Anyone feel like a little brainstorming on how to liven up RPG towns? Towns in RPGs traditionally serve as areas where players upgrade their equipment, receive quests and stock up for the rest of the journey, which results in many RPG towns having a 'get in, do what you need, get back out' type gameplay. However, in my map I want the town to be a place where the players would actually want to hang out in. The map has a fairly high difficulty level and I want players to view the town as offering a reprieve from the untamed wilderness. I'm not looking so much at story events or gameplay benefits of being in the town, but more on creating a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere.
I like the rare item vendor idea, and I think small fights between people could be kinda amusing, provided it doesnt go against the 'safe haven' concept, which the 'invasion' idea kinda does lol.
I was thinking of mini games too, any ideas for simple time wasting games that are easy to trigger? I was looking into the feasibility of adding a in game TCG like Triple Triad in FF8, although I'm not sure what is the simplest way to go about doing it.
Incidentally, I think JRPG towns from the PS1 and PS2 era were the best when it comes to atmosphere. Even in the newgen WRPGs where everything is supposedly more immerssive, what with dialogue trees and all, nothing really comes close to the kind of vibe that say, Fisherman's Horizon (Also from FF8) gives off. Man how did the japanese do it? =/
A guy who is just being hilariously stupid all the time.
Think of other roles of people in towns.
A cranky old man that yells at you every time you get on his lawn (maybe make a mini quest, where a kid dropped something on the old mans lawn, and you have to get it without being seen).
A fortune teller maybe
A shady guy standing in an alley trying to sell you strange useless stuff all the time
Jehovas Witnesses (Ok, maybe not. It could lead to a ban :p)
A little boy and a girl, the boy stole the girls dolly, and she chases him throughout all of Stormwind and pissed everyone off (Yea, don't actually do that one)
An old guy whos nuts, plain stupid, and/or has alzheimers.
Simple games could be good as well. Someone you can play tic-tac-toe against maybe? Dunno how hard that would be to make. Maybe even allow betting, so that you can bet money, if you win you get double of it, if you lose you lose it, and if its a tie you keep it and can try again.
@Pshyched: Go
Really cool idea to have things changing in the town based on who comes to it and sells stuff. Maybe there could be a kind of RPG world taking place in an archipelago, and pirates/sea monsters menace potential trade routes. You go off in your boat to kill said pirates/sea monsters (Maybe with a bit of preparation Monster Hunter style) and Ta-daa the Magical Stat-Boosting Tea Leaf sellers start trading in that town! Even better, there could be more than one town, each with different Supplies/Demands, allowing you to buy low and sell high.
@TheAlmaity: Go
Hehe I kinda have idea that combines the village idiot, religious fool and shady dealer...basically a guy who worships ancient alien artifacts, whom no one believes, and pawns some of the smaller alien artifacts. I think fortune teller is cool too. I remember in the game Chrono Cross, where you can recruit some 45 party members and there was this fortune teller NPC who would give amusing/witty fortunes for each of them
In general I think it's a good idea to have somewhat unreliable vendors, as it gives the incentive to talk to them in the event that they might just have some really cool stuff.
What about some kind of bargaining mechanic? Meaning, most villagers would have some form of gossip/info about vendors, their likes/dislikes or whatnot, and you can try to appeal to their sensibilities to bring down the price of an item you really want?
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Anyone feel like a little brainstorming on how to liven up RPG towns? Towns in RPGs traditionally serve as areas where players upgrade their equipment, receive quests and stock up for the rest of the journey, which results in many RPG towns having a 'get in, do what you need, get back out' type gameplay. However, in my map I want the town to be a place where the players would actually want to hang out in. The map has a fairly high difficulty level and I want players to view the town as offering a reprieve from the untamed wilderness. I'm not looking so much at story events or gameplay benefits of being in the town, but more on creating a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere.
I would say random events but I'm not sure as of what those could be.
So I'll just say add lots of mini-games.
Events such as:
And make it layed out very easy to navigate, and big but not too big, and detailed.
@Pshyched: Go
I like the rare item vendor idea, and I think small fights between people could be kinda amusing, provided it doesnt go against the 'safe haven' concept, which the 'invasion' idea kinda does lol.
@DuckyTheDuck: Go
I was thinking of mini games too, any ideas for simple time wasting games that are easy to trigger? I was looking into the feasibility of adding a in game TCG like Triple Triad in FF8, although I'm not sure what is the simplest way to go about doing it.
Incidentally, I think JRPG towns from the PS1 and PS2 era were the best when it comes to atmosphere. Even in the newgen WRPGs where everything is supposedly more immerssive, what with dialogue trees and all, nothing really comes close to the kind of vibe that say, Fisherman's Horizon (Also from FF8) gives off. Man how did the japanese do it? =/
Well im glad you like it.. Also, im trying to create something for everyone to use.
A Fable-Like Stock Inventory system.
Tell me what you think :)
I've got an idea:
Village idiot!
A guy who is just being hilariously stupid all the time.
Think of other roles of people in towns.
Simple games could be good as well. Someone you can play tic-tac-toe against maybe? Dunno how hard that would be to make. Maybe even allow betting, so that you can bet money, if you win you get double of it, if you lose you lose it, and if its a tie you keep it and can try again.
@Pshyched: Go Really cool idea to have things changing in the town based on who comes to it and sells stuff. Maybe there could be a kind of RPG world taking place in an archipelago, and pirates/sea monsters menace potential trade routes. You go off in your boat to kill said pirates/sea monsters (Maybe with a bit of preparation Monster Hunter style) and Ta-daa the Magical Stat-Boosting Tea Leaf sellers start trading in that town! Even better, there could be more than one town, each with different Supplies/Demands, allowing you to buy low and sell high.
@TheAlmaity: Go Hehe I kinda have idea that combines the village idiot, religious fool and shady dealer...basically a guy who worships ancient alien artifacts, whom no one believes, and pawns some of the smaller alien artifacts. I think fortune teller is cool too. I remember in the game Chrono Cross, where you can recruit some 45 party members and there was this fortune teller NPC who would give amusing/witty fortunes for each of them
In general I think it's a good idea to have somewhat unreliable vendors, as it gives the incentive to talk to them in the event that they might just have some really cool stuff.
What about some kind of bargaining mechanic? Meaning, most villagers would have some form of gossip/info about vendors, their likes/dislikes or whatnot, and you can try to appeal to their sensibilities to bring down the price of an item you really want?