Rules Ideas That Don’t Deserve Their Own Thread

[sciencewarrior]

- What would be proper classes to have in a world based around Norse mythology? The culture of a land somewhat comes into play when considering what type of "warriors" there would be, so this is rather important. FE deals with this by having different countries based on real life cultures, and thus have a larger selection of classes to pick from (Ex. In Fates, Hoshido is based on Japanese culture and has Samurai and Ninja classes while Norh, which is based on European culture, has more medieval classes like Armored Knight and Cavalry). Not sure I could go that route though...

You can't mention Norse warriors without mentioning Berserkers. You could even go down the shapeshifting route, with wolf-warriors actually turning into huge wolves during battle.

- Even with the battle system being the way it is, would an exploration aspect still work in a game like this? I don't mean dungeon crawling; something closer to scouting out locations and possibly spying on enemies (for a potential sneak attack)?

Focus on trimming your core gameplay to the bare essentials instead of adding other mechanics that would be cool. Not only it will make the project manageable, but it will also produce a better, more focused game.

 

[Redeye]

So in one of my big, long-term games that I plan on making, I was thinking of doing something kind of interesting with my stats and equipment. Instead of doing the generic (and kind of boring) ATK, DEF, MAT, MDF, AGI, LUK rotation of stats, I decided to tweak them into completely new stats inspired by Dark Souls.

I'm going to throw this out here: There are 3 "Attack" parameters in this list, and each type is scattered throughout the damage formulae. The thing about these stats is that they work very similarly to Dark Souls in which they do NOT directly affect the damage formulae, but instead act as Damage Scalars that are added on to a skill's base damage. (I also plan on completely removing the Normal Attack and Guard commands in this game and making the system entirely skill based) Each stat has a main effect and a side effect.

Strength
This stat acts as a damage scalar for big, beefy strong attacks (typically melee) that hit big and often inflict crowd control effects that can debilitate your foes. Strength also passively increases your Critical Hit Rate.
Intellect
This stat acts as a damage scalar for magic spells, obviously. Intellect is used in virtually all magic, whether it's for attacking, healing, or defending. Intellect also comes with the bonus of slightly reducing your MP costs by a teeny tiny amount that's only significant if you increase your Int in large amounts.
Dexterity
This stat acts as a damage scalar for quick, advanced attacks (typically ranged and/or attacks using small, light melee weapons) that tend to have huge critical hit bonuses and effects. Your Dexterity also serves as a damage scalar for Damage Over Time effects such as Poison or Bloodloss.
Vitality
Literally the only defense stat in the game. Vitality determines your resistance against damage of any kind, although the catch is, Vitality isn't used in the damage formula. Instead, Vitality directly affects your PDR and MDR, which means that your Vit determines your literal resistance to attacks via a percentage. I thought doing it like this would make balancing kind of easier. Vitality also slightly determines the effectiveness of all healing abilities used on you.
Reflex
This is basically just agility, but I also decided to have it indirectly affect your Evasion and Magic Evasion stats. There may even be some skills in the game that apply bonus effects depending on how much Reflex you have when using them.
Fatigue
This is a unique stat that completely replaces Luck. Fatigue determines the rate at which you generate TP to use for your weapon skills. (I plan on using Yanfly's TP Modes to make the system more interesting) Fatigue also indirectly affects your Maximum TP and TP Costs for your skills.

The bonus about this system is that all of my characters have a reason to invest in every single one of these stats.

Now, the catch about my equipment system is that Weapons and Subweapons do not increase your stats. At all. Instead, your weapon combinations affect your character's arsenal of skills and what they can do in battle. A weapon skill's effectiveness is based on Base Damage (which is increased upon upgrading your weapon) and Damage Scalars (Str, Int, Dex). This system potentially makes every single weapon in the game unique and usable throughout your entire playthrough. Your base stats can still be increased through your other equipment slots, so don't worry about being restricted just because weapons don't do anything to your parameters.

Here's an example: the main characters has 2 choices of Main Weapon types: Straight Swords or Axes. Equipping a Straight Sword grants access to quick, Dex based skills and even one or two options for Counterattacking and defense. Equipping an Axe, on the other hand, grants access to heavy Strength based skills that are almost exclusively offensive, with possibly a few basic guard effects thrown in there. Your weapon skills aren't entirely determined by your weapon TYPE, though, they're determined by each individual weapon. An example for this would be the main character's choice of Straight Swords. One of them is a "Broadsword" which has slightly slow Dex/Str attacks and even a semi-unique guard ability, and the other one is his trademarked "Candlewick" sword which has quick multi-hitting attacks and a buff that lights his sword on fire, causing his other weapon skills to deal fire damage and inflict Burning.

