I am attempting to create an RPG. Ideas for game mechanics, setting, world building in general all come fairly easily to me. What doesn't is plot. I need some help. I feel like if I can get a good plot idea fleshed out, I can fill out the rest of the story circle, but my attempts so far to build a world and fit a plot into it are dissatisfying at the least. The idea I have so far (very very rough) is that the player is in some area such as a school, or temple or some such, but a magically inclined place. A Rogue Meanie opens a portal into the Nasty People world where all sorts of monsters pour out. The place the player is is quarantined with huge magic walls. The player is trapped and must defeat monsters and close the portal to lift the quarantine to get on with his life. There is obviously room for lots of extension here, such as the Rogue Meanie opening subsequent portals leading the player on a merry chase to go kill him. I'm looking for advise on where to go with this kernel of an idea, and I also need a question answered. Why did he do it? Why did the Rogue Meanie open the Mean People portal? (please, dont just call him evil, I need to find his motivation here.) [Edited by - JasRonq on August 12, 2008 11:43:37 PM]

Maybe he isn't aiming to destroy, but to protect? Maybe he's trying to spare something, or someone inside this temple from whatever is on the other side of these walls?

You, the player, just happened to be on the inside as that happened -- you're the mistake, the unexpected. Maybe the Rogue Meanie's goons have only one order : to protect the special item/character, and this means destroying everyone else?

Maybe, once the misunderstanding has been cleared up, you and the Rogue Meanie can team up to face the greatest threat -- the one on the outside.

Quote: Original post by JasRonq
I am attempting to create an RPG. Ideas for game mechanics, setting, world building in general all come fairly easily to me. What doesn't is plot. I need some help. I feel like if I can get a good plot idea fleshed out, I can fill out the rest of the story circle, but my attempts so far to build a world and fit a plot into it are dissatisfying at the least.

The idea I have so far (very very rough) is that the player is in some area such as a school, or temple or some such, but a magically inclined place. A Rogue Meanie opens a portal into the Nasty People world where all sorts of monsters pour out. The place the player is is quarantined with huge magic walls. The player is trapped and must defeat monsters and close the portal to lift the quarantine to get on with his life. There is obviously room for lots of extension here, such as the Rogue Meanie opening subsequent portals leading the player on a merry chase to go kill him.

I'm looking for advise on where to go with this kernel of an idea, and I also need a question answered. Why did he do it? Why did the Rogue Meanie open the Mean People portal? (please, dont just call him evil, I need to find his motivation here.)

I have no idea on the enclosed thingy stuff, cuz I'm kind of confused. You should determine atleast somethings in there before asking advise on that.

As for why the Rogue..... maybe its where he came from and he's homesick. It sounds bad... but why not?

The enclosing of the area is basically a quarantine to contain the trouble.

How about this... I'll take a bit from cih here...

The world or at the very least, area, is threatened by a falling meteor. The Rogue opens up to his home-world (the bad place with monsters) under the pretense of being homesick, but in actuality, he knows that in that place holds a magical item that can ward off or destroy the meteor that is coming. The reason the Rogue is hiding the fact is because there are factions in the area/world that welcome the end of the world because they believe in some religion or pseudo-religion that announces the coming of apocalypse.

The player, is a person who is a field personnel like an FBI agent kind of thing, is ordered to stop him. The company or order or whatever you wish to call it has been infiltrated by fanatics (or is lead by one) of the religion, which is why he sends the player on the chase. The false reason can be anything, from the Rogue is trying to speed up the process of the meteor so that the company can't find a way to stop the meteor or the Rogue is taking this chance to cause havoc, while the company is finding a way to rid of the meteor.

The player, through his travels, finds hints that the Rogue is not trying to cause havoc or bring the impending doom. In the end, he and the rogue go against the leader of the company to stop the meteor. Or he helps the rogue find the item to stop the meteor.

OH MAN I'M GOOD! >.> Jk, but it doesn't sound too shabby for something that came out of no where and written in about 5 to 10 minutes right?

Though it's going to sound like I'm advertising Tales of Symphonia with all these posts about it, I recommend looking at Sheena from it as a potential inspiration for Rogue.

Quote: Original post by JasRonq
I am attempting to create an RPG. Ideas for game mechanics, setting, world building in general all come fairly easily to me. What doesn't is plot. I need some help. I feel like if I can get a good plot idea fleshed out, I can fill out the rest of the story circle, but my attempts so far to build a world and fit a plot into it are dissatisfying at the least.

The idea I have so far (very very rough) is that the player is in some area such as a school, or temple or some such, but a magically inclined place. A Rogue Meanie opens a portal into the Nasty People world where all sorts of monsters pour out. The place the player is is quarantined with huge magic walls. The player is trapped and must defeat monsters and close the portal to lift the quarantine to get on with his life. There is obviously room for lots of extension here, such as the Rogue Meanie opening subsequent portals leading the player on a merry chase to go kill him.

I'm looking for advise on where to go with this kernel of an idea, and I also need a question answered. Why did he do it? Why did the Rogue Meanie open the Mean People portal? (please, dont just call him evil, I need to find his motivation here.)

There are multiple possibilities for the antagonist's motivation depending on what direction you plan on taking your story.

#1. Your Rogue is actually just the pion of a higher power. In this case he might have relatively little knowledge of why he's doing what he is, he simply performs his duties out of a sense of loyalty or fear toward his superior. This path could lead your orginal baddie into becoming either a middle boss or potential ally.

#2. The Rogue believes himself to be doing the right thing. People are masters of self-deception and can come up with any number of reasons to justify even the most heinous acts. Good and evil in this case become merely abstract matters of perception. Based on your initial setup, rather than asking questions of "why", ask expand instead on "what is he trying to contain and destroy? what is it capable of? and what will happen if it breaks free?" Once the player knows these things the "why" part of generally tends to have answered itself. It doesn't have to be any deep reason, either. People who believe that they're on the side of righteousness tend to be irrational when it comes to personal motivations. Just look at relegious fanaticism if you don't believe me.

#3. Simply put: revenge. This is one of the simplest and easiest to understand motivators for any character. Avenging past wrongs committed against him or someone close to him is more than enough reason to seal off your area and try to destroy everyone in it. Here your main character either becomes the focus of the Rogue's hatred, or he is simply an innocent bystander caught up in the crossfire. People obsessed with vengence tend not to care about the others who happen to get crushed along the way.

Another alternative explanation is that because all of the "monsters" are evil, they exist in a world that is miserable. After all, an evil monster may enjoying killing others, but no one likes being killed. So maybe this Rogue Meanie is trying to escape his world because of how miserable it is and wants to go to a world where there isnt so much evil, but of course he cannot escape his own evil. And maybe the portal cannot close until the person who created it is dead so you have to kill him to restore your world.

Most real-life cases of evil acts can be attributed to a mix of greed, fear, overconfidence, and sheer stupidity. Maybe the rogue wanted to open a portal to a paradisaical dimension, but botched the incantation. Or maybe he read that such a portal was opened in the past to fight enemies, but didn't bother learning what would appease the creatures from the other side. Or maybe he had everything set right, but didn't count on the PC barging in and interrupting the ritual.

The creatures themselves don't have to be evil; they could very easily simply be misunderstood. Maybe they are just counter-attacking what they deem to be an invading force. Maybe they are hypersensitive to magic, and it is driving them insane. SF has dozens of stories about aliens that look evil only because we don't comprehend them at first.

Hmmm. Your basic idea reminds me of a story called:
John Dies at the End

http://www.johndiesattheend.com/