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Role Playing: Where should I Start?
Author
Possible Main Character(s)
John Doe [generic name because I still cannot think of a name]
Starts of as a shy man, John does not want to face the war that everyone else has been taking about. Always hiding from the battles whenever they occur, until one day his friend drags him to watch the battlefield, actually a nearby town was under attack. John sees the blood-lust of the Shrouded Knights slaying the Orders of Antaloon. Struck by shock, John stood there for three straight days the battle lasts ending with the raze of the town.
Jane Doe [generic name because I still cannot think of a name]
Graduated from University of Psychotics at the age of ten, Jane goes on a quest to experience her new ideas. She does not realize the real world is different from the books she read and now she has to fight up with the changes and learn how to implement her education into this harsh world.
Background story. [At first I wanted a fantasy, but now I change to scifi.]
The years were lost. No one know which year it is after the Great Bio War. Biological weapons destroyed the entire world, and now in a distant galaxy Meleegyna, humans are struggling to survive. Several new Orders form trying to take over this new world. Many leaders created their own religion and their own Gods in attempt to get new followers, but one side was able to force all other sides to be neutral with them, the Order of Psychics. No one dare to oppose this Order because the Order of Psychics have the greatest researching scientists as well as the largest capital great enough to create another Great Bio War.
The leaders of the Order of Psychics were once the defenders of the Great Bio War. They were trying to create an ultimate defensive virus that can increase the human immune system to perfection but information were leaked out by "The God," a well know professor whom secretively initiated the Great Bio War as well as hiding in the opposing side. The rampage of The God's virus strain 3691b eat up all the resources of Earth filling the entire planet. The solar expansion was about to occur and the evacuation of Earth has already started for a few thousand years. The news spread, and traitor The God was punished locked onto Earth.
The "special tech" of the soon to become Order of Psychics was not able to upkeep the decreasing water supplies. Desperate to become the last man on Earth, The God initiate the Great Bio War.
One hundred years after the Great Bio War, solar expansion occurs. The sun expanded to Jupiter absorbing all matter in that space.
Self Thoughts
The background story is still not organized and ideas are not fully set.
The near current background story needs to be form.
Ideas always come from random thoughts. I hope I do not violate any copyright rules as of yet, or else I have to search around and change the names of those ideas.
This story will be link with this game design:
http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=542471
Edit:
It's redundant but oh well:
SCIFI TECH [Version 1.0] July 30, 2009
A new technology exist, known as the ISC, Intercept Surround and Convert, is an anti-nuke tech. With this technology, and anti-nuke is first sent out to Intercept the nuke and explode the nuke midair. The second stage involves surrounding the explosion to the smallest possible volume. The third stage involves converting the radiation to matter. 11.25 kiloton TNT equivalent = 1 gram of matter at absolute zero.
Special Tech of the Order of Psychics is a technology that allows efficient energy to matter conversion. This system collects external energy to convert to matter instead of using its own powering energy, getting the efficiency similar to heaters.
Now, I need a background on the development of these two technologies.
Edit:
The time period of the game exist when the Y chromosome does not exist anymore.
Edit:
The evolution of this time period leads to the ability of a person to chose their own sex, as well as being able to transition between the three choices. A person can be male, female, or hermaphrodite. Transitions last 10 years, but requires an immense amount of mental strength, so most people stay with their first choice. In this time period, people reach puberty at the age of 30 through the process of enforced "monogamy for life" because all forms of polygamy cause the "age of puberty" to decrease. The standard of education improve to the point where the average ten years old are able to complete their master degrees with variety of subject areas.
[Edited by - Platinum_Dragon on July 30, 2009 4:02:42 PM]
Hey, can I make a few suggestions?
Possible Main Character(s)
John Doe [generic name because I still cannot think of a name]
Starts of as a shy man, John does not want to face the war that everyone else has been taking about. Always hiding from the battles whenever they occur, until one day his friend drags him to watch the battlefield, actually a nearby town was under attack. John sees the blood-lust of the Shrouded Knights slaying the Orders of Antaloon. Struck by shock, John stood there for three straight days the battle lasts ending with the raze of the town.
