Indie RPG In Development: Scars of War
Time to add another indie RPG to the list of inbound games I am really looking forward to. Gareth Fouche emailed me late last week with information on another Torque-based indie RPG that is currently under development. I thought it sounded pretty exciting, and wanted to pass the information along.

The game is entitled, "Scars of War." The name reflects the story and setting. You are a now-unemployed veteran soldier after a war, in a land still slow to recover from the conflict. Food and jobs are scarce. You begin the game by taking odd jobs from an old army contact. Soon, you are drawn into "a web of conspiracy and deception" far from home.

Gareth reports that the code is about 85% complete at this point, and that he is focusing now on content. As he described it to me, "Both character progression and combat are...well, they are fleshed out but not done. I have a skill system up and running. All the mechanics are in, and most of the skills are set... The mechanics all work and interplay." The game has been under development for over 2 years now, which is enough of an investment by now that he's got great confidence that it won't disappear into vaporware land like too many ambitious indie titles. Gareth is the sole developer on this project, wearing all the hats of programmer, designer, manager, and lead artist. You don't get much more indie than that!

Scars of War is a 1st person perspective fantasy RPG. If features real-time combat, not unlike that found in the Elder Scrolls games. Some of its other features include:

• A mature story aimed at adults. Moral gray areas, hard choices, secrets, betrayal, manipulation and lies. The good stuff. No “Ancient Evil Rising or “Farm Boy with a Heroic Destiny”.
  
  
• Real choices with a strong link to the various factions. Decide who to side with, where you stand in the unfolding storyline, and deal with the consequences of those choices. Siding with one faction could cause another to become bitter enemies.
  
  
• Multiple endings dependent on your choices throughout the game.
  
  
• Branching dialog which can be influenced by your actions, character creation choices, faction standings and social skills. Dialog plays a large role in the game.
  
  
• No Tolkien. Elves, dwarves, orcs, gnomes and especially hobbits -- none of them have a place in SoW. It is a fantasy setting and there are non-human races, but for the most part culture is what determines the differences between player races.
  
  
• Rich lore and back story. I love lore, uncovering the history of peoples and places in a fantasy world. So expect plenty of books to read and suchlike.
  
  
• A variety of interesting locations and environments to explore, from the dark, foggy streets of Korrinport to humid, brigand infested Port Hale, your journey will take you far from home.
  
  
• Classless skill point based character system. Experience is gained from completing tasks (not killing enemies) and upon gaining a new level you earn skill points which can be spent on improving skills in any of the 5 skill categories: Combat, Trickery, Magic, Social and General. You can also gain special traits to further customize your character.
  
  
• Item crafting. Powerful magic items aren't sold in stores next to the bread and cheese. Few are willing to part with their magical items but you can acquire rare components which allow you to craft powerful items. Customize your equipment to match your playing style.
  
  
• Powerful database driven game editors. SoW will ship with all the editors used to create the game, making modding simple. Even non-programmers can make significant changes to the game using the editors. Feel that the player gains too few skill points a level or that a specific monster has too many hit points? Want to add a new item, spell, creature, quest or character dialog? Simply edit the values in the appropriate table. You even have the ability to store and call custom scripts in the database, allowing great flexibility.

What? No "Ancient Evil" coming out to play? No elves? Where are my hackneyed fantasy conventions? What a rip off!

Actually, that sounds really exciting. Particularly when coupled with "a mature story aimed at adults." You know, for a good story that I can really sink my teeth into, I can forgive a number of faults.

One thing Gareth notes here is that experience points are based on task completion, not killing monsters. It sounds like he's trying to avoid the traditional "grind." So far, I've only played some Neverwinter Nights modules and one other RPG (Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines) that I recall doing this. It seemed to work, and minimized the "brute force" approach to beating the game.

While it's still too early to tell, I have high hopes for Scars of War. I will have to keep bugging Gareth for more information as time and development progresses.


(Vaguely) related shallow thoughts:
* RPG Design: The "Brute Force" Problem
* Aveyond!
* Indie RPG News (June 26)

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Labels: Game Announcements, Indie RPG News, Roleplaying Games

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