Nerdaissance

Hey anybody out there,

It just seems to be one of those facts of my blogging life that I am not the best with posting. Well, more appropriately, I don’t post unless something is going on. Fortunately for now, and hopefully consistently in the near future, I will be DMing not one, but two different DnD sessions.

I will be differentiating the two parties by large party (the one that has appeared up until this point) and the small party (the one that is starting with this post tonight.) I will also think of names for the campaigns as a whole.

But enough of that stuff, let’s get on to the first session of this small party.

Human samurai Naga no Minowara arrives at New Lazenfurth on a ceremonious day. The city’s emperor Glanan Milvnuk announces to a large crown that the work on the new city walls will be finished that day. As the crowds dispersed, Naga hears music coming from a cello in the distance. Sounding nice, he walks towards it, but as he gets closer it stops. He sees a street performer being harassed by 4 street thugs. As he doesn’t want to give them their money back, they decide to take it by force. A fight ensues, with the samurai coming in to help. The bard is knocked unconscious, but the thugs are defeated.  The police come and bring everyone back to full health and bring the thugs to prison, where they will work on the next government construction project.

The bard, Archet, thanks the samurai and, as they are both fairly new to the city, decide to tag along with each other. They are also introduced to Emat Erk, a bright emerald-eyed human who just wants to know more about them after witnessing that spectacular fight.  He offers to buy them a drink, so they all head to the Red Dragon Pub & Inn. As they get closer, they see a man thrown out the window of the Inn. A black-haired man yells to the unconscious man about not coming to his pub before he walked off into the shadows. Archet and Naga ask around about what happened (meeting drunkard Eldon), but the man remains a mystery.

After their investigation, the team decided to investigate the slums for any sign of the mysterious man. While walking around the poor houses, they come across Felix Lah, a man with very long hair wearing only pants. They ask him questions about the abandoned warehouses, but he seemed hesitant to answer anything. After continued interrogation, they realize he is homeless and doesn’t want to be turned in to the cops (and subsequently put to work for the government.) He eventually tells them that he has heard people having meetings in the warehouse he sleeps in.

After a long stakeout, the team tries to listen in on a large secret meeting. A group of fifty or so well-dressed citizens secretly enter the warehouse. They can gather is that one of the men is very clearly the leader, and that they have a plan to take back the streets. They decide to try to talk to the leader about their recent struggles with street violence (with Naga posing as Archet’s bodyguard), and how they would like to help out the cause. The leader is a man named Taish Narvo, the wealthiest man in the city (outside of possibly the emperor.) He tells them that he is sorry for their plight, gives them his business card and tells them to come by his mansion if they ever want to play at a gala at his mansion.

With this information, they take leave back to the Red Dragon Inn to meet up with Emat to see if he has garnered any additional information. He tells them that the mysterious man was set off by the one man talking about politics and that Taish Narvo is the head contractor for all of the emperor’s construction projects. They sleep at the Inn.

The next day, they go to the old townhall to look up Taish Narvo. His family was one of the founding families of New Lazenfurth, and everything about him being a contractor jived with what they had heard. They were eventually asked out, as there was going to be a ceremony for the next commencement project, a fort in New Lazenfurth’s harbor.

Archet and Naga decided to see what they can find out by sneaking on one of the ships. They actually find Eldon, who can only find a job willingly working with the prisoners. Not finding much, they get off the boat.

***

At that point, we had to end the session. Hopefully, we will be able to play in the next two weeks again.

Until then,

bye

At about 11 AM yesterday the Mark I Demo of ‘Starting to Fear’ was completed!

Already I’ve found a striking problem: the thing is huge! Clocking it at around 60 MB, it’ll take you about two minutes to download on a decent connection. These games shouldn’t take that long, and the only reason this one does is becuase of the music files. I need to convert them to MIDI from MP3, but I’m reluctant to do so for quality control reasons at this time.

So Mark II, already planned, is going to solve the size issue. That aside, we’re open for business. Download the MKI-Demo and feel free to let me know what you think of it. (If you already have RPG Maker VX, you can download the version without the RTP included.)

At present, I’ve also submitted this demo to the mercy of the discerning folks over at the RPG Maker VX Community, and you might be interested to see what input they have!

The following is material that I prepared to serve as a sort of primer/supplement for the game itself. Knowing this information going into the game will make it a little richer experience, giving a great deal of context to the events that transpire once we join our hero. These brief dossiers will probably be subject to re-writes, as I intend them to eventually be the official introductions to the game, and at preset represent a second pass at rough notes from my initial planning.

