Author Topic: Looking for Ideas! (2D RPG)  (Read 14158 times)

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Offline RavynousHunter

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Looking for Ideas! (2D RPG)
« on: April 28, 2012, 02:18:24 am »
As some of you may or may not know, I've been working on creating a game for some time now, and I've gotten quite a few ideas together, fleshed out the story and such, got some main characters...can't really do artwork because my drawing skills are easily surpassed by a child...

Well, here's some of the ones I have so far.  They're all pretty general, and don't really contain much, if any of the meat of the story, but I can illuminate you guys on some of the bits of it, if you want...

Anywho...

  • Currently, there are 4 categories of player skills: Combat, Magic, Psionic, and Professional skills.  There are also, currently, 30 skills in total.  Also, the names of the skills aren't set in stone, so any suggestions there are always welcome.
  • Combat Skills: Unarmed, Swordsmanship, Fencing, Blunt Weapons, Axes, Polearms, and Ranged.
  • Magic Skills: Evocation, Conjuration, Necromancy, Enchantment, Illusion, Transmutation, and Divination.
  • Psionic Skills: Psychokinesis, Metacrativity, Clairsentience, Psychoportation, Psychometabolism, and Telepathy. (Likely going to change these names...just need good synonyms.)
  • Professional Skills: Healing, Anatomy, Smithy, Tailoring, Alchemy, Poisoning, Stealth, Lockpicking, Speech, and Barter.
  • Smithy, Tailoring, Alchemy, and Poisoning are all crafting skills.  Smithy allows you to create items out of metal, such as swords and plate armor.  Tailoring allows you to work cloth and leather items, such as leather armor and clothing.  Alchemy allows you to create potions imbued with various effects, and is tied to the Poisoning skill as a reliable, self-sufficient way to produce poison.  Poisoning allows you to apply poison to your weapons; these poisons can have various effects like inflicting direct HP damage, causing HP degeneration, inflicting a certain disease, or damaging stats.
  • As of this writing, there are seven total classes: Ranger, Paladin, Monk, Rogue, Psion, Magus, and Warrior.
  • Rangers are similar to their D&D counterparts, being equally skilled in the use of two weapons and in ranged combat, especially bows.  Certain specializations (think, Dragon Age, but somewhat different) will allow the player to focus on archery or two-weapon fighting, or grant them additional abilities while remaining generalists with regard to weapon usage.
  • Paladins are divine warriors, similar in respect to D&D Paladins, who possess some divine spellcasting abilities.  These abilities are expanded upon by what specialization(s) you choose.  No one spec will have all the available spells and such.
  • The Monk is -kinda- like a D&D Monk, typically being trained in a special "Monk school," or what have you, and specializing in unarmed combat.  However, their special ability isn't ki, but Serenity.  From Level 1, Monks have the ability to channel their adrenaline from battle into a force of intense calm and focus for a short period, granting them enhanced combat abilities and reflexes.  The calm in the eye of the storm, if you will.
  • Rogues?  Again, D&D (noticing a pattern, here?).  Specializing in stealth, breaking-and-entering, theft, and "dirty fighting," Rogues are never seen nor heard.
  • The Psion is similar in respect to the Sorcerer from D&D, they have a more limited manifesting (stand-in for spellcasting, will explain later) a Magus, but they can do so faster.  However, they suffer worse effects from Overchanneling.
  • The Magus is the Wizard of this world.  Versatile, powerful, and intelligent, they're your bread-and-butter arcane casting class.
  • Finally, the Warrior is the guy without any fancy abilities or magic, arcane or divine.  They're purely physical characters and receive more combat-related Talents than any other class.
  • Now...why the split between psi and the arcane?  Ya see, in Gideon (the game world, I came up with the name before I even knew they were the hotel bible dudes), anyone can become a mage.  All it takes is study, practice, and hard work.  Everyone is connected to an all-encompassing force, the Ether.  It is from this Ether that arcane power is drawn, and it is this connection to the Ether which psychics lack.  Born severed forever from the connection to the arcane (but not the divine), psychics are gifted with powers created from raw willpower, drawing upon a secondary force within themselves, psi.
  • What is "Overchanneling?"  Put simply, Overchanneling is like putting too much water into a water balloon.  It might make the splash bigger, but it also has a chance of blowing the fuck up in your face.  Any arcane or psionic ability can be Overchanneled, but doing so increases a given ability's mana or psi cost by 50%, and now possesses a 1-in-5 chance of shaving off 10% of your health when your ability accidentally blows the fuck up, while producing only a normal effect, and not the Overchanneled version.

