OPENING SEQUENCE:

A warrior silently walks by a heap of corpses. There were corpses of every kind. Young child, old men, pure maiden, evil witches, holy priests... they all lie dead on the floor, lifeless. Their blood and flesh melded into a collective pulp, their statuses no longer make a difference...
They're all dead.
Seemingly unaffected by his surroundings, the warrior moved on, occasionally kicking a body or a head or a limb out of the way. Finally, he approached an altar, surrounded by five pillars lurching into the sky... all was darkness, but it looked as if heaven opened its way to the altar where the stone lies...
Its surface gleaming in brilliant red...
The Stone of Mana'k.

The warrior approached the altar, then stood before the stone, motionless, a look of unbelief upon his face, bewilderness... there lies the stone of curses, salvation, beauty, disgust, power, corruption, all that is of the world and all that is not of the world, belongs in the stone. He picks the stone up, and placed the stone on his forehead. Suddenly, red light came bursting through the stone; the flesh on the warrior's head opened, dripping blood, but ready to recieve the ultimate power; a menacing laughter started to echo around the corpses; the stone melted into the head slowly, inch by inch, and just when the flesh was ready to close up on the stone... An assassin, out of the shadows, stabbed the warrior in the crack of his armor. The stone fell on the floor and exploded into a radiance of red, consuming the souls that it claimed... The assassin returned to the shadow... a soft wind blew, carrying with it the sweet taste of a fresh new corpse.


BASIC CONCEPTS:

The game is named Stone of Mana'k, after the most powerful item of the game.

For the sake of simplicity I wouldn't go over the storyline; most people don't like to read them anyway.

This is an Online RPG game, similar to Ultima Online or Everquest. There isn't any ultimate objective save one: to obtain the Stone of Mana'k.

The other important concept is to replace guild system with a "family" system.

There are two unique concepts added to a basic combat system (any would do): the power of elements countering each other, and a skill tree for learning combat skills.


THE STONE OF MANA'K:

As you can see in the opening sequence, the stone contains power beyond imagination, literally making the wielder a half-god.

First of all, there can only be ONE Stone of Mana'k in the whole universe. It doesn't matter how many servers there are in the game, there can only be one stone, be it possessed by somebody or still in the wilderness waiting to be discovered.

Besides the original Stone of Mana'k, there are also seven minor Stones of Bugog, but their powers are limited compared to the Stone of Mana'k. Again, I stress the importance that there can only be SEVEN Stones of Bugog, shared among all servers in the world.

As to the practical effects of Mana'k: imagine that the average adventurer is about level 20... where life and skills improves in the linear fashion. Wielding the Stone of Mana'k would give that person powers equal to level 800-1000, plus the ability to access all skills of all classes available, including combat abilities and spells. The Stone of Bugog would give the wielder a level of 300-500, plus the ability to access all skills of the wielder's class.

How to find Mana'k: In the beginning of the game, the stone would be placed in any point of the wilderness or dungeons of the world. There are no specific methods or clues for finding the stone, save for the fact that everyone knows it's placed on an altar and the stone is gleaming in red (Bugog stones gleam in green). There is always a higher chance for it to be placed deep within dungeons. Again, remember because there can only be eight altars (in total), there might be servers with no altars at all.

As usual, any object with power of this magnitude would be guarded by hoards of high level monsters. After the monsters are killed and the stone is being picked up, about 100 portals would suddenly open around the world (cross-servers if possible) and all of the portals would lead to the vacinity of the altar. As long as the stone is in that person's possession and it's not in the melding stage, portals would continuously open up near that person, as a sign of warning that the stone cannot be carried on for too long. For stones for Bugog works in the same way except that the portals being opened would be far less, about 25. Remember that these portals can teleport people continuously, so there might be hundreds or even thousands of people fighting for the stone. Before melding, the stone would be dropped on the floor once the wielder is being killed.

