Post by egalor on Jun 29, 2007 22:18:27 GMT 1
Hello. Sorry, it took me a few days to review the story, edit it a bit too and here it is. It looks pretty much the same, but please pay attention to a few new/changed details.
***
Setting: It takes place in a wasteland-like Europe, years after the bombing. The countries do not really exist anymore though influences of different cultures are still noticeable. Small communities like little towns, small villages, tribal and nomadic settlements are developing very slowly, mostly failing to survive the wasteland with farming and commerce. Communications between these so-called communities is scarce, and founded mostly on rare caravans and a few brave/strong/stupid enough independent wasteland travelers. Apart from these shreds of progressive civilization, there are also communities of raiders, bandits and highwaymen who make their living by waylaying the caravans and raiding towns.
The Main Character (MC) does not know much about the outer world, like the player. Though there is some common knowledge:
1. The six biggest towns have set up a committee several years ago, forming a so called ‘ The Union’. This committee contains one spokesperson representing each member town. Each one of the spokespersons have a few additional advisors. They have one town where the core of this committee always remains – the HQ of the Union. These cities try to convince other towns to join The Union. Negotiation is their specialization, and they are working hard to promote the concept of The Union among other civilized communities of the Wasteland.
2. Evans & Bateman (E&B), being a small corporate business that has been around for several decades. They produce healing drugs of very high quality (very effective stimpacks and stat-boosting supplements), and a whole lot of other chemicals. Some towns trade periodically with Evans & Bates, which is rather safe since E&B has its own small and well-trained personnel, who are able to provide decent support for the merchant caravans across the wasteland.
3. Many towns and caravans are bothered with raiders. These are mostly just anarchists, addicts or any other type of outcast. But there are two groups of raiders that differ. One group of raiders is against E&B (this group does not have a name). Not many take them seriously since most members sound like lunatics that merely need something to rebel against. Most say it’s just an excuse to be violent while trying to get away with it, claiming they are saving the world from this corporation. The other group calls itself the AU, which stands for Anti Unification. They believe the unification of all the towns, as preformed by the Union, will lead to less freedom of the common man. According to them, it would mean that in the end, only the biggest traders will flourish while farmers and other workers will remain poor. They are poorly organized and don’t have a charismatic leader, who could unify them under one banner. These raiders frequently attack the six cities that are part of the Union, but so far all of their attacks were unsuccessful due to their poor level of organization, however they still remain a force to be reckoned with.
4. Due to the constant AU raiders threat, the Union supports E&B by sending some troops to guard their headquarters and caravans, their first motivation being to show their goodwill to E&B. On the other hand, E&B does not actually cooperate with the Union, but they offer large quantities of their products for the services given by them. Since these are very expensive and useful, the Union gladly accepts this as payment. Their relation is platonic but very effective.
5. Ammunition and guns are not very frequent and a bit expensive (this adds to the gameplay; the player now has more reason to invest in melee since close-combat saves much needed ammo).
Story: Our story starts at a small village (Location 1) preferably in an outer corner of Europe (The Netherlands, northern Germany perhaps or the western border of Russia. For this document we used the Netherlands as the starting point, possibly USA). Though it is a small farming community, it is very hospitable and the people work hard to strengthen their economy. Everyone knows each other, which is why the only bar is visited very well with familiar if not friendly faces. After the MC is created and the game has started, the MC can be seen in a local bar which is crowded with townsfolk. An NPC is talking to the MC about a local rumours or such. The MC is allowed to wander for a bit in the village, do a few simple quests, even leave the village.
Otherwise, after a few lines of dialogue and responses, another townsperson walks in and tells the MC that GEOFF wants to see him. The player may agree to meet Geoff and speak with him [what if not?]. This person is known very well in town and is a respected man, he is one of the political figures that tries to maintain the growth the village is experiencing at the moment. He gives the MC the first quest related to the main plot. He tells him to find a merchant named “Victor” who can establish new contacts with their village. This way new merchants and merchandise can be introduced to the hometown, hopefully boosting the economy growth and possibly attracting other merchants as well. The MC may now leave the town and find Victor at a location not yet specified (Location 2), however a moderate walk through the wasteland will be needed, and a proper preparation for that journey will be mandatory for the survival. A few random encounters are also implied.
