Having taken up the coding of The Quarter again, I thought I should get some ideas down to help organize thoughts.

The story: The story still takes place within my world, and specifically within the city of Setrian Lake...by Setrian Lake. The circumstances are that Tsalen Novarres has finally wrested control of the city from its counsellors. He has his reasons for doing so, and for the tight restrictions he places on the people of the city, and for the disappearances of citizens that he causes. An early part of the game will be determining those reasons...at this point the future of the city will diverge in one of two directions. With Tsalen or without.

The beginning phase of the game will be exciting because the players will be split into two camps based on an early decision (which will hopefully be rp'd as opposed to a yes/no question in creation). Are you with the rebellious underground opposing the usurper or are you with Tsalen?

The Beginning: (Creation) Creation will be room-based and should either be quick and simple or long and interesting providing for character customization. If creation is quick, customization takes place within the world, early in life. Customization will eventually include choosing a player age, but in the early stages of game development, ages will be low. Race may not be a factor as I'm considering removing the special races I've created for the realm (the donns and gressi). The gressi were unintentionally influenced by the Zelda rock people, and the donns don't seem interesting to me, and certainly not to play (They can't speak!) This isn't necessarily a bad thing as George Martin has built a very interesting world on one race, as has Robert Jordan for the most part. The customization will come by the character deciding what region of the continent he/she is from. Attributes are many, not the standard 6 or 7. Agility is separated from dexterity, will from strength and constitution, etc. Skills can then accurately be based on attributes, and characters can feel that the game recognizes the individuality of their character. Siric is fleet of foot, but not of fingers. Charisma remains one attribute, reluctantly. There are too many factors, and you end up taking them all into account anyway to determine influence, so make one attribute. Influencing actual players is a result of their own typed words anyway, so charisma is quite a restricted attribute. Creation may continue with choosing a background for their life to this point: tribesman, farmer, apprenticeship, ...etc. I may then ask for alignment leaning, informing the user that alignment is not kept track of, but rather used to help the game determine certain situations to put the character in, and for the rp administration to know how to treat your character. Alignment will be player-changeable to reflect longterm changes in a character. Siric moved from good-leaning to very neutral. Alignment changes will be logged because they should be rare, so players that change often will be KINDLY informed of why they shouldn't change much.

Life: The character begins life in the Consul Hall on Whiskers Road. Upon ending character creation, they appear in the hall, and the clerk will say something to the effect of "Thank you for registering yourself as a citizen of Setrian Lake. Our guilds have funded a training ground to the north." Or whatever. After finishing training, the player will go through a learning period in the form of temporary work for the city. There are rats in the storerooms of Consul Hall. During this time they will come face to face with the rule of Tsalen, either by being forced from the streets into a warehouse where they store people for the night, or by some other means. After completing a certain amount of jobs, they will be confronted with the choice to join the rebellion beneath the streets of Setrian Lake. If they refuse, it's not the be-all-and-end-all, but it will reflect on their life. OR! They may be approached by people from Tsalen's side. It will be either random, or based on a choice made during customization of the character, such as alignment leaning.

The life commences with choices of religion, and sides in other disputes, such as those over the Dreamcourt and psions. Disputes and turmoil rule this game to make it interesting. Choice of guild, which is what I'm calling them now but will change the name when a better one comes along, is made early. Guilds are a measure of occupation, not necessarily "class". But I need a better word than occupation, something more momentous. Some guilds are restricted to single-joiners. As in, you can join no other guild. Other guilds allow for the opposite. Guilds allow you perform some skills better than others, learn skills (some skills can only be learned by a guild), and, perhaps most importantly, mingle within a hierarchy of people. Ascending to the top of any organization is a primary goal in the game. I think that I will allow people to choose to join any guild they want, no matter attributes or prior guild joinings. Even though they are Ironborn, they may attempt to join another guild to try to get away with it. This may necessitate a message to the player, "Understand before you join that you belong to a guild which does not allow for membership in other guilds." And leave it at that. The difficulty in code will be diminishing the power of skills based on the number of guilds joined. I believe I will do this via the experience system.

