Look who's back in the saddle. Going back to Izzet Theatre, since I've ironed out the kinks in that plot while School Theatre's plot is akin to a crumpled dishrag.
So, yeah, question: Thinking of adding a skill that provides sweet buffs for either 5 turns or the rest of the battle, but takes a permanent chunk out of the character's healthbar in return. Good idea, y or n?
Look who's back in the saddle. Going back to Izzet Theatre, since I've ironed out the kinks in that plot while School Theatre's plot is akin to a crumpled dishrag.
So, yeah, question: Thinking of adding a skill that provides sweet buffs for either 5 turns or the rest of the battle, but takes a permanent chunk out of the character's healthbar in return. Good idea, y or n?
No one will ever use it except possibly in the final boss battle.
Y'know how each guild in Ravnica has two special abilities: one from the first block set and one from the second? Like how Replicate and Overload are intrinsically Izzet abilities?
I was trying to do something like that for the game. One ability, shared between every playable character in that guild, that does something thematic. Gruul's is a berserk mode, Izzet's gives you a chance to double or triple-cast spells, etc.
Orzhov's was supposed to be a Deal with the Obdezat. A bit of power now, represented by hella buffs, for a bit of servitude later, represented by permanent health loss
In the year 199X, a few score individuals in Franz County were inducted into a government experiment, some willingly, most unknowingly.
Today, in the year 201X, a chemical bomb exploded over the county, releasing a strange chemical fog. Several individuals, once exposed to the mist, developed powers. They would be called Samsites, after the man who became a cockroach upon waking. And as always happens with the new and unfamiliar, they would be maligned, outcast, captured, exploited.
You are a young immigrant who, for the sake of research, has come to the area offering her skills. The government-backed CASTLE, the humanitarian Samsa Alliance, the artistic and bizarre Starve Yourself!, the terrorist Process; they all have Samsites, either as prisoners or employees. Most have found ways to physically cope with their situations: defense techniques, medical solutions, et cetera, et cetera
#1: Atsidi 'Adam' Sheridan Age: 19 Race: Native American (Najavo) Skillset: Adam is able to form a protective armor out of any geological materials nearby, along with rudimentary weapons. This armor also gives him increased durability and strength, which is tripled when trying to carry dirt or rock. Case File: Adam is a member of the Samsa Alliance, a group of samsite activists who use their abilities to help out the community and stand for equal rights for samsites. Adam suffers from depression and anxiety, which prevent him from participating in speeches and marches, and he wants help with coping.
A few weeks after the initial incident (you come in after a few months), there was an essay purported to be from one of the afflicted that made the connection to Kafka. No one has come forward claiming to have written it, but the term stuck.
CASTLE is the collective name for the governmental organizations which swarmed Franz County after Bunker Day. Initially declaring martial law and attempting to capture the Samsites, the government was forced to relent in the face of public backlash and the suspected connection with the 199X experiments. They then switched gears to catalouging Samsite-related events and peacekeeping, forming a tenuous alliance with the Samsa Alliance and the Roach Patrol against The Process and the Shepherds. While most Samsites treat CASTLE with suspicion at the best of times, they often rely on it for specialized resources and assistance.
Notable Personnel:
Colonel Arthur 'Bloodhound' Johnson - Army, Chief of Staff
Adjutant Penelope Warner - Johnson's aide
Dr. Ferdinand - AMEDD, Head of the Science Division
Dr. R - AMEDD, Former Head of Science Division
Associated Samsites:
Private Antonio 'Phalanx' Cotto - Anti-Process Agent
Specialist Jenna 'Spackle' Adams - Anti-Process Agent, Med Corps
The Process is the latest of the groups vying for control in the area, but one of the most feared by the common folk. Draped in black and red, they stage guerilla attacks against other Samsite organizations or civilian populations, destroying whatever capital they can before they're forced to retreat. Their motives are mysterious, but they seem to have a special hatred for CASTLE operations and their often bloodless attacks suggest some sort of ideology that values life.
While some people, both normals and samsites, have claimed to be part of The Process, none have been confirmed by the authorities.
While their official name is the Neighborhood Watch, they're better known as the Roach Patrol. Running around in painstakingly tailored spandex outfits, they serve as a vigilante group, patrolling the county and taking care of threats. While they wish to be treated like comic-book superheroes, their relationship with local law enforcement is...tenuous, at best, due to their lack of professional training often complicating things.
As they always wear masks with their costumes, the identities of the members are unknown. It's assumed by most other organizations that the members are intentionally hiding their metamorphosis while uncostumed
Starve Yourself! is one of the more eclectic groups in the mix. With no official leadership or organization, it's more a philosophy than a true moving force. The one unifying force is a manifesto written by former business magnate Ruth Hayes, Drawing from "The Hunger Artist", it extols metamorphosis not as a difficulty, but as a call to eschew former relationships and aspire to greatness. They are on notoriously bad terms with the Samsa Alliance, given that SY! view attempts to reconcile with the 'feeders' as futile and SA believes SY!'s bohemian lifestyle will make integration more difficult.
