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Saturday, June 26, 2004
How to Kill Adam.
I've received a few PMs in the last week or so about Kill Adam: Volume II. These PMs are basically all somewhat different, but they're asking similar questions. Most noteably, people are wanting to know if I can give them any information about the second volume, so that they can plan their own characters.
Since there is a bit of confusion about this, I thought I'd spend a moment to discuss a few important points, for those who have any interest in signing up.
Firstly, if you want to develop an original character...that's up to you. The process is a good thing regardless of whether you're chosen to participate or not.
But I want to say that right now, I'm not sure if I will be allowing original characters into Volume II.
Why? Well, there are a few reasons. Primarily, Volume I focused on several key characters and events in the story. Some characters (like Persona, Ann Dominion and Jeanette Marie-Diaz in particular) had some airtime, but very little compared to others. This is mostly because I wanted to emphasize certain things in the first volume (and if you read it, you'll get a better idea about that).
Volume II will be different in the sense that it will be a little more linear. Right now I'm intending to have the chapters unfold in a linear sequence, but, much of Volume II will consist of flashback scenes that go deeper into the history of various characters, as well as their former involvement with Adam.
The "present day" part of the story will actually only cover a few chapters (it will primarily involve Jamie, his son, Adam and two new characters, Hattori Hanzo and Yasuo's daughter).
Granted, new characters are being added. But the key difference is that because I created the RPG, I've had at least one of these characters in mind for a while. So, the characters will actually have several established reference points from Volume I. Know what I mean?
For example, Yasuo's daughter will be a "new" character. But if you read Volume I, you'll know that she was featured prominently in one particular chapter.
Basically, my idea is not to allow people to develop their own characters from scratch...but to take existing character "templates" and "fill them in". Does that make sense?
So, say you want to play as Hattori Hanzo. In order to be a candidate to play as him, you would need to understand that he's not a totally blank slate; most of his past is already completely determined and pre-existing. Your job, will be to take what exists and build on that with your own unique ideas.
I think this could work really well if people put in the effort and if they have the interest for it.
It's a bit like the chapter system. With that system, I tell you how it starts, where it's set and basically where/how it ends. So you have a set of broad goals. It's your job to go from point A to point B in any manner that you like. That is the fun of Kill Adam, I think; and it'll feature a lot more prominently in Volume II.
So all I'm doing with Volume II is taking that concept and using it with characters. The cool part is that you don't need to spend time coming up with your own character. Instead, you select the new one that you like...and you "fill in the blanks". The person who I feel best achieves that will be able to use that character.
Just to note, also...right now only two new characters have been confirmed (the ones I mentioned above). But this doesn't mean that I won't add more.
The main thing is, I don't want to bog the RPG down with too many characters. This eliminates the possibility for every character to be explored in detail -- and that's no good. Kill Adam is a character-driven story, so each personality is very important.
I hope that clears a few things up.
Also...CrH might have told you that I've given him a job. I think now would be a good time to tell you that CrH is working with me to develop an Official Kill Adam Site.
The site will include all the sign-up info you need for Volume II, as well as a full soundtrack listing and cast & crew information. It'll also include wallpapers and other funky stuff.
Along with CrH, I've got Tony helping me out with the in-thread HTML, which is a huge help. I'm also hoping to get hold of an expert artist, to help me with another aspect to this RPG...which itself will be a major innovation in RPG storytelling, I hope.
So stay tuned.
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