Novel Two: Design Test One - Introduction

Although I don’t do it myself I know a few people involved in designing video games. One of the things they’ve told me about is a “design test” where when you apply for a job making these games they test your ability to come up with things for a game. Say, a few quests or items or whatever and the more detail you can come up with the better. That’s a fantastic idea for me because it helps me think about the design of my fictional game (well, one of them) – Clans of the Highborn. I wrote my NaNo novel about a group who played that game and I’m currently trying to write another book using that same setting. This time, though, I’m concentrating not on the PvP side of things but the PvE side. It’s an important distinction because in PvP players compete against other players so developing those foes is a matter of characterization. But in PvE – in my game at least – it’s a matter of going on quests or raids against computer controlled monsters. If I want to be describing what the players are going through doing so, well, I need to have some idea of what those quests are like. To a writer it’s a matter of setting, then. But to a game maker it’s a matter of design. So, since I’m going to be focusing on the PvE side of things I’m doing much more planning of just how things on that side of the game work – I’m designing a lot quests and dungeons and NPCs and the like. And the “design test” is a good way for me to focus on coming up with what’s important for each quest. So, because five is an important number in my game here are five quests that might or might not make it into either novel but have definitely made it into the game I’m making in my head:

Clans of the Highborn - Sample Quests (Background)

Since I've decided arbitrarily on five as the number of quests I'll be designing, that seems like a good number for a cycle or a series of interconnected quests – one of which leads into the other. This is the sort of thing that will happen a lot in ClotH. Absent any sort of mission structure, players are driven through the story line by ongoing quests. Small quests seem like a good way of rewarding players for following those paths. Especially since the other design goal I have with the quests in regards to the storyline is that throughout the game players are going to be given the choice about what to do or where to go next – the storyline will be a branching structure filled with several forks along the way (Better yet each path is not mutually exclusive to the other paths – players are free to explore one branch and then go back to do another). So small, optional quests that open up further questing opportunities seems particularly well suited to creating that effect.

These quests, then, will lead a player from one city – a safe place where there is no nonconsentual combat to a nearby dungeon – an instance zone where powerful monsters and valuable loot can be found and the larger storyline can be advanced. But, first, a little background on the general area these quests will take place in (Something, I presume, in a design test would already be understood. fortunately, I've got about 60,000 words worth of a design document not to mention my novels in this game to call upon in establishing the world. History, characters, mechanics, maps, you name it and I've probably got at least the rudiments of it sitting on one harddrive or another. All so I could write a book about people playing such a game and wanted to get the details right. I'm sick, I know.). The game is divided into islands (which are further subdivided into zones) of which there are five (The fifth is hidden at the onset of the game but by following these quests the player will gain access to it. These islands are large and not very well charted allowing me a modular design into which I can plug new islands – perhaps smaller perhaps over the horizon – for any possible expansion). These quests take place on the third or fourth island (depending on which path the player's follow) in sequences known as the Twilight Isle because it's the closest to where the sun sets. It's a harsh place being constantly wracked by storms from the larger Trackless Ocean beyond the island chain and one filled with lush jungles and sharp mountain peaks (It's a BIG island, remember) but also a vast plain in the northwest where these quests will be given and completed (Other quests, obviously, will lead players to the area) which is known as the Land of Horses. Traditionally, this is held as the first area where the Kaltans – the nation/race of all player characters in my game (There are other kingdoms to which they can pledge themselves during the course of the game's story – if they want to, of course - and the possibility of playing as other races is another thing that can be added in future expansions but limiting them to one kingdom means they'll all start in one area on one of the islands – creating an in-game rationalization for the tutorial-filled newbielands.) - first encountered horses which were unknown on the Isle of the High from which they came (This gives me an in-game rationalization for deny players mounts at least at first – riding animals are found only in this small place and aren't really suited to being raised in other areas. If they want a horse to ride they'll have to get to the Land of Horses and jump through some other hoops which isn't easy. If I even implement mounts at all which is something I tend to go back and forth on.).