A Brief History of Ossetia-

Ossetia represents the earliest known settlement of people on the continent of Transcaucasia. Established at the edge of the wooded area between the sea and the Caucas mountains, it slowly grew into a sprawling cradle of advanced society. Known history has little recollection of a time before Ossetia existed in some form or another.

The apex Ossetian society has been pegged at 615 AY (Absolute Year). In this year, King Phillipe finalized the brand new western protectorate, creatively named Western Ossetia. Central Ossetia, the original establishment, was now flanked on either side; to the east its industrial hub, to the west its shimmering new cultural one. Western Ossetia sported a concert hall, as well as a library which had a very extensive collection.

For five years afterwards, propsperity reigned. This is commonly thought to have come abruptly to a halt with the death of Queen Neko. Her death, preceeded by prolonged illness, weighed heavilly on the mind of the King, and was followed by many hardships for the Ossetians.

Seemingly from nowhere, and as if on cue, war found its way to Ossetia. A vicious, nomadic tribe from the north was terrorizing the town. Normally content to roam their lands in at the northernmost tip of Transcaucasia, they attacked Ossetia under the organizational leadership of Baron VanVleck. He expertly used the tribe to inflict pain and fear upon the people of Ossetia. King Phillipe eventually negotiated a peace.

Ossetia agreed to surrender all of its accumulated wealth in exchange for peace and VanVleck’s promise that the remaining crops and foodstores not be destroyed. The King died only a few months after brokering this truce, his people impoverished, his kingdom in disarray. VanVleck returned within the week to take all the food his troops could carry, and burned the rest.

At Western Ossetia, the people made their final stand. They were underprepared for the initial assault, but now they had done their best to militarize, arming themselves and preparing to fight. VanVleck and his troops killed or maimed them with relative ease, and as a lesson, burned Western Ossetia to the ground.

For two years, the remaining people struggled simply to stay alive, until a young farmer stepped up to lead them. Roman Oliver expertly consolidated resources and saught to begin rebuilding Ossetia. By the time his son Ray turned 15, the town was on its way out of a crippling recession, headed towards better times.

The one day he disappeared.

Ray and Daniel’s Story-

Ray left home at 16 to search for his father, the brilliant leader of Ossetia who had gone missing. After searching the entire continent, he began to lose hope. Thinking that he had been kidnapped by VanVleck in retaliation for rebuilding Ossetia, Ray even infiltrated the early structures of what would become Stauropolis, but found nothing. On his way out of town, he ran into Daniel.

Daniel was on his way to find employment in VanVleck’s army. He left home at age 14 when his mother died, and began wandering the Transcaucasian countryside looking for ways to subsist. Hearing that VanVleck needed young men to build his military, he headed north. After convincing Daniel that VanVleck was an evil man, and he should not work for his military, the two teamed up to continue the search for Roman Oliver. After another fruitless year of searching, the two decide to give up, and return to Ossetia and do what they can for the poor town. Before arriving, they are propositioned by a stranger looking for mercenaries. They turn down the offer, disturbed by what it might entail.

Returning home, Ray meets one of his only childhood friends, C.J. Conner. Tragedy strikes though, when C.J.’s younger brother falls ill and dies, the sickness complicated by malnutrition because the town has no money to grow crops to feed itself, and there is no nearby locality willing to sell them goods. After that, Ray vows he will take up his father’s mantle of saving Ossetia. Under cover of night, Ray left Ossetia to find the man offering them work.

The stranger asked Ray to kill an old man who lived in the Caucas mountains. The ‘old man’ proved to be far more capable than Ray had expected, and even moreso than Ray himself. At the last moment, Daniel came rushing in to save Ray. From that day forth, the two were partners in the dark business of killing men for the employer known only as Siegfried.

Skeleton Plot Sequence of Starting to Fear-
(It’s broken into approximate ‘chapters’ or major story events; *** denotes the beginning and end of the demo)

***
-Ray and Daniel kill Wiseman (A) on the Introduction Island
-Next they collect the money from Siegfried’s Aide in Siegfried’s Domain
-They restock and explore in Ossetia (located in Transcaucasia)

-Next they leave for the forrest continent of Antilles
-There they brave the jungle to eventually arrive at the location of Wiseman (B), named Leonidas
-After battling and defeating (killing) Leonidas, they once again return to Ossetia

