The Chronicles of Elyria MMORPG just launched a kickstarter for their game. This isn’t like any World of Warcraft clone though. Your characters in this game will grow old over time and die.
Seriously.
For each character in Chronicles of Elyria, they have a 10 to 14 month real world timespan. Their visual appearance slowly changes and ages, giving them more grey hair and wrinkles. You can be a part of player family and get titles, money, and character traits from your lineage. If you go offline, AI scripts are in place to have your character keep on going in the game. While you aren’t at the computer, your hero will still be running a shop or training skills.
The spark of life system is the game’s business model. For $30, you buy another lifetime of a 10 to 14 month character. Chronicles of Elyria also works against griefers – a serial killer that goes on a rampage murdering other characters will have their face on a wanted poster, with a bounty attached to them. If they’re caught, they go to jail and their own lifespan is significantly reduced.
Each “normal” death (getting killed in combat for example), shortens your overall lifetime by about 2 days. But if you’re someone of influence, you could permadie after just four or five in-game deaths.
Chronicles of Elyria advertises itself as a survival game. You’ll have limited inventory space, and have to balance out being hungry or thirsty, and try not to drown or get fatigued as you explore extreme hot and cold landscapes. You can cultivate crops on your land and make a farm. Alternatively, you can join up with others and build a player-ran town with it’s own set laws and resources.
There isn’t a mini-map or world map either. Map makers and cartographers create maps to help world navigation. But locations can be renamed and treasure maps could be faked. The NPCs refer to towns by their most used name, so enjoy going to Boob-town and Penis Island.
The player skill system intends to deviate from a level cap grind, and associated mini-games will go beyond the button mashing. Your character develops from both their failures and success across categories like – gathering, survival, fighting, crafting, and smithing. But there’s also niche things like being a bard or deviant if that’s your style.
Player contracts are the foundation of the quest system. You can sign trade contracts to make a shipping business, hire an assassin, and hire surveyors to acquire rare resources. There won’t be NPC quest hubs or cookie cutter repeatable missions.
If this game sounds like something you’d be interested in, give the Kickstarter a look today.
