Ok, now that you're in the thread thanks to the CAPS and the moderately misleading title, I want to ask you what you would write, if you had been the lead writer on Dragon Age: Origins.

Would you have created a world with as many generic western fantasy elements, or would you have tried to start with a more unusual fantasy world?  I think Bioware did a really good job of using a traditional fantasy world and making it interesting with highly developed characters, a great attention to detail, and some tweaks to the usual fantasy formula.  It's my favorite western RPG to come out in about ten years.  I love it.

 

But my question is, if you were starting from scratch, and had all the power, what direction would you go with that engine?  Similar world, or something totally different?  Would you make a game more like a JRPG, more linear with more dramatic cutscenes and music, or would you increase the number of ways the player can effect the game and the number of choices they have?  Would you take out the Blight and make it all about wars and politics?  Would you take out the politics and make it all about beating the taint out of darkspawn?  Would the main character be a Grey Warden, or something else entirely?  I'm curious what peoples' ideal fantasy rpg would be about.

 

 

SEX SEX AND MORE SEX

thats what bioware does alot to fill the spaces. but i don't know what would i write... i'd rather have it Character focused, i don't like mute characters , also the more friendship in the storyline the more it will be sad to make one of them die (and i always like killing characters )

That's... kind of a creepy response. Thanks for responding, though :)


I like the idea of focusing on the characters even more, or finding a way to make the main character customizable but not mute (I guess Mass Effect is a good example). Most of the time I prefer JRPGs, but I really like it when a WRPG has really interesting characters who can join you and play a part in the story.

I think Bioware did an excellent job of creating a fantasy world from scratch.....

As for writing, if you really have some great ideas - I suggest people get involved with the DA mod and toolset community. Everyone has the opportunity to bring your own story to life on the DA platform, thats a large part of why it is great...

I look forward to seeing the results after people have enough time to actually create things.

Alic0004 said: That's... kind of a creepy response. Thanks for responding, though :) I like the idea of focusing on the characters even more, or finding a way to make the main character customizable but not mute (I guess Mass Effect is a good example). Most of the time I prefer JRPGs, but I really like it when a WRPG has really interesting characters who can join you and play a part in the story.

lol don't worry thats bioware of doing stuff.

I actually ask because I've been playing around with the Dragon Age Toolset, and I'm amazed at how powerful it is. It has a cutscene editor that takes about fifteen minutes to learn, that really quickly turns out cutscenes that look as good as the stuff in the actual game. It even has a voice generator that creates voice acting for your characters by reading the lines you write, and then syncs the characters lips to what they're saying -- and it's all automatic! I also used to use the Neverwinter Nights toolset, so a lot of the other tools and the scripting feel fairly familiar.


I'm thinking about making a module, and I'm trying to decide on a few things:


1.) Same world as Dragon Age, somewhere in Thedas? Or another place, something more self-contained?

2.) I'm thinking of something more linear than most WRPGs, so I don't get overwhelmed. More characters would be forced to join your party, for example, so I don't have to plan for many possible parties in each situation. In other words, more like JRPG in terms of linearity. How much would this piss you off, with your play style?

3.) I've got a few possible stories planned out, but none of have really grabbed me yet. What kind of character would you want to play as? Grey Wardens are cool, but what about something less military, less like it's your job to do what you're doing and save the world, and more like you're fighting for survival -- something like an escaped slave, a refugee, or yet another orphan. The difficulty with coming up with a main character's identity in a game like this is that they can be a man or a woman, and a human, elf, or dwarf, so you can't give the main character a big backstory at the outset because it won't mesh with everyone's character. One way to get around this is to modify the character creator, which I may end up doing, but that takes something out of the game a lot of people want. Another way is to create origin stories, but that's a lot of work. So: any unusual ideas about what your main character could be? What would you want to play?


Anyway, just wanted to hear some players' voices, to hear what you guys would want to play.