Editing VTNL (section)

==Roleplay==

First of all, just so you know what kind of a time you're liable to have, VTNL considers role-play - you know, the thing that takes up two-thirds of the term "Role-Playing Game" - as being entirely optional.

<blockquote>
“Roleplaying in the game is not a core component. Player can freely choose to formulate character's persona and the only thing that has minor impact on this is the player's chosen race. The roleplay and the immersion in the game world depend on player's style only. Innovative mechanics in VTNL generate adventures on their own and almost completely exclude any form of "GM's fiat". Nobody among participants knows what will happen next, which makes the game more exciting and compelling.”
</blockquote>

Second, VTNL has less mechanical flexibility than an exhumed corpse. It's the kind of game where both the GM and the player literally can't do anything creative unless the rulebook has it in ink. Want to steal something in a shop? Fuck off with you and your interesting ideas! Want to visit a living district and, oh I don't know, speak with the locals and have some kind of enriching RPG experience? Nope, you can visit only specific areas, and talk to specific people in a specific way. Want to give players an interesting item as a reward? Nope, you can't, ''even if you are the GM''! Various examples in the book with not tongue-in-cheek but middle-finger-in-a-butt humour only confirm the fact that the author somehow managed to dumb the tabletop roleplaying experience down to the level of a primitive roguelike. NPCs are never anything more than vending machines or glowing quest icons, monsters are only ever meant to be murdered with extreme prejudice, and items with locations are dictated by various tables called Registers instead of organically introduced into the game by the DM.

The game's ''rich'' character creation process is just as uninteresting. The player chooses their starting class (Warrior, Berserker, Athlete, Archer, Knight or Defender) and [[What|''may'' choose a race]]. Each class grants bonuses to three out of eight attributes:

* Attack – proficiency in melee weapons.
* Strength – physical power.
* Archery – proficiency in ranged weapons.
* Dexterity – mobility which affects movement, combat initiative and wielding of some weapons.
* Defense – ability to dodge physical attacks.
* Vitality – amount of hit points.
* Wizardry – proficiency in spells.
* Spirituality –  amount of magical power (mana, anyone?).

Since the book states that magic isn't quite there yet, this means only six attributes make mechanical sense. The player may take up to two classes during the game, but he can't change them. Each level will increase a character's attributes according to chosen class(-es). That's all the character's progression has to offer. Additionally, up to eight of Riding, Fighting, Special and Utility skills can be learned in cities, but only once per city. Skill can be levelled up with PTD points (the rules don't bother to explain what PTD stands for) or by using one-time guidebooks. I think your character simply eats them instead of reading.

But VTNL is an innovative game, remember? So, each character has birthday date and on this one day, he can gain (3d6+2)*10 experience points along with 1 PTD. Also, a character may have Followers, which also have birthday dates, attributes, skill, experience points, and inventory that you gotta keep track of. See, innovations!