Overview
From Peragro Tempus Wiki
Settings Overview
Description of Goals
We are attempting to create an MMORPG with a focus on Role Playing. As such the settings need to accommodate this goal in a coherent and fluid manner. The settings and underlying storyline need to exist in a way that accomplishes this as well as facilitates the logical and organized creation of art. It also needs to be somewhat flexible and has to be designed in a way that does not inhibit the player's freedom to affect the world. Settings need to be immersive, yet not feel forced, so that the players are interested in the world around them and want to discover more about it on their own. There should be a large variety of things to do—from jobs to questing—many not necessarily related to the main storyline, but instead related only to general settings and surroundings.
Brief Summary
The world of Peragro Tempus is divided into two separate times. The future is a forlorn, destroyed land, and in the past is a prosperous society speeding towards the disaster that landed the world in that state.
Point of the Story
In its purest form this is a simple parable in a way with consequences that can be learned from. The players will be able to exist in the past, live, work, and affect the world there, but will find themselves unable to stop the destruction of the civilizations (should they choose to try to). Along the way they will slowly find out what caused this disaster and the collapse of civilization - some of which will be related to their own actions invariably. The hope is that they will travel to the future and slowly evolve the world into a beautiful and prosperous place once again, taking care to learn from the mistakes of the past.
Why Two Times?
From a settings perspective it is quite difficult to keep things totally coherent when the game world has two time periods to exist in. There is also the problem of paradoxes and other issues, so why should we stick with two times? For one, it keeps the name Peragro Tempus relevant. It also allows story possibilities that can span long periods of time, and the past has an added bonus of sort of providing a living history. We may not be able to alter the course of the past, but it exists, not to change, but to learn from - learn from its mistakes, learn from its technology that may have been lost, and many other things. We can also learn from what past civilizations and people did right, what made them successful, if only for a while, and apply that to the world we're charged with rebuilding for ourselves.
Balancing Freedom and Coherency
One thing that was pointed out during our recent meeting was that giving total player freedom could create inconsistencies across the varying times. Another point made later on was that player freedom and inconsistencies occurring over different time periods were related to each other in an inversely proportional way. The trick then is to strike a balance between player freedom and maintaining consistencies in the time line. There are a couple of ways of approaching this, one being that the amount of player freedom differs in the two times, for instance the future allows total player freedom, while the past allows most of the same freedoms but without the ability to change certain things that could result in inconsistencies - the example of which was brought up was - place a river in the past where a house currently is, and you have a problem because when you get to the future, where is the river, or is that house gone. I propose that at least in the past such large scale land altering abilities should be limited, restricted, or nonexistent at least on a scale that would create such incongruent features and paradoxical situations. This makes a reasonable amount of sense anyways because one shouldn't really be able to truly alter the past, at least not too terribly much, and fits in with several of the storyline's main themes. Another approach is to keep player freedom consistent across all times but simply avoid abilities that can cause major problems. Things like building houses, chopping down trees, etc should all be fine, but again, major land altering features should be avoided due to their disruptive nature, at least in the past.
What is this Story About Anyways?
A hard question to ask when writing a story is simply, "Whats the point?". Without an overall general theme or point a story becomes meaningless and therefore impossible to really enjoy. Many stories in games are very cliché and sparse, providing a simple setting and letting the gameplay be fun. Others involve long complex stories with lots to do but make it difficult to stray from the main storyline if you want to get anywhere with the game. I'd prefer a deep storyline with rich storytelling that offers both fun and some lessons at the same time, yet isn't restrictive. Players should be able to either focus on the main "story" or not, without losing the ability to enjoy and progress in the game.
The story of Peragro Tempus is divided into two time periods. The past, and the future. The past exists for the purpose of the game, as a literal, explorable, interactive, living history. It allows players to travel to a different time and learn about the past, which is responsible for the state of the future. Its a living historical text in which you can live and learn from. It also simply provides a different environment thus diversifying the game. Many games have historical texts and books and stories about the past. In Peragro Tempus you can experience the past first hand, meet historical figures, and explore the rich cultures of the past.
The past has many things to learn from. There is technology that has been lost which you can bring to the future to help cultures progress, knowledge of magic and science that is long lost, and you can observe the progression of the culture of the past over time to learn what mistakes it made that led to its ultimate collapse. Instead of traveling to the past to change what has happened, one travels to the past to learn things to help advance and shape the culture of the future.
So in short. The setting is that of a world in shambles, of collapsed civilizations, and a historical past which can be experienced first hand. Within such a setting, many stories exist, but the underlying theme is fairly simple, though the situation is complex.
What Caused all of this Destruction?
We don't know.
The most common theory, pieced together from the journals and notes which seem to date from the time of the devastation indicates that the destruction of the civilizations came from a small accident. A scientist took his experimentation with the properties of the portals too far and failed to realize the effects his experiments would have. His tests temporarily destabilized the portal he was working with, shifting its pathways through space and time while causing its size to expand enormously, engulfing most of the world- and thus sympathetically destabilizing and expanding the other portals. Just before the portals stabilized the largest consequence of the accident became apparent. For a very brief instant, they linked to another world- interconnecting the two so that they existed simultaneously as one. As the portals restabilized and collapsed back in on themselves, many people vanished, presumably trapped in the other world, their fate unknown while leaving the inhabitants of that world in our own. Some individuals were strangely affected- shifted and, often grotesquely, changed by their exposure to that other world. Simultaneously, some of the inhabitants from that other world were trapped in our land, left as unwilling "Invaders." The results of this global shift caused a terrible chain reaction of destruction which would be felt for generations to come. Homes, business, schools, theaters, government buildings, and libraries were all toppled in minutes. Within days, entire cities were destroyed, countless lives were lost, and the world was in shambles. A few remaining survivors desperately tried to escape to forests, caves, or anywhere else they could hide, though very few were successful.
