The Spyder in the Cathedral

Plot organisation page.

Links

• Explanation of the plot, the ideas from different contributors that it tries to balance, etc
• Game Elements
• Encounters
• Tuxemon Inventory
• Pillars
• Town Features
• Omnichannel (plot)

My proposed map

Synopsis

• The game begins with a recording of the CEO of OMNICHANNEL (introducing the Cathedral, the Pillars, tuxemon and unlocking)
• The action begins in PAPER TOWN, where you line up to get a STARTER at the STORE but don't have the Cathedral subscription required - your Rivals do though! (introducing your rivals and stores)
• After resting at your HOME (introducing your Mom), you can head back to the STORE
• You do fish a thrown-away, unofficial tuxemon out of the rubbish - but your RIVALS catch you and are scornful, and battle you (touching on the Cathedral and unlocking, and introducing battles and types)
• If you wander around town, you might meet the RIVALS' Granny (filling you in on Pillars), or see the Riverboat Station or Daycare Centre (introducing these places in anticipation of later)
• In Route 1, you encounter wild tuxemon for the first time
• In Cotton Town, you run into your Mom, who gives you a Nu Phone (introducing your phone)
• You also see the OMNICHANNEL building, and may be rebuffed by the Enforcers when you try to enter (touching on Omnichannel and introducing the Enforcers)
• You enter a CAFE, meet TEAM BAZAAR and get the TUXEPEDIA app (introducing cafes, Team Bazaar and Tuxepedia)
• In Leather Town, you face your first Pillar - Shaft - and get the chance to buy your first locked tuxemon and TMs (introducing TMs and touching on unlocking and the Pillars). Once you defeat the Pillar, however, the tuxemon are unlocked
• In Route 3, you run into your MOM, who gives you a Hoverboard, and a Fisher, who gives you a Fishing Rod (touching on your mum and introducing fishing)
• In the Abandoned Lab, you find Booster Tech (introducing a new evolution option), encounter the VIRUS for the first time, and fight ENFORCERS (introducing Spyder Bite and touching on the Enforcers)
• In Flower City, you face your second Pillar - Nimrod
• You have to go out of town to find TEAM BAZAAR (forcing you to go to STORES for paid healing until you get there), and are intercepted by your RIVALS who mock your weak tuxemon and talk about the great stuff you can buy from the PILLARS
• When you get to the MANSION that TEAM BAZAAR hang out in, you get a Dojo Pass (introducing you to the Dojo of the Five Elements). You can retame your TXMN at the Dojo.
• Also in Flower City is a broken-into house with someone who was working on a cure for Spyder Bite (touching on the virus), and when you go through you find the person who broke in - a Spyder Rookie (introducing Spyder)
• In Timber Town, the RIVERBOAT STATIONS reopen, and so has the DAYCARE CENTRE you saw in PAPER TOWN all that time ago. You should go back and drop a tuxemon off
• (Note there should be something new in PAPER TOWN to reward you for your trip back. Maybe the SURFING upgrade for your HOVERBOARD? MUM could say: "Hey bojo, your BOARD doesn't work on water. Unless you've got power.")
• Also in Timber Town, you face your third Pillar - Scoop
• Also in Timber Town, TEAM BAZAAR gives you a CONTACTS APP so you can re-fight all the people you've met before
• Also in Timber Town, THE DOJO OF THE FIVE ELEMENTS introduces many people to fight and teaches you about the mechanics of battle - just in time for rematches via the CONTACTS APP. And who should be in the final room of the DOJO to challenge you for a final test of your skill but your RIVALS? They mention that they've gotten the TUXEPEDIA APP themselves, and they admire your edits - and have done some of their own!
• When you arrive in Candy Town, your tuxemon are confiscated by ENFORCERS because they allegedly have SPYDER BITE - and are taken to the HOSPITAL for quarantine! You'll have to battle with your B team for a while.
• Also in Candy Town, TEAM BAZAAR gives you the RENAME TUXEMON APP - maybe you can name your other tuxemon after your stolen ones :(
• You might try to enter the HOSPITAL, but the scanner rejects any known tuxemon DNA. If only there were a way to scramble tuxemon DNA so it couldn't detect it ...
• There's a picket line on Route 7, formed by employees of the fourth Pillar - Greenwash! This route heads to Wool Town and Bronze Town, but there's ENFORCERS blocking the way to BRONZE TOWN.
• Dialogue with the protesters indicates that there's a new technology called FUSION developed at GREENWASH, and they reckon that's why the ENFORCERS are interested! But the Greenwash Bosses tricked everyone into leaving the building, and have locked themselves in while they wait for the ENFORCERS to get through.
• Reliable old MOM drops off XP Device along this route too (or maybe that's what you get for going back to PAPER TOWN?)
• At Wool City, you can break into GREENWASH HQ by going through the greenhouses - which are full of experimental tuxemon! Creepy, but make sure you catch them all!
• When you beat the BOSSES, you get the FUSION REPORT and can upload it to TUXEPEDIA! Now anyone can fuse any unlocked tuxemon! And now GREENWASH HQ is safe, since there's nothing for the ENFORCERS in there
• FUSION lets you get past the DNA detector at the HOSPITAL, and fight your way through the Spyder Rookies - who reveal their plan was to use the quarantine as an excuse to confiscate all UNLOCKED tuxemon and use them to boost their power. SPYDER is a conspiracy within the CATHEDRAL, and it goes right to the top of OMNICHANNEL!
• You grab the KEYCARD off the Spyder Boss in the HOSPITAL, and retrieve your confiscated tuxemon, and free the SCIENTISTS who can heal all unlocked tuxemon by looking at their DNA
• Before you can return to COTTON TOWN, your RIVALS intercept you! They are tired of your meddling, just let the CATHEDRAL find a cure! After you beat them, they notice that your tuxemon are cured. You mean it was that simple? Just unlocking them and checking their DNA? Then why did the ENFORCERS take our tuxemon? The seed of doubt has been planted in your RIVALS minds ...
• At COTTON TOWN, you fight your way through the SPYDER AGENTS ... but then two of the four OMNICHANNEL BOSSES challenge you at once! You'd be in trouble, but who should arrive but your RIVALS?! The whole VIRUS debacle convinced them that freedom and openness are the way to go, and so each of them joins you for a two-on-two battle with the OMNICHANNEL BOSSES.
• You triumph, and bring down the CATHEDRAL! All tuxemon are unlocked, and there's only a few more tuxemon you need to add to TUXEPEDIA!

