Plot and Character Feedback

I don't quite know the plot yet, but I'm designing a modern-ish RPG to take place in one city. The -ish part is because there will be a bit of sci-fi and fantasy stuff, but only a bit. TVtropes explains the sort of setting here, if it helps. The game will be a really detailed city, so the environment will be large. A lot of RPGs have many small towns and cities, so I just want to make one massive one with all the trimmings. Cities are varied places, and I want my game city to be the same way. I also want the setting to be sandbox-y, with lots of sidequests to do.

I'm just having problems coming up with a plot that fits the scope of only one city, as most RPG's have a plot that spans a whole world. So that's why i'm here to share what I have so far.

Anyway, the plot idea i'm considering revolves around 3 young women, who are all in a sports club together. One night, all their equipment, as well as the possessions of several other citizens, are taken by a gang. The friends team up to find their stuff, after the police decide its hopeless to find it again. But their equipment has sentimental value, and they figure they're tough as anything. Young people. So the adventure begins to find the equipment, and the plot will eventually give motive to the girls to finish the gang off for good. (I have yet to figure out how this will happen, but it's still early days ain't it?)

The world will be populated with a mix of humans, monsters, animals, and all in between. There will be visible encounters, and I plan on creatures that trigger encounters looking different somehow, probably giving them a red outline or something. The player characters will each have skills based on the sport they play, and there will be a fixed party.

There will also be a quest system in the game, which does what you think it does. This will hopefully encourage exploitation, by rewarding the player to do so. It will also provide the player with a point of reference in case they ever get lost, or stop playing the game for a while and forget what they're doing. (forgetting what i'm meant to be doing happens to me a shameful amount playing other rpg maker games!)

The tone of the game is going to be pretty light-hearted and easy-going.

I'll post more when I think of more, but feedback even now would be nice. :lol:

Some games with puzzles and riddles in the middle of their journey really beats the boredom I get in playing :)

Hello everyone,

I am toying around with an idea:

I want to make a RPG about some monster hunter or monster hunters, like the TV shows "Supernatural" or "Buffy" or "Angel" or even "Ghostbusters" - but in the medieval world or in a medieval like fantasy world. I think the story will start out with only one hunter in the beginning and soon some other characters join. I dont have a plot yet, but i have some very specific ideas.

One thing i want to do is, i want to have a structure like a TV series. The flow of the game is devided into episodes and seasons. Just to throw some numbers around: Maybe 3 seasons with 12 episodes each. But all in one game.

For example when you start the game, you get the titel screen for the first episode: "Episode 1: The Beginning", or something like that. Then the story unfolds, some monster is killed in the end, and then the next episodes starts.

That would make the game a bit linear, and storydriven. I want to use that to emphasise charakter development and the development of the relationships. But i still want to make sure there is enough gameplay in it, like puzzles and battles.

The episodic system gives me one big advantage: i can go wild with themes and ideas. Maybe you remember the musical episode of "Buffy", or the "Angel" episode where Angel is a muppet, and so on. I could make one episode a murder mystery, the next one could a character have a curse and make the episode a slapstick episode - and so on. Also i want to make sure there is no filler episode. Every episode should either drive the plot forward, reveal something, or have character- or relationshipdevelopment.

So i already have some kind of framework, but no specific plot. How do you like my idea so far?

Ok, here's my very general idea - I'm still in the early planning stages, so anything can be changed.

I came up with this probably after playing one too many games where you're the Child of Bhaal, Son of the Chosen One, Prophesized Hero, Bearer of the Light, etc...

You're just a poor (well, not really poor actually) girl who works in the mines and her jobless (boy)friend [going to try to leave it to the player to interpret their relationship]. Their character classes are "miner" and "peasant" respectively. Not the most overpowered classes in the game. By a long shot.

Background: 300 years ago great battles were fought and evil ones were sealed away (Seven Sisters of Shadow working title for now). The Sages prophecized that they would remain sealed for 500 years, and that children of the ones who imprisoned them the first time would fight and defeat them then.