To obtain the power of the stone, the stone must be melded to the wielder's head. First of all, only one stone can be melded for life--a person cannot meld in two Bugog stones or try to step-ladder from a Bugog to a Mana'k. Second of all, the melding process takes time--about 10 minutes in real time. For the melding period, the wielder can only fight with limited abilities: blindness (because of the light), disease (blood dripping out constantly reducing HP in time), berserk (from the pain of melding), mana burn (side effect of the stone while melding), etc. etc.

If the wielder of the stone is killed during the melding process, the stone would drop on the floor and disappear. It will not appear for quite some time, then it will respawn somewhere, quite possibly in a different server, and the process starts all over again.

If the wielding is successful, powerful energy would burst out from the transformed wielder, killing all those who are still struggling for the stone. The body would physically transform... a Bugog would turn the wielder into a black demon, while a Mana'k would turn the wielder into a red dragon. The power would remain with them until they're slayed, which returns the stone to the void and it will respawn after some time.

To prevent a wielder from hiding, (not logging on the server after obtaining the stone) there is an "AI" mode of gameplay for some players who want to earn experience when they're not playing (AI players have special rules; details discussed later). Originally, the AI mode is optional and can be done by choice. However, if a wielder hides for too long (15 real days without loggging in), then a "forced" AI mode would be turned on, with special rules allowing user to kill the wielder.


KARMA SYSTEM:

The Stone of Mana'k has a much looser karma system than other established Online RPG games. Basically, the game is completely open for PvP. Civilians (AI controlled) can also be killed... that includes townsfolk, merchants (although they're normally heavily guarded), or any other living object/being in the game. There are established towns in the game, but the AI town guards are weak and comes in a finite number, meaning that they can be completely wiped out from a town. The only special rules to the "Free PK" system is for members of the family, where killing family member is possible but not encouraged (see family system for details), and for AI mode players, where they cannot be PKed but they can be killed by AI monsters.


AI MODE:

Briefly said, AI mode is just a player who logs off the game and put the player under the computer's control. They follow a simplistic pattern of wandering in the wilderness, killing monsters and running off and heal if they're low in HP. The parameter of "patrol" can be set by the user. There can be a custom AI system but seeing that the game is already quite complex, it is possible but totally unnecessary.

Again, players in AI mode are not allowed to be PKed. The experience that they gain by killing monsters is dramatically reduced, and worst off, there is a chance that a player may be killed during AI mode. There was one important rule that I didn't mention: Each player can only have ONE CHARACTER in all servers, and ONE DEATH WOULD TERMINATE THE USE OF THAT CHARACTER. There will be no respawns. One strike and you're out. So AI mode is an option for those who are not able to play online often... with some serious disadvantages that needs to be considered. If the AI mode is activated by a wielder of either stone, voluntary or not, that specific AI player CAN be PKed.

As an aside, it might be probable that an AI player can follow an active player (probably a member of the family), under the consent of the offline player. That way, the AI player would be able to benefit more and in a safer method.

Also, to prevent players from PKing AI players using indirect methods (such as blocking a passageway when a AI player is running away from monsters), AI player's items will not fall on the ground when the AI player dies.


FAMILY SYSTEM:

One of the problems of online gaming is the severe disadvantage of "newbies" entering into a "matured" universe. This problem can be solved by the family system.

Like a guild system, the family system is a method to unite players for them to play while grouped together. There will be a set number of families in the beginning of the game. Since the system is quite complex, I wouldn't recommend a specific number... it is up to the developer's choice to experiment during beta versions and (maybe) transferring that number into the final version.

ALL players belong to a family, even a family of one member. Family members share the same last name (obviously). When a new player enters the world, there will be a short period where he can be invited to be adopted (probably to a friend). If the player is not invited, he/she can still select a parent available for adoption. A player must adopt (if there are players joining in the game) another player for every 10 levels; A player can also adopt a set number of "children" beyond the required limit (for example, if the extra adoption limit is 2, then a player of level 25 MUST adopt 2 new players, plus another 2 if he/she wishes). This adoption requirement is used to keep more experienced players in check, to prevent them from simply abusing the new generation of newbies.