Okay, why is he shy? Is he a retired badass who just wants peace and quiet? Also, would it be better to have the battle come to him rather than him being dragged? What sort of a friend drags someone to watch a battle? For three days? Did he eat in those three days, go to the toilet, sleep? Would probably be better to have him caught up in an attack, in which he loses family, most likely his ten year old daughter, which leads him to form a bond later in the game with:
Jane Doe [generic name because I still cannot think of a name]
Graduated from University of Psychotics at the age of ten, Jane goes on a quest to experience her new ideas. She does not realize the real world is different from the books she read and now she has to fight up with the changes and learn how to implement her education into this harsh world.
I know they're precocious and all, but who would let a ten year old go off into the universe alone? Perhaps she should encounter John on the streets (perhaps he has had something happen to him from when he mysteriously survived the attack) and through her abilities she learns a secret that he isn't even aware of (i.e. the reason he survived. It could be any number of things- he could have a virus implanted him that will activate when he reaches a certain place or person, anything like that. This could even be part of the story, in that Jane becomes aware of it, but then later we discover it was an implant, and it is actually her that he has been sent to infect because she's a threat to the antagonist).
Background story. [At first I wanted a fantasy, but now I change to scifi.]
The years were lost. No one know which year it is after the Great Bio War. Biological weapons destroyed the entire world, and now in a distant galaxy Meleegyna, humans are struggling to survive. Several new Orders form trying to take over this new world. Many leaders created their own religion and their own Gods in attempt to get new followers,
Watch out for arbitrary zeal. In the old days, when communication etc was non-existent, religions were more easily accepted (what makes the sun cross the sky? God. What makes the waves come to the shore? God.) In a futuristic society, religions won't be able to be simply 'made' and then gather followers. Orders of political aspects of society would be more likely to emerge as people seek strong leadership rather than a God concept.
but one side was able to force all other sides to be neutral with them, the Order of Psychics. No one dare to oppose this Order because the Order of Psychics have the greatest researching scientists as well as the largest capital great enough to create another Great Bio War.
If they have capital, I assume its a monetary system where they can pay builders, developers, scientists, etc. If this technology is available, it would be a simple matter to know what year it is after the bio war. The ships they escaped on would all have had chronographcal instruments, computer records, stellar astronimcal date charts, etc. Watch how the technology effects the storyline (a reason sci fi can be so tricky).
The leaders of the Order of Psychics were once the defenders of the Great Bio War. They were trying to create an ultimate defensive virus that can increase the human immune system to perfection but information were leaked out by "The God," a well know professor whom secretively initiated the Great Bio War as well as hiding in the opposing side. The rampage of The God's virus strain 3691b eat up all the resources of Earth filling the entire planet. The solar expansion was about to occur and the evacuation of Earth has already started for a few thousand years. The news spread, and traitor The God was punished locked onto Earth.
Just some initial thoughts there, but one thing seems to be leaping out at me. I think you're focussing on details that are not necessary yet, especially in games dev. Do you want a game where people have psychic ability (if so, you need to know exactly what these psychic folks are capable of), or do you want a game that is like playing through a novel? Is it an action game, etc etc.
The tech section of your outline, while impressively boggling, just isn't worth going into detail yet. If The God is so good at what he does, how did he screw up and kill everyhting? If it was deliberate, what could he possibly hope to achieve? Remember that science and religion don't mix. If he is a such a brilliant scientist, then he has a burning desire to understand how the universe works. He's not likely to believe in God (unless he believes he has the means to become one), in which case he's insane, and not very likely to have the sense of mind to spend hour after hour developing a virus (despite what hollywood says, I just can't see someone with that sort of crazy being able to sit still for very long).
If I were you I'd do a focus list in ordre to find some direction, filling in the sections as below:
Setting:(e.g. futuristic, wild west)
style: (3d roamer, FPS, etc)
Protagonist(s)
- why does he/she/they become involved?