The aboriginal natives of the Twilight Isle and, indeed, the the whole island chain – which is called Iona - are known as Purans. These are a diverse people with several cultures based on Ameri-Indian civilizations while the Kaltans are much more European/Celtic. As the backstory of my game goes, several hundred of years prior to the game's start the Kaltans learned how to construct seaworthy vessels capable of hauling lots of cargo – or troops – and set sail from the Isle of the High to eventually conquer all the various Puran tribes on the other islands. They set up a loose confederation and basically allowed the much more populous Purans to govern themselves as long as they acknowledged the Kaltan throne as their rightful overlord. Eventually the Kaltans began to decline (And, yes, I know exactly how that happened I'll just save you the boredom of retelling it.) and could no longer control their empire. Tribe after tribe of Purans starting at the edges of the empire began to rebel and create their own independent kingdoms. After a few disastrous attempts to hold onto their crumbling empire the Kaltans admitted defeat and granted independence to all of the Puran tribes they'd formally ruled. Although it was a bloody and terrible fight at the time it didn't leave very much in the way of hard feelings. The Kaltans were never harsh overlords and had treated the Purans with respect during their rule by pulling back their depleted forces to their home island they were able to ensure their security. While the Puran tribes were content solely to gain sovereignty over their respective homelands and lacked the unity or cohesion for anyone group to establish anything like the Kaltan's previous hegemony. The two races came to live side by side – if perhaps a bit uneasily at times – leaving that conflict in the past.

Now, traditionally, the first group to rebel against the Kaltan Kingdom were the Windrunners. A tribe of Kaltans who live within the Land of Horses and are said to be the group that taught the Kaltans themselves how to ride and gave them the secret of the saddle and the stirrups. They're a nomadic people who live by hunting the various herds of animals that roam through the Land of Horses. It's a wide, vast, open plain underneath a hanging piercing blue sky that resembles nothing so much as the “Old West” that can be seen in various Westerns. It's divided into three areas which encircle one another. The outermost, the Bad Lands, which borders on other areas is a sea of red and orange tones dotted with the occasional green of sparse vegetation. It's a rocky almost desert where little has a chance to survive. Once passing through that, though, players encounter the Grazing Lands which feature a lush carpet of grass and much more animal life. The other area is called the Wide Spaces and its grass has dried out and become yellow and brittle thanks to the heat and constant drought. In the Grazing Lands players will find the city known as Warrior's Call. This is a town of tents and wagons which moves in a wide, circular patrol throughout the Grazing Lands so that it's never in any one place for very long (I have no idea just if this is an idea which would actually be possible in any sort of video game. But since this is imaginary I don't have to worry about processing power and memory utilization and all the rest so I can have a mobile city which traces a set route day in and day out just because I think it sounds cool.). Warrior's Call, as the name might suggest is a place where the warriors of the Windrunner Tribe gather but one that only happens in times of trouble when the massive herds of the plains themselves are threatened. And the plains are threatened by the advancement of the third race to be found on the Twilight Isle (And in larger Iona) – the recently arrived Mimnon.

Now, the Mimnon are from across the Trackless Ocean and just as the Kaltans in days past were a technological step or two past the rest of the islands so are the Mimnon. They're much closer to the traditional RPG “Midevil European” that features in many games – albeit one with, I hope, their own little wrinkles. But they're the ones you'll find clanking around in heavy armor and the like. Anyway, they've colonized the Twilight Isle (and the nearby Ivory Isle) as an outpost of a much larger Mimnon nation on the mainland on the other side of the Trackless Ocean (And since they're finding the Ionan islands much larger and harder to colonize and travel back to the mainland much more difficult than they first expected when the landed on the Twilight Isles some seventy-five years ago there's more than a little debate amongst the Mimnon about whether they are, in fact, part of the nation or their own separate kingdom. I'm pretty sure it's the old wannabe DM in me that makes me dangle plot hooks like this all over the place but, yeah, they're everywhere and not all of them are developed. This one, though, is a major point in the greater storyline. So, spoiler warnings for a tale that's only told in my head at the moment, I guess.) using their technological advantage to cultivate areas the Kaltans and the Purans had previously held to be uninhabitable. They live mostly in the south of the Twilight Isle but, recently, in search of more farmland they've been encroaching on the Windrunner's traditional homelands. The Windrunners themselves are far from blameless as their raiders have been attacking and pillaging the Mimnon farmers along the coastline south of the Land of Horses for a generation now and clashing with the Mimnon troops who are supposed to protect them.

