Eschalon: Book II Peek #1
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Gamers who have played pen and paper RPGs might recall that every Game Master seems to enforce his or her own set of sub-rules, for example whether or not to require that characters must eat during the adventure and therefore must carry a suitable supply of rations with them. With Book II, we've implemented a similar system of allowing a customizable set of rules that can be chosen before the start of each game. Each rule imposes a unique set of restrictions, allowing the players to make the adventure as challenging as they prefer. The tradeoff is that the more demanding they make it, the more the system will reward them with bonuses to the quality of random loot, additional experience points, and a higher rank at the end.
The purpose of these rules is to offer dedicated players an additional level of realism (such as requiring that their characters eat and drink), or to help those who suffer from "Loot Farming Obsession" (randomize item drops can be based on a preset seed so it's not feasible to reload for new loot), or even just to add a challenge for the hardcore (loading and saving games are governed by certain conditions).
The key factor to all these new rules is that they are optional, and any or all can be disabled, resulting in a game that plays essentially identical to its predecessor. his was a fundamental design requirement for the Book II development team: allow players to ignore the rules that they feel would cripple their enjoyment of the game.
