Last time I asked here for a fantasy game that is using core gameplay as random event system similar to adventure cards from Talisman Digital Edition and events from Thea The Awakening.
After days of researching, I and my RP friends did not find any title that would match this concept.
So, since we are programming from childhood, why should not we do such a free indie game?
I am here to ask if there are some passionated RPG gamers/GMs that have head full of ideas and rich imagination and would be interested in joining our project to suggest some ideas for random events?
General concept combines elements of dark fantasy theme (not a fairy tale nor colorful world, but dark reality with no mercy), turn based tactical combat (various actions to choose from), party based (companions with different abilities, possibility to invite most characters), rpg (character creation, statistic and trait system, equipment management), survival (starvation and other conditions, limited storage and wealth), random event (each adventure is different and unpredictable), making decisions (various choice options in most events), permanent death (no resurrection).
Here is a screenshot of current prototype: https://ibb.co/jn6irH
If you are interested to join us, let me know here or by sending a message on GOG.
I will reply within 24 hours.

I would really appreciate moving possible trolling/hate/superexpert/fanboy/emotional behaviors somewhere else.
This brings nothing useful to this discussion.
I also would like to point that we are not looking for free or paid programming help, but ideas about random events and features, because the more creative heads, the more points of view and variety in the game, and thats what is intended here.
Thank you.

Looks like this could be interesting. Are you planning on simply having an endless line of random events or will there be an over arching story line(s) with random events along the way?

Current concept is endless line of random events and working title "Fantasy Dimension - A Journey into the Unknown".
It would be "draw one more random event card" syndrome play for occasional continuing short sessions in free moment or longer if addicting enough.
There might be some optional goals, because most gamers more prefer to have point instead of endless free play.
One of them might be reputation which will change between neutral, good, and evil, and have point meter from -100 to +100, and might be interpreted like from becoming "Lord of Destruction" or "Legendary Hero".
This will also affect world reaction, like chance to invite into party (almost everyone encountered in the game, including animals if you pass "calm" check and have "zoology" trait) good or evil characters (neutral does not care as long as you pay), chance to leave by party member if he, she, or it does not like your decisions, and other event differences like encountering "Sabbath of Witches" to be poisoned if good reputation or healed from all bad conditions if evil.
If someone has ideas about goals in random event core based game, let me know.
Thats why I put post here, to get some suggestions from creative people.
Technically, browser based, so should work on any device, with progress auto save (this plus randomness - but not entirely decisive during whole tactical combat perspective - and permanent death might put this game to some kind of roguelike hybrid), and true free (no free to play model, no microtransactions, or other things like that).

So basically the game revolves around an adventurer, or group of them, who just go from one random scenario to another. Sort of like a Friday night D&D session but based more on random events than an over arching story line from the DM?

So one scenario could be that the player encounters an overturned wagon on the side of the road with a bloodied and bruised woman crying in the middle of the wreckage. After a sob story about being attacked by bandits the player will either:

- be ambushed by said bandits ( the crying woman also a bandit acting as bait)

- the player can recruit the woman

- the player can choose to seek the bandit hideout and either kill or recruit
them.


After that the player gets another random encounter, say a group of cultists around a fire performing a dark ritual. The player still has the option to recruit or attack, however there is a random chance that the cultists see the player has a bunch of bandits in their party (not necessarily from the last encounter, they could be bandits the player recruited earlier) and attack on site. There is also a chance for the ritual to actually work and summon some dark entity, which will either fight or join the player depending on their reputation for being evil, perhaps asking for payment of souls so the player must kill all bandits or other recruited party members as a sacrificial offering to have the dark entity join them.

Basically, the various scenarios are not connected but each one can change depending on stats such as faction reputation. And what you are looking for is a wide variety of different scenarios of varying lengths.

What does the technical aspect look like? What's your stack?

