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Your dream RPG

ERYFKRAD

Barbarian
Patron
Joined
Sep 25, 2012
Messages
28,237
Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Hyborian Age the RPG.

Hell, I'd to make a hardboiled noir-rpg, where you play as a private eye, with multiple ways of obtaining evidence and drawing conclusions, with your efficieny at various aspects( forensics, funding, correspondence etc.) affected by the employees you contract.
And on the same system, a proper espionage rpg with all the paranoia and secrets and multiple agendas to work with. Less operative, more agent.
 

Dux

Arcane
Joined
May 26, 2016
Messages
635
Location
Sweden
Something different than mana or spellbooks. For example, as a mage you could potentially cast a high level spell multiple times at any given moment but doing so risk getting your head exploded due to the strain. If you have high willpower you could perhaps feel a little more comfortable doing shit like that but it's still a crapshoot. Do too much spellcasting with no moderation or rest and your character becomes a permanent vegetable.

Isometric, highly detailed, very open-ended, lots of dialogue options, skill checks but not AoD, explicit nudity, writing that's not juvenile or obnoxious. It'd be a gaming experience similar to a coma that you could just slip right into. No problem.

Also there would have to be a skeleton companion who isn't a floating skull. I'm talking about a real animated skeleton that you find somewhere, a skeleton who's persecuted by peasants so he would have to be cloaked most of the time to avoid a riot but at the very end he get's accepted for who he is when he saves the day or some shit.

If I had unlimited financial resources I would definately conform to your rules and all but I would also give the money to the poor and solve lots of problems. :) I'm talking about a worldwide dictatorship which spawned from one auspicious gaming company with unlimited financial resources. Then I'd start The Running Man TV show and give out prizes to the audience on the fly.
 

V_K

Arcane
Joined
Nov 3, 2013
Messages
7,714
Location
at a Nowhere near you
For example, as a mage you could potentially cast a high level spell multiple times at any given moment but doing so risk getting your head exploded due to the strain. If you have high willpower you could perhaps feel a little more comfortable doing shit like that but it's still a crapshoot. Do too much spellcasting with no moderation or rest and your character becomes a permanent vegetable.
That's Aleshar: World of Ice, basically. Only it's your heart that explodes rather than head - but I'm sure you can survive a two-letter difference.
 

Grampy_Bone

Arcane
Joined
Jan 25, 2016
Messages
3,640
Location
Wandering the world randomly in search of maps
The first thing I would do is have someone re create all my past D&D campaigns into a modern AAA-quality game engine, with a perfect rendition of the 3.5 edition D&D ruleset that also looks really nice and runs smoothly and intuitively, like say modern XCOM meets TOEE.

After that, I've always dreamed of playing some kind of FPS-RPG sandbox-ish game where you play a space pirate. With full FPS-style boarding and defense missions, plus ship-to-ship space combat, crew management, ship upgrades, and an in-depth plot and story.

So Mass Effect meets Mount and Blade. That's my elevator pitch.
 

LordofSyn

Scholar
Joined
Nov 8, 2014
Messages
113
The first thing I would do is have someone re create all my past D&D campaigns into a modern AAA-quality game engine, with a perfect rendition of the 3.5 edition D&D ruleset that also looks really nice and runs smoothly and intuitively, like say modern XCOM meets TOEE.

After that, I've always dreamed of playing some kind of FPS-RPG sandbox-ish game where you play a space pirate. With full FPS-style boarding and defense missions, plus ship-to-ship space combat, crew management, ship upgrades, and an in-depth plot and story.

So Mass Effect meets Mount and Blade. That's my elevator pitch.
Have you met Star Traders Frontiers?

Sent from my LGLS996 using Tapatalk
 

Grampy_Bone

Arcane
Joined
Jan 25, 2016
Messages
3,640
Location
Wandering the world randomly in search of maps
The first thing I would do is have someone re create all my past D&D campaigns into a modern AAA-quality game engine, with a perfect rendition of the 3.5 edition D&D ruleset that also looks really nice and runs smoothly and intuitively, like say modern XCOM meets TOEE.

After that, I've always dreamed of playing some kind of FPS-RPG sandbox-ish game where you play a space pirate. With full FPS-style boarding and defense missions, plus ship-to-ship space combat, crew management, ship upgrades, and an in-depth plot and story.

So Mass Effect meets Mount and Blade. That's my elevator pitch.
Have you met Star Traders Frontiers?

Sent from my LGLS996 using Tapatalk

Not quite but that looks pretty dope, thanks.

