LDANARKOS'S PROFILE

I want to share with you a storywriting trope that I've picked-up on a lot recently that you may consider integrating into your game.

I see a lot of times in tv, the main character will ask an innocent NPC to do something that is kind of a big ask, like something very risky, doesn't have to be. And then the NPC gets killed for doing the thing you asked them to do and you feel insanely guilty about it. An example would be like if police were about to bust a criminal that they have under surveillance, and they ask his abused wife not to leave him just yet, because it could disrupt the arrest that they're about to make. And then he kills her before the arrest is made. You'd feel pretty sh*tty if you were responsible for that.

The request could be anything big or small, such as asking them to stay here and stand guard (and then they get killed while doing it). Or maybe you talk them into taking a trip that they don't want to take, afraid to fly, but then they do as you asked and die in a plane crash. For this trope to have the guilty impact that you're going for, you have to ask the NPC to do something that they have misgivings about doing, i.e. they know the risks, and you talk them into it, reassuring them that the risks aren't so bad or that it's worth it.

This is also good for feeding into a revenge angle against whoever is more directly responsible for killing the NPC.

In the Power Rangers Movie game for SNES, there's an enemy called Mirror Maniac who will appear as double, but one of them will have a mirror on their chest, and the other will have a plain chest. Only the one with the mirror on the chest is the real one and vulnerable to being hit.

So, the idea I'm suggesting to you all, is a monster who appears as double, but only one of them is the 'real' one / vulnerable to death. Either the real one has a visually distinguishing trait, or is distinguishable through their behavior patterns. But the main flaw in this idea is: if it were visually distinguishable, it would not take much ongoing skill after the first time that you figure out the secret. But it would, somewhat, if it were identifiable by the behavior patterns.

This is a tip for RPG development. Assuming that you have a certain array of charset resources, and you want each charset to represent a different NPC (i.e. you aren't generically reusing the same charset to depict 100 different characters)...

Create a map and fill it with each charset at your disposal. Then, whenever you use one of them in your game, remove them from this availability map. To navigate the map easier, you can organize the NPC's based on whether they appear to be good warriors, evil warriors, royalty, regular civilians, major NPC's, etc. Charsets that have extra frames for expressions like laughing and fainting should be prioritized for use as main characters or as major NPC's that have bigger roles.

Personally, I've found this practice to be helpful. But I know not everyone approaches game design the same way.

author=JosephSeraph
I mean, Symphony Of The Night has shoes which make you 1 pixel taller. That's their purpose. It's cute.

LOL

Btw, another way of having this skill be a trade-off is if you have a game where you switch characters in your party, and you have to decide between a character who can speak with the dead + 5 other skills, or choose a different character that has 6 skills. And then you wouldn't be able to just cheese it by trading out your gear every time you enter a new screen. Or, instead of a passive skill, it could be a cast skill with an MP cost, so then you ask "Do I really want to blow some MP to try to detect ghosts on this screen? I dunno. Maybe if they can point me to the shortest path to clear the dungeon." There could be clues that a ghost might be present if there's like a headstone, skeletal remains on the ground, or you see something haunted happening like a book falling off a book shelf.

World of Warcraft had a trading card game. Seemed like it could've been a good game if they didn't screw-up the card economy by encouraging people to buy packs so that they could open codes for in-WOW items.

The comic book card game Overpower. Started out as Marvel, but expanded into DC and others.

Later, there was another Marvel vs DC game called VS System. That game had a lot of prize support at one point.

I've vaguely heard of a game called 7th Sea.

Solforge was an online trading card game developed by pro Magic players.

Lately, ChannelFireball has been promoting a TCG called Flesh And Blood.

I remember some people playing Shadowfist. I think that was a game that had trap cards before Yu-Gi-Oh.