I'm interested in appraisals of the concept and feedback/suggestions about the world's races and natural history.
The philosophy of the narrative:
1. The player races selected are intended to appeal to a wide audience of gamers.
2. The world is realistic. It avoids cognitively dissonant gaming staples like hitpoints and repeatable quests.
3. A balance between innovation & accessibility (meaning how easy the game/world is to learn and understand) is important, so renaming things like "elves" and "goblins" is just confusing to a player, despite being more unique.
4. Freedom of action and player agency (similar to Dungeons & Dragons).
5. All NPCs are players. OPCs (Offline Player Characters) are already being explored by the upcoming game Chronicles of Elyria.
Target audience:
Hardcore gamers (people who play many hours in a small collection of games)
As opposed to:
Casual gamers (people who play casual games or play infrequently)
Core gamers (people who explore and purchase a wider variety of games)
Technology disclaimer: The features of the game are not feasible with current tech, but may be within 5-10 years.
World
A naturally evolved planet in our own scientific universe, with one exception: a chi-like life energy exists and is accessible to create magic.
Most races are naturally evolved, but some are the result of magical experimentation on other races.
Geography and political history will be outlined soon.
Society is Feudal/Medieval, unsurprisingly. I haven't decided on the exact dimensions of the explorable world, but enough space for 9 capital cities (1000 players each), 29 other cities (500 each), 117 towns (250 each), and about 230 miscellaneous villages (~50 each). They're about 1 mile (20 minute walk) apart on average. I will soon plot these in photoshop to get a better feel.
Game Context:
The cities will be underscaled population-wise. A 1000-player capital city will represent a capital city of about 10,000-15,000 people in the actual narrative. Time moves more swiftly, so 1 year in real life is about 55 game years (hopefully one of the only cognitively dissonant things about the experience).
Magic
My approach to magic is similar to that of Eragon, where spells are cast by channeling inner energy, like "chi", that resides in all living things. The amount of energy needed to cast a spell is derived from the physical work done to achieve the same effect. Energy can be stored in gems and other for later withdrawal and use.
Spells are largely limited to lifting and moving objects, enhancing senses, creating wards/barriers, blasts of heat/energy, and other things achievable by scientific means. The dark school of necromancy is just an extension of manipulating life energy to reanimate the dead or extend one's own lifespan.
Game Context:
Magic is flexible. The approach taken in Eragon was very compelling. If you can tell the magic what to do grammatically, it will happen if there is enough energy to sustain it. Overexerting yourself can kill you. However, using language or incantations to flexibly power magic would be a nightmare to put in a game. In both Eragon and Harry Potter, magic can be cast without incantations, but words help to focus the magic and prevent distraction and mis-casting. The game will just rely on wordless magic.
Words and chants are wonderful flavor though, so they may still be included in divine rituals and such.
Gods
Game Context:
They exist invisibly. Players build favor with them which are stored in the form of invisible points. They occasionally come to the aid of a player by thwarting an incoming arrow or other subtle divine intervention. Players with unusually high divine favor may earn custom story events at the will of the Gods (who are represented by paid Narrative Designers behind the scenes) or specially enchanted items, akin to Perseus' helm, boots, and shield. In extremely rare cases, a God may expose themselves to players.
Narrative Context:
"Gods" are large but of varying description, able to sustain permanent flight and invisibility magic, capable of extremely powerful spells. I imagine they were the dominant race on an alien planet (Planet X) across the galaxy which itself was capable of magic. The magic of the God-race was developed, practiced, refined, and amplified over time, until eventually their worshippers either turned on them or ran short in supply. A number of them (10-50) began channeling a powerful spell to escape their planet and teleport across the galaxy to Atyria. They may have guided the evolution of the Proto-elves and either imbued or taught them the use of magic.
Races
Racial summaries:
Spoiler:
Would also love to hear what your top 3 race picks would be if you could play this game. :)