Awoken (Fantasy WIP) - updated 16/May/2017

Sarcastic, smartypant jester with a heart of gold, that’s my style a lot of the time. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

2 Likes

The MC already gets to be a bit snarky (even when I was trying to write neutral)

So followup question: what’s the best way to display an MC’s personality? Giving a choice of different tones for dialogue options? Or maybe a point where you say ‘I’m mostly a _____ person’ and that might then affect the MC’s auto-dialogue?

I like the way this is done in Samurai of Hyuga and in the wip For Peace We Die. Both express personality through dialogue options, with little changes in the auto-dialogue and narrative as well.

1 Like

I second @Lyanna and the mention of Samurai of Hyuga, which I actually prefer over For Peace We Die. In For Peace We Die it’s mostly one character type the player chooses at the beginning which influences the personality, Samurai of Hyuga on the other hand feels a little bit more dynamic, because it’s different stats that influence the dialoug. Freak: Amidst the Neon Lights also has a nice system, which lets the player choose different personality aspects (like a troublemaker with optimist attitude), what gives a feeling of three-dimensionality to the choosen personality.

I have a little bit of that going already - for instance if you have Aden and Malina fight, a kindhearted MC will worry about bystanders getting caught in crossfire, while a disdainful one says something like it being their own fault if they do. So currently disdainful/kindhearted and subtle/direct are the only coded personality stats (basically breaking down to ‘how big of a jerk are you?’ and ‘how good are you at hiding it?’), and I was planning on having any other personality displays be through dialogue options (which might affect rel, etc), but you guys think more personality stats is the way to go?

6 Likes

I wouldn’t mind having some more, if only for the sake of adding some flavor 'cause right now I think my MC basically sums up to blunt and kind. He’ll beat you with compliments until you relent. :joy:

1 Like

I’ve been thinking of reworking the first two chapters somewhat, so it could be a good place to start slipping in more personality options. :thinking:

2 Likes

Wait a minute,I thought the stats did affect the MC’s dialogue. I’ve play the game a number of times and I’ve noticed differences. For example if you play a Strength - focused MC,the dialogue becomes more crude and saracastic,if you play an intelligence - focused MC it’s more analytical and blunt. Please explain what you mean by FPWD not being as dynamic as Samurai. BTW,I’ve never really liked the opposite stats bar. I feel like it forces you to choose certain choices,so it won’t be out of line with the MC,if that makes sense.

1 Like

I meant that the most obvious part comes from the one set personality in the beginning as far as I can tell. You get certain dialoug options if your stats are high enough (what I personally dislike because it feels like stat maxing over rpg), that’s true, but most of the flavor text does come from the four different personalities choosen in the beginning. The stats also influence the text but more like “traditional” stat checks deciding if you or someone else dies. It’s very static with the one set personality type. That’s what I meant, I don’t know how it will look in the end and that also doesn’t mean that it’s a “bad” system, just that the stat checks seem to be more for the traditional kind of choice not specific to set a personality (Especially when you are able to get all of them rather high). It’s a personal preference.

If the opposing stats are not your flavour, I really like how Freaks:Amidst the Neon Lights handles it and I think it gives the player more choices to specific decide the personality of the MC.

(And if you want to discuss about this more, specifically about the question what game does what better or the like, may take it too pm? Before we derail the thread?)

Wait, if I make ‘flirty’ a specific personality type, will I have to make the flirt options for everyone else less terrible? :fearful:

6 Likes

Meh, but do you really want to introduce specific personality types?

Will we be able to work against them either in the present or the past? Because I like the thought of MC eventually changing after they woke up, or deciding that they didn’t like the person they used to be. Will that be an option? And if it is, it should work without being too hamfisted about it, that could disturb the flow of the story.
And that’s why I at least am for stats, they don’t even need to be opposite stats, though that most likely would make it easier considering you already have opposing stat pairs for personality, but they could in contrast to choosing a personality type be easier changed. (Though I feel like I should say that I also don’t have much a problem with the way the MC is by now, so I may be a minority with that opinion.)

3 Likes

I LOVE stories with magic and I find this plot fascinating. I am really looking forward to this WIP.

I would prefer to be able to choose different personalities.

If you play a loner (isolated) character, you get the following:

A sourcestone falls out, the size of an egg and glowing with a radiance that lights up the room, bigger and brighter than you’ve ever seen before. You can’t imagine how much magical energy there must be stored in there.

The stone rolls across the floor, and you and Harret both dive for it. You shove him away as he reaches for it, and your fingers close around it.

If you play a cooperative character, you get something different:

A sourcestone falls out, the size of an egg and glowing with a radiance that lights up the room, bigger and brighter than you’ve ever seen before. You can’t imagine how much magical energy there must be stored in there.

You hurry to stop it rolling across the floor, and it comes to a rest against your foot. This is an unimaginable find - but what are you planning to do with all this?

I would prefer it if being isolated did not automatically make my character into a nasty person. The stats already show cooperative/isolated as a different stat than kindhearted/disdain. As it stands, I’d rather play cooperative than see my character be so mean against my will, though I’d still prefer isolated and kindhearted if the story would support that.

I never liked that either and my reason for disliking it is that in my experience it tends to be used to lock the MC out of certain possible MC actions. In my opinion, the MC should be able to choose anything. It is fair for NPCs to judge the MC on such things and NPC reactions should be outside of MC control, but MC actions should always be up to the MC.

