An intriguing RPG plot. . .

#1 The Idea that was manifesting itself in my mind was a new Earth, after the violent destruction of virtually all life by a series of very large nukes. After many, many years life emerged guided by the hand of Yahweh (I wasn't sure of whether to include Yahweh(the Lord) or not. Seeing how the earth is going to go through the Tribulation, I think that I'd make the nukes happen before the Tribulation and have the Tribulation be in the future, though the game would never go there. I don't want to undermine the Bible, but I want to spread the message of the awesome and caring God that Yahweh is, and somehow also get Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, also in there. Thinking now, it will only be by the power of our awesome Lord that I'll be able to figure out how to do this!, lol)

I'm going to have the new people similar to the Israelites, following their creator and protector, Yahweh, and while they do that they will grow and prosper, but when they forget, they will fall and shrink. The locations where the nukes went off will be power sources for Rajei. (or the new gift or what we'd think of as magic) Perhaps different races will rise up from the smoldering ruins of different major cities, such as New York, and Belgium, ect. They will have different powers of Rajei.

I have more, but I need to go!

#2 An RPG where player character constantly changes- player starts as a god, travelling the Chaos and basically creating the world and his quest solutions influence the world as it'll be later. Then, next phase- player is an offspring of god, his stats being partially inherited from the daddy, and living in the world his father created. And so on, through the eras till the Armageddon when the world dissolves in Chaos once again.

#3 I'm confused. Is this a game idea or a cleverly disguised sermon?

#4 "Is this a game idea or a cleverly disguised sermon?"

I don't see why it can't be both. It's not my cup of tea, but don't see any problem with it.

#5 And you're entitled to your opinion, just as I am.

#6 Prolly a cleverly disguised game idea.

#7 Well, I'm not trying to preach, but I don't put God in a box that I only open for church time or youth group. I'm not accusing anybody of anybody of actually doing this, but you know your heart and where you stand with the Lord.

I really don't want this thread to become a flame battle, so lets take everything people say for the best it could be. . .lol, maybe this is a sermon. . .

That's an interesting idea Nauris, though I have no idea how it could be accomplished. The making of the world would probably be the hardest part.

#8 I've been wanting to make an RPG in TGB for a while now, eventually I'll get this specific one started and then done... I had some interesting concepts for game plot and idea.

The game starts with a cutscene/scripted scene or some sort of story tool in which the main character either kills himself/herself or dies. The main character is an unbeleiver of Christ and then is sent to Hell. A glimmer of hope is given in some form, maybe an angel, maybe a rogue demon or something along those lines, that the player can 'fight' their way up to Heaven. So the player starts out at the depths of hell and fights their way through multiple levels of Hell (think reverse Diablo lol). The player then fights through multiple levels of our world and then eventually reaches Heaven. In the end when approaching angels, either God, Jesus, or biblical angels like Gabriel (or all) at the end of the game when the player finishes and has successfully reached Heaven... it all fades away into Hell with Satan laughing. The entire thing was an illusion, the player's torment of Hell, made to beleive they had hope.

A bit of a dark game, though I beleive I can get enough biblical teachings and concepts into it while still keeping it exciting, fun, and action based. A dynamic I haven't fully figured out is initially either before the player dies or when they initially go to hell they get some insignificant choices that choose how their 'personal hell' is developed and pieced together.

#9 @Matt
Reading through that whole description I just kept thinking, "that isn't a very biblical view of how Heaven and Hell work..." Then I saw the punch line. Now I have a glimpse into what a truly twisted and wonderful individual you are ;)

#10 Lol. That definetly escapes the usual RPG plot where everything is happy and wonderful in the end. That even seems like something that would happen to people in Hell, however gruesome.

#11 @Nauris, I didn't think of that idea when I read it in a religious sense, but rather I thought of it as a mythological sense. I really like the idea of having multiple characters and the puzzles be inherited from your actions as the previous character. I wish that Eternal Darkness did that in a more nonlinear way. You'd simply discovered things when you played through the other characters quests rather than act on what you decided as that character. Getting to choose things and create your puzzling destiny sounds interesting and unique.

@Matt, even though I'm an atheist, I think that's a hilarious idea. I don't agree with the message but that sounds like an entertaining game.

@Kevin, The antihero is just as common as the supergood hero. However, pulling off a supergood hero is much harder than an antihero. The only truly memorable supergood character I've ever seen was Optimus Prime. The hero has been explored a lot in a game so in effort to do something different, I'd do more interesting things with the villain.

Your character would be a caretaker under the employ of the supreme ruling government required to take care of the prince until he gained power. The prince would be the adventurous type but with a tendency towards helping people to a point where it is self-destructive. The goal of the first part of the game would be to, over the course of a grand adventure, try and curb his self-destructive helpfulness so that he could be more self-preservative without letting him get too . What you do here influences the second part of a game where the prince has become the king. Here he is trying to do something that he means for the good of all people but is really destructive towards them. Having known him since he was a child. You are the only one who can stop him and you must exploit his sense of ethics in order to save the kingdom.

It's kind of rough but I was rushing towards the end. I think something like that would be pretty cool.

#12 Well, I'm comfortably agnostic so I doubt I could spread any kind of coherent religious message anyway :) I just always have wanted to see gameworld responding and changing more to players actions, so such silly ideas as this one are constantly bouncing around me head.

