Mechanics Breakdown Concept Stage

Since the initial inspiration for the project earlier this week, I have spent time breaking down each core mechanic from a concept point of view and have been working out their intended progression and how the player will be able to use them to affect the game world.

• Brewing

  • One of the core mechanics of this game will be the ability to brew enchanted mead during the Tavern’s close time. These Meads can then be sold to adventurers who come seeking certain advantages while going on the quests that you give them. If they are going to be heading into an Arachna Den, they will need to get some mead in them that grants them a small resistance to venom/poison.

  • To create new Meads, the player must experiment and order a variety of ingredients; who knows what you can create.

• Equipment

  • The player will start with some basic equipment that they can sell to the new adventurers they send out on quests. As the Tavern’s reputation grows with each successful quest the player gives out, travelling merchants will visit your tavern, allowing you to upgrade and buy better quality gear to then sell on yourself. 

• Quests

• The next core mechanic will be the quest system; unlike other fantasy RPG games, it will not be the player going out on quests to slay dragons, steal artefacts or destroy nests of goblins. The player will be the quest giver and has to make sure they give the right quest to the right party of Adventurers, as mentioned in the previous post, giving out the wrong quests to the wrong people can drastically affect your reputation.

• Reputation

• As your reputation grows with each successful quest, new ingredients, gear and quests become available to the player to then distribute to higher level clients. From time to time, more difficult “raid” quests will become available where the player will have to craft a perfect combination of multiple parties to send on the “raid”. If successful, this can net some great rewards from the tavern.

• The Tavern

  • The tavern will start quite basic in terms of the decor and as the reputation grows and different levels of quests are completed, to say thank you, adventurers may bring back trophies. For example, each successful raid will provide unique decor that will appear in the tavern from dragon skulls, orc warband banners or even vials of elder vampire blood. Certain decor items can provide passive bonuses to the player, allowing them to get % increases to brewing efficiency, permanent buffs to all meads created. For example, the dragon skulls are intended to make all meads grant some form of resistance based on the particular dragon’s element.