While this could easily be just a discussion about a game mechanic, I think I have enough material to make it a prospective game concept.
The premise is rather simple: an Evil Overlord™ in a medieval fantasy-esque setting plans to summon unspeakable eldritch horrors to take over/destroy the world. To accomplish this in relative peace,they sent out his/her minions to both cause trouble, disrupt trade that would allow the Forces of Good™ to get the resources to stop them, while also extorting many locales so that said resources are funneled back to Castle Doomskull™, for their operations, on top of demanding heavy tributes from their own region of the world.
On the opposite side of the world, the Good King™ responds the now realm-wide threat by dispatching the Destined Heroes™ to deal with the situation, while he and the court get to dealing with the economic and political side of things. And thus, our Heroes™ set off from the Capital City to travel across the lands, figure out who’s behind all the sudden monster attacks, and stop the problem at its source, while solving issues for others along the way…
…But right as the Heroes™ set off, the perspective switches to a group of high-level monsters, waiting in one of the last bends of the road leading to Castle Doomskull™, being bored out of their minds, having been put on guard duty early on. With the Evil Overlord™ being a reclusive creep, there’s little contact between them and their minions, leading to the group abandoning their post and going down to the nearby village - the penultimate location for the Heroes™, where the Overlord’s influence is the strongest - to grab a bite to eat and whittle away their time.
This is where the true story begins, as the minions arrive to the village, only to discover it to be a poverty-stricken shithole, as the Overlord’s™ extortion and exploitation of the region had left it in dire straits, with famine and disease rampant, and local self-styled viceroys holding onto what resources they have to remain important, and, more importantly, to control people. The minions, not getting any food or entertainment out of the sheer despair and misery of the village, decide to do something, which is where the “See-Saw” Morality Mechanic comes in.
The Main Mechanic of the Game:
While the game largely plays like an RPG (with an increasing amount of fetishistic elements, depending on the player’s choices), there’s also a Morality System that links the Heroes™ and the Villains™.
This system is based on the classic 9 alignments, arranged on the two axis of “Good-Neutral-Evil” and “Lawful-Neutral-Chaotic”, with the “pivoting point” being in the “True Neutral” position in the center: neither group can become True Neutral, they both must move around that alignment.
By default, the Heroes™ start out at Neutral Good, while the Villains™ start out at Neutral Evil.
As they begin to solve the problems around them, they’re presented with options: sometimes just two, but in most cases, three: one “Good”™, one “Evil”™, and one Neutral.
The true nature and context of these options differ between the two groups:
For the Heroes™, the Good options are more selfless and do more to heal the land and help the people around them, while the Evil options are more self-serving and often more openly perverse.
For the Villains™, the Good options are about roughly the same, helping the locals, but they also serve to boost their reputation as “a few of the good ones” among those suffering under the Overlord’s™ reign (this will be important for later), while the Evil options are both self-serving AND further the Overlord’s™ control over the region.
For both sides, the Neutral options just resolve immediate problems without addressing the deeper issues.
Choosing the Good options as the Hero team leads to them becoming more Lawful Good, while choosing the Evil options leads to them becoming more Chaotic Good, and eventually, just Chaotic Neutral.
Conversely, the Good options move the Villain team towards becoming Lawful Evil, and even Lawful Neutral, while the Evil options push them into Chaotic Evil.
This is where the “See-Saw” mechanic of the morality system comes in:
The more team shifts into a particular alignment, the more the other is inexplicably (more on that later) forced to move into the other.
The more selfless and lawful the Villain team becomes, the more selfish and chaotic the Hero team turns into: options that would reverse the trend are gradually removed, starting with the Good options, and eventually even removing the Neutral ones, leaving only different degrees of Evil. The player can initially choose the Neutral option with the Hero team, and then choose either Neutral or Evil with the Villain team to turn it around after the game switches back to them, but if the player keeps choosing to do Good as the Villains, the Heroes™ will become more and more Evil.
Choosing Neutral will remain an option for the Villain team, which effectively allows them to “toss the ball back into the other team’s court”, allowing the Heroes to gradually get their own Neutral, and later Good options back.
This works in the inverse as well, of course: the more Good choices the Heroes make, the more Villains will be limited to Evil ones. Picking Neutral effectively allows the other team to take charge of the alignment shift.
Why this mechanic?
