Causality Break - Original RPG Project Recruiting

[Machina Kyrios]

Well, I've put this off enough. Originally, this was going to be posted around the middle of May, but the blood drawn by the Crimson Echoes C&D was too fresh. While that would have been a good time for a heartless opportunist to make his move, I happen to have a soul, and felt that would be a bit too bad of form. So now that the Crimson Echoes gameplay videos are out, and things have cooled down a bit, I can post this without feeling like a soulless vulture.


Causality Break is, as stated in the title, an original IP RPG, one based around time travel and a cosmic horror. Familiar grounds, no? There's already a rough framework of the concept, world, characters, and events, but this is rather early in the drafting process, after all, so there are character concepts that don't have names or ideas of what they look like, and most of the nations thoughout the world's history are unnamed.

Before getting into what's already there, full disclosure time. I am, first and foremost, a writer. My ability in regards to art, music, and programming is effectively non-existant. As such, without outside help, this will be done, most likely, in RPG Maker with whatever open modifications, editable sprites, and free music I can scavenge. I'm also leaning toward a more WRPG style, with dialog trees (doable in RPG Maker, at least) and hopefully, if I can recruit an interested programmer, Baldur's Gate style (Real Time with Pause) gameplay. There's a good example here with some commentary but the screen a bit cropped. But, as I said, if no such programmer can be recruited, I'll probably be making due with whatever I can get RPG Maker to do.

The plot is, at the beginning, rather simple.

Ten years before the game begins, in the year 1615, the kingdom of Kania is conquered by its neighbor and long-time foe, Golrana. Refugees flee across the sea to Kania's ally, the republic of Norywen, to plan their eventual counterattack against Golrana. The royal family of Kania is believed by the average person left in Kania to have been wiped out.

The game begins ten years later, with a young Kanian woman named Era in northern Norywen, plotting her own revenge against Golrana for the death of her family. Joined by her automaton bodyguard, Wulf, a trip through the woods leads to a sudden jump 626 years in the past, and a chance meeting with other time travelers with disturbing knowledge of the future and the end of the world.

Stopping there for now to avoid ruining any really big surprises. There's more decided, but putting everything out there to begin with would just make things even more cluttered.


The player's role in all of this is not in Era's shoes, but in her head as her conscience. In battle and on the field, you have full control of Era's actions, and the rest of the party, but in dialog and during some choices on actions, the options you get on the dialog trees are closer to "suggestions" than instructions. For example, if it comes up in the dialog tree to ask what happened during the war, Era will answer herself (and thus you) without having to ask something she already knows and necessitate an idiotic and contrived "Oh deary, how could you forget, yadda yadda yadda" exchange. Of course, there's also the inevitable conflict between what Era wants to do and what the player might want her to do. Usually in regards to whether or not it's a good idea to make someone mad. Those kind of situations are being well considered.


Any information I'm forgetting, or any questions? I'm trying to avoid an excessive info dump, but in my perpetually sleep deprived state I understand I might have missed things.

[Machina Kyrios]

Well, despite the project announcement not going over too well (re-reading it now that I've been getting sleep, I can see why...) work on Causality Break has been continuing, to the point of warranting an update (read: second infodump) that will probably also get a chilly reception. BUT A MAN DOES NOT GIVE UP!!

First update of note is a change from Game Maker even being considered. To use it, I'd have to either buy the full version, or resort to piracy. I'm too poor for the former, and the latter is out of the question for various reasons. Fortunately, I've found a good alternative that has the capacity to do what I want it to. Novashell seems to be a pretty good fit so far, and even without a programmer I might be able to pull off the WRPG plan. (Not to say a programmer joining wouldn't be a very, very good thing.)

Some dialog trees to be used in the beginning bits of the game are being worked on. Mostly unimportant villagers at the moment while I work out more about the more important residents of the town of Colgran. (Oh yeah, the starting town has a name now.) I'll probably dump that first script here when it's done. No "Times are tough" guys here.

