@TableTopProphet

HOW TO PLAY (in theory)

ideally the game would be thriller T for teen First person VR visual novel. Each playthrough should be able to complete in 1 or 2 sessions.

Replayability and story-driven players are the target. Twitch Roleplay streams and Speedrunning community is a secondary target.

a frame of reference might be elements of the Myst Series, Nancy Drew, escape rooms, FNAF, and choose your own adventure novels.

randomized and procedurally generated dungeons to explore and puzzles to solve. Each playthrough is unique in both design, and in decisions made.

the full story is for completionists. The goal being to play through several times (or from save points), unlocking new secrets from different characters.

the player acts as a spirit medium and empath, with a secondary specialized skill and personality traits which they choose. This explains the audience's ability to see or learn about memories of the past, and unlock NPCs secrets. It also adds other factors for the player, such as a sensitivity to the supernatural, making objectives for the player more spiritual than physical. The player is NOT a combatant, however, some crew members are, and their fighting ability would be used in puzzle-solving situations of which the player directs. The chances of the fighter surviving are based on how well the player knows each character's abilities for specific situations. This is learned by talking to NPCs, paying attention to their side chatter, and player knowledge from new game plus.

these custom feats allow the player to build relationships with different NPCs each playthrough. It may also be feats that are duplicated in other crew members, making some crew obsolete compared to others.

As the story progresses, crew members begin to abandon Fellyne, new people join the party, or crew members turn on each other. It's the player's job to be a peacemaker, and make the tough decisions on who to comfort into staying, and who to aggravate into leaving. There is no one right way to complete the story, but each decision changes the dungeon navigation based on party ability, and each decision opens new and interesting conversations allowing players to unlock hidden secrets from compelling characters to understand the entire scope of the lore and story. Each crew member also has a certain set of skills, and losing them at the wrong chapter may make the game more difficult.

gameplay outside of dialogue and crew management minigame consists of hide-and-go seek mechanics, scavenger hunt, puzzle solving, escape rooms, time challenges, maze navigation/exploring, and roleplaying. A blend of them all may be required to progress each new section of the dungeon.

@AGreaterMonster @Kismet Heavenly Delusion will be one-cour only (13 episodes) just airing over Spring.

If it gets a bit of popularity (as it seems to be getting, week-to-week), maybe the next season could be two cours; the manga has 5 years' worth of content so I think the only limitation is monetary.

@RavingArmy Good point. I've set up 2 beginner-focused campaigns and two regular campaigns that are open to both beginners and experienced players. I'm just starting...no bites yet in the first week. From what I hear, it's hard to get the first signups and first few games going.

If I'm ever stuck I mumble vowels in different character voices for a scene I've written which that character could potentially be in... If something sounds rhythmic enough I'll piece together consonants around them until I get something that fits the tone of the world and run with that!

Oh man, just found out that the creator of honey heist has an huge collection of similar one page games they've made over the years. https://gshowitt.itch.io/

@KaeZero

Potential first story arc
Under construction

MISCELLANY

Items & Materials

The equipment a Champion uses in their previous incarnations will pass down through the ages. As the ages progress, new materials and processes become available, as well as new designs and types of weapons.

Classical Ages
• Ash (Common Material)
• Axe (1H Blade, 2H Blade)
• Bone (Common Material)
• Bow (Ranged Weapon)
• Bronze (Common Material)
• Black Bronze (Rare Material)
• Club (1H Bludgeon, 2H Bludgeon)
• Dagger (1H Blade)
• Diadem (Focus)
• Fetish (Icon)
• Iron (Uncommon Material)
• Leather (Common Material)
• Maul (1H Bludgeon, 2H Bludgeon)
• Oak (Uncommon Material)
• Orichalcum (Legendary Material)
• Periapt (Focus)
• Sacred Scroll (Icon)
• Silk (Rare Material)
• Skymetal (Legendary Material)
• Sling (Ranged Weapon)
• Spear (1H Blade, 2H Blade, Ranged)
• Staff (2H Bludgeon, Focus, Icon)
• Steel (Rare Material)
• Sword (1H Blade, 2H Blade)
• Wand (Wand)
• Yew (Rare Material)

Middle Ages
• Black Bronze becomes Common
• Iron becomes Common
• Silk becomes Uncommon
• Steel becomes Uncommon
• Oak becomes Common
• Yew becomes Uncommon
• Adamantite (Legendary Material)
• Crossbow (Ranged Weapon)
• Folded Steel (Rare Material)
• Grimoire (Focus)
• Laminate Wood (Uncommon Material)
• Lancewood (Rare Material)
• Pattern Welded Steel (Rare Material)
• Prayer Book (Icon)