I've got more, but its running kinda late, and I'm pretty fucking tired from a long day at work, so...that's going to be it for now.

I have lots of ideas, but I can't have em all!  You got a comment or suggestion or somesuch?  Put it here!  I'll do my best to respond in as accurate and timely a manner as I can.  I am...curious as to what you guys have in mind...
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Re: Looking for Ideas! (2D RPG)
« Reply #1 on: April 29, 2012, 07:14:05 am »
I know it's probably a little late to change it, due to the nature of a lot of skills and classes, but I would otherwise strongly suggest a setting other than high fantasy. Standard fantasy RPGs are just so overdone and at this point even something with interesting, well balanced and innovative gameplay mechanics will look and feel very generic and bland. Also, good steampunk or dieselpunk rpgs are in extremely short supply.

Offline SpaceProg

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Re: Looking for Ideas! (2D RPG)
« Reply #2 on: April 29, 2012, 09:38:59 am »
How steamy?  Something like FF6?  I may be interested in helping.  I would say with artwork, but my scanner's down and I'm not very sure where my drawing tablet is.  If I find it, I can get back to you.  I've been known to be pretty imaginative with some of my monster designs and ideas on a (now-dead) RPG project a friend of mine was working on.

Offline RavynousHunter

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Re: Looking for Ideas! (2D RPG)
« Reply #3 on: April 29, 2012, 10:20:11 pm »
I know it's probably a little late to change it, due to the nature of a lot of skills and classes, but I would otherwise strongly suggest a setting other than high fantasy. Standard fantasy RPGs are just so overdone and at this point even something with interesting, well balanced and innovative gameplay mechanics will look and feel very generic and bland. Also, good steampunk or dieselpunk rpgs are in extremely short supply.

Well...don't think Faerun or Grehawk...more something between Ebberron and The Witcher.  Yes, there'll be your standard Elves, Dwarves, and such, but it'll be kinda magitech, though not to the (rather silly) extent that Ebberron takes it.  The magitech there is far more practical, like if we, in our world had discovered magic.  We wouldn't make carts with magic, glowy wheels and shit...enchanted and magical tech would serve a concrete purpose.

Also, there'll be something I've only ever seen in Ultima IV, and even then, in a very primitive way.  Surrendering opponents.  If you get a sapient (ie: human, elf, and other intelligent species) foe down to a low enough amount of health, there's a chance they'll throw down their weapons and surrender.  This ties into another system, reputations.

If you allow your foes to surrender, you can bring them in to the guards for a bounty and you'll gain a reputation as being merciful and just.  You allow your opponents to yield, and you only take justice into your own hands when you absolutely have to.  If you kill them, there's a chance you'll gain a reputation as a merciless vigilante...and people will react badly to that, like real people would.  There are other reputations, as well...one for being a philanthropist, a few for how you respond to different dialog choices...  NPCs will react to your reputations, including merchants...

Also, a system of Merits will be implemented.  Kinda like achievements in modern games, except they actually offer in-game benefits in the form of experience and various bonuses, depending on the nature of the Merit itself.  There's a Merit track for slaying Epic monsters (yes, there will be Epic content), one for successfully lying to people, one for being charitable, a small one for reading lots of books...and there's one for taking down bandit camps without spilling blood.  Difficult, but it can be done, and the rewards are well worth the effort.

Finally...there's a Merit track for what is likely the single manliest minigame ever devised: GIANT WRESTLING.  Yes, you can encounter Giant camps...and you can challenge them to wrestling matches.  The more you win, the more the Giants will respect you...they may even offer you their services...
« Last Edit: April 29, 2012, 10:22:16 pm by RavynousHunter »
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Offline Cataclysm

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Re: Looking for Ideas! (2D RPG)
« Reply #4 on: April 30, 2012, 03:28:56 pm »
I'd like to know the storyline. I'm also interested in making high fantasy games, although that is probably never going to happen.

So is the avatar a human, or can you choose other races? Like gnomes and trolls. Or martians.
« Last Edit: April 30, 2012, 03:34:34 pm by Lexikon »
I'd be more sympathetic if people here didn't act like they knew what they were saying when they were saying something very much wrong.

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Offline RavynousHunter

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Re: Looking for Ideas! (2D RPG)
« Reply #5 on: April 30, 2012, 06:07:06 pm »
Hmm...well, the game takes place on the Human home continent, but you've got 8 races to choose from: Human, Elf, Dwarf, Daemon, Orc, Goblin, Vampire, and Gnome.