I've mentioned on primary goal, getting to the top of whatever organizations a player has joined. Other primary goals are to reach a high level (discussed below) and gain powerful skills. That's another goal, learning skills and FINDING skills to learn. Learning secrets of the realm is a facet as well. There should be many, and many should lend an impressive knowledge of power. Knowing about the Shadow Syndicate without actually being approached to join will be an impressive feat (I hope). Solving the mini games, or quests, will be a goal as well. They will fit into the history and story of the world. HOPEFULLY, I'll avoid find-the-right-verb scenarios for these things. Finally, the goal of interaction with other players is important. The game needs to be a community, and thus OOC chatter, though limited, must be allowed. RPI's that do not allow for global ooc chatter tend to feel lonely. Plus it lets new players see that there are actually people on the game. Places with 5 players aren't fun to play on, you know? Or are they. One day maybe I'll average 40 or 50!

Levels: I have opted to not choose a pure skill-based system. There were too many variables involved in calculating when a skill should improve and how much depending on attributes and other skills known and guilds joined, etc. Levels provide a mini goal within the game. Try to get to the next level so I can learn more impressive skills. Plus they're easier to institute. I think they can be explained adequately as a measure of how much your character has learned. I DON'T like the pure skill-based way of using skills to improve them. It's just not that fun during a game because either you're rp'ing poorly (typing hide over and over and over and over again) or you don't feel as if you're improving. Plus, with levels you have a measure of when you're ready to move on to more challenging endeavors. One level will make a large difference in this game because it is permadeath, so accomplishment must be made with each level grown, before they die. I think levels will be maintained for each guild you join, thus representing the difficulty of learning when you split your attention. Is this realistic? I'll have to see.

Experience: Certainly, I like the idea of not gaining experience solely from killing creatures, but have not found a truly great way to hand out other experience. Solving problems and quests will result in experience bonuses. There will be rp bonuses when I see them, but how much difference will that make? I'll think about it. Experience will be traded in for level advancement.

Death: It's permadeath, (or permdeath if you're into the 80's). But why rant about playability and fun and then kill the player off for good after one death?? Because I think it can be fun, in a way. High ranks will mean a great deal in this game. They have survived unscathed the challenges of the world. I haven't really decided about resurrection. It will be rare if it's allowed, and a spell for high ranking Ironborn or something. If I allow for the spell, it will take lifeforce (hp and sp) from the caster to be given to the dead. So the caster's max hp of 152 would drop maybe in half. Thus only the beloved, or very important individuals will be reborn, and the casters will receive great acknowledgement from their peers. One of the great secrets in the game will be learning the few ways to cheat death. I haven't come up with them myself, yet, but they will be very cool, probably resulting in being undead sometimes.

Quests: Quests need to give experience. An early quest that will need to be solved before the story can continue is why Tsalen has taken the city and begun ruling with an iron fist. When a disappearance is reported, via gossip, someone will have to sneak into the Palace to eavesdrop on Tsalen's meeting with the person who has disappeared. I love puzzle quests and there will be oodles of those; quests of discovery and the like. I loved my Dioloeth quest of Incantations, partly because it was so difficult to figure out, but not impossible. It may make it back in a different form. In fact, it definitely will.

Current status: Let's see, I believe I began in October of 2001. It's all original except for the hooks module which I haven't actually made use of yet. A detailed weather system is in place. Most of the room factors are in place, but not doors. Light is partially in place, haven't decided on allowing for different light levels or not. Does it add much to the game for the level of complexity involved? Basic creation rooms are all created with gender, race (which will be removed), and attributes rooms. There are probably 15 rooms created in detail -- the Old City of Setrian Lake. Weapons are there, as well as commands to wield. A number of basic player commands are there like score, emote, say, inventory, gear (I think), look. Introduce is there but will be redone. Combat is not done, and the work I have may need to be scratched. I haven't decided on combat attributes yet. They need to take into account all my attributes. Dodge will not be a skill because it's too instinctive. Who would need to read about dodging in a book to learn how to do it? It will be based on level and agility. In room objects are done (things described in the description to look at). Senses are done. Skills are not. Guilds are not. Thus, NPCs are not. I'm trying to hold off on them until I have a lot more done so I won't have to recode all the npcs after I add one vital component of code later. That's about it for now.