BSS RPG -- Discussion & OOC

I think what we have so far is good, let's just keep going.

I am currently working on a map we could use. It started as a second crack at my Yggdrasil design, but has been turned into kind of a lost jungle valley. I drew inspiration from WoTES. The Yggdrasil will remain, it's currently under construction, I am building it by hand rather than using saplings.

We could use it somewhere in the story. I will do a video about it once it's good enough to be shown.

As for Zarak, I have a few ideas simmering. In my last written part he destroys the army of souls, but also absorbs a considerable amount of Shadovar essence. I will use that happening to turn him into a full-blown Warlock, and have his shamanic powers remain dormant.

For the dungeon boss, I was thinking of something along the lines of Legion in Castlevania Aria of Sorrow:

Spoiler:

Basically, a construct made from parts of the denizens of said dungeon. We could give it beholder-like powers seeing as it is composed from a bunch of parts which all had different trades in life prior to being sealed up in the dungeon.

Oh hell yes, it has the potential to be amazingly disturbing. Body horror and gorn written as viscerally as we possibly can will be epic if not to read, then to write at least.

About Runa, I guess She-Who-Speaks-of-Bones would be a prestige class of a sort, were I to translate it into strictly D&D terms; a warrior-bard whose magic is mostly necromancy. I think I'll focus the character development on gaining power in that department. And *angst*. One simply cannot go wrong with angst.

Speaking of which, if I may suggest something - a shaman's calling is never stilled. Accounts from every culture, even those from neoshamans (I resent the term for various reasons, but oh well) are consistent in the belief that a shaman who does not shamanize becomes sick again, which often results in their death. Just something to ponder, should you want your character to be tormented by Gods and monsters alike.

Are we still going with the "mad descendants of the buried alive, animalistic behaviours and cannibalism" as the first level hostile encounters? I do have some sufficiently pretentious similes written upon the back page of my notebook. "Pale and malformed as the blind fish of the deep, dark waters" anyone?

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Are we still going with the "mad descendants of the buried alive, animalistic behaviours and cannibalism" as the first level hostile encounters? I do have some sufficiently pretentious similes written upon the back page of my notebook. Very Happy "Pale and malformed as the blind fish of the deep, dark waters" anyone?

Yes, which is why I suggested a Legion-like boss, the writing possibilities are endless!

I did not plan on having Zarak abandoning shamanism, but absorbing the amount of Shadovar essence he did definitively will change him and fuel the Black Flame burning in his soul. In D&D terms I guess it would translate to a multiclass giving priority to one perticular class above the other. I'd have to do some digging, but I am pretty sure I could blend both classes together to form one distinct character. As for Zarak's personality, I'll further develop the mysterious enigma persona. I was thinking of having Zarak relate to the Yggdrasil, maybe stabilize his shamanic powers, I am not sure yet.

If Runa wants to head towards necromancy, maybe we could have Zarak and Runa trading bits and pieces of knowledge. We could have their relationship mirror the one we have, allies that trust and inspire each other.

My jungle map also offers many writing possibilities. I am finishing the valley walls, and the entrance bridges, and then it should be good enough to be shown. I should have a video up sometime this weekend.

I will also be redoing the dungeon map, because I accidentally deleted the wrong save. Whoops.

Not going to be able to do thr video of the valley jungle. My voice is absolutely demolished after yesterday's intense rehearsal.

Not to mention I still have a bazillion bloody jungle saplings to plant and feed bonemeal. Might take a while.

Right, I reached the end of my patience placing bloody saplings so I decided to go ahead and do the video even though it's still far from a finished product. The structure of the town itself is done, the jungle is partly done, and the Yggdrasil nowhere close to being finished but still showable.

All.The.Saplings. Ye Gods, I can't even. Wow. Impressive and vast again... I like the part about a burial chamber within the Yggdrasil. After all, seeing that the dead reside by the lower part of the Tree, and the giant undead dragon that gnaws at it's roots - it fits perfectly. As for the leafless version, that's actually how I imagined/saw the trunk, all things considered.

The bridge full of guardian constructs would make for a fine 'a hurried, dramatic flight through the perilous, narrow platform over a darkest abyss' scene...

Zarak wrote:

If Runa wants to head towards necromancy, maybe we could have Zarak and Runa trading bits and pieces of knowledge. We could have their relationship mirror the one we have, allies that trust and inspire each other.

