I do most of my thinking out loud, or rather, on my fingers, by writing documents so that I'm forced to put thoughts down concretely. The following is a "journal" I kept during the design of Heroes. For the most part, I just kept adding at the end, but there are a few places where I went through and revised things. As the journal opens, I had already decided to do a game with five characters, and determined the characters, and was thinking about gender selection. As yet I did not have any idea for the game beyond "five characters with different abilities trying to accomplish the same task", and the list of characters. No plot, no puzzles, no fleshed out thoughts on who the characters were or what they were capable of. ============================================================================= Are you [f]emale or [m]ale? m Do you want to play a [f]emale character or a [m]ale one? f You freak! Do you want to play as an [a]dventurer, an [e]nchanter, a [t]hief, [r]oyalty, or a [d]ragon? Powers: adventure can do normal adventure commands enchanter has spells; what limits? can't carry certain objects which disrupt mystical aura? royalty can give orders dragon can kill things, breathe fire, can only carry one thing, can't fit through certain exits thief can pick pockets, climb walls, sneak in shadows, doesn't start with a light source, other limits? Knowledge: each character should know something about the story that the others don't, so once you play all five, it all fits together more clearly. Goals: all five characters should be trying to achieve an entirely different goal, while trying to accomplish the same end in the simulation Let's suppose the goal is to get object Q. Now, here are some possible high level goals: Royalty: Q is an object that could lead to revolt, or assassination Enchanter: Q is an object of power needed to advance Enchanter's ends Thief: Q is an object the thief has been hired to acquire Dragon: Q is a dragon egg Adventurer: Q is required to complete the set Now let's raise the stakes. The Thief has been "hired" to acquire the object by a character who is threatening the Thief's family to force his hand. The Enchanter wants to acquire the object to complete a spell he can use to banish an evil villain. The Adventurer has been manipulated by the evil villain into pursuit of this object? (E.g. teleported through a magic mirror) The Thief is the one who stole it from the Dragon's lair previously, but now he is trying to undo his wrong. How do you compose a twist so that given four or five pieces of information you receive in any order, it's always the last one that reveals the truth? Answer: each component must be something that does not imply the other component. Let's suppose the twist in the end is on the subject of "what is going on" or perhaps "why is it going on". Then what sorts of individual suprises can there be? *Who* the villain is--e.g. he has an unexpected past relationship to the scenario. A surprising aspect of the artifact itself--it can be used for some surprising purpose. This purpose is compatible with some aspect of the villain's past. Of course, the you put the two together, and that's the twist. Now, how do we expand that to five things? We could reveal that there was *somebody* in the past with this particular need, then the use of the object, then that the villain is the one with that past, but people might see it coming. We could break the use of the thing up into two components: one person reveals it can be used in a certain way, and another reveals that given something with that power, there is a certain application. Both of these are masked by having OTHER things with that power so that the revelation of the second won't immediately imply the revelation of the first. For example: The villain, in his youth, lost his lover, and has never found another. The dragon egg has the power to blah The power to blah can be used to bring a loved one back from the dead. Ok, there you go. Now you put all three together, and you've explained the past. Now how can we expand this to FIVE facts? One of the "heroes", in his youth, slew his nemesis' lover. The villain has always been the nemesis of the hero. That makes four. Ok, that suggests the idea of making it seem that each of the five characters is a hero, but they are in fact the villains of the piece. That would suggest allowing the implication that the supposed villain somehow wins; however, since this is five independent stories, in which only one is true, we can only imply the past, not the future; it would do no good to have each story imply something about the future which bodes well for the hero... hmm, unless each revelation is independent of the "hero"'s actions, with implication it is definitely true. A revelation of the villain's secret plans. Proposed title: HEROES The villain revelation: One of the "heroes", in days of yore, slew his nemesis' lover The villain was the nemesis of the hero. This is not a surprise. Dammit. Ok. The