So what do you guys think about this system so far?

 

[LordOfStickFigures]

Ey whats up I need help making the most generic rpg protagonist ever for this game im working on.
The current traits i have are:
-the most competent at any given moment but still seen as incompetent
-dead parents
-loves his sister who totally isnt going to be kidnapped
-everyone immediately likes him
-constantly smiling
-is not talkative during most convos
-like hes not a silent protag but party members do most of the talking
-when he does talk he is very soft spoken/doesnt convey any one emotion over another

hes pretty generic already but idk i feel like he could be even MORE generic. If you cant think of character traits then some suggestions on a generic design would also be welcomed!

 

[Kes]

'General Discussion' is not for feedback on individual games, but is for looking at broad issues that could apply to making games in general. We do have a section which looks specifically at feedback on projects in their very early stages. It sounds like you don't yet have enough material to make your own thread yet, so this needs to go into the more preliminary part.

[mod]I am merging this into 'Ideas that don't deserve their own thread'[/mod]

 

[Orpheus]

Ey whats up I need help making the most generic rpg protagonist ever for this game im working on.
The current traits i have are:
-the most competent at any given moment but still seen as incompetent
-dead parents
-loves his sister who totally isnt going to be kidnapped
-everyone immediately likes him
-constantly smiling
-is not talkative during most convos
-like hes not a silent protag but party members do most of the talking
-when he does talk he is very soft spoken/doesnt convey any one emotion over another

hes pretty generic already but idk i feel like he could be even MORE generic. If you cant think of character traits then some suggestions on a generic design would also be welcomed!

-Is chosen by some mysterious force to save the world
- Is praised by everyone for being the chosen one
- Has amnesia and only remembers how to fight, his parents are dead, and that he loves his sister
- Puts others before himself All. The. Time.
- Wants to befriend all the enemies.
- Builds a harem of characters who aren't his sister.
- Finds out sister isn't actually his sister.
- Adds Not!Sister to harem.

Why do I feel like I've seen this all somewhere before...

 

[GoodSelf]

I have this idea for a roguelike game where you play as a random hero with the class of your choosing. You progress through multiple areas with three levels each which are randomly chosen out of a preset number of 9 or 12 areas.
You have to manage your health, magic, and stamina while fighting monsters collecting items and progressing through the areas.
Eventually your hero will fall, at which point certain stats will pass over to the next hero in line (normally 1-3 stat points) which makes next character you play slightly stronger. A little bit of gold is also transferred over as the starting gold for your player, and some gold was transferred over to the town. Using the town Gold allows you to build new buildings, which unlocks new characters and items.
Would anyone be interested in a game such as this or have any ideas to reinforce the game play?

 

[Failivrin]

I have this idea for a roguelike game where you play as a random hero with the class of your choosing. You progress through multiple areas with three levels each which are randomly chosen out of a preset number of 9 or 12 areas.
You have to manage your health, magic, and stamina while fighting monsters collecting items and progressing through the areas.
Eventually your hero will fall, at which point certain stats will pass over to the next hero in line (normally 1-3 stat points) which makes next character you play slightly stronger. A little bit of gold is also transferred over as the starting gold for your player, and some gold was transferred over to the town. Using the town Gold allows you to build new buildings, which unlocks new characters and items.
Would anyone be interested in a game such as this or have any ideas to reinforce the game play?

I would change the random elements and put in a narrative. As a player, I wouldn't want to see my avatars constantly getting killed unless there was some reason for it. I'm thinking of the movie Cloud Atlas, where some of the heroes get killed but their choices affect future generations. Introducing generation gaps between the characters is a good way to handle this type of narrative and speed up town growth. So one hero might quest for a magic stone of power. Say he finds it, then gets killed. Twenty years later there's a new hero AND the town is using the magic stone to power an alchemist's forge. Don't know if that's at all like what you were going for, it's just my "two cents."

 

[KVG]

Here's my beginning script for my game. Please let me know if it sounds interesting so far.

Spoiler

EXT. SOUTH OF CAMP DREAM. EARLY MORNING.

Description. Picture boards with simple 2-d drawing/pixel art. Text at the bottom. PROJECT FREEDOM THEME song plays.

