Games that involve pen and paper

[InvertMouse]

Hello folks :). Last year, I finally played through this old FPS named Hexen, and I loved the experience thoroughly. The game has a lot of puzzles that are related to one another, so I ended up jotting down notes as I played. It felt great to write down an observation, then cross it out later after I manage to solve a particular puzzle.

A few years ago, I also played through this game called Etrian Odyssey IV. The game has a digital map that you can draw out as you explore the dungeons, which was pretty fun. Just the simple idea of discovery. I figured it the digital map did not exist, and you have to painstakingly jot out the dungeons on paper, there might be something rewarding to that as well.

Have you ever played a game that forced you to use pen and paper, and you got a rewarding experience out of it? I also wanted to see if there are any other games like Etrian Odyssey, where you have to draw out your own maps. I figured it might work for those dungeon crawling VNs, but maybe it is too hardcore for a broad audience.

Thanks :)!

 

[Satsuki]

Yes, Fallout with their terminal hacking

For anyone who doesn't know the game, when you attempt to hack a terminal, it will give you a list of "possible passwords". When you choose one, it will tell you how many letter in that word is the same and in the same position as in the right password, but not which one. You, technically, only have 4 chances, so you will have to note down the ones you have tried and compare with the rest to figure out the right one.

[tahu157]

I never got very far in the game, but I remember taking notes in 999.  'Specially for the triangle code in the very first room.

[mjriedstra]

I had a massive sheaf of notes and hand-drawn maps trying to play through Wizardry 7: Crusaders of the Dark Savant about 20 years ago. There was no such thing as Gamefaqs or IGN at that point. The only way to "cheat" was to buy an official guidebook and walkthrough at the store and I didn't have the money to do that back then.

One of the most interesting features of that game was the ability to "talk" to NPCs by directly typing in questions. Figuring out which key words would trigger hidden conversation options was amazing for the time and also made me lose hair. I spent days solving the puzzles by going around, keeping track of every special word mentioned in the story and parroting them back to as many NPCs as possible to search for clues. To this day it's one of the most memorable and frustrating gaming experiences of my life.

[joehawks12]

Yes, Fallout with their terminal hacking

For anyone who doesn't know the game, when you attempt to hack a terminal, it will give you a list of "possible passwords". When you choose one, it will tell you how many letter in that word is the same and in the same position as in the right password, but not which one. You, technically, only have 4 chances, so you will have to note down the ones you have tried and compare with the rest to figure out the right one.

actually, you get more than 4.  there's brackets throughout the word list that can either refill a used password guess or remove one of the words from the list.  And while i have played games that i could use pen and paper with, i generally don't, relying on my own cognition to see me through the game.  playing adventure games like that really helps sharpen your wit.

Edited October 20, 2015 by joehawks12

[Satsuki]

Yes, Fallout with their terminal hacking

For anyone who doesn't know the game, when you attempt to hack a terminal, it will give you a list of "possible passwords". When you choose one, it will tell you how many letter in that word is the same and in the same position as in the right password, but not which one. You, technically, only have 4 chances, so you will have to note down the ones you have tried and compare with the rest to figure out the right one.

actually, you get more than 4.  there's brackets throughout the word list that can either refill a used password guess or remove one of the words from the list.  And while i have played games that i could use pen and paper with, i generally don't, relying on my own cognition to see me through the game.  playing adventure games like that really helps sharpen your wit.

Well, that's why I said "technically". Those brackets are totally random, meaning sometimes you will get zero bracket in a very hard terminal.

And if you really want to challenge yourself, don't use refill or dud removing

[Zebhra]

 

 

I'm writing down a lot of stuff in games i play (mostly recipes and a needed resources.  However in some quest-like games there are some puzzles with words and numbers, which is a bit hard to have in mind all the time, so i write them down too....the most obvious one would be The Secret World...which is considered MMO but i played it as a single and had a lot of good time

[InvertMouse]

Thanks for the responses! Zebhra, wow, whatever that game is you are playing, it looks pretty awesome :3.

[Flutterz]

Yes, Fallout with their terminal hacking

For anyone who doesn't know the game, when you attempt to hack a terminal, it will give you a list of "possible passwords". When you choose one, it will tell you how many letter in that word is the same and in the same position as in the right password, but not which one. You, technically, only have 4 chances, so you will have to note down the ones you have tried and compare with the rest to figure out the right one.

Really, you use paper for that?

I do sometimes do checklists when there's crafting involved, just so that I don't have to keep checking what the required materials are.

[Satsuki]

Yes, Fallout with their terminal hacking

For anyone who doesn't know the game, when you attempt to hack a terminal, it will give you a list of "possible passwords". When you choose one, it will tell you how many letter in that word is the same and in the same position as in the right password, but not which one. You, technically, only have 4 chances, so you will have to note down the ones you have tried and compare with the rest to figure out the right one.

Really, you use paper for that?

I do sometimes do checklists when there's crafting involved, just so that I don't have to keep checking what the required materials are.

At first, yes.

Now, nope, I'm pro

[Scorp]

999 and its sequel VLR involve writing down combinations (especially VLR, as this is 50-hours game and you have to input all the passwords you collected through the game). But game have built-in notebook, so you can just write on DS screen with stylus, so technically no need for real pen&paper.

[kingdomcome]

Yes, Fallout with their terminal hacking

For anyone who doesn't know the game, when you attempt to hack a terminal, it will give you a list of "possible passwords". When you choose one, it will tell you how many letter in that word is the same and in the same position as in the right password, but not which one. You, technically, only have 4 chances, so you will have to note down the ones you have tried and compare with the rest to figure out the right one.

Oh man... I never understood how it worked and just failed miserably. I am hopeless at these games.

[Jason_OCE]

Two games did it for me.

1. Papers, please

Writing everything down made it kinda easier to track.

2. keep talking and nobody explodes

A LOT of information needs to be printed off, but can be written down I guess.

[Turnip Sensei]

I really like make notes about everything and I can process my thoughts much easier when I wrote them down on paper, so if a game has slightly more challenging puzzles than normal I have notes for it. 

But there's one game that made making notes really fun; La-Mulana. It's like metroidvania with the focus on puzzles, but also with archaeological elements. The environment of the ruins contains hints and guidance itself, it's very important to pay attention to the surroundings and carefully examine everything. There are hints in the murals on the walls and some puzzle solutions can are tied to ancient legends and poems of the game's own mythology. There are stone tablets scattered around the whole ruins containing information about the history of the ruins and also hints about the puzzles, but often these hints are riddles on their own. Figuring out what puzzle the hint concerns is a puzzle in itself. 

For La-Mulana, I have a full note book filled with hints and information, deciphers for symbols and runes, my own interpretations for the riddles and hints and so on. It's so satisfying when you finally found an answer to a puzzle by going through your own notes and finally connecting the dots.

[Valmore]

Planescape: Torment. Mapping the Modron Cube Maze was the biggest pain in the butt ever, but if you didn't do it you were sceeeeerewd.