Modern Ages
• Folded Steel becomes Uncommon
• Laminate Wood becomes Common
• Lancewood becomes Uncommon
• Pattern Welded Steel becomes Uncommon
• Silk becomes Common
• Steel becomes Common
• Yew becomes Common
• Advanced Alloys (Uncommon Material)
• Advanced Composites (Uncommon Material)
• Duranium (Legendary Material)
• Muskets (Ranged)
• Signet (Focus, Icon)
• Pistols (Ranged)
• Rifles (Ranged)
• Titanium (Rare Material)

Future Ages
• Advanced Alloys become Common
• Advanced Composites become Common
• Folded Steel becomes Common
• Lancewood becomes Common
• Pattern Welded Steel becomes Common
• Titanium becomes Uncommon
• Crysteel (Rare Material)
• Diaphene (Rare Material)
• Focused Plasma (Legendary Material)
• Magitech Array (Focus)
• Paracausal Matrix (Icon)

Once the Final Age has been reached, no further advancements in materials or items can be obtained.

Upgrades & Inheritances

Probably one of the biggest mechanics players will be engaging in is upgrading their equipment, coming up with newer and more powerful enhancements to increasingly archaic weapons which somehow manage to keep pace with or even outpace "present day" counterparts. Probably the fastest way display this would be a color-coded system. It's common enough in other RPGs at this point, and it would speed player understanding. A chart for weapon/armor qualities would probably run something like this:
• Gray - Junk (cannot be upgraded) - Low quality material, shoddy workmanship, one step above an improvised weapon
• White - Basic (cannot be upgraded) - Average quality material, low to average quality workmanship, nothing remarkable about it
• Green - Good (Capable of accepting Minor-quality upgrades) - Good quality material or average materials worked by a skilled artisan, clearly of better craft than the typical example
• Blue - Excellent (Capable of accepting up to Major-quality upgrades) - High quality materials or good materials worked by a highly skilled artisan; if it's not a bespoke piece or commission, it's the next best thing
• Purple - Superb (Capable of accepting up to Grand-quality upgrades) - The highest quality materials, or "just" high quality materials worked by a master artisan; likely a one-off creation which carries a lot of prestige to it
• Gold - Masterpiece (Capable of accepting up to Legendary-quality upgrades) - The best materials shaped by the greatest of artisans; once-in-a-generation pieces, the stuff that legends are made of
The actual number of upgrades a piece could carry might either be randomly generated or part of a specific scheme of segments (e.g. hilts, pommels, blades, guards for swords).

With regard to the upgrades:
• Green - Minor - Small boosts to damage (weapons) or damage reduction (armor), low order effects (elemental or poison damage), or small debilitations to targets (brief stuns, slowing effects)
• Blue - Major - Modest boosts to damage or damage reduction, medium effects or debilitations to target, duplication of effects from early-tier spells
• Purple - Grand - Significant boosts to damage or damage reduction, large effects or debilitations on target, duplication of mid-tier spells
• Gold - Legendary - Boosts to damage or damage reduction doubled or tripled from their base value, damage effects or debilitations on target equal to or greater than base weapon damage, duplication of late-tier spells

There will undoubtedly need to be some system for "reforging" gear to accept new enhancements.

NOTES

Potential Challenges

Fundamentally, Reliquarian is a roguelike writ large. There's a lot of ways this could ultimately evolve. It could be a classic isometric ARPG (akin to the Diablo or Torchlight series), which could have potential issues relating to procedural generation. It could be done up as a "loot shooter" (or "loot slasher" in a lot of spots) similar to the Destiny series (if going FPS) or The Division series (3rd person over the shoulder). However, it might be better to keep better quality weapons behind quests, give players a reason to explore and seek out august personages. Yes, it might be a fetch quest, ultimately, but it's one that will genuinely benefit the player instead of sending them to get ten rat ears because reasons.

