Things I use to bypass cliches

[Deeth Irteen]

I've come up with story-related things that make perfect sense out of classic problems in RPGs.

First offf, when A character's HP reaches 0 in my game, they don't die, they fall unconsious. Hit Points represent a character's ability to stay awake during a battle. items don't "revive" characters, they bring them back into consiousness. thanks to this, any character can fall unconsious in battle, but when a character dies in the story, you can't just use items to bring them back to life.

I've also come up with a way to explain random encounters in my game. Thanks to Iniquity's rampaging around, many of the animals mutated and evolved into monsters as time went on. Thanks to Iniquity's magic, the monsters are invisible to the naked human eye. Because of this, 3 key psychetechs were implemented: Barriers, Menu rings, and Beast rings.

Barriers are massive devices that prevent monsters from entering cities, but allow the safe passage of humans.

Menu rings are ring-shaped Psychetech devices that, when activated through pressing a -shaped button on the top, create a digital "menu" created by the wear's mind and those in his immediate party. the menu allows the wearer to do various things, such as viewing the wearer's physical capabilities in the form of numbers (statistics).

Beast rings are ring-shaped devices that scan the 10-foot radius around the wearer for hostile monsters that can't be seen. When a monster or group of monsters get within the radius, the ring pulls the monster(s) close and creates a "pocket dimension" for the wearer and his party to combat the monsters with full visibility. the "PDs" as some call them have a different way in which time flows, relying on a human and/or amonster's Mental quickness (Agility) to determine who's able to move. The beast ring also creates a menu for the wearer and his immediate party to view ther HP, MP, and various things they can do in battle.

I'll post more when i can come up with them.

[Ωbright]

Re: Things I use to bypass cliches

I always hate it when a character in an RPG says "Just press X on your controller!"

Anything that helps keep you in the game is on the right track, as far as I'm concerned.

[salamander]

Re: Things I use to bypass cliches

Good explanations, although a bit technical.

[Wavelength]

Re: Things I use to bypass cliches

With the exception of the "fainting," I think all of these are really good ways of explaining gameplay mechanics and I'm impressed with the thought you've put into it.

"Fainting" at 0HP and animals being corrupted/mutated into monsters are pretty cliche in themselves; I've seen both in several games in the past. In particular the "fainting" never really made any sense to me (unless it was itself explained away by the game world, such as a game that takes place mostly in Virtual Reality)--if beating something to a bloody pulp only knocks them unconscious, how are you supposed to kill them?

Barriers, menu rings, beast rings, all very nice and well thought out.

Please remember, though, that when there's a conflict between having things make sense and making the game a fun experience, that the fun experience should win out every time. Don't let your storytelling become too heavy-handed. If you can't figure out a good way to introduce one of these elements into your game, then screw it!!

[Deeth Irteen]

Re: Things I use to bypass cliches

With the exception of the "fainting," I think all of these are really good ways of explaining gameplay mechanics and I'm impressed with the thought you've put into it.

"Fainting" at 0HP and animals being corrupted/mutated into monsters are pretty cliche in themselves; I've seen both in several games in the past. In particular the "fainting" never really made any sense to me (unless it was itself explained away by the game world, such as a game that takes place mostly in Virtual Reality)--if beating something to a bloody pulp only knocks them unconscious, how are you supposed to kill them?

Barriers, menu rings, beast rings, all very nice and well thought out.

Please remember, though, that when there's a conflict between having things make sense and making the game a fun experience, that the fun experience should win out every time. Don't let your storytelling become too heavy-handed. If you can't figure out a good way to introduce one of these elements into your game, then screw it!!

frankly, I was thinking of just having some dude in the first town give explanations on the technology. Also, if fainting doesn't work, I don't know what to call it.

[Whataface2]

Re: Things I use to bypass cliches

frankly, I was thinking of just having some dude in the first town give explanations on the technology. Also, if fainting doesn't work, I don't know what to call it.

Why not say for example: "Terra is injured!"
Then you could use a heal item and could say "Terra has recovered or Terra's wounds have healed."

[ErikaFuzzbottom]

Re: Things I use to bypass cliches

Since this topic was bumped once before, I shall do so, too, with intention of talking about the "fainting" thing.

Of course the fainting works. That's how I've considered it in other games. Although I think "knocked out" would be better. But how it works is this: sure it means you can't kill them just like that, but if your entire party gets knocked out, nobody's left to recover them, so you can pretty much consider them monster food.

[Deeth Irteen]

Re: Things I use to bypass cliches

"monster food".........