Holy Ordos WIP [a Warhammer 40k inspired game] [updated v0.4.1, 2020/08/05]

[Alice-chan]

HOLY ORDOS
current version: 0.4.1 [2020/08/05]

Brand New Update: Chapter 3 Part 1 added 2020/08/05, see changelog for full details

What is this game: Holy Ordos is a fanfiction text-only RPG based in the science fiction setting of Warhammer 40,000. It is based specifically on the now out of print pen-and-paper RPG Dark Heresy (1st Edition).

Story Premise: It is the 41st millennium, In the galaxy spanning Imperium progress has been replaced with near complete stagnation, embodying the worst elements of theocratic feudalism. Threats to the Imperium are countless - aliens without, malcontents within, and most disturbingly, the daemonic entities of a parallel dimension which interpenetrates physical reality

You play an “Inquisitorial Acolyte”, an operative of the Inquisition - secret police of the Imperium, from recruitment to whatver your eventual fate might be.

Features:

• RPG mechanics - earn experience and spend it to customize your character. (I don’t think this has been done to this extent in a choicescript game ever)
• Serve the Inquisition to uncover a terrible secret about the galaxy. Fight daemons, cults, corporate cartels and the stifling bureaucracy of the Imperium of Man.
• Wield the deadly powers of the warp.
• Attempt to maintain your sanity when faced with the horrors of the galaxy, or embrace them.
• Feel the corrupting influence of chaos seep into your body and mind.
• Purge heretics
• Chill out with your companions and uncover their secrets

Progress v0.4 update:

• Character creation is done
• Introduction Is done
• Chapter 1 is done
• Interlude 1 is done
• Chapter 2 is done
• Interlude 2 is done
• Chapter 3 is 60% done

CHANGELOG

V 0.4 2020/08/05
Chapter 3: Brand new game section based on the “House of Dust and Ash” module for Dark Heresy
—68 000 new words
—Explore two whole new areas
—Use your new skills and talents
—Use your new weapons

Other Changes
Additions
—Ability to replay new section after finishing (no need to save)
—Diary: allows personality thoughts on actions in interlude 1 and 2. In-text questions only.
—Some changes to stat screen to make things more compact
—Added missing farkosia text for interlude 2
—Small additions and changes to Character Creation
—Modified paranoia interactions for Chapter 1
—Reworked manuals section so that it is more intuitive.
—Settings menu in stats: images can now be disabled in case you find them buggy; progress bars can be used for characteristics instead of numbers.
—Some missing text during the strophes manor assault.

Bugfixes
—Finally fixed a persistent armor bug in chapter 2 that caused you to lose your armor
—Fixed yet another armor bug to do with variable naming
—Spelling mistake corrections in Character Creation
—Spelling mistakes corrected in Interlude 1
—Some * if errors corrected in chapter 1
—Fixed a bug with the “jaded” talent in chapter 1 where specialist text was not displaying
—Fixed considerable bugs in interlude 2
—Fixed a bug with melee weapon re-arming

V 0.3.4 2020/07/16
Bugfixes:
—Minor corrections to chapter 2 text
—Minor corrections to Interlude 1 text
—Minor changes to “books”
—Minor changes to armor and weapons naming.
—Fixed a skip forward bug in chapter 2

v0.3.3 2020/07/13
Bugfixes:
—Corrected formatting error in chapter 1 orders
—Corrected reputation bug for Mildred
—Corrected some spelling mistakes
—Minor continuity fixes, chapter 1
—Fixed bug where Mildred’s throwing knife did no damage to plaguebearer
—Fixed bug where Hastus’s dogtags became a permanent inventory feature
—Second attempt at fixing missing armor bug

Additions:
—Extra choice to gauge the players feelings in Interlude 1
—Added resolution option to rat when leaving the mines
—In game manual added explaining the Imperial Date System

v0.3.2
Bugfixes:
—Added re-armoring text after manse assault. Should work properly now.
—Added some missing text during the manse assault.
Images:
Added revised adeptus arbites image and winged imperial navy image courtesy of Baka Design: https://bakadesign.dk/

v0.3.1
v0.3.1 bugfixes
—Fixed homeworld bug - missing goto
—Fixed some formatting errors - char creation
—Fixed some spelling errors - char creation
—Fixed bug that caused you to instantly lose your armor the moment you got it. (whoops!)

