'I love the smell of a burning village in the morning'

We are all, I deign to assume, very if not overly familiar with the RPG trope of having your village burned down prompting a quest for enlightenment, revenge, love, and quite possible cookies. We have all suffered the downcast, surly stare of a protagonist with so much angst holding his hair up that he could very well be considered a bona fide psychopath by any reputable physician. We all know and love RPG conventions, but i'll be damned to an eternity of grinding if it's not time for a change.

Allow me to paint the scene.

The game opens with a idyllic hamlet, set in an impossibly loving, tranquil spirit of community and populated by farmers, woodcutters, and deviants hellbent on hiding peoples' stuff in a random assortment of containers. You, as the character, as a young boy, must complete some menial but educational tasks to learn the layout and controls; although it's not long before you hear whispers of war and, upon returning to your quaint home after gathering herbs in a nearby forest, find the whole place in flames.

Slow dissolve to a knight, clad in obsidian armour, laughing manically at the destruction surrounding him. The in-game cutscene, it seems, is static. That is, until you realise with horror in your breast, that you are no longer ina cut-scene, and you are in fact in control of the antagonist. Your task is completed, but the 'protagonist' still eludes you, and so must return to your Baronetcy to plan the next part of your search.

Imagine the moral compas of games such as this turned on your head, as your character, not neccessarily evil but loyal to his orders, is hunted mercilessly by a deranged survivor of the burning village, to the point where he becomes, if anything, more 'evil' than you.

Imagine if instead of a brooding teen, you were in control of a mature, contented and already-formidable warrior, whose progression through the game is not measured in more levels, more items, but in he knowledge he gains, the characters he can recruit, the command he respects.

The sad thing is, games like this will almost certainly never happen. Ok, I concede that Overlord has the right idea, but it's still not an RPG, a bona-fide turning the genre on its head kind of game. Ok, in The Darkness you play a very definite anti-hero, as you do in numerous other games, but the morality is still stale; you are killing people who 'deserve' to be killed, and the only reason your halo remains out of reach is because you have no qualms about killing them. What this genre needs is a really, genuinely refreshing take on matters. Hey, game devs, just ask me if you're really curious; i'll write you up a script and a premise for a game that is involving, unique, and most importantly of all, engages with, plays with, and ultimately subverts peoples expectations.

So, i'm curious; how would YOU guys go about doing it? Tell me; what would the main character be like? The setting, the plot. Let's hear it!

Dannnnn

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