Thursday, October 17, 2013

Steven Strange - The Strange(st) Scientist

Last Friday kicked off the start of +Stacy Dellorfano 's Perfect Dark hangout game. I went into it completely ignorant of the game or setting and, I have to say, it was quite easy to pick up. The character I cobbled together was Steven Strange -- a farmer and an academic. He lives to study the Strange -- some weird gas that, possibly, is a living entity.

From Wikimedia
To back up Steven, and keep him company/sane, is his cougar companion, Kane. One of the coolest parts of character creation, I felt, was the option to create a pet. And, by 'create', I do mean create -- the pets, should you invest enough points into them, have their own mini-character creation that
allows you to select various mutations and skills for them. Much like your own character has. This means that Kane is no ordinary cougar. Oh, no. Kane is a tentacled, web-spinning, sonar-using, sentient cougar that can also brew his own booze. Yeah, he's awesome.

But, enough of the cool cat and back to Steven. What went into his creation? What ideas inspired me? Honestly, since I knew so little about the setting at his creation, I just went with a farmer because it sounded entertaining. The initial idea of farming Strange snowballed into Steven being a hardcore researcher of the stuff. Completely dedicated to it, to an almost fanatical degree. This also plays well into his personality (which each character chooses, from a list) as he is The Creepy One. And what's creepier than an overly fanatical scientist, right?

Steven is still evolving, still coming into his own, as the game is just starting to get underway. The game play is actually quite fresh for me, as it lends itself to being pretty nonviolent (so far, at least). If I could describe it, I would consider it almost like Minecraft -- there is a lot of exploration, adventure, and resource gathering for what (I assume) will be a lot of crafting. Or building up of our little society. Either way, it's pretty darn awesome.

I'll toss on some more posts as the adventure continues and we see more of the rules. And more Strange. Always more Strange.

(To note: Perfect Dark is still in the development stage, so it will likely change.)

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