Welcome back Terlenth, the more the merrier! :)


I was thinking about what kind of characters our current setting and plot ideas imply, so I'm going to toss out a few here, feel free to claim one or suggest chages to any of them.


Type of Love: Lust/Casual Sex
Name:
Story Role: The guy on the 'good' side who has bad ethics
Race: Magical
Gender: Male

Appearance: A jock: tall, broad shoulders, muscles, hair shoulder length or shorter, masculine jaw shape, handsome. Maybe lion-like.

Personality:
He is cocky, arogant, and charismatic. Chummy or flirtatious with anyone he likes, he is a bully to anyone who doesn't fit his idea of what a person should be (Skew, Technos). He is largely lacking in philosophy, ethics, empathy, and the ability to look at things from someone else's point of view, as exemplified by his various prejudices and the fact that he doesn't value other people enough to want to have a deep relationship with one. If the PC joined the villain's side, this character would then be his new enemy. If this character's sub-plot went really badly I could see him becoming a rapist or a leader of a fascist movement, but if it went well he would realize that other people have real feelings too and would become more caring and thoughtful, ready to try a deeper relationship.

Abilities: Physical combat and physical magic. Perhaps he's always been bad at healing spells but if he has his epiphany about caring for other people he will suddenly become better at them because now he actually cares about the other person's pain and wants them to feel better.

Purposes: He exemplifies masculinity in the game, how it can be destructive or consructive.



Type of Love: Friendly
Name:
Story Role: Sidekick/Helper
Race:
Gender: Anything other than male

Appearance: Cute, big sparkling eyes, maybe looks like an angel whose appearance especially wing color could change to refect how their plot was going: white/silver metal for innocence, black/tarnished metal for loss of innocence, gold and gem colors for maturity.

Personality: Bouncy and vivacious, this character loves people and is friendly to everyone. She, zie, or it is naive about the fact that people can be mean and evil, and is not very responsible, organized, or purposeful. If this character's subplot went badly they could end up used, abused, or emotionally broken by the evils they had seen, but if it went well they would become more mature and steady, emotionally supporting the other characters, exemplifying loyalty, and adoring their leader.

Abilities: Maybe something involving tinkering, luck, charm, quickness...

Purpose: This childlike character shows that innocence can be a strength or a weakness.

[Edited by - sunandshadow on September 24, 2004 5:12:01 PM]

some more questions:

If there is fighting, what are they fighting against? What is the reason of the fightings? What do the fighting represent? What is the relation between the villains and the protagonists? Why are the fightings done by the player? Are there many others who have to fight the same villain? Whom do the villain affect? Why is the villain important? Important to whom? For whom or what is the player fighting? What is the goal of the player? What is the goal of the villain?


For the philosophical side:

The original design document stated that we want a story that will make the player think even after playing the game. Therefore, the primary goals of this game story is to provoke thought and to entertain.

If you were to provoke the player to think about one subject, what would that subject be? What question would you want the player to think about?

Quote:

Original post by Estok some more questions: If there is fighting, what are they fighting against? What is the reason of the fightings? What do the fighting represent? What is the relation between the villains and the protagonists? Why are the fightings done by the player? Are there many others who have to fight the same villain? Whom do the villain affect? Why is the villain important? Important to whom? For whom or what is the player fighting? What is the goal of the player? What is the goal of the villain?

Oh man, these are hard questions. I can't answer them all because some have to be answered in terms of plot, which I am going to mostly leave to others because hopefully you're better at it than I am. ;)

Let me see which ones I can answer though...

The protagonist is revived/summoned/brought into this world into the middle of an existing coflict, in which he/she is a valuable pawn for some ability of his/hers, probably having to do with being a human, and maybe because he/she is able to learn both magic and technological skills and combine them, possibly becoming a spiritual. So the PC is basically fighting for the right to decide his/her own fate rather than be used by one faction of another.

The villains are the villains because at the start of the game they try to use the PC to further their agenda, with no concern for him/her as a person. The good guys are the good guys because they interfere with this plan and don't immediately have a way they want to use the PC, and they're just plain more friendly, at least at the start. The villains are mainly technos (plus Skew) while the good guys are mainly magicals (plus a spiritual perhaps). So the main conflict probably has to do with the techno mindset and ambitions vs. the magical mindset and prejudices, while the spiriuals are just mysteriously in the background interfering occasionally. This would fit with the idea that the player has to mediate between these two cultures, possibly matchmakering a relationship between a magical and a techno.

Thisis certainlynot the onlyway we could set it up, just the first way that occurs to me. Maybe one of you can think of something better which creates a nice suspenseful overall plot.

Quote:

Original post by Estok For the philosophical side: The original design document stated that we want a story that will make the player think even after playing the game. Therefore, the primary goals of this game story is to provoke thought and to entertain. If you were to provoke the player to think about one subject, what would that subject be? What question would you want the player to think about?

Well for me personally the most important question is the ethics of relationships, but that's probably not the same for you guys, so you'll have to answer this question too. Fortunately an RPG has room for exploring more than one big question. :)

Ok Well here is a generic undetailed outline for an actual design document.

1. Title: <<name here>>

2. Table of Contents

3. Setting
3.0 History
3.1 Details

4. Plot (lists)
4.0 Ideas
4.1 Proposals
4.2 Themes

5. Timeline
5.0 Time period
5.1 Event List
*5.2 Alternate Time Line

6. Adventure Map/Tree
*6.0 Character
6.1.0 Name/Sex/Location
6.1.1 History
6.1.1.0 Place of birth
6.1.1.1 Family Background
6.1.1.2 Past Relationships
6.1.2 Characteristics
6.1.2.0 Attitude
6.1.2.1 Philosophy
6.1.2.3 Morals
6.1.3 Purpose
6.1.4 Features (visual)

7. Concept (drawings and written)
7.0 Art
7.1 Items
7.2 Conversations
7.3 Feature List

*means that there can be more than one inserted as needed.