Problem is, one of them woke up early. You get to be messengers bringing the bad news to the Powers That Be. The reactions range from "no, that can't be right, I've got a copy of the prophecies right here, we've got another 200 years before we have to worry about that", to "Well, they haven't woken up here, yet". They will get one "Champion" of the bloodline to join them early on (I want multiple possible party members - a la Baldur's Gate). The second Champion they find has decided to forget adventuring and become a pro surfer, <australian accent> "Look, I'd love to help you guys, but the surf tourneys just started. Come find me when the season's over and if the world hasn't been destroyed by then I'll help you out." The surf tourney, of course, takes place roughly at the speed of plot.

In short, the prophecies were wrong, the "heroes" don't live up to their billing, magic artifacts have lost their magic, and the powers of the world really aren't all that interested or able to fight back. The Seven Sisters have woken up and our party of nobodies and a few somebodies is on the run. Finally, (when they get the airship after a very cool scripted chase scene) they make a key choice: They can either a) lay down and die - and watch the "bad" ending to the game, or B) stand up, strap on some balls, and fight back - and hopefully watch the "good ending" of the game. (and depending on how the pacing goes, this may be the ending point for the playable demo...)

For those who have seen the movie Zulu (and I highly recommend it):

"Why? Why is it us?"

"Because we're here lad, and no one else. Just us."

The world will have multiple religions, possibly different levels of technology and other lore, but that's the meat and potatoes of the story. My wife's a writer - taken workshops with published authors, trying to break into the romance novel scene. Anyway, she tells me that there's really less than a dozen stories that get told - the details are different, you can have multiple stories taking place at once, but ultimately they all boil down to the same few things. I suppose this one stays in the 'reluctant hero' zone... but I'm trying to at least avoid the messiah and other chosen one or valiant hero save the day tropes that these games often feature.

My first thought was actually Lovecraftian, but I don't think that would fly in a cRPG - that's where you start to learn about the evil, then you try to fight back, then you find out more about the evil and learn their plan, maybe fight back some more, and finally realize that the evil is just too strong and there's not a damn thing you can do to stop it (The X-files meta-plot kind of followed this type of story arc).

If I can at least keep in the players mind the possibility that they might fail - despite their best efforts - I'll have achieved one of my goals. That's actually what really hurt Sailor Moon in the US kids version. In the original (Japanese) ending to season one, all the sailor scouts but Usagi die. So for the rest of the series, that possibility is always present. When they changed that in the US version, the rest of the series suffered (and for the record, seasons 1, 3, and 5 are pretty darn good if you watch them in Japanese with English subs).

Mouser, I have to say, I think it sounds great so far. My projects I'm working on now are similar in that it is common people that are the heroes. I like the concept of the two endings and that even if they choose to fight, it may not be a picture perfect ending.

@Karacho - I think the idea can be done (Baldur's Gate had 'chapters' as do many other RPG's).

I think in your case though, your best bet would be to make each chapter a separate 'casual' length game. If you get one that's too short or 'off the wall' theme wise, pair it with another one and call it a collector's edition (the short or crazy one becomes 'Bonus Material').

Four to Six hours and most casual gamers seem to be happy with their purchase. If you can beef it up to ten, you'll have sure winners if the story and character development are up to snuff.

Things you'll have to deal with: Having the same characters for a long time requires several story arcs and lots of character development. That's something most TV shows with professional writers can't seem to pull off consistently. Also the power levels - are these guys getting stronger with every Chapter. If they are, that leads to balance issues. But if they're not, then why aren't they? Shouldn't they be getting better?

i planned each episode to be around 20-40 minutes, so i think dividing the whole thing into different games might only be a good idea if i make one game at least a season long, but then i have the problem that i cant transport the characters that the player already leveled up to the new game

Man I hate to be the last poster of a page.. No one even replied to my ideas.

