A cross between DQ, Diablo and D&D with NES flair
Hellion
There is something strange going on at the old temple in the remote village of Salidar. You are the Mysterious Wanderer - a warrior chosen from destiny to face the evil within. You fate is tied intimately with what lies at its depths. Will you bring salvation to the forlorn hopefuls of Salidar? Or will you unleash destruction, whether by design or disaster? It is in your hands....
Hellion is best described as a cross between Dragon Warrior, Diablo and Knights of the Old Republic - you have a blank slate character with 8 classes to choose from at the beginning of the game. You adventure solo. You can hire hirelings. The monster drops are random. The graphics are NES. The battles backgrounds are black. There are traps. There are locks to be picked and NPCs to be persuaded.
..:: FEATURES ::..
- Dragon Warrior NES-style theme
- Several outside of battle skills, including lockpicking, hiding, running, pickpocketing and persuading.
- A simple Alignment tracking system
- Random monster drops and chest contents
- On-map traps and monsters
- Unique Skill trees for the 7 character classes
- Fatigue-based Running System
..:: SCREENS ::..
..:: Outside-of-Battle-Skillsets (OOBS) ::..
OOBS, or outside-of-battle-skillset, is just some generic term I came up with for the skills and abilities that you use outside of a battle environment.
Your outside-of-battle-skillset includes the following actions your avatar can make outside of battle:
Run
Detect Traps
Detect Hidden Monsters
Detect Hidden Doors
Disarm Traps
Unlock Doors
Unlock Chests
Hide
Pickpocket from NPCs
Pickpocket from Monsters
Preemptive Attack on monsters
Persuade NPCs
Find hidden treasure
Forage monster remains
The success rate and effectiveness of your OOBS are determined using your current level in ability points. Abilities are capped at 31 (+ class bonuses). Upon leveling up, you receive more Ability Points to distribute - how many you get depends on class. The abilities that you can beef up your character with are:
Lockpick - used to determine your success in picking locks on locked doors and chests.
Disarm Traps - used to determine your success in disarming detected traps without setting it off and taking damage.
Hide - used to determine the effectiveness of your Hide skill. While hidden, you can pickpocket NPCs or monsters, or begin a preemptive attack on monsters.
Pickpocket - used to determine the success or failure of pickpocketing both NPCs and monsters. Failure results in being sent to jail (NPC) or a Backattack battle (monster)
Bash - used to bash locked doors, chests and traps when lockpicking or disarm traps fails. Bashing doors results in taking some damage, while bashing locked chests may result in detroying the item inside. Bashing traps may destroy the trap without taking damage or only taking 1/2 damage.
Decipher - used to decrypt scrolls (which in turn allow you to cast a spell one time) and read runes. Some doors are locked using magic runes.
Persuade - used in conversation with NPCs. This may result in a reduced price for goods and services, or progression in story arcs, or increased rewards for quests.
Stamina - used to increase your stamina bar, which drains when your are running or hiding.
Detection - used to detect hidden things such as traps, monsters, treasure, and doors (and a certain Hireling!)
Forage - used to improve the success rate of scavenging the remains of defeated monsters. All monsters have drops, but only a high forage skill will allow you to capitalize on that.
Detect Traps
Detect Hidden Monsters
Detect Hidden Doors
Disarm Traps
Unlock Doors
Unlock Chests
Hide
Pickpocket from NPCs
Pickpocket from Monsters
Preemptive Attack on monsters
Persuade NPCs
Find hidden treasure
Forage monster remains
The success rate and effectiveness of your OOBS are determined using your current level in ability points. Abilities are capped at 31 (+ class bonuses). Upon leveling up, you receive more Ability Points to distribute - how many you get depends on class. The abilities that you can beef up your character with are:
Lockpick - used to determine your success in picking locks on locked doors and chests.
Disarm Traps - used to determine your success in disarming detected traps without setting it off and taking damage.
Hide - used to determine the effectiveness of your Hide skill. While hidden, you can pickpocket NPCs or monsters, or begin a preemptive attack on monsters.
Pickpocket - used to determine the success or failure of pickpocketing both NPCs and monsters. Failure results in being sent to jail (NPC) or a Backattack battle (monster)
Bash - used to bash locked doors, chests and traps when lockpicking or disarm traps fails. Bashing doors results in taking some damage, while bashing locked chests may result in detroying the item inside. Bashing traps may destroy the trap without taking damage or only taking 1/2 damage.
Decipher - used to decrypt scrolls (which in turn allow you to cast a spell one time) and read runes. Some doors are locked using magic runes.
