Competition RPG Codex Contest: Wasteland 2 Shrine, Artifact, and NPC/Weapon

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So... you're telling me you basically make sure the contestants actually think of something and get their arse to work, instead of spewing a half-formed idea, thus elevating the general quality of the entries?
Well played, beeswax. Well played.

The shrine: a small mausoleum-like structure, cracked and beaten by the elements and war, pillars and what used to be trees surrounds the building in a way that reminds you of a six-sided AD&D dice.

The statue: inside in the middle of the shrine, lighted by sunrays breaking in through cracks in the roof, illuminating the dust in the air, stands a strange, angry monocled being, in the appearence of a red devil or a troll. It has a very distinguished feature.

on the plaque is written: WHAT CAN CHANGE THE NATURE OF AN RPG or RPG CODEX DOESNT SCALE TO YOUR LEVEL or BROFIST FOREVER.

The artefact: a mummified corpse lies at the statues feet, clad in what once was a dress coat and tophat, a dried tea-cup resting in its left hand, and in its right hand a small, old crumpled sign with the words BROFIST written on it. (gives +5 to charisma)

also the walls isnide could contain a mentioning the names of the registered members of the Codex, but too worn to be read.

Huh, let me try my hand at this.


1. Description of the shrine.

In the sparse ruins of the city outskirts stands a small stone shrine - about the size of a dog house - besides a hole in the ground. You see a miniature, rotund troll statue inside the shrine. [Intelligence] The well worn stone and architecture appears to date it back to before the War, although there are no outward signs of neglect. [/Intelligence]

You may only enter the hole if you have a rope.

Securing the rope to the small shrine, you climb down into the depths. [Agility] It is a precarious climb. Luckily, your agility keeps you from slipping and plummeting to your doom. [/Agility]

The hole opens up into a linear tunnel ending in a large, round chamber. In the middle of the chamber stands a much larger model of the statue you saw in the shrine, dominating the room. Broken CRT monitors are arranged neatly on desks all around the room. [Intelligence] The bricks and bats scattered in the room would indicate they were smashed in rage. [/Intelligence] Various other bits and pieces of unrecognizable machinery lie in pieces around the chamber.

At the back of the area is a board to which numerous mugshots are pinned, with derogatory comments on their appearances scribbled in varying handwriting. They appear to be photos of those who previously dwelled here. Some faces are crossed out with a red marker.

There is an old man in rags polishing the statue lovingly.

2. Description for the statue.
In Loving Memory: ********* (the name appears to have been scratched out angrily) 2002 - 2013

3. The type of in-game artifact + backstory.
Killing the old man will allow you to loot a diary from his corpse.

The diary is, like the man, old and tattered. On the front is a drawing of what you recognize to be the troll statue, riding a 20-sided die. It is quite thick.

Flipping through, you find that most of the pages have either been torn out or are illegible, spattered in a strange liquid. Those that remain are filled with crazy ramblings about the decline of civilization. There are a few interesting pages of note that appear to reference some mysterious project:

"Apr 17 2012:
It is done. The project will be funded as planned. Everyone seems quite pleased at this. Though there have been a few voices of dissent, they have been shut down. Could this be a sign of incline in our civilization?"

"May 14 2012:
The project leaders have announced the use of the Unity. This has caused a rise in dissension amongst our little community. We fear for the future of the project, so soon in its inception. Something must be done lest our last hopes fail us. We are the last bastion of rational thought in this blasted wasteland. We must not fall."

"Oct ** (the exact day has been scratched out angrily) 2013:
The project was completed and disseminated worldwide, of all days, on a Thursday. In hindsight, how prophetic. That was last week. I can't recall anything specific after that. There was chaos. Fear. Hope. Anger. Joy. Even now we are not sure what exactly came of the project, but now that I've regained control of myself, we must never chance the same risk again. There must be an amalgamation. A unity. A hivemind. Any deviation from total consensus will let in the naysayers, the plants, the spies; those that have already doomed our civilization."

"Dec 26 2013:
It was a mistake. What have we done? Our collective hate is too strong to be sublimated in one vessel. It was a mistake."

4. Name an NPC OR weapon.

"Old man"

An old man in rags. He is at the maximum level. He sneers "I do not scale to your level." when talking to him with any character that has not hit the level cap. Further conversation prompts him into spouting random, contradictory gibberish cobbled together from real Codex posts. A mixture of all the prestigious posters and certifiably insane.

Talking to him with a character that has hit the level cap will cause him to flip out in anger because he hates you for "scaling to his level" and attack, starting an extremely tough fight worthy of max-level characters. If Fargo et al. are kind enough to make this the toughest, most challenging, most strategic fight in the game, that'd be even better.

Isn't the glory of your words representing fair and prestigious codexia enough?

Physical goods should only be a bonus, not a bribe.

