Plot Outline

Act I

  1. Tribal Village
  2. The Wasteland
  3. Imura Ruins
  4. Kholnyon Square
  5. The City Again
  6. Inside the Academy 1
  7. Return to the Settlement
  8. Inside the Academy 2
  9. Act I Sidequests

Act II

  1. Just Entered the Mirror
  2. Meeting the Factions
  3. Finding the Communications Post
  4. Find out how to fix the Communications Post
  5. Find the parts needed to fix the Communications Post
  6. Fixing the Communications Post
  7. Act II Sidequests

Act III

  1. Escaping the Mirror
  2. Act III Sidequests
  3. Endings

Discussion

Note: The following discussion was written by Jim back when he was still active with the project. I've recently changed the plot structure a bit by shifting some events to earlier acts. This does not affect the sequence of events. I simply changed which events belong to which act. Nevertheless, when referring to Jim's discussion below, it helps to see how the events were originally organized:

Act I

  1. Tribal Village
  2. The Wasteland
  3. Imura Ruins
  4. Kholnyon Square
  5. The City Again
  6. Inside the Academy 1
  7. Return to the Settlement
  8. Act I Sidequests

Act II

  1. Inside the Academy 2
  2. Act II Sidequests

Act III

  1. Just Entered the Mirror
  2. Meeting the Factions
    1. Finding the Communications Post
    2. Find out how to fix the Communications Post
    3. Find the parts needed to fix the Communications Post
    4. Fixing the Communications Post
  3. Escaping the Mirror
  4. Act III Sidequests
  5. Endings

FYI

—Frank

BR-PROJECT – PLOT STRUCTURE ISSUES

Current plot structure

I have written up this plot summary for myself. Any errors in it are my own. Perhaps it has some use for you in grasping the plot overall.

BACKGROUND
It is a world that once was dotted with great cities run by wondrous magic. The cities were interconnected with teleportation mirrors.
Over a century ago, a wizard invented a special mirror that was able to strip all evil from any person that peered into the looking glass. He got a docile work force in this way, but he missed that the mirror kept all the evil filtered away from those who had used it. The accumulated evil amassed into an entity, which soon acquired a substantial intelligence.
The evil entity soon recalibrated the teleportation mirrors all around the world, in a synchronised effort, so that every user received the mind set of a mad, murderous husk. Two hours later, the world’s population had been reduced to a 100th of its original size.
Horrified, the wizard and a few survivors managed to push back the entity into the mirror and magically contain it there via a potent ward.
The world was left in ruins. The apocalypse drained it almost dry of magic and high civilisation. Superstition and tribal rivalry soon proliferated.

ACT 1

1. PC drops into the post-apocalyptic world.
2. PC moves through the Yubi Desert, an unforgiving wasteland. The hostility there forces the PC to seek shelter in Imura, a ruined city nearby.
3. PC explores a section of Imura, once a great city of wondrous magic. Sooner or later, the pc will find Kholnyon Square – a fortified elven settlement.
4. In Kholnyon Square, the PC will be brought to the leaders for questioning. The square is initially a place where the PC can gather a limited amount of information as well as team up with a forced companion that tells the PC about the academy.
5. The PC and the settlement companion will in due time make their way to the academy. In order to get there, a new, smaller section of the ruined city has to be traversed. In there, the PC is notified about the Exiles. To gain access to the academy, a code has to be figured out.
6. The PC and the settlement companion enter a section of the Mirrorlight Academy. The PC eventually activates the mirror teleportation network. In so doing, the entity stirs from its slumber and immediately begins using its hauntings to manipulate the pc and the companion. As they come across a specific mirror, some hauntings bug out the companion, who accidentally pulls the PC into the active mirror. Thus, the PC and the companion gets teleported away, to Kholnyon Square!
7. The elves and their leaders in Kholnyon Square are mostly in awe of the spectacular entrance of the PC and the settlement companion. The return opens up the settlement, so that the PC can stock up on supplies as well as interact with several NPCs. When ready, the PC will return to the academy.