The player is free to visit other towns and find sub quests that are taking place. To continue the main quest and storyline, it is required to visit the specific location of Victor. When visited, the player must talk to the merchant to start the conversation. Victor agrees with establishing new trade routes and contacts, if the player helps him out with restoring people’s control over the public well (now under control of a raider group), which provides water for the local population. In this same conversation, Victor also mentions another friend of him they both may visit, a trader in a big town with a lot of useful contacts.
When the quest accepted, they and ten others head for the well. They arrive but notice the well-merchants are dead. Raiders stand in their place next to the dead bodies. Victor tells the MC to hide. The player has a few dialogue options but eventually is ordered by Victor to hide, for the good of the town. The MC is allowed to fight the raiders, however this fight is supposed to be lethal for the MC [what if evil MC decides to consort with these raiders?]
If MC accepts Victor’s suggestion, the screen fades out and in. The MC is placed near Victor as their conversation automatically starts. Victor tells the MC to visit the trader he mentioned and explain him what happened. This is required to continue the storyline (at least for a good MC).
The player can also go to his hometown and talk to Geoff, he obviously tells him to do as Victor said since Geoff wants more traders coming to the village.
When the player meets this merchant DERRICK in a Location 3, mentioned previously by Victor, he is asked about the situation. At a certain moment, there is only one dialogue option explaining to Derrick the situation in Location 2 [we should also include dialogue options for evil MC, and to back up them with real actions. Maybe luring Derrick to the raiders]. Derrick is surprised about this and suggests that the MC goes to his hometown to prepare for a possible raider attack.
When the player does this, he must walk into Geoff’s office in Location 1 to continue the story. Several people stand in the room and seem to be discussing something. As the player approaches, the conversation starts. They talk about “where he has gone.” It appears that Geoff has disappeared. At the end of the conversation, the people present in the room ask the MC if he could look and ask around in other towns he visited so far, to see if he can find some information about Geoff.
From here on in the storyline will not be linear as it has been so far. There will be many sub quests that the player can do. A few examples:
-A town is troubled by a plague of yet to be defined creatures (probably mutated) that only appear in that area. The player can help with traveling together with caravan drivers to transport resources to the troubled town (in the past their caravans have been attacked and some even disappeared). Several trips are needed to fulfill in the needs. Though after the second trip, the player arrives at the location to see a massacre. The troubled town is no more.
-A serial killer is on the loose at a big city. Over twenty prostitutes have been killed brutally. The player can solve this and find the killer. But when the player revisits the town, another prostitute has been killed.
Other occurring events/information that travels the world:
- In one town many women have been made pregnant, although nobody pretends not to know why, and it still occasionally still happens. Many mutants were born, however.
- There was a failed attempt to assassinate the Union chairman.
But the main goal is still to find Geoff. There will be a few NPC’s who claim to know about him, but they will only help the player if he does something in favor of them. These bits and pieces of information eventually will lead to a secret Location 4 of the ‘anti E&B group’ [some kind of map assembled by pieces might be needed].
The player can either ask their leader for information about Geoff, or he can kill them all and search the place for logs and other documents. Either way, it results in the discovery of a corpse, Geoff’s corpse. When asked about Geoff, the ‘anti E&B’ raiders explain that they found this man near their hideout, bleeding to death and holding a blood-drenched knife. He tried to speak but wasn’t able, and he shortly died after they found him. They point out the cuts on his left arm (which are made known to the player by a message in the text-interface in the bottom left if he searches the body). The cuts read “EnB”.
To continue with the main story, the player must visit E&B HQ and find a way to infiltrate it. There are multiple paths:
-Utter violence. The player can kill way into the building (hard but not impossible if in Power Armour mk III and along with a few well armed henchmen).
-Diplomatic. If the player did a sub quest, he will know of an appointment a Union spokesman made with E&B. If his diplomatic skills are high enough, the player may be present at the appointment, or he might intercept the participants somewhere on the road to the place of meeting.
