solinear: It''s after the Barbarians because this is now the time of the dark ages (when nothing much was really recorded). This gap gives us the oppritunity to do whatever we really want with the storyline. We could say that aliens landed and no one could really prove us wrong, not like we''re going to do that . Yeah, after they co down and kill the boss of the underworld, they come up, expecting a reward, and they realize that basically everyone is dead. You hear a guy moaning on the ground and he tells you while you were down there fighting, an even bigger [moster, demon, whatever]came out of the ground with and enourmous force. They guy said that he last say them heading torward Greece (or some other big city, still brainstorming) and that you need to go and stop them from taking over Greece. And then the rest of the story i need to think up . This could possibly be a cinema scene.

So, uh... How exactly would I play this thing? Do I assume it''s an RPG? What''s it control like? Do I get a party? Do I build an army? Are there any towns left? Are there any armies left that we might band together with and battle the demons?

The story outline seems allright. The scenario could be a lot of fun.

Anyway, the NPC dialog thing really brings up an issue. What are you going to want the draw and strong points of this game to be? To me, the story seems to be a setup for a game with an indepth combat system, or an old 2D side scrolling shooter. "There''s a whole lotta evil out there, and it''s up to ME to kill it all." In that case NPCs dont matter too much.

However, that may not be the case. I know I played RPGs for a long time because I liked being in the middle of a story unfolding around me. Needless to say, if that''s the angle you''re going for, go after the story and the "intrepid band of idiots" angle, though not necessarrally quite so stereotypical.

What you got now is a decent idea. It all depends on the flesh you put on the skeleton.

Additionally, who trained the character?

Wow, you brought up some great points that I never have really thought of yet. But I can tell you that it is an RPG in 3D, and you can rotate the camera view around your character using the arrow keys. To move you click where you want to go and the character will move there.

For the other comments I don''t really know who is or was training him. Maybe the "Training" could be a tutorial for the user to familiarze themselves with the game interface and how to use certain weapons. For example: If we had bows and arrows in the game, the guy training him would bring the user to a archery range and the user would be able to target practice.

About the NPCs, I don''t exatcly understand what your trying to say, could you elaborate?

I got it... here goes the story:

It's just before what is thought of as the fall of the Roman Empire. You (a Warrior champion follower of Mars) are the captain of the last Praetorian Guard Legions that was out fighting the Barbarians. Your unit returns to find Rome in ruins. During the fight toward the center of the city the majority of your unit is destroyed except for the banner carrier (a Greek famale Paladin from Athens who worships it's namesake) and yourself.

Along the way you pick up a Christian Priest (healer), a visiting Egyptian follower of Isis (a sorceress) and a (Viking) barbarian thief follower of Loki that was going to be stoned to death. Monsters are everywhere. This group has just the right balance of piety, abilities and will to get through the battles, thus building a sort of bond, though tenuous.

You enter the chasm created and fight your way down. Halfway down, you encounter a Knight, follower of whatever evil God you want to choose... he lies (of course) and you take him on to your party. You fight your way down to kill everything you see, eventually what looks like the last big Mob... it dies and the Knight you picked up says that it wasn't the leader of the monsters, it must have gotten away.

From here, you can have the intrepid group of adventurers travel all across Europe, North Africa and the Asia Minor, following the trail of destruction after the main baddie.

You have everything, a solid group that will follow the leader who saved their lives, conflict due to the differing religious views, males and females to brush up against the sexual tensions that might occur... it's *Got it All* man...

Plus you can use this as an explanation for why the Roman Empire fell. Leave most of Asia Minor unscathed and that can be why the Constantine Empire survived... maybe have Emperor Constantine allied with the thing or something like that... catch it in Constantinople. It's even got political intrigue now!!

While I'm half laughing through this post, it's really not a half bad storyline.

[edited by - solinear on April 4, 2002 1:35:57 PM]

I''m not really sure about that story. It''s really good, but it doesn''t really fit in with the original ideas we had. If people think that your variation of the story is better, we may reconsider and make your version the story. We should probably have a website up be the end of the week (Sunday at the latest). Until then we can still brainstorm on this rapidly evolving story. I remember on Saturday we had the time frame of the dark ages and that was it lol.

Don''t use his story. But that''s an example of the NPC thing I mentioned earlier. You have individual people with their own histories, likes, dislikes, etc. The point of that is to make a sort of character centered game, where you play to get to the next point to see what happens to them, or what they do next, or even just to see what cool abilities one of them gets.

That''s your decision though, as far as what you want to do.

Sounds like Diablo

ThoughtBubble: Oh ok, so say that there''s a cave and there''s no light on the inside. Before you go inside one guy says he''s scared of the dark. If you proceed, he will sit this one out. If you look around for a lantern or a torch, he will go in. Is this what you mean ThoughtBubble?

That''s what I was saying, ThoughtBubble was saying that you should be sure that all of the in-game characters have their own backstory and reasons for being there.

At spforge, when creating characters to be used for a pivotal storyline position, we shift our focus and pretend that the player was playing that character. That way, you force yourself to make sure that all his/her decisions make sense, and he/she has a solid backstory that gives him/her a tangible presence.

So ThoughtBubble was saying (I think) that you should not neglect the reality of the other characters. Or, to put it another way, don''t just throw them in there because you think they would be cool (or whatever else), make them real characters in the world.

George D. Filiotis
Are you in support of the ban of Dihydrogen Monoxide? You should be!

While I could care less about whether you use that storyline or not, it covers a lot of stuff.

Who: Where you come from and who you are.
Cast: Who are they in less detail.
Setting: What is happening.
Conflict: Internal (within the group) and external.
Objective: Why you''re playing.

Stick to some basics first, define them and you can flesh the story out as you go along, editing the basics as you need to make them fit a better story.

Commonly you''ll find that one of two things happen, either you end up with something that looks nothing like what you started with or you end up going through so many revisions that you end up right back where you started.