DIALOGUE

NARRATOR

Some years ago, PEOPLE and CREATURES lived happily alongside each other.

NARRATOR

KING BAO was a great pacifist and kept order with the help of the DRUIDS.

NARRATOR

Then FORCES overthrew the KING.

NARRATOR

The new POWER banished the DRUIDS and sought to kill all CREATURES.

NARRATOR

THEY CURSED HUMANS and CREATURES to always lock into MORTAL COMBAT upon sight.

NARRATOR

15 years later, A YOUNG HUMAN sought out the remaining DRUIDS and enrolled in their TEACHINGS.

NARRATOR

THEY taught the HUMAN simple MAGICS, how to HANDLE ANIMALS, and gifted him an ANIMAL COMPANION.

NARRATOR

Satisfied that THEY could each the HUMAN no more, the DRUIDS sent him into the WILD.

 

[hoppedongoofballs]

feedback/help needed on ideas. 1st idea: should I allow the player to make their own character via script OR should I let them choose a character via pre-made faces. now here's the pros and cons for each:
CON: if I let the player make their own character they won't be able to play as a transforming class, now that's not a major issue but it lowers the class selection. and one of the ideas I had for a beast race.
PRO: allowing one to create their own character makes that character unique to them. I personally always thought it was pretty neat to make my own character, but what do you guys think?

2nd idea: I want to make a class where the player chooses what skills that class gets, in other words a custom class. my original idea was for the player to purchase skills from trainers, problem with that is how do i stop the player from purchasing all the skills? so then my second idea was character skill points but that requires a script and I don't know how to make scripts, so does anyone have any ideas or should I just scrap the idea altogether?

 

[gigaswardblade]

so i have a lot of characters in my game. some of them i like a lot, and others i almost forget exist. and i need help figuring out which ones are good characters and which ones need the most work. my game has 3 parties of 14. ill be starting out with my first party. ill go name and pronunciation, age, race, class, element, and abouts. and then maybe finish it all off with some extra notes. there are a few spoilers in their bio's that are whited out, but it might not matter that much since this game probably wont be finished for another 3 years or so.

ps: none of these designs are final. i made them in the character created as place holders.

Spoiler

name: konai (ko-neye)
age: 21
race: human
class: fencer
element: wind

konai is a wondering swordsman who does whatever he feels like doing. ever since he was cursed with the appearance of a young teen for the rest of his life after messing with an ancient spirit, hes felt like he has no place in the world anymore. he likes to steal from whoever he wants to, and as a result, he often gets himself into fights. he is also extremely good at swindling others out of their money and puts on acts of nobility to make himself look like less of a measly mercenary. he is very cocky and over confident in his own abilities. he is also an avid treasure hunter, and an extremely greedy one at that. he prefers to be alone and usually only interacts with other people to get his own way.

but he eventually gets thrown into an ever growing party and slowly overtime begins to lighten up to the idea of having others help him out when in need. he still keeps a bit of his greed with him.

he has a sort of anime protagonist-like blue jacket that he keeps zipped up, along with slightly baggy pants that are dark blue, and some regular dark grey shoes. he has this collection of shoulder pads from all the foes that he has beaten (who have worn shoulder pads) and likes to wear them all at once as some sort of trophy. he has blue, spiky combed back hair, and is almost always bearing a cocky smirk. he is also pretty short.

konai is a well rounded fighter. he uses a rapier for quick, in your face attacks, and uses wind magic to increase his speed, defence, or just blow his foes away. his special abilities are "gust thrust" where he pierces 1 foe with a strong force of wind behind his sword, and "gale impale" in which he dashes at high speed towards his enemies and pierces right through all of them.

side note: i somewhat fear that with that description, i've made him sound like a bad main character. hes supposed to start out as this cocky, manipulative, con-artist but then becomes a friendly and actually noble character because of his interactions with his party members.




name: leori draukas (lee-oree drOW-cause)
age: 17
race: human
class: gladiator
element: earth

leori lives in a village with his parents, who work with the towns church. he's the first person to join konai's party. (but not the first party member konai meets.) , leori acts more serious when in battle, especially when other's safety is on the line. though he often struggles to handle situations on his own. when outside of battle, he's mostly just a dorky guy who nobody can keep a straight face around. he's very friendly and outgoing when someone is in trouble. (he's basically everything konai isn't.) at first, he just needed konai's help to get across a field full of monsters, but after a while, they end up becoming permanent party members. leori does find konai to be a little annoying at times, with his loner attitude and such, but he feels something about konai that makes him wanna get to know him more. leori also starts to develop a crush for another character on this list named camino.

