I have a loose idea floating around my mind that I thought I might run past you . You choose your characters side at the outset Holy or Evil. The Evil character endeavours to steal the souls of the Holy players and make them Evil, conversely the aim of the Holy is to free the souls of evil players. By day Evil characters are confined to dark caves, dungeons, dark forests and other nasty places as sunlight causes damage. The Holy players are free to move around bathed in glorious sunlight. The night belongs to the Evil, the Holy are weak from the lack of light they take refuge in the many churches, Abby’s, monastery’s and other holy places. There is no death only conversion with penalty, The penalty or weakening is the reduction of skills the more Holy or Evil you have been the less the weakening. Eg The Holy Knight who has freed many souls would suffer a tiny skill loss if he were converted to an Evil Shadow Knight. But if he were converted back with none or few souls captured as a shadow knight then the weakening penalty would be great very great. The game would be like other games of this genre players hunting and selling gaining skills etc. but as dawn or dusk approached a player would need to move to safer surroundings although hunting at dangerous times would yield higher rewards. There would be no way to communicate between Holy and Evil. I was imagining been crammed in a holy place with clergy chanting to enhance Holy players resistance to the charms of the evil enchanters flying outside. I imagine trying in vain to prevent my friend opening the doors and stepping off holy ground only to see him ripped apart and lost once he did. I imagine the shadow of seasoned necromancer skulking in the hedge row at dawn to take a few easy souls before retiring for the day. I imagine Holy players banding together or shouting for seasoned players to rout the evil from the forest close to the newbie zone. For classes I was thinking that holy were humanoid with horses and technology powerful weapons, skilled archers, devout holy men. Evil would be shape shifting, flying, poisoning, summoning hiding hideous creatures. What do you think ? worth fleshing out ? The name I was thinking: Sanctuary

That could be quite an interesting take on the genre. If you do go ahead and make it (and please do, I''d like to see how it turns out) make sure you don''t punish people too much. If you spend ages building up your holy character with alot of holy skills only to be converted by an evil player and lose all of your skills, I doubt many people would want to carry on playing.

Waow ! That sounds like a great idea ! Don''t give up and get it alive ! I''d like to see that game one day.
Btw i think there already is a game called Sanctuary so maybe you could check if I''m right and in that case, change your game''s name. Just so that in case you become famous and your game is a huge success you won''t be annoyed with law questions.
Good luck on your project.

I can literally see the more powerful players staying out at all hours, cleaning up the lower level characters that they''re still more powerful than in their weakened state.

Unfortunately if you weaken them too much, they''ll be easy meat for the industrious opposing players who are good at stalking and follow them to their hiding spot.

This actualy sounds orgional, propper rpg with a goal and ongoing conflict

quote: Original post by solinear
I can literally see the more powerful players staying out at all hours, cleaning up the lower level characters that they''re still more powerful than in their weakened state.

Which is why you could have divine intervention if someone attacks a significantly weaker player. A bolt of lightning from god, or spontaneous combustion from satan. The effect could be based on how much weaker the enemy is (or if 2 players are taking on 1 of the same level) or how powerful the attacking player is (a very powerful shadow knight would attract god''s attention more than a lowly pawn).

I seriously think this would be a very very interesting game, as long as it has the normal RPG npc interaction, trading and that sort of thing. Great idea.

I think you tap nicely into a very primal concept (dusk and dawn, day and night, fear of the unseen). It sounds like it could work quite well.

I have a gameplay question, though: Wouldn''t you want more severe penalties for conversion of higher characters? It seems to me that this enforces immersion and faction identity. I mean, if I''m a high level holy warrior I''m going to viscerally get into defending my lands and people from the damned, and rescuing those poor, accursed souls. But if I''ve worked my butt off to become this holy warrior and I get shifted into a situation where the game tells me "okay, now you''re evil," then what have I been fighting for? To me, it seems to kill the immersion a bit.

Maybe, if you''re converted, you''re placed in an environment (a hell or crypt or prison) where you have to struggle to get back to your home environment. Treating conversion like an infection, if you can get back in time you can be more easily saved. But if you don''t, then you go from being good / strong to evil / weak and finally (to credit all your hard work previously) to evil / strong. At least this way there''s a real, temporary penalty for shifting sides.

(Btw, I can see a holy knight struggling against rotting flesh and creeping doom... could make for some cool little dramatic transition scenes...)

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Just waiting for the mothership...

In answer to iceman_sas’s suggestion of divine intervention I did this little story:

Hordath seems oblivious to the children baiting him, as a cat would a snake, turning his head skyward he curses the heavens with a hiss. They are out of range, if he were to leave the darkness of the forest his skin would surely blister and peel.

“we must go the day is done” David’s small friends explain running toward the village, “Let me stick the Necromancer, one more arrow ! ”. The day is indeed done, Thorny vines spiral around David’s bare feet at Hordath’s command.

Stepping from the forest with eyes closed Hordath draws a deep satisfying breath of cold damp air, his powers growing with each passing minute. As the last rays of light ebb away, chirpy bird song gives way to scratching, rustling and distant howls of the approaching werewolves for now it is night, and the moon empowers Hordath.

The connoisseur of souls will saver his quarry, his deeply crooked body listening at David’s navel to the very fear running through his veins.

The newly arrive shadow knight seams distant his wrists limp across the horn of his saddle, his stead venting steam from it’s nose.

The Banshee stands one leg relaxed the flat of her hand on the bridge of her nose, smiling at David clutching his cross chanting his best holy chant.
She was once as he, cheerful and foolish, Rosy cheeked and full of life.

But tonight she wails for the necromancer.

Wavinator, I love that idea.

Perhaps resistance to the shadow (or light) could be an attribute or skill you can develop at the cost of other skills. So you could be powerful, but easily converted, or less powerful but it is easier to resist the rotting flesh. It wouldn#t be as simple as that, but you get the idea.


Nice story Nomax.

I know what you mean Wavinator it needs some thought and fine tuning.
upon the fall of your holy knight I would want him to really think carefully about what he believes in, is he truly Holy or is there some doubt, does he relish the battle bathe in the glory of his victories, get pleasure and excitement from his brutality?.
Would he sacrifice himself to join his friends severely weakened from his ordeal? or aim to convert them to his new faith?.

What about a faith meter based on the number of souls converted ? such a scale could be used in many calculations like resistances, strength, movement speed etc and be reduced as the penalty for conversion, loosing faith as it were. Players could even have the option to throw away their faith points and loose faith completely giving them selves to the other side.