Humanophage
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2005
- Messages
- 5,444
Do:
- You can talk him into killing himself, or maybe cutting a body part off that will not re-grow in the next encounter.
- There should be at least three choices that will meaningfully and obviously affect the character's nature, based on your reply.
- These choices should be made in the first third of the game, and somehow echo later on, maybe helping you with an unrelated quest.
- Dialogue outcomes should depend as much as possible on your character's stats, race, or previous actions. Some options should be unavailable for certain characters.
Do not:
- Don't make him a static village fool who keeps harassing the protagonist with one-liners. There is nothing especially Codexian about it, and pertains to almost any male-dominated neurotic anonymous forum.
- Really transparent meta references are also boring, especially to well-known games like Baldur's Gate 2. Referring to golden pants is fine.
A couple of slightly over-the-top illustrations to the points above.
Idea 1: Meeting the Troll
It would be good if the first encounter with the troll was conditional on the outcome of some other quest you did. E.g., "help refugees":
1. Helped refugees. -> You find the troll trying to poison their well in the camp. You interrupt him and he gets tearful about decline, cue Suicide Quest.
2. Refused to help, left. -> You find him later on in some unrelated encounter.
3. Refused to help, lectured them about capitalism. -> He joins in the dialogue suddenly as you lecture them.
4. Robbed refugees. -> He approaches you later on after obvious stalking. He commends you for fighting the good fight, then tries to get chummy; cue Suicide Quest.
Idea 2: The Suicide Quest
The troll is depressed about total decline - see many creative suggestions in the thread. You can retrieve a worthless Grimoire from the local tavern to cheer him up: it does not heal his depression, but prompts a dialogue about the meaning of life. Think that Planscape quest when you have to talk a Dustman back into his philosophy. Some choices:
1. You convince him that decline is the unchangeable nature of the world, and suggest suicide. Some long philosophical options a la Planescape if your char's Int is high enough. Maybe mock his appearance if your Str is high. You encounter him alive much later on, but permanently mutilated in some grotesque way, depending on what way of suicide you suggested. You can even try helping him do it. If you repeat it four times, he is gone for good, and you find his corpse with a tearful diary that mentions your arguments a lot. You can use text from his xenophobic/misogynistic rants.
2. You convince him to join the local xenophobic militia. This endows him with a meaning. Later on, you encounter him as an additional vendor of weird useless items in their camp. You can inquire him about his stereotypes of different races, and hear him spout Evola-style nonsense about him being an aristocrat of the soul. Neanderthal's suggestions would go well here.
3. You convince him he should seek solace in romantic relationships. You later find him in a brothel as a male prostitute, where he spouts misogynistic comments about his co-workers, the decline of morals and traditional roles, and the need to populate the world with his race. You can convince him he is probably sterile if your Int is high, directing him to the militia or cuing the main suicide quest. Perhaps he can help you with a quest in the brothel.
4. In a long dialogue, you convince him that Grimoire is actually an epic work worthy of attention, even though he dislikes it at first. Later on, you find him writing his own equally worthless book, inspired by Grimoire. You can see that he still doesn't like Grimoire, but he feels that confessing would make him look silly. If you brutally critique his book, cue option 1.
Apart from affecting his fate, the essence is to grant the player the ability to kill him in fun ways through diplomacy. Dialogue options are visibly contingent upon stats and previous actions. Perhaps some other quests would give you additional dialogue options to convince the troll to kill himself.
- You can talk him into killing himself, or maybe cutting a body part off that will not re-grow in the next encounter.
- There should be at least three choices that will meaningfully and obviously affect the character's nature, based on your reply.
- These choices should be made in the first third of the game, and somehow echo later on, maybe helping you with an unrelated quest.
- Dialogue outcomes should depend as much as possible on your character's stats, race, or previous actions. Some options should be unavailable for certain characters.
Do not:
- Don't make him a static village fool who keeps harassing the protagonist with one-liners. There is nothing especially Codexian about it, and pertains to almost any male-dominated neurotic anonymous forum.
- Really transparent meta references are also boring, especially to well-known games like Baldur's Gate 2. Referring to golden pants is fine.
A couple of slightly over-the-top illustrations to the points above.
Idea 1: Meeting the Troll
It would be good if the first encounter with the troll was conditional on the outcome of some other quest you did. E.g., "help refugees":
1. Helped refugees. -> You find the troll trying to poison their well in the camp. You interrupt him and he gets tearful about decline, cue Suicide Quest.
2. Refused to help, left. -> You find him later on in some unrelated encounter.
3. Refused to help, lectured them about capitalism. -> He joins in the dialogue suddenly as you lecture them.
4. Robbed refugees. -> He approaches you later on after obvious stalking. He commends you for fighting the good fight, then tries to get chummy; cue Suicide Quest.
Idea 2: The Suicide Quest
The troll is depressed about total decline - see many creative suggestions in the thread. You can retrieve a worthless Grimoire from the local tavern to cheer him up: it does not heal his depression, but prompts a dialogue about the meaning of life. Think that Planscape quest when you have to talk a Dustman back into his philosophy. Some choices:
1. You convince him that decline is the unchangeable nature of the world, and suggest suicide. Some long philosophical options a la Planescape if your char's Int is high enough. Maybe mock his appearance if your Str is high. You encounter him alive much later on, but permanently mutilated in some grotesque way, depending on what way of suicide you suggested. You can even try helping him do it. If you repeat it four times, he is gone for good, and you find his corpse with a tearful diary that mentions your arguments a lot. You can use text from his xenophobic/misogynistic rants.
2. You convince him to join the local xenophobic militia. This endows him with a meaning. Later on, you encounter him as an additional vendor of weird useless items in their camp. You can inquire him about his stereotypes of different races, and hear him spout Evola-style nonsense about him being an aristocrat of the soul. Neanderthal's suggestions would go well here.
3. You convince him he should seek solace in romantic relationships. You later find him in a brothel as a male prostitute, where he spouts misogynistic comments about his co-workers, the decline of morals and traditional roles, and the need to populate the world with his race. You can convince him he is probably sterile if your Int is high, directing him to the militia or cuing the main suicide quest. Perhaps he can help you with a quest in the brothel.
4. In a long dialogue, you convince him that Grimoire is actually an epic work worthy of attention, even though he dislikes it at first. Later on, you find him writing his own equally worthless book, inspired by Grimoire. You can see that he still doesn't like Grimoire, but he feels that confessing would make him look silly. If you brutally critique his book, cue option 1.
Apart from affecting his fate, the essence is to grant the player the ability to kill him in fun ways through diplomacy. Dialogue options are visibly contingent upon stats and previous actions. Perhaps some other quests would give you additional dialogue options to convince the troll to kill himself.
Last edited:
, and with little Charisma
. Once a powerful and prestigious race
, they were driven to near extinction by sap savagery and have adapted to their new and harsh environment. With their skin thickened from years of abuse and disappointment, their expressions cynical 
, and their clothing fashioned from the hides of popped moles
,(An invasive species they've been forced to hunt in order to sustain themselves .) the Red Troll is an intimidating sight to outsiders; travelers with weak constitutions are advised to avoid them.
. Others think it's merely naivety, and the decline is stronger than ever 
.
