Friday, June 17, 2016

Inspiration Source: Nexus War

Back when I was just starting highschool, this whiskey-drinking, apollo-worshiping dude named Brandon Harris created a browser based game called Nexus War. (Spiritual Successor: Nexus Clash.)

Nexus War had some roots in Urban Dead- Jorm had played, and Nexus War at first glance had a lot of the same elements. Play entailed moving around a map of squares on a grid, heavy PVP elements, and that's about as far as the similarities went. Players had a limited number of Action Points to spend, and once they were gone, you were stuck waiting until they refreshed to do more.

But Urban Dead was always about zombies and humans duking it out in a ruined city- Nexus War was far more ambitious. The entire world was a conflict between beings of immense power, with the players ultimately deciding the fate of the entirety of that existence.

Nexus Clash had something like fifteen or so different character classes to spec into, with the option of becoming Angelic (Good), Demonic (Evil), or Transcendent (Neutral). Within the morality framework, you had combat monsters, spellcasters, and combat/spellcasting hybrids.

Angels ranged from the clockwork Seraphs who got badass ultratech innate weaponry to use, to the Divine Champion who could assume various cloaks and change their composition to do crazy shit. (Shoutout to the cloak of steel that allowed them to use ambulances and other vehicles as weapons.) The other classes didn't really grasp me as much, although the Lightspeaker had some kickass pets.

Demons had Infernal Behemoths, hulking masses of flesh and muscle with their own innate weaponry, as well as Void Walkers, these badass creatures capable of stepping through walls and turning invisible. Kudos to Dark Oppressors for having the Agony Curse + Defiler Poison Combo, one of THE most satisfying and evil things to slap on another human's virtual representation of themselves since the dawn of time. (Every time someone hit with the combo took an action that used Action Points, Defiler Poison would damage them, boosted by Agony Curse, which also gave the user of the curse XP every time the curse triggered.)

Angels never gained access to debuffs, and were generally stronger than an individual demonic character, although morality restrictions meant that certain behaviors were extremely counterproductive. Demons couldn't accept healing from others, and also had no built-in reasons to cooperate since killing one another gives just as much XP as killing an Angel or Neutral character running around.

I've been brainstorming pretty heavily about a game centered around mortals empowered and enhanced by an Angel to fight off Demonic hordes, and it's safe to say that the aesthetic of Nexus War will play a large part in the trappings of the campaign.

One Last Thing: I am scared to try Jorm's grilled cheese recipe.

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