My main character ends up forming a guild with his party shortly into the game. You start off at guild level 0 and are given a plot of land by someone you helped earlier in the game. Level 1 is achieved by having a small guild hall built. You gain guild levels by expanding the hall by adding rooms and recruiting npcs into the guild(blacksmiths, item crafters, etc)

Each time you gain a guild level you unlock the next chapter of the games main storyline which gives access to new recruitable npcs and higher level quests to obtain funds.

After you max out everything you can do with your humble guild hall you soon come under attack and the hall is destroyed in the battle. This time you build a larger guild hall that fits the size and respectability of your current guild level. It is completely empty though and you must earn levels by filling out the rooms that your previously hired npcs will come work in.

Guild hall benefits:

-A quest board

-Rooms to rest in(no need to stay at an inn in the main town)

-special craftable items only available at the guild

-npcs treat you differently depending on how well off your guild is

-an airship dock that opens a fast travel menu to other airship docks across the world

Possible benefits

-Having more non-party guild members may be able to effect battles and events depending on if you have reached a certain amount(such as outright winning a battle with your guild members and not having to join the fight directly with your party)

Yeah, that always sucks :(

Anyway, I like the first one. You could even do it as an anti-hero story, especially if he keeps undead companions.

@Alcortiza:

I like the first one too, sounds interesting and also the player is instantly on the side of the character i think.

Ok so! I recently got my hands on RPG Maker VX Ace. And well... See, when I got the demo my head was a flurry of ideas and concepts. But now that I actually own it well....not so much any more. Suddenly everything sounds done already or my lack of skill prevents me from reaching the grand images I see. XD

So I've pretty much been just throwing tiles together and allowed a strange idea to slolwy start forming, but it's still really rough and I'm not 100% sure how to go about it.

The plot so far is really simplistic but this is more or less a warm up game to further familiarize me with everything I can do with RPG Maker.

It sounds interesting to me, but it's most likely already been done before.

It's a short treasure hunter's tale taking place on a relatively small island. Centered mainly around a small town, a large castle, and 5 'lost temples' or dungeons or something. The idea is that the town starts out terribly small, poor, and in shambles with very little to do or offer. However with the accomplishment of each puzzle filled dungeon, finding a rare lost treasure of some sort, a quick time skip is imposed as each time you return to the town it's a little more prosperous growing in size and state. Each phase of town growth unlocks new stores and folks who can help you to grow or advance your skills. Well, maybe not YOUR skills, but I'll get to that in a moment. Obviously each dungeon is to be harder and longer than the last requiring you to take full advantage of what the town's folk offer you and your 'team'.

The final dungeon I imagine to be something of a Robin Hood-esque heist in the castle, for the sake of plot development and conflict I figure the town's crummy standing was the result of the nearby castle and whatever ill tempered royalty it may hold. Using your team's many skills and general treasure hunting abilities you take down the generic evil king and bring prosperity to the land once more.

This part of the idea is actually very easy to do even by my lack of skill and ability. Just by using those event things where it checks if you have certain items or tripped certain switches I can change the version of the town the world map sends you to after each dungeon.

The confusing part comes in my idea for battling. I'm sure it's possible, I just don't know how to go about it.

The idea is that the main character doesn't battle but instead gives orders to his two semi-mystical pets. I'm thinking dogs...Though when I think of that idea I'm reminded of those buddhist lion dog guardians that always come in pairs. That being said maybe I should make this more of an oriental setting...I don't think I want to go tileset hunting for other people's stuff though. XD Still, this is posted for outside opinions.

ANY HOW! Back on course. You have two dogs. One is a master of Physical damage, the other Magic damage. Instead of having a simple generic attack they only attack with skills. Either Defensive or Offensive. Which in battle you command each of the pair to do one or another. Offend or Defend. The trick here is that they only have like 5 or 6 skill slots for either command, and when commanding them they randomly chose an attack from this list, some things having a higher chance than others. You fill these slots with skills or powers you recieve by talking to different towns folk as the village grows. My thought is that each person will grant you one 'power' or 'element' or something but this one power can actually result in 4 different 'dog tricks' or moves. Teaching this one element to either dog will result in a slightly different dog trick due to one knowing magic and the other attacking physicaly. This is furthered by chosing if the trick will be taught defensively or offensively.

