RPG: Chunk 1 and Magic Theory

I’ve decided to do this thing in what I’m calling “chunks” – large bits consisting of a few plot elements, a dungeon or two, maybe a new character, a town and some monster profiles.

So, as an example, here’s the story you got last time, in chunk format.

Story

Alarim, a fifteen-year old youth from Merisi, a small but prosperous mining town in the mountains, is eagerly awaiting his sixteenth birthday, only a few days away, because it is the date he will come of age in Merisian society and be allowed into the mine. However, two days before his birthday, the men of the village fail to return from the mine until, just before sunset, a badly-beaten one stumbles out of the mine and collapses. Alarim heads into the mine with Imere, the quiet but skilled daughter of a caravan guard staying in the village. When they manage to open the seal on the door open, they find themselves in a changed mine; liquid obsidian is leaking out of the walls, and the place seems in the process of melting. They fight their way through and kill the boss, an Abyssal Lieutenant. He tells them with his dying breath that they don’t have a chance to stop the flow of evil into the world, and they might as well accept defeat. With his death, the obsidian hardens and retracts into the walls. Alarim and Imere resolve to warn the surrounding world of the threat and, if they don’t listen, to save the world themselves.

Characters

Alarim – the silent hero of the game. At the beginning of the game, Alarim has a borrowed sword he got from Imere’s father. He has Mario stats – decent all around. He has average strength, defense, speed, accuracy, evasion and luck. He has above-average intelligence, which is vital to his magic. His spells at the beginning consist of Cure, and then two choices of spells – he can learn Sleep, Poison or Daze (like Stun) for his status ailment spell, and Douse (basic water), Vine (basic earth) or Gust (basic air) for his damage spell. He can equip swords, knives and axes.

Imere – The daughter of Castal, a guard who works the caravan route south of Merisi and has just come up north looking for better prices. She’s been taught swordcraft by him from a young age, so she knows her shit. She has a better sword than Alarim at the beginning of the game. She has high strength, speed, accuracy, evasion and luck, average intelligence and low defense. She can’t use magic, but she can learn powerful sword techniques throughout the game. The one she knows at the beginning is called Quick Slash, and it allows her to attack for extra damage before any enemies have attacked. The techniques run down her MP just like spells would for a caster. She can equip swords, knives and spears.

Merisi

Merisi is a very small town. I’m thinking about three screens top-to-bottom and only one screen wide. Most of it is one street, with the inn and the shops at the front, surrounded by caravan wagons, houses behind that, and then the entrance to the mine. The shops don’t sell anything you don’t already have, but you might be able to pick up equipment from the caravan guards. Nothing very interesting happens here. Before you enter the mine, the first day passes as you perform chores and talk to people to get yourself acquainted with the game’s controls.

Dungeon – Merisi Mine

This is a small dungeon to suit the town. There’s a hidden key in the first room, which allows you to open the seal on the door. The dungeon mechanics are pretty simple; the basic puzzles are going to revolve around rerouting mine cart paths (of course there are mine carts) to crack the cocoons that the Merisian miners are trapped in. Once that’s over, there’s a short walk to the boss room, where the Abyssal Lieutenant is waiting for you. There are two wings of the dungeon, and one mine cart puzzle for each.

You can come back here later in the game and enter the lower levels of the mine. This is a much, much harder multi-floor dungeons with similar mine cart puzzles on a larger scale and water-pumping mechanics to clear out flooded areas. Once this is over, you receive one of two things: the Purified Armor, if Eusoph is in your party, or the Abyssal Lieutenant summon, if Ricca is in your party. The Purified Armor allows Eusoph to channel holy energy and block 95% of damage to the party for one turn, and the Abyssal Lieutenant does a huge amount of Unholy damage to one opponent.

Monsters

Merisi Mine contains Imps, Minor Demons and Obsidian Elementals.

Imps are basic cannon-fodder, the easiest enemies in the game. They can do basic attacks or Bite a target, which does light damage for two rounds.

Minor Demons are slightly stronger. They can do basic attacks and throw obsidian shards, which does extra damage.

Obsidian Elementals are much stronger, but slower. They can do basic attacks, throw obsidian shards, or Charge, which does double their ordinary attack damage.

Boss – Abyssal Lieutenant

The Abyssal Lieutenant is a very hard enemy for this early in the game. He has high health and defense, but low speed. He has a suit of Desecrated Armor on, which can be destroyed to decrease his defense but increase his speed. He can do basic attacks, throw obsidian shards, and cast Daze, Drain (leeches enemy health to replenish his own) and Nightshade (Unholy damage and a chance to Poison and enemy). Killing him saves the mine and gives the player an Obsidian Knife, which is a good weapon this early on.

Alright, so that’s what a chunk is going to look like. Now on to magic theory:

Magic has six elements, and they oppose each other differently in this games because damn it, I feel like defying standard RPG tropes this once. Basically, the four “ordinary” elements chase each other in a rock-paper-scissors way. Fire beats Earth, Earth beats Wind, Wind beats Water, Water beats Fire. However, diametrically opposed are the last two elements, Holy and Unholy. Obviously, Holy does extra damage against the undead and demons. Unholy does extra damage against every living, super-planar thing, which makes it extremely dangerous, especially since you can’t use it except for a few spells and summons.

There are three types of spell per element – one that does high damage to one enemy, one that does medium to three, and one that does low to five – and three spells per spell tree. As an example, the spell trees for all the ordinary fire element spells go:

• High damage, one enemy: Flame – Torch – Eruption
• Medium damage, three enemies: Flare – Blaze – Inferno
• Low damage, five enemies: Fireball – Explosion – Meteor

The paths for status-ailment and healing spells are different, and there are a lot of extra-powerful spells for each element that don’t progress on a tree, but I’m not going to go into that yet. I’ll have a full spell list ready by next week, maybe.

~ by pieboy on May 15, 2008.