Is this Branching Plot too chaotic?

[Black Noise]

I've been brewing this idea for my RPG in my mind for a really long while.

It's basically a space opera themed RPG set in a wide galaxy filled with various systems and planets that literally each have their own orbital periods, climates, surface gravities and

day/night cycles. Also travel between planets and systems take a considerable amount of time between days and months, leaving you to manage your spaceship and interact with fellow crewmates to pass the time.

My branching story is going to have so many branches, it'd make Mass Effect look as linear as a COD game... 

But as I thought about it lately and written down notes on how the branches would work, I found myself doubting if it could work at all.

Let me put in some context.

My story has the hero and his friends scattered across the galaxy by some incident and he is determined to seek them out.

However he finds a mystic artefact that grants him superhuman powers and he is enlisted by a mysterious organisation that researches these artefacts.

He is to help them find other relics across the galaxy as they compete with other factions who have their eye on them, in return for their help in assisting in his search for his friends.

To start off, the hero's friends starting locations will be randomised with every playthrough so you're never going to find them in the same place every time.

Basically, concurrently to the hero's journey, they will each undergo their own adventure with branching pathways that is randomly chosen and they will move on as time passes so

the player also has to track them down from any clues they leave behind - that is, if the player decides to look for them at all. And the calendar-based time progression and long space travel periods serve to add weight to this.

In the meantime, the player, as a space mercenary, has to pick jobs to earn money to improve his ship and equipment and on his travels, he will stumble onto plotlines involving

corporate corruption, civil conflict, epidemic, political conspiracy, social unrest and cultural change where his involvement - depending on the players choices - will have a profound effect in not only the immediate area but across the whole galaxy. Chances are, again by random chance, he may accidentally bump into one of his missing friends as it could be one of the random pathways he/she is going on.

If the player ever does reunite with a missing friend, depending on the journey they took so far, he/she may decide either to join the hero or stay behind (Maybe to help a noble cause or because he/she is coerced by some evil figure for some reason), leaving the player to decide from there. With anyone you do bring on board as a new crew member, you can build a relationship with and the various characters can also build relationships with each other. Most relationships will actually affect each other one way or another and certain breakthroughs in some relationships have strict prerequisites in order to be achieved - such as helping settle their personal demons or something. Some of these prerequisites may even intersect with other relationships, i.e. one friend will only be your best friend if you become good friends with someone else or if you break up a romantic bond with them.

Many scenes have different outcomes that depend not only on the player's dialogue choices or certain actions made in the past but also on your relationships with some party members...

And the party's stats! In some of the games I played, player stats (besides just the Charisma one) opened up branching decisions like a high Strength stat allowing me to intimidate an NPC to get what I want or move an obstacle out of the way. Well, it'd happen in my game as well. Let's say for example, a party member (whose BFF's with our hero thanks to the players efforts in building their relationship) has a high enough Perception skill to see a Sniper about to shoot our hero, then attempts to shove our hero out of harms way. If he has high enough Dexterity and Agility stats, he might succeed and survive himself - otherwise, he'll take the bullet and die. Or another character the guy taking the bullet happens to be BFF's with as well, could be able to treat his wound and save him unless he is either sworn rivals with him and/or doesn't have a high enough First Aid skill. But if the hero has a high enough Perception skill, he can dodge out of harms way himself without risking any of his friends.

Then there's another aspect to the plot, you see the magic artefact the hero uses is an ancient forbidden relic that's considered a bad omen in some religions and cultures but a tool of salvation and enlightenment in others and thus the hero's friends and anyone else tagging along will react differently to his powers. How often he resorts to them also affects his relationships (i.e. a condition for progressing the relationship with some characters would be to minimize his use of his powers and complete mission objectives by non-mystical means). In fact, progressing his powers also has an effect on the hero's character so the player has a choice whether to train his powers to the highest level or to keep as much of a mundane human mortal as possible, which will make completing the game and surviving whatever dangers come his way much more difficult but still beatable through other methods, especially in the party members co-operation with each other encouraged by their growing relationships and skill progression.

