Diogo Ribeiro

YOU TRICKED ME, YOU ROFLTUNASANDWICH FIEND!!!

Oh, so you won't think you've just exposed your idea and I just kept silent about mine, the concept I mentioned isn't entirely developed so that's why what I've wrote is considerably short. Some things I can't reveal, not because I have the some warped notion that my story is very good, but because it's all still very under development, or because telling something would likely require explanation of some other element, and so on. What I can basically tell you is that it's based around an entity which once sought to bring balance to the multiverse but its plan was ill conceived and it would instead destroy it. The entity sacrificed itself to prevent its destruction and was destroyed itself, its lifeforce fragmented and scattered across the cosmos. Unable to reassemble into its corporeal form, these fragments spread out and over time, became sentient pieces of himself, individual but still linked. With the notion that they'd not survive much longer separated they tried to survive by several means: some managed to acquire new bodies, some managed to imprint themselves as the essence of newborns, reincarnating in new bodies. Two beings derived from the original lifeforce - the two Chosen Ones - and they basically become the centre of the story: what was their original plan, how they survived, what happened to the remaining pieces of the life force, what they plan to do regarding the other, etc.. Initially unknown to him, the PC carries with himself a part of this lifeforce but it does not hold sway over him. He or she gets to decide just how much it will matter, and will also decide what to do regarding the other two aspects. Yeah, it blows. But it's what I've got for now. Then again, my idea was never to earn the Nobel Prize for Literature. At its core, it's not about the story, it's about how the players' choices will affect the story - that's what I want to matter.

It's not like a lightsaber should cut trough every material, though; but considering the type of item we're dealing with, it's hard to not look at it and see it's been terribly neutered. Also, I don't buy a whole lot into balance issues regarding the inclusion of a proper lightsaber. Being a Jedi or a Sith carries more balance issues than a lightsaber. Spamming Force powers, high levels which just bring more instances of some powers, PCs becoming so powerful any challenge is gradually lost... That's more troublesome to me than a proper lightsaber.

I think it's a very good idea you've both had there. Damn good, I'd say.

Well, I always thought lighstsaber combat in the KoTOR games is pretty bland, in itself and when compared to what one gets in the Jedi Knight games or even the movies themselves. It's not immediate, it's not appealing, and lightsabers themselves are treated like your run-of-the-mill D&D magic swords. When some tribe manages to block something which is meant to cut trough walls with a wooden stick, and when players have to hack a computer system instead of using the 'saber to cut a large chunk of the wall so they can get trough, it just doesn't feel like a lightsaber.

You know, I really wouldn't mind playing a Star Wars RPG with fast-paced combat like that of Jedi Academy, with satisfying environmental interaction, and Sith Lords-styled dialogue, character creation and interaction.

Night Trap.

Al Gore is gonna be pissed off!

Haven't played Discworld 2, so I can't comment. However I don't think that it should be terribly important. Sometimes a cliche or convention can be used in a way that it manages to rise above what has been done before.

Yes. And then the choice will be soiled and eroded.

Oh dear, Llyranor. I also have the hots for you Well regarding a previous comment, the suggestion I made isn't like Torment in the sense that it does not assume a fixed protagoist, neither an amnesiac or immortal one. I can't go into details because it's, admitedly, part of the concept behind my and Volourn's module and is still being tested. Suffice to say, it revolves around a player-defined PC who finds himself between two opposing Chosen Ones, and with the potential to also become a Chosen One or to forego it entirely and be his or her own persona.

Why not create a campaign where the divine powers of the setting are involved in some cosmical disputes, and thus cause a bit of havok in the gameworld... Thus disrupting certain things like the existence of death? Death could be one of the involved entities, and by some reason its existence was jeopardized in a cosmic way to the point that death stopped existing for all mortal races. If you want you could even have the PCs directly get themselves involved with that cosmic situation and try to restore death. Maybe the powers that be require the willing sacrifice of an intelligent mortal to become the next one to hold the position of Death, and one of the PCs needs to sacrifice itself while the rest of the group restore the original Death, or find a new replacement.

Quoted for great truth, on both cases.

That doesn't really mean anything... Wasn't there a Microsoft site that listed Bethesda's Oblivion as Action as well?

What if instead of being assumed that the PC did something evil and must now atone, what if the PC is confronted with aspects of him which simply made different decisions? Say the PC somehow has aspects of him, shades, pieces of his being, which have manifested across a gameworld without his knowledge and did many things, but eventually he finds out about this and has a chance to judge them.

Success is relative in Fallout; nodoby ever wins, and success wildly depends on what we're talking of. Did saving Vault 13 and the wasteland from Grey's plans was a successful way of completing the game? Sure, but successfully completing the game did not necessarily hinge on completing the objectives the Overseer had given to the Vault Dweller, especially considering that they were not the only ones present in the game. Siding with the Master was a perfectly legitimate decision; just because it did not meant succeeding in one task, or set of tasks, does not mean it did not succeed in others and therefore resulted in completing the game. Siding with the Master stemed from a decision by the character, not because the character lost all ability to fight of fend for himself as is the case with a standard Game Over. It's arguable if the character was the same after he was dipped, but the decision itself was made by the PC when the PC was still him or herself. It wasn't imposed on the character due to any kind of loss. Simply dying, and making a willing decision that results in character death is not the same. Still for the purpose of what was being discussed, several other endings that affected the gameworld could have been counted. Even if you remove siding with the Master from the list of endings, the truth remains that many permutations of what players did are simply discarded and only one, or a couple, of outcomes is used in the creation of a timeline for a sequel.

I put on my robe and wizard hat. Therefore, I roleplay a wizard.

It's not uncommon for the alternate endings that a prequel presents to be discarded for a sequel, and to have one of the multiple endings used as a basis for a sequel. Examples would be Fallout 1, where among multiple endings only one - saving the wasteland - is taken as a basis for Fallout 2; and Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, where at the last sequence Kain can decide to sacrifice himself to restore the pillars or rule Nosgoth as a Vampire Lord -

I don't mean to condescend or to give off the impression that I'm trying to tell you what's best for your module development, but if you're going to be providing dialogue which reflects particular statistics like low intelligence or high wisdom, then you should take care that it actually presents different dialogues and dialogue outcomes. The problem I had with Neverwinter Nights' way of dealing with this that a low intelligence character could still solve things and be led trough the game's narrative, and an insightful character could spot motivations a mile away but still do nothing about this. Including 'dumbspeak' or 'smartspeak' just for the sake of it isn't really worth it if all it's going to be is window dressing.

Safana was more... Interesting

:| <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Chosen among a few not because of some great power he or she possessed, but simply because he got the short straw.

Eh, the Chosen One aspect in Fallout isn't very comparable. The PC is some average person who was unlucky and got chosen to go out there and save the Vault. He or she weren't even the first choice to begin with. I think any special thing about the PC comes directly from where the character stands during times of adversity and in the choices made, and not some sense that he or she is one grand hero with ultimate powers. Oh and yeah. Bloodlines is great.

He's got five internets open, and they're all under his control!

Why helo thar mr. developer man!

That's your prerogative, but that's not how it necessarily works. If your definition of real life, or something pertaining to real life, is based on personal and tangible contact, then by association eliminating many things that actually are a part of real life: communications, dreams, thoughts, feelings. One can argue that they do not have a physical presence or a physical manifestation (although they can be transcribed, recorded, etc.), but claiming they're not part of real life is pretty 'out there', to put it mildly.