-Joining E&B. It is possible to join E&B through a few quests, some of them being bribe, blackmail or something similar. Once this is done, the player will be outfitted with an E&B armor and is granted access into the building.
-Sneaking. (Path not yet defined)
Once inside, there are multiple underground levels, filled with either guards or turrets. Combative players can fight through these sections while ‘intelligent’ players can use computers to deactivate and/or reprogram the turrets to help them out. Sneak-skilled players also have a route that will be designed for them. One specific computer contains information about E&B projects, with one project called ‘BioUnit’. Another computer of the lead scientist contains a log in which is explained that their BioUnit has a flaw that has not yet been solved. Human DNA was used as a component to hold other strings of DNA together. Certain drugs make the human DNA let go, causing the BioUnit to literally fall apart [we might invent some more vicious thing]. The scientists have an injection-gun with this type of drugs ready, for emergency cases. Eventually the MC meets a few victims of the BioUnit experiment, what should pose a few tricky questions too (such as keeping them alive, for example – for good MCs). This underground section is not applicable for the PC who choose “diplomatic” approach to the problem (but they will also miss the information about BioUnit)..
After this the player is to meets the E&B committee board and learns some important information. This starts the conversation with the board, explaining the following:
Evans & Bateman have been using cunning ways to gain control. They have so called ‘agents’ all over the continent who have been trained like the militia has. These agents have their own lives to live, but must pass information on to HQ, the key to domination. E&B uses this information to act in such a way that it is beneficial to themselves. Their goal is to create a new world, as good or even better than the pre-war one, a world with a strong economy. This means money and power to them. But while creating this world, they want to make sure that they remain on top all the time. They want the world to be predictable to them so they can calculate al the economic factors and act upon them. Numerous events/facts prove their power.
-Ammunition is a bit scarce and expensive, it’s not really easy to acquire. E&B caused this, they prevent many arms-trades by hiring raiders to destroy the caravans. Weapons mean violence, and violence within a country does not advance the economy, to them it’s just a short-term race of muscle display that leads to nothing.
-There was a town troubled by a plague of creatures, they asked for resources to solve this. E&B took over some caravans, but the town kept asking for more resources, so E&B decided this was a waste of time and money and they believed the town should be destroyed.
-Many prostitutes were murdered in one town. This was planned by E&B. There were too many prostitutes, causing the prices to drop more and more. One of the brothel owners is an E&B agent and he proposed to kill off some prostitutes (mostly from rival brothels and pimps, but also some of his own) so the demand would increase, as would the prices .
- those pregnant women were made pregnant by a certain chemical developed by E&B and released into local water wells. This chemical affected only women and made them pregnant indeed, but it wasn’t designed properly, some many mutants were born.
-Geoff was an E&B agent. His mission was to provide information about the hometown of the MC so E&B could direct him, helping him to improve the local economy. He sent the MC to help Victor, but the MC could not prevent Victor from being killed. So Geoff failed in establishing contacts with merchants. The MC reported this to Derrick, also an E&B agent, one unknown to Geoff. Derrick found out about the failure of Geoff, reported this to HQ and they decided to kill him. He fled and tried to hide. Before he was killed, he carved “EnB” into his own arm, hoping someone might find our what happened to him.
The player can ask questions to the board of directors if he wants to know more about “why they are doing this” and such. The members of the board explain how they want to create a new world with a strong economy, a world with a future. “We are the new world” one even says. The player can either choose to agree with them, joining their cause, or can choose to rebel (perhaps even kill the board members). When trying to escape, the BioUnit is unleashed upon him, forcing him to fight the ‘final boss’. This boss is a biological weapon, an experiment using multiple 'creatures' mixed together to create a hybrid.
One more thing for stealthy MCs. There is a big reactor hidden somewhere under the E&B HQ, waiting to be blown up. It can be made in a few different ways: destroying the coolant unit, setting dynamite, hacking the service program and activating the self-destruct sequence, etc. .
Ending 1: player joins E&B and becomes a high-ranked member of the militia. The MC is displayed serving E&B, long term plans are executed as they always have.
Ending 2: the BioUnit is destroyed and explodes, starting a fire. The building bursts into flames as the player escapes. The MC wanders off into the wasteland.