Well, the obvious answer is replayability, since choosing to play one way with the Villains would increasingly force the Player to play the Heroes™ as the polar opposite, while choosing the Neutral option will be the least rewarding, and going “Neutral Choices Only” in the game would make it a milquetoast adventure game with a rather generic, archetypical Hero and Villain team (and with the least amount of fetish content as well).
Certain scenes, unlockables and new teammates one team or the other (or both, on a first-come-first-serve basis) can get would be dependent on their alignment.
In-universe, however, there’s a different reason for the teams being linked, which will be explained later.
Why choose Good?
Beyond the warm and fuzzies stemming from helping people and seeing to it that justice is served, the Good options reward both teams with greater hospitality anywhere they go, unlocks certain side quests, and rewards them with more health, potential allies, and one of the Good endings, should they win. Fetish-related situations and outcomes are fewer and less pronounced, and are on the more wholesome side.
Why choose Evil?
More mana, more money earned, more outright fetish-focused abilities, and more raw power, as well as more outright fetish-related situations and outcomes, as well as the requisite alignment-specific side quests, rewards and potential allies, and one of the Evil endings. Choosing Evil also leads to more outright sexual encounters (strictly consensual and strictly with adults of sound mind, for VFORs (Very Fucking Obvious Reasons)). This comes at the cost of being a pervy asshole, either in the service of an even bigger asshole in the form of the Overlord™, or abusing the fact that you’re the Chosen Hero™ meant to defeat said asshole.
Why NOT to choose Neutral?
Neutral options yield balanced rewards, but don’t lead to alignment-specific unlockables, or help with recruiting people you otherwise wouldn’t be able to. The side quests you have by staying Neutral remain available even if you become Good or Evil, since those are the ones that are linked to the main quest of either team. Neutral choices are also unlikely to yield fetishy results.
How do side quests work in the Morality System?
Main Quest-adjacent (available in Neutral as well) side quests can help enforce the alignment shift you’re trying to get to, or just help forward the story. Good or Evil side quests can also grant you additional boosts to your alignment shift, or (in tandem with choosing Neutral in Main Quest and Main Quest-adjacent ones) can turn it around.
Endgame
Depending on their respective alignments during their inevitable encounter, the fight between the Heroes™ and Villains™, and the subsequent story can go in different ways:
- The Neutral/Natural Ending: Neutral Good Heroes versus Neutral Evil Villains. Even if their alignments have shifted before their encounter, ending up where they started at will yield the default endings: Game Over if the Heroes loose, continue onto the Final Boss if they win, which leads a classic happy ending. Dipping into different alignments without fully committing to them may yield the Player with better equipment or different extra teammates during the fight, but that’s just about where the differences end. The Neutral Ending can be surprisingly diverse, but it changes little, even if you played as noble Villains and bastard Heroes for most of the game.
- The Epic Ending: Lawful Good Heroes versus Chaotic Evil Villains. The Villain team had raised their notoriety to the point where they’re considered the penultimate bosses before the Evil Overlord™, while the Hero team are considered true paragons of virtue, and the ultimate forces of Good™. Conditions to progress are the same: if the Hero team loses, it’s a Game Over, but if they win, they’ll go on to deal with a MUCH stronger Evil Overlord™, due to the Villain team reinforcing their rule over the final region of the game.
- Alternate Good Ending/Evil Ending 1: Chaotic Good Heroes versus Lawful Evil Villains. This is the first alignment set-up where the Villain team can win. If the Heroes win, it’ll just be an alternate Good Ending after defeating a weakened Evil Overlord™ (since the Villains have been undermining them), while all the Evil choices they made will be acknowledged and reflected in this Ending, and can result in the Heroes™ losing their patronage from the King, leading to them becoming just random adventurers instead. If the Villain team wins, they can spread the influence and reign of the Overlord™ to the rest of the realm, eventually confronting and defeating the weakened Good King™, in an inverse of the fight the Heroes would’ve had with the Overlord™, leading to the first Evil ending, where the Overlord™ succeeds, but its the Villain team that’s rewarded, since they were the ones who established the reign of Evil over the whole realm, doing on-the-foot work and actually building a stable country by resolving the exploitation caused by the Overlord™ AND the Hero team.
