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So, I've been toying with an idea for a couple of days now - and I think this would be the right forum to put it in.
You have your RPG, fine, but once it's been played through, you know it's liable to just stay put on the shelf. You need something to spice things up; to add a little surprise and novelty for subsequent playthroughs.
Enter this little idea: Every New Game starts with a stack of random variables. Four Fighter characters to pick from, four Priests, four Magi, four Thieves, that sort of thing. This determines who will be available for recruitment to the party; they'll have subtle differences, of course; perhaps Fighter 1 gains a damage bonus with axes, while Fighter 2 gains a damage bonus with fire-enchanted weaponry, and Fighter 3 is a little better at soaking damage and shielding other party members... Just enough difference to make a tactical difference, but not enough to imbalance the entire game, of course.
The party members will not be the only ones to be randomly placed like this, of course; they'll have families, spouses and/or children waiting at home. This random distribution should be genuinely random, of course, and not take into account such things as gender. With the inevitable result that at some point, the big, burly, bearded brute of a Fighter can come home to his delicate florist husband, or that dainty, elfin Sorceress you've been adventuring with brings you home to meet her wife, the baker. Or perhaps the dandy Fighter with the metrosexual moustache has a sweet but conservative wife waiting at home.
That sort of thing. It would mean writing probably a few hundred more lines of party banter and dialogue, but I suspect the actual complexity would be mostly superficial. And the potential for ending cutscenes, of course, would be spectacular.
As a bonus, don't let the players know about that randomizer in advance... Just sit back and enjoy the hilarity as hundreds of people start discussing the "best party setup" and "favorite character", and even "best spouse" over the first few days while the confusion over which characters are actually in the game spreads.
As an extra bonus, I'm sure some of you remember that spectacular kerfuffle around Bioware when the "Straight Male Gamer" complained about not getting all the preferential love in romance options from Dragon Age 2... I don't think I need to go on.
My question, though... Is this something you'd like to see done (or even do yourselves) for a game? Keep in mind, it's not a basis for a game in and of itself, but it might be worth adding to an already solid project.
You have your RPG, fine, but once it's been played through, you know it's liable to just stay put on the shelf. You need something to spice things up; to add a little surprise and novelty for subsequent playthroughs.
Enter this little idea: Every New Game starts with a stack of random variables. Four Fighter characters to pick from, four Priests, four Magi, four Thieves, that sort of thing. This determines who will be available for recruitment to the party; they'll have subtle differences, of course; perhaps Fighter 1 gains a damage bonus with axes, while Fighter 2 gains a damage bonus with fire-enchanted weaponry, and Fighter 3 is a little better at soaking damage and shielding other party members... Just enough difference to make a tactical difference, but not enough to imbalance the entire game, of course.
The party members will not be the only ones to be randomly placed like this, of course; they'll have families, spouses and/or children waiting at home. This random distribution should be genuinely random, of course, and not take into account such things as gender. With the inevitable result that at some point, the big, burly, bearded brute of a Fighter can come home to his delicate florist husband, or that dainty, elfin Sorceress you've been adventuring with brings you home to meet her wife, the baker. Or perhaps the dandy Fighter with the metrosexual moustache has a sweet but conservative wife waiting at home.
That sort of thing. It would mean writing probably a few hundred more lines of party banter and dialogue, but I suspect the actual complexity would be mostly superficial. And the potential for ending cutscenes, of course, would be spectacular.
As a bonus, don't let the players know about that randomizer in advance... Just sit back and enjoy the hilarity as hundreds of people start discussing the "best party setup" and "favorite character", and even "best spouse" over the first few days while the confusion over which characters are actually in the game spreads.
As an extra bonus, I'm sure some of you remember that spectacular kerfuffle around Bioware when the "Straight Male Gamer" complained about not getting all the preferential love in romance options from Dragon Age 2... I don't think I need to go on.
My question, though... Is this something you'd like to see done (or even do yourselves) for a game? Keep in mind, it's not a basis for a game in and of itself, but it might be worth adding to an already solid project.
