So when I was talking with MOP editor Bree a while back, I mentioned how one of my early ideas for the most recent Design Mockument had actually been to write up a hypthetical Design Mockument for an MMORPG based on Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive series. I’ve been reading it, and then I convinced Bree to start reading it, and when I proposed this to her, she immediately said that I had to do this. And no, I’m not talking about Stormforge, which is taking some inspiration from the series; I’m talking about the real deal.
It’d be wrong to say that the series is having a bit of a renaissance at the moment, but its recent tabletop Kickstarter did do quite well for itself, and I’m looking forward to reading the fifth book in December. So let’s go ahead and talk about it. If I were for some reason given the keys to this kingdom, how would I start turning the IP into not just an RPG but a full-on MMORPG? It might not work, but we’re going to give it a shot, gancho.
First of all, I think it’s intensely appropriate that we actually have a perfect time to set an MMORPG already, regardless of what happens in the fifth book: about a month after the end of Oathbringer. The end of that particular story (which I am not going to spoil just in case) happens a fair bit before Rhythm of War kicks off, and the opening chapters of the latter book make it clear that there are a whole lot of additional Radiants showing up in the subsequent months. Basically, that gap is a perfect place for players to be part of the new wave of knights cropping up, and yes, players are going to be expected to be Radiant.
To be clear: Yes, the tabletop game gives you options to be something other than a Radiant, and that’s great. But MMORPGs have different requirements, and it’s hard to balance things by letting a new player start with plate and a blade to keep parity with Radiants. Here, yes, you are going to be one of the nine orders no matter what.
However, that doesn’t mean everyone starts from the same place. Let players choose from a number of different origins, ranging from Kholin soldiers to street urchins to scholars to Ardents to wanderers. Yes, I’m aware that realistically some of these should be pretty restrained; the Windrunners are almost all coming from the Kholin forces. But let players just choose what they want. If you want to start as a Veden noble who bonds an honorspren, let that happen. It gives an opportunity for bespoke tutorial experiences, and it lets people make more interesting builds than just picking an order flat-out.
And yes, you are going to be making a build for your character. Your origins give you certain skills, and skills in the game are not leveled but are rather boolean. Once you have the Spear skill, you can use spears; once you have the Literate skill, you can read or write. The skills are trained in a manner similar to EVE Online, acquired over time invested, but are also primarily leveled while you aren’t playing. Some skills also require books to learn, while others can just be acquired by practice.
These skills all offer their own benefits while performing various tasks, but there are limits to how many can be active at once (to avoid players who have every combat-related skill overpowering those who don’t). They include everything from crafting to haggling with merchants, weapons to armor, movement to gathering.
Combat, however, is different from most MMORPGs… because you’re a Radiant. And that means that “health” doesn’t work as it usually does in most games simply because a Radiant can heal pretty quickly from almost any injury. It’s not even a conscious thing or limited to certain orders, so what matters far more is your total amount of investiture available at any given time.
All players start with a flat “pool” of stormlight that they can bring with them into combat, and you can (very literally) buy additional segments as pouches of spare gemstones. Your health bar is much more of a stamina bar, with injuries depleting it. Once it reaches zero, you are momentarily stunned; however, it refills quickly, and once it’s back to full, you’re back in action. But that will drain your stormlight, which is also what fuels many of your combat abilities as well as more esoteric uses of power.
The game is action-focused, but in many ways it more closely resembles City of Heroes in terms of overall design just because… well, you have to account for Windrunners and Skybreakers zipping around overhead at the same time as you have Edgedancers gliding across the ground. Through all of it, your stormlight is decreasing as you fight. In-universe, there’s an understanding that losing all of it doesn’t mean you’re technically out, it just means you withdraw with just enough left to keep yourself alive.
Unless, of course, you’re out in a storm.
Yes, there have to be dynamic highstorms that whip across the land on a fairly regular basis, and they do change what players are expected to be doing. Theoretically, you can draw a whole lot of stormlight out of the storms as they move across the world; however, in practice it’s also basically impossible to move and explore, so you’ll want to hunker down in a building or underground. Unless, of course, you happen to be one of the Knights who can actually move around during the storms, in which case you could theoretically get more accomplished during that period.
I haven’t thought too much about the fine mechanics of questing or points related at this point; having rather longer and more involved multi-part quests a la The Elder Scrolls Online seems like the most suitable option from where I sit, but a lot would depend on the particulars of the storyline. My guess would be something to bridge the gap (pun intended) between the third and fourth books, then presumably another plot running in parallel with Rhythm of War and so on. (I will admit that some of that would also depend on the plot of the fifth book, which I have not yet read.)
Now, would this be a better game than the inspired-in-part-by-the-books title Stormforge? I have no idea. I haven’t played that game yet and I’m not sure if trying to put a game in the actual world would wind up playing as well. But I think the uniqueness of having abilities and health fueled by the same basic pool would give an MMORPG a very distinct feel, especially since it would also give players a unique level of pressure to make a conscious decision about abilities and overall activity at any given moment.
Also you wouldn’t have to ever have any proper healers. Like, I know, Edgedancers are good healers, but they’re for people who aren’t Radiants.
Designing an MMO is hard. But writing about some top level ideas for designing one? That’s… also remarkably hard. But sometimes it’s fun to do just the same. Join Eliot Lefebvre in Design Mockumentas he brainstorms elevator pitches for MMO sequels, spinoffs, and the like for games that haven’t yet happened and most likely never will!