villain revelation: - One of the heroes had an unrequited passion for a woman who was slain by his nemesis. - The villain was once a compatriot of the hero; they vied for the same woman - The dragon egg has the power to blah - The power to blah can be used to bring a lover back from the dead How can this be expanded to add one more step? Something needs to be made indirect. I don't want to make the power-to-raise-dead thing any more indirect, that would be silly. - One of the old party members, Y, was slain by a nemesis - The villain was another old party member by the name of X - X and Y were lovers - The dragon egg has the power to blah - The power to blah can be used to bring a lover back from the dead Now need to be clear about why it took until now for X to act. Ok, now what secret plan of X can be revealed that implies he will still win. Also, should I hide all of these facts behind the player achieving a *victory* in all five episodes? Or can I put one fact behind victory, and one fact halfway? Ok, what is the "villain's" secret plot that will allow success? - in one game, the player gets an object into the hands of a certain character - that character is revealed to be working for the "villain" - that certain object is instrumental in raising the dead by another method - the member of royalty has had a foretelling that he will be die soon, which he is trying to prevent - the death of the murderer (the royalty) is needed for the other method Hmm, this is getting a little repetitive, though. Now that we have this *other* method for raising the dead, there's no need for the original revelation to be that the villain was trying to raise the dead. So the original revelation should just be that the villain is not a villain. Well, let's stick with the current setup. We can make it clear that they are trying to stop the villain from his known goal, and yet imply that the villain is manipulating them, with another goal in mind. We can end the royalty game with the character in what we know from other playthroughs is a deathtrap. Now we want to reveal the villainy of the heroes: - the thief abandoned X to her death--same revelation as villain was X - X and Y were lovers might be revealed by the jealous murderer (royalty) - dragon: - enchanter: - adventurer: I think I have to cut the wacky "choose your gender" component, in the interests of telling a coherent story. It might be amusingly unexpected to adjust the story as each gender is revealed, though. The lover entanglement would get complicated, unless we allow for homosexuality, which I fear would just confuse people if written generically. Perhaps character Y's name can be gender ambiguous, and it's not until the royalty character is played that the gender of X is revealed. Or perhaps character Y is a fixed gender, as is X, but *who* the royalty was jealous of... nah. The villain: Was named Merresin, now they all call her by some other name, something like the Taken in Black Company, or perhaps just a name that implies that she is an ex-party member ("the fallen one"). "Nemesis", as a name. Blackhelm. Perhaps that is her surname. Back then she was, what, a cleric? And now a powerful enchanter? The royalty was a bard. The dragon was under a geas? The dragon joined them for its own reasons, which they never knew about. Ok, now on to the game. What are the characters trying to accomplish, and apparently why? Here's the old listing: ======================= Let's suppose the goal is to get object Q. Now, here are some possible high level goals: Royalty: Q is an object that could lead to revolt, or assassination Enchanter: Q is an object of power needed to advance Enchanter's ends Thief: Q is an object the thief has been hired to acquire Dragon: Q is a dragon egg Adventurer: Q is required to complete the set Now let's raise the stakes. The Thief has been "hired" to acquire the object by a character who is threatening the Thief's family to force his hand. The Enchanter wants to acquire the object to complete a spell he can use to banish an evil villain. The Adventurer has been manipulated by the evil villain into pursuit of this object? (E.g. teleported through a magic mirror) The Thief is the one who stole it from the Dragon's lair previously, but now he is trying to undo his wrong. ======================== Now let's reconsider, given the above information, what might be going on in each case. Royalty: Q is an object that could be used to end his reign Enchanter: Q is an object that the enchanter believes can be used to gain protection from Blackhelm. Thief: Blackhelm is trying to trick the thief into bringing the object to her. But the Thief plans to deceive her and do something else with it. (What?) Dragon: Q must be returned home, since it is family? Ugh. Adventurer: The adventurer is being manipulated by the villain into retrieving the object. But he realizes the manipulation and avoids it. Too similar to Thief. In *every* story, the player happens