And back to the whole seeking your friends part, since their locations are randomized, there is not even a set order you find them and in some playthroughs you may not

manage to find them all by the time an important plot point happens and they will come out as dramatically different people if you happen to reunite with them very, very late in the game and see them react to what the long years of the hero's journey has changed him into - whether for the better or worse will be up to the player.

This description doesn't really do justice to my idea, but what I'm worried about is that I already actually formed a solid, more linear story in my mind and I find it being a non-linear, randomized story too chaotic. The reason I thought of making it a branching story was to encourage players to invest in the fates of the characters and their development and to try and go beyond what mainstream games do with their branching storylines.

Any feedback will be most welcome and if you have any questions or want any further explanation about my idea, don't hesitate to ask.

 

[Wavelength]

It's a nice dream, but even if you have the talent to pull this off (easier said than done, making all of the possible plot paths coherent and all of the mechanics consistent and balanced), there is no way in hell you're going to have the time to implement it all.  What you're daydreaming about is a decade's worth of work and no one's going to do that work for you.

 

[Milennin]

Yeah, there's a good reason why games tend to not have huge branching paths.

 

[Black Noise]

In which case, I might as well have to either go for a fully linear plot or narrow down the branching paths, eh?

 

[bgillisp]

How about make the main linear plotline first, then once that is done, see where you can branch it? That's what I'm doing in my game right now. Sure, it might end up with me sticking to the linear plot (in fact, my first game is very linear anyways, most branches are alternate ways to complete the quest), but at least I'd be done.

 

[McKathlin]

Black Noise, I think your game concept can be finish-able if you're willing to strategically trim down its complexity. I also invite you to consider building it as an open world RPG.

Have you played any open world RPGs? Some examples of open world RPGs include the Ultima series, the Elder Scrolls series, Fable, and Artifact Adventure (which is actually built with RPG Maker and available on Steam for about $5). Basically, an open world game doesn't have one big overall plotline or plot tree; it has a simple endgame objective, and plenty of optional quests (mini-trees), most of which are independent of each other. Each quest may include a choice or two, and completion of a quest can have varying rewards depending on the player's choices within the quest.

Along with the various mini-quests, an open world game may keep track of a few variables that shape the player's overall experience. For instance, Fable keeps track of your degree of fame, how good or evil you are, and whether or not you're perceived as scary. Artifact Adventure keeps track of no particular game-wide variables, but for each completed quest, you see a mini-epilogue as part of your ending. For your game, it sounds like your main variables that tie the game together will be your relationship scores with your crewmates. While on interplanetary voyages, your crewmates "remember" completed quests and talk about them, and their interactions with you clue you in to how much they like and trust you. Setting up conversations like this needn't be complicated; it can be done in RPG Maker with a bit of branching based on quest-done switches and relationship-score variables.

I recommend the following approach for developing this game:

1. Consider which you would rather have if you could only have one: a movie-like strong central narrative with plenty of plot points but very few choices (i.e. linear model), or a simple main plot and many possible subplots (i.e. open world model)?
2. Above all, what is your game about? What makes it different from the other games out there? Determine what your game's main selling points are. Consider your features: which are going to matter most to the player? Which contribute to your game's distinctive essence, and which distract from the game's better points? Cut any feature that isn't really worth it. For instance, how would you represent different surface gravities in an RPG: would they add an enjoyable puzzle element, or be a side note in the lore with no implementation needed, or be utterly irrelevant and best left out?
3. Figure out your main plot: what is the endgame, and what must occur for the player to get there? How can you make the main plot even simpler while still keeping it interesting enough? If you're doing linear plot, you'll need to figure out what makes it interesting , but if you're doing open world, simple is best, and you can make the interesting stuff optional.
4. If you're doing open world, select your subplots. You've brainstormed many. If you could only pick three or four, which would they be? Which optional plots are simple yet engaging? Which plots are a little more complex, but interesting enough to be totally worth it? Do these optional plots give the player the opportunity to move toward the end goal? If the player makes all the wrong choices (if any are more wrong), can the player still win the game, if with more difficulty?
5. Start building your game with the bare minimum needed to reach the endgame, and then fill your game out incrementally with enriching content. Say, start with your main plot in its simplest form, one small optional subplot, two planets, and one crewmate found in one predetermined place. After that, add more optional plots. Add another crewmate. Add more planets, if doing so will improve the game enough to be worth your time and effort. Randomly place crewmates only if it's worth it. Release it when it's "done" enough for your audience to enjoy. (It'll probably never be as done as you'd like.)