ACT 2

8. Once inside the academy again, the PC will, through her/his use of the newly activated teleportation network, soon encounter exiles and later the Exile Leader. The Exile Leader is being influenced to think his false demon god is trapped in the mirror and will be working to release it. At the mirror, the PC will run into the Exile Leader, and together they will get tricked by the entity. Thus, the PC and the Exile Leader get sucked into the mirror while the entity is released!
9. The mirror dimension is a strange world. It is populated by Rended Souls, the Forsaken, and Seekers. Inside the mirror dimension, the PC will find that any companions are now gone. Also, the PC will encounter a confused Exile Leader, pondering over the betrayal of his god. In this state, the Exile Leader can be used as a companion, left behind or challenged (the latter will lead to rended souls attacking both the PC and the Exile Leader. Even if the PC decides to continue harming the Exile Leader, the Exile Leader will run away before death.). Regardless, the PC will get attacked by a group of rended souls, and survive, only to get approached by one of the Forsaken, who leads them to the hideout of his faction. Thereafter, more rended souls will assault the PC, but then a seeker enters the fray, trying to capture some of the rended souls. The seeker will guide the PC to her/his camp. There, the PC will encounter an imprisoned rended soul, which is intelligent and talkative enough to off the PC ensights into its own faction's plight. By visiting all factions, the PC will eventually garner all clues necessary to escape the mirror dimension. The choices made inside the mirror will determine the fate of the entity, the mirror factions and the apocalyptic world.

PLOT ISSUES

I have now done one thorough read-through of the plot in its entirety, as presented in our wiki. I have solely focussed on finding any kind of incoherence inherent in the plot (from my point of view). Some of these issues are major concerns, other of medium importance, and yet others mere nitpicks. Just remember: They are nothing more than suggestions, all set to make the plot shine at its brightest, hehe.

BACKGROUND ISSUES

· 2 h is too short a time for the murderous mirror husks to do their dirty deed of reducing the population that drastically, especially considering that the world population is repeatedly referred to as 'millions'. Rather, it would still be a matter of days or even weeks.

ACT 1 ISSUES

· Dropping the PC directly into the Yubi Desert would not be the most beneficial. Adding an introductory ‘home tribe area’ will give the player time to adjust to the low-magic setting, level up a bit, and, most of all, get directly immersed into the post-apocalyptic world. The CON is that this means additional work for the project.
· As the PC and the settlement companion returns via a mirror to Kholnyon Square, it needs to be better explained why the settlement just don’t go hostile on them, or at least ostracise them. There is a much in the plot background, to suggest such a response. If we are to have awe reactions here, the why of it has to be clarified.

ACT 2 ISSUES

· What exactly makes the PC return to the academy?
· Will the PC be able to use the mirror they came through as a return portal back to the Mirrorlight Academy?
· Two of the names of the groups (factions) populating the mirror dimension is slightly confusing, somewhat anonymous and not very satisfactory 'game poetically'. Seekers, on the other hand, is a very good name. Instead of soul this and soul that, I would replace 'lost souls' with travellers. It is said that no other beings know their way around the mirror dimension like the 'lost souls'. That is a contradiction in terms. Rather, they are travellers who got interrupted while using the mirror teleportation network. The name 'traveller' also matches up well with 'seeker', game-design-wise. Lastly, 'rended souls' refer to those bereft of their good soul halves. For them, I would suggest ragers. In my mind, Seekers, Travellers and Ragers are more clear and distinct inside the mirror dimension than Seekers, Lost Souls and Rended Souls.
· I am not fully at ease with the diversity of the 'clue paths' inside the mirror. The PC seems to go through the same setup three times over: The PC meets several of one faction, then a single member of another faction gets wordy, so PC is taken to some faction camp, gets their story, and then circulates through this process again until all 3 clues are harvested. Would it not be neat, if it would happen in a bit more varied fashion. The event where rended souls assault PC and then a seeker arrives to catch one or two of them is great. Even the seekers having a hideout or camp is fine. Keep it. The first assault of the rended souls I think can get dropped. However, the rended souls that attack if PC attacks Exile Leader is perfect. Preferably, the PC meets the lost soul in a one-to-one situation - also, please don't have the lost soul 'take the PC to its leader'. How about lost souls being connected via strange journey routes throughout the dimension - they don't live in a located community - they are constantly on the move. Have instead the PC joining that lost soul on its journey, if just for a while, where mysterious dangers await. Finally, I think the rended soul prisoner is decent enough - just accentuate his status of bordering on madness more, and also that rended souls are more like a mass of enraged bees - no organisation except rage and group similarity. Let there be no rended soul hives - rather, they all partly share a collective consciousness of unrestrained wrath and confusion. Thus, the PC's interaction with that rended soul could be really uncanny indeed.

/Jim

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