to also make the OTHER object fall into the hands of the villain's ally. That means we need to strike the first of these points, and add one more: - in one game, the player gets an object into the hands of a certain character - that character is revealed to be working for the "villain" - that certain object is instrumental in raising the dead by another method - the member of royalty has had a foretelling that he will be die soon, which he is trying to prevent - the death of the murderer (the royalty) is needed for the other method unfortunately, these are independent, instead of dependent: the plan is revealed from either of the pair of these. let's combine "the death of the murderer is required" with "the certain object is instrumental"; then you need all three facts, but I still need two more. Ok, or we can split them in the following way: - that certain object is useful for killing a murderer in a ritual known as "The Way of the Grave" - "The Way of the Grave" is a way of bringing a victim of murder back to life - the person who gets the object is in the employ of the villain - the royalty has had a foretelling of his destruction. - that certain object goes by a particular name Also, some of this information can be revealed before the final moment of victory in each story, if it is revealed after that moment is assured. The whole thing is, unfortunately, repetitively indirect: the long thin thing is actually a frombitz; a frombitz is useful for destroying a murderer in the ritual "the way of the grave"; the "way of the grave" is a way to bring a victim of murder back to life; the person who ends up with the long thin thing is in the employ of the villain; the royalty has had a fortelling of his destruction && simultaneously reveal that he is the murderer of the villain's lover. Well, it'll have to do. So, let's sum up all the information to be revealed: Blackhelm's secret plan: e the long thin thing is actually a frombitz t a frombitz is useful for destroying a murderer in the ritual "the way of the grave"; a the "way of the grave" is a way to bring a victim of murder back to life d the person who ends up with the long thin thing is in the employ of the villain r the royalty has had a fortelling of his destruction && simultaneously reveal that he is the murderer of the villain's lover. Backstory: r One of the old party members, Y, was slain by a jealous party e The villain was another old party member by the name of X t X and Y were lovers d The dragon egg has the power of Dark Summoning a Dark Summoning can be used to bring someone back from the dead, but that someone won't appreciate it Should it be a dragon egg or something else? Maybe it should be a dragon artifact. I like that. What is it? An idol? The Dragon Crystal. (Argh, Dark Crystal.) The Dragon Gem. Ok, so, the dragon gem, a magic totem belong to the dragon society. The dragon protagonist was the one from whom it was stolen, and he must retrieve it. The dragon can reveal irrelevant backstory about where the gem came from. What is the frombitz going to be called? Gran'r (too close to grignr). Kriit. I still have trouble explaining the motivation of all the characters (e.g., specifically, thief and adventurer). Perhaps the Thief was manipulated into acquiring it for someone WITHOUT realizing it had been Blackhelm, and now having discovered it, has resolved to steal it back so it won't fall into Blackhelm's hands. Then the adventurer is *currently* being manipulated into it by Blackhelm, and realizes it only partway through. Now, onto gameplay. Here are the powers again: adventurer: normal. starts with sword and brass lantern enchanter: has enchanter-style spells. cannot carry objects which disrupt mystical aura. royalty: carrying things is unseemly. gives orders. dragon: can't fit through exits, can only carry on thing. breathes fire, threatens, kills. thief: can't be spotted by guards. climb walls, pick pockets. So, here's some ideas for puzzles (not that they should all get used): Guard d threaten or kill r lets you pass a have to give him some item he wants e use a spell t lure guard away Character with object d threaten or kill r demand object a have to give him some item he wants e use a spell t pick pocket Locked wooden door d burn it down r order someone to unlock it a find key e rezrov t pick lock Wooden pillar with useful object on top d burn it to get object r ??? a knock thing off top with pole t swing from overhead e levitation spell Dragon Gem in display case d smash case--no, it's enchanted e rezrov? r negotiate treaty with owner a find key t pick lock? Villain's accomplice a give him frombitz in return for some other item d give him frombitz in return for some other item e use frombitz for some purpose which transports it to location where villain's accomplice retrieves it t use frombitz for some purpose, overhear villain's accomplice retrieving it r must get villain's accomplice to use frombitz for some purpose Ok, here we go: the