Some Little Things to Love in RPGs, Part One

Richard Cobbett’s latest contribution to Rock, Paper, Shotgun isn’t one of his usual editorials, but instead a gallery that attempts to point out some interesting and often overlooked aspects of RPGs he’s played throughout the years. We’re not necessarily talking about mechanics (though there’s some of that), but also little easter eggs and even, at times, endearing oversights from the developers. Here’s an example, out of Heimdall:

Okay. If you were around in the early 90s, this one isn’t that obscure, but that being said, we’re talking 24 years ago now. That creaking you feel is in your old, old bones. Heimdall is the only game I can think of where the character creation was more famous and beloved than the actual game, and not just because the actual game wasn’t all that good. It was an isometric RPG with some cool ideas, including first person cartoon fighting, and some awful ones, like drop-pits and traps everywhere, in which you play hero Heimdall in a quest to find and return the gods’ missing weapons. But almost nobody cared about that. Even the demo instead opted to focus on the character creation system, which involved playing three games to set your stats. The first and most famous was throwing axes at a young maiden’s braids. The second involved catching a greased up pig. The third was fighting against some other vikings. Success determined which characters would be available for the actual quest, which nobody cared about. Likewise, nobody cared about the sequel, simply called Heimdall 2.

P.S. : If for whatever reason you don’t understand Cobbett’s reference in the Eye of the Beholder section of the gallery, do yourself a favor and don’t google it. At the very least, don’t do that with SafeSearch off.