The Path to a Great RPG - Part II
 (3).bmp) | submitted by Arix on Sun Oct 22, 2006 1:49 am
More Paperwork |
Welcome to the second step in the Path. Last week, I showed the first parts of planning - getting your characters ready, thinking about your world, the basic elements of story. This week, I’ll show the other part - the actual game-based stuff.
The Intimidating Factor
Now, some of you may think I’m nuts when I tell you this bit. Some may think of me as the crazy guy (if you don’t already). Some may curl up into a little ball and start rocking back and forth in the corner (we all do it, don't deny). But here it comes...
LIST YOUR GAME.
...what? I mean, take each individual event in your game, and compile it into a list.
"Are you nuts?"
Thought so. It sounds intimidating, yes, but it really isn’t that hard. I once had a very large game in store, and it only took up little over 20 lines.
"20 lines? No, we’re looking at a 100+ line list!"
Not so. Here, let’s take an example:
The hero needs to bribe a guard with something. So they go and get it. Taking it back to the guard, they are attacked by a giant flying thing, which steals the object and is taken back to the flying thing’s lair. The hero goes to the lair, retrieves the object, bribes the guard and is let past. Let’s see that in a list:
1. Get object.
2. Object is stolen.
3. Recover object.
4. Bribe guard.
And that whole thing took four lines. A lot simpler than it may at first appear.
"And how long would that mission take? 5 minutes. Four lines for a five minute mission = 48 for a 1 hour game!"
But that is where you’re wrong. You’re forgetting of all the stuff the hero does to recover the item. For example, he may have to complete a dungeon. As any RPG fan knows, dungeons can make up massive parts of the game. Such a dungeon as above could easily take up at least fifteen minutes of gameplay - with that, four dungeons and some questing in between can make up an hour and a half of game time with little over 20 lines.
Hell, you could condense it even more if you want. Take the above example and add it in the rest of a list.
7. Enter random village.
8. Get object to bribe guard.
9. Enter dungeon.
That really does it, as #8 covers it all. You can always expand your list into the game later. And for each dungeon, you don’t need things like...
46. Find key 1.
47. Enter room to miniboss, beat miniboss.
48. Find all-powerful enemy-smashing weapons of evil’s bane.
49. Do some other random thing.
You really could do with...
12. Enter dungeon.
13. Complete dungeon.
Dungeons are really quite easy to make on the fly, so such long details aren't needed at this time. You can always draw some maps and write a walkthru for your dungeons later if you like.
Another point, there’s no need to go...
167. Move bucket to find key.
168. Get key.
169. Open lock.
170. Use something to escape cell.
And whatnot. Just go...
19. Escape cell.
And this is why...
Puzzle Solutions
I’ll cover this more thoroughly further down the track, but for now, here’s what we do. Just list the basics in your list, like above. Later on in the paperwork, make a section for puzzle solutions. Here, do things like…
19. Escape cell.
Move bucket to find key. Get key. Open lock. Use something to escape cell.
23. Fix something.
Get this, that, and another thing. Use them on something. Bring something to someone, who fixes it.
And so on and so forth. It’s much easier this way, for a few reasons. It's a lot less time consuming, it lets you know where your game is heading (so you know EXACTLY what to do while you're making it and know that you won't get stuck in the middle of something without any idea how to progress), and also for inventory reasons (again, which I’ll cover further on).
So, is that it? Not quite.
Naming
The backbone of the RPG, the names. Characters, locations, the game itself, they need names. Observe:
PC #1: So, NPC #86, how have you been here in Village #2?
NPC#86: Average, Evil Guy #65 keeps trying to destroy us, but thanks to Mystic Artefact #4, we’re safe.
PC#1: Good to hear. Well, I gotta move to Remote Island #3 now, hope you do well.
...what the crap? Could you imagine seeing that in a game? Okay, forget the cheesiness of the script; the point is that names matter. Good names. Again, observe:
Snorkleplax: So, Gogglestomp, how have you been here in Phlimelime Village?
Gogglestomp: Average, Jhonkaman keeps trying to destroy us, but thanks to the Amulet of Zxxyzzsts, we’re safe.
Snorkleplax: Good to hear. Well, I gotta move to Mnungabungaland now, hope you do well.
And now, the final observation:
Celsius: So, Riana, how have you been here in Fahr Village?
Riana: Average. Kaldra keeps trying to destroy us, but thanks to the Amulet of Quoz, we’re safe.
Celsius: Good to hear. Well, I gotta move to the Api Isle now, hope you do well.
Ah, much better. True, I ‘borrowed’ a few things there, but you get the idea. Here are some tips for the naming process:
Japanese sounding names. Any RPG fan knows that a whole buttload of famous RPGs originate from Japan, and it's known that...well, that’s the easiest way to name them. Plus, Japanese sounding names are dead easy to make. Hagoshi. There, didn’t even try. Mitsuke. Handai. Banana. Mana-Manama.
Scratch those last two.
Adapt from somewhere. Think of some abstract word – chaste, for example. Who says "chaste"? Nobody. Take some valiant and heroic guy (chaste means pure), adapt the word chaste into a decent name, and bang, you have your name. Alternatively, use other languages – adapt the word perompak (Indonesian for pirate) to make the name for a pirate.
Backwards. Everybody loves going backwards! Get any normal thing, a normal name or word, and spell it backwards. Mortimer backwards is Remitrom – change one letter and you have Remitron, the name of a futuristic mecha (thanks to Asakura of the RPG4 forums for that).
Compound words. Skyscape as the name of a location. Ebonblade as a weapon. Just try to avoid naming characters _____heart. It’s overdone as it is.
Just think of something cool! Arix doesn’t come from anywhere – it sounds draconic and cool, so here it is. WotC came up with Jareth, because it sounded “white, soldierly, and cool”. Simple and easy.
Well, that’s about it for this week. Join me next week when I reveal the secrets of a great intro.
Until then, may you always give your child a Japanese sounding name for some reason.