-Ray and Daniel then depart to save Rick Oln, the local smith, who’s been captured by VanVleck’s men
-After rescuing Rick, they must protect his envoy of goods across the sea, battling pirates
-Upon arrival, Siegfried’s Aide implores Ray and Daniel to travel south, where Wiseman (C) resides
***
-They must kill a number of villagers in order to kill Wiseman (C), and Ray is appaled at what they’ve done
-He and Daniel begin to argue, but are interrupted by the arrival of VanVleck and his troops
-After defeating all of the troops, however, before Ray can strike VanVleck himself, Daniel betrays him, literally stabbing him in the back
-VanVleck orders Ray marooned on an island they pass on the return route to Transcaucasia

-Ray awakens, without his equipment, money, or items, on a strange island
-A local islander, Zoe, helps Ray construct a raft from scavanged materials, and accompanies him on his return journey to Ossetia
-In Ossetia (which has improved considerably during Ray’s time away), Ray conceals his identity, lest VanVleck and Daniel learn that he is alive

-Ray and Zoe accompany Rick, who has volunteered to defeat a bandit that has taken up residence in the Western Ossetia Ruins
-Within the ruins, in an old library, they come across some ancient texts which partially tell the story of Siegfried and The Order
-Finally realizing why Siegfried wants these men dead, and shocked at what he had been party to, Ray must hurry to find the last remaining

Wiseman (D) and protect him from Siegfried and Daniel, who are still hunting him
-A brief stop in Ossetia yields victory celebration as the defeat of the bandit and the liberation of Western Ossetia
-At the part, Ray’s childhood friend C.J. recognizes him through his disguise, and demands to accompany him on his journey

-Under the cover of night, they steal away to the north, hoping to find Wiseman (D) by tracking Daniel from Stauropolis
-They succeed in deducing their destination, and catch Daniel and VanVleck’s men in time to save the Wiseman (D)
-Escaping with the Wiseman (D) in tow, they leave Daniel behind, barely alive, and return to Ossetia
-The Wiseman (D) then explains the remainder of the story missing from the library text, telling of a weapon which is capable of defeating the ancient evil Siegfried embodies
-Seemingly from nowhere, Archimedes, pupil of the Wiseman (D) arrives, demanding to aid in the quest of recovering the weapon

-Wiseman (D), named Obiken, has one piece
-The second is located in a mountain range populated by Old World Demons
-The third is actually located back on Antilles, in the very tree that Leonidas was protecting
-The fourth is somewhere on the continent of Transcaucasia (requires not battles, but detective work to find!)

-Rick reforges the pieces into the Old Blade, with his own skills and the magical aid of the Obiken
-The entire party then boards the airship (aquired in some yet-undertermined way) and sets off for Siegfired’s Domain

-Upon arrival, they must battle VanVleck’s minions and Daniel in order to gain entrance (the revelation here is that Siegfried has been pulling the strings behind VanVleck’s entire capaign of conquest that began so many years ago)
-Battling a number of foul things, the party makes its way to the roof of the castle-complex, where they meet Siegfried
-When the battle is around halfway through, Obiken tells Archimedes that it is time, and Archimedes helps cast a spell that will unite Obiken and Siegfried
-With the only two sources of Old Magic in Solen now united (Sig., the evil half, and the Final Order Member, the decent half), the composite creature is an amalgamation of powerful magic, existing in a state of unstable equilibrium.
-After further weakening it, Ray must deal the final blow with the Old Blade, the last missing piece of Old Magic, and as the sword unites with the composite, it also depives the creature of the last of its living energy, casuing all of the Old Magic sources to collapse, leaving Solen forever.

-As the creature dies/dissappears, the very fabric of Solen becomes unstable; Rick pulls around in the airship, and the rest of the party jumps from the roof of the castle to the deck of the ship, barely escaping
-Befor they’re clear though, a castle piece strikes the ship, throwing everyone to the ground, and nearly knocking C.J. off, Ray barely catching her
-A second, crippling blow, jars her hand from his, and she falls into the abyss that has formed where the Old Magic collapsed. Ray demands that they turn the ship around, and return for her, but Archimedes and Rick restrain him and continue their escape (lest everyone be killed)
-Their argument is interrupted, however, when a third and final blow strikes the limping airship from the sky
-As the pieces break up around them, the party jumps from the deck right the ship crashes into the sea

~End of Act I~

The World Map-
[Subject to revision, as entire land masses have gone unused thus far, and not yet appear as they otherwise would]

Landmasses Labeled; Click for Fullsize

I promised a while ago that I would post story materials. When I set out to compile them for public consumption (all of my notes are in paper form, too) I separated them into two categories: Materials that would be “included”, like ‘The Story Thus Far’ and the Map and all that business, and then for those that were curious, “non-included” material that is for my own personal reference in making the game.