Some thoughts on the conceit of the game

The conceit is that how tuxemon are restricted in the game world is analogous to how creative works are restricted in the real world ("creature" and "creative" both come from "create"; a creature was originally a created thing).

But we can use the creatures/creative works that we have to challenge the wicked corporations that would restrict them. As our creatures/creative works grow stronger and more numerous, the wicked corporations are defeated and fewer creatures/creative works are restricted until the protagonist's victory where no creatures/creative works are restricted.

I think that's a clever and subtle conceit for an open source game to have. It gives the player a goal, and a reason for battling. The use of battling creatures makes sense, because they're a metaphor for the battle of ideas. "As it is above, so it is below" - both Tuxemon: The Game and a tuxemon in the game world are creations that help win the battle of ideas for freedom and open source.

The Game

Introduction

("Film leader", i.e. the countdown from 10, plays")

Hello, I am the CEO of Omnichannel. We run the newspapers, TV channels and radio stations for this region. It is my duty to inform you.

(Tumbleworm appears)

Tuxemon are the animals that inhabit this world. They love to be captured so their masters can battle them for fun and profit. The strongest win, just like in the world of business.

Most monsters are found in the wild. They morph into more advanced forms when they gain experience.

But the five Pillars that make up the Cathedral, that is, the five allied companies that operate in this region, have improved on nature. This season, we offer five deluxe tuxemon!

(Dollfin, Magmaturtle, Memnomnom, Budaye and Grintot appear, with labels.)

These tuxemon morph immediately when exposed to a Token - instant gratification!

What's more, they let you choose which form they morph into.

(Each is shown in turn with the black silhouette of the two forms it morphs into)

Tokens are available for a modest fee from all stores and Pillars!

Ahem, what was I talking about? Oh yes, each Pillar offers one of these exclusive tuxemon, as well as our usual battling and healing services.

(Introductory video ends, and cuts to Shopkeeper addressing a number of people in his store. All potential protagonist types are present)

What a great presentation from our CEO! All Gold members are being offered a free tuxemon. Just fill in this form.

1. What is your name?

2. Please attach a photo.

(Here players can choose from a number of options for the protagonist's appearance).

3. What is your appetite for risk and danger? (High/Medium/Low)

(Here players can set the game's difficulty).

4. Which tuxemon would you like? (Dollfin/Magmaturtle/Memnomnom/Budaye/Grintot)

(Shopkeeper goes to each person, collecting the forms. When he reaches the protagonist)

I'm sorry, you are not a Gold member. This offer is for Gold members only. I'll have my Shop Assistant escort you home.