- what makes them special (i.e. why them and not some other shmoe)?
- why do they go up against whatever insurmountable odds that you put in front of them?
Antagonist(s)
- what does he/she/they want to achieve with their plan? I often find it useful to write a 'villain's maifesto' with projects. Every single time we see the villain, hear of the villain, fight with the villain, he/she/they should have a reason for being there.
- what has he/she/they got to do with the main character? It isn't enough to say 'he's the bad guy', much as it is a sin for a writer to say 'he wants to destroy the world because he's insane'.
Lastly (and sorry for going on) what I like to do is ask myself 'Does it have to be humans at all?' Dystopian futures or end of earth events are rife in sci fi, as is the 'peace with a dark undertone' and 'struggling remnants of humanity' concept.
Or, if you stick with humans, why not simply have it set on earth? Why the solar expansion? That way you could have a bunch of cool earthen relics in the game, such as the eiffel tower lying on its side at a random point, and so on.
Anyways, good luck with it.
Possible Main Character(s)
John Doe [generic name because I still cannot think of a name]
Starts of as a shy man, John does not want to face the war that everyone else has been taking about. Always hiding from the battles whenever they occur, until one day his friend drags him to watch the battlefield, actually a nearby town was under attack. John sees the blood-lust of the Shrouded Knights slaying the Orders of Antaloon. Struck by shock, John stood there for three straight days the battle lasts ending with the raze of the town.
Okay, why is he shy? Is he a retired badass who just wants peace and quiet? Also, would it be better to have the battle come to him rather than him being dragged? What sort of a friend drags someone to watch a battle? For three days? Did he eat in those three days, go to the toilet, sleep? Would probably be better to have him caught up in an attack, in which he loses family, most likely his ten year old daughter, which leads him to form a bond later in the game with:
Jane Doe [generic name because I still cannot think of a name]
Graduated from University of Psychotics at the age of ten, Jane goes on a quest to experience her new ideas. She does not realize the real world is different from the books she read and now she has to fight up with the changes and learn how to implement her education into this harsh world.
I know they're precocious and all, but who would let a ten year old go off into the universe alone? Perhaps she should encounter John on the streets (perhaps he has had something happen to him from when he mysteriously survived the attack) and through her abilities she learns a secret that he isn't even aware of (i.e. the reason he survived. It could be any number of things- he could have a virus implanted him that will activate when he reaches a certain place or person, anything like that. This could even be part of the story, in that Jane becomes aware of it, but then later we discover it was an implant, and it is actually her that he has been sent to infect because she's a threat to the antagonist).
Background story. [At first I wanted a fantasy, but now I change to scifi.]
The years were lost. No one know which year it is after the Great Bio War. Biological weapons destroyed the entire world, and now in a distant galaxy Meleegyna, humans are struggling to survive. Several new Orders form trying to take over this new world. Many leaders created their own religion and their own Gods in attempt to get new followers,
Watch out for arbitrary zeal. In the old days, when communication etc was non-existent, religions were more easily accepted (what makes the sun cross the sky? God. What makes the waves come to the shore? God.) In a futuristic society, religions won't be able to be simply 'made' and then gather followers. Orders of political aspects of society would be more likely to emerge as people seek strong leadership rather than a God concept.
but one side was able to force all other sides to be neutral with them, the Order of Psychics. No one dare to oppose this Order because the Order of Psychics have the greatest researching scientists as well as the largest capital great enough to create another Great Bio War.
If they have capital, I assume its a monetary system where they can pay builders, developers, scientists, etc. If this technology is available, it would be a simple matter to know what year it is after the bio war. The ships they escaped on would all have had chronographcal instruments, computer records, stellar astronimcal date charts, etc. Watch how the technology effects the storyline (a reason sci fi can be so tricky).
