Hey everyone, still working on my project, had to take a break due to life issues and work, but I am slowly working on things.
Have any of you worked a tournament into a game, as part of a story? I'm very interested in hosting one in my game, and I'd like some input from you all if you don't mind.
Here's what I've got so far:
Plot:
Country of Asvern hosts a tournament every 3 years to showcase it's fighting strength, and accepts challengers from around the world. The main character is convinced to join as part of a main quest, but the completion of isn't set in stone. Ideally, you want to win it, but you can lose and still proceed in the games. How far you get, as well as a few events that take place in the week long competition DO have an effect on the game, but it isn't massive. You are notified of this side-quest ahead of time, and have ample opportunity to seek out training and leveling before hand.
Concept:
Player will fight through 4 rounds of combat in a team with 4 members (set for this point in the game,) but only one team member at a time. Each 1v1 fight that ends in victory adds a +1 to your team's score. Once you reach 3 points, you win a majority of possible points, and win the round. Ties are settles by the team captains having a sudden death match. Each round marks a specific day, and if/after you advance, you are free to roam the Arena grounds and play through an intricate side quest plot that involves cheating, gambling, and some main plot foreshadowing. Switches and variables keep track of your progress, and various conditional branches will pop up later in the game that reference how you performed, so winning is worth working hard for.
Have any of you successfully incorporated a tournament, and if so, any tips on how to make it fun and interesting? Also, any remarks or critiques are welcome.
I have incorporated some sort of tournament into my game, but it's strictly a side quest. The important thing to consider if it's part of the main quest, is that you should still make the player feel it's ok to lose. e.g. The tournament could be organized as a distraction and while one character joins the tournament, the others try to foil an assassination or try to do something else. That way the tournament itself becomes not so important so if the player loses, he has still accomplished his real mission. If you want to make winning the tournament mandatory, you can treat it as any kind of dungeon. The only thing that matters is that it's beatable with normal gameplay and without level grinding.
I haven't finished all the heavily evented fights for the whole thing, but unless you have serious difficulty playing RPGs, I'm aiming to have it like 80% chance of winning the whole thing without grinding. It's essentially a large break from the main plot to dive into some backstory, and to add significant character development. Winning only has the efect of added EXP, a larger cash reward, and some late game notoriety. The tournament happens fairly early in the game, so to lose against isn't an ego-crippling blow. I have it evented so that if you do lose early, itis explained that the fighters are simply very experienced, and that you need to train more. If you lose late in the games, it's ruled out more as back luck. Should you win, many people contest your victory, and call it a fluke.
The driving force behind entering the tournament is to root out a criminal organization that is rigging the games, as well as funding an drug-running operation plaguing the local region. Regardless of the outcome, you still end up fighting against a well-funded, dangerous group of people. The win only changes some dialogue to give your player more credit for being a bad-ass.
Most of my game is centered around character development, so I keep that in mind when making these kind of quests.
Does my point system make sense for hosting a tournament? I feel the structural aspect of the competition is my weak point, as I'm more focused on the behind-the-scenes action.
Well at one point I planned to make a tournament based on story-line but at one point I figured
it would have been too "used" a concept and scratched it off...
basically in storyline your main character gets himself captured and sold into slavery forcing you
into no-rules series of death-matches where the winner is (supposedly) granted his/her freedom back.
of course this had it's pro's and con's
(pro's would have been a dark side-plot where you figured even though if you win the match they would have put you to keep fighting till you die or something more darker...) but at the time I had not sidequests done so I figured to bring back
a common battle arena where you get semi-rare/rare prizes instead.
arena features itself would have been
-wagering (via class and difficulty selection)
-exhibition matches (good for cameos, example: my character party vs, original RPGXP party.)
-side-plots (add a good-seasoned fighter and corrupt aristocrats and the rest is self-written)
-boss re-matches (boss-rush mode) where rewards depend on how many you take down before dying.
arena scenarios are great for many unorthodox events, since most if not all times you'll end with a "anything goes" scenario, if you feel creative and want to make the most of that scenario it's a great time to break the 4th wall I guess.
Oh believe me, I know the whole concept of a tournament is a little cliche, but I personally like some RPG formalities. I'm trying to gear in such a way that the fighting isn't the main focus....as if there is a bigger reason to joining the competition in the first place.
As always, the main focus of my quests is character development. By the end of the game, there are only 7 major characters to use, and I want all of them to grow on a player. I have variables that track the relationship between each character and the main, so this is a good chance to create some "team" unity, whereas before the characters were more loosely associated. I put a lot of effort into this department.
I'd like to incorporate a betting system. Good idea!