This seems like a rather interesting idea!

It looks as though you have enough for a prototype at the moment, so I'll just add one suggestion: instead of having the next character's class be randomly selected, allow the player to choose. The concern that prompts this is that a player wanting to do something specific--try out a new class, unlock an advancement specific to one or another class, simply engage in the gameplay of a particular class, etc.--might end up being assigned another class, and thus end up with a choice: put off/give up playing as they want to, or deliberately kill off the new character.

Of course, you could also provide a "random class" option for players who want it, in addition to the above.

It looks as though you have enough for a prototype at the moment, so I'll just add one suggestion: instead of having the next character's class be randomly selected, allow the player to choose. The concern that prompts this is that a player wanting to do something specific--try out a new class, unlock an advancement specific to one or another class, simply engage in the gameplay of a particular class, etc.--might end up being assigned another class, and thus end up with a choice: put off/give up playing as they want to, or deliberately kill off the new character.

In Rogue Legacy, there is a limited form of freedom of choice, which I think is fitting. Complete control over your destiny might prove a bit boring, but complete randomness misses your ability to make a meaningful choice. What if you end up with 7 different classes, but only 3 are ever presented to you at a new life, and never the one you've just done (in the past 1 or 2 lives)? You'd have to think about the future of the world:

I want an adventurer now so I can discover things that are far off, but then I'll need someone with more "mundane" skills to act upon that knowledge, reflect and adjust... Planning for the future of the world appears to be quite on theme with your concept, and I can really see these "omhfff" moments when one ends up with a "bad draw".

"Damn, I really needed a cook or smith, but I ended up with a tailor, sage and prophet! How can I make this life meaningful is my greater plan for this world?"

In Rogue Legacy, there is a limited form of freedom of choice, which I think is fitting.

Hmm... I think that the disconnect here may be in part that I'm not much of a player of roguelikes (although I'll admit that arka's idea here does interest me). I honestly think, however, that my response to being a "bad draw" would be to simply pick one, kill him off, then get another draw: I really don't like being told "no, you can't have that because the dice say so".

Additionally, I think that I recall watching Let's Plays of Rogue Legacy and seeing cases in which the player was disappointed in the selection available and didn't seem all that invested in that generation's character, moving quickly on to the next generation.

(While not quite the same thing, I have encountered something similar in playing an early version of Bro Force, as I recall: in that game, the player's next character was similarly randomly chosen--and I didn't like it. Again, I wanted to choose which character to play as, since I preferred some over others.)

I think that I'd prefer (relatively) complete control; rather than finding it boring, I think that I'd find a system like that in Rogue Legacy frustrating. However, I may well be in the minority on this, and may not be in the target audience for this game, so perhaps take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Of course, there's always the middle ground option: make it a setting. Allow users to select between three options: hardcore rogue-like, in which the next character is entirely random; Rogue-legacy's mechanism, in which the player selects from a randomly-generated set; and what I proposed above, allowing the player free choice.

Once again, great suggestions here .

I agree that the initial total random mode is not so good as it appears to me 12 hours ago. Thaumaturge is right. There's no fun in getting a random class (less useful at the moment), while there is strategic choice (-> fun) in choose one from the unlocked ones. I would like to avoid the "pick one, kill him off, then get another draw" scenario.

I need to sleep now, but chances are that tomorrow I'll start to type down something for a prototype.

Thank you guys!

I think it sounds like (potentially) a lot of fun, and a good balance between something that feels big in scope but could be implemented.

For the random class thing, here's a possible middle position between random and choosing from unlocks. I figure you'd be reborn as a child anyway and so potentially have some choice in what you become. But you're born somewhere and to someone, and that can serve as a default (you're a smith's son and so you have a potential class right there, no need for further looking) but you can also go out into the world and find some other master. There's a cost associated with that, though -- potentially a lot of time searching for the right master, and that's time without class abilities, without leveling the class, etc.

Part of learning the world (by exploring, through NPC chatter) would be learning where mastery has spread (that all the masters of magic are that one town where the magic obelisk was found recently, but that blacksmithing has already spread over the world except on this one continent, etc.), which would inform your choices of what to be. (I'm supposed to be an animal trainer, but I don't want to be, and all the smiths are far away, but the miners are everywhere and that's good enough for me.)

For time passing, you could set a threshold of movement -- say, moving through five different world chunks is a time unit. So if you move into a new world chunk, and it's different than the previous four unique chunks you were in, time increments. (Assuming square chunks, five would mean that there isn't anywhere you can run in a tiny circle to increment time.)

That's actually a pretty interesting idea; I don't know how well it would work, but it seems very likely well worth prototyping.

I started a set of journal entries to report progesses about the prototype of this thing: here

Thank you guys, you gave me the kick I need