Planning an Excel RPG

[clut]

Hey,

I've been thinking for a while tht I'd like to make an RPG game in Excel. I've made games and small apps before in Excel, and understand the importance of planning in a project of this nature... which is why I'm here.

I'm looking to get a group of people to collaborate on ideas as to the fundamentals of the game. I already have a rough direction that I'd like to take the game in, and that'd form the basis of the first discussion.

I have already knocked up a small map script, which generates a landscape which 5 different types of terrain, and a dialogsheet which gives complete control over almost every aspect of how the terrain is generated. That would be open for discussion also, probably after the main objectives of the game have been fleshed out.

Look forward to hearing from you.

 

[b1n0ry]

Sounds intriguing As an avid RPG player and a "nerd" this sounds right up my alley. I'd be interested to see what you are proposing.

 

[clut]

b1n0ry,

The one problem I always find with RPG's is that the world is pretty much static. Any events are scripted and, if it's an online rpg, all players perform the same tasks. By this I mean if one player has a task to go and slay a massive dragon and does so, other players also have this task and thier own massive dragon to slay. This basically means one players actions do not affect other players all too much.

I'd like to create a single-player RPG in Excel, where the world is filled with NPC's that have their own behavioural patterns, and each action they perform directly affects the player, and all other NPC's in the game world.

This would give us a never-ending supply of missions and objectives for the player, as each NPC has his own personality and attributes, that could lead him/her to a rise in power. What the NPC does with that power would be dictated by thier personality, and inevitably there will be NPC's that side with the one in power, and NPC's that oppose the one in power.

In addition to the constantly evolving NPC interaction, there will be random elements introduced into the game that will challenge NPC's (and players) immediate objectives.

I have drafted much of the mechanics out, but it is still in an early stage and could do with a lot of refining before it is complete.

I've generated some rough code to generate a world map, including towns, resources, land fertility maps, land growth maps, and generated NPC's to govern each town.

as both an avid RPG player, and a nerd I'd appreciate your thoughts on what you deem the better factors of any RPG's you've played, as well as some of the game mechanics you've encountered that you didn't like.

I'm under no dis-illusion that this will be easy. Even saying this that will be exceptionally difficult is an understatment, but I'd like to see how far this can be taken, although I understand it is simply too large for one person to tackle alone.

 

[Pyromantic]

oooh, I've been wanting to do the same thing for some time now. I've been working on a combat system in VBA to Replicate AD&D 2nd ED combat. For the time being I've kept it to Melee combat and not explored the issue of spellcasting.

The other problem I wanted to try and get around is a linear storyline. "Fighting Fantasy" style books will some form of guided path through the adventure but how to get away from a linear story will be a mammoth task.

My thought went along the line of having data for the adventure stored on an online location, The spreadsheet app refernces this data wia a web query. The online data can then be changed by the writers when necessary in order to create an everchanging scenario. Additional additional items, fiends, Character classes to the scenario.

Anyways, work beckens but I talk about this all day. Send me a PM if you like.

 

[clut]

Pyromantic,

The one issue I have with RPG's and the 'storyline' is that each individual player needs to complete various tasks along the path of the story regardless of whether anyone else has already completed that task or not.

If the task is to gain a certain skill level in 'something', then it's fine for all players to be required to do this, but if the task is to find a mans lost daughter, why should each player have to do this? Surely the man should keep better track of his daughter and not lose her 600 times? !!

This ethos effectivley renders a storyline (in the traditional sense) impractical. On the other hand, if the actions of each character had a definite and lasting effect on the world, and other characters, could a system be created to generate it's own objectives and missions based on the actions and growth of the current characters?

I shall send you a PM with more detail, but I wanted to get this much here publicly in case it sparks anyone else's interest.

 

[Pyromantic]

If the task is to gain a certain skill level in 'something', then it's fine for all players to be required to do this, but if the task is to find a mans lost daughter, why should each player have to do this? Surely the man should keep better track of his daughter and not lose her 600 times? !!

I whole heartedly agree here. I think we see this problem too much in many of today MMORPG such as World of Warcraft and Guild Wars, but how do you solve it? Random quest Generators tend to be rather awful and repetitive.

Essentially, what kind of RPG do you want to create? An virtual world where players actions affect other players or a world that only the user exists, obviously the latter would be easier, but creating an interactive world would be far interesting.

 

[ya5irha55an]

Dont know if anyone remember this old DOS game called Rogue, basically a very simplified RPG, no NPC's. You are a little smiley face, u walk around a dungeon , trying to find the door up to the next level. Monsters are represented by letters A-Z, objects by different symbols. The aim was to get to level 25 where you find some kind of treaure or something.

I am thinking that what you are planning would be similar in look to this, only you want it a little more complicated as you want other NPCs, a story etc.

Would be a great game (i used to play rogue for hours, never finished it though!).

 

[clut]

ya5irha55an,

We are planning a game which has no storyline. Rather each NPC in the game has his/her own objectives which they will pursue. The actions of the NPC's will drive storylines all over the game world.

For example: You meet an NPC. That NPC demands gold from you for being on his land (this NPC is greedy). You don't pay, and are stronger than him so there is nothing he can do. You go separate ways. That NPC then decides to get revenge on you by hiring other NPC's and pillaging your home town. You don't hear about this until it's too late. many building are destroyed, and people dead. You then hunt down the NPC and kill him. Turns out there was a bounty on his head and you must go to some city to collect it. On the way you can meet any number of other NPC's which may trigger new stories. An NPC may ask for your help in defeating someone else. Maybe a group of low level NPC's are travelling to find a site for a new village and need you to protect them.

This will be going on all over the world. Not just you. All NPC's will be interacting with each other. If done properly, that will ensure a continual stream of storylines to occupy the player.