This entry concerns the latter, and so that said, you’ve been warned: Spoilers Abound.

Background of Siegfried and the Order-

An ancient order of warriors, bound to one another by magic as old as the world itself has protected Solen since history has been recorded, and in fact they did so before that as well. This order, long ago, at the threshold of the emergence of the first civilization Solen would know, rallied the people of the world together to fight an evil as old as they: Siegfried. After laying waste to all of Solen, blotting that infant civilization from the face of the planet, Siegfried confronted the Order on the open plains of what would come to be called Transcaucasia. For a full week, they battled, eventually bringing Siegfried to the brink of death.

In this moment, the Order made a crucial decision. Their understanding of the Old Magic, the forces which were intrinsic to their own being as well as Siegfried’s, was as such: if they killed him, the balance would be upset. The lack of any evil in the world would demand a force to act counter to the Order. Not wishing to incite such a response from the Old Magic, the Order shrewdly imprisoned Siegfried and hid him away in the most remote corner of Solen they could find, hoping that would be the last the world would ever know of him.

In time, the Order, without the looming threat of Siegfried to keep them sharp, became disorganized and their power waned until they were simply a scattered group of aging warriors out of touch with their power that saved the world. In time, as their power faded, the evil’s grew, and soon, from his prison, Siegfried was able to exert a limited influence on Solen. From there, he began to build his forces and through them seek out those who had bound him and extract his revenge.

Rough Timeline-

596 - Thom VanVleck is born in Chechnya
600 - Ossetia rises to prominence
602 - Roman Oliver is born in Ossetia
615 - Western Ossetia is completed
620 - Queen Neko dies
621 - VanVleck attacks with the northern tribes
622 - King Phillepe negotiates a peace with VanVleck
623 - King Phillepe dies; VanVleck returns to pillage Ossetia; Western Ossetia destroyed
625 - Roman assumes leadership of Ossetia
636 - Ray is born to Roman and Marie Oliver
651 - Roman learns of the prophesy and leaves to investiage
652 - Ray leaves in search of his father
653 - Daniel and Ray meet, team up
656 - Ray and Daniel return to Ossetia; begin employment with Siegfried
659 - ‘Starting to Fear’ begins

661 - ‘A World Without Rules’ begins

Background on Roman and the Oracle-

The Order and Siegfried were not the only physical manifestations of the Old Magic. In fact, the proto-civilization that was destroyed by the war between those Sig. & the Order was rooted firmly in the practice and use of Old Magic. Little is known about those people, nearly everything they constructed or created being destroyed before the evil was finally subdued. A handful of them survived the great battle, however, and still live among the race of humans that now populate Solen. Many of them still have access to their powers of Old Magic, and some know seculuded locations on the globe where markers of that doomed people may still be found.

One such person is the Oracle, who lives in a secluded little mountain range on a small landmass east of Agloe. Her abilities of prognostication earned her a fair amount of renown, but her secluded locale meant she proved elusive to all but those most determined adventurers. Roman heard from a trusted friend, whom we meet later named Claus, where the Oracle could be found. Desperately seeking a solution to the plight of Ossetia, Roman set off to find this Oracle, and from her a solution to the woes of his town.

After Roman heard the prophesy, he went to the Aglonian Ring, and has resided their ever since, for reasons known only to him…

EVENT SEQUENCING IS DONE FOR THE DEMO!

Yeah, I was just feeling pretty good about that being done. It represents only a fraction of the total work to be done, but I reached the stopping point I wanted to.

The next step is to go back, and begin playing it from the beginning. At every step, I’m going to begin adding in the sound (I have most of the candidates selected, so all that remains is to test them in-game), and calibrating the difficulty variables (strength of enemies, cost of equipment).

I’m giving myself a week.

So I’m sitting here working on a new city, which is located on a continent which up until this point has not featured in the game. The landmass is called ‘Rhodesia’. In actuality, this is a dated term for a region of south-central Africa (I believe) that went on to be divided into Zimbabwe and Zambia. Anyways, in the game that I’m working on, I felt silly just making up continent names. I’m not confident enough in my etymological creativity to take such a leap. So I pilfered geographic names from the real world. However, I wanted to avoid giving any sort of impression that my world in the game (Solen is the word they have for their planet) is linked to, or bears any relation to our world.

So, the terms I picked are intentionally trivial, and continents they denote have climates/physical shapes that directly conflict with their real-world counterparts.

Example: “Scandinavia” in my world is a chain of islands formed by volcanic activity.

