In videogames, there is often a feature where aspects of the character you play are decided through roleplay or general actions you go through. One example is Fallout, where you grow up and take an exam which decides your initial skills.
Admittedly, no matter how much your character changes, the basic plot outline will always be the same. That's the only way a game can remain fluid. But you can alter quite a bit, and it could fit in an RPG quite well...
So here's my idea. You are at a campsite getting some food for yourself when a child grabs your sleeve and starts asking for a story. This leads to a whole heap of dialogue choices you can pick where you're dragged to the campfire to tell the story and the story you tell the kids.
As the kid pulls you, you can either be dismissive, cheery, joking or mean, and this decides your initial karma in the game, should the game have karma.
The story is a simple one that everyone could guess, but you're given choices on what kind of story you tell: Romantic, Action, Drama, Comedy, Fairytale. The story you pick will have a direct effect on your dialogue choices at certain sections of the game, and some will even enable different side-quests to open up that relate to the interests you show in your story choice.
Then you introduce the main character of your story, who always seems to be based off of the storyteller. If you introduce him as an amateur, the game is in easy mode; if he's a hardcore hero, the game is hard; if you say he's a newbie, but quick to learn, the game starts easy but the difficulty increases a lot faster.
You introduce the secondary character, the best friend and sidekick of the hero. This determines who your early companion is in the quest, while other people will just turn up later in different places. Then comes the love interest (there's always a love interest) which decides which romantic option in the game will become the easiest for you to expand, since they'll have feelings for you upon meeting you.
Then comes the main conflict, which you won't be able to decide as your character just uses the template of story they have picked at the start. While you can't choose what the conflict is, you're given choices of how to face it: either by being diplomatic, assertive, tactical or evasive. This relates to your play style.
If you're diplomatic (bargaining with the enemies, talking to the love interest, etc) then your skills will focus more on speech and money, with dialogue options being easier in total. Assertive (run in and start shooting, give a big dramatic gesture of love, etc) means a more direct method of play, such as big guns and automatic weaponry. If you're tactical (trick the enemy into defeating themselves, send roses in a quaint vase to her favourite bakery with a note, etc) then you'll be better with traps and precision and whatnot. Evasive (escaping the enemy, taking full blame and begging, etc) will add more stealth and running abilities, giving a stronger emphasis to this style of play.
The ending of the story would just relate to the character. If they give a twist ending, they'll get a different ending option for the game. If they say "happily ever after" or "the end" or "that's that story over, let me return to my chicken", it's just roleplay.
To me, I can't think of a better way to develop a character to the player's liking without breaking the roleplay aspect in a significant way. Plus, replay value would increase as you can play as a completely different character.
If you have any improvements, tell me. I'd love to know!
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