Setting - Arcanorum/rogueworld GitHub Wiki

Overview

Rogueworld is set in a familiar Middle-Earth-esque medieval fantasy world with wizards, warriors, goblins, dragons, and the like, focusing on a civilisation undergoing a rapid socioeconomic shift, in particular a growing inequaity of the wealth of it's inhabitants, and the widespread onset of a decay in the social order and falling trust in long-standing institutions.

This setting is intended to act as a way to make a commentary on the direction of societies in the real world, with a focus on exploring the following topics, but using the fantasy presentation to avoid being too on the nose with the messages being presented:

  • The implications of gross wealth inequality and the concentration of power into the hands of a few.
  • The dangers of individualism and selfishness, and the importance of collective action in such situations.
  • To emphasise to the players just how much they actually depend on others for things they probably take for granted.

The setting will be delivered to and explored by the players by focusing on the more granular aspects of life in such a medieval fantasy world, in particular the relationships between characters and the ways in which the growing inequality is affecting them on a personal level, rather than a single epic adventure to save the world using the power of some ancient powerful MacGuffin.

This setting is intended to allow for the telling of many self-contained stories that approach the subject mater in different ways, and that present the players with varied options for how to proceed that they must decide on as a collective.

Goals

  • Present a grounded and relatable experience.
    • The player should not be "The Chosen One", or a demi-god, or a reincarnated epic hero from legend, destined to save the multi-verse from ultimate doom, or whatever, as it rarely makes sense in the context of a multiplayer game for everyone to be the main protagonist that everything revolves around.
    • Instead, players experience the journey of going from being a regular inhabitant of the game world with no noteworthy backstory of their own, starting off as just a bunch of humble peasant townsfolk, and rising to be the heroes of each other's stories through their actions, not those of some pre-defined timeline of events which they must play through.
  • Should be easy for new players to be able to get involved in and explore the game world, without feeling like they need to know a lot about the game world to be able to understand what is going on or they are doing, or feel like they are expected to have a certain base level of knowledge before stepping in. (Pick up and play)

Knowns

There are what the established rules and limitations of the game universe are, and in what ways they influence the world, characters, and mechanics.

tower permanence, destructability, can excavate part of the tower and that will restrict where openings can appear on the surface, and the interior structure of the tower, can be exploited to remove things from existence, a particularly hard to destroy creature was removed from existence, a plane can cut itself off from a tower this way, some planes do this deliberately for towers that they get regular problems through (seal off a point of attack) (the dark forest) the different plane types study of the towers, exploration/science, theories worship of the towers themselves, worship of other more powerful beings in other planes guilds as standins for modern corporations, some competing, some colluding with each other.

Unknowns

Possibilities, what the inhabitants of the universe don't know, what they are trying to find out

the amount of towers in a plane, the amount of planes in a tower, parallel universes size height/length of the towers the relationship between the towers and magic how many planes there are the nature of the explorers guild

Concept

Various locations spread around a nameless, deliberately vague, and nondescript generic medieval fantasy world have recently been plunged into turmoil and darkness by an assortment of mythical threats.

Players enter the game world as one of the regular inhabitants of a settlement within lands that are either ruled over by some kind of tyrant, or are terrorised by some kind of monster, and must progress their characters up to the point of being able to challenge and defeat them.

Tone

Quirky and a bit silly. Doesn't take itself too seriously. Is aware that it is a low budget pixel art video game, like a game equivalent of a B-movie.

In a way a subversion and satire of the cliche "prophesied chosen-one" trope, featuring a cyclical story where an epic hero who defeats some great villain becomes venerated and worshipped to the point of becoming consumed by their own ego and arrogance, and ends up becoming the next antagonist in a long line of fallen heroes, only to be defeated in turn by the next "chosen-one" according to some (perhaps wildly inaccurate and misinterpreted) prophecy, with this chain being disrupted by the team of players who are nothing special within the context of this world, and where their collaborative nature is in opposition to the concept of there being a single main character whom everything revolves around.

The kind of thing someone can show to a bunch of friends at a casual house party, and for them to be able to jump in and have some fun quickly, without having to worry about needing to get immersed in a deep and rich world and story before they can start to enjoy the experience.

Inspirations:

  • Early D&D or similar throwback RPGs like DCC. Enough of a real world tone for players to contrast against the bizarre and ridiculous elements.
  • Early RuneScape, with it's humour that is self-aware that the game is just an otherwise fairly mundane and generic fantasy RPG clicking simulator, littered with pop culture references.
  • Various fantasy comedy literary sources.

Synopsis