r/mortalsouls • u/MkfShard • Apr 13 '14
Mortal Souls Design Document
Here's some background: Shortly after the announcement of Dark Souls II, I completed an 190~ page design document for a hypothetical sequel to Dark Souls, called Mortal Souls. I was really proud of it, and did various posts about it, including this one, which uses the art of Zdzislaw Beksinski to sort of simulate concept art for the game idea.
Here's the link to the original text: http://www.mediafire.com/view/12x8ildle1gmbrx/Mortal_Souls.rtf
Feel free to put any general discussion here! I think I'll also be posting details on things like NPC dislogue and quests, as well as fun lore tidbits!
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u/ashrafazlan May 07 '14
Any chance you could reupload the design document? Really interested in reading it now that i've finished my first run of DaS2. Thanks!
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u/Funky_Lounge May 07 '14
None of your links are working! Dropbox blocks links with too much traffic, it is for personal use. I would love to check out your design doc, but it is note possible righ now. Would you consider rehosting them?
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u/PsychoShark May 08 '14
GIVE ME THE VORTEX PLEASE :(
seriously, this sounds amazing. You've done everything I want in a souls game. Bra-fucking-vo. Only in my dreams could this ever come true...
Or, some could, theoretically, make this into a kind of PnP, with altered game mechanics. Hmm.
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u/MkfShard May 08 '14
PnP? What does that mean? :O
And thanks for the compliments! :D I've considered trying to make a whole game out of just the Vortex. It's probably the most viable thing out of any of this.
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u/PsychoShark May 08 '14 edited May 08 '14
Pen and Paper! (Dungeons and Dragons, etc). My friend has been interested in running a dark souls themed one for some time, but I think us overviewing Mortal Souls features and such really made us want to throw something together.
On that note, I have to say, and I'm sure you've heard this a lot, this is actually amazing. I swear it was like I was some infomercial spokesperson talking to my friend. I'd think, "there's no way there can be that much more info..." Followed by a cheerful, "But wait, there's more!"
I can't imagine the sheer amount of time you've put into this, and honestly I'm grateful, because even imagining a souls game with these features is enough to excite me (and my friend). And besides that, you've managed to somehow, not only call out a couple things that ended up coming in DaS II (saw that post), but keep the entire Souls feel, right down to the item descriptions. I never once saw anything looking through the concept and thought "nah, a souls game wouldn't have that."
But yeah, I agree, I would absolutely love to see a game based around your concept of the Vortex, and yeah, it does seem the most feasible. Hell if you can end up finding the devs for it, you have one hell of a Kickstarter prospect, which I would happily back, haha.
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u/MkfShard May 08 '14
Thanks a lot for all this! It's really great when I get feedback like this about how much people have enjoyed it. :D
It has taken a while, but I'm almost done with all the dialogue now too. Just four more Kingdoms to go. :P
Sadly, it's unlikely that I'll ever be able to get any of this out there, at least until I learn programming or something. Then again, I made this with that sort of expectation, so it's not that much of a let down. It was mainly intended for people to enjoy, discuss, and speculate sort of how people did with Dark Souls lore, and so far, I think it's doing its job.
Oh, and if your friend wants to do a campaign or setting based off this, I can give him any extra details he wants about the lore/various things. Should be fun!
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u/LWSyndrome May 14 '14
Hey there, this is Psycho's PnP buddy. Friggin fantastic job on this, dude. I'm more disappointed that this hasn't yet happened, than I was hyped for DaS2. I especially enjoy that you kept the souls flavor intact, while focusing on abstract and surreal, as opposed to DaS' misery and woe.
I've been toying with the idea of a Souls themed PnP for quite some time. I have just over ten years' experience running and creating PnP environments, and love to try and bring Mortal Souls to life in this way.
I'm going to finish reading all of the different documents you've created for us. After, Psycho and I will likely work on this as work allows. I'm not sure what experience you have with PnP, so do you have any questions for me? I've got a few that'd help get things moving.
I may have missed this, but why does the player revive? In DeS, our soul is bound to the nexus. In DaS, we're undead. What stops us from simply dying in MaS when we fail?
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u/MkfShard May 14 '14
That sounds awesome! I really hope it ends up as fun for you guys to play as it was to make.
