I like your idea of simple clean gameplay. I agree that you don''t need complicated AI driven NPCs. Just make them pawns for the player to control.

And like pawns, they can interact with other pawns. Being captured or whatnot. It probably also means making a limted set of interactions to cover the conversation mechanic, though you can gloss it up and add a few player chat screens to keep the people connected.

What if, you used a single/multiplayer game type like alot of RPG''s you level up in single and then kick butt in multi. i think you should up yourself with information and then share it with your group in multi. as for for plot what if you had your group be a third party in world politics kinda like hired goons to the highest bidder and took jobs they had to build up into finding this "treasure". i also dont think it should be a treasure but more of like a stolen piece of equipment or information that cant fall into the wrong hands? i dont make i just yell my ideas at people who do ~OasisSquall

What if, you used a single/multiplayer game type like alot of RPG''s you level up in single and then kick butt in multi. i think you should up yourself with information and then share it with your group in multi. as for for plot what if you had your group be a third party in world politics kinda like hired goons to the highest bidder and took jobs they had to build up into finding this "treasure". i also dont think it should be a treasure but more of like a stolen piece of equipment or information that cant fall into the wrong hands? i dont make games i just yell my ideas at people who do ~OasisSquall

Berlin during the Cold War would be a great game world for this.
Most importantly, and this goes for all game developers, do
your homework, I read a lot of posts and I''d love it if
everybody would learn something about the subject of their game.