That stellar tactics game also looks pretty neat but I've always pictured something more seamless. Like you're on your bridge in FPS mode, battling an enemy, then you direct a boarding action and run down to the airlock and jetpack across space in through a hull breach, all in real time, without loading screens.

Presumably you'd sacrifice a lot of RPG and tactical mechanics but if they made it something like Deus Ex I could live with that.

Or something more like what Empyrion is currently trying to do, only less shitty.
 

dmonin

Arcane
Patron
Developer
Joined
Sep 3, 2017
Messages
106
Make the Codex Great Again!
My dream rpg still in development. Sci-fi and turn based combat with non linear story. :salute:
 

SophosTheWise

Cipher
Joined
Feb 19, 2013
Messages
522
Summary:

A first-person dungeoneering Action RPG that brings you and a group of friends into a vast dungeon filled with deadly traps, lots of riddles and puzzles and challenges to overcome. Made for LARPers.

Combat: Directional sword swings with lock on, something like Dark Souls meets Mount & Blade
Magic: Different magic schools with different gameplay: Spells with linguistic components need to be spelled with the keyboard, somatic spells require drawing and combining symbols (think Arx Fatalis)
Additional mechanics: Swinging, climbing, swimming etc. depending on character class

Solving puzzles: Imagine finding an idol, inspecting it closely and finding an inscription. You can now type the inscription into your "knowledge" bar to see if there's any results. So solving puzzles will also be determined by your skill of correctly interpreting what you see. Another example: A bard would have a story/lorebook or something with clues as to how to solve a puzzle. Now assume the solution to the puzzle requires a skill that the bard doesn't have (which should usually be the case) he'll have to communicate the solution to his fellow players (think Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes).

I'm too lazy to type more, but I think you get the picture: I want classes to work differently than they usually do and I want to make players cooperate outside of mechanics.
 

LordofSyn

Scholar
Joined
Nov 8, 2014
Messages
113
Not quite but that looks pretty dope, thanks.

That stellar tactics game also looks pretty neat but I've always pictured something more seamless. Like you're on your bridge in FPS mode, battling an enemy, then you direct a boarding action and run down to the airlock and jetpack across space in through a hull breach, all in real time, without loading screens.

Presumably you'd sacrifice a lot of RPG and tactical mechanics but if they made it something like Deus Ex I could live with that.

Or something more like what Empyrion is currently trying to do, only less shitty.
Trese Brothers are just a 2 man team. No fps anytime soon. What they make are incredibly deep games with mechanics that are all interwoven together. Each game is its own story of Captain, Officers, and crew making their own way (your decision) amongst a galactic backdrop of espionage and cold war-esque conflicts. Where Contacts are vying for power and you are caught up and time is constantly moving forward.
You have so much player agency that most problems you face are usually a result of your decisions. Full sandbox with storylines to follow or ignore at your leisure. Updated every few days with a clear roadmap, this game will continue to grow for years to come.
Even if it is not fps, it is still worth your time if you like turn based strategic gameplay and more importantly, the emergent stories that come about as part of your experience.

Sent from my LGLS996 using Tapatalk
 

Trojan_generic

Magister
Joined
Jul 21, 2007
Messages
1,564
Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming!
storytelling (environmental, through books, dialogue, cutscenes)

Interested to hear your fantasies. No, not those fantasies, goddamnit.

Storytelling through boobs!

My dream RPG would probably be a space RPG where, let's say a hundred thousand, habitable planets and space stations in the galaxy (bigger than Milky Way) would have their own unique, hand-crafted +20-hour main quests with side quests and different outcomes depending on what you do. Every one of the billions of unique NPC's would be designed to fit in the world they live in and have their own agendas including interstellar travel. Choices, consequences, different government types and levels of civilization. Thousands of small factions which you can side with. The main goal would be to rule the galaxy the way you see best. In addition to spaceships, you could also buy/acquire whatever you want from slaves to factories to entire planets. But you would have to earn your credits with missions, exploring and trade.

Planets would be real-size and have monsters and aliens, and a powerful AI would run the shit. Oh, and I want sometimes random outcomes for doing the same thing à la Nethack. You could take part in or start a war.

Now the problem is: would this actually be an RPG? You would play whatever role you wish and stick to it if you wish.
 

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
Patron
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
33,052
Location
KA.DINGIR.RA.KI
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I've got a pretty detailed concept for my perfect RPG in mind, and one day I'll create this beast, no matter what it takes.

