Design Principles: Mission I, Into The Storm

A scene and a mission scenario is not that different. It must have a setup, revelation, conflict, and resolution.

In that regard, creating this mission required that the scene exists first, without thinking that this is going to be a mission scenario for a game.

Action/Adventure stories are arguably the easiest to convert into a game. Your characters are involved doing things, and everything hinges and focuses on these things they do and how it affects their progress through the story.

Now, since this is the first scene, it must contain the first major dramatic twist. It should present the way things are, and then an event should occur that turns things up side down, thus introducing the audience to the symptoms of the central problem of the story.

This however should be established so that it actually means something to the characters. Say, for example one event does happen that means so much to someone you are looking at. Without knowing first the things involved in that event, we will never understand how this can be important.

This will mean we could just shrug the event off, no matter how eventful it was for the character.

Turning this script into a mission is not automatic, and cannot be forced. It must come to you naturally, and it will. This is the time adjustments must be made, but this doesn't mean the tensions in the script will be broken or lessened. In fact, it can be amplified even more.

The only limiting factor will come from the absence of actual actors that will show the audience the emotion of the scene and thus the meaning of the various interactions of the story elements. Human actors, good ones, makes this task fluid, quick, and easy.

After all, being there in a particular event would feel so much different than merely listening to someone talking about it. And even listening to a story from a more expressive story teller is so much better when compared to someone who just reports it to you without even making a gesture.

What you can preserve for certain are the character interactions and the progression of their relationships as the event unfolds. The thematic nature of those relationships will never be different, whether you make a script for a film, a comic or a game. And of course all of the fundamental elements and themes of the story itself will never be changed.

What you may be forced to add are activities that doesn't really relate to the scene at all. Say, harvest these amount of minerals. I call these player errands.

Player errands however must at least be tied into the actions or activities central to the scene we are trying to convert or transcribe into a mission scenario.

Mostly, there's a lot of running around from script to mission, and vice-versa, when it comes to making this mission, almost to the point confusion comes in that either of the two makes any sense anymore.

The quick fix to this usual obstacle, which is by the way caused by exhaustion, is to remember the fundamental elements present in your scene, what you wanted to tell the audience, and how you'd want them to react or feel.

Making a mission scenario from a scene script is just like asking the question, "How do I show the player these things?"

Characters of the SCBW Version: RALRAZIN

Role: Skeptic (allied)

Ralrazin is the younger sister of Nalani'Khal, and an expert in robotics engineering. Her talents involve the unconventional use of energy to construct, albeit unstable, machines.

While the effects of the 'Psionic Backlash' endured, Ralrazin became the key instrument to establishing the Psionic Matrix the Legions employed in the campaign. She was also the one who suggested the idea of overloading the Prism Cores which made contact with Aldaris possible.

Ralrazin trusts no one, and consider everyone to be ultimately self-serving regardless of any gesture of kindness, mercy, or kinship.

To this end, Ralrazin herself has aided the Legion simply because she happens to be where the Legion was when the event occured.

Zergund asks her why she decided to tag along, and she said,

"Our world is changed, Zergund. I doubt where I should be still matters. Where you are heading, on the other hand, seems very interesting."

Factions of SCBW Version: VICERATORS

Vicerators are once members of the Nar'Khalani -- a group of individuals kept under control by the Conclave for their inability to control or wield their immense raw psionic powers.

Influenced by the Warped Voice despite their lack of knowledge regarding its existence, the Vicerators are unwilling pawns and time-bombs ready to be triggered when the time is ripe for them to fulfill their purpose.

Khaludar would eventually face the unleashed form of the Vicerators later into the SC2 version of the campaign.

During one of the Acts of Survivors (SC:BW version), the Vicerators were promised by the Voice to protect the Khalai Executor's tribesmen while he would venture into the heavily infested Scion Province in search for the Shards.

True to his word, the Vicerators joined the Khalai Executor's forces during the final Act, while Teradun attempts to force his way through the main bulk of the Swarm.

Characters of the SCBW Version: Zergund

Role: Sidekick (believer)

Zergund is a warrior, a veteran warrior who had refused the call to rise as Templar.

As a consequence of his refusal to serve for the greater good of the caste, he had spent decades with Vicar Setharun on the outer planets as a personal guard and pupil.

This would be a test he'd eventually fail horribly.

He was later relinquished of pupilage and returned to his warrior brethren, elevated as one of the Primars of the Akilae ground forces. Mention or acknowledgement of his rank would lead to a serious duel of wills resulting in the losing warrior to suffer intense mental pain.

Only one thing can match his passion for raw combat and being one of the Zealots.

Zergund had come to admire High Executor Tassadar's ideals, but remained under the Conclave's banner during the conflicts saying,

"I would serve this cause better that I should be closest to my enemies when the time is come to strike!"

It seems Vicar Setharun had somehow managed to impress something into Zergund after all, despite the constant complaints he has about his long stay with the Dae'Uhl Vicar.

Characters of the SCBW Version: Teradun

Role: Contagonist

Teradun expects to be part of the Judicator Caste regardless of anything or anyone. He neither wants it, nor needs it, but he firmly believes this is his rightful destiny -- that he was born to be Judicator, and nothing else.

Teradun seem arrogant and unreasonable, and that's only because of his belief. This seeming strength of belief in himself is also a symptom of the truth: that he finds himself worthless, and that everything else is without meaning, purpose, nor value.

He is empty, incapable of empathy, and truly driven to the destruction of whatever he has rule over.

Teradun is a manipulative, self-serving Templar, whose pleasure comes from lording over others and exploiting the weak through a noble and trustworthy appearance to mask his true nature.

Right after the incident in Act I, he immediately insisted that the Khalai Executor order 3/4ths of the Legion to fall under his direct command. He was given this seal without delay, and ordered a forced march deep into the Infested Zones.

He claims to have lost confidence over the Conclave, and would lead the Legions in defiance to the plans of the Conclave and pursue their own ends.

Somehow, even Zergund believed him.

Characters of the SCBW Version: The Khalai Executor

Role: Protagonist and Main Character (POV Character)

The Khalai Executor is a dummy executor. Acquiring the Auxiliary Legion demanded that a Khalai Executor be placed in charge as head of their military structure.

He isn't respected by the Judicators, nor the ambitious Teradun, but the Legions would rather trust the most worthless in the eyes of those in high places than anyone else.

Fearing they'd lose control of the Legions, the Conclave decided to employ Teradun, noble of birth to the Templar Caste, just as ambitious and covetous, to direct the Khalai Executor behind closed doors.

After escaping certain death in the first Act, and left by the Conclave without aid, the Khalai Executor decides to put matters into his own hands. Thus begins his journey to ensuring that the rest of his brethren would survive this hell that Aiur has become.

Inspirations for the Characters: The Warped Voice and the Khalai Executor

The voice is a sort of metaphor for this impalpable reality that exists. This thing that drives existence on and from which the very structure of life we live in is formed.

This thing, force, or momentum that cultivates or unleashes man in every way, may it be good or evil, great or small.

The Khalai Executor is the character that represents the argument of free-will being the ultimate power that draws the lines and thus define the person each one can be in the face of this irresistible movement that forever drives the machinations of this continuum we inexorably must be in.