The Barrier Project
(Put here because I've never really written it all out.)
Barrier Project is a weird one: a more scripted/story driven RPG in which the key conceit is that the PC gradually controls all of the cast EXCEPT the central Main Character, a meta-human who is the subject of a prophesy about becoming a great hero and decisive figure in stopping a future threat. By choosing the words and advice of the influential people of the Main Character's life, the player gradually shapes not only what sort of person the Main Character would be, but how his powers (the ability to create barriers) will manifest and develop.
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With Barrier Project, there's definitely that idea (will he be a hero because he's a predestined, or is he destined because of the person he is), but thanks to general RPG-ish nature it's possible to subvert that. If you coddle the Hero to the point he's more like a clone-Shep, he fails as a hero. If you push him too far, he snaps and is more of an anti-hero who may simply not give a damn about saving the day.
What I dwell on more in Barrier Project is the question of 'do we develop in accordance to or against the examples of others?' In other words, does a hero arise because he or she emulates good people, or because they are opposed to bad people?
Part of the Barrier Project's 'every person but the protagonist' conceit is that I do mean every role, including the bad guys. I'll elaborate more later, but as an example the prologue in the game is with the player in control of hostage taker in a hostage crisis, with Barrier as one of the hostages. It's a short segment, with the player (the hostage taker) able to express agreement or uncertainty to the Militant Leader. With Barrier powerless and impotent, the climax of the scene is one in which the Militant Leader orders a hostage, an appropriately sympathetic hostage, be executed when the demands aren't met.
You, the Hostage Taker, are offered a choice: to kill the hostage, or to refuse.
If you choose to kill, what happens is that Barrier heroically (stupidly?) rushes you to save the hostage. Maybe he's wounded in the attempt by a stray bullet: maybe not. But he protects the hostage, the tensions are high as the militants prepare to open fire, and when the doors come down and the bullets start flying from the Good Guys launching their liberation raid, Barrier's powers manifest for the first time as he raises a barrier to protect himself and the hostage. You, the hostage killer, are killed in the firefight.
If you refuse to kill the hostage, what happens is that the PC-hostage taker gets into an argument with the Militant Leader while the hostages look on. Your line of argument can vary, but your refusal is absolute... and so the Militant Leader shoots you, leaving you to slowly die as he prepares to execute both the hostage and Barrier for your defiance. As your PC dies, you watch as the doors come down and the bullets start flying from the Good Guys launching their liberation raid, and Barrier's powers manifest for the first time as he raises a barier to protect himself and the hostages... and, if you note carefully, you. You bleed out, though, while he tries to save you.
Ten Years Later, Barrier is at a podium giving a speech about why (s)he has spent the last decade of his life agreeing to train and use his powers for Good. He speaks of his experience as a hostage in the most meaningful day of his life to date, and the lesson that he took from it. If you tried to kill the hostage, he reflects on how there are evil people in this world, people who would kill innocents to do what they want. He trains to put his barriers between innocents and people like you. If you refused to kill the hostage, he reflects that even amongst evil groups there are those who try, who risk their lives and suffer the consequences, trying be good. He trains so that he can be a guardian who can protect those who otherwise would be hurt trying to do good.
It's the same narrative roll, the same motivational turning point, the same manifestation of powers, and the same people alive and dead. But it allows a motivation change, a character shift, and a difference of perspective.
It could also offer a character flag: if that Hostage was an opposite-sex Love Interest candidate for the Main Character, then the 'Kill' option, which led Barrier to endangering him/herself to protect the hostage, could be reflected by the cues of a crush. Whereas if Barrier didn't take that heroism, Hostage shows up 10 years later as a friend but not infatuated.
And so on.
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(This is a meta-round up with the site move.)
To roll up the entire concept-
The game concept is an RPG in which the player doesn't play the 'main character.' Instead of being a central character who affects the people around them and determines their character progression, this is the inverse: controlling the important influences that shape the hero's development into a hero.
The main premise could be cast as 'Are Heroes created in emulation to virtue, or in opposition to evil?' The player character could be a bad person, prompting a reactionary development by the Hero, or a good person, who serves as a mentor and role model. The exact relationship would be depending on which perspective character the player is handling at the moment: rival, teacher, love interest, suspect, and even foe. These are all relationships that can have beneficial or antagonist affects on development.
