just a working name for something i'm designing now, thought i might get a bit of constructive criticism?

3-part story:
resumption
retribution
resolution

characters:
Garet (i like the name)- stupid hero guy, chosen by destiny, etc.

Matteo- mindless, loyal best friend type. Obviously acts as the mage to the
hero's fighter

Vao Silver- tough guy (it's hard not to rob off Kratos here) who leads the
party

Relic of Utulu- big black guy with axe, unstereotypically smart.

story for part one in, like, 20 words:

Garet is chosen by 'destiny' to find and wield a mystical sword against hordes of gribbly things. There are monsters, and stuff.

only really done the basics, but i've got some good ideas for this one. Will perhaps post more later. Any ideas here?

Very cliche-ish. Except for Relic.

Yeah, Relic is an idea worth keeping. Everything else = seen it, done it, bought the freaking t-shirt and coffee mugs. Of course, with some revision, it could be decent, but the story sounds cliched, and so are the characters, except for relic, because you made him smart. That's my 2 cents.

hmm...
so you're saying trash every character in book 1 except Relic?

might as well start again and call it:
The Adventures of Relic

alright i tried again, just for you jaded critics out there.

here's a few more ideas i didn't bother to explain last time

The Dawn Blade: a sword which hunts down and destroys evil. Unendingly. The kid Garet, who starts off kinda ok, becomes a murderous destroying freak. He is still the main character, because the others either die, or are much more evil.

Leah: A schizophrenic who alternates radomly beteen healer and necromancer. She's a lovely lady half the time, though

Vao: The guy i described earlier. I didn't want to mention it then, but he gets a little bit mental, too. His speciality is crucifixion of the innocent.

Relic: same as before. Possibly the most stable nutter in the party.

Enjoyable moments shall include:

Crucifixion

Assassination of old ladies

Mass poisonings

Hordes of implacable thingies

A siege, with some quite interesting mechanics (if the multiple breach system ever gets a GRIP)

and:

Golems in battle (another thing that keeps going wrong)

Hey, that's starting to sound pretty good. Those characters haven't really been used yet.

Leah and the Dawn Blade sound interesting. Perhaps you should have the Dawn Blade hunting down an evil guy, but Relic will need him alive to do something. And then he'll have to fight with the sword.

i've worked out something similar

Vao wants the blade, so he hires people, eg. an expendable assassin character i've worked up, to do evil things. He uses evil deeds as bait to trap Garet and the sword.
I might try that though. What i really want is to have as many characters with a interest in what happens as possible, to get some worthwhile character interaction. It also makes the plot harder to predict.


about the golems:

i'm trying to get it so that you can 'summon' a rock golem into battle with a spell. The the golem will act as a party character for the battle, with it's ow statline.
but... if the summoner, or any other mage in the party is willing to spend a turn on the effort, they can raise a golem's stats by a margin. This can be continued infinitely, until the user's MP is drained. In combination with certain protective items, though, this could become a very powerful tactic. Unfortunately, i can't yet get the golem to go away, and sometimes the golem sprite just appears during events. I think this is to do with the infinite powerup ability. If i can get it all to work, i'll post and tell you how i did it. Unless you can do it already, in which case you ca tell me how to do it, because the almost infinite glitches are driving me crazy.

I find it pretty hilarious you thought you had to mention that part.

Anyway, about the Golem thing. First off, are you using RPGM1 or 2?

i'm using 1

I don't think there coud be any way to "summon" a golem from in a battle with one. He's either in there, or he's not. A stat-boosting spell could be done though.

hmm i've tried it and i can't get it to go away. Needs more work. Or i could just save the idea for 3, but i don't want to do that.
*sigh*

I suppose then that you're using a CBS, since there's no way I know of to bring in another party member from within battle. I don't know the exact mechanics of your CBS, but why don't you have a "Release Golem" spell or something that appears when the Golem is brought into battle? Or is the problem being if it gets defeated? If that's the case, then I'll definately need to know more of your CBS.

I'm not sure how the Golem sprite is appearing outside of battles. The way I see it, it could be one of three problems.
1) You're accidentally Taking Over to an event related to the Golem.
2) You're using a Change Event Graphic command that's turning the event into the Golem.
3) You're turning off/on a switch or something related that the Golem sprite requires for it to show up.

it might be the switches, i suppose i'll have to check....

not now though. I'm afraid i'm doomed to A2 exams for now

*sighs*