So...FOR EXAMPLE!

You advance the town a little bit and a Smith from the west moves in. He offers you the element or power of Fire.

--If you give the power to the Physical dog, teaching it to him offensively, it will come out as a quick physical strike doing large amounts of damage to a single foe.

--However teaching this same offensive move to the Magic dog will make more of a slower magic blaze hitting everything on the field for moderate damage.

--Opting to teach the fire move to the Phyiscal hitter defensively would make for more of a stat booster or possibly a fire shield that causes attacking foes to be burned on contact.

--While a defensive fire trick taught to the Magic caster is more like...a different fire shield, one randomly casted on the two dogs that actually heals them if they are hit by fire based foes. You now what I'm talking about.

I can see how this can get complicated, and some times out right annoying in battle. Especially if you go into a dungeon ill equiped. But it seems different which is what I'm shooting for. Out of a list of like 30 tricks, each dog can only learn like a total of 10, 5 for each command of offense or defense. They can be freely added and removed in the village but not the dungeon, and as I said they have to be randomly selected with certain moves having higher chances than others.

I'm sure it's possible it just seems a bit...complicated. Your opinions?

Edit: Actually! After rereading my post as I do...er...when I post. I came up with a more interesting idea that gives you more to do in battle.

Instead of editting their movepool back in town before the dungeon, you 'load in' your skills at the beginning of each battle, or better yet each turn based on what you're fighting your teams current standing in the fight. You load in your roulette of moves and then order them to offend or defend. Obviously you only have one of each move so you have to pick which one to give which dog carefully at the beginning of your turn. AND THEN! Once the turn is done and you have to move on to the next turn, you'll find while reloading their move options that the move they used last is no longer available. Either for the rest of the battle or the rest of 3 turns. Possible they return rate can be effected by armor placed on the dogs. Just random ideas starting to swirl again.

@Day64 I think you had a great idea right up until the dogs.

From your post, I'm gathering that you don't have much coding/software development experience. So scripting probably isn't going to come easily or quickly for you.

This is your first game: KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid. You see a way to change the town - that's a great game feature right there. The idea of money flowing into the town making a difference is another great idea (actually could link into the 'economy' thread that's going somewhere). And you have a general plot.

That's all you need to make a great game. Do those things really well, and get a finished product. Along the way, you'll learn more about the eventing system - which will introduce you to the scripting system, and you'll be ready to tackle some of those challenges in your next game. Then you can worry about magic dogs...

Like I said, odd rough idea meant to be different born from over thinking it and just throwing things together.

Anyhow, my only issue there is if the battle system has no gimmick then the dungeons feel rather generic. Any ideas on how I can use the game's 'treasure theme' to make the dungeons more interesting?

Sure, be sure to give the player plenty of lore and background about the treasure before he heads out.

This way he's not looking for phat lewtz, He's looking for the Tulwar of the Suldam Ari-Halam, that was used to behead the current King's grandfather, said to have a hilt made of solid ivory and a ruby pommel the size of an African swallow. Set some plaques and theme pieces around the dungeons - a few evented puzzles and traps, and the battle system won't be the main focus of the game any more.

Alright, so this is my first idea for an RPG, so I want as MUCH critisisme as possible - anything...even the tiniest little detail you don't like.

So, the game starts off the mayor of your town, and tells you about an ancient prophecy involving an ancient evil and a chosen one (I know thats not very exciting or original, and thats the point...) The player asks the point of being told this, and the mayor confesses that he needs you, the town delivery boy, to go out and retrieve the chosen one, who lives atop a mountain just outside of town.

