I feel as if IJtG is...stagnating a bit. And not even listening to Spice can rid that heavy feeling from my heart.
Well. That's not true. This song is fire.
But that's not the point of this message. I want to know your opinions on where IJtG is heading. So go on. Comment.
And join my Discord, while you're at it.
Hey author, I feel you. Perhaps guard is trying too many plot mysteries/ characters at once which confuses direction, we have the lizard girl, the armor, the jailor lady, the two religious guards, the debriefer, the virus writer, other prisoners all who seem to be important or have some mystery only for Flake to get bumped to the next. Which characters do you want to focus on? Is it just Flake or is Crystal also a main character? Should the story be more about Flake and Crystal coming to terms with actually trying to live in the game and how hard that is between players and the scripted AI?
Should the npcs of the fort be slower to change their behaviors so Flake can struggle and make do like finding a spot to live and having to try and organize? It might be interesting if there were levels of awareness, like if nearby npcs get the intelligence of a dog or so but those Flake has activated become like him?
It would make more sense if other characters reflected their game purpose unless awakened, and then if they do awaken struggle with the same issues, maybe even start trying to organize themselves against dead scripted npcs and the characters
I’ve been likening Guard because of the what if question. How would one of us deal with living in a game? How would we overcome being coded/ scripted into certain actions or being dumb? How could we exploit the system to achieve? Could we in Flakes place take control of our own section of the game? Can he hide from the developers?
@JimSilver What if Flake had to patrol the town of the keep and interact with players asking for directions or trying to role play while Flake attempts to hide what he really is? Then other players who hunt for secret quests or clues might start hounding him when in reality he had no clue and is just trying to be a good guard? What if he ends up trying to enforce the law through a crime investigation, unknowingly doing more than an npc guard should do and everyone thinks it is a special quest? What would players do when he tells them he has no reward for helping but they should see the Lord? What will players do when the Lord is just an npc and doesn’t respond? What would the devs and forums say?
Do you want Flake to realize he is in a game or not? Does he think of the players as outsiders with powers as opposed to local population? Does he realize he is the only person alive?
@JimSilver What if Flake as the only aware one tried to organize and sort out the other NPCs? Can he become more than he is? Like the guard captain? Would he eventually become the lord and take over? Would he become an adventurer ? Would he be part of a team that has to recuse other adventurers in what would normally be a scripted thing but changes because he is there?
What if Flake was sent with a caravan as a regular npc guard as part of an adventurer escourt quest who in a regular game would die quickly making the encounter hard for the players to defend the caravan but because he is aware the quest become easy? He could get a reputation among new players as the best quest to get experience on because the guards as so tough?
@JimSilver those are some really good questions, Jim. I'll have to keep those in mind once I wrap up this last subplot...
@Schwab