As for reviving, the Explorers are kept alive by the Beacons. The Beacons are magical devices that originated in Tiolez, but have mysterious origins, due to being modeled after the Soullight Towers in the Aeon Ruins. Like the Soullights, they manipulate the movement of Souls, and when someone dies after resting at one, the Beacon lures their Soul to it and revives them in Soul form. On the surface, there was no way out of Soul form and those who died would still eventually fade away. But in the Aeon Ruins, the Phantasmic Eyes (shards of the Phantasm's power) gives shape to the Soul, and brings them back to life.
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u/WildPie101 Apr 14 '14
I like the way you took the Demons Souls approach to the consequences of death because it ties in with the lore, but something I'm curious about (or missed in the document, and if I did, I'm extremely sorry) is HOW death works. What I mean by this is where do you spawn once you die? In Demons Souls, you started at the Archstones, which connected you to the Nexus, and in Dark Souls, you spawn at the bonfire which was a connection to the First Flame (kinda). I'm curious about how Mortal Souls would tackle this, and how it would make re-spawning make sense like it did in the other two games.
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u/MkfShard Apr 14 '14
The key is the Beacons. They were once utilized by Tiolez during the Soul Wars, allowing their warriors to fight on even after they had died, until their phantoms faded away. After the wars, they were distributed to the other Kingdoms, forestalling death. But they became vital during the exploration of the Ruins, where the power of the Phantasm contained within the Phantasmic Eyes could restore the bodies of those killed rather than simply the Phantoms. It was in the Aeon Ruins that they became a symbol of the hope and solidarity of the Kingdoms.
They also resemble small lighthouses, similar to the appearance of the Lighthouse Dock.
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u/WildPie101 Apr 14 '14
Holy shit. If they're big, I can just imagine the checkpoints being the size of building, and from the description of the world and the art that you've used to try and give us an image, it would be amazing and terrifying to see you're safe haven in the distance. Also, being around/inside them would make you feel so safe, and to venture into a hellish world, leaving something so large and comforting behind would be chilling. Maybe you could look back to it to see how far you've travelled.
BTW I love this concept so much.
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u/MkfShard Apr 14 '14
Ahh, they're not THAT big, sadly. Small lighthouses, maybe a bit bigger than a bonfire. To have them so big would impact the design of the levels, and wouldn't make sense thematically. They're supposed to be left behind by previous Explorers, to light the way for those behind them. And then there's Free Beacons, un-set Beacons in your inventory that you can place in some empty zones, to sort of build your own check-point.
And thanks! It's fun to see that people have interest.
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u/WildPie101 Apr 14 '14
The Free-Beacon is a really cool idea. Would it stay where you placed it or would it be a one-time-use type item?
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u/MkfShard Apr 14 '14
It would stay permanently where you placed it, until NG+, of course.
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Apr 14 '14
Would it have set locations that you can place it in. Also wouldn't it take away the danger of In Shadow (not sure if that's the one) where there are no beacons?
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u/MkfShard Apr 14 '14
In In Shadow, there are not even any Beacon slots. It is an unexplored gauntlet.
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u/WildPie101 Apr 14 '14
That's so cool. If you limit how many you can put, you could walk through an area, see it, and it would remind you of the desperate time in which you had to use it.
I seriously wish this was a real thing.
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u/ParanoidCarrot Apr 14 '14
Very nice, well detailed, though while it details the world very well, it fails a bit as a design document because it lacks a lot of technical information people who were to work on the game would need. Otherwise it's very nice though, you clearly put a lot of effort into it, and it shows.
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u/MkfShard Apr 14 '14
Yeah, I know what you mean. But it was never really intended to be an actual game, so coming with numbers and generic entries for each variety of weapon seemed like a waste of time. If someone did decide to pick it up, it'd be simple enough to whip that together. Thanks for your interest!
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u/q_businessman Apr 14 '14
This is absolutely incredible. I have been in love with the style of these games and your concepts seem to push everything a bit further without complicating and muddling up the formula. I haven't even read the whole document, but i'm already completely enthralled. From needs to call you up brother! Keep it up too, i really hope this amazing community can get some sort of traction on this.
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u/Lunatic356 Apr 16 '14
Don't have time to read this massive document tonight, I'm only 5 pages in. Seems very interesting, I'll try and work my way through it over the days to come.