Anyways, Rhodesia is the largest landmass on the planet, bisected vertically down the middle by a river which I’ve yet to name, and probably should do soon. Similarly, it is roughly bisected across the middle horizontally by a range of mountains (which follow the crescent at the eastern edge of the continent).

Rhodesia Rough-Cut; Cities Labeled

I felt like writing a brief historical account of the landmass, because I designed the town of Lusaka just recently as a sort of haphazard semi-circle of shops and buildings that surround the dock (it is a maritime city). This, however, seemed at odds with the plan I had for the greater landmass, which is that it’s one of the most advanced societies in Solen. It is the only group/landmass which recognizes itself as a “state,” complete with a central government, and local governments in a sort of approximation of federalism.

The first settlement of people in known history originated on the eastern side of the continent, in what is today known as Livingstone. Close enough to the sea to eventually support a small port-town within its limits, but also positioned to access the great plains to the west, this settlement slowly grew into a large town. At some point, a team of explorers set out to find what was south of the mountains. No living person had ever made the trek, and so they set out, promising to return.

They made the crossing, but lost so many of their numbers that they dared not chance a return journey. Two other teams were sent after them, the second of which failed to cross, and the third of which had a similar experience. And so, this stranded group of Livingstonians established a settlement at the base of the mountains that had claimed so many of their family and friends. They were just barely at a critical mass, such that they could sustain themselves. Their town eventually came to be called Bindura.

Bindura cultivated and explored the western half of Rhodesia, while Livingstone continued to do the same of the east. Both societies advanced at the same rate, and in a cosmic accident, both decided they possessed the technological prowess to attempt the pass once more; for Livingstone it was the final battle to conquer an old enemy; for Bindura it was a long-lost hope of a homecoming.

The two groups met in the mountain pass, connecting two estranged cultures that somehow recognized who the others were, and understood their language. This reunion was cause for great jubilation between the two groups, and a celebration was had that very night. Immediately, they intermixed their two groups, sending one to Bindura, and another to Livingstone. This would prove to be their greatest error.

What, on the small scale, appeared to be a happy reunion was actually interpreted by the cities to be a tremendous threat. Almost overnight, a civil war broke out. It ignited simultaneous industrial revolutions, spurned with the sole intention of subjugating the other people for profit and power. Livingstone simple expanded linearly outward in all directions, growing larger and larger, encompassing more of the surrounding resources.

Bindura, however, was not as well situated. They needed a warm-water port, and so they began building a great many structures on both sides of the river where it emptied into the ocean (also needs a name…). Half of this hastilly-constructed town was entirely destroyed in the Battle of Kabwe, the single most destructive event of the entire civil war. The southern half, which survived, became known as Lusaka.

Following this, the Binduran Army began preparations to cross the moutains, and attack Livingstone outright. In the vast open planes between the mountains and Livingstone, the two armies clashed in a final battle. Barely an hour into this terrible confrontation, the generals of both forces gave the order to fall back. The soldiers looked up from their fighting to find that the war had ended without them.

As the Battle of Kabwe raged, only a few months earlier, the leader of the Bindurans saw that there was no good way to end the conflict militarily, for either side. He sent his right-hand-man with a bodyguard to cross the mountains alone, sneak into Livingstone, and negotiate a peace. So implicit was his trust in this man, that those were his only directions. The leader continued to manage the military campaign as before, all the while hoping that his trusted aide would be successful.

The aide made the pass, the army on his heels after the battle at home was finished. He found the Livingstonian leader, and spoke with such conviction that they listened. The plan he had hatched over his long journey was that instead of destroying each other, Linvingstone and Bindura should unite. With the east and west working together, they could achieve wonders, and explore the remainder of the world together.

The plan worked, and before the full forces met on the field, the war was over. As the two nation-states worked to make themselves one, they embraced the idea of unity, forming the first unified system of governance in Solen, and to date, the only. In honor of that aide who risked life and limb while crafting the only solution ambitious enough to put an end to the bloody conflict, they new government, as its first act, named their new nation Rhodesia, after Anthony Rhodes, the aide. Rhodes, as it turns out, was the descendant of Marcus Rhodes, the leader of the first team to leave Livingstone, and the founder of Bindura.

–
So maybe it’s a little contrived, and a bit to neat (as in ‘orderly’) of a conclusion, but I wanted to present Rhodesia as this really advanced society that had its act together, and I couldn’t do that in good conscience without explaining what they went through to get there.

So I finally got back on the horse of putting some time into the game. It’s good to be back, after a hiatus of a few months (I did have a few good nights in March, but not much else).

