Story help?

[Bones]

I have some ideas for a story, Tell me ur faveorite or suggest your own cauze i am very um... 'indeciseive'

1:A Merchant goes on a quest to find his wife, but he will also find out that love does not always tell the truth...
2:An assasin is arrested and put in prison, where he finds out some of the darkest secrets hide the most unlikely places...
3:An exiled man learns the dark art of death magic and goes on a perilous journy to revive his tutor from death...
4:any ideas?

After a few days and several posts, ill develop the story then post it on a diff thread.

_____
P.S.- i kinda like 3
please give any ideas for a different story OR One of the above posted.

[Ωbright]

Re: Story help?

Out of those, 3 was definitely the most interesting to me.

[Bones]

Re: Story help?

ill need some more votes b4 i decide

[Wavelength]

Re: Story help?

Number 3 sounds the best to me, but it requires a really good touch. This character is most likely going to have a slightly (or not so slightly) distorted view of reality from being exiled (and perhaps the events that led to it), especially considering that he's learning death magic.

So you've got to get that angle to make it interesting, yet the character really needs to be likable enough that the player is going to feel sympathetic towards him and is going to enjoy playing as him.

The other ideas sound alright too, after your edit. If you're skilled you can weave all three of them into a good story. Just don't let it become messy or disjointed.

[Bones]

Re: Story help?

Number 3 sounds the best to me, but it requires a really good touch. This character is most likely going to have a slightly (or not so slightly) distorted view of reality from being exiled (and perhaps the events that led to it), especially considering that he's learning death magic.

So you've got to get that angle to make it interesting, yet the character really needs to be likable enough that the player is going to feel sympathetic towards him and is going to enjoy playing as him.

The other ideas sound alright too, after your edit. If you're skilled you can weave all three of them into a good story. Just don't let it become messy or disjointed.

i agree, if i do this 1, i most likely will also have a conflict in dreams, too. i could put an event in front of certain beds and say- Would you like to go to sleep? yes no
if the player chooses yes, you would be thrown into the "Dream World" whereas you have to fight a monster to leave- i'd make it where they'd NEED to sleep every now and then before you can get new quests-And/or for it to become day time- there would probably be quests to do in the dream world, too.- whatya think?

[Wavelength]

Re: Story help?

i agree, if i do this 1, i most likely will also have a conflict in dreams, too. i could put an event in front of certain beds and say- Would you like to go to sleep? yes no
if the player chooses yes, you would be thrown into the "Dream World" whereas you have to fight a monster to leave- i'd make it where they'd NEED to sleep every now and then before you can get new quests-And/or for it to become day time- there would probably be quests to do in the dream world, too.- whatya think?

It's actually a cool idea. Just be careful to make sure something interesting is always happening in the Dream World. The worst thing you could do would be to make it so Dream World is just a chore you have to get through to make anything interesting happen back in the real world.

[Big Rick Cook]

Re: Story help?

I chose 3 cause I didn't want to be ostracized for choosing something else.

[Bones]

Re: Story help?

It's actually a cool idea. Just be careful to make sure something interesting is always happening in the Dream World. The worst thing you could do would be to make it so Dream World is just a chore you have to get through to make anything interesting happen back in the real world.

Of Course!
he could Do quests-
just to mix it up some!
and other times he'd have to solve puzzles- there could be a whole storyline- but i dont wanna make it too confusing.

[Perversion]

Re: Story help?

4) A city-bred leafy green vegetable returns to the country to find its roots.

*rimshot*



Really, though, all three sound a bit clichéd in how you describe them in the first post.


I'm partial to the first one, but in order to pull it off, you'd need some pretty decent storytelling chops.

If you do not possess said chops, number three would probably be your best bet.

[Bones]

Re: Story help?

Woah.. wait? how is 3 Cliched??
If it is... tell me the game-ill wanna play it!

[Perversion]

Re: Story help?

3:An exiled man learns the dark art of death magic and goes on a perilous journy to revive his tutor from death...

This is SORTA similar...


Kidding. But death magic/exile/rescuing a tutor...I dunno. It just does not seem all that engaging. Granted, you only posted a one sentence synopsis, and I'm sure you would be able to expand on that, but we've seen all three of the above in countless games.


Try this: The tutor "blessed" the hero with the capability for death magic, but the hero was unaware (possibly because the tutor never told him) of how it would affect him or others around him. Maybe the death magic is sorta like vampirism, where having the immense power at his disposal and being unable to rid himself of it sucks away his life force, and the only way to sustain his life energy and not wither away is to suck the life force out of others around him (maybe like an energy vampire). This in turn makes others become withered, mindless, shambling husks (the walking dead).

He's been able to keep this ability a secret until recently, but he is exposed as the story begins, which leads to his exile. Now he is on a mission to find his tutor to discover if there is a "cure," or if this capability can be reversed or negated.

Along the way, the main character would have some inner dialogue (or maybe he meets an NPC he can confide in) describing how torurous it is for him to suck other people's life away against his will, how he despises being a predator. The entire game is basically a moral dilemma/internal struggle in coming to grips with who he now is. This would enable you to use a fair amount of allegory or metaphor for any number of common daily struggles that the average person makes, thus making the hero's story relatable.





But as above, if you don't have the storytelling chops to pull this off, I wouldn't even try. But THIS game, I WOULD play.


OR just have the guy be your standard necromancer, raising skeletons and spirits from the dead to help him fight all those in his path to rescue his tutor. Either way works, I guess.

[Bones]

Re: Story help?

you need to read all of the above posts if you haven't-and if you have- those are just overviews-
the plot will merge togeather and become a beautiful story.

[Big Rick Cook]

Re: Story help?

Don't gab about it. Go out and do it.