Tuesday sprint report
Added 2019-02-12 18:25:19 +0000 UTCSprint target: polish 1.4 Beta then release 1.4
Days worked: 10/20 | Pomodoros logged: 79
Task points completed: 52/168
Today I finished my reworking of the Norway interrogation scene (for agents with the "Operator" agency background).
This ended up taking more time than I was anticipating, but I added a lot more to it than the single skill roll I was planning to. This is now a pretty good example of the reason I wanted to create the S.U.R.P.S. roleplaying system in the first place: there are now a number of different ways for your character to solve the problem, making use of a few different skill, attribute and Kink options.
Crucially, failed skill rolls don't result automatically in worse content, or a "bad end"; they lead to different content. You may find that your best story experience happens when your agent succeeds at every dice roll, or you may find that you prefer her trying to regain control of a situation that's going wrong – and either succeeding or failing to do so.
In the future, I do plan to put the agent in situations where failure is permanent – but those will be rare and obvious. (For example, when she finally encounters her target, she will have to get shit right to effect his capture.)
I can think of lots more paths and options I'd like to add to this scene, but I'd better complete this task and move onto another one. The next dev day is Tomorrow.
Link to the Trello
Comments
My model for this is Wing Commander 1, one of my favourite games. That game is about how humanity achieves victory over its enemies in the Vega Sector, except: if your missions go badly enough, it becomes a game about how humanity *evacuated* the Vega Sector. My vision for the bad ends is that, once they're triggered, there'll still be a chance for the agent to mitigate them. e.g. in the case of an agent who is blown by the organised crime syndicate that controls the brothel (her Suspicion meter has hit 100%): the Red Wa will attempt to abduct her. The abduction scene will be playable, and it's possible that the agent will defeat the attempt and be able to escape (bad end 1a). Or if she fails, the Special Forces element in Bangkok to protect her may be able to trace her and rescue her; it depends on the exact circumstances (bad end 1b). Maybe, once she's abducted, she'll be able to escape playable captivity (bad end 1c). Or maybe she'll just end up killed by the Red Wa (bad end 1d). One bad end path; (at least) 4 possible finales to her story.
Crushstation
2019-02-12 22:36:00 +0000 UTCI'm curious as to how you might end up doing your permanent bad ends? Will it just be a: "U R DED. Git good scrub" like Dark Souls? Or will it be an erotically written bad end, like Corruption of Champions/Trials in Tainted Space minus the furry cancer? Or maybe like neither, or some of both?
Godzilla511
2019-02-12 22:18:11 +0000 UTCSomething like this is a really good idea, SuperMaxo, thanks. I have been thinking recently that we definitely need some kind of central list of planned and requested features, so your comment has kept this at the front of my mind.
Crushstation
2019-02-12 20:25:22 +0000 UTCMaybe you should have another column to your Trello (or another Trello altogether), marked “for future update”, where you could enter such ideas you got for "lots more paths and options", as you write here, so as not to forget them. This way, you could still proceed towards your next goal (polishing 1.4, in this case), yet preemptively flesh out future Trellos/goals. Such a "for future update" column could also serve to document suggestions you receive on Patreon or Discord.
SuperMaxo
2019-02-12 19:37:15 +0000 UTC