All out warfare hasn't been declared yet (The islands have been more or less at peace since the collapse of the Kaltan Kingdoms some three hundred years prior to this. Not very likely, I know, but, hey, it's my game so I can bend the rules of logic if I want to – it's a major part of the lore I've developed so I'm rather stuck with it by this point. I rationalize it by figuring that no tribe/nation's declared war on another but there have been sporadic instances of hostilities just none that have required out and out warfare which, at this point in the historiography, are basically of the “slaughter your enemies, raze their cities, and salt their ground” type so people tend to be a bit nervous about starting them.) but with frequent raids and clashes on both sides of the nebulous border it's definitely on the horizon. The Windrunner chiefs have sounded the ancient horns and called all their warriors from the plains to plan their war council. Along with merchants, cooks, and everything else that a large group of soldiers – because although there's no official and professional military amongst the Windrunners that's basically what calling upon the various militias that protect their wagon trains as they hunt comprise – attract those young men and women (Again, it's my game so I get to bend things a bit. Historically speaking, these would probably only be men but at some point I have to bend to modern tastes so everything in my game is more or less tolerant of either gender having a role in it.) who've yet to prove themselves and earn their warrior's feathers (It's a Windrunner thing) have also made their way to Warrior's Call. There they can undergo the tests needed to prove their worth and stand in the coming fight.

That's where the players come in. Not only do I plan to make it so they can pick one side or the other (or play both against the other) in the brewing war – a decision which will alter the landscape of the Twilight Isle considerably (I like the idea of instancing and plan to make plenty of use of it to customize the playing experience for my players while still allowing them to adventure with anyone who's made a different choice. I'll get into exactly how I'm going to let them walk back such things in a little bit) as the players will help one side drive the other out of the Land of the Horses, basically (The Mimnon would fall back to their strongholds in the mountains and valleys in the south. The Windrunners would head east to the jungles another tribe of Purans, the Stargazers and their Aztec-esque pyramids, call home.). But since many Kaltans earn their living throughout the islands as mercenaries (Another in-game rationalization for why the players get to go out and adventure – they're Kaltan mercenaries trying to earn their fame and riches. At first, anyway, but I'd have to get deep into the lore to explain just what the “Highborn” really means.) and the Windrunners respect anyone with the strength and bravery to complete the tests, the players can also prove their worth and become warriors fighting for the Windrunner tribe. And that's what the first of these quests is about. They're part of the trials that Windrunner youths go through to earn their feathers (I imagine that there'll be a few quests along those lines. Not too many because I'd want players to get on with things quickly enough. But I figure there'd be a few quests from each of the various Windrunner warchiefs in Warrior's Call and they'd have to complete either all the quests from a specific chief or a certain number of all the quests available before they could become hired by the Windrunners as mercenaries and continue along the path that leads to the War of the Horses – a path where they'd be able to switch sides at a few opportune moments, of course, but would if followed from the things available in Warrior's Call result in a crushing defeat of the Mimnon army and the players being very unwelcome in what I call “Lesser Mimnos”.).

