Frayed Knights RPG - Still A Bad Idea!

Frayed Knights, the comedy-based RPG, continues in all its retro, goofy, embarrassment-to-the-community glory. And I have the posts and pictures to prove it!

I'm pushing forward to get all the core systems "done" (as in "alpha complete" - as in "please make the pain stop I don't want to work on this code anymore oh it hurts it hurts it hurts") in November. Which doesn't leave me much time. I wonder if it's too late to turn it all into a roguelike? Once that's done, I'll be concentrating on content, balancing, content, bug-fixing, content, polishing, content, integration, content, and ... I can't remember. Something rhyming with shmontent.

So here's what I hope will pass for real progress I made in September:

First off, there's inventory. At least that's the geek term for it. Real people call it "My Stuff." No wonder RPGs get such a bad rap... we players use terms like "inventory" which makes it sound to outsiders like we're working after-hours accounting to do an audit of all sellable goods in a retail store or something. Woot! Can I play?

Anyway, I got inventory working. It's horribly old-school for now. Maybe after November I'll find time make a new user interface that doesn't rely on mechanics that were antique in 1993. Or maybe I won't. Anyway, the important thing is that it works, and it includes a description of a 10-foot pole. Old-school adventurers were always dragging around a ten-foot-pole with them through pen-and-paper RPGs. Nobody knows why, except it was something to spend those last copper pieces on. In theory, it was to poke around on the floor to see if there were traps, but we always found that tossing the halfling down the hall did exactly the same thing for twice the entertainment factor.

If you seriously need more help falling asleep and the above didn't do it for you, you can read this write-up on the inventory system.

I tried to something bold, brave, innovative, and different for a conversation system. It sucked. So now I am doing something else. If you want to read what I tried and laugh at my folly, I've got a write-up on the aborted conversation system here. I still intend to rip it off for what good ideas I can salvage for the new, improved conversation system, so maybe not all of it is useless.

Traps and locks. I'm actually a big fan of "rogues" in RPGs, but they are usually treated like weak fighters with the constitution of an anorexic hemophiliac crack-head. Who sometimes get bonus damage in an attack. Oh, and they are good for tossing down halls to find out if there are any traps. Especially if they are halflings.

Frayed Knights doesn't go as far out on the bleeding edge as I'd like to with rogues, but I did create a pretty elaborate trap-disarming and lock-picking mini-game that I hope will work well in the whole game. You can read all about how Frayed Knights handles booby-traps here. And here. And here. Man, I hope it doesn't suck, or I'll have wasted a lot of time.

I also managed to find a sucker... er, friend to help out on level-building. Actually, I think Kevin Rogers' actual job description is "take some really crude pencil-and-graph-paper scribblings that look like they were created by a 7th-grader on a caffeine buzz during math class and turn them into something totally cool that will win awards based on sheer brilliance of design and game-play." So far, he seems to be handling the thankless task quite well.

I'm obviously not heaping enough abuse on the guy.

Oh, and I created a treasure-chest model that has an animated lid! Man, the things I do to avoid doing real work... Please gaze at the screenshot and tell me why I should fire my modeler (me), while I go hide for another month! See ya!

And, as always, have fun!

Jay Barnson
Rampant Games
Tales of the Rampant Coyote