- Team Up Ending: Chaotic Neutral Heroes versus Lawful Neutral Villains. The Villain team, having spent the game dealing with the Overlord’s™ mismanagement, teams up with the Heroes instead, allowing them to defeat the Overlord™ together, and forever banish the eldritch horrors he was about to summon. For their contribution, the Villains are granted sovereignty over the Overlord’s™ former region (since they helped to fix it up, and the locals love them), while the Heroes are immediately dismissed from courtly patronage due to their conduct, becoming wandering adventurers (and troublemakers) instead.
Alignment shift cap and the burning question of “Why?”
You may have already noticed that neither the Heroes or the Villains can do a full rotation around the alignment chart, being more or less limited to be some variety of good and evil, respectively.
You might also be asking: why are the Destined Heroes™ of the land and a bunch of supposedly late-game minions linked together like this. Well, you already had the practical answer - replayability -, but there’s an IN-universe answer for it as well: it all ties to the Goddess™.
The Goddess™ is the patron deity of the Good Kingdom™ and the realm, worshiped by its One True Religion™. She is a goddess of wealth and plenty, of good harvest and fertility, of all things good, basically. Well, according to the One True Religion™. In reality, she’s a completely neutral (and rather capricious) deity - the only one True Neutral -, who’s largely shaped by her worshipers, and especially her Champions, the Destined Heroes™.
The real reason why she’d want to stop the Overlord™ from summoning eldritch beings is because said beings could actually challenge her epithet as the patron deity. As such, her own alignment is tied to the alignment of the heroes (which is why things get more fetishy if they stop being Neutral). But where are heroes, there must be villains, and thus, the most pro-active members of the Forces of Evil™ - the three random high-level minions the game follows - are selected as the “shadow team” against the heroes, who MUST be defeated by the Heroes, for they are the Chosen Champions of Evil™. The Goddess™ doesn’t actually care HOW the Heroes use her powers, so long as Evil™ is vanquished. Therefore, the Heroes MUST stand opposed to the Villains, no matter the cost…
…Yeah, remember the “capricious” bit? This is where THAT comes into play. This is why the “See-Saw” mechanic is in place.
The Overlord™ is the other key figure here - they’re the main worshiper of the horrors they’re trying to summon. While the Heroes™ have their own priestess on the team, the Villains™ lack one, hence why they’re tied to the Overlord™ like this.
This neatly brings us to the Twist: the shift cap can be removed!
Beyond Good and Evil: Anarchy in Castle Doomskull
Early in the game, the Villains™ (if they’ve already shifted their alignment to Lawful Evil or Chaotic Evil) get the option to force a meeting with the Overlord™, either because they have some serious grievances about the state of the operation (Lawful Evil), or because they just want to take it over (Chaotic Evil). Though the battle is extremely difficult, should the Villain team win, they basically remove the previous cap on the alignment shift… To a certain point.
I admit, I don’t wanna do a full rotation, because there’s already plenty of endings, and it seems excessive to go beyond what I’ve planned.
Removing the Overlord™ from power allows the Villain team to push their alignment all the way to Lawful Good (by genuinely improving the region, now to its own benefit, rather than to help the operation of the Overlord, or their own reputation), or Chaotic Neutral (by becoming more Chaotic than Evil, now that they’re not bound to their Overlord™).
This, however, as some unforeseen effects, as it can also shift the Hero team’s alignment to Chaotic Evil, or Lawful Neutral, leading to further endings.
How this affects the other endings?
It basically just replaces the Overlord™ with the Villains™ as the final boss, or, in the Team Up Ending, they voluntarily agree to just shut down the whole operation the Overlord was running. This Alternate Team Up ending is slightly different in tone, since the anticlimactic ending leaves the Goddess™ unsatisfied, leading to a paltry harvest in the Good Kingdom™, forcing it to cooperate with the Villains’ new realm more closely, while the Heroes™ all get individual bad endings as punishment.
New Endings:
- Evil Ending 2/Inverted Ending: Chaotic Evil Heroes versus Lawful Good Villains. If the Heroes (nominal “heroes” at this point) win, the Goddess™, corrupted by their alignment, will consume the eldritch beings the Overlord™ tried to summon, transforming into a Goddess of Excess and Hedonism, plunging the realm into a gluttonous, depraved frenzy, with the former Heroes dividing it up amongst themselves as Warlords, with one of them becoming the new Overlord™ for the Goddess™. If the Villains win, the Goddess™ will still be corrupted, and thus, the Villains will have to venture over to the Capital City of the Good Kingdom™ to stop the Goddess™ from manifesting into the world. Aided by the eldritch beings who have been watching them, and decided to put an end to the Goddess’™ madness. Once she is vanquished or pacified, the eldritch beings will transform themselves to be less maddening for the people and monsters of the realm, and become its new pantheon of more responsible deities, with the former Villains being heralded as their champions, and rightful rulers of the realm.
