Basic Plot Ideas

[Deleted]

This is for a mini game that will be in my game, and I figured it'd be more fun if I didn't make them all on my own, but rather all of us did and then when you're playing later you can say, 'hey, that's my quest' .

These basic plot ideas can also help people without fleshed out stories get some ideas for things they can have the player do.

The mini game is pretty simple: I tell the quest in a text message and the player can get various things from it.

I'll go first and do an example:

I traveled far and wide...
I was merrily walking along a trail in a pleasant, peaceful forest, happily minding my own business,
-a (50%) when suddenly a band of thieves jumped out of the woods and surrounded me on all sides. I knew they meant business from the looks on their faces. They attacked me feircely, and I fought back as hard as I could,
-a -a (75%) but I couldn't do it on my own. They knocked me out cold and took my money, and when I woke up I was
-a -a -a (25%) in some old man's house. He said he felt sorry for me, so he gave me some money and a weapon. - Money, +Money, +Weapon
-a -a -b (75%) still in the forest. I got up and dejectedly trudged my way out of the forest. -Money
-a -b (25%) and to my own surprise I managed to beat them! I searched their knocked out and dead bodies afterwards and found some very useful stuff. +Money, +Weapon, +Weapon, +Equip, +Equip, +Item, +Item
-b (25%) when I heard a woman's scream nearby. I quickly bolted off towards the voice,
-b -a (50%) only to find out she was only screaming because of some stupid, little spider. I squashed the spider with my shoe, and she thanked me by giving me a piece of jewelry. +Jewelry
-b -b (50%) and found a big hideous beast approaching a young woman.
-b -b -a (50%) It was a tough battle, but after a while I somehow managed to connect a powerful blow that sucked the life right out of him. I turned around in circles and looked for the woman, but she wasn't anywhere to be found.
-b -b -a -a (75%) As I was leaving, the beast gave one last big whooping cough and blood shot up everywhere. Something landed on the ground in front of me, and I curiously bent over to pick it up. +Equip
-b -b -a -b (25%) It seemed as though there was nothing left to do, so I continued walking through the otherwise pleasant forest.
-b -b -b (50%) I fought him with everything I had in me, but he was clearly too tough of an oponent. Once I got a good chance I high-tailed it out of there and tried to forget it ever happened.
-c (25%) when a little leprachaun (sp?) jumped out in front of me. He said he wanted to play a game with me, and I accepted his offer. He asked me a mighty-tough riddle, and I thought and thought and thought for what seemed to be a very long time.
-c -a (50%) Finally I figured it out! I happily told him my answer, and he was quite surprised I got it correct. He thanked me for playing with him and gave me a little something as a token of his appreciation. +Item
-c -b (50%) It was too hard, and I just couldn't figure it out on my own. I told him I had to give up, and so he stomped on my foot and angrily ran off.

That's the jist of how I'd like you guys to write them. Make different chances of different things happening at different points. Use mine as a model. Also, don't feel you have to write as much. My story is in essence three possible stories (-a, -b, and -c), so I can combine multiple stories together by altering the setting for some a little.

For the prizes at the end, don't worry any, pick whatever/however many you want and I'll balance them out (for example, -a -b in my story gives a ton of stuff so they'll mostly be not as good).

The various results can be:
-Money
+Money
+Weapon
+Equip (includes head, body, and buckler)
+Accessory
+Item
+Jewelry
+Silver Coins (like FF7's GP, I don't expect this to come up but it is allowed)
EDIT: +Food (sorry, forgot this one)

Thank you everyone! Anyone who contributes a story I use will be put in the credits of my game (under Special Thanks).

Also, I plan to let the player pick a character to do these 'Virtua Quest's, so you may use gender to determine stuff as well as %'s (only do it if there's good reason in the story, like if you had a seductress try to seduce the narrator or something).

Edit: And don't worry about being cliche or anything, that doesn't matter any.

[Doan the Nado]

This is an interesting idea and I will try to offer a contribution sometime this week. It is, however, finals week, so I can't make any promises.

I am curious, though, how you're going to have it work. Randomly?

[Deleted]

Yeah, I've already made scripts to give random items for every non-special item in the game. They're somewhat categorized, like Weapon 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 are all the weapons, and 1 is all the weapons that are available in the shops at the beginning, 2 is all the weapons that become available in the shops the first time they update and so on. The items are less structured, but I basically just separated them into three levels and put what I thought fit with Item 1 (worst), 2 (mid), and 3 (best). I also made several money ones too. I use these in treasure chests and what not with common items, but if (for example) you saw a dagger on the ground and picked it up I'd specifically choose a dagger myself to give the player because the Weapons (1-6) can give any weapon. (If that's what you meant). Otherwise, yes, I'll use lots of call scripts and randomizing variables to randomize what quest the player gets and then randomize what happens in that quest.

