User blog:SArchangel/Game Idea - Soulbound

Soulbound is an upcoming fantasy-themed war strategy video game with third-person action role-playing elements under development by User:SArchangel as of February 28, 2016. Soulbound is inspired by the Total War game series.

Guide
Soulbound is set in the fictional high-fantasy world of Placia, dominated by a great diversity of odd fantasy and magic folk. Diversity aside, all such folk are defined by the immaterial, individual soul.

Background
Long ago in the peaceful times, the Dark Lord Crag dwelled deep down in the depths of the Placian Underworld, where he used dark magic to craft a powerful object made of cursed gems: the Soul Crown. The Soul Crown had the ability to allow its wearer to control the souls of any being who was willing to offer its own soul to the wearer's command.

Using the Soul Crown, Lord Crag amassed the Dark Horde, and ascended to the surface of Placia on a quest to conquer it for his own rule. Crag waged war with the surface kingdoms, who united against the Dark Horde and fought it for decades, to no avail. As a last resort, Placia's mightiest surface heroes banded together and went on a journey to destroy the Soul Crown. And by decieving Lord Crag, they succeeded. The Soul Crown was shattered into millions of jewel fragments, disbanding the entire Dark Horde, and the now powerless Lord Crag was thrown back into the depths of the Underworld.

Peace was restored, but the most powerful Placian leaders all over the vast land discovered the power of the shattered fragments of the Soul Crown. Each fragment, known as Soulstones, was its own miniature Soul Crown that could allow its wearer to control a limited number of souls. The Soulstones eventually became trophies of power; the more you had the more powerful you were above those with fewer as you could amass larger 'soulbound' armies.

As the game begins, you the player, are in possession of a single Soulstone, which will be the bedrock of a kingdom you will construct and the 'soulbound' army you will amass.

Gameplay
There are three primary aspects of gameplay in Soulbound. Much like real-time strategy games, the player, who is in possession of a Soulstone, is tasked with building up a kingdom that will start off as a simple village. Much of the world's economy and hierarchy is player-driven and occupied, thus the less-experienced lower class players are often encouraged to submit to the rule of more experienced players who have developed a greater kingdom.

A balance of incentives are provided such that greater powers are less likely to bully the lesser or plain newbie players. First off all, all player-controlled domains are ranked on a system called the "Chivalry System," which has two ends: (1) it weighs the happiness of the NPC citizen population in several categories, and more importantly, (2) it averages a score from ratings and reviews provided by other players that are allegiant to the kingdom or were previously allegiant and then left. For instance, a kingdom that does not overtax its population or is agresssive toward its population including those controlled by subordinate players, will most likely be higher on the Chivalry scale than other kingdoms that do such things. Unless factors such as real-life friendship are in play, kingdoms higher on the Chivalry scale will attract more players vying for protection and other benefits under a greater power. Also, the newbie spawn rate tends to be higher near such player domains, although newbies can always choose to move and settle elsewhere.

An exception with movement are with powerful kingdoms that use force to prevent certain parties from leaving, although these preventative actions can always instigate rebellion or be seen as a weakness by hostile rival parties, which are several examples of incentives for kingdoms to provide freedom for its subjects.

Again much like common RTS games, players can erect all sorts of businesses, services, and places of dwelling in their domain in order to attract denizens and expand in power and wealth. For newbies, it starts with the creation of an encampment in a place of known resources, for instance a woodland that will provide lumber. There are also various geoeconomic and geopolitical issues to consider before settling with a location.

Each newbie starts of the story with the introduction to the third-person roleplaying element. Unlike many high fantasy role-playing games, all player avatars will be human. The newbie starts off in a random kingdom, perhaps player-owned, where he is tasked with slaying a Dark Golem, which is one of hundreds of different beings in Placia and can be made soulbound. After succeeding, the Golem will drop a Soulstone and the newbie will be decorated as a hero, with a party of seventeen human individuals deciding to offer their souls to your command.