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Abe Sargent · 12-30-2016, 05:54 PM

What is The Century Project?

(Warning, these paragraphs contain spoilers for Star Wars, Star Trek: The Original Series, Babylon 5, Doctor Who Season 3, The Lord of the Rings, and more)

When you read this, you may have no inkling as to what is going on. That’s okay. For a long time, I’ve been frustrated at epic story lines in fantasy and science fiction where a small, underpowered group of white hats take out a massively huge and powerful set up of black hats with some version of essentially a Magic Potion. Luke Skywalker manages to defeat the Death Star with a minor design flaw. The Doctor overcomes The Master, who had been running the world for a couple of years, by using the Archangel Network, still left running, and getting all of the people in the to think about him at the same time. The super powerful Sauron and his empire are all destroyed by tossing his jewelry into a hot stove. Captain Kirk emerges from being very old to get the spaceship out of Romulan Space and away from more than ten Romulan ships by sending a message to Starfleet. It seems writers love to put their heroes in a place of danger so severe that nothing can get them out. Then the Magic Potion arrives and all are saved.

But what if you can’t? Life generally doesn’t work that way. We weren‘t able to win World War II by teaching Hitler the power of love. There was no Magic Potion. We had to do it the hard way. For years, I had a vision of a video game that wouldn’t pull this stunt. An epic plotline that would build, slowly. There is no glowing red button that you can use to blow everything up. There is a massive power, and you need massive power to match it. You need greater power. In Babylon 5, the power of the Shadows is matched by rallying various races together, adding the power of the First Ones and the Vorlons. Finally, the war is won by rejecting both sides and forming a uniting force of their own. There was no magic ship or space station which, if destroyed, freed the galaxy. There was no person to assassinate in order to save the world and end the threat. There is no code of honor that allows you to challenge the big bad in one on one combat in order to end the conflict.

The Century is born from the death of his world, from the destruction of Humanity. He has been given no assignments, he has no quest tree, and he is stranded in an unknown place. I envisioned a video game that would take him through explorations, adventures, and wars. I envisioned the video game with RPG elements for Karne, first person exploration, flying and fighting in various crafts, including space (which should feel and play different than dog fighting in atmospheres), real time strategy elements when needed, fighting simulations, and more. There are times when this game should resemble an RPG, times when it resembles Starcraft, times when it resembles Mortal Combat, times when it resembles Half-Life, times when it resembles Wing Commander, and times when it resembles lots of other games and genres as well. Knowing that this would not be able to be made, it just sat in my mind for a good long time. A story untold, but often thought of.

Then I realized that I could do the story. I just have different video games represent the various actions of Karne. I can have a dungeon explored in one, a map or mission in another, a stage in a third, and perhaps the occasional game done from beginning to end to expand the story. Once I came up with that idea, I began to put my plans into action. What disciplines would actually be in the 100? What was the timeline? What games would I use? As I fleshed this out, the idea of this Project became obvious.

The Century Project is designed to be semi-interactive. You can play along with The Century’s story as I do. You can load the games I play, grab the mods I have, and hopefully, sometimes, download the save file I used in order to play through that section of the game. You can play at my pace, or not. You can relax and take it slow. Feel encouraged to play just some games or all games. Or, just follow the storyline in screenshots and exposition. You determine your own level of involvement in Karne’s story.

12-30-2016, 05:54 PM	#2
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	What is The Century Project? (Warning, these paragraphs contain spoilers for Star Wars, Star Trek: The Original Series, Babylon 5, Doctor Who Season 3, The Lord of the Rings, and more) When you read this, you may have no inkling as to what is going on. That’s okay. For a long time, I’ve been frustrated at epic story lines in fantasy and science fiction where a small, underpowered group of white hats take out a massively huge and powerful set up of black hats with some version of essentially a Magic Potion. Luke Skywalker manages to defeat the Death Star with a minor design flaw. The Doctor overcomes The Master, who had been running the world for a couple of years, by using the Archangel Network, still left running, and getting all of the people in the to think about him at the same time. The super powerful Sauron and his empire are all destroyed by tossing his jewelry into a hot stove. Captain Kirk emerges from being very old to get the spaceship out of Romulan Space and away from more than ten Romulan ships by sending a message to Starfleet. It seems writers love to put their heroes in a place of danger so severe that nothing can get them out. Then the Magic Potion arrives and all are saved. But what if you can’t? Life generally doesn’t work that way. We weren‘t able to win World War II by teaching Hitler the power of love. There was no Magic Potion. We had to do it the hard way. For years, I had a vision of a video game that wouldn’t pull this stunt. An epic plotline that would build, slowly. There is no glowing red button that you can use to blow everything up. There is a massive power, and you need massive power to match it. You need greater power. In Babylon 5, the power of the Shadows is matched by rallying various races together, adding the power of the First Ones and the Vorlons. Finally, the war is won by rejecting both sides and forming a uniting force of their own. There was no magic ship or space station which, if destroyed, freed the galaxy. There was no person to assassinate in order to save the world and end the threat. There is no code of honor that allows you to challenge the big bad in one on one combat in order to end the conflict. The Century is born from the death of his world, from the destruction of Humanity. He has been given no assignments, he has no quest tree, and he is stranded in an unknown place. I envisioned a video game that would take him through explorations, adventures, and wars. I envisioned the video game with RPG elements for Karne, first person exploration, flying and fighting in various crafts, including space (which should feel and play different than dog fighting in atmospheres), real time strategy elements when needed, fighting simulations, and more. There are times when this game should resemble an RPG, times when it resembles Starcraft, times when it resembles Mortal Combat, times when it resembles Half-Life, times when it resembles Wing Commander, and times when it resembles lots of other games and genres as well. Knowing that this would not be able to be made, it just sat in my mind for a good long time. A story untold, but often thought of. Then I realized that I could do the story. I just have different video games represent the various actions of Karne. I can have a dungeon explored in one, a map or mission in another, a stage in a third, and perhaps the occasional game done from beginning to end to expand the story. Once I came up with that idea, I began to put my plans into action. What disciplines would actually be in the 100? What was the timeline? What games would I use? As I fleshed this out, the idea of this Project became obvious. The Century Project is designed to be semi-interactive. You can play along with The Century’s story as I do. You can load the games I play, grab the mods I have, and hopefully, sometimes, download the save file I used in order to play through that section of the game. You can play at my pace, or not. You can relax and take it slow. Feel encouraged to play just some games or all games. Or, just follow the storyline in screenshots and exposition. You determine your own level of involvement in Karne’s story. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent Last edited by Abe Sargent : 12-30-2016 at 05:59 PM.