but what nobody knows, not even himself, is that he's actually being used by the main villain as a vessel, and is waiting for the right chance to make his move, which would kill leori in the process. in the beginning of the game, leori is first seen waking up from a daze that was induced by magic fog in the woods next to his village. it turned out that while he was dazed, the main villain in a weakened state snuck into leori's soul and is now hiding there to rest and feed off of leori's magic.

leori wears a skin tight, sleeveless black shirt, and has gladiator type pauldrons, and hip pad thingys that warriors sometimes wear, along with red pants and armored boots. he has a long and narrow silver ponytail and has a few loose flaps of shorter hair sticking up.

leori is a more beefy bruiser type character. he uses a battle flail, and a sheild for a balance of offense and defense. he specializes in earth based spells to do massive damage to opponents. his special abilities are "skull shatter" where he slams his flail into the opponents head super hard, and "terra reap" where he tears the earth below the enemies asunder, damaging them in the prosess. he can learn a few holy spells because of his connection with the church, but he can also get a hold of a few dark spells for... an unknown reason *winky face*.

side note: i hope that the whole he was possessed by the main villain the whole time thing doesn't come out of left field, and actually feels like a good twist to the story. i'm not the best writer in the world. (i'm still trying to fix the beginning of my game's story so that the dialogue and conflict doesn't feel forced and unnatural.) so if anyone knows how i could successfully pull off a twist like that, please let me know.




name: mystia diajati (mist-eea die-a-jha-tee)
age: 15
race: light elf
class: summoner
element: darkness

mystia is a student of camino along side her friend pijami, and is her most powerful pupil. she's a summoner in training and at the time can only summon about 2 creatures to assist her in battle. while she seems strong in battle, she is still fighting to keep her inner darkness in check. she often gets jealous of other girls, and is easily angered when her height or bust size is made fun of. people often mistake her for a halfling. (which is a sub race of elves who stop growing past age 10 #notalolicon.) she meets up with konai and leori when they enter the oal woodlands when she is looking for her friend pijami after she goes missing when tasked to pick up somethinh from the ahn'tlo village for their master. after freeing her, and completing the chapter's dungeon, she brings the 2 to her masters dojo, which pretty much becomes the party's base.

over the course of the adventure, she learns how to use her darkness to her advantage rather then getting rid of it completely. but she still does get mad whenever someone calls her short. she also learns how to summon an ancient creature that nobody even knew even existed.

despite her element, mystia she wears her hair in a twintails style. (whats a tsundere loli without twintails?) mystia wears a pink frilly dress with white accents that has a gap in the top area of her chest, and in the middle of her back. she has her sleeve rolled up on her right arm to reveal her magical gilded gauntlet, and has white boots with ping bows on the front.

mystia is a magic user who has a mix between offensive and supportive spells. shes not a healer per say, but she does prefer it if you didn't die during battle. her weapon is a gauntlet that can reach into different realms so she can call forth creatures to aid her in battle. her most trusted summon is named timakiyu who is a winged fluff ball that grants the party a nice chunk of healing. the ancient beast she learns to summon later on in the game is named cryolare, who deals massive damage to all enemies on the field, and freezes them if they survive.

im gonna leave this unfinished for the time being. i'll post a few more characters tomorrow since its getting pretty late where i am. and if i've somehow posted this in the wrong category, or did something else incorectly for some astronomical reason, please let me know.

-gigas.

 

[BreadInc]

Hi, everyone! I've been having some problems recently with designing the main character of my game, and while I'm fixing some script errors I thought I'd ask for some inspiration. I've already hashed out all the side characters and monsters and everything, and yet... I can't find a design that suits my MC. I'll be drawing her myself.

She's a studious character who tutors a few different people and has a headstrong, sensible nature. Her original design was done in Episode Interactive and I've since completely disregarded that design because I find it a little too cliche and boring looking, but here it is:

(Her hair colour changes depending on the actions of the reader in this, which was a ditched demo.)

I'm just hoping to get some ideas, honestly. She comes off as a bit preppy and maybe a lil bit goth, and I've drawn her with about fourteen different hairstyles to no avail.

