Need plot ideas

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Need plot ideas Idea Guy 03/08/15 (Sun) 06:54:40 No.42

I have an >idea for a game. I have a pretty solid grasp on what the mechanics will be, but I need some sort of plot outline, or just neat points I can work off of.

It is derivative, post-modern, memey hipster-shite though, so beware

The basic premise is that it is the Last Day of Summer, which is code word for "the very end times of world as we know it, right before shit irreversibly hits the fan". There are six main, playable characters who are inexplicably aware of the impending doom, but not of what it is exactly.

Roadkill Chevalier
The Bard, a rich kid who led a sheltered existence, became enamored with the romanticism of the old, ran away from wealth (Chris McCandless from Into the Wild style), lived in a car and played guitar. Searches for "inherent goodness in the hearts of man", i.e. whether his romanticism is justified.

Doom-Driven Soldier
Warrior, a one-man moving company guy who lives a spiritually unfulfilling life full of manual labour and escapism. He befriended a foreigner in an online videogame, and this guy went, fought, and died in a war for his ideals. Warrior feels guilty for not going overseas and fighting alongside his bro.

The Cursebearer
Monk, used to be a hardcore feminazi in college, got fucked over by her sisterhood friends and her relatives, and swung all the way around to MRA as a result. The sort of person who talks about gynocentrism and hates herself for being female. Think Diana Davidson from Feminism LOL, but with severe identity issues.

Starbound Knight
Wizard, an engineer who used to think that with enough time, effort, and resources he could achieve anything. Wanted to work on the space program since childhood, put his heart and soul to getting in this field, only to discover that it is severely downsizing, lost all relevance and public support, and there is nothing he can do about it. Is bitter and cynical, yearns for an ideal to believe in and work towards.

Gunpowder Saint
Rogue, an edgemaster twat. She is the punk rocker girl of yore, sans degeneracy. Decries dogma and ridicules everyone's beliefs. Meanwhile she herself is a rude, manner-less, socially retarded failure at life who works as a janitor. Doubts whether not having a concrete set of believes is the right thing to do.

The Firekeeper
Necromancer, the archetypical highschool sweetheart, a 50s-style housewife in training. Was coddled and cared for by a relative, until that relative died right before her eyes. Death is something she seldom thought of before that, so loss hit her like a truck. Is obsessed with the nature of death, and how it relates to the human condition (i.e. friends and family are made primarily for people to have somebody to remember them after they die, but the person they'll remember is not the person who they knew, etc.)

Also, sorry for shit drawing skills

Idea Guy 03/08/15 (Sun) 07:12:04 No.43

File: 1425798724383.jpg (Spoiler Image, 1.01 MB, 2165x1488, 2165:1488, Image (2).jpg)

The entire thing is set in a piece of shit Michigan suburb, which is the most generic Americana setting I could think of.
Not quite midwest, not quite New England, not quite Canada.

The six get together at a cheapo local community college, in a hallway while waiting for a classroom to open.
War and Monk are students, Wiz is there as tech support, to help the prof set up the projector, Necr is prof's friend, and came over to check up on him/her, Bard is looking for a part time job and just stopped to chat, Rogue is sweeping the hallway.

They're locked out, prof is 20 minutes late already, so Rogue shimmies the lock to let them into the classroom as a friendly gesture. The classroom is weird and uncanny in some way (no idea yet, help), the six bullshit around for a while, get out of the classroom – boosh, the doorway leads to a shadow realm (?) of some sort. They fight monsters, get back to real world.

That's all I've got at the moment.

I have no clue as to what the impending doom is (maybe an AI achieving sentience, predictably starting to enhance itself on its own and causing a technological singularity?), no idea what drives the characters, what they are fighting against, what other side chars and plot twists should be there, no nothing.
Pls help

All I've got is shitty memes, like Wizard making a bong out of chemical utensils welded with a blowtorch in a minigame, prompting a Dwarf Fortress-esque message:
"John Doe, Wizard has created JC, a bong!"