Copyright Keono Productions©
***
Here it is. What do you think? Any suggestions?
***
Setting: It takes place in a wasteland-like Europe, years after the bombing. The countries do not really exist anymore though influences of different cultures are still noticeable. Small communities like little towns, small villages, tribal and nomadic settlements are developing very slowly, mostly failing to survive the wasteland with farming and commerce. Communications between these so-called communities is scarce, and founded mostly on rare caravans and a few brave/strong/stupid enough independent wasteland travelers. Apart from these shreds of progressive civilization, there are also communities of raiders, bandits and highwaymen who make their living by waylaying the caravans and raiding towns.
The Main Character (MC) does not know much about the outer world, like the player. Though there is some common knowledge:
1. The six biggest towns have set up a committee several years ago, forming a so called ‘ The Union’. This committee contains one spokesperson representing each member town. Each one of the spokespersons have a few additional advisors. They have one town where the core of this committee always remains – the HQ of the Union. These cities try to convince other towns to join The Union. Negotiation is their specialization, and they are working hard to promote the concept of The Union among other civilized communities of the Wasteland.
2. Evans & Bateman (E&B), being a small corporate business that has been around for several decades. They produce healing drugs of very high quality (very effective stimpacks and stat-boosting supplements), and a whole lot of other chemicals. Some towns trade periodically with Evans & Bates, which is rather safe since E&B has its own small and well-trained personnel, who are able to provide decent support for the merchant caravans across the wasteland.
3. Many towns and caravans are bothered with raiders. These are mostly just anarchists, addicts or any other type of outcast. But there are two groups of raiders that differ. One group of raiders is against E&B (this group does not have a name). Not many take them seriously since most members sound like lunatics that merely need something to rebel against. Most say it’s just an excuse to be violent while trying to get away with it, claiming they are saving the world from this corporation. The other group calls itself the AU, which stands for Anti Unification. They believe the unification of all the towns, as preformed by the Union, will lead to less freedom of the common man. According to them, it would mean that in the end, only the biggest traders will flourish while farmers and other workers will remain poor. They are poorly organized and don’t have a charismatic leader, who could unify them under one banner. These raiders frequently attack the six cities that are part of the Union, but so far all of their attacks were unsuccessful due to their poor level of organization, however they still remain a force to be reckoned with.
4. Due to the constant AU raiders threat, the Union supports E&B by sending some troops to guard their headquarters and caravans, their first motivation being to show their goodwill to E&B. On the other hand, E&B does not actually cooperate with the Union, but they offer large quantities of their products for the services given by them. Since these are very expensive and useful, the Union gladly accepts this as payment. Their relation is platonic but very effective.
5. Ammunition and guns are not very frequent and a bit expensive (this adds to the gameplay; the player now has more reason to invest in melee since close-combat saves much needed ammo).
Story: Our story starts at a small village (Location 1) preferably in an outer corner of Europe (The Netherlands, northern Germany perhaps or the western border of Russia. For this document we used the Netherlands as the starting point, possibly USA). Though it is a small farming community, it is very hospitable and the people work hard to strengthen their economy. Everyone knows each other, which is why the only bar is visited very well with familiar if not friendly faces. After the MC is created and the game has started, the MC can be seen in a local bar which is crowded with townsfolk. An NPC is talking to the MC about a local rumours or such. The MC is allowed to wander for a bit in the village, do a few simple quests, even leave the village.
Otherwise, after a few lines of dialogue and responses, another townsperson walks in and tells the MC that GEOFF wants to see him. The player may agree to meet Geoff and speak with him [what if not?]. This person is known very well in town and is a respected man, he is one of the political figures that tries to maintain the growth the village is experiencing at the moment. He gives the MC the first quest related to the main plot. He tells him to find a merchant named “Victor” who can establish new contacts with their village. This way new merchants and merchandise can be introduced to the hometown, hopefully boosting the economy growth and possibly attracting other merchants as well. The MC may now leave the town and find Victor at a location not yet specified (Location 2), however a moderate walk through the wasteland will be needed, and a proper preparation for that journey will be mandatory for the survival. A few random encounters are also implied.