Inspirations

None of us work in a vacuum. All of us are undoubtedly swiping small mechanisms and notions from other works. These were some of the ones that influenced me the most while working on this beast.
• Michael Moorcock - What can you say? The man's a legend of fantasy fiction. The "Eternal Champion" books were a major infuence.
• Red Aegis - This is a very weird TTRPG that I've never really had the chance to play. Designed by Brian R. James (with writing assistance from Ed Greenwood of Forgotten Realms fame), this had you playing not as a single character, but an entire clan across generations and ages, from the earliest days of recorded history to the other planets of your home star system and beyond. Definitely a very different perspective.
• Exalted - Terrible TTRPG systems, but always a compelling setting. Larger-than-life heroes equipped with relics of a bygone age that shatter mountains or cut through a soul like it was paper, all while fighting even more over-the-top villains. It's hard not to be excited by insane wire-fu coupled to ridiculous anime weapons.
• The Cthulhu Mythos - When you look at the Mythos as a whole, when you see the scope of it all, it kinda melts your brain a little bit. It's easier to focus in on certain periods like Robert E. Howard's "Conan" stories or the original stories from Lovecraft himself. But then you kinda want to connect the dots, trying to figure out how you get from Conan of Cimmeria to Nephren-ka to Charles Dexter Ward.
• Buffy The Vampire Slayer - This series (along with the spinoff Angel) did an excellent job of mixing urban fantasy with horror. Not simply in the visual side of things, but also in the characters and storylines. It's kind of a master class in how contemporary characters handle anachronistic equipment and knowledge.
• Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem - Probably didn't think this would be the big video game influence, did ya? Sanity Effects aside, the structure of the game's plot and its emphasis on bringing characters back to the same places ages apart, and their effects on the world, is subtle but so well executed. Also, it serves as the other big "Things Man Was Not Meant To Know" influence besides the Mythos. The Strangers are very much an homage to both this game and Lovecraft.

my warforged didn't know how to swim, but i bravely tied a 50' rope to the ship and jumped overboard to fight the Kraken, announcing to pull me up when the job was done. Warfoged don't need to breathe, so drowning wasn't an issue.

the fight was over, and players started discussing next steps.

I silently crossed my arms and closed my eyes, and blew up my cheeks like i was holding my breath, leaning back in my seat. I stayed there for what felt like 10 minutes of players discussing their plans. 3 days pass in game. I started putting candy wrappers on my face as if seaweed was accumulating.

By the time they noticed I had been very quiet, the barbarian looks over at me and was like... "what is Kaj doing?" Then he goes "OH MY GOD we never pulled him back up!".

And then everyone cheered and clapped and hoisted me in the air singing songs of my glory. okay that last part wasn't real, but we all had a good laugh.

@SwampCreature Oh yea I am big on character customization lol. The more I can do with appearance, backstory, race, profession, morality, etc the better. I generate characters based off ideas, names I like, or even a couple of people I know lol. I firmly believe that most millennials are big into customization and this is the hill I will die on lol.

@Mariano TLOU part two is SO good, my partner and I played through the first game a couple of months before the second one dropped, and we were really impressed by how well the second one holds up to the first. It had a lot of controversy surrounding it because of the antagonist, which I personally think was completely unwarranted, and a symptom of how toxic the gaming community can be. The 'plot twist' that happens partway through was completely unexpected and an incredible mechanic for a game imo. It had never been done before, and I found it so captivating.

I don't know if I have ever cried harder watching something than during episode 3 of that show, lol. I was full on sobbing by the end. I also liked how they used the infected sparingly, I think the scenes that did show them showed how absolutely destructive and terrifying they were when encountered. If you run into them, expect that someone will die.

@TableTopProphet I agree 100% with the fact that NPC's will run AI dialogue in the future (or at least I really hope so). The way I see it, there's two big hurdles to overcome: from a tech perspective, how to balance having multiple neural networks that work differently so that every character feels different with their backstories and their interactions with the player's actions, without it consuming an insane amount of resources; and from a writing/designing perspective, how to write compelling stories and events that trigger off of a bunch of seemingly continuous AI states rather than the much more limited/discrete states of N dialogue trees.

When it comes to predatory monetization, I don't foresee it being as big an issue in the future, with it being increasingly easy for competition to arrive. Replika has the name recognition advantage, but nowadays there's even free tools out there (like Google Colab) that allow you to train your AI, which is the most expensive part of the process. Once it's done, if you're okay with offline learning only, you can set it up for pretty relatively cheap anywhere; so companies will have too much high-quality competition too quickly to try to gouge the users. Or at least that's my hope 😅

Hey there, and welcome back to the LiveTale Character Art blog series! Today, we're going to dive into the creation of one of our first costume assets!

Creating clothing and other fabric-based assets for 3D characters can be a tricky process. Luckily, zBrush is a great tool for artists and offers a variety of sculpting brushes that can help us create the appearance of different fabrics that we’re shooting for - like leather, denim, and silk. We can use zBrush to produce a range of secondary wrinkles and folds in the clothing, adding realism and texture to our fabrics.

sculptGif.gif

Once we've got our fabric looking the way we want it, we do a quick retopology and UV mapping, and then it's time to move onto texturing in Substance Painter. Substance Painter is a powerful software that allows us to create complex, layered textures for our in-engine game models. We can use Substance’s layer-based workflow to create Smart Materials and textures that fit our specific needs.