But, as players earn a higher reputation with the Windrunners they'll began to hear rumors and stories about the strange happenings in the Open Spaces. So, this cycle isn't necessarily about earning their Windrunner feathers (Each Puran tribe has their own feather to earn, in case it's not clear by now, that lets the players have special access within that tribe. These get collected on a “key ring” like object in the player's inventory – a headdress they can wear which becomes more powerful the more feathers they add to it. There'll be other helmets that are just as powerful, of course, and many easier to obtain but the difficulty of getting a full headdress should make it a prestige item that players will strive for – causing them to explore each of the many Puran tribes I'll design. Earning the feathers also lets them use a special title such as “Windrunner Champion” which they'll be able to display to anyone looking at them in any sort of social setting. I plan to make use of such titles as a way of giving players special access and individuality – just give them a little something to brag about, so to speak.) it's about If they choose to follow this cycle they'll be drawn into the secretive beliefs of the hermits, the Puran spiritualists and mystics living in and around the Open Spaces. Unraveling the clues and mysteries (In the religious sense, not the Agatha Christie sense) will lead them to the dungeon known as Tornsky Mesa and introduce them to the Dreamtime – the fifth and final island (Again, there are a few ways of getting there – one on every island but the starting one, really – but this is going to be the most challenging one because of the insanely difficult dungeon crawl standing in the player's way. But, well, that dungeon is also going to prove a popular one for raiding because it will have some choice drops from the difficult enemies.). Warrior's Call is the starting point for most of these quests but they'll lead the players deeper and deeper into the Open Spaces.

So, there's going to be a religious spiritual slant to these quests because it will also be the introduction of the players to the deep waters of the particularly Windrunner-esque slant on the larger Puran mystic tradition (And, oh boy, I've developed the religious tradition of the islands, too, because it forms a large part of the lore and history and such. It's incredibly complicated but, basically, what's known as Puran mysticism is the remnants of the religious beliefs of the proto-Puran civilizations that were conquered by Kaltos and managed to survive when the Purans en masse began to adopt the more sophisticated Katlan religious tradition – which is centered around worship of gods tied to each of the elements that's also proving very popular amongst the Mimnon. So it's a mix of those beliefs – Kaltan and proto-Puran - filtered through the lens of each particular Puran tribe so it gets complex very fast, as you can imagine. The Windrunner's tradition holds that those who live as hermits in the Open Spaces are somehow sacred, being exposed to and guarding knowledge that normal mortals aren't really meant to know. As with every religious belief, there's a grain of truth in there because thanks to its connection to the Dreamtime the Open Spaces are a little unhinged from normal reality especially around Tornsky Mesa, the most holy of holies to the Windrunner tribe. These hermits, then, function as the witches and shamans that other tribes have – mysterious magic users who wield powers the average, superstitious Puran can't hope to understand. The other races have their own magical traditions, of course, and approach things differently but the Windrunners only speak of such things in whispers among the trusted.) so they're deeply connected to the lore and Windrunner culture (for those players who like such things).

But, also, I personally would have to slit my wrists if I was going to design quests in such detail and make them nothing more than the “kill 5 sewer rats” variety so I'm going to try and play around with the quests and include some things that other types of players will enjoy (Lack of ambition has never been my problem, it's been focusing it that I have difficulty with. Nothing against that type of quest, mind, because there's definitely a need for them – they'll be in my imaginary game, have no doubt. It's just they're not particularly challenging for me to come up with – the dilemma there is in what kind of monsters and rewards and I'm playing fast and loose with the numbers and specifics because I don't want to get too tied down to any one statistic in my writings – it's the concept I'm after not the concrete and I'll flex that concept depending on what my story needs so it's better to be flexible at the start. And since I'd rather take a risk and having a spectacular failure than be cautious and make a boring success, I've stretched myself here. Perhaps past the breaking point, perhaps beyond what any game designer would ever consider in real life, but those are things that I can't really judge for myself. I'd need some feedback on that and, since this is all in my head with a little bit on paper, so to speak, that's a bit difficult to come by. I've no doubt there are holes and inadequacies here but those are the things that would and could be fixed by the rest of the development team as these things were implemented in game. All I care about is that they make enough sense to me, personally, that I can mention them in the setting for my game world – and I'm happy enough with them in that regard to post them here.) As the quests will go on they'll become more serious and, of course, challenging, but to start out with they'll seem light and “in-jokey”.