villain's accomplice is one of the guards. So when the dragon tries to get through, it's revealed that this guard is more than he seems (dragon can breathe fire on him). But it's only hinted in the other threads. So, there should be two or three guards total. One of them is guarding the dragon gem, and won't obey the royalty. One of them is the accomplice. One of them is generic. Genders should be mixed. The guards are positioned so as to prevent the thief from access to certain items the adventurer can reach. What do we definitely have, in all versions? - The dragon gem in a magical display case. - A crucial item on top of a wooden structure - A guard preventing access to the dragon gem - The nobleman, current owner of the dragon gem - A guard secretly in Blackhelm's employ. He is guarding outside the room where the Thief will use the Kriit, so he can retrieve it. Can we make the Kriit be the thing the thief will swing from? It is a long pole with a hook. The Kriit must itself be incredibly hard to get, so as to make the whole thing make sense. Ok, so first of all the Kriit "belongs" to the royalty, and is guarded by one of his guards (not the accomplice). Kriit: r Can just walk off with it d Have to kill the guard and do something else a Have to get past the guard, then defeat the puzzle trapping it e Have to get past the guard, acquire the rare scroll needed to acquire it t Have to sneak past the guard, defeat the puzzle trapping it Ok, so let's have the guard that's guarding the *dragon gem* be the accomplice of the villain, after all. If the dragon comes, the guard just demands the Kriit. If the thief, the thief must use the Kriit to defeat the dragon gem trap, and abandon it. Perhaps the dragon gem is the thing atop the wooden structure. If the adventurer, the guard just demands the Kriit. If the enchanter, something about the dragon gem situaton requires use of the Kriit, but then the enchanter must teleport out with the gem, abandoning everything else. If the royalty, the guard says he needs the Kriit to pull the thing down. If you're royalty, the nobleman who owns the dragon gem shows up at the dragon gem location, having heard that the king was coming. You can then ask for the gem, and he agrees, but tells you his guard will have to get the gem out of the display. The guard says he needs something Kriit-like to do it. If you're the enchanter, you turn invisible and sneak by the guard, but you'll need the Kriit for spell reasons. Why can't you just reach up and knock it down, too? Perhaps you need to use the Kriit to reach the turn-invisible spell. If you're the dragon, the guard demands the Kriit. Sassafrassin' apemen. If you're the adventurer, hmm. The guard demands the Kriit, that's a little cheesy, in light of the dragon. Hmm. We're allowed to be manipulative, though, since the guard is the agent of Blackhelm. The guard can request some other item, which the only way of getting is with the Kriit. Why doesn't it just ask for the Kriit? Because he wants to be deceptive--no need to deceive the dragon. Ok, so if you're the adventurer, he asks for something else, which you can only get with the Kriit. How will you know you need the Kriit? Well, the guard will hint it to you. I guess we can change the backstory revelations to imply that the dragon gem can be somehow used to destroy the other party members, and that is what they fear. But since he actually DOES plan to destroy the royalty... ok, the Kriit is used to raise a dead person who was murdered, and it brands the murderer somehow. So then the party members fear the dragon gem is going to be used for vengeance, and want to keep it away from Blackhelm, and are manipulated into giving up the Kriit instead. Hmm, I don't really like this, because it weakens the backstory revelation. Let's go back to having the Dark Summoning power mentioned before. So. The Kriit is in the royal court, where it is used to brand murderers, and possibly to bring back their victims. The nobleman with the dragon gem... no, no, the FAMOUS HERO with the dragon gem lives off the same square as the royal court. dragon gem | road--gate--+-- royal court | ??? Dragon: Enter square; guard there flees. Enter hero's house. Guard there demands Kriit. Can't fit through doorway into royal court, so has to arrange to have a gate raised somehow. (custom dragon puzzle) Thief: Can't enter square; climbs up on roofs. Can't reach dragon gem without falling to floor, but can't escape that way. Need to steal Kriit from court. This will require solving some other puzzle. Also need to acquire a light source. Adventurer: Guard demands item that is south of square. Player needs to use Kriit to get that item. Player has to steal Kriit somehow. Ok, this is a little too short. How can we make it a bit harder? First of all, we make it harder to get to the dragon gem location, e.g. a wooden door. I definitely want more obstacles that are trivial non-obstacles for some protagonists, and real puzzles for