Persuade - used in conversation with NPCs. This may result in a reduced price for goods and services, or progression in story arcs, or increased rewards for quests.
Stamina - used to increase your stamina bar, which drains when your are running or hiding.
Detection - used to detect hidden things such as traps, monsters, treasure, and doors (and a certain Hireling!)
Forage - used to improve the success rate of scavenging the remains of defeated monsters. All monsters have drops, but only a high forage skill will allow you to capitalize on that.
..:: CLASSES ::..
The classes in Hellion are:
The Rogue
A moderately balanced fighter with a strong outside-of-battle-skillset (OOBS). The rogue gains 7 ability points/level up to distribute among the 10 abilities, plus his cost to increase abilities is low, making the rogue the ideal class for those who enjoy lockpicking, hiding, pickpocketing and preemptive attacks.
The Kensai
The warrior class. The kensai is the foremost fighter in the game and a veritable tank. He can equip most any equipment and further improve his fighting ability by dual wielding and attacking multiple times per round. His OOBS is almost non-existant, though.
The Animagus
A secondary warrior class that has access to shapeshifting and totemic skills.? Though not a tank like the kensai, the animagus is more than able to handle himself in a fight. Plus, turning into a dragon is cool.
The Cleric
The cleric is a surprisingly effective fighter (due to her ability to equip some great weapons and armor) as well as a proficient healer. The cleric can further improve her in-battle prowess with stat-doubling skills.? She also has access to powerful anti-undead spells that lay waste to any ghosts and zombies lurking in the Pit.
The Warlock
With the ability to summon skeletons, ghosts and liches to fight by his side, the warlock rarely travels alone.? His access to the dark arts further bolsters his powers and his curses weakens his enemies.
The Elementalist
The fireball-flinging, lightning-casting, earth-shattering mage can unleash magical fury upon his enemies.? Which is a good thing because he can't fight very well. A golem or fire elemental helps out in that respect.
The Mindfreak
The brilliant mindfreak is a master of misdirection.? Fear, confusion, invisibility and powerful psyche attacks are her weapons of choice. With the aid of some skills, the mindfreak is also a fair OOBS specialist.
The Rogue
A moderately balanced fighter with a strong outside-of-battle-skillset (OOBS). The rogue gains 7 ability points/level up to distribute among the 10 abilities, plus his cost to increase abilities is low, making the rogue the ideal class for those who enjoy lockpicking, hiding, pickpocketing and preemptive attacks.
The Kensai
The warrior class. The kensai is the foremost fighter in the game and a veritable tank. He can equip most any equipment and further improve his fighting ability by dual wielding and attacking multiple times per round. His OOBS is almost non-existant, though.
The Animagus
A secondary warrior class that has access to shapeshifting and totemic skills.? Though not a tank like the kensai, the animagus is more than able to handle himself in a fight. Plus, turning into a dragon is cool.
The Cleric
The cleric is a surprisingly effective fighter (due to her ability to equip some great weapons and armor) as well as a proficient healer. The cleric can further improve her in-battle prowess with stat-doubling skills.? She also has access to powerful anti-undead spells that lay waste to any ghosts and zombies lurking in the Pit.
The Warlock
With the ability to summon skeletons, ghosts and liches to fight by his side, the warlock rarely travels alone.? His access to the dark arts further bolsters his powers and his curses weakens his enemies.
The Elementalist
The fireball-flinging, lightning-casting, earth-shattering mage can unleash magical fury upon his enemies.? Which is a good thing because he can't fight very well. A golem or fire elemental helps out in that respect.
The Mindfreak
The brilliant mindfreak is a master of misdirection.? Fear, confusion, invisibility and powerful psyche attacks are her weapons of choice. With the aid of some skills, the mindfreak is also a fair OOBS specialist.
..:: DOWNLOAD ::..
Hellion v1.0 FULL GAME (December 18th, 2009)
..:: NOTES ::..
Hellion is a dungeon crawler cross with gameplay elements inspired by Diablo and D&D games, using retro NES Dragon Warrior IV graphics, sounds and music. The gameprofile is at RMN: http://www.rpgmaker.net/games/146/
..:: RAD SUNGLASSES ::..
After Deacon Batista suggested that Hellion could use some light effects (and was shouted down), I ran a little competition to make some XTREME maps for Hellion. The Hellion Rad Sunglasses mappack was released today and it's chock full of overlays, light effects, rocking MP3 music and arrow tile puzzles.
http://rpgmaker.net/games/146/radsunglasses/
Good luck!