#13 I would like to see a RPG plot based in "a belivable universe" and with that i mean: Do the character always have to battle good or evil in the grand scheme of things?

Why not create "a belivable universe" with kings, queens and dragons. And THEN focus on the little man. Not that the little man have to wake up halfways and realize his gods son, or a devil offspring. Why not put him in the kings army, as a man trying to make a living. Throw him some "missions" to get him in to character, like standards "exploring" mines, than let him "find" something of interest in there, like a note, something that let the show underway. Then you can start to transform the story to youre likeing.

Perhaps its your leutenant in the army doing som fishy business. And linking that note to the overarching history of the world. NOT makeing him to the saveour of the land. There should be some mythology of the world, you could make an rpg were the enemy is a secret thief guild, aiding the bad side of the conflict worshipping the bad daedra :) but, the thing is it has to be small.

Hm, wonder if i get my point through. Altough i think youre on the right way, with using M. Night Shaymalan as an example. The signs is another fine example what i mean. "The global conflict" from the eyes off a former priest in the mittle of a cornfield.

Or isolate the events on a little place, like a research station in arctis. If you seen the movies "the thing", "the abyss", you know what i mean. RPG is not always about bosting stats, its story telling, and fullfillments. If your doing this your self or with limited amount of time i defintily would go with a small research station with places you can revist and change accordingly to events that has occured previously.
You can then strongly type the cast (fewer characters, more focused story, and more time to create the scenery)

System shock is another fine example (altough 3d ...)

#14 Daedra huh? Sounds like somebody has played my favorite RPG series ever, the Elderscrolls!

#15 When Final Fantasy X came out in Japan, a friend of mine (who now works for Squeenix as a translator) bought the game in Japanese and showed it to us. He translated the first sequences for us in real time so we had an idea of what was going on.

After a bit of playing I summed the plot, "So... The main character is a pretty-boy who is kind of whiney and hates his father, yet still strangely follows in his footsteps. The main bad guy is named 'Sin' and he is on a pilgrimage to destroy it."

Then I did a bit of guesswork, "That means, that the main character will eventually have to kill his father, destroy the monolithic and evil Church, and then kill God whining the entire way about how much he hates his Dad."

When FFX finally came out to the US, I was laughing so hard because of how close I guessed plot was. It seems that Squeenix (as well as the rest of Japan) had a fascination with "God Killing Games" since Evangelion.

I kept thinking Kevin's original plot idea was going to do something like that - but I forgot that most US RPG developers aren't Japanese.

#16 @Nauris:

Actually, I think agnostics could probably do a better job at spreading spiritual messages than a lot of Christians. That's because a lot of agnostics tend to work on the art itself and are less concerned about spreading the Gospel. That's why the best storytellers in Hollywood aren't necessarily religious.

Unfortunately, because so many Chrsitians are fixated on "spreading the Gospel" a lot of their stories tend to become poorly veiled pieces of propaganda - and tend to be insincere to the audience.

#17 What I think is missing in a lot of RPGs (and in fact in a lot of games) is the idea of cause and effect. For instance, if you do good, you can see the effect it has on others. If you do evil, you can also see the effect on others. RPGs can do this very effectively because it is closely tied to story and character interaction.

The old Chrono Trigger showed how a good action (sometimes very small) in the past affects the whole of history - which was one of its strongest messages.

A lot of games tend to put your character in a moral vacuum with neither good or evil having consequences. It would be far more interesting to have been able to explore Fable if your many wives across county lines found out about your activities. And it would be more interesting in games even like Grand Theft Auto if you build notoriety for all your actions - good or bad.

One of my favorite game designers, Hideo Kojima, tends to put this idea of moral consequence in his games. In "Zone of the Enders" you go way out of your way to protect innocent bystanders, which shows how much more challenging it is to protect rather than to destroy. And in "Metal Gear Solid 3", the more people you kill, the more people who haunt you in your near death dream sequence. It was creepy with all those undead screaming at you for cutting their throats and killing them.

I think clever stories like this are far more effective than being overtly Christian.

#18 It would be very clever to clearly show what effect evil actions have on the world on what effects good actions have. That would be biblical in itself. Thanks for the idea!

As far as spreading the gospel, I don't know how much of Jesus will be mentioned in the game. Perhaps it will become more of a ministry than a game, but I haven't the skills in either art of scripting to pull off the kind of game I want to. . .yet.

And no, I'm not japanese and have no intention of killing God. :P

#19 @Kevin:

I think that a thorough look at Tolkien's works, especially "The Silmarillion" would be an excellent reference to study how one can accomplish this. In fact, the whole of the Silmarillion depicts the struggle of good and evil and how Providence provides even in the most evil of times. Some have argued that "The Silmarillion" to be an even deeper and more moving work than "The Lord of the Rings."

Myths tend to hold more universal appeal and truth than religion per se. That is why Fantasy is so popular because people can see mythic archetypes and relate. That is why Tolkien continues to be the most influencial writer of the century. World of Warcraft and all fantasy derived works take a cue from Tolkien in some form or fashion.

#20 @Matt L.
Ironic, I was just thinking that a platformer game based on the Divine Comedy would be fun to do. Battle thru hell, purgatory, on a journey to heaven. I even had the idea that power-ups would be called 'miracles' instead, lol. Must be an Oregonian thing....