The actual map would be broken up into a few dozen sectors or areas, each with an important landmark or 3 to hold. Each sector would give the controlling party access to certain things and the territories could be fought over, won and lost.
I like strategic games. This provides a nice reason for teams to band together, and targets for them to fight over.
Combine this with a system of exploring beyond the city to gather magical artifacts, researching, and slowly mastering magics. A much more strategic, open worldy, scorched earth campaign sorta deal.
Something that most Perplexicon games are missing is the sense of exploration and discovery. They're, invariably, just arenas with little or no plot or interesting environments. I liked how, in Perplexicon V2, you could just go wandering off into the wilds to discover new areas and find cool stuff.
Out of this spawn several groups of the magically inclined who are trying to empower themselves and control the city.
The groups are fairly diverse and are broken up by how they get magic and by how they use it. The starved magi are gluttons who stuff themselves in order to convert their own fat and flesh into magic and some aren't above cannibalism. Bloodskimmers suck magic from living things, using sacrifices to empower themselves. Expect them to be carrying bags of rodents as ammunition, of sorts. Or the Artificers, remnants of the magical engineers guild, who build arcane machines and weaponry to battle their foes. Or then there's the outer group, what amounts to the police, the Mage Breakers, who have no magical abilities but counter with government issued anti-magic gear.
1. The exclusive use of one type of magic attainment style and of more focused magic styles is the result of cultural influences in the game. The starved magi are rather fanatical, something like the self flagellation groups from the middle ages. They believe their magic is the only "pure" kind and that their self sacrifice is to keep society intact. Bloodskimmers believe in a sort of perverted "Survival of the fittest". They consider themselves to be the new alpha predators who feed on lesser animals and men; that they live by right of superiority and might. etc. There's backstory behind each and it's more then just that particular style that binds them; rather that style is a result of the greater things that bind them.
2.However, it is entirely possible for players to start their own gangs where they mix different methods or even develop their own. The only downside would be that the other gangs are more established; they have npc members, hang outs, resources,knowledge, all that sort of stuff. So while it would be completely possible for a group of players to branch off and create their own gang, gather npc units, amass knowledge and give the others a run for their money, it would be more difficult.
My favorite part of Perplexicon V2 was the inter-faction warfare. Yes, it was entirely player created, but it would be awesome if it were part of the game itself. Gangs are perfect factions, and I love how each one has its own backstory and special traits.
I do hope there would be more than these four factions, though.
Magic is a limited resource. Having it makes you extremely dangerous, even if you don't use it, because simply having it in your body increases your stats.
The society this takes place in is basically in rapid decline because it used magic for everything and now there's little left. Kinda Mad Max, but with wizards.
I do like this setting a lot, but to be honest, exactly what the setting is, is less important to me than the mechanics--as long as there
is a setting. I doubt PW would make an uninteresting setting.
[snip] ...magical knowledge is unique to the character. Dying means losing that knowledge. And, although you can write down that knowledge or teach it to others, it takes time to learn. So it's not like raiding someplace would be impossible because an endless supply of meat shields would keep spawning in some back room somewhere.
4. I'm still working on how magic would work, mostly because I would be creating a new, more holistic system designed around discovery via experimentation rather then being given a list of words and just combining them. That and working on making it a deterministic system yet still one that feels "magical".
I'm not sure how to feel about this. On one hand, I like the old system of magic, and don't see why it needs to be removed. On the other hand, something new could be very interesting, and my interest in the game isn't tied closely to the mechanics of magic. I do like the fact that people wouldn't respawn with all their old abilities; It was nigh impossible to actually
destroy a group of players in Perplexicon V2, because they'd just respawn, albeit weaker.
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Topic: Einsteinian Roulette: OOC and NEW PLAYER INFO (Read 2356885 times)