 

[Archeia]

@gigaswardblade I merged your thread to this topic because it seemed more like a writing help about characters and we also require the setting/synopsis for it to be in here for cases like this. The only other option is to move it to Art, Literature, and Music.

I also did the same to @BreadInc since it has the same problem as the above user.

 

[bgillisp]

@gigaswardblade : 3 parties of 14? I think the biggest problem you will have with that is making all the characters interesting and useful in battle. I say this as my game originally had 16 party members, but it dropped to 11 in development (the others became NPC's as I already had the art for them), as I was discovering that the other characters either had no role in the story anymore, or they had no use in battle that wasn't already covered by the others, or both.

 

[starlight dream]

She comes off as a bit preppy and maybe a lil bit goth.

Do you mean that's the type of look you want? Or you dislike that image because it's too preppy/gothy?
Just checking before I give advice and put my whole foot in my mouth...

 

[gigaswardblade]

@gigaswardblade : 3 parties of 14? I think the biggest problem you will have with that is making all the characters interesting and useful in battle. I say this as my game originally had 16 party members, but it dropped to 11 in development (the others became NPC's as I already had the art for them), as I was discovering that the other characters either had no role in the story anymore, or they had no use in battle that wasn't already covered by the others, or both.

now that i think about it, maybe i should get rid of some of my characters. or at least save them for a later game. kuz honestly, some of these characters don't have much to them. there's this 1 character whose only purpose was to be that 1 male warrior character that nobody cared about as a joke. i was legit thinking of just replacing him or just out right removing him from the game.

 

[BreadInc]

Do you mean that's the type of look you want? Or you dislike that image because it's too preppy/gothy?
Just checking before I give advice and put my whole foot in my mouth...

Yep, that's the look I'm going for! My biggest problem is with finding nice, unique-ish hairstyles fitting that.

 

[Halfdan]

I finished my Storyboard and now im thinking about some gamemechanics..

At this point about my combatsystem or what fits best my game.


The biggest Part of the Game is low Fantasy set in an World like anno 1400/1500.

So Knights and Meleeweapons, also some Animals etc. But no Magic..

And I’m afraid of it get really boring and just attack..attack..without strategic/tactical elements and hard battles…

I tougtht about some Mechanics like Armor and Weapontype. With a rock – paper – scissor formula. But that don’t chances that much…

Later there will be Masses of Enemys (Zombies) and maybe bigger Monsters like Dragons. But I think you can’t fight Dragons in normal combat, because they’re to strong..


Whats you’re opinion – ideas of a setting like this?
I tought about a similar System to Bannersaga 1/2 but whats with fights in small Rooms? There is not that much space to move...
And a classic sideview would be pretty boring? or how can xou make it interesting?

 

[gigaswardblade]

im gonna continue from where i left off now that this post is part of an already existing thread. (i swear to jaboinga, i will never be able to post in the correct places, will i?)

ps i put a spoiler here as to not take up so much room. thanks @Archeia for doing that for me before merging my first post with this thread. that is, if it was you who did it.
https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/inde...4/&temp_hash=60dfadece2efeb3a7e64195f94305ae2

Spoiler

name: pijami bloom brush (pee-jah-mee)
age: 17
race: dryad
class: archer
element: grass

pijami is the other student training under camino, and is close friends with mystia. despite her serious exterior, she is actually really clumsy and childish. she looks up to mystia like a big sister (despite the fact that pijami is older and taller) and often tries to prove herself to her by doing dangerous tasks which often gets her into trouble and leads to a scolding by mystia. she always put mystia first before herself (or anyone really) and is always the first to defend her when she's in trouble, or is being insulted.

some people, like their master camino, find her loyalty to mystia to be adorable. mystia, however, finds her to be a nuisance most of the time, but still loves her like a little sister. she is also unaware of her own beauty, and gets a little confused when men hid on her or are too nervous to talk to her, which most likely leads to awkward exchanges. her reason for joining konai and leori is simple, she goes wherever mystia goes, no matter how dangerous.

pijami has long, emerald hair that's cut straight across at her bangs and bottom of her hair. she is the tallest member of konai's party so far. she has long legs and large curves. (which mystia is jealous of.) her skin is covered in this sort of light blue fluffy moss that is on her face, torso, and some of her arms and legs. her limbs are mostly covered in this dark bark substance that gives her body more protection. she has pointed ears and has antlers that resemble tree branches sticking out the side of her head. she wears a dark brown vest that she keeps unzipped, and a green tube top underneath with 2 straps under her bust to hold the vest in place. she has short, dark brown, loincloth like shorts that exposes her hips with X shaped stitches holding it together, and a green thong underneath. i haven't decided on her shoes yet.