In the initial post I didn't mention any big details about the time traveling system. Causality Break uses a dating system closer to that of Earth history, covering sixteen planned time periods. I'm aiming at handling these time periods as realistically as possible, to the best of my ability, keeping in mind that "realistic" is mutually exclusive with both time travel and magic. For instance, I'm considering establishing different currencies for different nations in different time periods. Of course, this is all still in planning, and the difficulty inherent in such a situation for players would be offset by the easily exploited nature of time travel. There would be places untouched by humans throughout long stretches of time where players could stash things to pick up in later time periods. For instance, depositing coins from the Reuvrean Empire, 930 BCE, to pick up in 1952 CE to sell to a museum in that time period, since the ones you still carry wouldn't be nearly three thousand years old. Ambitious, yes, but what I lack in raw coding talent, I make up for with pseudocode and problem solving, so I know it can work. It'll just be a matter of hammering at the problem until I figure out something that works in code. More difficult is the idea of having to disguise characters to fit into a given time period, both for the programming difficulty and the geometric increase in the amount of art.

Time travel itself operates with, rather than gates, whole areas being swapped with their counterparts in a set time period they're connected to. In the early game example given in the initial post, part of the forest near Colgran in 1625 CE swaps itself, trees and all, with the same chunk of forest near Colgran in 999 CE. There would be more dramatic examples to clue the player and characters in to the existence of other points, such as a ghostly lighthouse that keeps appearing and disappearing. Events such as  these would also be the first clue that Era's party aren't the only time travelers. Time travel, however, requires a special quality in a person to trigger the switch. Era is rare in the sheer number of time periods she can switch to.

I have years for each of the sixteen planned ages, but I figure a dump of numbers would be rather poor.

I've also given some more thought to the magic system in the game. I even have a little diagram, crudely labeled until I create symbols of each element and hybrid.

Every creature in the Causality Break universe, save those that predate magic, have an affinity for one of the five base elements. (Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, and Ether) with Ether affinities being exceptionally rare. Between each of the elements is a hybrid, defined by the first users of magic, the Dragons. (Oh, by the way, there are dragons.) Provided I can figure out how to do combination attacks between characters in the party, said combinations would only be capable between characters who aren't of opposing elements (No fire and water users working together) and would be of the hybrid element.

More characters have names now instead of placeholders. I also realized I forgot to give any character details in the initial post. So, I might as well give basic outlines of the first five characters available to the players. The final count will be much larger than Chrono Trigger's, but probably not as huge as Chrono Cross's, and will be less excessive as I'm planning around an active party size of six. The characters themselves lean toward JRPG style, with set weapons and non-custom stat growth. Character names are also chosen based on meaning and geographic relevance.

Character dump following.


Era Jehona Alexandria
A sketch of Era's 1625 design, done by a friend at Anime Iowa back in August
Affinity: Wind
Weapon: Uses a katana exclusively
Home Time: 1625 CE
Era is the main character, a hotheaded young woman sent to live with a close friend of her parents when her home kingdom of Kania was conquered by its rival, Golrana. She studies the style of swordsmanship her father studied, under a swordsmaster from the nation of Eienkoku. (Name likely to be changed if I find I butchered that translation.). She is obsessed with seeing Kania restored one day and Golrana crushed, but until she discovers time travel she knows she's powerless to do anything on her own. She is fairly intelligent, but gives few things much thought, preferring to follow her instincts and let Wulf or someone else handle the things she can't be bothered with. Despite being the heroine, she's hardly the most pure or innocent person in the world, and in the pursuit of her goals her moral ambiguity renders few acts are too evil to consider. She thinks nothing of the strange impulses or thoughts (the player's proddings) she has. As stated in the time travel segment, Era has a strangely high ability to reach different time periods. This, combined with her goals, nets her the attention of numerous higher powers. Higher powers she has no qualms about giving the finger if they get in her way.


Wulf Feuersturm
Affinity: Fire
Weapon: Uses twin guns for ranged combat, wrist mounted melee weapons close up
Home Time: 1625 CE
A sentient humanoid automaton created using lost arcane technologies by Era's caretaker, Wulf's stated purpose is to act as Era's bodyguard. In reality, he is her closest friend, and the sole force that offsets her hotheadedness and impulsiveness prior to the first jump through time. His devotion to her is unquestionable, and even when she undertakes something contrary to his advice and that he disapproves of, he will not leave her side. Despite being a machine, Wulf is every bit as much a person as any Human, but hides his emotions under a cool, stoic exterior. He is warm and encouraging toward Era, friendly and helpful toward allies, but toward enemies his cold, ruthless behavior masks an all-consuming fury. If it will accomplish Era's goals, he will do anything she asks of him, with no ill will toward her. She is his entire reason to be. A human would call it love. Wulf doesn't consider himself human. Seriously injuring Era will cause Wulf to go berserk. Another of his berserk buttons is mocking his name, despite not liking it himself.