others. But I've already exhausted my list of puzzle ideas from above in the current design, so time to think up some more. Ok, just went and wrote up all five prologues. It's clear I'm not going to make it seemingly a wacky romp where you can pick from five characters. The tone of the prologues are dead serious, albeit cheesy quest prologues (intentionally of course). The Enchanter should zifmia Blackhelm into the final room. It would be appropriate for the enchanter to reveal Blackhelm's first name at this point. Ok, I rearranged the backstory info to do that. JINDAK to detect Blackhelm watching in the first place. Still need other main puzzles. Hmm. Darkness puzzle in the south area, definitely. The guard in Blackhelm's employ is actually an imp or summoned creature of some kind. Ok, here are the puzzle chains: Dragon Gem: get past Sedmon's guard get into display room get gem from display Kriit: get past guardroom get into courtroom defeat magic field South area: get light source locked door Dragon gem: a: give FOO to guard; get into display; get gem d: give Kriit to guard; get into display; burn wood e: smolpa guard; get into display; zifmia showdown r: waltz right in; get Kriit; give Kriit to guard t: sneak in different entrance; use Kriit to swing to gem Kriit: a: get guards drunk; walk past; solve puzzle d: find alternate entry; take Kriit; inventory puzzle? e: get past guard???; puzzle involving scroll... "rotate object"? r: waltz right in; Kriit is out of reach of attendants t: sneak past guards; solve puzzle Light Source: a: starts with one r: attendant has one e: frotz d: breathe in correct location t: have to take one from room with Dragon Gem Locked Door: a: have to find key r: have to find missing attendant (in house of ill repute) t: pick lock e: rezrov d: burn door down For characters that need a lame reminder of the Kriit, we only do that if they are the FIRST character. Hmm, maybe it would be a good idea to make sure there are five different uses for the Kriit: a: use it to extract FOO from a trap d: give it to imp r: use it to get gem from on high e: use its magic power t: swing on it Here are the puzzle chains from player pov: a: guard wants FOO. FOO is to the south. already have light source push barrel/crate to pawn shop to enter from above FOO is in barrel of acid get guards drunk with liquor from the tavern release Kriit?? use Kriit to get FOO use FOO to get past guard use ground-level mechanism to get Gem d: guard wants Kriit, which is in court smash gate dragon doesn't fit through main entrance. can go through barracks entrance a metal door is sealed shut go to pawn shop burn down door swallow acid spew acid on metal door enter court get Kriit give Kriit to guard burn wood holding platform in place e: start with: gnusto, rezrov, frotz, jindak, zifmia rezrov to get in shop frotz for pawn shop in pawn shop, acquire INSPI, AZEPPO smolpa spell requires Kriit to get rezrov gate azeppo stone, throw stone east inspi Kriit also in temple, acquire CADALK use magic power of Kriit to acquire SMOLPA smolpa guard jindak zifmia blackhelm cadalk blackhelm t: climb into 2nd-level entrance in Sedmon's house find Gem. Didn't bring a tool that reaches it. somehow have to be told about Kriit at this point. climb gate sneak past guards discover puzzle for releasing Kriit get light source from Sedmon's house pick lock on pawn shop door get acid use acid to release Kriit SWING ON KRIIT GET GEM JUMP r: enter sedmon's house see gem ask for gem guard can't reach it, needs a pole go to Kriit attendants don't know how to access it somebody pawned the release mechanism an attendant ended up in the tavern, have to retrieve him have to break into the pawnshop get release mechanism guard uses mechanism in guard room get Kriit give Kriit to Sedmon's guard Sedmon's guard hands you the gem Still needed: adventurer puzzle to release Kriit from field adventurer ground-level Dragon Gem mechanism That thief thing sounds pretty redundant to adventurer. Is there some way I can restructure the dependencies? Maybe I should revert the puzzles again. Sigh. It's such an adventurer puzzle though. If I revert it to the thief, he'll need to have the vial. The thief knows the pawnbroker keeps a secret stock of thieving equipment. There's a piece of equipment that can be slid up behind the forcefield, then a flap folded down, then knock the Kriit off its holders. Eh. Ok, I say we revert it to the thief, because the dependency chain for the adventurer is too awkward. (The above layout already reflects it being given to the thief.) Ok, so now, how does the adventurer release the Kriit? For the dragon gem, we can just have a purely mechanical puzzle, because the Thief isn't allowed down there, and the enchanter is blocked by the magic field. Argh, it's three weeks to go and I've never designed a Kriit puzzle for the adventurer. Sigh. Okay, two weeks to go, I need that puzzle, time to design it. I will go take a shower and design it in the