Unless you have a way to control them , but yeah. Players want to do what Players want to do. I can understand that, having been one of them.


This is a cool - it's a like a pre-planned branching storyline used for RtD. I might just mess with that idea a bit.


If I used the "skeleton" comparison any more than I already do, people would call me a paleontologist.
But, really. I like to have things pre-planned (at least nowadays I do... Illusia is complete and utter C) so I tend to lean towards A, but then I realize that I'm leaning towards it too much and try to insert some leeway and make it B. Moderation always seems to be the ticket, doesn't it?


I thought about creating a world (which involved a lot of poorly-planned out landscapes, maps, and especially NAMES. God, naming things is hard. That'll be my next episode, I think) but it became clear that I lacked the common sense and patience to flesh everything out. I'll definitely have to make a map of my next RtD, but as you said, I'll probably just concentrate on major cities and other stuff like terrain.


Though I WILL have a way to control players to some degree (I hope I don't get power-hungry and abuse that) it won't be some sort of god-like entity. I mentioned this before, but it's the idea that you are not your character. You focus on your character and can pretty much control him/her, yeah, but the way that he/she responds to certain situations depends upon morals, personality, and realistic motivation - things that people typing in actions online don't really have.
As to the degree of freedom in story... (and this is kind of going back to Torrent's comment too) my belief is that "freedom" in any sort of story-driven situation doesn't necessarily have to be a branching plotline. Really, the player has an end goal, and the WAY that they reach it is up to them. Now, since the player(s) may not know anything about the world, that's where I come in. I know what I made, and since all the characters will have backstory, they'll (I'LL) plug in what the players cannot supply.
And the last point is really appreciated. I've realized myself after reading it that I really do need to flesh out my NPCs more. I think I'll theorize on what you need to make a quality NPC later.


Even though you seem firmly against the idea, I recommend you try to make a character SOME time in the future. Because, to use a quote, "There is nothing new under the sun". Even characters that may seem original are just a mashup of various experiences the creator has gone through. If I dissected my own life (practically an impossible task because human memory is imperfect, which is also why the so-called "originality" exists in the first place) you would probably be able to see where I got my ideas from.
Minor NPCs are... yeah. Easy. They really shouldn't be fleshed out at all, if you won't be seeing them for more than 5 rolls. Better to leave them stereotypical or whatever.
But PARTY MEMBERS. Damn. This is going to be huge in my next big project (which I've been talking about for such a long time here but It'll probably turn out to be not-as-awesome-as-I-hoped), because NPCs will have real personalities, and one of them in particular will have huge involvement in plot. Not to mention I want to add a boatload of fun events that players can take part in if they interact with said NPCs. I want to make character interaction fun, interesting, and rewarding, so people focus a bit less on grinding combat skills and a bit more on getting to know the guys they hang around.


And that works, because improvisation is not only less work, but it can also be a hell of a lot of fun.

As for names... Yeeep. I have one of the worst naming senses out there. I can't help with that. Well I CAN give you some ways I base my game character names from... Uh what does that mean? Well anyways... Basically... I think of a certain trait of the character that I want to highlight and then build off of that word or a variation of it. So like for my thief or assassin characters, I would take something like "wind" or "sylph" or "kaze" and make something like "Sylphie." Which, for some reason, is never taken. I'm guessing it's because only I have that kind of naming sense. >.< And note that I usually use female chars. So all names I make will be female names more or less. So basically... caek has it right. And why do you feel silly taking foreign words and turning them into names? I'm certain EVERYONE does it.

As for NPCs, I do think that you covered most of what's necessary. However, I do think it could help if you can come up with an NPC's full personality to begin with. Or at least a general description. Like, say, a shy character that rarely talks. If you can add in a bit more, you can essentially use that character's personality to decide what he/she does. All the time. Well unless you make some psychopath. Then you can just go and make the character do whatever. As for motivation, the characters need a purpose first. I mean... Having a person who has full motivation to do nothing is kinda... Like you could end up with a character who's all like "I can do this!" and have no idea what on earth is going on. So yeah. Purpose is definitely a must. I'm also assuming that these are all the traits, both shown and not, right? Oh yeah... This will also be part of the personality, but just putting this out here: There are probably going to be some things your character would want to hide. Personality-wise. So that would also be important. And sorry about the lack of organization. And the almost no use of the return/enter key. And ellipses.

As for my own attempts to do this type of thing... I'm just hoping the RtD I attempted to start has been locked by now. I'm just not good at holding my attention on something unless it's either REALLY interesting to the point of being dangerous or REALLY boring to the point of me just needing to get it over with. Like making games. I can't seem to concentrate on that long term. But short bursts I can do just fine. Aaaand... Probably not the right place to put this at all, but I seriously need help with the game I'm making. Mostly for ideas (I have no friends I can go to for this...), story (Same.), and art (If you've seen any of my mods, you would understand. And same I have no friends.). And motivation. Lots of that.