The leaders of the Order of Psychics were once the defenders of the Great Bio War. They were trying to create an ultimate defensive virus that can increase the human immune system to perfection but information were leaked out by "The God," a well know professor whom secretively initiated the Great Bio War as well as hiding in the opposing side. The rampage of The God's virus strain 3691b eat up all the resources of Earth filling the entire planet. The solar expansion was about to occur and the evacuation of Earth has already started for a few thousand years. The news spread, and traitor The God was punished locked onto Earth.
Just some initial thoughts there, but one thing seems to be leaping out at me. I think you're focussing on details that are not necessary yet, especially in games dev. Do you want a game where people have psychic ability (if so, you need to know exactly what these psychic folks are capable of), or do you want a game that is like playing through a novel? Is it an action game, etc etc.
The tech section of your outline, while impressively boggling, just isn't worth going into detail yet. If The God is so good at what he does, how did he screw up and kill everyhting? If it was deliberate, what could he possibly hope to achieve? Remember that science and religion don't mix. If he is a such a brilliant scientist, then he has a burning desire to understand how the universe works. He's not likely to believe in God (unless he believes he has the means to become one), in which case he's insane, and not very likely to have the sense of mind to spend hour after hour developing a virus (despite what hollywood says, I just can't see someone with that sort of crazy being able to sit still for very long).
If I were you I'd do a focus list in ordre to find some direction, filling in the sections as below:
Setting:(e.g. futuristic, wild west)
style: (3d roamer, FPS, etc)
Protagonist(s)
- why does he/she/they become involved?
- what makes them special (i.e. why them and not some other shmoe)?
- why do they go up against whatever insurmountable odds that you put in front of them?
Antagonist(s)
- what does he/she/they want to achieve with their plan? I often find it useful to write a 'villain's maifesto' with projects. Every single time we see the villain, hear of the villain, fight with the villain, he/she/they should have a reason for being there.
- what has he/she/they got to do with the main character? It isn't enough to say 'he's the bad guy', much as it is a sin for a writer to say 'he wants to destroy the world because he's insane'.
Lastly (and sorry for going on) what I like to do is ask myself 'Does it have to be humans at all?' Dystopian futures or end of earth events are rife in sci fi, as is the 'peace with a dark undertone' and 'struggling remnants of humanity' concept.
Or, if you stick with humans, why not simply have it set on earth? Why the solar expansion? That way you could have a bunch of cool earthen relics in the game, such as the eiffel tower lying on its side at a random point, and so on.
Anyways, good luck with it.
Author
Usually, not every information is given because the player has to learn about the character, or they want their character to follow a certain degree of their own ideal. That's the hardest part in creating a story. What can I create such that the character is blank enough so that players can play along the story and role plays the character. The more background the character has, the harder it is for the player to role play.
Essentially, psychology is part of the game. Anyone with a weak mind will fail. That's where people think psychic ability exist, but it is actually an abuse of the mentally weak.
Religion is the belief of what is not known yet. It is along the lines of correlations, and people are tricking the mentally weak into following these ideals. People whom are mentally strong will stand to find the truth to things.
How does the protagonist involve into the story?
The story is in the middle of wars, and settling down does not occur. There are some people whom have lots of power in the past and they are unwilling to lose this power. So the wars are waging from since they were on Earth. The Order of Psychics believe that they can study these warriors and understand more about evolution, so they help out all sides stay in wars with each other. The Order of Psychics indirectly conducting experiment with other humans in a way and no one has the power to oppose them.
As all characters complete multiple Master's degree at the age of 10, they have to either continue their education or teach for another ten years, but there are some exceptions. These people are the top students. These top students are recruited into the wars.
There is nothing special about the main characters. The game can be portray at any character's perspective. But the deal is, all character are somehow drag into this endless war. The only way out of this war is somehow become part of the Order of Psychics.
Everyone is struggling in this world. The only protection comes from Order of Psychics, but only while they are going to the universities. The odds in front of these characters are their only hope of survival, it's more of the "I can't suicide" thought that are ingrain into them by the Order of Psychics.
Antagonist?
Every single character has the potential to become the antagonist. My goal is to create a structure that can understand human dialog so that the story changes based on the player's personal response during the game. In such way, there will not be two identical game play except for the "official story."