- Alternate Alternate Team Up Ending: Lawful Neutral Heroes versus Chaotic Neutral Villains. With the Overlord™ deposed, the priestess of the Heroes™ will feel a disturbance in the force, and over the course of the game, the Hero team will realize that the Goddess™ they’ve been worshiping and fighting in the name of is more or less a ticking time bomb of vanity, gluttony and boredom. So, when they finally meet up with the Villains™ and learn that the Overlord™ has been dealt with, they’ll offer to team up with them to vanquish both the eldritch beings (the easier task), AND the Goddess™. With their powers combined, they close away the eldritch horrors for good, and then turn around to deal with the Goddess™, but news of their newfound apostasy had basically turned the entire Kingdom™ against them, leading to a long and arduous fight all the way back to the Capital City, where they must defeat the Captain of the Royal Guard, the Grand Vizier, and finally, the King, before vanquishing the Goddess™ as well. This results in the effective overthrow of the monarchy and the end of divine oversight over the realm, leading to wild weather patterns and general hardship, but over time, things go back to normal. The Heroes™ assist in the rebuilding of the realm, while the Villains™ return to their private fiefdom in the Evil Overlord’s™ former region, ruling over the rubles… Until the Heroes™ finally decide to deal with them, for good, setting off on a quest once more.
Main Characters
Heroes
Paladin Alicia/Alex/Anton Oberon
The Player can choose their gender at the start of the game (Alex being gender-neutral). The leader of the Hero team, Paladin Oberon is a steadfast and strong knight of the court, having proven her/their/his mettle in previous quests that had established her/them/him as one of the Champions of the Goddess. As a Paladin, Oberon will always prefer to choose the Good options, but isn’t above compromising her/their/his morals for the sake of saving others. She/They/He also may or may not harbor some… Repressed, prurient desires towards the others, on top of a vast curiosity. Choosing the Paladin’s gender will also set the gender of the Overlord™ as the opposite, because of Goddess™ fuckery. This only really matters for the Inverted ending, where the corrupted Goddess™ can be pacified by tossing the Overlord™ to her, along with the fallen Heroes™. But even then, the difference is largely just… Aesthetic.
Huntress Aeronwen ap Tewdrig
Elven archer, trapper, huntress and scholar. Raised among dwarves and educated among humans before reconnecting with her roots, Ari is an outcast among her own people, and much prefers the down-to-earth, humble Good Kingdom™. Keen with a bow and arrow and not one to reject crossbows or the occasional firearm, she’s a pragmatist who usually chooses the option with the quickest results (Neutral).
Rogue Mariam Vulpecula
Former thief and conwoman, now accomplished rogue and spy. Hailing from the foxfolks that live, among other beastfolk, in allegiance with the Good Kingdom™, she had a rough childhood as the illegitimate daughter of a Foxwoman and a human man. Halflings were not treated kindly at that time, and doubly so if they were bastards, leading to Mariam growing up on the streets and surrounding forests of her hometown. Learning that she was one of the Goddess’™ chosen champions made her clean up her act a bit, but she still prefers the easy way out of things, even if it means being “a bit Evil.”
Suffraganette Zelena Evrus
Priestess and cleric, healer and ward, most devout follower of the Goddess™ and the One True Faith™, she is disarmingly patient and unassumingly calm. Perfectly in tone with the Goddess™, she can effectively reflect how the team’s alignment is affecting her, and the faith. But she is also a theologian, and her high position in the Church, on top of being one of the Goddess’™ Chosen had led her to suspect a few things in private, which, in the Alternate Alternate Team Up Ending, leads to her becoming an Apostate, giving her the power to defeat her former patron deity.
Villains
Mort
The leader of the Villains™. Mort is a satyr-like demon, complete with furry ungulate, hooven legs and lower body, a pointy tail, red skin on his muscular upper body, bull-like horns and caprine features. Mort has little patience and is easy to anger. He’s grumpy by default, though he doesn’t complain often (so when he does, you know he’s truly ticked off). He hates being idle, and doesn’t like wasting his time in the mortal realm, which is what gets him to agree to leave his post with the others. When given the option, he surprisingly prefers to keep on the straight and narrow, mostly because its often the most challenging path to accomplish, though, he would VEHEMENTLY deny that he prefers to choose “Good”.