1. Description of the shrine. I.e., what you would like the shrine to be. You must provide a concept, a name, and a description, long or short. E.g., a bunker/abandoned apartment/temple/etc. + e.g., "The Codex" or "Codexia" written above the entrance + some kind of description, e.g., "the shrine's main room is... inside the room are... the shelves are full of... at the back of the room is... on the wall/computer terminal there is a note/a log/etc." Just how detailed you make the description is up to you.

A creepy looking manhole descending into a small underground apartment. The apartment should look like someone went to town on it, with broken household items and in particular a broken computer with a hammer through it, shattered sinks/toilet, turned over bookcases, etc. The phrase "THE POPAMOLES LIVE!" along with a red pentagram should be spraypainted on it. In a corner there should be a long rotted corpse with a rusty handgun in his mouth. Upon examining the corpse the PC should discover that a lot of small bite marks appear on the bones, as if it had been chewed on by rodents or rodent-like creatures.

2. Description for the statue. I.e., what should be written on the troll statue's plaque or pedestal or whatever.

"The world is beneath our fists."

3. The type of in-game artifact + backstory. You must provide the type of the artifact + your idea for the backstory. No need to make it too long (although you may if you want to), the concept/outline should suffice.

Prehistoric Hammer ~ "A hammer clearly built in the industrial era, but in the shape of a rough prehistoric tool. The phrase "Clevus Magnus Imperator" is printed on the handle. Though it doesn't appear special in any way, the hammer tends to invoke a strange hatred of grains deep inside you when you grasp its handle."

4. Name an NPC OR weapon. Choose one - NPC or weapon - name it and provide a basic description of it.

NPC
Name: Blobert
Appearance: Overweight black male wearing a cloak.

This character should be mute. In lieu of dialogue the text should tell you what Blobert is showing with his gestures, with stat based deciphering by the PC. The text should also note that the gestures are fairly exaggerated, as if the character is yelling in sign language.

Let the mighty Avalon decide our financial cooperative's fate within Wasteland 2, based on hundreds of our (but not my, woe) ideas.

The result is assured to be most swell.

Maybe.

1. Remember this is party based, the Agility might be a bit weird to do.
3 & 4. Love it!

1.description of the shrine

An old shack with a doctor inside, he offers sex change operations for the characters.

2.description of the statue
The plaque reads 'Consequences..are..heavan...'

3.type of artifact or backstory
In the waiting room is a table with several notes on it.
'Can baby food containers be used as artillery?'
'Its good for what it is'
'Thursday...'
'Too much decline..'

4 Name an NPC or weapon
Kaiser Scott the Doctor

Only one day left...

Codex, be INSPIRED!

Isn't this the place where Fallout 2 was criticized for its [too] numerous pop culture references, therefore detracting from the game's atmosphere and breaking the 4th wall once too often? Because I fail to see how that's not exactly what we're doing to Wasteland 2.*

* not to say that some of the suggestions in this thread aren't fun though...

I'm worried about including all those shrines, statues, weapons etc. aswell, to be fair though, Wasteland's setting was much more whacky and less coherent than Fallouts. So if those eastereggs are well placed and not too obvious it might work out without hurting the game's atmosphere too much.

My suggestion is subtle.

Jus' sayin'.

Mine too.

Just also sayin'

I already sent this to the 'contact us' address with extra explanations as to the deeper motivations and subtlety of these suggestions :crickets chirp, an embarrassed cough...: but decided to post it without those here for all to ridicule to see if it was obvious enough what I was trying to get across.

For me the Statue is enough to represent the Codex and thought that making the shrine or NPC's expressly 'codexian'; while fun; is a bit of a missed opportunity to let us make some commentary about the state of the industry in general. For that reason my 'shrine' and NPC interaction are not focused on 'us' as such but on what we stand for, what we believe.

1. Description of the shrine.

The 'Shrine' is a location surrounded on all sides bar the entry, by impassable hills. A small locked gate bars the only access to this place which is made up of several decaying one room buildings, loosely arranged, each exactly like the others, right down to the same textures and objects. There is a 1950's retro-future feel to them. Looking at posters hanging in one of the buildings your character notes that they've been cut and pasted up. The pathetic 'town' sits in contrast to a giant billboard at the entrance which shows a vast metropolis sitting in the same location. The text reads: "A radiant and immersive world awaits!" Besides the billboard, is a mummified body, peeled back lips revealing a euphoric 'shout', its arms extended with pointing fingers at the billboard(from the Shrine). On top of its head has been placed a bucket of some sort. There is nothing else of interest here. Meandering through this tiny town is a very boring and repetitive experience.

2. Description of the Statue

'Nos conatus' (We tried)



I imagined a Latin or pseudo-Latin phrase that would try and sum up the Codex in an epic minimalist way like veni, vidi, vici or something. Latin just to troll people a bit more as they'd have to waste time googling some phrase which seemed pretty apt given the nature of the statue.

