Exile
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jeremyshannon
Character Roleplaying
I consider this the third major area of missing content, alongside a Storyteller and finishing the Underground City. By which I mean, features which will significantly alter the nature of this game.
Role playing...
The core element here is "Soft-perma death". New life = new character.
Currently this is limited to aesthetics ( a narrative snippet) and has no direct gameplay relevance. Many people do seem to naturally build a graveyard for their dead, so even this little snippet is going a long way, but we can expand on this. The role playing can become a major game feature.
The uniqueness of your character could become a significant factor in how you actually play.
Some possibilities:
- access to unique crafts based on character backstory (e.g. a doctor can make special medicines, an artist can carve sculptures)
- ability to acquire unique crafts (that are lost when you die)
- unique traits e.g. a large man who can take more damage but moves slow, a gymnast who is frail but jumps very high.
- ability to aquire unique traits (that are lost when you die)
- random respawn. Put them in a new location so they don't just feel like a seamless continuation of whoever just died.
- events & quests related to the character's backstory
The aesthetics side can also be expanded e.g:
- unique appearances for each character.
- ability to give them a nickname
These specific ideas are suggestions only. Basically anything that makes the character meaningfully unique belongs here. That person's death should matter. They should feel like someone. The game should feel different when played with a different character. I want you to get attached and mourn them when they die, and have you next five characters die building a giant pyramid to honour the greatness of your first character.
New life. New character. Watching them die should hurt.
Character death is also an excellent opportunity to encourage the player to reflect on what just happened. Personally I have learned things about the way I make decisions by playing Exile, but that only happens if I stop and reflect. This should be encouraged.
e.g. on the death screen you could be given a time out. You can save stats about the character who just died, write down their lifestory (e.g. how they died), and have this information saved somewhere you can read it again (or even export it to share with friends.)
Expanding this role-playing element will be a significant improvement to the game.
Another thought.
Right now the implicit aim of the game is to build stuff - that's where the content is. I'd like that to shift to narrative, role-playing.
Something like this:
You get a character, and you want to complete their story. Perhaps that means they die, gloriously or otherwise. Perhaps that means the character gets to go home.
Remember: character and player are independent. We can send your character home, without sending the player anywhere. It's the same as killing your character.
The point is you should be satisfied with what happened, and ready to start with a new character and play their story.
Fairly vague ideas at this point, but this seems to me the natural direction to build on what we have.
If I might poke a few ideas in here a bit:
The ability to send a character home would be an interesting endgame goal. Your home country would have executed you, but the judges --in their "infinite" mercy-- have responded to the pleadings/money of you/your loved ones/your best friend by instead exiling you until you learn some skills/complete penance/pay a bribe.
The most I ever really do with my exile letter is slap it on a wall if I'm not trying to burn or abandon it. Might be nice to have it make those be more relevant. Include your character's "win" condition on it.
- A spy for another country wrote something in lemon juice. Roast your exile paper to darken it.
- A fellow rebel at the paper shop pressed an item into your exile paper. Soak it to retrieve.
- A secret message was embedded into your paper. Hold up to the light to read.
Example: Someone with an operational teleporter slipped a key into your paper and special instructions in lemon juice to build a super long range single-use teleport setup you can use to teleport to escape your fate.
- Two routs to redemption are offered. Who do you trust -- if either?
Whatever happens for an epilogue, it would be neat to have a minute or two enjoying a well-deserved happy ending before playing a new exile. You may even play a role in influencing your next exile's escape plan. (X years later, anyone?)