Brigandine (PS) had 'Quests' that were like this, only they were more involved and could gain characters, stats, and more cool stuff (than mine).

Oh, and thank you very much ! I understand. I expect people to gradually post these when they're bored and sitting on the computer instead of working on their rpg . Mainly I did this because (since I know EVERYTHING about Brigandine) I don't want to copy any of Brigandine's quests, but I have a feeling if I try too hard not to a good deal of mine will be somewhat bizarre.

[vespuleth]

bump.

will, i will get to this. if it falls off the first page before i do, bump it again.

[Deleted]

Okay, thank you. I can do them myself if I need to. I'm a little afraid since I know Brigandine so well I'll either copy their quests or try to avoid theirs so much that mine'll be kind of out there and bizarre.

Thank you very much to anyone who does though. I'll put anyone who does in the credits of course.

[Neo Samurai]

First, WilliamKirk. Then, jimmy. And now, Jimmy Eat World!!!!!! You sure have been changing your name a lot as of now lately. What's next, Jimmy Fan?

Anyway, later on today, I'll write up something on paper to help you out. It's Spring Break, and I got plenty of time, so I'll probably have it done soon enough and ready to post on here for you to use for your mini-game.

Edit:

Wow. I forgot all about this. Okay, I'm gonna try to see what I can do, but I can't guarantee I'm gonna write something right away. But I will try my best to remember.

[Dark Knight Of Lodis]

I journeyed for many miles but did not find anything out of the ordinary...
Until I walked through a windy mountain pass,
-a (50%) when several stones begin to fall above. I looked up and saw what appeared to be a pack of black wolves. The leapt upon me,
-a -a (50%) I managed to slay a few, causing the others to run off in fear. However, the leader of the pack wore a (insert accessory here) around his neck, engraved with a word in an ancient language. I hurried through the pass. +Accessory
-a -b (25%) I ran as quickly as I could and somehow managed to escape.
-a -b -a (50%) Unfortunately, as I ran I dropped a bag of (coins?) and had no time to pick it up. -Money
-a -b -b (50%) I was lucky this time.
-a -c (25%) Although, I was terrified at first, the pack appeared to be friendly, and brought to me a (insert item here) to help me along. +Item
-b (50%) when I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my back,
-b -a (50%) I turned around and to my horror found an arrow sticking out of it,
-b -a -a (50%) As the blood ran down my back a hunter ran toward me, with a look of both shock and fear. He bandaged my wound up and gave me his (Insert Bow Here) as a way to apologize to me. +Weapon
-b -a -b (50%) I looked above to the cliffs and saw a Dark Elf smiling evilly. I drew my weapon as the Dark Elf climbed down the cliff, still laughing. The battle began...
-b -a -b -a (50%) It was a tough battle, as I was already injured when it began. However, I managed to slay the Dark Elf and took both his (insert bow here)and (insert sword here). Fortunately, I made it back to civilization. +Weapon +Weapon
-b -a -b -b (50%) I severely wounded the Dark Elf, however, due to my wounds I could not defeat him and soon passed out from a loss of blood. I awoke to find myself in a nearby church, where a priest had nursed my wounds. Unfortunately, the Dark Elf must have robbed me. -Money


I was thinking of doing something like this in one of my future game as well. I loved how you could quest in Brigandine, and the way the system worked. Hope this helps.

[The Final Rune]

I always wanted to make a game like this. What a neat idea, wonder if I can use this for my game some how? Cool none-the-less, keep it coming!

[Deleted]

Thank you DKoL!!!! ;D

Yeah, if anyone else wants to use these (mine) I'm cool with it. I stole the idea from Brigandine anyways.

Yay!!

[The Final Rune]

A question about implementing these ideas.

Should the script decide the outcome based on variables?
- If action var = 1 ? 3 then . . .

Or should player action affect the outcome?
- If player action = 1 ? 3 then . . .

Or some combination of both.

[Deleted]

For me it's all text and it's just doing percents based on randomizing a variable (same with the prize gained). Others could use these ideas differently of course.

And again, thank you DKoL.

[Dark Knight Of Lodis]

No problem, Jimmy, Will, whatever the hell your name is.

[Deleted]

bump, I gotta get workin' on these some more.

anyone else? again, they don't have to be long because I can combine several shorter ones into one. also, don't worry about being cliche or even about writing it well (because I can re-phrase it if I want to).