You see, on the starting island – the Isle of the High – I'll be using quests to help train players in exactly how this game will be played. And by that I mean not just how to open chests or attack and such but more complicated lessons that players will be applying throughout their game play. I want them learning the basics about how to pull and tank and target and such from the very start so that when they get into a party with other players or even to the end-game and the various raiding opportunities there they won't be completely lost – they'll have been training in such things all along. I, of course, have very little idea of exactly how to craft such a well-made tutorial (Although, you know, I've put some thought into it while developing the Isle of the High. I'm just not sure if it works or exactly what lessons I'll need to be teaching – just that I want them to be taught early and often through the quest system.) but since Twilight Isle is an area for higher level players and the Land of Horses is a hard-to-get-to zone within that island for those rapidly approaching the storyline's end in the fifth island, well, that's not much of a problem. I intend to use some of these quests to poke fun at the tutorial aspects that players will no doubt be familiar with by this point – as well as to point out some of the crazy things that other players will (and no doubt have) do when grouped with them. In-jokes, basically, about the over-confident tank or the hapless pull. I mean, I'm doing this because I'm writing a book about people playing a made-up game you think I'm afraid of getting all kinds of meta? That's going to require a bit of fiddling with the mechanics of my imaginary game as some of the monsters and NPCs will break some of the rules (Like having skills and powers that normal players will never be able to use and at power levels I'd never allow a player to touch.) I've established but, well, they'll be breaking them for effect and I don't have a problem with that.

Anyhow, I rambled on much more than I meant to in setting the scene for these quests (4k+. Oh well, at least I can consider all of this writing as going towards my daily goal of writing a few thousand or so for the novel.) – I haven't even gotten into where the quests will be, the terrain, or the types of monsters that will be encountered wandering in this zone let alone the actual details of the quests themselves all things I'd want to at least hint at in detailing these things – so I'm going to detail each quest in a post of its own (hopefully). When they go live I'll try and include a link to those quests below here so there's some central place where they'll all be collected for easy reading (Experimenting with such things on my blog as well as I'm exploring the aspects of my fictional game, I do so love to tinker with formats) as well as show the general flow between each segment of the quest cycle :

Gathering the Silveroak Dreamcatcher: (The initial cycle, these quests can be performed in any order and, indeed, obtained and done all at the same time before being turned in. They lead to a reward quest – just a “go and talk to this person for your prize” thing – which will be given out when the last one is turned in and one of the leading mystics in Warrior's Call will give the players a special magical item – the Oaken Dreamcatcher – which is critical for reaching the Dreamtime (But can be found through several different quests on the various islands, this is just one way of getting it on Twilight) and that powerful mystic will direct them to even more powerful hermits within the Open Spaces.)

The Foolhardy Brave

Vengeance for the Fallen Crone

A Temporary Fellowship

Reaching the Exiles and Onwards to Tornsky Mesa: (The mystic in Warrior's Call will direct the players to seek out a small gathering of mystics exiled or shunned from normal Windrunner society – they're the true masters of the arcane for the Windrunners – but reaching them takes the following quest the second half of which will direct them to the ancient not-quite human mystics who guard Tornsky Mesa.)

Hunting Visions

Through the Gap between Worlds: (Once they've reached Tornsky Mesa players will have one last quest to undertake before they can access the portal that leads them to the dungeon's instance – Tornsky is the spot where the dungeon's accessed, the actual dungeon is called the Dreamtime Path – from the demi-god like guardians of the place where the barrier between this world and the outside is weakened.).

Tasked by the Sightless Ones