to clear out half a dungeon, then come back after a few weeks to find that the dungeon has realistically been reinforced.
It's worse if some players need to recuperate, but others don't; that's a recipe for splitting the party. And those long recuperation times wreak havoc with any sort of time deadline before the Great Evil Event happens. As a DM, you want that tool in your toolbox.
And it's just as bad on the NPC side. It's not exactly good drama for the PCs to nearly beat the Big Bad Evil Guy, then retreat, then come back a few days later and stab him as BBEG lies there in a hospital bed.
Gygax-the-simulationist wasn't going to allow unrealistic natural recuperation. But if magic is involved, then verisimilitude isn't threatened and all is well, right?
Thus, the cleric: A class that's mandatory not so much for in-battle healing as for its plot-saving fast recuperation. Even a single cure light wounds each day means vastly less time in the village and away from the action.
That's why for 35 years, having a cleric was pretty much mandatory (and even in 4th edition, having a leader makes life a lot easier). Without that healing (or a small fortune in consumables), you ran out of hit points, and then you ran out of fun. You had no other way of getting those hit points back quickly--in combat or between battles.
Gygax's desire for realistic natural healing yields a class (the cleric) that becomes mandatory because it keeps the plot from grinding to a halt for hospital time. MMOs pick up the healer role when they pick up D&D's role differentiation. And bingo! We have another role that seems like it's always been around, but really it's just rooted in a simple but profound design choice made back in the '70s. Had Gygax said, "Screw it--you get your hit points back after a turn (10 minutes) resting," you wouldn't have your leader role today.
Next: Alternatives.
Out of Context: It is indeed considered disrespectful to climb me.
Music: Ba Cissoko, Electric Griot Land
Dave,
ReplyDeleteIt is great to see you back here and see read that you are working. Will you be at PAX next week...would love to meet the dreaded DM in person after listening to all those podcasts.
Hi Dave,
ReplyDeleteVery glad to see you blogging again - I was a huge fan of your D&D work and your articles, posts, and podcasts on D&D design, and was deeply saddened to see you and WOTC part ways.
Also wanted to mention that our group's just finished playing your Scales of War adventure - Rescue at Rivenroar - and had a great time. There's a write-up of our experiences over here: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=458302. Thanks for writing such a fun adventure!
Re: roles. I'm fascinated at how the tank/DPS/healer trinity is such an ingrained concept in MMOs. Like you say, there's nothing inevitable about it, but it's ubiquitous.
I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on the DPS role. I've got a theory that they're actually a bad idea in combat-oriented games (like most MMOs) where the measure of success is - basically - dropping monsters. It means you have one role whose job it is to be really cool at the game, and a load of other roles whose job it is to help him look cool. The healers and the tanks just don't get such strong visual reinforcements for their efforts - a bar goes up, or a monster's over here rather than over there. Neither of which is as powerful as a monster being hacked down in a storm of red pixels.
Huh... as in the striker, in combat, is really the only PC role? Interesting.
ReplyDeleteCould an MMO be built or an RPG where the support roles were NPC's and the strikers were PC's. Maybe a mechanic like D&D 4e beast companions or summoned creatures?
The support roles being NPCs is a really interesting thought - I'm actually *more* interested in the support roles than the DPS, though, so it wouldn't be my preferred route. I like doing party support or defence, I just do so while harbouring a deep and bitter resentment agianst the glory-hogging striker primadonnas. :)
ReplyDeleteThe obvious solution seems to be "remove the DPS role". In D&D, at least, all the other roles do damage anyway, they just do it at the same time as doing other stuff. If there's no devoted striker, everyone gets to contribute to the "point" of the encounter (putting the enemies down) and everyone's roughly equally effective at it. So everyone gets a decent shot at the reinforcement of an enemy dropping and they get it while also fulfilling another role.
This is so different from my experience.
ReplyDeleteIn the games I’ve played in, clerics have been just as important for their combat, support spells, and turning as for their healing spells. (Not to mention their ideas. What the player brings to the table is usually much more important than the character’s abilities.) The D&D magic system pretty much guarantees the cleric doesn’t have much healing capability.
(Likewise, I’ve always been surprised when others say the clerics in their games cast essentially nothing but healing spells. That’s so foreign to me.)
The trade-off between taking time to heal versus allowing the bad guys to operate unchecked has always been a big source of tension/drama rather than a hindrance to the narrative. And we’d rather go out with less-than-max hp than without the whole team. Missing some hp is one thing; missing an entire team member is a much bigger disadvantage.
(Though, I’ve happily house ruled healing time before. Hp are abstract, so I don’t think any particular hp-recovery rule is any more logical than another.)
And to Chris: I don’t play any MMOs, but it seems to me the issue would be less the existence of the “DPS role” and more the lack of more varied goals. Combat shouldn’t always (maybe not even mostly) be about dropping all the opposition.
Basically every point you make boils down to "I can't DM very well and my players couldn't cope if I did because they're so used to it".
ReplyDeleteIf you need to stop the bad guy(s) and can't afford to get bed-ridden for four weeks, then don't get the hell beaten out of you.
Even on the small scale of an adventure with a cleric in the party, needing healed is a time-resource issue. If you can't afford the time, find another way to your goals.
"It's no fun to clear out half a dungeon, then come back after a few weeks to find that the dungeon has realistically been reinforced."
That's just pathetic, frankly. Of course it's not bloody fun! Doing a half-arsed job and making a mess of it isn't supposed to be fun. The fun is in getting it right and clearing the dungeon properly so you don't have to come back in a few weeks. The fun is in the satisfaction of being competent and overcoming an actual challenge instead of the DM or the system handing you your wish-fulfilment on a nice plate.
"It's worse if some players need to recuperate, but others don't; that's a recipe for splitting the party."
Aww, diddums. Maybe the players should show a bit of imagination and have multiple characters to play and layer the interactions of the party in more complex ways.
"And those long recuperation times wreak havoc with any sort of time deadline before the Great Evil Event happens. As a DM, you want that tool in your toolbox."
Because, as a DM, you've got a story which HAS to play out exactly as you thought of it in the bath? Bullshit. Players can't hack it, the bad guy wins. Then maybe next time they'll do a better job of playing their characters (characters-not "roles").
"Gygax's desire for realistic natural healing yields a class (the cleric) that becomes mandatory because it keeps the plot from grinding to a halt for hospital time"
Played 1e for 8 years without a cleric. Of course, we didn't play with a pre-destined "plot" either.
Things we also didn't have or need: Tanks/Healers/DPS or Defenders/Leaders/Strikers/Controllers.
We had characters instead, and we role-played instead of playing imitation computer games.
I lie, of course. I mean "we play" and "we have". Advanced Dungeons and Dragons isn't hard to find and it is infinitely superior to WotC's fake versions, despite having many flaws it is at least a good idea which is more than can be said for the work of hacks like yourself.