Yes, exactly. Thats a great example of interesting random event and exactly what I mean.
I especially like a concept of sacrificing, what increases number of choice options in one event, including that this one might be a nice hard choice if encountered creature is powerful, so we are between longer and liked party companions and tempting occasion. Yes, event may react differently on various factors, like for example reputation, stats (or stat checks like dexterity roll for a trap), type of companions (maybe someone will more like you if you have an animal in your party? what a nice wolf...), number of the party, gender (yes, there will be possibility to seduce, concept is male humanoid strength + roll vs female humanoid mental + roll, and strength is replaced by dexterity in case of female performing this option - mental is equivalent of unified int/wis/cha from DnD), amount of money, some special traits (something similar to feats in DnD, but in wider meaning, it is everything that is not a basic thing of any character, including examples like bloodless, incorporeal, abilities, skills, knowlegde about something like demonology allowing to perform exorcism - yes, possession will be one of possible conditions, and may result in lost of party member if not neutralized in proper time, and before it happens, blocking this person randomly from making actions, and this effect increases over time). Stack is influenced by Talisman Digital Edition adventure cards concept and more advanced random events with multiple choices from Thea The Awakening.
It may contain cards like encountering pure events (like nature diseasters like fog, storm, fire, or noticed something interesting that we can investigate or not like footprints, sounds, a boat that we can use to sail, or other things like traps, knight tournament where we can take a part in if we pay amount of coins, choose our party member, and perform strength check roll to get a reward), various character types (they may react in many ways, depending on various factors or our decisions during meeting), items (including mysterious chests or ancient tombs - open them and risk consequences, or not? if yes, which party member should do that?), and places (tavern - what to choose this time, maybe trying to lost some coins in a dice game with innkeeper? -, field of herbs - can create heal or antidote potions if having alchemy trait -, fruit tree - can take some food for later needs -, forest - lets check if we can hunt something).

So... apprentice.

How far would ye be willing to go to get that help you want?


What the...

Sorry, what I meant was the technological stack. What language are you using, what engine, what database, etc.

In such simple game concept like text, illustrations and GUI button elements to interact, it does not matter much what technology.
But as I mentioned in my second post, "Technically, browser based, so should work on any device, with progress auto save", which refers to web 2.0, so JS on client side and PHP on server side.
Personally I would prefer creating game in Flash (what? are you serious about this full of bugs outdated crap?) with pure 100% AS3 (never liked drag n drop of FLA, so I always had everything inside pure code, including importing graphics dynamically from external source - direct access to file system, easy modification of files without code or FLA change - and setting positon on the screen and other properties) due to fact that in my opinion by working with both for years, is better optimized (and I do not mean speed in this case, though 2D animations with JS, including basic position changing of sprite can work ultra slow, depending on a browser and its version - most slow I ever seen was FireFox since version 3 when they changed JS engine to new one, as they said "faster", up to many years of new versions, until they changed JS engine again with noticeably improved performance) for working with 2D interactive projects than HTML+CSS+JS mess, and compatibility (who has some little experience in making even basic websites since 90s, then have a view of all the history behind it, theoritically standards, but practically not everything working or looking in various browsers like it should, and later even changed again when new browsers were released - for quick example, sound api or pixel art filter in Chrome -, and this problem still exists, while things made in Flash have great backward compatibility and work the same on everything - for quick example, all the games on online gaming websites that were created in 2000s), but is dying, requires plugin installed, and is available on less platforms in full form.
As about engine, it will be original custom made from the scratch like I always do in most cases, so I am not limited in possibilities, everything works in exact concept, and I can modify it as I want to fit every desired need.
As about database, simple custom file based (yes, I know, this has tendency to break and file lock may not work as should, but this may happen only when various processes writes to the same file in similar time, so not a problem in this case, and as about speed, we have SSD era now and server caching stored in RAM - did various tests of executing time in ms before for personal curiosity, file vs sql), to avoid any popular "SQL error", possible too many connections to database limit, and make it work straight away after migration to any most simple server with most basic PHP support installed.
If made for windows installed game, then I would choose Unity with custom engine and own libs for working with 2D, because their basic support for working with sprites in other way than drag n drop, so from pure code, is in my experiences very annoying and requires a lot more code writing than it should (2D API, own or ready lib, is must have), but maybe something changed since version 5.0 personal edition that I am using.

What the hell are you talking about? I write code since 1988, web stuff since 1995 and for me you talk buzzword bingo gibberish.
Also Flash is undead, and someone should finally place a bullet in it's head.

No. PHP is a war crime and Flash is an atrocity. From your explanation it seems that you want a React frontend and a Node (maybe Express) backend. If it turns out that standalone app is a necessity, you can package it with Electron and have it run on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Are you attacking everyone on this forum like that, or am I so lucky?
If you really are a programmer since late 80s, then I would expect some more polite talk and arguments from your side.
I believed that GOG is not a sandbox, but a place for adult people.
Could you quote what exactly are you calling "buzzword bingo gibberish" and prove why?

I'm not sure he'll get it...
You talk like someone in a job interview really trying hard to leave an impression on a non-tech biz guy. Like Star Trek Warp Drive problems.

Also, what Alaric.us said. You aren't really suggesting PHP for a custom backend are you?

What? No. The stack I suggested will work across all modern browsers and will run natively on the there major OSs (albeit with a bit of overhead, which shouldn't be a problem on any at least semi-modern computer.) The best part is that the codebase will not have to be adjusted in any way.