Night Vision
WIP Link: TBA, will post in-threat later, once I sort out what I can/cant do with the sites I have access to, otherwise I’ll just dropbox 
I might be able to stuff this on one of the sites I have direct access to, which might also let me manage the project more reliably, present milestones, etc.
Significant updates are planned as each Chapter is completed, but intermittent fixes and tweaks are also probable.
Storyline summary:
Experience a thousand years in the history of the continent of Arcand, from the war that transforms the land from a series of City-States to a single kingdom, through various key events in its history, to a conflict of a completely different nature that will determine the fate of all humans. Recruited by the mysterious Guardian, an entity somehow connected to the Ancients who supposedly seek to enslave all sentient life, you are a soul that the Guardian uses to trace back history and will see how the Ancients have tried to reenter and reestablish their dominance over all sentient beings in the known world.
Lead an expedition to save the child of the first King of an united Arcand.
Manage your city and uncover a chain of corruption in the Kingdom, while investigating the connection of your home to an ancient construct of the Ancients that could change destiny.
See the Kingdom descend into civil war then investigate a string of murders among the nobility of the Kingdom, while coping with the sins of your own father.
Discover an ancient artifact that threatens to upset the balance of the world and organize a secret society meant to combat its influence and the influence of any other outsider.
Finally, be reborn as one of two children destined to change the fate of the world forever. See the Kingdom descend into another civil war and the entire world to slowly fall out of balance, revealing the secret kept for over a millennium. As the established natural order falls apart, see the Ancients reach out and try to grab the world and find out if your efforts is enough to stop them.
Free from the choices of others, but armed with the knowledge spanning a millennium, how will you prepare for the inevitable?
Highlights / core mechanics:
Uses a 2 + 1 statistics system.
Primary statistic checks use stats, which are averages of the skills they govern. A typical skill check usually tests a stat first, determining if an action is possible for the character, then a skill, determining the degree of success (if applicable)
Secondary mechanics utilize Traits - specific reputation, knowledge and acquired talents that can work in two ways. Some can override a situation completely, replacing it with one specific to them, others can unlock additional paths in a choice tree.
Low magic, human only world, magic and technology develops as the storyline moves along. Social and technological advances between chapters. Chapter 1 begins with mid-medieval technology, Chapter 5 ends with muzzle-loaded rifles common place and one character potentially developing the first revolvers. Likewise, society shifts form a typical feudal order to a more open, democratic society (where it is permitted), the decay and ultimate downfall of nobility is one of the themes of Chapter 3 onward.
5 multiple scene Chapters across a 1000 years. First 4 (50% or less of the game) played with predetermined characters, but stats and traits can change depending on in-game choices and providing alternate paths and/or solutions. Each character can influence future events. Death and catastrophic failure not possible, but significant differences between “bad” and “good” success.
Chapter 5 fully fledged chargen process, includes death or catastrophic defeat which restarts chapter. In theory, both male and female PCs are possible, but at the moment the female path will remain a side project, to be inserted last (if at all) I am not sure if I’m able to write fiction from a female perspective well enough to be satisfied with it and not mess something up along the way.
Chapters 1-4 each have an unique “side” mechanic (respectively: managing resources and manpower of a naval expedition/large military unit, city management and administration, murder/mystery solving including time-managing research and clue analysis, organizing and managing a spy network/secret society) which can provide additional choices and options during sequences. None of these are meant to be too complex, but can provide additional benefits. Chapter 5 can utilize any of those if the player steers his PC toward them, or none at all.
Romances present, but off-focus and/or implied between story segments within chapters. I find romances in games usually very cheesy, especially if they become the focus of player action. Romances will never be the focus of a choice tree or subtree, but some decisions may affect them indirectly.
- Current status:
3/03/13 - World outline and plot was more or less done before I started (this is hopefully a last incarnation of a project that was picked up and dropped several times) Mechanics adapted and tested for viability in ChoiceScript. Introduction completed, first scene of Chapter 1 underway, 1st major choice tree outline complete, currently adding text and mechanics. Need to rework actual # text of the choice tree, its too verbose. Pull the actual descriptions of the choices out of the text of the options into the main body and leave the choice text itself short so it does not look ugly.
I am actually fairly certain that even with all the changes and mutations it went through, there is more then one such “resemblance”