SotA School Yard &Orphanage, "The Reminders of Compassion"

Last of Us and The Walking Dead both did an amazing job of this recently, creating empathy/compassion for the NPCs in the game.

 

"A Finite Life"
*is a life worth saving'

When the Evil Jivalax Azon and his Ebil side kick Enderandrew come to town and start Smacking around all the NPC's I care about or Darius I say even tries to kill one of my dear extended NPC family members! Ak I'd say screw the saving crap and all that other garbage I've been collecting, I'm out the door with my saber in a flash!

Yet it may cause others to think twice about what they too care about and that's what idea of testing our Virtues that LB seems to be wanting to give back to us through this new adventure he plans for us.

I'd say even further still, that if I did loose such a time invested and valuable member of NPC family or friend, that I'd be rushing to the Portalarium Store to buy a Tomb Stone for such an NPC, because "a finite life can and sometimes would have an end" My yard may fill with their stones but my heart would be fill with a true feeling of what "Compassion" has to offer.

Just think of all those poor children of our dear Portalaium Employees and how they've sacrificed because mommy or daddy couldn't afford them new shoes and what a boon of wealth they might have when mommy or daddy decide to accidentally flip the Invasion Switch killing everyone in townand there by causing a buying frenzy of grave stones at the Portalarium Store... oh how happy those real little children would be

With everything I've heard from here on this thread, t'would seem of some reality's interest Indeed'.
I was only thinking of the icon and would have never thought there would have been so much at stake here

Portalarium please give us NPC's we can love cherish as individuals and then try and kill us all won't you?
Oh' what a poetry contest of such inspiration of bleeding hearts of Britannia would that bring...
That one would make even Shakespeare eat his heart out ...
Yet I think we need more supporters,
~Time Lord~

 

Despite my comic posted above (in jest) I only enjoy playing virtuous characters in games.

I've run table-top and LARP role playing games for other players for years and years. As a storyteller/gamemaster, I have to play all the antagonists all the time. I like the change of pace getting to play the hero in computer RPGs.

 

I am with you Ender, and while I know Timelord is having fun with us, I have the strange compulsion to make shoes for all the orphan kids. Dang you Timelord for manipulating my emotions! And I'll have some kind of witty comeback, just as soon as I am done cobbling!

 

There is a very simple solution to all these poor orphans.

http://art-bin.com/art/omodest.html

 

Weren't Empath Abbey and the Lycaeum 'schools' of a sort? I imagine there will probably be something similar in SoTA...

 

The Abbey wasn't. It went from keep to basically a monastery. Of all the keeps I think the Lycaeum changed the most. I certainly got the impression at one point that it was a place of learning but it was always more of a library than a school.

 

I dare Lum to include an NPC called "Swift Jon" that hangs out in the seedier side of town. If you talk to him, he asks if you'd like to hear about his "modest proposal" and thus begins your "quest".

 

*Time Lord's face begins to change like some hideous scene in Face Off*
"Hot Blood on a Cold Britannian Knight, on 61" a short children's story by Emit Drol....

So you want to know what I do. Well I’ll tell you a story. It’s a short story, but still as depressing as some of the other stuff I’ve seen in my line of work. You might want to refresh your drink stranger *Emit motions for drink for he and his stunned companion, the barmaid trembles as she sets them both up with another round*

It was dark. It was cold too. A whole night outside would have killed a man. The snow created a pretty contrast to the harshness of the cold, a nice effect that would almost make us not dread winter. But we still do.
A shriek of terror sounded off far away, showing me that even in the harshest of conditions, people still need to work. Now, you can either be a criminal, or you can be anything else. There’s only a small fine line between the two you know. So I stay as close to it as possible. Anyway, the shriek interrupted the quiet night where the only sound was the whispering wind, slowly intruding into any gap in my clothing, looking to chill the warmth. I was looking for someone. I’d been paid. I should’ve said no because of this damn cold but a guy has to eat. My client was a Knightly gentleman and I didn't know who his mark was or what they looked like. I just knew her name. My client wanted me to deliver a message to her. My client said to get to her by any means possible. I didn’t ask any further questions. I’ve been charged to deliver a message. I check my dagger is still there bumping against my ribs. I didn’t even think my fingers could have managed to keep it level, let alone plunge it into someone's chest, such was the cold. It just provides me with a feeling of security through the messages it delivers.
This girl was said to be a bar girl. I’m not one to judge. People have to make a living in this piece of sh&t town known as Kingsport. People have to survive and I’m dammed lucky I landed this job. The missing people, the murders, the kidnappings, the Brew smuggling, all my fields of work. In all the many ways I hate this small port town, I’m also grateful I’ve always got work. We do what we must and move on. You know what I’m talking about. Hell your kind isn’t much better. You make money from despair of all the tradesmen that you hold up by the roads. But, like I said, I don’t judge.
She's not one of us, she's the local school teacher and she was just around here asking about you". I was speechless for a moment... how did this school girl know of me'? I flip the bar girl a coin and walked on to where my new so called client lived, a Knight of some community stature of strangely hidden wealth. There the fat porker Knight was, sitting at his home stroking his cat while his face was covered with all the grease from fat soaked chicken leg he was gnawing on. I told him I needed double my fee because I had run into some unexpected extra expenses. He told me to wait as he got up from the table and went out from his back door. As I sat there wondering about the cat he had left behind just staring at me I noticed he and a dark cloaked figure from outside the window with seemingly boney looking hands. When he returned he plopped down triple my fee on the table and told me I should be most careful not to be seen or caught or bad things could happen to me in the midnight's cold. I just nodded to him, took the cash and made my exit. I flipped a beggar outside in the street a coin and told him to "I hope you keepin' warm tonight old man", yet as I was leaving him there, I heard a deep voice from him, "The Goddess is watching be warned". The sound of his voice sent new shivers through me from the cold, but I never stopped walking away into the dark where my kind find their ways. I arrived at the school teachers house and there I first saw her with some children all around her eating from a very small loaf of bread. My thought's drifted back to my own years growing up as orphans do and it was then I noticed as my thoughts began to fade that I had turned a bit and was now staring directly at the moon through the eye of the ankh that stood in the yard. Then a startling deep voice rang terror in my ear. It was the beggar pointing at an abandon building that lay shortly down the street. He said, "In that place they will be working within the week, all for that seemingly great Knight who's house is where we first meet". I looked back into the beggars face and it had no smile to be seen, just deep penetrating eyes that seemed to say something to my soul. As my eyes were now dry from my astonishment I blinked... and he was gone... yet a voice now inside my head I heard a sure as in the day there is light, "Ask the Goddess" as it faded away amongst the silent cold that I now felt as of pure ice. I know where this fat Lord porker will be this morning on his way to market in Brit, so I knelt down before the ankh and preyed to the Goddess "where you want this killin' done"? and the Goddess replied "Down on Brit Merchant Highway 61"...

