Overview:
combat: three characters enter battle. Each draws two or three cards per turn. The cards in the next hand are made visible? (longer information-horizon is better)
longarcs: There is a big world map. Locations are connected as a graph. Travelling from one location to another moves time forward. Many events are timed. Locations have many complex relationships and a player will need to plan journeys according information they have about what will happen in distant locations, when it will happen, how they'll eat, how they'll avoid THE POLICE, how they'll maintain their ammunition, repair their weapons, renew their enchantments, shelter from the rain, take advantage of side-errands along the way (the game is frequently all side-missions along the way, not requiring the player to do any one of them)
Every action the player takes, in terms of UX, can be mostly instant (though it should be animated of course), the passage of time is communicated with a clock turning.
In many locations, a SCENE should be put over the map, a close-up of the location. A shop, for instance, would always show the shopkeeper, their counter, their wares.
GAME ELEMENTS:
should be at least five character affinity types
many or most characters should have at least two affinities
cards that're only usable by characters with certain affinities
cards that need to be resupplied lest they become unequippable
cards that need to be maintained lest they break
cards that need to be enchanted with life magic lest they expire and become wicked (develop negative side effects)
cards that can only be maintained or enchanted by particular guilds
cards that can be switched out before any battle
cards that are bound permanently to a character
cards that can only be bound or unbound from people in certain locations
cards that can only be used in locations with certain affinities
cards that do different things depending on the affinities of the locations
locations where affinities can be applied or changed
locations that have a cooldown after use
locations that change
with advanced warning
with uncertainty
without warning
only with warning if the player has a sensor there
locations that take money
locations that award money for winning battles
The player has a party with three characters. Three characters battle. Each character has a deck of cards (any size). Two cards are drawn each round.
Each character has health and energy. Each one has its own recharge rate. Mana recharges slowly and comes back after each fight. Every card costs energy of the character associated with it. Energy is retained between turns but generally doesn't go very high before maxing out (but high enough that one bad round can be made up for with energy saved for the next).
characters with hungers for food
characters with hungers for magic - will fall asleep without it and need to be carried
characters heal different amounts over time
characters who would die permanently if KOd
characters with elemental weaknesses
the player cannot travel on most roads with more than three characters, unless they want to fight THE POLICE (I'll think of a better name for them later). Characters can be given planned routes and sent off on them alone. More than three characters can travel along planned routes together without drawing the ire of THE POLICE, because forcing the player to send them on different routes would just be needlessly complicated.
demoids are standard enemies, they represent paranoias, fears, threats that we imagine. Sometimes we fight them just for fun, or to produce some product, sometimes we fight them because we know we have to, sometimes they don't represent threats at all, but opportunities. Some demoids are not there to be fought, companions or guides.
Fighting demoids is always much lower stakes than fighting other humans.
demoids that yield useful items when killed
demoids that are only around some of the time
items that expire after a certian amount of time
sensors are entities at locations that alert the player when they detect something. They may report the bearing of the thing they detected, as well as its location.
sensors that detect certain kinds of demoids
sensors that detect certain affinities of non-playable characters
sensors that stay and always work
sensors that work for a while
sensors that work just once
sensors that send their message with a delay
sensors that require a character with an affinity to be linked to
gates are locations that can be used to travel fairly quickly to distant locations. They are common. Without having gates, the topology of the map would be quite uninteresting.
gates that allow instant travel
gates that allow just fast
gates that are fast in only one direction
gates that are only open some of the year
gates that only open in the evenings
gates that only open on weekends
gates that cost money to use
gates that only you can use
gates that roving enemies can use
gates that can only be used if a character with the right affinity is present
gates with cooldowns
gates that connect to multiple locations
gates that only travel in one direction
gates as items that can be placed, or carried through
many gates are themed as rivers, they only go in one direction
maybe some of the fast bidirectional gates are magic-streams
roads may be medium speed
trains very very fast
SMALLER LOCATIONS
The map has some.. essentially.. gates that are the only way of accessing certain areas in the graph. A city might often be shaped so that it has a single gate on the map that connects to all of its entrances. This would let the player fast-travel between all of the entrances, but oh well that's just convenient.
THE POLICE
A force contrived to justify limiting player party sizes.
A spell was cast over the entire land. If four righteous ones ever passed over any of the roads, the caster would sense it and slay them at once. As a result, righteous ones must limit their party sizes to groups of three, though they can all arrange to meet up at agreed locations.
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