(Protagonist follows Shop Assistant to your Home in Paper Town). Then the game begins. You begin with $250.)

Places

• Paper Town
• Route 1
• Cotton Town
  • Omnichannel HQ
  • Dryad's Grove
• Route 2
• City Park
• Leather Town
• Route 3
• Abandoned Lab
• Route 4
• Flower City
  • Side Route A
  • Mansion
• Route 5
• Timber Town
• Tunnel B
• Route 6
• Candy Town
• Wool City
  • Greenwash HQ
• Sea Route C
  • Dragon's Cave

Route 5

When you first enter Route 5 through the BROKEN-INTO HOUSE, you are intercepted by a Spyder Rookie, who battles you. She lets slip that she has some knowledge of your character that only an ENFORCER would have.

Route 6

Rest House: Just before entering the TUNNEL.

Tunnel B

Or some other dungeon.

Candy Town

When you first arrive, an ENFORCER says that your starter tuxemon (if it's in your active tuxemon, otherwise your highest level active tuxemon) is infected with a VIRUS and he has to confiscate it. He leaves you at the CAFE, where you can pick up more of your tuxemon.

Hospital: This is where thousands of tuxemon are being kept, in "quarantine". An automatic detector at the door identifies tuxemon and won't let anyone in with them. (So you can't enter at all).

Cafe: For TEAM BAZAAR.

Route 7

When you first enter, your MUM intercepts you and gives you an XP Device.

Protesters: Route 7 leads to Wool City and Bronze City, but ENFORCERS are blocking the path to Bronze City and Workers and Scientists are blocking the path to Wool City. The WORKERS will let you through; the ENFORCERS will not.

Dialogue with the WORKERS and SCIENTISTS explains that in the middle of a fire drill, Greenwash (a PILLAR) management locked all staff out of GREENWASH HQ.

The striking workers think it's because GREENWASH staff had invented TUXEMON Fusion, and were going to release a paper on it.

Now they're worried that ENFORCERS have been called in to kill all the FUSIONS and shut down the program.

They'd love for you to enter, but because the front entrance is locked, you'll have to sneak through the back - where tuxemon experiments are running wild!

Wool City

Hospital

Now you can return to the HOSPITAL. Just fuse one tuxemon that can pass through the detector and switch it off. The machine won't detect it - because it's not any known breed!

This is a multi-level building, with many ENFORCERS and SPYDER AGENTS - the first direct proof of their collaboration, a healing location, scattered items and puzzles.

They drop hints about their true plan: when the VIRUS is cured, they will confiscate any unlocked tuxemon for being "unsafe", and use them to further their plans for world domination!

As you go along, you also recover your confiscated tuxemon. For each one, you can choose to place it in your team or store it. They have the VIRUS though.

You also find a trapped scientist, who says that the VIRUS is cureable - but only with access to the DNA. In other words, only unlocked tuxemon are cureable! He cures all yours.

Later

• Four legendary tuxemon, based on the animals of the four cardinal directions
• A terrifying and very powerful tuxemon that was created using the FUSION technology - but it stuck, so it rampaged and then hid
• A showdown in the final pillar, Omnichannel, (equivalent to the INDIGO LEAGUE of PKMN) where it's revealed that the SPYDER is run by the bosses of the CATHEDRAL. You fight a number of two-on-two battles, with your RIVALS teaming up with you to back you up!
• Reward for "completing" TUXEPEDIA
• A post-game ISLAND RESORT where you can buy any item, acquire any tuxemon, battle any person, and where you can test out battle tactics, technique sets, teams, etc. at any level.
• Side story:

Remember back in TIMBER TOWN? Some bazaar dudes shared contacts in there...

One guy (or a girl?) was especially friendly, the player and him/her had contact over the phone more than with others... because, well, s/he is nice and helps out a few times maybe. also checking if the player does any good and maybe even give a little money over the bank sometimes, for a little "I thought you would need a blabla, so here is a little gift! We are friends at all so I figured you would be happy to have a xyz", sometimes randomly calling with a "how are you doing?" and maybe this guy/girl also helped with the hoverboard upgrade...

Now, when you're in the final area... you are not able to call people. Because of the walls or something else, your NU phone has zero connection.* Something feels odd, and as you get closer your phone rings. It's him/her. And s/he is ready to take you on.

*when calling anybody (other than him/her) "NU PHONE has no connection" - most player's will give up instantly. But if you try out every number, you eventually get "It rings... It rings.. It rings... s/he didn't accept your call", which already gives a hint that this person is somewhere closeby.