The Mysterious Lever: Planning Hostargo Content Creation

Saturday, November 11, 2017

Planning Hostargo Content Creation

Hostargo is at the stage now where am I only tweaking rules & mechanics every so often. Fine-tuning these rules is important, but I need to move beyond the initial how-to-play and get to the actual meat of the game. Planning this out ahead of time will help me keep the content consistent and balanced.

I have 6 "classes" that serve as roles characters play in their party. No two players should be the same class, since there should be no need to double up on a given role. I have 6 "callings" that can be non-unique (as in, two players can play with the same calling) and I need to ensure that these are generic enough to not shoe-horn a given role, but also be fun and creative enough to be an interesting addition to a character. Finally, I have 36 combinations of these two ideas that require a single "combined" special ability designed specifically for that combination.

To accomplish this, the class abilities must be completely decoupled from any special abilities a character might have. This means they should likely be focused on skills, or at least specific actions these classes should be "better at" in some way. Callings, on the other hand, should leave room for two players to both have the same ability, but use them in different ways. This means the calling ability tree should be geared towards ideas that encourage creative use. The 36 abilities need to be a combination of these two ideas that makes each pair feel unique and empowering.

Once I have these, I can move the rest of the "cool ideas" I might have to be items and magic runes (items that grant abilities). This strategy gives me both a solid core and room for customization in the characters.

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