The game is a struggle for survival with as much realistic of sciences, but with some scientific fictions. The scientific fictions in my story are not impossible occurrences because I am trying to think of the possible realities. Even if I'm off on how I portray the fiction, it is towards realism.
Actually, they can be said to not be the same as us because that particular species is a different species. They are fictional species that evolves from our species. I only use the word human because they are still similar to us but they are significantly superior to our kind.
Why not on earth? Well, at this time period of my story, quantum gates are available, and traveling across the universe is instantaneous. People can go anywhere. I don't want to be limited to planet Earth, even though the scale of the game is not that large [except maybe for the hardcore players playing the larger scale modes].
Some of the characteristics of the characters are my random thoughts. I just type random ideas down. There's no need for logical reasons for some of the new ideas. Inspirations are how people think of new ideas, and my ideas just came randomly.
I need critiques so that I can randomly think of a background or logical reason behind my random ideas.
Nice idea. Well, now I have to create this friend of his so the story does not get too much open ended.
The harsh world is from the environment and the war situation. The environment is always changing, and it is changing fast. Bombs won't blow up in some of the cases as expected. Some of the weapons just won't work the way they are intended. Most people have to maintain strong mentality to survive. Several places have acidic atmosphere, and some of the characters are immune to it, while other characters are not. The environment is different, and perfect immunity is the goal of every character is some way. The Order of Psychics trying to get perfect immunity, but they failed many times. They are now experimenting with the rest of the population to get this perfection.
'The God' is the antagonist before the change. This character is called 'God' by followers whom attempt to be ultimate in the universe. To reach perfection is a great goal, but sometimes death is a goal itself. This character for some reason wants to be the last one to die on Earth, and makes history. It's like a special fame of some sort. 'The God' earns the last Darwin's Award.
The reason why the years are not keep tract of is because of the constant struggling, and also because only Order of Psychics know this year. Another thing is that I don't want the readers to know so much about this Order yet, so I'm hiding some of the information even from other developers so they cannot um use my ideas.
As I mention 'quantum gates,' these things are one way direction, so the people does not really know the date because the Order of Psychics make sure that two groups of people at different time period do not go to the same destination. The Order of Psychics cut away all of the information connectivity, so regular space travel which takes so much longer is the only method of information exchange, and this gives vague data.
There is always an unknown. There will always be evolution, and there will never be perfection. Even though the struggling towards perfect occurs, it cannot be reach. It is the goal of the player to find some template character that they can role play and find a way to reach a random end game.
My goal is to not even program a story except for the main story. Then all of the other stories are randomly created by a story generator that can understand dialog. The problem with this goal is that the game has an open ending, without a resolution.
The capital [econ type] of the Order of Psychics are their technologies.
The monetary system in this game will be mental credits. The characters just have to have it in their brain. It is part of them, and it's automated by abilities to detect and send brain waves. Since full communication with brain waves are possible, characters have to make sure that their singles are complex so that others cannot intercept and interpret them. It's all about maintaining the complexity of thoughts so that others cannot hear them.
Essentially, psychology is part of the game. Anyone with a weak mind will fail. That's where people think psychic ability exist, but it is actually an abuse of the mentally weak.
Religion is the belief of what is not known yet. It is along the lines of correlations, and people are tricking the mentally weak into following these ideals. People whom are mentally strong will stand to find the truth to things.
How does the protagonist involve into the story?
The story is in the middle of wars, and settling down does not occur. There are some people whom have lots of power in the past and they are unwilling to lose this power. So the wars are waging from since they were on Earth. The Order of Psychics believe that they can study these warriors and understand more about evolution, so they help out all sides stay in wars with each other. The Order of Psychics indirectly conducting experiment with other humans in a way and no one has the power to oppose them.
As all characters complete multiple Master's degree at the age of 10, they have to either continue their education or teach for another ten years, but there are some exceptions. These people are the top students. These top students are recruited into the wars.
