Developer Journal #9

"Size matters," according to Rapid Reality in their latest developer journal

“Size Matters” says Creative Director, Adam Ghetti. And indeed, in The Chronicle, it does. Instead of giving a general size to our Players, and not varying from that much, we’ve created completely different character types who size accordingly. With the Fairy being the smallest playable character type, at one foot (30 centimeters) tall, and the Treefolk being the largest, measuring in at 14 feet (4.3 meters), yes, size does matter. With 9 playable races, this will prove that although you might be looking down at your teacher, you will have to look up to their wisdom.

Keep in mind, size isn’t always everything. An old proverb says “The bigger it is, the harder it falls.” While this holds true in The Chronicle, it will have its balances. Larger Races, while easier to hit, will have a vast amount of life, as apposed to the smaller races, which will be harder to hit, but easy to bring down. With speed and agility factored in, it will be interesting to see the tactics our players will use against each other. Where size and racial features count, no 1 race will be able to outperform another.

Some playable characters in The Chronicle.

But there’s more to size then just the features that can be shown in numbers or equations. There’s the actual problem of size itself. Not everything in the world is created by your race, and hence, not everybody will fit through your Gnomish door:

“Your Ogre has been a great bodyguard as you venture ever deeper into a cave or dungeon. You see to the right there is a room full of monsters, and to the left is a very difficult foe, but he is just one. You consult your map and see that both roads will intersect soon, and decide to take on the one. After a riveting battle, you move on with your loot through a door… a door that your Ogre does not fit through. You know he will not survive on his own, but then, neither would you.”

“Well why should I play anything but a Fairy?” asks one of our Community Members. The Fairy, at one foot (300 centimeters), will of course be the most difficult to hit. However, the Fairy will face dangers of its own. With the lowest amount of life points, the Fairy might find itself engaged in aerial combat with a Bat or a Bee while fighting any other opponent. “Well then why shouldn’t I just play Ogres?” With the most life points, Ogre’s find themselves to be such a size that they would be hard to miss. You might be thinking “So I should play something in the middle,” well then you would miss out on strengths of having something on either side of the Spectrum. However, we leave it to the players to find out how they want to play.

Different races will find that they could wear another races Gauntlet as a full body plate mail (figuratively speaking). This will set The Chronicle apart from other games of the genre, where any Player Character is most welcome to wear any piece of armor, use any piece of weapon, regardless of size. Where most games might say “Can only be equipped by Human”, they do not give a reason why. In The Chronicle, you’ll find several races can share weapons and armor, but only if it is fitting. Where an Elf could fit into the armor of a Human, he (or she) could not squeeze into the armor of a Goblin:

The Ogre was wearing a wonderfully rare piece of armor, a Helm, which would compliment your outfit gloriously. There’s only 1 problem: You are a Fairy. You could wear that Ogre’s Helmet as a full suit, with plenty of room to spare.”

This allows for a wonderful Dynamic Market as well. By forgoing the “One Size Fits All” cliché that plagues the genre, The Chronicle will give players a chance to make weapons and armor depending on how they play the game. Crafters will bend to the racial numbers in order to continue selling the wares, and those numbers will be completely decided on the Players themselves. Although we doubt that a server will be all one race, it is completely possible, and up to the players. This game play type will create a level of depth as well. It will no longer be a stat comparison at a general market, but finding a particular crafter that peddles in the ware you desire… and you fit into. Where some races will share weapons due to similar sizes, the mastery of the weapon will be slightly more difficult. This will also allow for many crafting options, but we’ll save that for another Journal.

- Luke D. Peterfreund, Rapid Reality's Community Manager

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