The player is free to visit other towns and find sub quests that are taking place. To continue the main quest and storyline, it is required to visit the specific location of Victor. When visited, the player must talk to the merchant to start the conversation. Victor agrees with establishing new trade routes and contacts, if the player helps him out with restoring people’s control over the public well (now under control of a raider group), which provides water for the local population. In this same conversation, Victor also mentions another friend of him they both may visit, a trader in a big town with a lot of useful contacts.
When the quest accepted, they and ten others head for the well. They arrive but notice the well-merchants are dead. Raiders stand in their place next to the dead bodies. Victor tells the MC to hide. The player has a few dialogue options but eventually is ordered by Victor to hide, for the good of the town. The MC is allowed to fight the raiders, however this fight is supposed to be lethal for the MC [what if evil MC decides to consort with these raiders?]
If MC accepts Victor’s suggestion, the screen fades out and in. The MC is placed near Victor as their conversation automatically starts. Victor tells the MC to visit the trader he mentioned and explain him what happened. This is required to continue the storyline (at least for a good MC).
The player can also go to his hometown and talk to Geoff, he obviously tells him to do as Victor said since Geoff wants more traders coming to the village.
When the player meets this merchant DERRICK in a Location 3, mentioned previously by Victor, he is asked about the situation. At a certain moment, there is only one dialogue option explaining to Derrick the situation in Location 2 [we should also include dialogue options for evil MC, and to back up them with real actions. Maybe luring Derrick to the raiders]. Derrick is surprised about this and suggests that the MC goes to his hometown to prepare for a possible raider attack.
When the player does this, he must walk into Geoff’s office in Location 1 to continue the story. Several people stand in the room and seem to be discussing something. As the player approaches, the conversation starts. They talk about “where he has gone.” It appears that Geoff has disappeared. At the end of the conversation, the people present in the room ask the MC if he could look and ask around in other towns he visited so far, to see if he can find some information about Geoff.
From here on in the storyline will not be linear as it has been so far. There will be many sub quests that the player can do. A few examples:
-A town is troubled by a plague of yet to be defined creatures (probably mutated) that only appear in that area. The player can help with traveling together with caravan drivers to transport resources to the troubled town (in the past their caravans have been attacked and some even disappeared). Several trips are needed to fulfill in the needs. Though after the second trip, the player arrives at the location to see a massacre. The troubled town is no more.
-A serial killer is on the loose at a big city. Over twenty prostitutes have been killed brutally. The player can solve this and find the killer. But when the player revisits the town, another prostitute has been killed.
Other occurring events/information that travels the world:
- In one town many women have been made pregnant, although nobody pretends not to know why, and it still occasionally still happens. Many mutants were born, however.
- There was a failed attempt to assassinate the Union chairman.
But the main goal is still to find Geoff. There will be a few NPC’s who claim to know about him, but they will only help the player if he does something in favor of them. These bits and pieces of information eventually will lead to a secret Location 4 of the ‘anti E&B group’ [some kind of map assembled by pieces might be needed].
The player can either ask their leader for information about Geoff, or he can kill them all and search the place for logs and other documents. Either way, it results in the discovery of a corpse, Geoff’s corpse. When asked about Geoff, the ‘anti E&B’ raiders explain that they found this man near their hideout, bleeding to death and holding a blood-drenched knife. He tried to speak but wasn’t able, and he shortly died after they found him. They point out the cuts on his left arm (which are made known to the player by a message in the text-interface in the bottom left if he searches the body). The cuts read “EnB”.
To continue with the main story, the player must visit E&B HQ and find a way to infiltrate it. There are multiple paths:
-Utter violence. The player can kill way into the building (hard but not impossible if in Power Armour mk III and along with a few well armed henchmen).
-Diplomatic. If the player did a sub quest, he will know of an appointment a Union spokesman made with E&B. If his diplomatic skills are high enough, the player may be present at the appointment, or he might intercept the participants somewhere on the road to the place of meeting.
-Joining E&B. It is possible to join E&B through a few quests, some of them being bribe, blackmail or something similar. Once this is done, the player will be outfitted with an E&B armor and is granted access into the building.