Taika Psyche
Affinity: Ether
Weapon: Fights with a staff when not using her magic
Home Time: 999 CE
In the magic-filled medieval years, sorcerers like Taika are a powerful force in the world. Taika, however, despite enormous innate potential, is a witch occupying a rather low rung on the arcane food chain before meeting Era and Wulf. She teaches the two about magic and accompanies them in exchange for a promise to help her escape her considerable financial obligations by bringing her along when they go home. Aside from horrible economic sense, Taika is intelligent and crafty, qualities she uses frequently to take advantage of those dumber than she. As a witch with an Ether affinity and enormous potential, she can cast spells of any element, including powerful Ether spells, but without training such power means little. Due to frequent clashes between her order of witches and Norywen's knights, she and Sieghard do not think highly of one another.


Sieghard von Colgran
Affinity: Earth
Weapon: Proficient with a broadsword and shield (loves to shield bash)
Home Time: 999 CE
Among Norywen's knights, the Order of the Broken Hilt is the most elite, and among the Order of the Broken Hilt, few have risen as fast as Sieghard. The estranged son of the baron of Colgran, Sieghard became so regarded within the order by a combination of skill, luck, and his superiors repeatedly attempting to send him to his death. He has survived the frequent wars between Norywen and its neighbors, every disaster he was sent to deal with, every plague the people of Norywen know, and battles against monsters that should have by all rights killed him twenty times over, as shocked by it all as his comrades. He has, as a result of his experiences become rather cynical, but remains as honorable and courageous as the day he was knighted. Despite his quarrel with the witches, he has no issue with magic in general, and himself knows a fair bit, mostly healing spells. When Era, Wulf, and Taika arrive in Colgran (999 CE), he is assigned by his superiors to aid them in the hopes the witch will sacrifice him to some pagan god or feed him to a demon. He respects Era's determination, Wulf's power, and (begrudgingly) Taika's trickery.


Richard Conrad
(Note: I had to force myself to promise not to make his last name Garlock. I don't think I can get away with THAT blatant of a reference.)
Affinity: Fire
Weapon: His fists
Home Time: Classified
A rogue captain of a former Temporal Incursion Fleet timeship, Richard's philosophy is that it does not matter how intelligent, strong, or well armed a man is, he who has the most courage, determination, and passion will always be victorious. It is this way of thinking that lead Richard to openly rebel against the Temporal Incursion Fleet's policy of maintaining history, with all the horrific wars and the apocalypse intact. Stealing a ship, recruiting a crew of like-minded individuals, and staging his rebellion was easy, until his ship was disabled and left to crash in 999 CE by a retaliatory strike. Left without a working temporal drive, Richard's inspiration was all that kept the crew together until Richard encountered Era. Meeting another time traveler who wanted to prevent a tragedy in the past was enough to revitalize the flame in Richard's heart, learning she had the ability to reach so many ages gave the whole crew new hope. Few if any threats are capable of diminishing Richard's hotblooded valor, and he tries to pass this courage on to everyone around him. He particularly respects Wulf's devotion to the person dearest to him, and sees a kindred spirit in Era. While some of her actions may appall him, he recognizes her goals as good. Especially if she can help prevent the end of the world.


The Phage
The enemy of all sentient life on the planet, The Phage transcends time, space, and mortality. Immune to attempts to erase it from the timeline, surpassing all weapons used to combat it, it is The Phage that marches the planet toward its inevitable destruction. There is no physical law the Phage is bound by, no consciousness that can truly comprehend its whole. The Phage simply IS, and it becomes Era and company's mission to make sure it ISN'T.





Any comments or questions about the project or the info dump would be appreciated. ^_^