There is nothing special about the main characters. The game can be portray at any character's perspective. But the deal is, all character are somehow drag into this endless war. The only way out of this war is somehow become part of the Order of Psychics.
Everyone is struggling in this world. The only protection comes from Order of Psychics, but only while they are going to the universities. The odds in front of these characters are their only hope of survival, it's more of the "I can't suicide" thought that are ingrain into them by the Order of Psychics.
Antagonist?
Every single character has the potential to become the antagonist. My goal is to create a structure that can understand human dialog so that the story changes based on the player's personal response during the game. In such way, there will not be two identical game play except for the "official story."
The game is a struggle for survival with as much realistic of sciences, but with some scientific fictions. The scientific fictions in my story are not impossible occurrences because I am trying to think of the possible realities. Even if I'm off on how I portray the fiction, it is towards realism.
Actually, they can be said to not be the same as us because that particular species is a different species. They are fictional species that evolves from our species. I only use the word human because they are still similar to us but they are significantly superior to our kind.
Why not on earth? Well, at this time period of my story, quantum gates are available, and traveling across the universe is instantaneous. People can go anywhere. I don't want to be limited to planet Earth, even though the scale of the game is not that large [except maybe for the hardcore players playing the larger scale modes].
Some of the characteristics of the characters are my random thoughts. I just type random ideas down. There's no need for logical reasons for some of the new ideas. Inspirations are how people think of new ideas, and my ideas just came randomly.
I need critiques so that I can randomly think of a background or logical reason behind my random ideas.
Quote: Originally from Taerata
Okay, why is he shy? Is he a retired badass who just wants peace and quiet? Also, would it be better to have the battle come to him rather than him being dragged? What sort of a friend drags someone to watch a battle? For three days? Did he eat in those three days, go to the toilet, sleep? Would probably be better to have him caught up in an attack, in which he loses family, most likely his ten year old daughter, which leads him to form a bond later in the game with
Nice idea. Well, now I have to create this friend of his so the story does not get too much open ended.
The harsh world is from the environment and the war situation. The environment is always changing, and it is changing fast. Bombs won't blow up in some of the cases as expected. Some of the weapons just won't work the way they are intended. Most people have to maintain strong mentality to survive. Several places have acidic atmosphere, and some of the characters are immune to it, while other characters are not. The environment is different, and perfect immunity is the goal of every character is some way. The Order of Psychics trying to get perfect immunity, but they failed many times. They are now experimenting with the rest of the population to get this perfection.
'The God' is the antagonist before the change. This character is called 'God' by followers whom attempt to be ultimate in the universe. To reach perfection is a great goal, but sometimes death is a goal itself. This character for some reason wants to be the last one to die on Earth, and makes history. It's like a special fame of some sort. 'The God' earns the last Darwin's Award.
The reason why the years are not keep tract of is because of the constant struggling, and also because only Order of Psychics know this year. Another thing is that I don't want the readers to know so much about this Order yet, so I'm hiding some of the information even from other developers so they cannot um use my ideas.
As I mention 'quantum gates,' these things are one way direction, so the people does not really know the date because the Order of Psychics make sure that two groups of people at different time period do not go to the same destination. The Order of Psychics cut away all of the information connectivity, so regular space travel which takes so much longer is the only method of information exchange, and this gives vague data.
There is always an unknown. There will always be evolution, and there will never be perfection. Even though the struggling towards perfect occurs, it cannot be reach. It is the goal of the player to find some template character that they can role play and find a way to reach a random end game.
My goal is to not even program a story except for the main story. Then all of the other stories are randomly created by a story generator that can understand dialog. The problem with this goal is that the game has an open ending, without a resolution.
The capital [econ type] of the Order of Psychics are their technologies.
The monetary system in this game will be mental credits. The characters just have to have it in their brain. It is part of them, and it's automated by abilities to detect and send brain waves. Since full communication with brain waves are possible, characters have to make sure that their singles are complex so that others cannot intercept and interpret them. It's all about maintaining the complexity of thoughts so that others cannot hear them.
This topic is closed to new replies.
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