v0.3
New Chapter, Interlude 2:
—Spend time with your fellow acolytes
—Change your hairstyle
—Explore an inquisitorial holding
—Worship the Emperor in the Chapel
—Research things in the library
—Book system
—New weapons
—New skills and Talents
—Romance interactions for Interlude 2: 6 different routes (4 female, 2 male)

Additional scenes:
—Competed bodyguard route for chapter 2
—Filled in some missing death texts
—Re-wrote large sections of Character Creation
—Random flooded tunnel encounter in Chapter 1
—Extensive rewriting and additions to Chapter 2 final fight

Images:
—Added title image
—Added some other images to the primer courtesy of Baka Design: https://bakadesign.dk/
—Added option to disable images on stats screen

Other changes:
—implemented save plugin
—Complete reworking of backend mechanics for dice rolls, enemy stats and combat calculations.
—Implemented weapon changing and armor changing mechanics.
—Implemented mechanic for disarming/dis-armoring and rearming/re-armoring.
—Large code overhaul for character creation and chapter 1.
—Rework of Interlude 1 to conform with new style code
—Code overhaul of Chapter 2 to conform with new style
—Code overhaul to Interlude 2 to conform with new style
—Split chapter 2 into two parts - isolating the final fight as a separate chapter file
—Fixing numerous bugs in chapter 2 final fight
—Fixing numerous bugs in chapter 2 in general
—Implemented Voidborn charmed trait meaning you recover burnt fate points as you should in chapter 1 and 2
—added power threshold information to minor powers to show probability of manifestation.
—Added option for percentage bars for characteristics on stats screen.
—Added achievements
—Added changelog
—Reworked starting splash and options

v0.2 - 2020/02/20
Playable Wordcount: 115148
Total Wordcount: 238426
—Update Pushed For testing - lots of things corrected, changed and so on. Playable word count doubled.
—Chapter 2 published

v0.1 - Oct 2019
Wordcount: 50637
Excluding code: 35988

• Original Release

FAQ

Is this copyright infringement: i have a team of expensive lawyers working on this question as we speak.

Are there romance options: maybe…

Why do i have to be a girl?: because I want to write a story from a woman’s perspective.

Why do i have to be a psyker?: um, i don’t understand the question, why would you not want to be?

Trigger warnings: lots - its gory and people take drugs some people are rude to you because you are a woman. - also its 40k so um, its like, really bad; verdict: not suitable4children

LINK: https://dashingdon.com/go/6406

Copyright info:

hello, just to clarify I have no interest in monetizing/selling or formally publishing this work of fiction, which I guess would fall into fan-fiction territory.

The tabeltop rpg its based on - dark heresy 1st ed was made by FFG, whos licence with GW has lapsed so they no longer sell the sourcebooks, or any other warhammer stuff, and it has been superseded by subsequent 40k rpg, wrath and glory, by a different production house/publisher. so DH 1st ed sits in limbo, hence why I felt it was fair game for fanfic.

the reason I posted this here is purely because its written in choicescript, as opposed to something like twine.

Shout out to https://bakadesign.dk/ for the images. Many thanks.

[Nahim_Kerman]

@Alice-chan

40k

Ah, a man of culture I see

Love the Idea. Warhammer is aways in need of some love.

[GuardsmanTheMad]

Me seeing a 40K wip

As for the question of legality, GW is the company that literally tried to trademark the words “space marine” and “imperial guard”, but I think you should be fine as long as you don’t try to publish it or profit off it.

[Commissar_Trevelyan]

The emperor has blessed us this day my brothers

[MrWicho01]

@Alice-chan

Is this copyright infringement: i have a team of expensive lawyers working on this question as we speak.