The central part of the game is based around therapy sessions with your patients. For the test version, there is only the one patient: Adam Sheridan. However, in the full version, you will have a number of patients that will increase and decrease over time, and you will have to budget your time carefully to make sure that you give enough care while taking care of your other duties.
The core element of therapy is Discussion, where you build rapport with your patients. Besides picking dialogue options that will move the conversation in the right direction, you can also alter elements of the office in response to reactions from the patient. If her voice sounds raspy, offer a drink of water. If she seems cold, pull up the window shade and bring in the sun. Items bought with your stipend can also contribute to the patient's mood.
In order to move through the game, you may have to lead the patient to conclusions that they wouldn't normally reach (at least, not when company's over), which requires a bit of Subconscious Interpretation. Depending on the patient, this can take place in the form of interpreting dreams, Rorschach diagrams, or art therapy. Regardless, it's a useful tool.
In addition to the various factions that you can support while doling out therapy, you will occasionally have a choice between being pragmatic or optimistic. These can affect how the patient deals with events in the outside world, and a preference for one over the other can affect who offers you more resources.
The tertiary element of therapy sessions is Stress Release. Primarily used when the patient is too agitated for other methods, it can be used along with the other two elements to ease the process to recovery. You begin with a stress ball. More methods can be purchased, and some work better with some patients than others, as you may have guessed.
I've also figured out a miniboss challenge, a new secondary element, and ideas about a final boss.
I'm far enough that I'm starting to worry about programming this. I mean, I could try RPG Maker, but RPG Maker doesn't play nicely with hella text, and this game's going to be hella hella text.
Anybody know of any game-makers that are good with point-and-click?
I'd like to see like, superpowered stress release.
I'm still thinking about how superpowers are going to factor into that, actually.
We're talking a bit of Marvel mutants, a bit of Inhumans, and a bit of Static Shock's Bang Babies. But at the same time, I want to keep it a little bit realistic to the origin. Storm's weather control ability is the lower limit of 'absolutely do not want', but i'm a bit iffy about where the ceiling should be. Do I allow animalistic mutations, a la Warren or Squid-Boy? Do I allow super-strength above human capabilities, or just peak strength like Captain America? How do I justify inexplicable flight powers, which are, well, inexplicable most of the time?
Adam is a bit reluctant to use his powers to their full extent. Doylist explanation is that I wanted to focus on the incongruence of a strong guy who is brought down by something he can't punch.
Considering doing an Interactive Fiction sort of thing.
I was really set on making it P-a-C, but I realized that making a pure text version of the game would probably be best for a Version .5 of the game. It also means that I can keep to my deadline of 'before winter break' without throwing together the world's crappiest graphics.
Switching to Twine. Inform 7 is better for more gamey interactive fiction. Twine seems to be more my speed, both in terms of what I want to do with this game and actual usability.
Good grief, I completely abandoned this, didn't I? Ah, well. I'll come back to it later; right now, psychotherapy is not something I want to be spending my free time on. On to the new idea.
You are Cobalt-60, an experienced field agent for the mysterious Agency. The year is 1954, though not exactly our 1954. You've recently received a tip about the infamous Omaha 12: a team of agents who deserted back in 1944. And so you've come to the housing development of Goodneighbor, the perfect microcosm of 1950s kitsch, to track them down.
You have almost no resources. Most of your superiors don't believe you. And your targets have melded seamlessly with the natural population. But you're not going to let that stop you
This is an idea that I've been bouncing around in my head for a while, but never bothered to commit to writing.
Basically, the game world has four time phases: Morning, Midday, Afternoon and Night. And every NPC has a different location based on what time it is. Your goal as Cobalt-60 is to dig into everybody's secrets, through eavesdropping and burglary and what have you, until you have enough material to force one of the Omaha 12 out of hiding.
Let's talk character creation and gender for a moment.
Gender, like a lot of aspects of character creation, is generally separate from the game experience. You write up the character sheet, put in all the stats and such, and only then does the actual roleplaying start. And there generally hasn't been much innovation in that department because, well, doing it DnD style is how it's expected at this point. The Elder Scrolls does it. Dragon's Age does it. Mass Effect does it. The only games that I can think of that deals with character creation in an intradiegetic manner are the 3D Fallout games (particularly Fallout 3), with their insistence on interactive introductions to their games. Doesn't get much better when it boils down to just a gender choice. At best, you get two different characters of different genders. At worst, you get the professor in Pokemon Crystal
So, one of the things I'd like to do with Goodneighbor (presuming that I actually get around to making the game) is to make gender an intradiegetic choice rather than an extradiegetic one. Cobalt-60 is canonically nonbinary, and while you choose a gender before starting your espionage mission, it's not framed as the player making the choice but as Cobalt-60 choosing whether to present as a guy or a girl for the purposes of the mission.
Comments
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Age: 19
Race: Native American (Najavo)
Skillset: Adam is able to form a protective armor out of any geological materials nearby, along with rudimentary weapons. This armor also gives him increased durability and strength, which is tripled when trying to carry dirt or rock.
Case File: Adam is a member of the Samsa Alliance, a group of samsite activists who use their abilities to help out the community and stand for equal rights for samsites. Adam suffers from depression and anxiety, which prevent him from participating in speeches and marches, and he wants help with coping.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead