Idea Info Name: Dragonkind Index: Primary Category: Adventure Submitted: 11/16/2003 1:37:51 PM Written By: Kwestions

Back Story:

        Your kingdom is collapsing under the weight of the seventy year war with the Muracai armies in the east.  The numbers who have died are countless.  The Emperor, a young man when the war began, is now ancient and senile.  The Council of Lords is plagued by corruption and controlled by the wealthy Guild of Shippers and Holders.
        There is a greater danger, though, that looms silently in the kingdom.  On three consecutive nights, in three identical ways, three innocent young girls have been slaughtered in the city of Rissock - the capital of the kingdom.  Their bodies show no sign of trauma, except that their hearts have been removed with almost surgical precision.
        So few realise, but the ancient Blood Prophecy is taking shape.  Of those that do realise, so few desire to fight against it.

Where do you fit in?

        To begin with, you (the gamer) take on the role of Aredei, a young apprentice blacksmith.  You undertake a few tasks to familiarise you with the game.  However, you quickly come to witness the murder of the fourth innocent girl.  You are in great danger of being killed, except that you are saved by a tall warrior character.
        The character who saves you is Loki, a member of the "insidious" Dragonkind Guild.  He takes you back to their secret guild headquarters.  There you are told a great many things about the evil that lurks in Rissock.  You deny them, until you discover that you have been blamed for the murder of the innocent girl and the three other girls and there is a warrant for your arrest.
       With no where safe to turn, you take up with the Dragonkind Guild and so begins your journey to save the Kingdom and the world.

How it works?

       The objective is, obviously, to discover the force behind the prophecy and eliminate it.  This is done through many missions of varying kinds and difficulties.  You may have to sneak into a fort and steal a scroll for one mission; chase down a scout carrying the alarm on horseback in another mission. You will have to take part in a melee style siege of a city in one mission; and then, battle pirates aboard a ship at sea in another.  In this regard it is much like any other swords and magic FPS game.
        However, the interesting thing is - you are able, at any time in the game, change from one character to any other of the three main characters (Loki, Aredei and two others from the Dragonkind Guild).
        Moreover, as the game progresses, these characters reveal their magic ability to communicate with dragons and from that point on, you are also able to switch to the perspective of their personal Dragon Guardians.
       In most missions, it will not be possible to achieve the goal without switching to the Dragon's perspective and, for example, burning down the guard tower where all the archers are hiding and thus allowing your human character to cross the courtyard.
       ALSO, in many cases there will be three or four missions running at the same time so that you may have to achieve something in one mission with one character so that another character in another mission can achieve their goal.
       For example, a city mission may require a character in the sewer to enter a palace through a vertical shaft that is too high for them to jump or scale.  Another character in the city would have to break the sewer gate at the river and flood the sewer so that the first character could float up the shaft to their goal.

Interesting Features

     Apart from the interconnected missions and ability to swap characters (each of which would have different styles, abilities, demeanors), you will have to think carefully about when and where to swap.  If you swap to another character while your character is in the middle of a sword fight - your first character will be killed.  To swap to another character, you will first have to find a safe place to hide.  This means that level architecture is VERY important.
      Missions are not all the same thing.  You could swap from one character who is stealthily sneaking through the servants passages of the palace in an effort to be undetected, to another character who is on the battlements firing flaming arrows onto a sieging horde.  You could then swap to a dragon that is soaring above that same horde and sweep down to burn hundreds of the enemy to death, AND then you could swap to another character who is hunting down a terrified informant amidst the chaos of a city at war.

I think you all get the idea.  I have quite a developed plot for this game idea, but I won't share that, or this will become far too long.