Luned
A malignant treant/tree spirit, though a surprisingly mellow one for that… Which may or may not be the result of the cannabis weed growing through the hollow, gnarled dead tree that constitutes her “true form”. Even the wasps living in her are about as aggressive as drunken bumble bees. Capable of changing her gender at will (because, y’know, tree spirit and stuff), Luned prefers to stay in one form, if possible. She often goes for the path of least resistance (Neutral). Despite her sedate behavior, she’s surprisingly well-versed in various kinks, which she can easily demonstrate with her vines.
Zoë
La Creatura. An imp-goblin-gremlin-thing. Zoë’s past is a mystery, even to her. She just showed up one day among the monsters, and has been a regular terror since. An mystery wrapped in an accident waiting to stop happening. Her skin colors change to reflect her mood, but always in an eye-searingly neon hue. Can fly. Is loud. And talkative. Only stopped being naked when being locked up for public indecency lost its charm. Chaotic, and is, in fact, Chaos Incarnate.
Zorzi/Zorz/Zorzilla
Evil Overlord™. Loner and creep. Surprisingly sexy, despite that - or so his/their/her stalkers claim. Is checked out for most of the game. May or may not have summoned Zoë to not be the only person with a name starting with “Z” (he/they/she was bullied for it as a kid. Its a weird cultural thing).
Optional Teammates
Some are linked to alignment, others, not so much. There will be more later, these are just some I had already conceptualized. There will also be location-specific temporary teammates, but I’ll work those out once I’m working on the locations themselves.
Hermann the German
His real name is Klaus Heilige. An NVA soldier from East Germany with a fondness for fantasy novels (though his personal favorite is The Treasure of the Silver Lake), Klaus was isekai’d to the world of the game in 1985 in his time (only a couple of years ago within the game’s setting), in full combat gear, and even with some equipment that usually wouldn’t be accessible to him as a lowly Gefreiter as himself. With weapons now magically having infinite ammo (and him having infinite supplies to service them), Klaus had made a name for himself in the realm as the “mercenary with a heart” under the assumed names of Florian Geyer, or just Hermann. He will only join either team if they’ve shifted alignment towards Good, and will leave the team if they shift towards Evil too much. Highest DPM because guns, and can easily pierce armor, but he’s hopeless against magic (and, in turn, magic cannot affect him).
The Plague Doctor
Her real name is Agnes Winthorp. A practicing alchemist and doctor of dubious qualifications, Agnes is nevertheless a dedicated healer and researcher, all to happy to help out anyone. Never seen without her signature beaked mask, waxed coat and leather hat, she often gets mistaken for a birdfolk woman. She’ll happily come along with either teams, though she will be put off if they’re too Good or Evil when they invite her to join, but will follow along in the alignment shifts if the team recruits her while being (more or less) Neutral. Can take over the healer or booster roles from others, but has limited offensive and defensive capabilities.
Tatiana
An arachne sorceress who dwells in one of the forests along the way. Can be fought as a side quest villain, but if the team has shifted towards Evil, she will join them (she’s naturally more willing to join the Villains™). But drifting too much into “Good” territory will cause her to leave, unless she had spent a sufficient amount of time with the team. Even then, though, she has her upper limits, and draws the line at becoming Lawful or Neutral Good (the characters don’t actually refer to the alignment chart in speech, but merely talk about being Good or being Evil). Good at AOE attacks, trapping enemies and giving the Poisoned debuff.
Fetishes Featured
By default:
- stuffing
- weight gain (various bodyshapes)
- various forms of expansion, including breasts, ass, belly, thighs, hourglass and full body
- various forms of inflation, including air and water
Comes with being Good:
- pregnancy, including hyper pregnancy
- milk inflation (for breasts), lactation
- fat inflation (liquid fat)
Comes with being Evil:
- more sexual forms of expansion (such as cumflation)
- force-feeding
- constriction (including tentacles of various descriptions)
- vore and digestion (with optional fatality)
- post-vore weight gain
- outright sex
Optional:
- fruit inflation (blueberry, strawberry, pear, etc.)
- gas (separately toggleable burping and farting)
- slob (including heavier slob, toggleable)
- bursting/popping (with optional fatality)