Bakemono Zoshi

[vulpinoid]

My Project.

A game about Japanese goblins. The theme is somewhere between the movie "Labyrinth", the traditional legends of Japanese goblins and demons, and a healthy dose of the arcane.

It isn't a combat game, it isn't a game where factions just wage an endless war against one another.

I played Nexus War, I played Shartak, I played Urban dead, I played Renaissance Kingdoms, I've played numerous other browser games. So I've got an idea of what can be achieved in this format, but I've also got a good idea of the things I'd like to see in a game but haven't seen explored adequately so far. I haven't been exhaustive in my studies of the medium, I'm mostly a pen and pencil game designer (and that's where my current design theories are focused).

I want a game that produces ongoing story. A game that promotes storytelling and interaction between players rather than just fighting.

Don't get me wrong, fighting and dueling will definitely be a part of the game, but there will also be a chance for players to advance by completing quests, trading resources and creating stories for others to pursue. There will be deeper events at work in the world, and there will be huge meta stories that unfold over a few months, but there needs to be the hook that pulls players in from the start.

The game is going to be fairly graphical, and hopefully intuitive, but will use a very different system to the other games I've currently seen.

Some of my early notes can be found on my blog...

Here

and

Here

I'll post a bit more shortly...

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

[vulpinoid]

Here's a sceen capture of my index screen for the game.


Now for a bit more teaser information...

The game is designed to be played out in a series of scenes.

Characters will move across a wide map (I'll put up an example screen capture shortly), ever time they cross into a new location, there will be a random chance of an encounter, or a chance to deal with one of the other player character's present at the location.

Once a scene is engaged, a new screen is opened. In this new screen, a story is told through a number of choices made by the player. It could be a scene of one-on-one combat, a scene of negotiation, a scene where two opponent's compare their status, a battle of wits or the test of instincts and strength, there are numerous other types of scene that could be encountered by the players through their characters.

The resolution for the game is really focused on telling a good story, not on simply crunching numbers then saying "Hit" or "Miss" (or "You Succeed"/"You Fail", or whatever else might be appropriate to the situation).

Characters have six basic attributes (but these are called stances), then there are a range of traits that reflect their abilities in a wide variety of areas. The attributes don't follow the typical "strength", "dexterity", "stamina", "intelligence", or the typical D&D inspired numbers. Instead the browser game is designed to be an introduction to the pen and paper system I've been working on for a few years now.

The stances are:

Advantages - Your ability to deal with situations through the tricks up your sleeve. These tricks might be magical, they might be gadgets, or they might be strange mutations.
Allies - Your ability to deal with situations by calling on the strength of others. Such allies could be spirits, animals or other goblins.
Combat - Your ability to deal with situations by dealing damage to your opponents. You may know forms of martial arts or might be skilled with certain weapons.
Face - Your ability to impose your reputation and status on a situation. Your face could be honourable or infamous; it could be glorious, wise or cunning.
Knowledge - Your ability to apply your smarts and book learning in a situation.
Talent - You ability to apply your innate reflexes and trained physical skills in a situation.

As you walk across the map, your character is automatically in one of the six stances. Whenever they encounter a scene, they will automatically try to resolve the situation using the stance they are currently in. This is true, whether or not it's suitable for the scene they are engaging. Players can change their character's stance to something more appropriate, but they'll suffer a penalty if they do so. Like I said, the game is designed to reflect a wide variety of situations, and player who want to deal with everything through the reputation have just as much chance of reaching the power positions within the game as those players who choose to fight their way through it (but both of these players will find that a bit of balance will probably make things a bit easier).

The six stances have values starting at 0 and going up in an open ended manner. All characters will start with four typical stances at level 1, a beneficial stance at level 2 and a deficient stance at level 0. As they progress through the game, they will face missions; completing these will earn bonuses to a stance...do something to improve your reputation and your "Face" will improve...take on bandits in a duel and your "combat" will go up.

Experienced characters may reach level 4 or 5 in a stance, rarely higher through raw experience and character development. Additional bonuses might be gained through equipment, gaining the favour of totem spirits, or through evolving into more powerful forms.

More information to come soon...

[hallsofvallhalla]

i like the layout and where you are going with this. Anxious to see more.

[Jackolantern]

Have you ever played Achaea: Dreams of Divine Lands? It is a text-based MUD, not a browser game, but many aspects of MUDs can be re-created with minor adjustment to browser games. While I will have to wait until later to read all of the design you have laid out here (not on long at the moment), that was the first game I thought of when you said you wanted a game that stresses an ongoing story and player interaction. In Achaea, there is a backstory, but players push this story forward through set, player-run organizations, politics, assassination, theft, and other things. It is one of the few roleplay-centric games I have played that actually puts RP-related rules on the players that can cause them to be punished. For example, the druid-like Sylvan organization will actually kick you out (stripping you of most of your nature-based powers) if you kill NPCs considered to be part of nature, or assist an enemied city who is considered to be an enemy of nature. It is an incredibly complex game from an RP perspective, and the history books are written by players' actions.

[vulpinoid]

I'll have a look at Achaea.

I used to play MUDs back in the day....(in those prehistoric times when the world wide web was something new and exciting...when we were anxiously awaiting new versions of Netscape Navigator in the hope that it might edge out Microsoft's Internet Explorer).

I guess that's the kind of thing that I'm after, but instead of having players simply "Pose" or "Emote", I would like these actions to have an actual in game effect. You want to look cool...you activate a "cool" trait for a short period of time, and you describe what you're character is doing to gain the benefit of this trait. You want to look fearsome, you do the same thing.

At the simplest level, character will obtain quests from NPCs to prove their worthiness in certain areas. Once they've completed the quest, they petition an elder to make a permanent improvement to their character. If a player gets involved enough, they will ascend to a partial moderator role, where they will be able to assign quests of their own to new players.

I love games where communities develop, and I really want this game to facilitate that style of play.

I'm trying to think my way through the potential issues and obstacles at the moment, they say every hour of preparation and planning eliminates ten hours of troubleshooting and bug-hunting.

[Jackolantern]

I'm trying to think my way through the potential issues and obstacles at the moment, they say every hour of preparation and planning eliminates ten hours of troubleshooting and bug-hunting.

Exactly! And believe me, there is enough troubleshooting and bug-hunting time to easily account for 100+ hours of planning and preperation!

[Callan S.]

Mmm, every hour of planning and preperation is an hour not actually making something, as well. Notice how alot of people start projects then...don't end them? Without the tactile feedback of having made something I'd say you undercut you can undercut your own motivation this way.

I'd suggest designing small, self contained modules that are each a small game in themselves, that plug into the larger framework somehow. You can get these done and feel you've completed something.

[Jackolantern]

Wait...I'm confused. Are you suggesting against planning and design?

[Callan S.]

Against planning an entire huge game all at once, yes. Planning out small add on modules, no. I think you've said yourself that sometimes you can get caught at a point where a game needs to be fun enough justify all the work you've done on it and all the further work it'll also need, but it just wont be fun enough to justify all that work (if one were being paid, perhaps it would, but hey).

If you spend hours planning out a game but then never actually finish the project, all that planning and design didn't do you any good either.

Usually designing and planning a small module doesn't take long and the smaller it is, the more likely it'll actually be made.

I guess I'm just saying don't bite off more than you can chew, but in a long winded way!

[hallsofvallhalla]

i agree, I usually try to plan enough of the game to make it playable and fun then plan on additions to add to it. It is quite exciting to release updates and see all your players get excited over the updates. It is the drive you need to continue to work on your game.