Hey everyone, I’m new here but I’d thought I’d ask your guys opinion on the game I’ve started work on. Essentially its going to be Beowulf, as in the poem, with you as Beowulf, but with fantasy, romance and other stuff thrown in too. It will be first person, with the main character’s gender being left up to the players choice, although each gender will have a slightly different experience.
Thinking of Respect, Magic, Determination and Warcraft as the four main skills. Respect will essentially function like persuasion, since the more people respect you the more likely they are to do as you say. Magic is obvious, but will, possibly, have the added angle of coming to an end, as monsters like Grendel die and the old religions are replace by Christianity. Determination will effect how much you can take and keep going, and even inspire others to do the same. Warcraft will simply be skill in combat.
It also will, again hopefully, be important for you to watch your relationship with other characters. Romances, friendships, alliances and other relationships will determine a good bit about how the game ends up.
I’ve got only the first tiny little bit of it, but I’m working on it, and if you guys are interested in a demo I’ll try to get one ready. Other than its extremely short length and bad current condition, I’m also not really sure how to post (Is that what you do? Get it on dropbox?) my game right now, so any help would be appreciated
Thanks!
Edit: new topic has gone up, with a link to a short, and still rather rough, demo.
Sounds interesting, particularly Magic fading as Christianity gains prevalence. Will this make the protagonist weaker, or will they be seen as a heretic for practicing the old ways?
Not exactly sure, but I’m thinking a magical character will have to oppose Christianity or lose favor, and by extension magic, from the gods. This will hopefully have consequences, as they’ll become increasingly isolated as Christianity spreads.
Hm… maybe the option to side with the monsters? The protagonist could recognize that peace is possible between humans and them? Just the first idea that came to mind.
There could also be a way where you feel that the power (magic) should be left in the hands of the “good” and believe killing Grendel and his mother etc are necessary and kill them but through this show the way of the old gods.
Edit------
Nevermind. That’s absolute shite. I can’t think of how to describe what I was trying to say. That sounds too much like martyrdom…
True. But what I was getting at is I had an original idea but halfway through writing it I lost my train of thought. I’ll let you know when/if I remember it.
Still in that “could be something I’d like, want to know more” phase, so:
I’ve a question.
Why does magic have to be tied to favoring the Gods?
I suppose it sets up a conflict between the Old Ways and Christianity, but I’m not sure that would be an interesting enough conflict to be worth engaging in - as in, something I, the player, should feel motivated to treat as important to my experience.
Good point, but that’s not the only conflict. In fact that’s probably not even the most major conflict. Beowulf, the PC, will also be fighting monsters, trying to protect their people, the Geats, from their enemies, romancing or having affairs with other people, and seeking glory.
Not sure. I’m going to keep magic connected to the gods right now, at least in a minor way. But I will try to reduce the conflict, maybe almost to the background or non-existent.
This sounds more like the victory of Christianity than its defeat. As Seamus Heaney says in his intro to Beowulf, the strongest pagan elements are the vision of heroism (immortality as gold and glorious death) rather than magic: Catalog | W. W. Norton & Company
What if the monsters are the source of most magic, like in a Song of Ice and Fire, where much of the magic seems to have been tied to the dragons and without them while still present (maybe the children of the forest and the others are minor sources of magic themselves, and the eastern lands might have their own monsters or other source of magic to explain why its strength hasn’t declined as much there.) it is much weaker, to the point where most people, even those who study it, can’t access it or even if they can do anything really useful with it.
I’ll let you know when/if I remember it.