3. The type of in-game artifact + backstory.

Around the Troll statue you come across a framed photograph of an incredibly handsome fellow; some deity you guess; the whole artifact positively glowing with hope and rainbows. By holding onto this artifact your charisma and intelligenge are raised ever so slightly. The thing is that you will not know that this artifact is what it is unless you use a particular smithing or crafting skill(depends on what is in the game)to scrape off the layer upon layer of crusty white/grey substance caked on the surface.

4. Name an NPC OR weapon.

The NPC is related to the shrine. Outside of a flimsy locked gate there sits on a platform a fat, balding, bearded man, with glasses. He is slumped wearily. Your party comments that he looks like he has been alone for ever. Trying to talk to him achieves nothing but a stock phrase. Trying to get past the flimsy gate using any of your skills does not work, despite the gate looking incredibly feeble and low enough to even jump. Only after trying to 'open' the gate in some way can you ask the NPC for the key which he wears around his neck. You cannot attack him to get it, you get a message that some 'force' is stopping you. Instead you have to ask him for the key. You can ask in two ways, colour coded red and blue: threaten violence to get the key or ask nicely to get the key. Neither option needs any skill check and both lead to exactly the same thing: you get the key. The NPC will no matter what option you pick, go back to using the same stock phrases when talked to. After accessing the gate you can go and visit the 'town' in (1).

I think we need to extend the deadline as tbh DU's idea is probably a little bit overrated and needs some work.
So far I like the non-intrusive and intelligent ideas, with very subtle references to the Codex that a non-codexer wouldn't even notice. Like the 'United we stand against the great decline' one. I liked the roll able dice idea as well. Inserting a Thursday reference is vital! Image a great plan had been to be set in motion on Thursday and no body knew which Thursday . In the end, Thursday never came....People were continually asking when the great plan should be set in motion and they were only told "On Thursday". or something like that. It could be found on a computer log.



Or, instead of saying BROFIST the half-torn flag inside could, indeed be a (bro)fist, which is a very old symbol and not intrusive at all. I think references should be much more subtle.
The Codex temple in my vision is the HQ of a half-religious group that believes in conservative right ideas /instert the typical codexian ideas here/ fighting against the great decline in people's values, taste etc and tried to prevent ITZ, which should be a complicated abbreviation of some sort.


I am a little new here and not that into Codex lore but there is really much room for creativity that is hardly realized in DU's vision.
The codex has some very good memes of its own and using 4chan shit is just intolerable.

Dear subtlefags: My suggestion is both subtle and in third place. VOTE ME UP, BROS!

Time to submit a complete entry.

NPC: A mutant with two heads in well-kept overalls is busy fixing a water pump. One of the heads turns to regard you cooly. The other never acknowledges you.

>Greet mutant

>"Hey there, stranger. Name's Richard, though folk around here call me Dick. I mind my own business and suggest you do the same, but I don't mind repairing your equipment, in return for some basic supplies. As long as you aren't one of the nuts that like to rile me up until I lose my temper and hit them hard. They seem to get some kind of religious high out of it. The waste does strange things to people..."


Artifact: You let your gaze wander over the featureless wasteland. A distant yet intense light reflection catches your eye.

>Investigate

Searching among the rumble, you spot a surprisingly clean monocle. It is a curious thing to be sure: The craftsmanship is exquisite, but it is useless as an actual eye aid, as the words "Choice" and "Consequence" are etched on the glass, one on each side.

Statue plaque: There is a fresco covering the base of the statue. It depicts a gathering of people, dressed in a manner considered very distinguished before the great disaster. The figures are faceless, their heads replaced by what looks like split figs. Despite the lack of facial features, the artist's masterful lines manage to convey great anger.

>Examine fresco

Upon close inspection, you spot that one of the figures has an eye. It is slightly recessed...

>Insert curious monocle on fresco eye

Shrine: The ground trembles as a well-hidden door in the base of the statue opens with a tortured sound. An industrial-looking staircase leads deep underground. Descending, you notice a blood-red graffiti on the side of the stone wall. It reads "Fair Codexi", but it ends in a jagged, harried line, probably meaning that whoever made it was interrupted before finishing. The stairs lead to a spacious complex of rooms. It was obviously intented to house a thriving community, but something has gone horribly wrong. There are signs of a great battle, though all that remains are debris and piles of human bones. Searching reveals a single terminal still functioning, and even its memory banks are damaged. You can only recover the last entry. "Even this deep underground, we can hear the mindless hordes rage above us. But I'm not afraid. They'll never find this place, not without help from the inside. And surely none of my brothers would ever join the decline..."

They've failed to please you, CB. I understand.

They've failed us all!

CB I'll fuck your tits (no matter the cup size) if I win (fairly or not).

I wish I was creative.

Eh, if either of us were creative, we'd produce terrible shit anyway. Think of this deficiency as saving us a great deal of embarrassment.