A great idea if there ever was one.

Psst, Nakia? Any thoughts on the subject? I mean, we all wrote this together, I would not want to begin without hearing your perspective.

I just had an idea -- since I am now semi-competent with RPG Maker, I could give a shot to making this into an actual game. RPG Maker gives me complete freedom over pretty much everything so I could make classes, items, magic, etc. 

The BSS RPG itself has kind of been put in the backburner, I've done a LOT of stuff and I have hit another dry patch of inspiration, so maybe working on something else would be good. I do still have a plot in mind but seeing as we are doing this as a team project, I'd rather settle on what is canon before I get to work. 

I love writing dialogue, so this project would also be a blast.

Sounds good Zarak - go for it

I'm game, but before I do anything I want to hear from my sexy demon and Nak as well since it was the three of us who started writing this project.

In the meanwhile I could start designing the world.

This is quite an interesting idea. Would we continue to write the story as a simultaneous project, or just discuss and/or contribute to the dialogues/plot?

I'd rather we write the story and then I turn it into a game, but I am A-1 with soloing it with my own plotline. Writing dialogue is no problem but writing it as a team feels more organic, if that makes sense.

Let's see what Nak thinks. Take a look at my other thread if you haven't already, my sexy demon, I posted a tidbit I did last weekend.

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I'd rather we write the story and then I turn it into a game

Perfect, I was thinking of something similar. Let me know if you are going to need some of Runa's longer tales in abbreviated version, lest the poor gal becomes She-Of-The-Wall-Of-Text.

She kind of already is

Although I suppose I could turn those longer tales into books, or some such. Adding lore could be a goodidea.

Aye, she is, but in the written version no one has to click through the damn things. And yes, lore would be great. Reminds me of a jest I made before we began, about academia.edu papers and whatnot. Seems there was some truth in it, after all.

You made a self-fulfilling prophecy, my sexy demon  

Those walls of text do not bother me at all, TBH. They remind me of the old-school RPGs I played on MegaDrive when I was young -- the Phantasy Star series, Sword of Vermillion, Warriors of the Eternal Sun, Beyond Oasis, Shining Force, Shadowrun and some other I am sure I have forgotten.

Alternatively, we could make the story in kind of a lore book, if you will. I can reference things in the game, and have the players read the specific part of the story in the lore book at their own leisure. 

I should be doing a little more of the game somewhere this weekend. I've found a trick that helps me greatly with doing cutscenes.

Right, browsing the forums out of boredom I found this project and dusted it off. Now that I have significantly more experience with RPG Maker I am thinking of picking the gauntlet up and writing it as a full blown game.

Granted a few vital parts are missing, but writing dialogue has never been an issue for me. I can write dialogue based on the established personalities from the story thread.

This Enlightened Viewer can only repeat what she said before - sounds good, go for it!

Right so here's the plan--

The initial chapter will be a multifold one in which I will tell the origin stories. First it will be Zarak, then Nakia, Runa and so on. You will start as Zarak for a while, then at some point switch to another protagonist to continue the storytelling and then the true game starts at the circle of souls.

The entire texts will be written as dialogue and displayed in game. I have Zarak's intro done but while I can work on MZ on my POS Linux Mac I cannot do any kind of playtesting so I cannot show video yet.

I will try my best to emulate the personalities while writing dialogue. I am not planning a very long project with this one, the Orb and the dunyon will make the most of the meat.

I will hopefully have something to show off during the week

Sounds terrific!

This will be a very heavily text driven story at least initially. I tested the event and it's a massive wall of text

Avatars are being done, due to differences between VX Ace and MZ's character creators I didn't just copy-paste but there will be some "use your imagination" parts about the appearance story-wise VS the avatars.

I got the chill evening tonight. I have an Artix install to do for my coworker but otherwise I'll try and put some work in if I am not too stupidly tired... which is likely

Take it easy.

These walls of text sound pretty nice!

Plenty of things to ponder in this backstory.

Even by Shadovar standards Zarak is an anomaly. He will get a lot of power from the souls but he will only unlock it very slowly piece by piece. I am thinking his Shamanism might turn into some kind of death magic (which would make for some fantastic banter with Runa) which would blend with the Black Flame to create something new.

Next up is Nakia because she is the first encounter. More screens or videos later.