A bit of background about daemons and vampires...

Daemons aren't those pitchfork-wielding, red dudes down in Hell.  Those are Devils.  Daemons among the oldest races in the world, and they live a very long time.  They're more supernaturally gifted Humans who have an innate resistance to magic and psi.  Think more Sesshomaru, and less Mephistopheles.  Though, unlike yokai, they're not spirit beings or anything...they're mortal like everyone and everything (and I do mean everything) else.

Vampires are fairly similar to Anne Rice-style vampires, more fair folk and less hideous monstrosities.  While, at one time, they were reviled and shunned by all other races due to their evolving to subsist largely on blood (they can eat normal food, but its less nourishing to them), and their general pale complexion and such.  What they aren't are mystical, immortal monsters whose bite turns those its used against either into a vampire or a ghoul.  Vampire law strictly forbids drawing blood (in any manner, not just through biting) from any living, sapient creature.  They're known to take blood from animals, when they need to, but that's more an act of necessity...like eating bugs in the forest when you've run out of proper food.

Vampires can breed, like everyone else, and they die, just like everyone else.  In place of natural blood, all Vampires are taught from the time they enter school (which is mandatory) how to create alchemical blood using a special powder and plain water.  Vampires are very deeply-entrenched in rationality, and while they do recognize the gods above as higher forms of life worthy of respect, they don't worship them, for the most part.

Now, you might've noticed a lot of death talk in this post...and there's a reason for that.  One of the over-arching themes of the game is that everything dies.  Everything must die eventually, gods included.  You see, when a person dies, their essence is given a judgment, they're either sent to Paradise, the Afterworld, or Hell.  Most people end up in the Afterworld, which is fairly similar to the world they left, except nobody gets hungry and such, since they're dead.  However, you don't stay in any of these afterlives forever.  Your time in the afterlife is limited; the better (or worse) you were, the longer you'll spend in your respective afterlife.

What happens once that time's up?  You get recycled.  Your essence is sent back into the natural flow, at that point, it becomes pure again, wiped clean of any memories and such.  Good people are rewarded, neutral people can enjoy life a bit longer, and evil people will get their just punishment, but not for eternity.

What happens should you try and get around this, try to achieve true immortality?  You get tracked down endlessly by a being called the Deathbringer.  It'll find you, it'll get to you, and when it does, it'll kill you.  Oh, and that afterlife?  You just lost that privilege.  You get recycled immediately.
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Re: Looking for Ideas! (2D RPG)
« Reply #6 on: May 01, 2012, 12:24:36 am »
So what happens if the Deathbringer tries to achieve immortality?

Offline Cataclysm

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Re: Looking for Ideas! (2D RPG)
« Reply #7 on: May 01, 2012, 01:00:55 am »
If you'd like I can do some of the artwork for you too. I've always wanted to do artwork for a fantasy piece but am unable to think of one myself.

So what is the setting and timeline? Is there going to be like a "Germanic", "Scandinavian" "Oriental" and "Persian" country in Gideon?

I'm not sure poisoning needs to be it's own skill, it seems simple enough to be a part of alchemy/smithing.

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Hmm...well, the game takes place on the Human home continent, but you've got 8 races to choose from: Human, Elf, Dwarf, Daemon, Orc, Goblin, Vampire, and Gnome.

My idea had Human, Elf, Dwarf, Werecat, Satyr, Ghoul, Troll, and Zmeu. Ghouls being humanoid heyenas. The location you wanted to start off as depended on your race, with come races being assigned to more than one (Humans covered all)

So what happens if the Deathbringer tries to achieve immortality?

Presumably they'd be deathbringed. Or are programmed never to do this.
« Last Edit: May 01, 2012, 01:09:06 am by Lexikon »
I'd be more sympathetic if people here didn't act like they knew what they were saying when they were saying something very much wrong.

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Commenter Brendan Rizzo is an American (still living there) who really, really hates America. He used to make posts defending his country from anti-American attacks but got fed up with it all.

Offline RavynousHunter

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Re: Looking for Ideas! (2D RPG)
« Reply #8 on: May 01, 2012, 10:44:31 pm »
So what happens if the Deathbringer tries to achieve immortality?

Its the enforcer of death, it is the sole thing that cannot die.  Can't kill death.
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Re: Looking for Ideas! (2D RPG)
« Reply #9 on: May 03, 2012, 04:15:09 pm »
So what happens if the Deathbringer tries to achieve immortality?

Its the enforcer of death, it is the sole thing that cannot die.  Can't kill death.