I’ve set a few goals for two iterations of the game thus far:
A Beta Version, for a few early testers, which will still be very rough, to get early feedback, and a Demo Version, which will not be anywhere near complete, but the portion of the story it does cover will be fairly polished in terms of gameplay, dialog, and sound.

Remaining Goals for Beta Version:
-Continue event sequencing through the designated “conclusion” for the Demo.
-Begin Integrating Sound:

• Towns

• Overworld
• Dungeons
• Battles/Bosses

-Integrate weapon/armor availability.

Note: ’sequence’ refers to establishing a timeline, relative to in-game plot developments, whereas ‘integration’ refers to the physical act of programming these items or events into the present build of the game

Remaining Goals for the Demonstration:
-Retrofit all dialog

• Names…
  Initially I used the ‘faces’ feature of RPGMVX, which places a little face graphic in the dialog box. I scrapped that when I began using my own sprites for the characters though, which had no associated pre-rendered face graphic. So there are a great many scenes now where it’s difficult to tell who’s talking.

  I attempted to remedy this by always placing the protagonist’s speech box at the bottom, and the person he was conversing with in the middle, and signs, letters, etc. at the top. Upon further review, this is still to convoluted, and so I need to bite the bullet and add in CHARACTERS NAME to the first line of all their speech boxes…

  I’m not looking forward to this, but after having picked up this convention for the last few weeks of working on the game, it does help the flow a great deal.

• Remove Whitecats
  Sometimes, if I’m working on integrating a sequence of events, you can’t go through one, save, program the next, go through it, save, program the end, and go through the last one. To ensure they flow properly, you have to start from the beginning each time, as a player would.

  This gets annoying, not to mention time-consuming, and so for purposes of testing, I’ll insert little “jump” points that transport the player further along in the game, up their experience, provide equipment, etc. In order to make sure that these little legacy events are not there to garble things in the final product, I mark them with a White Cat sprite. Suffice to say, these need to be deleted from any version of the game I intend on calling “done.”

• Proof Sound Choices
  Right now I’m just listening to a lot of the ‘candidate’ songs for inclusion. Once they’re integrated though, I want to make sure that, in the context of actually playing the game, the music all ‘fits’ and aids in the emotional content of the game, rather than detracting to the point of irritation.

• Tweak Weapon/Armor/Goods Pricing
  I know at roughly which points in the game I’d like to have items become available, but it’s difficult, from the perspective of someone who plays the game knowing its every facet, to know how reasonable the pricing of such goods is at any given time.

• Tweak Enemy Strength
  Similarly, how difficult should this game be? Do I just make it really hard, and take the “deal with it” attitude many games do? I’m not sure. As discussed previously, the story insinuates that at this point, and for a good deal of the first game (the entire demo, for sure), the main character is very powerful, and few can match his strength.

  Thus, the game should be fairly easy, but I don’t want it to be a simple cakewalk, as that would waste the player’s time, and cause frustration when it suddenly ceases to be so.

• Instruction Manual, Backstory, and Map
  I thought this would be nice to include with the game. My next post will be the promised summary of the story, and I’ll probably use that as a rough cut of what will be the “backstory” that the player starts the game knowing.

• Title Screen
  The game has a title screen, and I’d like to have something kinda cool for mine. Problem is, I’m worth next to nothing in the graphic design department. Even still, I did what I could, and I like what I have right now:
  
  

  Title Screen from an Unrelased Alpha Version

  I still have no idea what the umbrella title will be. Brainstorming on that started about 15 minutes ago. I’ll let you know how it goes.

  Finally, these versions will be distributed to a small group of people willing to test them, and that feedback will be factored into the development phases of the remainder of STF.

  That’s where I am, roughly. I should also mention that the current save file is over an hour, so hopefully that should give a good estimate as to how much ‘game’ there is at the present moment.

Hey everybody!

I have a very special guest coming to visit me this weekend. Luckily for you, that means I am posting early this week.

I wanted to lay down the fundamentals of my world mythology in the hopes of getting some discourse over the flaws and strengths in it. This becomes very important to my game, so we’ll start here. Note:  Any of this mythology applies to my world in the realm of DnD. I really kill two birds by doing this.

One of the basic tenets of my mythology building is that most cultures use Gods to really explain how the world works. Oftentimes, they take an almost fairy-taleish way of explaining things, so I wanted to keep my story pretty simple as well.