Also something about TV's being gateways to the "shadow realm?", with tons of Persona4 references and jokes about how nobody really watches TV anymore.

Idea Guy 03/08/15 (Sun) 07:21:03 No.44

The overall gameplay is that of early Lucas Arts adventure games. You go from screen to screen, collect items, solve puzzles, talk to people. All six characters have different skills and abilities, but all of them can do most stuff about equally well.

In a conversation, the dialogue is represented as a topdown twin-stick shooter with a randomly generated map for each line choice. Dialogue options are scattered across the map, the more out of character the line is for the char, the harder it is to get to it.

In the shadow realm (or a less generic alternate dimension variant thereof) you kind of bumble around and explore, fighting occasional enemies in a turn-based mode.

Lemon 03/08/15 (Sun) 21:12:01 No.45

>>42
Initial thoughts: the titles like "The Cursebearer" kind of lost me,but i see what your going for, wizard/engineer wouldn't necessarily be doing tech support/it, just make sure its mentioned he re-purposed his skills

Sounds like you've got the setting,characters and a start of plot down already.

an idea for direction/plot: obviously they become friends,as they hang out around school/work/city they start running into "weird and uncanny" spots,ie they go to a coffee shop and get transported to your shadow realm, as they go along it gets more frequent and starts bleeding outside the "shadow realm", people missing/falling,fires,murders,etc, The gang uses their powers both inside and out to try and get to the root/cause, what that is idk

Outside: powers are more modern/less fantasy, wizard engineers items,rogue picks locks,necro medkits

Inside: wizards fireballs,rouge backstabbin,necro necro'in,etc

Overall it looks you could have a really neet modern rpg type game with a focus on characters/story/uncanny shit

A cool way to do the transition: its not apparent that they've changed realms right away, its not until the people start acting weird and they look outside and see a different sky or shadows are larger/creepier, some kind of identifier that they've shifted, less OMG YOUVE SHIFTED and more subtle: this is getting weird

Idea Guy 03/09/15 (Mon) 03:32:36 No.46

>>45
Okay, so the utility of every party member in the real world is based around their character, i.e – wizard has technical know-how, knows chemistry, warrior is proficient with tools and the mechanical jerry-rigging side of things, rogue can pick locks, run, jump and climb shit better than the rest.

In the shadow realm, where actual combat occurs, the differences b/w the six are more apparent.

Warrior is p. much the only one that can stand his own in combat, both in terms of dealing and taking damage.

Bard has shit combat stats, but can deal out buffs/debuffs like a motherfucker.

Wizard uses improvised explosives (oh, the memories of growing up right after USSR fell apart are rushing in. Every kid on the block had a matchlock made out of a lead pipe), has AoE, nukes, and a ton of specialized shit.

Rogue has a ton of damage, but no durability. She can manipulate the enemies via taunts and misdirection shifting aggro among the party members, and is highly maneuverable.

Necromancer can heal other party members. Her "spells" don't heal the trauma, just transfer it over onto her, so the more damage she heals, the more sickly and weak she gets. She can release all the damage she soaked up onto an enemy in one go, and can analyze what each enemy is weak/resistant to.

No idea about what Monk should do. I can't figure out a way to incorporate the idea of the "curse" into gameplay.

As for plot, ye, this sum good stuff. So it's kinda like purseowner with all the weird stuff happening and the six investigating it via supernatural means.

Also maybe stylize the entire thing as a shitty TV show. Loading screens masked with ad breaks – put all of those uncanny 80s/90s adverts in, the sort that EverythingIsTerrible compiles.
This would dovetail neatly with the previous TV ideas.

And when they enter shadow realm, the chars become more aware of the logic of the world. The TV stuff becomes more obvious, people act more like characters going through a script, there is canned laughter, some chars do asides while looking at the camera, etc. Like the Truman Show.

Lemon 03/11/15 (Wed) 19:25:46 No.49

>>46
Your going to need good rpgish gameplay of course,but where I think your idea shines will be the story and character development and the outside of the shadow realm gameplay,mainly the puzzle and problem solving