What if you grind a shitload?

Offline RavynousHunter

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Re: Looking for Ideas! (2D RPG)
« Reply #10 on: May 03, 2012, 06:37:43 pm »
Plot Armor.
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Re: Looking for Ideas! (2D RPG)
« Reply #11 on: May 10, 2012, 10:50:54 pm »
This sounds interesting because I've tossed around some ideas for a video game myself, though it started as a conlang project and turned into a conworld project. The theme of my story is dreams and storytelling and fate, and even though it is high fantasy/magitek it does not contain many of the "standard" races, and when it does they are rather... different. Actually, the only "standard" races I can think of right now in that world are Elves and Humans.

So from what I understand your system is kind of like D&D, but the skills a character possesses are more independent of the class, which gives greater variability. I also like the "karma meter" system, because it's not often in a video game when you do anything besides slaughtering all the faceless mooks who get in your way.
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Offline RavynousHunter

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Re: Looking for Ideas! (2D RPG)
« Reply #12 on: May 15, 2012, 12:07:55 pm »
Actually, I dislike the idea of a "karma meter" in the traditional sense, re Fable.  Its just...too simple.  A person's good or evil should be more than just a simple, sliding scale between the two; we've all earned different reputations, be they positive or negative, that contribute to the overall picture of our...alignment, if you will.  There are lots of individual pieces, pieces that are missed by games like Fable because they just focus on the big picture.

If you want an example of what I'm talking about in action, I suggest you pick up a copy of Fallout 2 and play for a few days.  You'll notice, in your little character sheet thing, that as you play, you earn different reputations that make NPCs react differently to you, sometimes.  There's also a general karma counter thrown into the mix...best of both worlds,  if you will.

Also, yes...originally, Reign was designed to be a game built on the d20 ruleset.  And, while making a game off an established set of rules simplifies things a bit...I find that designing your own rules gives your game a life of its own, even if its an "inspired by" kinda deal.

Your class does have a set skill selection, but you also get to choose your own additional skills which start with an extra few points, to give your character more personality other than "generic DPS warrior."

I also want to implement a New Game+ system.  You get to keep your character, his levels, his stats, skills, equipment, and pretty much everything except karma and reputations (maybe, I may preserve them, too), and you can play over again on the same or higher difficulty, but not lower (so, you can't go from Hard to Normal, but you can go from Normal to Hard).  The quests, random encounters and such get a challenge boost, as well, and you also get a treasure level boost to compensate.

Also, the level cap increases if you increase in difficulty, +5 for each difficulty level you go up, in addition to the level cap bonus(es) you'd have gained had you started on Easy.  Of course, these are only one-time bonuses, and you don't get any extra for starting a New Game+ game that -was- on Deity (Ultra-Mega Hard) that can only be played on Deity, as its the highest difficulty level there is.
« Last Edit: May 15, 2012, 12:17:15 pm by RavynousHunter »
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Offline Cataclysm

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Re: Looking for Ideas! (2D RPG)
« Reply #13 on: May 15, 2012, 03:14:01 pm »
I may be interested in helping.  I would say with artwork, but my scanner's down and I'm not very sure where my drawing tablet is.  If I find it, I can get back to you.  I've been known to be pretty imaginative with some of my monster designs and ideas on a (now-dead) RPG project a friend of mine was working on.

If you'd like I can do some of the artwork for you too. I've always wanted to do artwork for a fantasy piece but am unable to think of one myself.

I'd be more sympathetic if people here didn't act like they knew what they were saying when they were saying something very much wrong.

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Offline Yla

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Re: Looking for Ideas! (2D RPG)
« Reply #14 on: May 16, 2012, 06:47:44 am »
Actually, I dislike the idea of a "karma meter" in the traditional sense, re Fable.  Its just...too simple.  A person's good or evil should be more than just a simple, sliding scale between the two; we've all earned different reputations, be they positive or negative, that contribute to the overall picture of our...alignment, if you will.  There are lots of individual pieces, pieces that are missed by games like Fable because they just focus on the big picture.
You do realize that the afterlife setup you described earlier is isomorphic to just such a karma meter?


I'm also not sure whether immediate reincarnation is a good consequence for trying to evade Thanatos. While I personally am annoyed by the cliche that people who strive for immortality are always immoral, for such people that would be a sweet setup: this way they're evading a stay in hell.
« Last Edit: May 16, 2012, 06:59:09 am by Yla »
That said, I've stopped trying to anticipate what people around here want a while ago, I've found it makes things smoother.
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