Ideas For A Generic Fantasy RPG

Souls as the Source of Magic

The foundational mechanic: souls power mana, and mana powers everything magical — spells, special abilities, and the crafting of magic items. When you kill something, you harvest mana proportional to the creature's power. Kill a rat, get a sliver. Kill a wolf, get more. Kill a person — you get quite a bit, which immediately sets a dark tone for the setting.

Flavored Mana

Once the player unlocks magic item crafting (via skill, perk, or quest), they discover that mana is flavored — different souls yield different types of mana. For basic spellcasting, generic mana suffices. But special abilities, powerful spells, and all crafting require specific flavors:

• Good mana from killing good creatures, evil mana from evil ones
• Innocence mana for summoning spells that open gates to powerful beings
• Warrior souls needed to craft a magic sword for a warrior character

This creates fascinating moral tension. A wizard who needs mana must kill — perhaps explaining why wizards are viewed as somewhat evil in this world. A pacifist wizard is essentially impossible.

The Ultimate Source

Tim notes this mechanic naturally suggests a story: the player trying to tap into the afterlife itself — heaven, hell, or limbo — as the ultimate source of souls. He also envisions cult mechanics where minions funnel a portion of their kill-mana to the cult leader, explaining why evil powers always surround themselves with followers.

Village Building as Progression

The player starts as a normal person trying to create a village. You choose which buildings to construct — blacksmith, temple, alchemist, barracks, wizard tower, bank, inn — and each attracts NPCs who sell items, followers, quests, or spells.

The Upgrade Loop

Every shop can be upgraded, but upgrades require quests:

• Blacksmith needs a special anvil or rare ore from a goblin-infested mine
• Bank needs bandits cleared before it can open branches (enabling deposit access everywhere)
• Temple needs its altar sanctified via a specific quest
• Wizard/Alchemist sends you for components, then stocks new items

Each upgrade feeds back into the player's capabilities. The enchanted anvil means better weapons. The sanctified altar might reduce random encounters or boost magic item quality. It's a feedback loop — and notably, none of it requires mana. The soul economy runs underneath as a separate layer.

Player-Driven Quest Philosophy

Tim's central quest principle: quests are never externally imposed. The player does quests because they want something. He breaks quests into several categories:

Item Set Quests

Weapons and armor come in sets with escalating bonuses. Items drop randomly until you need the last few pieces, then you get a quest pointing to possible locations — or the name of someone who owns the final piece.

Collection Quests

Finding a special scroll, a perfect bear hide, or a goblin skull triggers a collection. Gather N of them for a reward (money, XP, related items). Once you're close, a quest reveals where to find the rest.

Component Quests

Random drops or natural resources (ore, fruit, feathers) serve as crafting components. Players can use them directly or hand them to upgraded shops.

Access Quests

Some areas are locked behind prerequisites: prove your worth, learn a language, clear a bridge of bandits, rescue a kidnapped mayor, or — for a cult temple — bring the blood of ten innocents.

Language Quests

Different races and regions speak different languages. Players learn them through books, teachers, payment, quests, or magical means. Each language unlocks new dialogue and quest opportunities. Tim sees this as an elegant gating mechanism — blocking content the player may never pursue, but rewarding those who do.

The Blacksmith Test

Tim illustrates his philosophy with an example. The wrong way: the blacksmith says "Go to the mine, kill gnolls, bring 10 mithril ingots, I'll reward you." The right way: the player asks "Why don't you sell high-end chain mail?" The blacksmith replies "I don't have mithril. There's mithril at this mine, but goblins overran it." Now it's player-driven — if you already have good armor, you skip it. If you want better gear, you're motivated to go.

Dual-Axis Alignment System

Tim implements the classic Law/Chaos and Good/Evil axes, but with very specific mechanical triggers:

• Law: Accepting bounties and quests gives a small law boost; completing them gives a large one
• Chaos: Botching quests or killing named/non-hostile creatures without a bounty
• Good: Killing evil creatures or completing quests labeled as good
• Evil: Killing anything good, or anything less evil than you — plus completing evil quests

The Slippery Slope

The system is deliberately asymmetric. Lawful good is hard to maintain because one slip can damage it — so lawful good items should be rare and powerful. Chaos and evil are slippery slopes — easy to fall into, hard to climb out of. If you're deeply evil, it's hard to find anything more evil than you to kill, and good NPCs won't even talk to you. More chaotic/evil items exist in the world, but with weaker bonuses.

Alignment Effects

• Items can be restricted or powered by alignment — a lawful good sword scales its bonuses with your alignment
• Losing alignment means losing item abilities or even the ability to wield certain gear
• Dialogue options change based on alignment
• Alignment of monsters, quests, and items should always be visible to the player — no hiding information

Four-Tier Item Hierarchy

Tim defines a clear power hierarchy for items, from most to least powerful:

Tier 1: Item Sets

The most powerful items in the game. Artifacts from a bygone era or made with lost techniques. Completing a set grants a super ability. These are rare, hard to complete, and the subject of dedicated quests. If you want the best fire resistance in the game, you need a set.

Tier 2: Crafted Items

Things the player makes or commissions from NPCs via component quests. Easier to target specific abilities you want, but requires finding components and having the skill or money. Second only to sets in power.

Tier 3: Reward Items

Quest rewards. Solid but not as good as crafted, and you don't choose what they are. Good for players who lack the patience for sets or resources for crafting.

Tier 4: Dropped Items

Random loot from kills or chests. Usually mundane or weakly magical. Never high-level, never densely packed with abilities. These are what you start with — including "rusted" cursed items with only penalties, which might be all you have early on.

Item Requirements

Better items demand more from the player: minimum level, class, skill, or alignment. Generalist items have many low requirements; specialist items have few but high ones. Some items carry penalties alongside abilities (a flaming sword with cold resistance penalty), forcing interesting trade-off decisions.

Design Ideas vs. IP Ideas

Tim frames this entire document as something before an IP — a toolkit of interconnected mechanical ideas, divorced from any specific setting or story. He kept several such files in his archives from his Troika days, ready for brainstorming sessions. If someone pitched a fantasy setting but needed quest mechanics, alignment systems, or magic economy ideas, he could pull from documents like this. It's a glimpse into how veteran designers maintain a library of reusable design concepts that can be adapted to any project.

References

• Tim Cain. YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5n4_Q5WywQw