So, theres some events leading up to the mountain, such as party member/puzzles, etc., and then you confront the "Chosen One" (He'll have a name later on). But once you talk to him, you find out he's an ancient evil, and defiled the cave writings to make it seem as though there was a chosen one, thus making people do nothing in preperation to stop him.

At this point, the player goes to fight him, and looses....

At this point I have 2 ideas -

a)The player falls into a coma for 5 or less years, and everyone thinks he's dead. By the time he wakes up, the "Chosen One" has taken over the world, destroying most of it, and the player must stop him.

or, B) The player DOSN'T fall into a coma, and the "Chosen One" begins destroying everything. The player must collect something (I'm unsure what it will be..I've been leaning towards option a for awhile now)

So, I know it's terrible, but I plan to make other games, just not yet......any thoughts?

@Sephiloud - yes it's an old plot but not necessarily bad (Reminds me of Zelda and Ganon/Ganondorf).

I would go the 'coma for five years' route. Otherwise you have the problem of the character who is clearly no match for the 'evil one' being forced to try to fight him as he destroys everything.

If the 'evil one' is in power, then everything has pretty much settled down and our valiant hero can take his time running quests and levelling up until he's finally strong enough for the epic final battle.

I've spent almost four weeks working on my game and so far I've had a terrible time fleshing out my main character into a unique character both in and out of battle. He's the son of a renowned airship engineer and about to graduate from an academy for engineers and mechanics. I realized I should be building his combat abilities on his engineering skills, this opened up a lot of possibilities and I feel I have the chance to get a grasp on how he's going to fit into the party.

His weapon is part of this magical armor he ends up getting stuck with that can take multiple forms, and the basic form is that which the user is most comfortable with, for him this would be some manner of tool. I've decided to give him a huge wrench to smash things with.

Next I realized the focus of the character should be gadgets. I wanted to make him a support character mainly and this gives me the chance to do in a way that doesn't involve healing magic.

Possible skills:

Barrier gadget: He deploys a machine that puts a defensive sheild over his party for a few turns

First aid-bot:he deploys a floating machine that heals the member with the lowest health for a few turns

Medic bot:a machine that attaches to one member and heals them once per turn for a few turns

Noise warfare:Builds white-noise machines that target enemies and lower thier stats

Faulty cannon:builds a one-time cannon that explodes when used causing minor damage to party

(note-some of these may require machine parts in the inventory to be used)

(skills could possibly be upgraded by spending skill points and parts in a workshop to find better ways of using them)

I'm kinda just grabbing random ideas at this point in an effort to pin down the main character and move on to writing up the main plot. I've never been good at designing main characters.

I apologize ahead of time, I'm not very good at being descriptive in how I state why I like something. It's a curse.

@ Alcortiza

In order: 5, 1, 4, 2, 3.

I particularly liked 5 the most because I felt it had some real depth in it with how the character could be feeling about everything thats happened to it's robotic life. I thought it had some heart.

@DemonLamma

I think the main character you're making sounds pretty good. I don't really many main characters who focus mainly on support. I feel that you should hone in on the his engineering make him own it, partly because that sounds like something his family is good at and also because I think it'd be cool to see technology like that overwhelm a monster.

Alright, so I have this idea for the beginning of a game, and a few plot twists later on...

It takes place in a sci-fi fantasy world. In this world, there are massive high-tech cities that are walled off from the rest of the world, which is comparatively... technologically-lacking. (i.e, the same level of development found in your typical JRPG fantasy setting) The hero hails from one of these cities, but in the beginning of the game is forced to leave, because of a spoilerific plot twist that I'll cover in a minute. Soldiers come to take the hero away, but, with the help of his grandfather, he manages to escape into a waterway which takes him outside of town... quite a ways, actually, to a forest, where he meets a man named Brogan, who takes him in and helps him.

That's all I have so far... I would like some feedback on this idea; I really like it, but I want to avoid getting TOO invested in things being exactly as they are now (rather unrefined, actually) before getting any feedback on it.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post.

This post loves you.