The lawyers after some days:

[Zeom]

Too bad Khorne hates psykers…

[Hex]

@Alice-chan

Why do i have to be a psyker?: um, i don’t understand the question, why would you not want to be?

Because Hereteks are a thing and unlike those wusses in the empire, they aren’t afraid of scientific progress.

[Daveo_Overton]

In honesty I wouldn’t bother unless you get promission from games workshop as they enjoy using lawyers.

As for the gender of the character unless they are an orphan and joining the Adepta Sororitas a female prospective will be very similar to a males.
If you included both male/female it should be easy and would open it up to more readers.
Unless of course you are doing the game from a civilian point of view. (your book your choice just my thoughts).

[Talyrion]

@Alice-chan

Why do i have to be a psyker?: um, i don’t understand the question, why would you not want to be?

The real question is: why would I want to be a human psyker.

Yeah, I said it! You guys can hiss about heresy and xenos all you want!

But more seriously, yeah, the legal issues are… a thing. I wish you the best to overcome them, but I’ll be entirely honest, I’m not holding up my breath. A shame too, because I quite like the style of the demo.

[Isabella_Taylor]

This is really an interesting game, but for someone with no background on 40k it is very difficult to pick up. Regardless, I’m super into it and will be watching this.

[Commissar_Trevelyan]

If you want some background try “if the emperor had a text to speech device” and/or podcast on youtube it will probably help ye.

[Daveo_Overton]

That’s a good point 40k is very complicated on how it all works the names alone will be hard for people.

[Commissar_Trevelyan]

yeah that’s one of the problems, after the horus incident things just got real weird

[Yippie]

That’s some heresy right there officer!

[Isabella_Taylor]

I’ll check that out. Anyway, even though I have no idea what the hell is going on 50% of the time, I still liked it, so I wouldn’t worry too much about accessibility.

[Commissar_Trevelyan]

It wasn’t me I swear, it was uhhh … some Slaanesh cultists that stole me navigator Gary. The threat has been dealt with brother

[Yippie]

Good to hear brother…

I would kill for a Guardsman CoG, I don’t like a female perspective simply because I can’t relate. Still wish you the best of luck.

The emperor protects (even though I’m more of a Iron Warriors groupie, Perturabo should’ve stayed loyal damnit!)

[Alice-chan]

This game is incomprehensible and I don’t understand the mechanics, and I’m the one who made it

[Talyrion]

I think the mechanics look fine. It seems to give you a wide range of options while still being comprehensible, and it looks like there’s a lot of thoughts that went into what each skill/power could bring to the table and when they’d be useful.

If there’s an area that might be worth expending upon, it might be character interactions. sometimes the options given to you are really dry (especially all the ‘turn on the charm’ prompts, that ends up literally being: “you do that. it works/it doesn’t work.” But sometimes actions and conversations seem a bit sparse. For exemple, after the character creation, when you’re given the option to visit around three locations (where you’ll meet your three companions) I expected, for instance, that visiting the training grounds meant our character would exercise a little, or that the part in the library (was it a library? Suddenly I’m not sure) meant we’d get to do some light reading. Instead the psyker goes in, meet the NPC, and leaves. No in-game explanation in-game as to why she went in in the first place.

Don’t get me wrong though, so far it’s shaping up to be a very promising game - i’m actually quite impressed by the battle system, because the whole thing is very dynamic, while usually systems using RNG and multiple options to fight instead of a more narrative approach are dry as fuck (I like the Great Tournament as much as the next bloke, but its combat system was mostly a chore). And that 40k ambiance is a definite plus.

@Yippie

I would kill for a Guardsman CoG

I’ll let you have the Guardman game, I’d fancy for myself an eldar/tau perspective instead. The Imperium is overrated!

[Alice-chan]

everything is very bare-bones at the moment - coding the combat is very (very) time consuming (and even then I’m not very happy with it) and I was concerned to actually get some length to the whole thing before I go back and make things broader - its really easy to get stuck in the breadth stuff. I may or may not flesh out interactions as things go. Only time will tell.