Members of the family are linked by an "experience pool", so to speak. When a player earns experience, that experience is also transferred (with reduction) to the player's parent and grandparents. For example, a player slays a monster and gained 100 experience points. That player's immediate family (father, mother, sons, daughters) would also gain 5 experience points, and anyone with a 2 generation gap (grandparents, uncles, aunts, grandchildren) would gain 1 experience points. Not that these numbers are just for refrence; tweak them if necessary.

Just as there are benefits when a family member is improving, there are lost of experience when a family member dies. If a player dies, that player's immediate family would lose 1-2 levels, while that player's extended family might lost a considerable amount of experience points (about 1/3 of a level). Therefore, older parents with more experience should accompany their children to hunt; even if a child is adopted not by choice, a parent should still feel responsible because of this link for gaining and losing experience.

Just as guilds have guild wars, families can start blood feuds. Any member of the family can request a blood feud, and it becomes official when a number of family member agrees. That consent comes in priorities; older members have higher priority votes than younger members, so it might only take one vote of the oldest elder to start a feud, or 1000 votes from the youngest members to start a feud. A feud is set when either one of the family declares the feud official (the other family will have to fend for iteself, whether they like it or not). A feud would increase experience earned when killing a member of the opposing family, and extra experience lost when a fellow member is being killed by the opposing family. Blood feuds are also stopped by consensus: this time by both families.

As mentioned before, it is possible for family members to kill each other. Just to prevent it from happening in the first place, there is a SEVERE punishment for killing a fellow family member. First of all, there are no accidental kills. Family and friends can be flagged as allys so that they would deal no damage to each other. Therefore, when a family member kills each other, there is an extra level lost (about 3-5 levels) added to the original lost for the "experience pool" effect.

When a older member of the family kills a younger member (maybe to set an example), that member would be flagged as "vulerable" for a period of game time (20 days for example, with the forced AI mode in effect), where anyone from the younger generation can kill that particular member (but still suffering the same penalty for killing a family member) to gain the position for that member.

When a younger member of the family kills an older member, or a member of equal status that is NOT flagged as "vulerable", that member becomes a traitor of the family. There will be a short period (again, about 20 days) that he/she will have "wanderer" as a family name, meaning that he/she belongs to no family. During that period of time, they can either be adopted, or, if the player wants to or the wandering period ends, start his/her own family title. Therefore, it is possible that a player can switch family by killing an elder member of his own and proving himself to be worthy to join another family.

To prevent families from merging too quickly, (the world ending up with just one family?!) an increasing generation gap would provide new ways for a family to start. For example, a particular family exceeded a set number, which is the maximum family member limit. As soon as the oldest generation of character dies (out of natural or unnatural causes) (remember, this is the oldest generation recorded right after the limit number is exceeded), the oldest member (first adopted) of the next generation would immediately adopt the family name and all of its fortunes, leaving the other members in the same generation and their respective family tree in two states: 1. they are to have a new family name of their own, having no rights to any of the towns/properites that the family members origionally share, and 2. The new head of the family is being flagged as "vulerable" to the new families, meaning that the younger sons can steal the "firstborn"'s fortune by killing him off.


EXAMPLE OF A FAMILY SYSTEM

Let's just use an example to further clearify the whole system:
There are two families, the Merlocks and the Jensons.


*These are their respective members:
Greyhound Merlock, who begot
Sarah Merlock, who begot
Brad Merlock.

Zenzibar Jenson, who begot
Mark Jenson, who begot
Jacky Jenson.


--Brad Merlock and Jacky Jenson are good friends, even though they're from a different family. They "grew up" together and when they both reached level 10, they each adopted a player.

--Brad adopted Karen and Jacky adopted Nicole.

--Karen and Nicole becomes good friends also. However, one day during their adventure, Karen and Nicole wandered into a hoard of monsters, and Nicole abandoned Karen, who died from the monster bash. After a period of time (30 real days), the dead Karen was able to recreate a new character, Joe.


