Story For Huge RPG

[Zigg]

Here is what I have so far... Feel free to help!

You are a simple person in a poor village, but you try to make a living. But after years of the same thing over and over again, you start to long to follow your childhood dreams and become an adventurer. One day some veteran Heros walk through your village and hear you talking about your dreams. They offer to take you along and you accept.

Human - You are well respected by the villagers for helping them so much, but they mimic deafness when you mention adventuring.
Elf - Though you use your skills only to help, your power in it offensively scares the villagers, as does your race.
Dwarf - You live in the Dwarf village near the Human village. You are scorned and laughed at by your longing to get out into the opened.

The country is ruled by a good King, but one who tries to safeguard his villagers to he point of forcing them into lives of work, work, work and rest. But the Men who he uses to enforce these rules aren't so narrow-minded, as they too experienced the boredom of being safeguarded. Damaging the security even more is the attacks from exiles on the east border and their many spies in the south.

Creatures

Dwarves

Short, hairy and easily angered, Dwarves live in the mountains of the Kingdom, connected by tunnels under the surface. They have a habit of creating strange devices, easy for them to use but almost alien to the other races. This habit is matched only by their love of precious minerals, and hate of grass.

Blood Golems

These creatures are made of Human, Elf of Dwarf blood, by the 'Blood Lord'. They are frail, all but the dwarven ones breaking at a mere punch, and slow in enclosed areas, although the elven ones can navigate forests. Some of the human ones can wear armour and use weapons.

[thespaceinvader]

Well that seems pretty generic.

[artisticdude]

Agreed. You have a base, but adding details is what gives any fantasy world believability and depth. What kind of land are you in? How old are you? How well are you respected by the villagers? What kind of fantasy world is it? What is the situation in the land (who rules where, who is attacking whom, etc.). Are there any other intelligent beings besides humans? Are the guards just armored men from your village, evil soldiers sent from a cruel overlord, dedicated guardians sent from the great king so-and-so? How have you and your neighbors been treated by the ruler of the land? Is there a ruler of the land? A good story will draw players into the game and keep them there, but a generic story with few details will usually bore the player no matter how good the systems and art might be.

[Hulavuta]

I also wouldn't recommend posting all the dialogue here, it could get a little crowded. maybe an outline of the story would work better.

[Zigg]

Better?

[thespaceinvader]

Still seems pretty generic.

Seriously, have you read a D+D manual? Or Lord of the Rings, for that matter?

You start as a poor person in a simple village is almost as cliche as 'you all meet up in an inn'.

I'm not trying to be harsh here, but can I at least suggest you do a little bit of research into the areas you want to write in?

And maybe spend more than 2 hours on it?

[Hulavuta]

While it's hard to be original, try something that's not used often. Like maybe you are already a hero, and somehow lost all your powers and/or memory? (Like at the start of every metroid game)

[TheGreatRings]

While it's hard to be original, try something that's not used often. Like maybe you are already a hero, and somehow lost all your powers and/or memory? (Like at the start of every metroid game)

Or maybe, rather than being a young hero starting out, you are an old hero who just wants to retire in peace but has to complete one more mission, or who wants to leave a legacy. Of course, this makes character leveling seem a bit odd if he's already a veteran, but maybe your hero is training a young champion to be his replacement?

Edit: actually, I might start writing a story around this concept myself.

[Hulavuta]

Maybe you're a "hobo" and an orphan? One day a band of adventurers invite you to come along? (Stole that from Blood on the River XD)
Maybe you're a soldier, and you get washed away onto a mysterious island and have to live there?
Maybe the world just exploded and you're trying to survive?
Maybe you're really an "arcane" being? Like an Angel or Demon or something in between.

[Icarusvogel]

I think the rough outline should stay put. Arcane beings? Let's work on the base...

[Hulavuta]

I mean that they are an arcane being but they don't know it yet. So far all he has is "you are person living in a village that goes on an adventure." I'm trying to develop where the story goes and whatnot. (Like he finds out later that he's an Angel or something, IDK, I guess it was bad idea.)

Also, maybe a name for the "Huge RPG" would be a good place to start...

[Daravel]

Personally, I've always found that starting at the beggining of the story is a bad way to go.

Start at the end: Where do you want the character to end up? Where does the story go? From there you can work out new and interesting ideas and plot devices that allow your character to get there. The beggining of the story will all fall into place sometime around then. Take Hualavuta's idea of arcane beings (which is a good idea btw). If you decide you want your hero to actually discover they are an angel from God at the end of the campaign, then you might decide that you want the hero to progressively get stronger and gain more abilities throughout (outside of normal levelling) and to also be conscious of this 'evoloution'. Then you might decide that you want the hero to start at the lowest posssible 'level' for the beggining, to emphasise their growth throughout; so you make them a homeless beggar.

How does a homeless beggar become a hero? They are in a town/city when a war starts and they are drafted into the army to defend.

Bingo! You have your story beggining


A long winded point, but essentially, work out where you want the story to go first, then you will have all sorts of cool ideas about what can happen and how it all starts.

[Hulavuta]

Lol, thanks for agreeing with me, however I'd like to point out that "Hulavuta" is a proper noun, so there's no "the" unless I'm high or something. Read the article in my signature for more info.

[Daravel]

The 'the' isn't supposed to be there, I changed my mind on what to say, I clearly didn't change it enough to fully remove the old sentence

=

[Hulavuta]

oh lol