Bringing player choice into games is a challenging pursuit that fascinates me. I wish you the best, and hope to hear more from you.

 

[Black Noise]

Thank you McKathlin.

I'll consider what you've said and work on my story accordingly.

 

[McKathlin]

Thank you McKathlin.

I'll consider what you've said and work on my story accordingly.

No problem. If you want someone to bounce ideas off of as you're going, I'd be happy to help with that.

 

[Einreicht]

Your points are very interesting, but one word that you mentioned often above made me cringed, RANDOM. Yes a bit of randomness/RNG is fine, but making them crucial to determine what the ending will be is a very bad idea IMO.

I personally don't want to play a game where there is a specific party member(s) and ending(s) that I like/aim for, but to get them I have to go through a bunch of RNGs. Having complex or difficult prerequisites are much bearable because it challenge my skills, but RNG is relying only on your luck.

 

[Kes]

@Black Noise

I've only seen this now (blame the avalanche of MV related threads to go through) and this doesn't really belong here, but in Character and Plot feedback, as it relates entirely to one game.

Have you had enough discussion to take things forward?  If yes, I'll close the thread.  If not, I'll merge it with Character and Plot feedback.

 

[DoctorMolotov]

I recommend the following approach for developing this game:

1. Consider which you would rather have if you could only have one: a movie-like strong central narrative with plenty of plot points but very few choices (i.e. linear model), or a simple main plot and many possible subplots (i.e. open world model)?
2. Above all, what is your game about? What makes it different from the other games out there? Determine what your game's main selling points are. Consider your features: which are going to matter most to the player? Which contribute to your game's distinctive essence, and which distract from the game's better points? Cut any feature that isn't really worth it. For instance, how would you represent different surface gravities in an RPG: would they add an enjoyable puzzle element, or be a side note in the lore with no implementation needed, or be utterly irrelevant and best left out?
3. Figure out your main plot: what is the endgame, and what must occur for the player to get there? How can you make the main plot even simpler while still keeping it interesting enough? If you're doing linear plot, you'll need to figure out what makes it interesting , but if you're doing open world, simple is best, and you can make the interesting stuff optional.
4. If you're doing open world, select your subplots. You've brainstormed many. If you could only pick three or four, which would they be? Which optional plots are simple yet engaging? Which plots are a little more complex, but interesting enough to be totally worth it? Do these optional plots give the player the opportunity to move toward the end goal? If the player makes all the wrong choices (if any are more wrong), can the player still win the game, if with more difficulty?
5. Start building your game with the bare minimum needed to reach the endgame, and then fill your game out incrementally with enriching content. Say, start with your main plot in its simplest form, one small optional subplot, two planets, and one crewmate found in one predetermined place. After that, add more optional plots. Add another crewmate. Add more planets, if doing so will improve the game enough to be worth your time and effort. Randomly place crewmates only if it's worth it. Release it when it's "done" enough for your audience to enjoy. (It'll probably never be as done as you'd like.)

Bringing player choice into games is a challenging pursuit that fascinates me. I wish you the best, and hope to hear more from you.

Well said. I am glad I stumbled upon this because I will use this approach for what I am working on (minus the parts where it pertains entirely to the OPs story).