*Here's the updated family tree:
Greyhound Merlock, who begot
Sarah Merlock, who begot
Brad Merlock, who begot
Karen Merlock(dead) and Joe Merlock.

Zenzibar Jenson, who begot
Mark Jenson, who begot
Jacky Jenson, who begot
Nicole Jenson.


--Joe was furious. He wants revenge for what Nicole had done to his old character, so he request a blood feud against the Jensons. Even though Brad was reluctant (he's still friend with Jacky), the rest of the family agreed (Greyhound's vote really counts) and a feud begins.

--The Jensons are not as warlike as the Merlocks, and they try to cool off the feud as much as possible... Nicole, the immature young one, was not as obdient... she went off trying to take on the Merlocks by herself, and, when she was caught running off on her own, old Zenzibar finally decided to kill Nicole, as a truce to the Merlocks to end the feud. The Merlocks agreed and the feud is over.


*Here's the family tree, again:
Greyhound Merlock, who begot
Sarah Merlock, who begot
Brad Merlock, who begot
Joe Merlock.

Zenzibar Jenson(vulerable), who begot
Mark Jenson, who begot
Jacky Jenson, who begot
Nicole Jenson(dead).


--Mark Jenson is not really happy with Zenzibar in the past, and now that he is vulerable, he wants that "oldest elder"'s position for himself. Mark finally killed Zenzibar and gained the family title to become "oldest elder", now two generations older than Jacky.


*Here's the family tree, again:
Greyhound Merlock, who begot
Sarah Merlock, who begot
Brad Merlock, who begot
Joe Merlock.

Zenzibar Jenson(dead)
Mark Jenson(vulerable), who begot
(blank), who begot
Jacky Jenson


--Jacky was shocked for his *former* grandfather's death. He decides that he wants to leave the family and become a Merlock, and Brad agreed that he would be there to adopt Jacky. so 20 days later (when Mark is no longer vulerable), Jacky killed Mark and make himself a wanderer.


*Here's the family tree, again:
Greyhound Merlock, who begot
Sarah Merlock, who begot
Brad Merlock, who begot
Joe Merlock.

Mark Jenson(dead)

Jacky the Wanderer


--Finally, Brad adopted Jacky, thus ending the period of the Jenson family and opening a new page for the Merlock family.


*Here's the final family tree:
Greyhound Merlock, who begot
Sarah Merlock, who begot
Brad Merlock, who begot
Joe Merlock and Jacky Merlock.


TOWN LIFE:

By this time, one would be asking: if you can kill townfolks so easily for spare coins, who would bother to actually protect townfolks (or towns, for that matter?)

Families.
Any family can easily claim an unclaimed town by killing off all of the town guards and raising their own standard over the town central tower. From that time on the townfolks are supposingly under the family's protection. For every townsfolk protected, each of them will pay tribute to the protecting family at a set period of time (30 real days perhaps), in iron coins and jewelry (may be magical) and other items found in the wilderness (also may be magical). Some especially powerful items can only be obtained from townsfolks. Hoards of iron coins can be gathered to produce powerful weapons with the help of high level mages in the family and a blacksmith house, again, only available in towns.

A town gate is a standard to the protection of a town; it can be opened by any of the legit family members, or bashed open by enemies. If there's development time for overkill features, town blacksmiths can also build towers, walls, or siege weapons (to attack enemy towns), but these features should be added in caution as not to divert attention from the ultimate quest for finding the Mana'k stone.

Each town is governed by a specific member of the family. Any generation of the family (even the youngest) can govern a town, although he can be easily voted out and replaced under the older member's discretion. If a family splits, all of the properties would automatically go to the family members of the firstborn. The original governer can either hand the property over or put up a fight to defend the "new" family title. Local militia will not join the fight to defend those who come to claim a town due to a family split.

For an enemy to conquer a town, two things need to be done: the governer of the town must be dead or flee the town/not online for 30 or more real days, and all members of the old family that controls the town, as well as the former town militia, must be wiped out before the town can be claimed by a new family.