I have it in Word format and put it on my site so that you can download it and add to it or revise it. If you would add in your changes/addition in red and then send me via email your revised edition I will put them into the original. I will add questions to help guide us in filling in the various sections and if you could think of any questions that need to be asked please feel free to add them in with your submittion.

Link:
Design Document

E-mail:
aokkickass (at) yahoo (dot) com

To get the file just right click on the link and click the "save target as" menu on the popup menu.

Well, once again I have the problem that tripod doesn't like me - if I right-click and save the file I get a file containing a message that downloading the file is not permitted, lol. :P

Anyway, I think we should definitely let everybody have a shot at critiquing this outline before we start stuffing info in it, so I'll just do my revision here, and then 5minute gaming you can respond to my changes and Estok can have a go at it, and Terlenth if he wants... whaoever's still working on this project.

Quote:

Gamedev Writing Forum Collaborative Game Design Document V0.2 revised 9/24/04 Title: <<name here>> Statement of Purpose: <<copy from earler in this thread>> Table of Contents: 1. Features Wishlist 2. Worldbuilding Unconfirmed Worldbuilding Ideas Confirmed Worldbuildng Ideas 2.1-4. Races 2.1-4.1. Culture Of Each Race 2.1-4.2. Biology Of Each Race 2.1-4.3. Concept Art For Each Race 2.2. Magic 2.3. Technology 2.4. History 2.5. Geography 2.5.1-?. Specific In-Game Settings 2.5.1-?.1-?Buidings 2.5.1-?.1-?.1-?Rooms 3. Characters Unconfirmed Character Ideas Confirmed Characters 3.1-10. Name 3.1-10.1. Type of Love 3.1-10.2. Story Role 3.1-10.3. Race 3.1-10.4. Gender 3.1-10.5. Appearance 3.1-10.6. Personality and Motivation 3.1-10.7. Dialect and Speech Quirks 3.1-10.8. Backstory and Personal History 3.1-10.9. Abilities 3.1-10.10. Clothing 3.1-10.11. Weapon 3.1-10.12. Purpose 3.1-10.13. Possible Changes During the Plot 3.1-10.14. Concept Art 4. Theme and Plot Unconfirmed Theme Ideas Unconfirmed Plot Ideas Confirmed Theme Ideas Confirmed Plot Ideas Adventure Tree 4.1. Overall Timeline 4.2. Beginning - - Initial Incident 4.3. Rising Action - - Resolve to Action - - Failed Attempt(s) - - Complication/Reversal - - Further Attempt(s) 4.4. Climax - - Crisis - - Resolution 4.5. Endings - - Denouement (Closure) - - Game+ Beginning 4.1-5.1-?. Specific Scenes 4.1-5.1-?.1-?. Dialogue 5. Gameplay Unconfirmed Gameplay Ideas Confirmed Gameplay Ideas 5.1. Puzzles 5.2. Item System 5.2.1. Inventory 5.2.2. Equippage 5.2.3-?. Use In Different Game Modes 5.3. Combat (if any) 5.4. Level/Ability Increase Systems (if any) 5.5. Money Systems (if any) 6. Items and Objects 6.1. Minor NPCs 6.2. Animals 6.3. Plants 6.4. Equippable Items 6.5. Carryable Items 6.6. Other Items 7. Staff and Contact Info

Well, I must say I couldn't think of specifics and it seems that you did a much better job of it than I did. It's too bad that you can't download the document.

What browser are you using? Cause it works fine with IE. I have already added your revisions to the document and also spieced them up so that it looks half decent. I will see if there is anything that we need to add and if you think of anything then feel free to let me know. When there are a lot of changes to be made we will revise until all those still working on the project are content with the changes to be made and then the document will be revised and another version will be used. When you are able to see the document you'll understand a little more how I am doing things.

Just one quick question Sunandshadow. By overall timeline do you mean the Outline of the story? If you don't I think that an outline of the story should be 4.1 and then Overall Timeline should be 4.2. If you do, disregard the last comment.

5MinuteGaming, I also can't see the pictures that you posted. I am using IE 6.0. Just thought I'd let you know.

Just as a note to characters, I've always had a thing for writing evil characters that are sadistic, etc. And, good characters with a dark past. So if we can incorporate either kind of character in the story line I would love to claim that one. Otherwise, I think I could work on the Sidekick one that you mentioned Sunandshadow.

Thank you for the email 5minutegaming, I uploaded the document to my gamedev webspace so people can access it more easily: The Design Doc Oh, and my web browser is Mozilla.

Quote:

Original post by Terlenth Just one quick question Sunandshadow. By overall timeline do you mean the Outline of the story? If you don't I think that an outline of the story should be 4.1 and then Overall Timeline should be 4.2. If you do, disregard the last comment.

Yes, the timeline is the outline, we can change the name if you think outline is more clear. :)

Quote:

Just as a note to characters, I've always had a thing for writing evil characters that are sadistic, etc. And, good characters with a dark past. So if we can incorporate either kind of character in the story line I would love to claim that one. Otherwise, I think I could work on the Sidekick one that you mentioned Sunandshadow.

We don't have anyone writing the major villain yet. Also I wanted to have a character who is a dominant, as in the bdsm sdistic kind of dominant, you could do that character. Or there's the jaded, wounded character who refuses to get involved in romance because it's a vulnerability... See anything that interests you? What type of love do you want to write about?