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Character Point-of-View and CRPGs

The Rules and Mechanics department takes a break this month. Instead, some thoughts on the passing of a popular fantasy author, and what it might mean for the future of fantasy CRPG design.

While preparing for a TBH production meeting yesterday, I came across the news that author Robert Jordan had died. Although not a fan of his Wheel of Time series, I was certainly aware of it, and had a certain morbid curiosity about the state of the series now that he would not be able to continue it. So I did a little research.

Among fans (is there any other word for people who read eleven books on the same topic?) the core of the criticism against the later entries in the series seems to revolve largely around the multiple plot threads, which involve completely different characters in different places and occur at different times. Even when managed deftly, these plot lines tend to take on a life of their own, and merging them back together becomes a literary challenge—as both Jordan and his readers discovered.

Jordan is not alone. George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire book series has made it clear from the very beginning that it will spread its characters far and wide and dispose of protagonists at will. The most recent book in the series notably passes on expanding some of the plotlines altogether. This makes the series a daunting prospect for some readers, not to mention creating large gaps in narrative for fans.

Yet computer games generally and CRPGs particularly have not followed this trend, even though it clearly sells books. Why not games, as well?

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 18 September 2007 )

Fetish, Chapter 2

This month we conclude Anikka's tale with the second installment of Fetish. Missed the first chapter, or any of our earlier stories? See our complete list of serials here.

Fetish
By Sonja Littell-Trotter
Chapter 2

"Nikka, Nikka, talkin' to yerself ain't no sign of smarts." The voice was low and familiar, and the fingers that pinched her side painful.

Anikka twisted away, not bothering to waste a glare on the voice's owner. "Go 'way, Danika. I d-don't have blood for you."

"Not even a wee tiny coin for ye're lonely only kin?"

"G-go on, Danika. You know I haven't--" Anikka began, and then stopped, suddenly feeling a blade at her spine.

"Don't call me Danika," her sister growled.

"Fine. D-don't hurt me." Anikka turned her head to see the girl who leaned on her, breathing hostility.

"'D-d-don't hurt me!' Waaah!" Danika, who was not Danika, mocked her in return. She laughed and sawed the blade lightly against Anikka's back.

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 11 September 2007 )

The Senate and the Emperor

On the first Monday of every month, we bring you insights into the world of The Broken Hourglass. This week,we turn the spotlight on Tolmira's Imperial government.

Tolmira is governed by a law- and policy-making body known as the Senate, a 200-seat assembly of some of the most powerful and influential individuals within the Empire's reach. The Senate convenes in the Imperial capital of Azmadisha and traces its roots to the earliest governing bodies of its days as a city-state. In the official histories, the rule of the Senate has been continuous and unbroken for 600 years, since the year 148 when Primarch Urgardt re-took Azmadisha from northern barbarians who had captured the city a year earlier. At the time, Azmadisha was but the head of the much smaller Kingdom of Azmadir, consisting of the city-state's home strait and captured territory from the then-independent nations of Narimir and Aemir.

The Senate itself votes to fill its vacancies. Senate positions are ostensibly perpetual, but resignation and forced removal often "become necessary" through pressure from a majority (or extremely powerful minority) of other senators. As a result, only a minority of senators will actually serve out a lifetime appointment.

By convention, members departing (or dying) on good terms with his or her fellow senators are allowed to hand-pick a replacement, typically but not always a family member. The seat of an unpopular member is wholly up for grabs, and social climbers have been known to do anything to buy their way into the Senate through influence, pressure, and outright bribes of seated Senators. There are no strict requirements for regional representation of Tolmira's various provinces, but in practice the timely appointment of a popular local figure or war hero to the Senate can quell discontentment with Azmadisha among some of the Empire's more far-flung territories.

Last Updated ( Monday, 03 September 2007 )

Inside the Engine: Area Creation

The Broken Hourglass will ship with dozens of unique landscapes, providing fertile ground for modders who wish to introduce their own characters and quests. New area creation is well within the reach of the ambitious, however. In this installment of our Inside the Engine column, we explore the basics of area creation and discuss the special maps necessary to introduce a new area to the game. Any 3D environment artist (or 2D artist willing to put in a little extra effort) can create an area for The Broken Hourglass or other WeiNGINE games. WeiNGINE does not use tile-based environments, so each area is a unique project unto itself, and artists need not be constrained by texture limits imposed by the game. Any of the dozens of 3D staging and rendering packages in existence are solid choices for area creation. 3D software makes it easy to exactly match the camera angle used in The Broken Hourglass. An FBX-format file which contains basic staging information will be provided to modders at a later date. Drawing a new area by hand is possible, but the time investment in going back and tracing occlusion maps and generating solidity maps could prove discouraging. This is not a tutorial in creating 2D isometric landscapes generally, only how to apply the end product to a game using WeiNGINE. Plenty of artistic tutorials exist which cover the techniques involved in building appealing environments. There are four fundamental components to any area: the backdrop, occlusion map, solidity map, and lightmap. We will illustrate each of these with an actual, in-game example of a small, modest home.
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 29 August 2007 )
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Rules and Mechanics: Point-Buy Strategies

The third week of every month, we offer a look at rules and gameplay considerations in The Broken Hourglass. This month's entry discusses the choice between buying primary attributes versus secondary skills.

Every playable character in The Broken Hourglass earns experience points which are spent on character traits and abilities. Although the level-path system can be used to automatically spend approximately two-thirds of a character's points, players always have an opportunity to make important decisions about buying new abilities, statistics, and special capabilities.

But which is the better buy—the four primary attributes (Strength, Agility, Toughness, and Judgment) or the 30-odd skills and abilities which govern everything from magical defense to round-table diplomacy?

Fetish, Chapter 1

This month we begin a new, two-part story set in Mal Nassrin. Fetish brings a look at the city through the eyes of Anikka, a young woman apprenticed to one of the city's healers. Missed any of our earlier stories? See our complete list of serials here.

Fetish
By Sonja Littell-Trotter
Chapter 1

Autumn light is always slanting light, when not even the noonday sun can hold shade perfectly beneath it. Somehow the shadows always slip away, sideways. It was a dusty saffron afternoon, when the weather should have cooled with the approach of winter, but had not. Anikka stood in the doorway of a house not her own and listened to the sound of women weeping.

The boy was dying. That was all. The women had waited too long, cared too little, or been too poor, none of which mattered now. Anikka only half-listened to the women's lament, though. Her new shoes pinched her feet and she was absorbed in trying, unobtrusively, to flex first one foot, then the other. Nevertheless, when her mentor spoke, all thoughts of grieving women and cramped feet fled as she lifted her head trying to see what he wanted before he named it. Catching her eye, he gestured curtly to the bowl that sat by the boy's head, and then wordlessly turned his attention back to the women.

The priest, Gideon Mather, stood with arms crossed at the foot of the bedroll where a young boy lay. He had donned Oron's Hands, symbolic of Oron's work, the wide black bands wrapped once around the palm and twice around the wrists, their ends tucked precisely into the small pulse-hollow where the wrist joined the hand. Master Gideon had bands made of heavy silk proper to his rank and experience; hers were simple dyed linen. Moisture made the dye run and stain her hands, but she wrapped her wrists anyway. The first was easy--her left hand was smart, after all--but she fumbled the wraps with her dumb hand and bowed her slight body down to hide her clumsy fingers from Gideon's sharp eyes.

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 11 September 2007 )

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