A Peasant's Tale

A Peasant's Tale has been in the making for about a year now. It is being worked on by a team of two musicians, a web developer, an artist, and me, the programmer and designer.

We are totally open to suggestions, so please let us know what you think! Who knows, your two cents may turn out to be two hundred bucks! :P

----**------------------------------------ The Controls ------------------------------------------**

Ok so I probably should have included this section at the very start, but here it is: the controls (also, don't worry, there will eventually be a way to figure this out in the game):

• WASD/Arrow keys to move

• Spacebar to hit

• Mouse click to interact with stuff (open chests, speak to villagers, etc.)

• Mouse click to shoot fireballs or rocks (doesn't do damage yet)

• E or click on bag icon to open invetory (mouse to interact with items)

• If you have an item being dragged, you can rotate it by pressing SHIFT and then the right or left arrow key

• P to pause/unpause the game

• Numbers to switch what spell you have selected (right now just fireball or rock)

• Shift click to pick a spell icon and click to place it in a new spell slot

• C opens up the crafting menu, but that will be taken out since there will be many crafting places.

• Escape exits the game

- Enter on main menu to enter the game

• BIG THING TO NOTE: some things require you to be within a certain distance of them to be interactable such as mining, picking up items, and speaking to villagers.

Things to try out (don't read in you want to figure it out for yourself): Explore the map, fight the bandits and theives, look for the 54 chests scattered around the map (each one has randomized loot), raid the crypt full of baddies, go for a swim, talk to some vilagers, mine some iron ore (no real purpose for it just yet), enjoy the music. :)

----**----------------------------------- The Mechanics -----------------------------------------**

A Peasant's Tale is an action RPG, but it is also a sort of army management/building game. The honor system ties these two facets of the game together. You must complete quests for the people you meet on your journey you gain honor. Once you have become revered enough in a town, you can recruit its soldiers into your army.

Each place you visit has its own unique story, characters, quests, items, culture, musical themes, and color palette. It also has its own type of soldiers. An elven city may have very good archers while a minotaur tribe may have extremely strong melee units. At the same time, certain factions may be at war with each other, making you have to choose which faction to recruit into your army. Certain challenges might arise from trying to recruit two groups that dislike each other.

A Peasant's Tale has a *size-based inventory system.*** This means that different items have different sizes and take up different amounts of space in you inventory, This adds a level of realism to the game as well as an interesting new mechanic.

The game also features a *grid-based crafting system.*** **This unique crafting system alsos for a lot of learning through experimentation - much like in Minecraft. However, it is also very versatile with different types of crafting such as forging and enchanting. You can either play around with it and figure out recipes on your own, buy recipes from vendors, or find them as loot from enemies or dungeons.

A Peasant's Tale also has a diversified skill experience system much like that of Skyrim. There is not centralized leveling. Instead, you gain experience and level up in specific tasks. Want to be a better blacksmith? Spend some time forging armor and weapons. Want to learn new spells? Use the ones you already know.

----**------------------------------------ The Backstory -----------------------------------**-----

You are a just a simple farmer, living in a small, isolated village. Your life is simple, but happy - that is until your entire village is burned to the ground.

A powerful nation has formed from several city-states. Its rulers now seek to expand into an empire, the first of its kind. As such an endevor requires materials and a labor force, the nation has turned to sending out raiding parties to all of the nearby villages and towns. These towns are pillaged and razed, and their inhabitants are enslaved. Your town is one of these unlucky places.

Everybody you know is either dead or a slave, sure to spend the rest of his or her life in a mine or a logging camp or who knows what else. Somehow, you were overlooked. Do you linger on in this place of death, or do you take up the quest to save the ones you hold dear in your life. You steel yourself and decide on the latter.

----**---------------------------------------- The Plot --------------------------------------------**

Determined as you are to save your friends and family, you know that you cannot accomplish the feat by yourself. You must travel to distant lands and gather up an army. Along the way, you will encounter many different civilizations. Each has its own unique story, characters, and quests. Raise an army and destroy the evil empire. Fight for your people's freedom!

The story portrays the human fighting spirit and shows that anybody can rise to meet the challenge in front of them - you literally start the game as a lowly peasant who has never seen anything farther than a few hundred yards outside his village.
#rpg