-Sneaking. (Path not yet defined)
Once inside, there are multiple underground levels, filled with either guards or turrets. Combative players can fight through these sections while ‘intelligent’ players can use computers to deactivate and/or reprogram the turrets to help them out. Sneak-skilled players also have a route that will be designed for them. One specific computer contains information about E&B projects, with one project called ‘BioUnit’. Another computer of the lead scientist contains a log in which is explained that their BioUnit has a flaw that has not yet been solved. Human DNA was used as a component to hold other strings of DNA together. Certain drugs make the human DNA let go, causing the BioUnit to literally fall apart [we might invent some more vicious thing]. The scientists have an injection-gun with this type of drugs ready, for emergency cases. Eventually the MC meets a few victims of the BioUnit experiment, what should pose a few tricky questions too (such as keeping them alive, for example – for good MCs). This underground section is not applicable for the PC who choose “diplomatic” approach to the problem (but they will also miss the information about BioUnit)..
After this the player is to meets the E&B committee board and learns some important information. This starts the conversation with the board, explaining the following:
Evans & Bateman have been using cunning ways to gain control. They have so called ‘agents’ all over the continent who have been trained like the militia has. These agents have their own lives to live, but must pass information on to HQ, the key to domination. E&B uses this information to act in such a way that it is beneficial to themselves. Their goal is to create a new world, as good or even better than the pre-war one, a world with a strong economy. This means money and power to them. But while creating this world, they want to make sure that they remain on top all the time. They want the world to be predictable to them so they can calculate al the economic factors and act upon them. Numerous events/facts prove their power.
-Ammunition is a bit scarce and expensive, it’s not really easy to acquire. E&B caused this, they prevent many arms-trades by hiring raiders to destroy the caravans. Weapons mean violence, and violence within a country does not advance the economy, to them it’s just a short-term race of muscle display that leads to nothing.
-There was a town troubled by a plague of creatures, they asked for resources to solve this. E&B took over some caravans, but the town kept asking for more resources, so E&B decided this was a waste of time and money and they believed the town should be destroyed.
-Many prostitutes were murdered in one town. This was planned by E&B. There were too many prostitutes, causing the prices to drop more and more. One of the brothel owners is an E&B agent and he proposed to kill off some prostitutes (mostly from rival brothels and pimps, but also some of his own) so the demand would increase, as would the prices .
- those pregnant women were made pregnant by a certain chemical developed by E&B and released into local water wells. This chemical affected only women and made them pregnant indeed, but it wasn’t designed properly, some many mutants were born.
-Geoff was an E&B agent. His mission was to provide information about the hometown of the MC so E&B could direct him, helping him to improve the local economy. He sent the MC to help Victor, but the MC could not prevent Victor from being killed. So Geoff failed in establishing contacts with merchants. The MC reported this to Derrick, also an E&B agent, one unknown to Geoff. Derrick found out about the failure of Geoff, reported this to HQ and they decided to kill him. He fled and tried to hide. Before he was killed, he carved “EnB” into his own arm, hoping someone might find our what happened to him.
The player can ask questions to the board of directors if he wants to know more about “why they are doing this” and such. The members of the board explain how they want to create a new world with a strong economy, a world with a future. “We are the new world” one even says. The player can either choose to agree with them, joining their cause, or can choose to rebel (perhaps even kill the board members). When trying to escape, the BioUnit is unleashed upon him, forcing him to fight the ‘final boss’. This boss is a biological weapon, an experiment using multiple 'creatures' mixed together to create a hybrid.
One more thing for stealthy MCs. There is a big reactor hidden somewhere under the E&B HQ, waiting to be blown up. It can be made in a few different ways: destroying the coolant unit, setting dynamite, hacking the service program and activating the self-destruct sequence, etc. .
Ending 1: player joins E&B and becomes a high-ranked member of the militia. The MC is displayed serving E&B, long term plans are executed as they always have.
Ending 2: the BioUnit is destroyed and explodes, starting a fire. The building bursts into flames as the player escapes. The MC wanders off into the wasteland.
Copyright Keono Productions©
***
Here it is. What do you think? Any suggestions?