Fundamentally, there would be the two ancient Gods- Time and Space (No names have been made yet). Being a physics major, the time-space continuum is a great place to start these things. These two Gods get go through a bit of “courtship” where they create the basic building blocks of the universe- earth, wood, fire, shadow,etc- in planes. That is how we get the different crazy planes that are pretty neutral, even if creatures on them are not.

Eventually, courtship ends up with marriage and 9 kids-the Elder Gods- come into the world. This number isn’t steadfast, but I want there to be enough to cover the 9 different alignments. Maybe there are twins in there who are both Chaotic good, but I’m going to say 9 for now. These kids each get their own “room” plane where they are free to do whatever they like. They create creatures to fight for them, play with, etc. Naturally they begin to fight. Good Gods versus Evil Gods, with the neutral Gods doing their own neutral best to be the mediators- does sound like a middle child right?

Eventually, they cause a big cosmic ruckus and get in trouble from the parentals. In order to get on better terms, they collaborate to create the material plane as a gift to the Ancient Gods. On the material plane, no God is allowed to set foot. This way, the Ancient Gods can have a nice piece of land to look at and not be bothered by the fueds of their children.

Unexpectedly, the humanoids who start springing up on Earth start to worship different things than just the Ancient and Elder Gods. They worship nature, the sun, booze, etc. Their collective worship starts to grant deitific powers to these objects. Most of this is benign however, a sun with powers doesn’t mean much, but a person who is worshipped can mean a lot. Powerful kings who are worshipped as Gods, start to get powers like Gods.

The elder Gods see this and realize that if they can get these powerful beings to fight for them, maybe they can win the God War. They talk to the different worshipped individuals and promise them positions in their planes in their afterlife if they dedicate their life to that Gods cause.

Byond that, some of the evil Gods talk to morally weak people, tell them what they can be in their afterlife, just so that person will activate a portal to let extra-planar creatures onto the material plane. It is a whole new level of the God War, except now it is happening a bit underneath the Ancient Gods’ noses without them really noticing. Mortals can’t fool Gods, but other Gods can.

How this all leads into the game is that once, the Evil Gods made a creature specially designed to be supreme over all other creatures.It is as strong as one of them, but it can also walk the material plane. The method of any of this isn’t thought out yet, but they unleash the creature on the material plane, it unleashes destruction on the world. When it was around on the material plane, some people survived its destruction. Some of those people started to worship the creature secretly, slowly giving it even more power. (All part of the Evil Gods plan).

Eventually, it goes back to the cosmoverse and kills a good God, changing the balance of the GW. Unfortunately for the Evil Gods, it turns around and kills one of them as well. This is such a powerful being, and it doesn’t see things in the Good/Evil scale the Gods know. It is dangerous, so the rest team up on the creature and end up banishing it to its own tiny plane.

This plane is populated with creatures that are immune to the mechanism the creature uses to kill Gods. The creature waits for years upon years. Somewhere in the beginning portion of the game, it will have gained enough power through years of sacrifices for it to break free from its prison. It will take its sword (or whatever weapon) and cast it into the fabric of the plane, breaking it off from its orbit.

On the material plane, a giant comet strikes the ground. The mechanical creatures start to try to take over the world. This isn’t the biggest problem though, because the creature is waiting for the right time to strike.

That was a bit long, but it was more like 2 medium posts in 1. Thoughts?

Where have I been? I had three or four great posts in a row, a month of good posts, only to leave a gaping hole of production on my game. Sure, I think only about 6 people at most read this, but to a certain extent I’m doing this blog for myself. So to Ian, and everyone else who reads this, I’m getting back on track and will do my very best to have weekly posts from here on. I’m sure there will be gaps, I’m human, but I am going to keep them to a minimum.

This week was my spring break, and among other things, I did some broad work on the ol’ Sightseeing: World Tour! There are three tiers of adventure. 

The smallest tier of adventuring will be very specific to where you are in the world. Most of these will be purely optional, but as any side quest in a game has, they will give access to something extra- different weapons,spells, information, etc. These adventures haven’t been planned out yet, but since there will be so many of them, there will be a ton of different things. I have been toying with the idea of having them be similar to the popular (and fantastic) computer game Fable. In Fable, you can go on every side quest you desire, but you pay a price: your character ages. I was thinking of either doing something like this, or if you spend too much time away from a quest you have taken that is in a higher tier, maybe there are some noticeable changes because of it, much like the butterfly effect. What do you guys think?

