I posting my Design Document

The Game Room
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I’ve been half-heartedly working on a game design document for a bit now, and I thought I’d actually pst it tonight if anyone is interested. I originally thought it ought to be a Shadowrun RPG, then scratched that and made it generic with mutants and genetically altered peeps and psychic powers. Then I realized that was incredibly dull and cheezy, so went back and am pretty much saying, screw it, it’s Shadowrun.

I will try and post what I got later if anyone seems interested.

Regardless, I’m using the more classic edition styling because they altered a lot of things in 4th edition, which includes a lot of suck, and cuts out some really cool bits. Most specifically is that they reworked how spells are categorized, more or less cut out any distinctions between kinds of magic-using characters, and basically tossed all technological realism out the window in favor of a quasi-magical cartoonism. Plus, they refuse to actually consider the impliations of the technologies they claim to have. I have too much intellectual honesty for that. But what mostly pissed me off was the relative lack of world overlap (Matrix/Physical/Astral). The overlap was cut down and made more accessible but less interesting. And the fools dropped the price of cyberware so much…

Obviously, the actual mathematicaly rules can be something else.

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Since it looks like I’ll be home late, I’ll go ahead and post some concepts and spoilers, basically.

In Penumbra (my game), you can pick a variety of races, and the game, like Shadowrun, is point-based. No classes. No messy ability trees to finick with. If you want somethin, buy it. You can be a skilled computer-using wizard. You can be a ninja-shaman. Whatever tickles your fancy. AT the styart, you don’t have any points at all, just a basic skill or two.

But that quickly changes. And over the course of the game you can learn one of three forms of magic, study physical combat, learn to steal data and program code, or become a smooth-talking con artist. You can also get expensive permanent spells or cybernetic modifications built in.

The presentation format has some options. You can choose seperate modes for exploration, dialogue, ranged combat and melee combat. By default, it’s put in FPS mode for exploration, dialogue, and ranged combat (if you’re armed with a gun or spell). Melee combat whether weapon or unarmed gets 3rd-person. But you can change it as you like.

Of interest is the fact that contacts and money are vastly more important than in most games. Let’s face it: cash isn’t terrribly great in most RPG’s. After all, you know from the beginning that you aren’t going to find the +10 Sword of Uberness in somebody’s shop, although a few games (Baldur’s Gate II) make it more useful at various spots. But that’s not how Penumbra works. If you want an advanced program, you need to buy it. If you want a sweet gun, or a great computer you have to buy it. Likewise, people sell you spells and training for cold hard cash. Sometimes lots of it.

Some of this is legal, and you can just walk into a shop and buy it. Much of it… is not. Because of this, knowing the right people can be as vital as having ample cash. Contacts are your life’s blood, and the game keeps easy track of them in your character’s notebook.

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The exterior levels should seven large blocks square, about 3/4 of a mile end to end in-game. Remember that these are urban areas, too, so the sections are packed with cool stuff. Gangs, bums, squatters, steetwalkers, druggies, and police all hang around them. There will be about 7 main areas in the game, although even all together this isn’t nearly as large as, say, Oblivion. It’s 4 square miles compared to Oblivion’s 16 square miles.

.75 mi * .75 mi = .5625 mi^2 ; 7 areas x .5625 mi^2 = 3.9375 mi^2 ~ 4 mi^2

Transitions into and out of minor areas primarily occur via “security doors.” If you need to get into a club area (pretty small area to load), you enter the security doors, they close, and you can wait in there while the game loads the new mini-zone.

The key factor in the game is that the in-door mission levels are quasi-random. Let’s face it: office blocks are not the most fabulously cool things ever to be born upon the earth. So why put huge amounts of effort making what are, at heart, generic offices? Instead, the game system will use the cubicle concept in a whole new way. Cubicles and offices are stuck together with various color schemes and optional designs and things (for individual customization).

This permits the game to stitch together a unique office every time you go on a mission. They only remain stable as long as you’re in the same building. (You can move between floors). A fairly simple matrix system should let the computer pop together a floor plan from pre-constructed parts. So we might design in a hundred office segments, but they can be combiend in nifty ways. Likewise, pop in various locations for machinery and so forth in service levels or the basement.

What’s neat is that these segments are useful. A computer might be an data access point, and the game can occaisionally drop in a useful item or NPC. Thre might, for example be a security key in someone’s desk. Or an employee might be working late - will you play it cool and get some info, or bludgeon the unfortunate soul and rifle though his pockets?

Guards will patrol around and may stop you, but with some fast-talk and maybe a faked-up ID card, you get by.

Note that things will become more stringent as the game goes along. Early guards might not check, but late-game ones might call ID cards in. Then they’ll start checking them versus databases and things. It takes more convincing and more expensive props to sleaze past. Likewise, the guards get tougher and more aggressive. Late-game patrollers may not have cyberware, but have better gear and can certainly call in skilled hunter-killer teams.