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Heroes Community > Heroes 5 - Modders Workshop > Thread: Formulating a storyline.
Thread: Formulating a storyline.
Serpent2
Serpent2


Famous Hero
Overlord of Tililea
posted October 19, 2007 12:00 AM

Formulating a storyline.

Hi all. I want to write a storyline for a cmpaign. it will most probobly be long - I want it to be sort of like the heroes chroicle but facing over sveral characters. So it'll most probably take long to write. I just wanted to know how should I... well, formulate it?
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Forgive my spelling!:<                  

[URL=http://www.ff-fan.com/chartest]Which Final Fantasy Characte... too long to display...

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Daystar
Daystar


Honorable
Legendary Hero
Back from the Dead
posted October 21, 2007 02:46 AM

Start with a character.  This is the most important aspect of the story:  A character people will relate to.  This makes them keep playing.  Don't think about story yet.  Just think about a character.  Decide:
Race
Age (old, young, imortal?)
Temperament (warlike, thoughtful, sarcastic)

Then move onto the goal:  What does your character want to acheive?  This can be anything from visiting his/her parent to saving the world from unspeakable evil.  

Next, think about some obstacles.  What is preventing your character from achieving his/her goal?  This is when you flesh out your world:  The local history, the general lay of the land, and possibly important characters other than your main one.  It is important to note that obstacles do not always have to be litteral.  An obstacle can be as simple as an uncrossable river to an internal struggle within the character.  Say he wants to visit his mother to ask for advice on teaching at the Academy (he has just been hired) but is hesitant, unsure wether he can prove that he is just as good as his older (and more favored) brother.  

Next, decide on the Climax.  Figure out where you want your story to go:  Using the above example, the mother recieves him, and asks for forgivness for unitnentionally favoring the elder brother.  She then gives good advice, and the main character is able to return to teach successfully.  This is a happy ending. You may want to take the other path, of having the mother turn him away, and have him either learn from this or fail and fade into obscurity.  You could simply have him entering his mother's house, and leave it as a cliffhanger.  

With your ending, decide on how you want to get there.  It is good to include at least one more character, and perhaps a few lesser obstacles.  Decide how long your story will take to tell.  If you wanted to have at least 5 maps (like in Heroes V), decide if there is more to the begining or end.  The climax may not be the end.  For instance, say the main character went to talk to his mother:  This could be the end of the 4th map.  Then the last map is the main character implementing what he has learned.  Also, perhaps you want to extend the begining to a mission showing how he got the post teaching at the Acadmey.  

Decide on the character's motivation for achiving the Climax:  Why did he/she go through the struggle?  At this point, you should also think about the struggle.  It is much better if the struggle is interesting.  A simple crash and burn struggle is not interesting, but if the main character has to destroy things that are of great spiritual signifigance to him, for example, it does 2 things:  1, it shows how far the character is willing to go, and 2, it makes the character confront his own motivations, and may possibly push him or her in a new direction, character wise.  Also, one action may provoke the anger of another character, or perhaps make them like your character more.  

Finally, bridge the gaps, and go back to fix any little things that are missing, or that no longer fit into the story.  

Now all that is left is deciding on names, dialogue, and other little things.  It might help to have someone look over your storyline/dialogue after you finish, or perhaps midway through, and ask for their opinions.  

Hope this helped!

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How exactly is luck a skill?

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Serpent2
Serpent2


Famous Hero
Overlord of Tililea
posted October 21, 2007 11:14 PM

It helped me a lot. Thnx.
____________
Forgive my spelling!:<                  

[URL=http://www.ff-fan.com/chartest]Which Final Fantasy Characte... too long to display...

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Daystar
Daystar


Honorable
Legendary Hero
Back from the Dead
posted October 22, 2007 04:11 AM

No problem, it was fun to write.
____________
How exactly is luck a skill?

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Serpent2
Serpent2


Famous Hero
Overlord of Tililea
posted October 22, 2007 09:17 PM

You know what? I think we can build it tougether in this thread if you feel like making a storyline.
____________
Forgive my spelling!:<                  

[URL=http://www.ff-fan.com/chartest]Which Final Fantasy Characte... too long to display...

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Daystar
Daystar


Honorable
Legendary Hero
Back from the Dead
posted October 22, 2007 10:39 PM

I apreciate the offer, but I'm really busy right now.  Perhaps in a while.  
____________
How exactly is luck a skill?

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Kronos1000
Kronos1000


Promising
Supreme Hero
Fryslân Boppe
posted October 22, 2007 10:41 PM

Hey, I used a similar way of writing the story for ToK wich really turned out well

Global points:

*Karador wants to get rid of warfare and chooses the Ancient one as the only one that could do it, but he has to free it. (Goal)
*People are trying to stop him everywhere since they fear the Ancient One including the Warlock Crage. (Conflict)
*Evantually he does succeed in freeing the Ancient One, the story of Campaign one is lineral no real twist, but the climax comes in Campaign two.

*Crage, a rather evil person now wants to stop Karador at all cost, because Karador humiliated him. (Goal for other character)
*Evantually after killing Demons and destroying large parts of the Unicorn Empire the Ancient One now unleashes its wrath upon Karador (Climax)
*Finally Crage convinces Karador he was blinded by his vision and now he realises he was doing wrong all the time and instead of Crage kills Karador they decide to work together (Inner struggle for both)
*Evantually another climax happens at the llast moment someone you don't expect had evil plans all allong I wish I could tell, but I want to keep the ending a secret.

And another tip for writing a story should be to give your characters more depth, not just he is the good guy and that's the bad guy, it was something HoMM V lacked imo. Like Isabel, Godric, Findan, Zehir, Duncan, Freyda etc. are the good guys that's easy to tell, but Markal, Kha-Beleth, Biara, Alaric etc. are the bad guys (I haven't started theTotE Campaigns yet) but can you tell who are good and bad in ToK like Karador he thinks he is pure white and meanwhile he is attacking lands and killing people, and Crage he looks black at first, but in the end he decides to save the world, pretty simple actually, but it makes a story a lot more interesting.
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Hwær cwom mearg? Hwær cwom mago?
Hwær cwom maþþumgyfa? - 'The Wanderer'

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Moonlith
Moonlith


Bad-mannered
Supreme Hero
If all else fails, use Fiyah!
posted October 23, 2007 11:32 PM
Edited by Moonlith at 23:36, 23 Oct 2007.

Ironicly I always come up with retarded motives and stats when making up a character for a storyline

Such as "Lecher", who is a young 19 year old geeky hero on a quest to die as the man who's had most perverted sex in history! Quite troublesome, since he's real ugly and even the succubi are repulsed by him! On top of it all, he's gay!

That's how something usually starts when I make something I'd probably imagine some retarded Special as well, called "Repulsive gesture!: Makes the hero flaunt his private parts to give -10 morale to enemy creatures, EVEN undead" or something like that, usually hoping Comedy makes people interested in it and disregard the sheer illogical retardedness of it.



Hmm, are all great stories designed around a main character for starters ? My problem is I usually start with evil characters. Such as "Kamus" who's a human Warlock, concentrating more on Knowledge than Attack though, and being extremely gifted in the arts of Dark and Destructive magic, particularly mind control, using ferocious beasts where-ever he goes just to flaunt his control and power, but as well in combat. His goal? Absofreaking no idea.... You may be right, I need a goal for him first. Obtaining world domination is a very BAD goal, it's pointless and boring. Obtaining superior power, maybe. I really don't know.

PS, Kronos, I'm sending you an IM.

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