pijami is a mixed fighter, who uses physical and magical attacks. she is a talented archer who can properly hit her targets with almost no flaw. her element is grass (seeing as she is a dryad) which allows her to excel in healing magic, but is extremely weak to fire. she currently has no special attacks. but when she does, they'll probably be arrow themed.

side note: funnily enough, i used to not really care for this character too much. she was someone i thought of for a while, but forgot to add her to someones party when i was making the list of characters. she used to be an elf that wore a green tunic which, to be honest, was pretty lame. i only recently decided to add a dryad race to my game and decided to change pijami's race from light elf to dryad. also, i'm just gonna come out and say that i am a huge perv and made her outfit skimpy on purpose. though to be fair, she does have something that covers her skin, so i guess it doesn't really matter.



name: ciel kamore (see-el ka-more-ay)
age: 16
race: dark elf
class: ranger
element: power

ciel is an aspiring ranger (which is a kind of warrior group in this world) who lives in a settlement that treats all races equity. she is really energetic and outgoing. one of the friendliest members of konai's party. she's the sort of tomboyish type, who enjoys battling and stuff. she always wants to get stronger and stronger by fighting whoever she thinks is tough, and become a full fledged ranger. she also has a really perverted side to her. often hugging people in inappropriate ways, or comments on how attractive they are. she does get in trouble a lot for doing so, but her friends understand that its her way of showing she likes them. she has an especially fond attraction to riao, since she really likes cats and boobies. (but i mean, who doesn't?)

her magic skill is really weak, despite being a dark elf. the best she can do is summon poison onto her bolts, or make her fists and feet set on fire. she meets up with konai's party when they come across the whereabouts of the first chapter's villain. her crossbow, which she names "betsy", was stolen by monsters and she needs it back so she can fight again. of course, she doesn't NEED her crossbow to fight, she just wants it because its her good luck charm. after seeing how well they preform in battle, she chooses to fight one of them, and low and behold... she loses. she then asks who taught them how to fight and they bring her to camino's dojo where she can train with the rest of them.

her hair is a somewhat pinkish red that she ties into a sidetail. she wears a pink chinese dress with white accents that goes down to her knees and opens on both sides. there is a white dragon sewn into her dress going up her left side. her arms and legs are completely bare except for the crossbow strapped to her left arm, and wears pink high heels. she also has blue earrings.

ciel uses a mix between archery and kung fu. she uses a crossbow strapped to her arm for a long range weapon because she thinks it conserves her strength to instantly fire a bolt rather than pull back and fire an entire bow and arrow. she will also use punches, kicks, and weapon bashes when enemies get too close. her first special move is called "rojo rain" in which she shoots a ton of flaming, poisonous arrows into the air and has it land on her enemies and sometimes her friends. her second special move is still being worked on. it'll probably involve a dragon.

side note: this character used to just be "the party's pervert". but then i came up with the idea of giving her a goku like personality in which she enjoys fighting and always wants to get stronger. i was somewhat contemplating weather or not i should remove her from the party. i think i learned that if you ever feel like a character has no point of existing, just try to think of something more for them to be, and you'll end up liking them more.

i think this is enough for now. just to let you all know, i am nowhere near done with these character bio's. there is much more where this came from.

-gugas

 

[Ailius]

-post deleted by poster

 

[gigaswardblade]

Hi, everyone! I've been having some problems recently with designing the main character of my game, and while I'm fixing some script errors I thought I'd ask for some inspiration. I've already hashed out all the side characters and monsters and everything, and yet... I can't find a design that suits my MC. I'll be drawing her myself.

She's a studious character who tutors a few different people and has a headstrong, sensible nature. Her original design was done in Episode Interactive and I've since completely disregarded that design because I find it a little too cliche and boring looking, but here it is:

(Her hair colour changes depending on the actions of the reader in this, which was a ditched demo.)

I'm just hoping to get some ideas, honestly. She comes off as a bit preppy and maybe a lil bit goth, and I've drawn her with about fourteen different hairstyles to no avail.

this is just me, but i think she would look cool with short, red hair. like a dark crimson. and maybe a streak of some other color. but you did say that her hair color changes depending on something, so i'm not sure if this was very helpful.