The next tier of adventure will be broader and world-effecting. Each of the four individual parties will have a definite storyline that they travel on. They will be concerned with things such as governments at war, Gods at war, pirates, chaotic nomads, and even cults and a mysterious force that is moving across the land. As I flesh out how these interplay, I will be putting it up as a post. The point is that the world is aware of these things, and as adventurers, it will be your duty (to your God, government, or personal honor) to fight them. They will be major plot points that were happening before you started the game, and you are just going to try your best to fight them.

The highest tier of adventuring truly encompasses the whole world. As each individual party will be focused on some general large event, there will be an event so large and encompassing that all individual storylines will be diverted. It isn’t going to be a Watchmen/WWII style, mutual enemy unites the world, there will just be something so big that it will complicate everything. I have this worked out mostly, so hopefully in the upcoming weeks, I can leave some flavor text style posts that give you a feel for what will happen without giving everything away.

For now though, I’m going to leave things here. Especially since I will be posting next week. Thanks for having me back guys.

The party woke up from their first day of rest to see Lloynis praying in front of the fire.

Now that everyone is up, we should really get going. With how serious the illness is, it is important that we get to Gavin as quickly as possible.

The party makes it uneventfully to Woodglen by mid-day. Lloynis takes leave of them to go take care of Gavin, asking them to meet him at the inn at sunset. The party wanders about town, eventually entering a local blacksmith’s shop. Xangul is interested in buying a grappling hook, and does so, not realizing that rope doesn’t come with the hook. Tabris buys an oak quarterstaff, and Yurram fiddles over whether or not to buy several items, eventually getting nothing.

Talking to Joe the merchant, the party learns of  Dalia Cowherd, she was a jewelry hawker. She showed up a little over a week ago, and became terribly sick. That missionary happened to show up a few days later and insisted that he could cure her. Alas, he couldn’t, and now even worse, he is just as sick.

At sunset, the party heads to the inn to see Lloynis fraught with grief, drinking green tea from a mead glass. I’m afraid this is a horrible case of illness. Gavin’s such a lively character, but he is as frail as me right now. In order to cure him, I will need to figure out what has poisoned him. It is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. If I can get a sample of what has poisoned him, I should be able to make an antidote magically, but only if I have the sample as a reference. Will you help me get the sample?

The party agreed to go get the sample, but first they asked to go see Gavin. In the temple, Gavin is looking feverish in his bed. He tells them te story of the gypsy. “There was a one time where the wheel on her wagon got off the road, so she had to stop to get his wagon back on track. She never saw anything, but she felt the greatest sense of dread. She knew he had to hurry or something might happen. It was where the stream runs right next to the road, maybe a half hour North of town.”

Similarly, Gavin never ate anything unusual or ran into any monsters as he was coming to Woodglen. Rather,  Gavin woke up from a horrible dream when he was taking a nap before entering Woodglen. He always likes to take a rest before entering a town and spending all of his energy helping people. He took a underneath a tree by a stream, and woke up from the worst nightmare. There wasn’t anything happening in the dream, but he just felt a horrible sense of unease.

The party agrees to try to find the stream that seems to be in both stories. When they get to the stream, Lloynis tries to find any source of evil or dread. There is nothing there that could have caused the illness, but there are four  Troglodytes ready to fight. The party makes good work of them, but it does take a toll on them. They leave one Troglodyte alive to try to beat information out of him. He is mum about much everything except that he has failed the Great one. The party agrees to let the Troglodyte go and use Yurram’s owl to find the lair. The owl indeed is able to find the hideout, and the party decides to storm the lair, as Gavin slips closer to death.

As they peer into the lair, they see their escaped Troglodyte, two Troglodytes wearing steel medallions and a grotesque bigger Troglodyte. He is the great one, the corrupted one. The normally slick troglodyte skin has become scaly, and it looks like he is almost demonic with horns almost growing from his head. His hands are large and scaly, with longer claws than any normal beast.

The party came to fight, but unfortunately they were overmatched. Despite the efforts of Yurram and Lloynis, everyone is dropped by the four Troglodytes, except for the mighty monk Tabris, Yurram’s owl, and Lloynis. They flee the scene, for discretion is the better part of valor. They rest up, so Lloynis can restore his spells, and they sneak back into the cave. The three Troglodytes, for the escaped one did die in the last battle,  worshipping the source of the black stream and the Corrupted One.

Tabris is able to sneak up on them while Lloynis revives Yurram. Soon, everyone is up and fighting again, and eventually even the Corrupted one falls. Lloynis sees that he can indeed make an antidote from some of the black stream water, and they head off back to Woodglen, hopefully in time to save Gavin’s life.

The next session proves to be the end of the party’s first quest, and hopefully it will happen soon!