One of the benefits of using Substance Painter is its ability to efficiently bake texture maps. These maps, such as ambient occlusion, curvature, thickness and normal maps, can be used when generating Smart Material for our model to enhance its appearance and make it look alot more realistic. It's amazing how much of a difference these maps can make.

shirtGif.gif

Another important step in creating any asset for a game mesh is to set up the textures with Material ID maps. This might sound like a technical term, but it's actually a fairly simple concept. Material ID maps allow us to mask out specific areas of the material to assign different textures across parts of our 3D model. If you want a shiny hex pattern across your sleeves and a matte camouflage on your lapel, Material IDs are how you separate the two.

Once we've created our base textures in Substance Painter using Smart Materials, we can polish the maps up by hand with a little hand-painted magic. Then, it's time to export our asset for use in a game engine. This typically involves exporting the textures and maps as separate files, as well as exporting the 3D model itself in a format that can be read by the game engine.

We hope you've enjoyed this glimpse into the creation of stock costume assets using zBrush and Substance Painter. By using these powerful tools together, we can create intricate and detailed textures that bring our characters to life. But we're just scratching the surface of what's possible with these programs! Stay tuned for more exciting insights and techniques in our upcoming LiveTale Character Art blog posts. We can't wait to share more with you in the future, so make sure to keep an eye out!

Creatures
(These things could also serve as characters depending on plot progression)

Owlbear Werebats - cross and vamp and a werewolf and you get this Lemkeys - picture a cat and a lemur crossed, prehensile tales, lovely companions Dragons Tunnel worms - rare giant worms Demons Mandor worm - parasite Gerbil Fox White stags Elephant deer - bigger deer with trunked noses Rock lizards - live in northern mountain range Tusked alligators Diggers - pests that cause sink holes Griffins Forest lion - a lion that lives in the forest, has a greenish hue to their mane Squirrels Caller (bird) - bird whose call can be heard for miles, sometimes domesticated to use for an alarm of sorts Giant Eagle Rolling beetles Octopeds - creepy guys that can imitate shapes and sounds Sea Tigers - the giant creatures that invade land Monkey Lizard - furry lizard critter Werewolves Red wolves Humming Stork Tree leech - thing that sucks the sap out of trees Stoats Giant moles Tiger Spiders - giant spiders that have markings like a tiger Iden Snake - most venomous snake in Elliria Mountain goats Mountain snakes - rather large snake-like creatures covered in fur Rock beetles - look like rocks, but beetles Much more!

Plants
(All of these things can be used for crafting a myriad of different things whether they be clothing, food, potions/spells, poisons, medicines)

Sea Grass Blackroot Scrim’s Mushroom Red Mark (Mushroom) Kelp Six Leaf Clover Stink Flower Nederberries Grave Vine Lavender Mint Winterberries Ellie’s Milkweed Pettles Lore beans Fox Flower LionNip Rogg’s Snapdragon Snowshroom Drizzleleaf Blackwood Pinewood Rubber plants Swamp wood Much more!

Minerals/Precious Metals/Gems
(can be used to make special weapons, items of protection, armor)

Steel Gold Silver Jade Saphire Modrian Lasmiontine Malionine Beach Molhalite Lavendar Nyeroite Much more!

I'm going to move this topic down to the questions category; thank you so much for answering, Kismet!

@Kykeon I want to get a 3D printer so badly, but I need to do more research on what ones are good 😓

@Kykeon your 3d printing adventures have the cost of production at the forefront of your mind! haha

Thank you for your kind words.

Before Metroid Dread was released, a buddy and I wanted to get immersed in the lore and he wanted to play TRPG games but was too busy at the time with changes in his life and work. So, I spent a week or so in the Metroid WIKI and found out about the Metroid choose your own adventure book released in Japan. I created a roleplay Discord Channel and made my own choose your adventure style story using the rules of D&D and a dice roller bot. He made a character, and I took some creative liberties using Metroid lore as a backdrop. Since my friend didn't have the time to write, we made it all a multiple-choice pen pal adventure. Link below to the act1 if you want to skim it. We had fun. Somewhere in the middle of ACT3, his child was born and Metroid Dread was released, so it was never finished.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rPdUxb0CAWbDvzSprCCqAPxwcj1kSIBY/view?usp=share_link