I would prefer if loner characters at least have the option not to take an apprentice at all. If a loner had been comfortable teaching, the loner would have become head of the school. In my MC’s opinion, when Aden was sent to bargain with the merchant, both potential apprentices failed that challenge for different reasons and my MC would prefer to reject both. A loner’s response could be similar to the response about studying magic but instead mention preferring to be alone:

What part of ‘magic was everything to me’ didn’t you understand?

Rather than force an apprentice to accompany my MC to meet the baron, I think the kindhearted approach would be to offer an apprentice the choice of whether to accompany the MC.

This was pretty much my MC’s reaction. My MC would not take a side in a battle when at least one of the sides is unknown, but the baron…

I feel like my MC has not really gotten a good enough look at the personality of any potential RO to tell whether my MC would be interested, but I am looking forward to finding out more.

I may have missed it or perhaps I went down the wrong path to see it, but are we told or can we ask how long it has been since the “accident” and how long we have been unconscious? If we cannot already find out, that seems to be a good question to ask the stranger.

Several people were helping with typos earlier in this thread but I did notice the following:

Dark shadows mark her eyes, and she shivers slightly, even in her layers of winter clothing. She gives you a wan smile as you turn her attention to her. You don’t need her explanation to tell how sick she is, or what it is she wants from you.

That should be your.

“I need to…” they almost whisper. You go to their side and try to help them to their feet. Given their slender build, they’re surprisingly heavy. You quickly realise that having them lean on you all the way through the forest isn’t going to be much of an option. “Can you change?” you say. They look unfocused, and you repeat yourself a little more sharply. “Change. Into something smaller.”

They close their eyes, and you wonder if they’re about to fall unconscious, but then a wave of light sweeps over them and their silver skin flows and reshapes. A large grey cat lies on the ground.

You pick them up. They’re still heavier than any normal cat, but at least this form is more portable. The cat lies limp in your arms. Some kind of clearish, slightly sticky liquid oozes through their fur.

I think this was probably intentional to be gender-neutral, but they and their are plural whereas singular is needed here. So a workaround such as it (which was used at the beginning of the story) or just typing out stranger might be better.

Agreeing to this the best way to get her to stop whining about it.

That should be this is the.

1 Like

I do like the idea of the MC being able to reject their past behaviour or personality. Hard from a coding point but I’ll see what I can do!

I see what you mean… my thinking in that was not so much to make the isolated character automatically nasty as it is that Harret dislikes an isolated MC and is trying to push them, so the MC automatically goes for it first. Still, maybe a kinder MC could pick it up intending to hand it to the others?

I’m trying not to do that - my aim is that you should be able to go for most options but run the risk of failing or not having them turn out like you wanted. [edit} excepting a few, like the pet options that are greyed out if the MC’s animal skill isn’t high enough, because this isn’t the story of how the MC got mauled by a bear :stuck_out_tongue:

I get that, but the apprentice is kind of vital to the plot at this stage so I see it as necessary railroading I’m afraid…:sweat: In universe, it’s a sense of the MC being kind of forced to take an apprentice so that people will stop nagging them about it - and of course, you can avoid and ignore Aden/Malina as much as you can.

No, you aren’t, but it’s a good one to add in. And thanks for the typos. I’m probably leaving singular they, though

5 Likes

Also…

Has anyone actually taken the baron route yet? :smiley:

3 Likes

That would work. Another option is just have Harret try to shove the MC first and then I’d be perfectly willing to shove back. :innocent: Being kind is one thing but being a pushover is something else. Perhaps a kind MC could step out of the way of Harret’s shove and end up closest to the sourcestone while Harret falls over.

Maybe an isolated MC could warn the potential apprentices that being powerful does not imply skill at teaching and that any apprentices might be better off studying under someone else. Then if and when the MC still gets stuck with an apprentice, the MC need not feel as bad about the apprentice’s complaints. An isolated MC could also meet any complaints with an offer to release the apprentice to study under anyone else.

Or just give that option anyway, no matter if isolated or not. A person can be “social” and still be not greatly interested in educating others, and people that prefer their own time can be very good at teaching (maybe because their priorities dictate them to pass their knowledge? Or something the like?)

And then there are also differences between people that are good at group teaching and those that are better in education others face-to-face.

I don’t think that being isolated automatically should mean that the character has no interest in teaching (or that in reverse a cooperative character automatically should jump at being a teacher.) in the same way you think that being isolated shouldn’t mean that the MC is automatically a nasty person.

1 Like

To be honest, I feel that neither apprentice is actually looking for your teaching knowledge. Aden thinks (not without reason) that you would have greater clout in getting research stuff together. Malina’s looking for an example of how to deal with power.

3 Likes

Well, it’s not really about how the apprentice thinks about the arrangment, but how the MC sees it.

Both parties certainly can end up disappointed. MC just for having to deal with their apprentice and Aden when MC is absolutely not interestes in his research and Malina…well as far as I can tell a MC that wants to teach her restraint is not really what she expects…

2 Likes

Oh yeah, just trying to explain why they’d ignore the MC saying they’re not a good teacher.

1 Like

Oh, sure, they are free to ignore it, but in that case they shouldn’t whine about their lack of training, if they got a fair warning…

I don’t say that it should be possible to send them away, I know that’s not possible because plot. (And I honestly like Aden too much for that any way)
And I also don’t say that isolated MC automatically should be assumed to not wanting an apprentice, but I think when we already bring that topic up and if there should be an option added to tell Malina/Aden how much certain MC’s may despise having an apprentice, that this option/text should not be based on MC being isolated. Because for me that would seem like a faulty correlation how I explained with that digression about teaching and teaching competence. That’s what I meant.

3 Likes