other creative writing Needing help on ideas

[Arno]

I'm building a town for a story I want to turn into a game. 

I'll post a pic of the town in a Bit, but I've got a pretty quaint town that I need to fill with interesting background characters. The idea is that it's only going to have a week of in game routine that is going to flesh everyone out enough that how you spend that time will affect the outcome.

I'm just asking y'all to help me a little bit in this. You don't have to if you don't want to

[Arno]

Concepts and Designs: Prologue | 13thprotector #pixiv https://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?illust_id=64746980&mode=medium

 

If y'all wanna see the pics. I've posted them to my Pixiv

[Neptune]

Okay, this has definitely peeked my interest. Some well drawn pictures in there, too. 

You need help with these background characters, and making them a bit more interesting than just mere single dimensional things lol? 

I would like some more detail on this town, and the story of this game. You don't have to spoil everything, but some basic information on the culture, society, technology level would be useful. Location of the town, like is it in a mountainous region, or near a desert, or by a river. The layout of the land, essentially. How large is this town? What buildings does it have? A bar? clubs? Any notable shops? What's the rough population of the town?

[Arno]

Its gonna be the prologue of two parallel stories. Arnor's story, "To Save a Friend," and Cadus's story, "To Topple an Empire"

The basic synopsis is two boys are the best of friends living in their quiet town on the coast. At the end of the prologue week, an imperial ship will attack the coastal town unprovoked. Arnor and Cadus will get separated from the town while escaping and they will find the two leaders of the ship, they will turn out to be Cadus's half brothers and Cadus turns our to be a bastard of an emperor who just died, and now the eldest brother wants all his 30 or so siblings to rule by his side. Cadus and Arnor get knocked out and Cadus is kidnapped, Arnor wakes up hours later and vows to save his friend from the empire. And that's the basic synopsis.

 

in the pics I had, one is a world map the other is the town map. The town map what needs a bit of detail to flesh out because Arnor and Cadus have been living there for about 16 years.

Also. Arnor is my floppy eared character And Cadus is his half half white wolf half demon friend.

[Neptune]

I was a little confused at first, but then I made an account and could actually see the maps you're talking about. I assume the tech level is roughly medieval to colonial?

Since they're on the coast, do they have a harbour? It would make sense especially if there is some good fishing water nearby. I think you would also need a good tavern. Not only to provide beds for travelling people, but small towns like that tend to have a tavern that people can visit after a long day of work in the fields or after coming back from a fishing trip. It's the place where the townsfolk come and meet up with one another, share a pint and chatter.

Then of course, you'll have your local socialite club. The group of women that are 'close friends' but tend to be really catty, nosy and into everyone's business. Most likely lead by the wife of the town leader, as she would be the very top of the social ladder. You've got the church covered, along with the smith, general goods and armoury... What about a butcher? Or, if you go with the fishing idea, a fishmonger? Is there a forested area nearby? If so, they could be visited by trapper-type people, so a tannery would have a booming business there. The mine that's located on the map... what does it mine? Metals? In which case, a refinery would be a good idea. If not... gemstones? Then a gemcutter would be someone that would be doing that, cutting up the gems ready to be sold on. Or even a jewelry maker.

[Arno]

Sorry of Pixiv is picky.

And yes. They're a bit mediaeval, very primitive and fantastical. They don't have electricity or a dock cause they're fairly broke as a town. Their major crop is a magically altered wheat that grows in coastal sand, and it isn't a strong crop. They're only other product is mined ore and even than it's nothing more than spelunking in sea caves. The fishing isn't majorly great and the town folk blame the cows who pushed the sand wheat and may or may not have accidentally killed off the local undersea plants. But giant crabs angrily storm the beach time to time. There is a caravan that travels through and trades with the town once a month. 

The people are very tight knit, I think I only had about 12 or so domestic homes. It has a chief who founded the town after he fought in a war. Its why the town is so small. The church, the smith, and the general goods came with old war buddies. Whatever other industry in the town came with the caravans including the sand wheat. The mined are just sea caves that were expanded in by prospective townsfolk. What comes out of them are usually gems and minor ore that the smith works with or they sell to the caravans.

[Neptune]

Sounds like they're also hard-working people. Likely quite proud of their little town, even if it doesn't seem like there's much there. So since they're so close knit, they're quite friendly with one another? One of those 'everybody knows everyone's names' kind of thing. Although places like that can come with a double edged sword. While it's nice to know everyone, if you've done something embarrassment, or bad, everyone will know about it very quickly. So you could have an individual that's been somewhat 'ostracised' by the community. It's not uncommon for something like that to happen in a small community.

[Arno]

True. I was thinking to let the player sort of play the prologue fairly similar to the beginning of Fable 1, where you go around trying to do odd jobs to get folk together to throw a party for his friend's birthday. I mean, the outcome would either be bad and the player has done shit to get a party or it be an extravagant thing.

[Neptune]

Ah, I haven't played that in so long. So you'll need a few characters to be the 'quest givers'? Mm. Will this be a birthday party, too? Or some other kind of gathering?

[Arno]

You don't remember the opening with Oakvale?

The Hero had a few ways to earn money. Like he could keep an affair secret or turn in the cheating man. He could help a bully beat up a kid or beat up the bully. Stuff like that. His dad would approve or disapprove of his actions in the end

[Neptune]

LOL I have slept so many times since then. It's been years. I can't remember the final result of that opening nor what impact it had on the game, either.

 

[Arno]

It didn't have a huge impact, but it setup your alignment and a few events later on.