BLENDING THE IDEA OF MANA'K AND FAMILY SYSTEM:

Here are some special rules to prevent the various flaws when blending the two concepts together:

--Only one member from a single family may wield a stone, be it a Bugog or a Mana'k. A wielder would become the most powerful member of the family (close to a family diety) no matter what his/her original position was. However, there are significant notes to be remembered about a wielder in the family: Although a wielder retains the family name, that member is ALWAYS in a "vulerable" state. All members of the family would contribute experience in the amount of a 2nd generation family member. When a family member dies, a wielder suffers no lost (a wielder can kill any family member without suffering lost). Anyone, including family members, who kill the wielder will gain a huge sum of experience instead of lose experience (although the stone would be lost to the family).

--If a family member obtained another stone while a stone "diety" already exists in the family, the existing stone wielder of the family must be killed before the new stone can be melded with the player. Remember that while the old wielder challenge the new wielder, portals will open around the world to invite other players to join in the bloodfest.

--Each player must choose to start the character in a server and he/she must stay in that server. However, in order to search for the stones, players are allowed to travel across servers; however, portals between servers are heavily guarded, highly regulated (to prevent one specific server from lagging too much), and also appears in random (although much less random than altar of the stones).

--To prevent some player from gaining experience indefinitely, all characters would die of old age eventually in a set period of game time (including time spent in AI mode). Wielding a stone would increase a character's natural life-span dramatically, so it is another reason for players to struggle for the stones. Aging effect is more apparent for a wielder than a regular character; a regular character's statistics will not drop until very shortly before death, whereas a wielder's stats would drop periodically, even though it'd still be much more powerful than normal players.

--A warning to the developer: even though it may be tempting to throw in another Stone of Mana'k as the number of players increase, it would dramatically reudce the importance of the stone (by 50%, to say the least). If player requests for more stones, throw in more that are even lesser than Bugog stones (maybe 13 Stones of Icarsis that are about 1/3 of the power of the Stone of Mana'k). However, please don't end up having a world with every player wielding a stone in their forehead; the ratio for stones to players should be about 1:5000.

--Like the stones, the pool of natural resources in a world will never increase, even as the amount of players increase. For example, in Ultima Online a newbie character would have about 100 gold coins and maybe some reagents added to the world pool of resources; however, in Stone of Mana'k everyone is born "naked" (so to speak), without weapons or armor; the player's family should be responsible for properly equipping the newbies before heading off to the wilderness.


SOME FINAL WORDS:

--If possible, there should be a different world map for each new server, creating a new universe for players to explore when traveling thru servers.

--Stone wielders should be god-like, in the sense that they should point their claws and someone would be dead; if a level 1000 statistics and all skills cannot achieve that menacing effect, give them some extra skills like dragon breath; concentrate on new attack skills to make them slayable, yet they'll kill a hellalotta people before they're being slayed.

--Minimize the complexity of the economy; there is no point to try to keep it realistic like Ultima Online; this is a game, and in a game, real world economics does not work. Ever wonder why you'd keep seeing low level man made weapons in a UO merchant's hand? Go figure.

--Dump enough powerful and menacing monsters to keep the player busy... don't make it so that the players have to group at monster respawn points to wait for new monsters to come out. Increased amounts of monsters would reduce PK rate and make the game a bit more acceptable to those players who doesn't like to be PKed.

--If the game is too complex, the two basic concepts (the Stone of Mana'k and the Family System) can be seperated into two individual games. I think that each of these individual concept is worthy enough to stand for their own game.

--Sharing an experience pool in a family should not be the best solution to keep family members together; if there is a better method of keeping a family tie, please go ahead and use it.

Online RPG - Stone of Mana'k

Jamus
akszeto@jps.net

The Stone of Mana'k has to be one of the absolute best game ideas yet. The family system is absolutely brilliant, and I believe that it would work very well in an online RPG. If you happen to be a game developer, I suggest you read this game idea very carefully.

Idea Reviewer:
-Vegard Aure-