Essentially:

Setting:
- low fantasy setting, humans only, no elves or dwarves, but plenty of hostile fantastic creatures to fight when you crawl through dungeons, as well as sinister magic-users; tech level is somewhere between late antiquity and late middle ages, with some civilizations being more advanced than others
- cultures: Germanic style kingdom is the realm where the game happens, it used to be part of a Roman style empire but was lost barely a century ago; sturctures of the Empire remain in the kingdom, because why would the king not make use of the experienced imperial bureaucrats? To the east, the land is often raided by Amazon style horse-riding women, who are slowly settling down though and becoming more "civilized" as time goes on
- different weapons that correspond to each culture's tech level and fighting style, with the horse-riding girls using spears and bows and often fighting on horseback, Germanic kingdom focusing on European medieval style warfare with chainmail and a huge variety of melee weapons as well as crossbows, and the Empire to the south having efficient mixed-arms tactics with orderly shield wall formations, each soldier carrying sword + shield + javelin, they have light artillery for support (ballistae etc), and even have primitive handcannons

Combat:
- turn-based combat with lots of tactical options, each weapon actually feels different and has multiple uses, shields can be used offensively, swords can slash or thrust and even pommel-strike, halberds can attack with the pointy spear tip or the axe blade or the armor-piercing spike, etc. Whether you go for a warhammer or a mace or an axe or a sword isn't just a cosmetic choice but actually gives you distinct tactical options
- mounted combat is in, with options like charging with a lance or doing a ride-by attack, rider and mount have their own HP pools and the mount can be killed to topple the rider down, or the rider can be shot down from his mount
- locational damage, locational hitpoints, a common "blood pool" instead of overall HP, critical hits on an already damaged body part can cause permanent injuries (crit on an already damaged hand -> chop off some fingers or the entire hand, crit on damaged foot -> chop off the foot, crit on face -> lose an eye or lose your nose, etc)
- management of blood loss, injuries, stamina, pain threshold, morale etc instead of whittling down hitpoints; lose all locational HP on your leg through a warhammer hit, your leg's broken and you fall to your knee and won't be able to get up again during this fight, also it hurts like fuck which gives you a malus
- some weapons have multi-step reloads; crossbow = wind it up 3 AP, put in the quarrel 1 AP; handgonne = pour powder down the muzzle = 2 AP, put bullet in = 1 AP, use ramrod = 3 AP; this way you can partially reload your crossbow or handgonne even when you don't have enough AP left for the full action
- useable defensive weapons like stationary artillery, such as small ballistae to pump bolts into advancing enemies, as well as environmental features that can be utilized in combat (knock over a brazier to set fire to the carpet, for example)
- equipment can get damaged but it's not just a numeric health value, instead clothing may get torn and cut when hit with bladed weapons, plate armor can get bent, chainmail can get chain links ripped out of it, a sword can break, but all of these still stay useable even when severely damaged (they're just pretty useless - you can stab someone with a broken sword but it's a shit-tier weapon, chainmail with several chain links ripped out won't offer much protection anymore)

Character and party:
- detailed equipment system similar to Daggerfall and Morrowind, with tons of equipment slots and layered clothing and armor; find armor not as a full suit but in single pieces, have several layers of stuff to wear, starting with underwear and going up to two armor layers; lots of slots for jewelry, including a ring on every finger, and female characters even get to wear stuff like earrings, anklets, and toe rings
- major differences between playing a male or female character, as NPCs will react differently to you based on your sex, and some quests are gender-exclusive, the experience will be quite different
- NPCs will actually react to your appearance when appropriate, and you can disguise yourself by wearing the proper clothes, maybe you even have to get a different haircut; infiltrate an order of monks by shaving your head and putting on a robe in the proper color, impersonate a high-ranking member of the order, and get away with it if your character is skilled enough at disguise
- you can choose personality traits for your character that directly influence character skills and dialogue choices; playing a berserker with the "wroth" trait may give you a great bonus in combat, but when an NPC insults you all the dialogue options you get will be ones that escalate the conflict, you won't ever receive any dialogue choices that let you back down or resolve a disagreement peacefully -> meaningful character choices that actually force you to roleplay the character you created
- you create a single character and recruit NPCs for your party, like in Baldur's Gate and Arcanum; of course you get to control companions in combat but they might refuse your orders if they're contrary to their personality (the timid healer girl isn't going to walk into a tile that's surrounded by 3 enemies, you won't be able to use her as a charging melee character)
- companion NPCs actually have their own agendas and goals; that seductive sorceress you recruited and thought you'd get a nice romance with? Well, you got a room in an inn together, and when you wake up the next morning she's gone... along with your gold and magic items, oops. That ambitious fighter who joined you to help in your quest if you agreed to help him in his? Well, it's been two weeks and you haven't even bothered to do anything at all about his quest, so he's leaving your party because he doesn't see any progress in his goals while he's with you