The initial/emergent plot would be that the development of the Hero and a more typical fantasy of a predestined Hero and the looming evil they must grow to overcome. A basic Hero Development story, in which the Hero is training and the initial viewpoint characters affect the growth. Eventually evidence emerges of a conspiracy to target the Hero's relations, as the viewpoint characters have been killed or removed from the Hero. At this point, there does not seem to be any common linking factor between the various player-character viewpoints.
The Big Plot Twist/Secret Plot is that there is a common linking factor: you. Or rather, that the Player Character is actually a single player character, a telepath who has been mind-controlling all the viewpoint characters throughout the game. A conspiracy leader/visionary who is dedicated to preparing the Hero to face the Great Evil, the Mastermind has been arranging events and relationships in the Hero's life to mold them into a suitable Hero. This has involved setting up challenges for the Hero to overcome, enemies to overthrow, and killing the 'hosts' when their role is done.
Eventually the conspiracy is revealed, and the player's choices on the Hero's development culminate in addressing not only how the Hero will face the Looming Evil, but how they will address you. Will you be forgiven out of pragmatic acknowledgement for your contributions, arrested out of moral conviction for your crimes, or murdered in revenge for your inflictions?
A very broad layout for the story progression could be-
Prologue: The Awareness of Evil
Mentioned above. The player is a mook doing an evil deed. Do you carry it out, and spur conviction that there are truly bad people in the world, or do you defy and die, and inspire an optimism that there is good in the heart of bad people?
Act 1: Development of the Hero
Role: Mentor
The player controls a mentor figure, teaching the Hero and imparting wisdom and philosophy. But what sort? Virtue above all else? Pragmatism? Core values? When faced with going out in a blaze of glory, will you do so in a way that convinces the child you were worth listening to?
Role: Peer
The player controls a peer of the Hero, side-by-side in the training phase. Are you friends who support eachother? Antagonistic rivals who push each other further? Bitter antagonists? Your death at the hands of a early enemy will impact the Hero either way.
Role: Love Interest
The player controls a person the Hero is smitted with. Do you encourage? Reject? Gently? Passionately? The Hero cares about you, and you have the heart right in your hands. When the choice comes down between the Love Interest and the Greater Good, what will the Hero choose, and how will your respond?
Act 2: The Conspiracy (In which it is identified, hunted, and suspected)
Role: Investigator
The Heroes and Companions are suspicious of other actors afoot. You are in place to find it out... or mislead them (and yourself). But events are finally catching up and escaping your control, and you die in a way that vindicates the fears. Will you be remembered as a victim of the conspiracy, or a betrayer of trust who abetted in it?
Role: Caught
You came into their life as a new companion. Little did you know there was a trap for you already. The Mind Controller falls into a misinformation trap, and is revealed- a damning mistake that catches you flat footed. For the first time (and to many a player's surprise), the Mind Controller breaks character and reveals their existence... but how?
Finale makes for great throwbacks to previous roles.
Role: Suspect
You come into their life once again as a new companion, only to be met with the paranoia and suspicion that has enveloped them. No matter your actions, you can not win the Heroe's trust- he is truly beyond your ability to control. But not influence, as anyone who defines themselves in opposition to you is just as easy to influence.
The first setting in which the generic prompts and internal thoughts are openly from the perspective of the Mind Controller, rather than the role.
Act 3/Finale: Final Preparations, Great Evil, Confrontation
Role: Enemy of my Enemy
The Mind Controller doesn't even try to hide their role anymore- it is too late, and the Looming Evil too near. The Mind Controller guides/directs the Hero to the keys of success. The Hero, who has largely finalized and settled in their development, is no longer influencable by you. At this point they interact according to your earlier influences, forcing a reflection of whether what you did was right and justified in the name of this Looming Evil.
Role: Collaborator
The Hero confronts the Looming Evil, all according to plan. How he does it, and with what consequences, are beyond your control now- all you can do is support, and make your own choices. Will you follow through with your part of the plan? Betray him for your own goals or some other greater good?
Role: Final Villain
The Hero has finished the Looming Evil, and is coming for you. Does he come to bring justice, or vengeance? That is beyond your control: all you can dictate is how you will oppose him. Will you go down swinging, killing as many of his precious ones as you can? Will you kill even him? Or will you accept the Hero's verdict, and no resist at all?
(If this were a sci-fi setting, you would be able to possess countless clones from a cloning facility to fight the Hero.)
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