I've been ruminating on a plan for a rework of the church concept. I'll get back to yall sometime in the week with some more tangible. Just to give you a feel (in case i don't find time to write a big post), I've been mulling over something a longer format "adventure", potentially in a few parts, perhaps even more than one title (if we can find enough content to justify it).
While i'm still thinking what the core gameplay loop will be, i think the concept should be executed in three "parts".
The core objective being about taking over three 'priestesses'; Pagan, Judeo-Christian and Atheistic.
In terms of how this departs from our previous proposal, each "adventure" will be a road trip whereby the PC will move from place building support to undermine the priestess. While a lot of the features we discussed can potentially be recycled, this will be much "on-rails" with the player choice relating mostly to what order in which they want to take charge. One deviation I propose is that the take-over of the priestess should happen towards the MIDDLE of the adventure, not the end (perhaps even slightly earlier), with the rest of the adventure dedicated to corrupting her and her entourage. In other words, most the gameplay "difficulty" will be front-loaded in the first 20-30 minutes of what should be a 1-2 hour experience, with replayability lying in the various permutations of increasingly twisted loops you can put the priestess and her entourage through.
Some spins on concepts we tossed around in the discussion for this title
Hiring a fetish model to be the "voice of the prophet"
While i liked the idea proposed by SC, i honestly felt it was not "dark enough"; as such, i'd propose having the priestess be her own, increasingly desperate mouthpiece until you take her over, then yours after, showing her gradual descent into moral bankruptcy, sexual submission and servitude. This will allow us to recycle a fun concept we've explored in SotU, but take it one step further as well.
A religious "tenet tree" we can progress through
We could have a tenet tree, complete with progression requirements, but instead of a full-blown RPG system, we could simply have it as a visual representation of meaningful choices that the player will make during the course of an otherwise on-rail experience. In other words, the player will still make choices as to what "narrative" constitutes the tenets of his religion, but those will be as an integral part of compulsory event chains (as opposed to this being a "gamified" part of a wider RPG system).
Recruiting followers and getting to preach for you
Narratively, we can still have followers who, will, after acquisition, preach for you, but in the game sense, these followers will instead be glorified "items" that you hold in your inventory for subsequent use (rather than persistent pawns on a grand digital tabletop)
While i'm still thinking what the core gameplay loop will be, i think the concept should be executed in three "parts".
The core objective being about taking over three 'priestesses'; Pagan, Judeo-Christian and Atheistic.
In terms of how this departs from our previous proposal, each "adventure" will be a road trip whereby the PC will move from place building support to undermine the priestess. While a lot of the features we discussed can potentially be recycled, this will be much "on-rails" with the player choice relating mostly to what order in which they want to take charge. One deviation I propose is that the take-over of the priestess should happen towards the MIDDLE of the adventure, not the end (perhaps even slightly earlier), with the rest of the adventure dedicated to corrupting her and her entourage. In other words, most the gameplay "difficulty" will be front-loaded in the first 20-30 minutes of what should be a 1-2 hour experience, with replayability lying in the various permutations of increasingly twisted loops you can put the priestess and her entourage through.
Some spins on concepts we tossed around in the discussion for this title
Hiring a fetish model to be the "voice of the prophet"
While i liked the idea proposed by SC, i honestly felt it was not "dark enough"; as such, i'd propose having the priestess be her own, increasingly desperate mouthpiece until you take her over, then yours after, showing her gradual descent into moral bankruptcy, sexual submission and servitude. This will allow us to recycle a fun concept we've explored in SotU, but take it one step further as well.
A religious "tenet tree" we can progress through
We could have a tenet tree, complete with progression requirements, but instead of a full-blown RPG system, we could simply have it as a visual representation of meaningful choices that the player will make during the course of an otherwise on-rail experience. In other words, the player will still make choices as to what "narrative" constitutes the tenets of his religion, but those will be as an integral part of compulsory event chains (as opposed to this being a "gamified" part of a wider RPG system).
Recruiting followers and getting to preach for you
Narratively, we can still have followers who, will, after acquisition, preach for you, but in the game sense, these followers will instead be glorified "items" that you hold in your inventory for subsequent use (rather than persistent pawns on a grand digital tabletop)
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