Magic:
- a magic system that relies on environmental factors and has spells with interesting effects rather than just simple damage spells; elemental magic is divided into the masculine and feminine elements: air and fire, earth and water. Only male wizards can use air and fire magic, only female wizards can use earth and water magic, making male and female wizards play radically differently
- elemental magic can only be cast when the wizard is in direct contact with the element; air magic is more effective under the open sky than in a deep dungeon; fire magic requires a source of fire to be in the wizard's immediate vicinity that he can touch with his bare hand to channel power from; female wizards essentially have to ditch their shoes and socks and go barefoot everywhere, as they need direct contact with the earth to cast earth magic; works better in nature than in cities where the stone has been hewn by human hands; and water magic requires a sorceress to stand in a puddle, or in a larger body of water; positioning will be extremely important for magic-users in combat, since you always want your male wizards near a source of fire and your female wizards standing on bare earth or in a source of water
- apart from elemental magic, there is also ritual magic which requires ingredients and lengthy preparation; there are few ritual magic spells that are usable in combat, but those that are require multiple turns to cast, making the caster vulnerable

Quests:
- quests should offer multiple approaches and solutions, usually offering a combat path, stealth path, dialogue path, and alternate solutions for magic-users or creative players who use items and the environment in creative ways
- non-linear main quest which gives you a goal from the outset (find a cult of evil witches and stop them), and you essentially get free reign in how to achieve it rather than having to follow a series of main story quests
- if you do it properly you can work for two factions that hate each other as a double agent, and cross both of them for maximum personal profit; lie and deceive your way through the game and make heavy use of those speech skills you invested points into
- on the other hand, you can piss off questgiver NPCs to the point they no longer want to associate with you or even actively send people to deal with you, so you have to be careful; NPCs have their own agendas and use you as a tool, if they consider you an obstacle, they will be hostile

Dungeons:
- interesting encounters both of the combat and the non-combat type
- environmental interaction within dungeons, such as shoving a mine cart filled with rocks down a slope into an enemy crossbowman standing there, etc etc
- occasional adventure game like item interaction puzzles to get into optional areas of the dungeon that seem impossible to reach at first glance
- interesting dungeon design offering cool combat options, such as a bandit fort with palisade walls that can either be climbed or the gate breached, elevation bonus for enemies on the walls, you trying to get the high ground etc, or an underground lake with a giant octopus-like tentacle beast fighting you from the water while land-based monsters attack you from the flanks and try to push you towards the lake, etc

NO HANDHOLDING:
- the game will likely start out with a couple of introductory quests that show the player the options he has, like changing his appearance to impersonate someone else etc, but after that, the player is completely on his own and has to figure that shit out for himself -> you want to infiltrate an order of monks? Observe them, read about them, find out how they dress and what their manners are, prepare yourself meticulously, give yourself a tonsure haircut, wear a brown robe, tie a black rope belt around your waist, and pretend to be a high-ranking member visiting from another city... only for someone to call you out on your bluff because high ranking members wear a differently-colored rope belt, oops; you have to find out such details by yourself, the game won't hold your hand and protect you from mistakes
- no quest markers whatsoever, NPCs will describe to you how to get to a place, sure you have a world map but it's just for overland travel like in Arcanum or Baldur's Gate, when someone tells you to go visit John Doe at 17 Smithers Street, you won't get a map marker but have to go find the address yourself
- when NPCs mark a place on your map they might not always be 100% accurate, maybe someone will mark the Ancient Crypt on your map and be off by a couple of world map tiles because he misremembered the location


I really, really hope I get the opportunity to create this thing one day. Probably didn't even list everything here yet.
 

Neanderthal

Arcane
Joined
Jul 7, 2015
Messages
3,626
Location
Granbretan
In an odd mood today. Right now i'd fancy a simple ARPG where I play as a half nekkid barbarian wi a huge fuck off axe, drink, feast, pillage, fight, rape, kick down doors, wrestle, pummel and howl like a madman in between reciting bad kenning poetry. On an epic quest to find clumsy bastard who spilled his pint or something

You need a special key to open this door.
CRACK!
Or a big bloody axe'll do.

Basically Thrud.
 

new fucking guy

Scholar
Patron
Joined
Oct 22, 2017
Messages
180
Pathfinder: Wrath
Open world, permadeath Warhammer Fantasy RPG. Perhaps with some sort of randomized character creation? Set shitloads of content for every part of that big fucking WHF map so it doesn't get repetitive, but you can still plan your run. The goal is to stay alive until the end times and forge yourself a nice ending there.
Kinda like skyrim larping but good.
 

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