The poll only lets you pick a single option?
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Oops! Thanks for pointing that out. I completely forgot to change the max vote option. Made a new poll with a max of 11 votes.
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My play style is usually sweet and polite, and/or playful and flirty. So I picked polite, humorous, annnnd Other, since I didn’t see a flirty option.
I love the idea of a character developing a voice this way.
That said, people are layered. Maybe I’m warm and supportive with my SO, humorous and sarcastic with people I like, reserved/silent/quiet with others, brash and argumentative with people I don’t like, and stern and serious at work.
Another breakdown might be how do I act when comfortable vs when stressed.
That said, even developing and implementing one consistent voice for the character and a range of options for it to be sounds like some work on the writing side.
It makes me consider allowing all of the options whenever rather than being pigeon-holed into one under cumulative weight, and getting scored on them on an npc-basis. How do I act most often with X? How do I act most often with Y? What would they prefer, when, how does impact our relationship?
Maybe certain NPC’s react to certain choices differently. X gets a boost if you act brash in this situation, but would get a malus if you’re brash in another. But then, that just sounds like how it already generally works, but with more and more complicated steps…
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The concept of an MC changing their behavior without player imput according to who they’re talking to and based on how they interacted with said characters previously is really interesting. It sounds like it could be a very dynamic way to interact with the cast — even more so if the MC could change their mind later and the story/characters acknowledge they’re acting differently from before.
…but yeah, it also looks like it would be a lot of work to code this.
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I really like the idea of an MC changing when they’re stressed (resorting to humour, becoming withdrawn, super focused, or irritable). I’d love to implement something like that, but I think I already have too many moving parts in my code. I already have the different voices with different NPCs, NPCs reacting differently (“X thinks that was a funny joke, but Y thinks that was mean”), NPCs reacting differently based on the MCs default voice with them (choosing to taunt someone when MC is brash vs playful), and NPCs noticing if the MC starts to speak to them in a way that conflicts with their default voice.
It is a lot of work to add lines for every voice, but I really enjoy that kind of thing lol. I just keep flip-flopping on what those voices should be (and hoped the poll would help me stop being so wishy-washy). There’s a lot of overlap with the options in the poll, but when you get to writing, you realise there are things that make them glaringly different. “Humour, sarcastic” can overlap a lot with “playful, flippant” but there’s a difference between deadpan jokes/caustic humour and lighthearted jokes. I figure I need to pare things down to 4-6 voices and use a few other booleans to add the illusion of depth.
The poll and comments were really helpful and led to an epiphany about how to modify my code (thanks!).
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I’m a bit late to this, but thought I’d add my two cents.
I aleays do because I’ve plaued way to many games where I accidentally flirted with an RO I didnt intend to because I picked a choice thinking I was just being nice.
I 100% agree with this. I’m pretty physically affectionate with my friends in real life, but I’m wary of it in games because of how often its linked to romantic choices.
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I can relate to this more than I wanted to lol. Sometimes, it ends with me really liking the scene and continuing to flirt with the character in the next chapters. But most of the time it is just me restarting/reloading a save because it wasn’t what I was going for, so I like to turn them on whenever possible.
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It’s okay to revive this thread right? I find the polls so useful as a writer…
How do you feel about wrong choices locking you into bad endings that aren’t obvious they’re the wrong choice, unless you paid attention to earlier setup chapters?
- Foreshadowing and/or hints should be enough to clue me in
- I’d be annoyed, I don’t want to feel like I need to pay attention
- I’d be annoyed, bad choices should be made more obvious
- I’d be annoyed, because I take a long time to play and/or forget details
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And finally, how do you feel about a player character’s death being the good ending? Not as in old age, but like an immortal finally becoming mortal or a Valhalla-style ending
- I’m fine with it as a concept, assuming it’s executed well
- I’d hate it if I wasn’t aware that’s where the story was heading
- I’d hate it even if it was obvious that’s where the story is going
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I’m a sucker for a happy ending, so the MC dying is not what I want 
! I can be happy with a bittersweet ending, if that’s what works best with the story. But full on death will never be a “good” ending, in my opinion
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I’m brainstorming ideas and the type of MC that gets a death as a good ending in my story is the one that has made every choice to cause/worsen the apocalypse. So the idea is that a “good” ending for that type of player is total destruction. Feels weird to give an evil playthrough a good ending though
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Like a cure for vampirism (for a character that wants to be human again) or something? Yeah, that would definitely be fitting and a genuinely happy end.
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The Athenian philosopher Solon would tell you that death is the only “good ending” possible.
“Call no man happy until he is dead; until then he is not happy, he is merely lucky.”
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Didn’t realize we had a thread for polls already. There were a few times I thought about making a thread like this. Happy to see it here!
Um, assuming its cool to reply to these, here’s my thoughts - its okay to have all the bad endings, as long as there are also potentially good endings and the game has saves enabled. If saves aren’t enabled, I’d really, really want a ton of foreshadowing and hints.
I’d actually love that. It adds an element of realism to a work (as humans, we are all going to eventually die. As Death is a part of Life, so it should be a part of Story). Ha, we had one roleplaying session where this was the case - PC had to die to make the story work, and thankfully the player was a champ and was cool with it. It all fit perfectly with the story the group had crated together at the table.
Love that quote.
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I know what you’re thinking but this is absolutely not related to me brainstorming, not at all. Also fr the purposes of this poll, just imagine that your favorite subclass is wrapped up in one of the main archetypes listed below.
What are your favorite fantasy “classes” to play as in an IF?
- Knight/Barbarian/Fighter
- Rogue/Assassin
- Wizard
- Cleric
- Paladin
- Bard
- Ranger
- Druid
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I think that every class, both in the TTRPG sense and as broader archetypes, are equally deserving of attention and appreciation. Every one of them can be made effective by the right rules and interesting by a skilled roleplayer, and so picking the most (or least) favorite one would be doing disservice to the whole roster.
Just kidding, I love paladins the most and play whenever I get to. It’s extremely easy to make them extremely fun with just a bit of ham. SMITE EVIL!
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My only thing is that imo the game should focus on one class, and explore the nuances there in. I’m a lot more interested in a game that is focused on the Druid Experience:tm: than letting me be a druid or a fighter or a paladin or a rogue or a- you get the idea.
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I get that. That’s part of the inspiration behind this poll actually. I’m working on a possible project and decided that I needed to limit myself to three classes so the scope doesn’t get away from me. I picked my two favorites but then got stuck at the third because I had too many ideas.
That said, the project (should it ever see the light of day) is about helping run/rebuild a kingdom so the classes would feature a bit differently than in a typical quest, for example a knight would have aristocratic connections they could call on while other classes wouldn’t. So I don’t think having a few different options will hurt here.
If the project is never posted, I was wrong, lol.
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I love bards. I get to put a little bit of myself into the role - full of stories and arcane lore - but also throw in a pinch of dramatic charisma and the fortitude of a seasoned traveler.
I also like wizard/druid/cleric-type roles. I prefer support roles to melee combat - I like the kind of character who can read the ancient treasure map and serve as a culturally-savvy translator when we negotiate with orcs, but then spends the battle doing healing spells or singing the Song of Courage to boost morale.
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I’m all magic all the time, if I get a choice.
I’m also app elf all the time, if I get a chance
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