And So I Ask You Stranger, Are You In?

*Then round your guild up and meet me by Brit Highway 61...
~Emit Drol~

*Emit Drol's face changes back to that of the Time Lord's*
Was something like that what you had in mind?
~Time Lord~

 

That really didn't come out the way I wanted it to... but somehow the way this forums loaded into my computer, the site tends to leave out things and refuses to allow me to edit anything.
But I think you get my drift, a seedier underworld of interconnected NPC as well as others that would be in the lighter side of life's quests and goings on.

In the missing part of the story (thank god you can be saved from reading such dribble) he goes down to the docks where the bar girls habg out and that's where he begins asking around if any of the other girls knew of her.

But I hope the reader may see it's intent,
~Time Lord~

 

Heh. Keep in mind we're still waiting to see the actual political and social structures of the world. Who knows, maybe the rapscallions are forcibly taken to a creche for future military training; or captured for magical experimentation; or even just pressed into hard labor at a young age to support a decadent empire.

Or perhaps they are simply brought to the local elders or learned masters, and tested for their aptitudes for the various trade and/or combat skills we're likely to experience ourselves as characters.

But, I do totally see RG delivering his promise to include some slaughtering of the children, because that's how he rolls.

 

I think Bowen would make an awesome NPC. "NPC of the Avatar", they could call it even.

 

Ok Mikeaw1101,

How did you know that the Evil Slave Shop Owner Knight in the story was Bowen Bloodgood?

Some people around here are just psychics I guess
~Time Lord~

 

Personally, I like the take of children in a game. It adds a bit of flavor that contributes to my immersion. However, the use of children NPCs would be dictated by the environment, eh?

Large cities would have street rats avoiding the local guards as well as the thugs who would exploit them (Oliver Twist comes to mind).
Within said large cities I would expect some center of religion where orphans would be cared for. Perhaps even a work-house or two for the homeless types with day-labor. Yes, if I live in a large city, I'd hire day laborers to care for my garden and receive some scraps from my table as payment.

A very popular way to help "educate" children was to foster them with the local lord in return for more farmland (or keep more produce from said farm). That is how many sons of local farmers became guards in a lord's little army. If I read right, most times it was the middle or younger sons. Daughters were also send to become ladies in waiting in hopes of gaining favor with the "real power" behind some kingdoms.

As the birth mortality rates were high in medieval times, certainly there would be dead/dying children seeking a penny or two at larger city gates. I half expect to see that at Kingsport to tell you the truth. Beggars and kids looking for a handout from the traveling tourists... lol!

I vote having children. There is much that can be done with them in the game not only for aesthetics, but for added and sub story lines, questings, and flavor. Imagine having to chase after a group of kids who are tossing your pilfered coin pouch back and forth!

 

Wait, you mean I will have to choose between saving the children or full looting? Sorry! Hehehe.....

I agree with Smack that creating compassion can be tough. It requires the gamer to be engaged in the story, reading the quests, etc. and not just spamming their way through them for experience. Then the stories have to be believable - things that grab us because of experiences in our own personal lives just set at a different time and place for us to see replayed. Different stories will call out to different people. It will be interesting to see how compassion is portrayed in game, no doubt. We have a great writing team on board though....so there is hope!

Good topic!

 

So how many 5-year-olds did LB decide he could take on after that hangout conversation? lol

 

I think he said in the hangout, a little after it was brought up, he could take 49 i believe. He just needs to wait till Kinga turns 5, and i think he'll change that to "not even 1"

 

I'd like to see choose your adventure type quest. 2+ endings to quest. Maybe the guy you are supposed to hunt down and kill tells you he stole all the bread to feed his family. Either kill him and get your reward or let him go and get compassion. Something along those lines.

 

I'm sure we will see things like that - we've already seen something similar with Myron or whatever his name is, where you have the choice to kill him or leave him. What difference those choices will make to our Avatars' virtue in the long run remains to be seen, I guess! I haven't played many games where I felt like my decisions really affected anything, so I'm looking forward to this one.

 

I was going to say the same thing. Britannia's historic lack of a real clergy would definitely change the structure of education. In Ultima, I could definitely see schools as it caters to the virtues. I'm unsure what would have happened after they were abandoned. I simply don't know enough about New Britannian society to say, but there should be something in place.