Well that got off topic. And so back to the personality of NPCs. As caek said, you normally do want to keep the entire personality and goals of your NPCs hidden. However, there are a few cases where you actually want the players to know everything about your character's personality, backstory, everything. Well skipping the unnecessary parts. Depending on what you deem to be necessary. I mean... You don't want the super extremely simple characters to have a really dark side. Unless you do. But that's WAY overused. Well everything's overused. And since I'm too lazy to go back, I'll continue here. (See? No organization.) I also think it would be important to keep track with your character's relationship with other people. I'm not sure how in depth to go with this, though... I mean for a normal computer game, it would be hard to keep track of every variable at once. (What I mean is like... A simple friendship/love/hate scale, say... But then mapped to EVERY major character.) But if you're willing to spend the time... It's possible to map out every relationship in just about every single possible way. I've put much thought into this for other games that will likely never see the light of day. Well really the same game that's mostly been brewing in my mind for several months. Most likely at least a year now. Also things like annoyance, embarrassement (How do you spell that? >.<), tiredness, and happiness will greatly affect how someone acts, but only temporarily. Like a status effect. Oh my... I will really need to make something to compile all this info and use it to determine how the character would act in X situation. Gonna work on it when I have free time I suppose.

Basically... I've thought out a lot of things. This is based on the game I mentioned earlier that's been brewing in my head for a year or so. So. The main features of the game will be:
1. NPCs are fully thought out
2. Magic is properly explained (more details below)
3. Has two sides: World A (Earth/Normal), World B (Unnamed/Old/Parallel/Alternate)

Starts off in a school. Characters find a hidden room, which, of course, has a portal in it. This obviously leads to the other world. Then there's the choice of going to the other world or not. Then things branch off from there but...

Old World: Standard fantasy RPG setting. Has magic.

Current World: Plain modern world. Not much to say. Yes it's a school setting. I intended this for a standalone single player RPG, but if anyone wants to host this game and wants this changed, I don't care. I might try hosting though... Might.

World A would just be a boring school life by the way. Not much fun.

World B has this plot:
Main villain is taking the souls of living things and using their mana to try to create some form of Paradise.

In this world, magic is essentially thought power. Like in Mousou Kikou, the power of people's delusions can overcome reality. So basically, the more strongly something is believed, the higher chance it has to happen or come true. However, the certain effect will only be as much as what is thought of. After that is essentially unknown. So in World B, the belief in another world created World A. But after that, World A progressed faster than World B and the occasional strong burst of magical energy created a link between the two worlds occasionally. In this way knowledge was passed between them. Also, by the nature of magic in this world, the way someone thinks about magic changes how he/she can use it. For example, someone who thinks of mana as a type of energy used to control forces will only be able to use magic in that way. But another who thinks of mana as particles that can be controlled freely using mind power will use magic in that way. There are also certain magics that are based on bloodlines and stuff and can only be used by people of that family. Also note that since different forms of magic are based on different theories, it is impossible to directly cancel the effect of different spell types. So a spell based on a spirit theory can't interfere with a spell based on a particle theory.

So to summarize:
1. Magic is based on thought power.
2. The extent of its effect is controlled exactly to the point that the caster thinks about it.
3. The way one thinks of mana changes how he/she can use it.
4. The method by which this energy can be called can also be chosen freely. Within certain boundaries, of course.
5. Different types of spells can't directly interfere with one another.

I had a lot of ideas for these, but I of course wanted customizability (Go fake words!). Obviously this is kinda already a given in these types of games. So yeah. I was planning on having a system where you need to go to an office and register skills and/or spells there or else you would get arrested if you are caught using unregistered skills and/or spells. Although that idea's kinda bad for this type of game, too. Well it's fine to just make people think up their own skills. Everyone go crazy with their 11 hit combos (Yep. SAO ref.)

These are also important! ^.^
L/R STR: Left/Right hand attacking strength/ability to carry
L/R DEX: Left/Right hand fine control
MND: Mental capacity. Affects CON.
CON: The character's state of concentration. (2*MND - EMB - FER)*
EYE: Eyesight. Affected by CON. (CON)*
SPI: Fighting spirit. Basically makes enemies know your strength.
FER: Fear. Affects all other stats negatively. (Enemy SPI - SPI)*
EMB: Embarrassment. When it passes a certain point, a specified status effect will be applied.*
ETH: Embarrassment threshold. The point at which the status effect from embarrassment will be applied.

*Stats that can change without status effects being applied