Rules Ideas That Don’t Deserve Their Own Thread

[wilpuri]

I'm asking for storytelling ideas on how to make the conversations more natural, I'm crazy good at eventing, I'm just bad at storytelling.

Yeah, storytelling is hard. Without knowing the tone of the game it’s very hard to say.
My solution on storytelling was to be brief. Not trying to be an author. I did that because english is not my first language, but I think it could be a good solution for many.
I haven’t heard anyone complaining about RPGs having too few words.

 

[Wolfsiege]

I think the path to make make them "good" is really straight forward, and should probably be relatively easy from a dialog perspective. However if you want to make turning them "bad" feel more natural you have to rationalize the reasoning behind the main characters actions. You don't just want him to be like "Yeah I totally killed a whole village the other day it was fun! *insert evil laughter here*" cause obviously any normal person would immediately leave the party. If you want it to feel natural you need to rationalize the reasoning behind doing so. perhaps some kind of "revenge" or for the sake of "justice" or something that gives logic and reasoning behind the actions/ideology floating around in the main characters head. I'm not sure if that's exactly what your asking but This is what it sounded like? I hope this was helpful ^^;

Yeah, I agree, the good guy path is very easy to write and affection mechanics are very straight forward.

The "turning party members to the darkside" part is what I'm sorta lost in.

 

[chaucer]

Yeah, I agree, the good guy path is very easy to write and affection mechanics are very straight forward.

The "turning party members to the darkside" part is what I'm sorta lost in.

Yeah I believe if you want to make it believable you need to rationalize the "bad" behavior or idea's, you want to give good reason behind the thought process... like maybe telling a party member "It's okay to do X bad thing, because the person they are doing it to deserves it" or "It's fine to kill these people cause they're beyond saving, there's no other way, if we don't kill them now, other innocent people will die", etc.. It really depends on the situation, but you have to make it seem like the main character is rationalizing, and normalizing the "bad" deeds of their fellow party members, it makes it more believable to put a believable emotion behind this.

Like maybe your party member's family was killed by the general of X army, and when that party member encounters said general later down the road, they must make a choice to either kill, or forgive the general, who's may or may not have changed his way since then.

In this situation the main character can provoke the party member by telling them to think about all the suffering he's caused, and all the other people he's done the same thing to, think about all the lives he's taken, and how he deserves to die. or something along those lines. and to make the situation more relevant you can add a flashback of what happened, and how terrible a person the general was in that situation, so you can attempt to make the player feel some degree of malice toward the general to make them more inclined to choose to kill the general.

This could then start the party member down a darker path, because maybe later he meets someone somewhat bad, and decides, "he could turn out to be just like that general", so now he has an excuse to continue killing people he dislikes/disagree's with.

Sorry for the dark take here o_o; but this is just an example, it's best to think about each characters personality and traits individually, and think about where their weakness lies, these are things can may be exploited by the main character to begin turning them "bad".

Hopefully this is more helpful ^^ I'm not writer myself, my skills lie in programming, but this is just my take on making the situation more believable. Maybe someone with more insight may be able to provide better feedback on this ^^;

 

[Wolfsiege]

Yeah I believe if you want to make it believable you need to rationalize the "bad" behavior or idea's, you want to give good reason behind the thought process... like maybe telling a party member "It's okay to do X bad thing, because the person they are doing it to deserves it" or "It's fine to kill these people cause they're beyond saving, there's no other way, if we don't kill them now, other innocent people will die", etc.. It really depends on the situation, but you have to make it seem like the main character is rationalizing, and normalizing the "bad" deeds of their fellow party members, it makes it more believable to put a believable emotion behind this.

Like maybe your party member's family was killed by the general of X army, and when that party member encounters said general later down the road, they must make a choice to either kill, or forgive the general, who's may or may not have changed his way since then.

In this situation the main character can provoke the party member by telling them to think about all the suffering he's caused, and all the other people he's done the same thing to, think about all the lives he's taken, and how he deserves to die. or something along those lines. and to make the situation more relevant you can add a flashback of what happened, and how terrible a person the general was in that situation, so you can attempt to make the player feel some degree of malice toward the general to make them more inclined to choose to kill the general.

This could then start the party member down a darker path, because maybe later he meets someone somewhat bad, and decides, "he could turn out to be just like that general", so now he has an excuse to continue killing people he dislikes/disagree's with.

Sorry for the dark take here o_o; but this is just an example, it's best to think about each characters personality and traits individually, and think about where their weakness lies, these are things can may be exploited by the main character to begin turning them "bad".

Hopefully this is more helpful ^^ I'm not writer myself, my skills lie in programming, but this is just my take on making the situation more believable. Maybe someone with more insight may be able to provide better feedback on this ^^;

Oooh, I love that, don't worry about your writing skills, you are giving me good ideas!

I began this whole "turning party members bad" idea because I don't really like morality systems in other games in the way that they almost always just mean being a as$hole.
My thought process was that I want the player to be able to be Sauron or Darth Sidious instead of Kylo Ren.

That was one of the things I liked about the RPG Tyranny and Kotor 2 as well, Obsidian had a knack for this.

 

[Jessrond]

Not going to make a thread for my ideas.

Here it is, though.

Strange formulas for attack damage.

1. Attack damage based on number of times saved.

2. Attack damage based on number of steps taken.

This would be normally enemy attacks.

 

[TRIDIUM]

Oh, gosh, I had no idea this thread existed.
I must resist the urge to post all my bad ideas, but here's one that's been in my head for ages.
Catgirl is sentenced to 9 life sentences in prison for murder.
Ba doom kish!

 

[Jobhob]

My game features mainly two playable actors, so I decided to experiment with menu actor display. And, well, I don't really know how to feel about it, that's why I post it here

 

[alice_gristle]

@Jobhob I really like the Spy vs Spy vibe! Does yo game use pixel art a lot tho? Just askin' 'cuz I feel the pixel font you got going isn't the best fit for yo actor images?

 

[Jobhob]

@Jobhob I really like the Spy vs Spy vibe! Does yo game use pixel art a lot tho? Just askin' 'cuz I feel the pixel font you got going isn't the best fit for yo actor images?

Overworld is pixel, portraits in dialogue boxes are pixel, and all icons are pixel. Title screen, Main Menu, Cutscenes, and all that inside a battle is digital.

A little showcase (a but outdated)

 

[alice_gristle]

@Jobhob okay, not bad, sweetie! You got the style down pat, I like it! I wud still maybe fish around a bit, see if there's a font that wud be a better fit? Somethin' about it doesn't click wid me

 

[Willibab]

Randomly had an idea while drawing about a puzzle/survival game where you have to choose 2 out of 6 senses (1 being fictional, whatever you want/fits the game) before entering the game and only being able to use those senses to finish the game. So If you don't choose sight you literally cannot see, but maybe you can sense things or get warnings (see a little) if you choose hearing or smell.

Each sense have benefits and detriments, most of which are obvious but also gameplay stuff like not being able to taste if food is spoiled or not being able to smell gas.

 

[Jobhob]

Since I'm about to dwelve into some boring university stuff, I guess I could leave a small update on progress I made (mostly interface stuff)