shower. No clue from the shower. Ok, what's different about the adventurer in this situation? The guards are out of it. So the adventurer solution can involve doing something in the guardhouse. But if the adventurer can do something in the guardhouse, why couldn't the guards? Because they're not clueful enough to solve the puzzle, even with the royal's instruction? Or it could involve some item the adventurer starts with-- although I'd rather not do that, the thief should be the only significantly equipped character. So I want a mixed solution--the player goes and throws some lever in the guardhouse, but that isn't sufficient, the player then has to use a little bit of wiles. What's the whole scenario currently? On the back wall of the temple are a pair of wooden "hooks". The hooks are holding up the Kriit. The whole thing is surrounded by a large magic forcefield which prevents objects from entering the area--so you can't reach in, but the dragon's breath isn't stopped. The field ends just short of the wall, a paper-thin gap, and there's an overlook above that only the thief can get to. Meanwhile, the guards have a system for disabling the force field, but it involves a magic token which one of them pawned at some point. The adventurer can't use it because it's never definitively identified--the guards have the knowledge of the distinguishing feature of the item, not the royal. Options: destroy the hooks (dragon, thief) disable the field (royal) magically cause the kriit to leave the field (enchanter) invert gravity smash the wall the hooks are mounted in rotate and retract the hooks (adventurer) Ok, it's a goofy, stupid, simple mechanical puzzle, way too easy, but time pressure dictates go-go-go. Also it'll be fun for the royal, because the guards are too stupid to do it right. Now the problem is I wanted originally to do a simple mechanical puzzle for the dragon gem, but instead I've done a simple mechanical puzzle for the Kriit, so I need something else for the adventurer for the dragon gem. That's ok, because the effect with the royal and incompetent guards above wouldn't have obtained with the old plan, but still annoying. Adventurer puzzles should be find-the-right-item-and-use-it based. So I need something item based for releasing the dragon gem. So suppose we have a mechanism that raises and lowers using a crank, but we don't have the crank anymore because, say, it broke off. Now the adventurer can get a crank-clone from somewhere, but where, and why can't anyone else get it? Hmm, that might be an even better royal puzzle; if they can turn off the magic field, they can use one of the hooks in there as a crank. But that still doesn't help come up with a freaking adventurer puzzle, and it's the adventurer who should be going around collecting stuff. Still, I like the indirection, so we'll look for something else for the adventurer, and if we find something, we'll go with that for the royal. Ok, we'll make a construct-a-crank thing. Ok, time to write the adventurer's revelations of the backstory. Here's the rewritten backstory revelations, trying to make them less similar to one another. Blackhelm's secret plan: e the long thin thing is actually a Kriit t a Kriit is useful for the ritual "the way of the grave"; a the "way of the grave" is a way to bring a victim of murder back to life and reveal the murderer d the person who ends up with the long thin thing is in the employ of the villain r the royalty has had a fortelling of his destruction && simultaneously reveal that he is the murderer of the villain's lover. Backstory: r Thorn was slain by a jealous party member e The villain was another old party member by the name of Merresin Blackhelm t Merresin was in love with Thorn d The dragon gem has the power of Dark Summoning a Dark Summoning creates an indefatigable assassin of a murderer from a victim Still too similar, oh well. ------------------------ postcomp ------------------------- I never managed to let the thief be able to kill a guard by backstabbing (and, sadly, the enchanter can't kill anyone). Moreover, I ended up with you sneaking around with a lit torch. So, this would be a good thing to fix both things at once--kill the guards in the square so you can get the torch past them. Of course, as always, killing must be optional, so I need an alternative. The obvious alternative is to allow you to extinguish it before transporting it. But how can you relight it? How do I keep you from being able to use the relight-source as a lightsource itself, thus bypassing the entire puzzle? Hmm. Also, I'll need to remove the guard from behind the mansion, so you can sneak past him with a lit torch. Maybe I'll make him be asleep. Well, I could add *another* character, say somebody smoking behind the tavern. Hrm. That seems way more work than it's worth. Perhaps there is a fire burning on the ground behind the tavern? Why? A rubbish burn, sure but it'll be far too obviously just put there for the sake of it, hrm.