By Rebekah Tran, Mission Designer

In Tabula Rasa there are many steps involved in creating the rich story line of the world. First of all, we've amassed an overarching story which includes lots of detailed back-story the player may never see and branches far out into plot twists and turns that we'll touch on in future expansions. Next, that fiction is trimmed down leaving the content that the player will visit in game. This is then split amongst all the overland maps (the persistent maps that are shared amongst all players) in the game world. Each overland map then links to about three or four instance maps that provide more unique content for individual parties. It is here that we can more intimately progress the story for each overland map.

All that background work leads to the concept behind one of the instances I worked on, Torcastra Prison. Torcastra Prison is located at the southern end of Concordia Divide (a major overland map) deep in the bowels of enemy territory. Design for this instance really was a group effort between myself and several other designers for the Divide maps; however, it was important for us to have a prisoner here for several reasons. First of all, the players haven't yet seen a prison at this point in the game, so it keeps things fresh. Second, given the fact that Divide is a completely war-torn area where the Bane and the AFS are fighting along a proverbial line in the sand, it just makes sense that there would be prisoners-of-war held somewhere. Once it was decided that this map should be a prison, I started working on the fictional and game play components of the area, while my teamed world builder (the game designer responsible for the creation, overall layout, and beautification of the map ) started creating the map itself.

My goal as a mission designer was to give players an interesting experience that also gives them the feeling that they are really in a war, and that they have a definite impact on the area they are playing in. As a result, when I started my mission design for Torcastra, it was important to me to ensure that it felt like players were starting a prison break from the get-go and not just told, "Oh by the way, this is a massive prison and here's a prison cell or two to prove it." The world builder did a fantastic job of creating a huge entry area leading up to the gates of Torcastra, so I decided to set up security bunkers, air strikes, and that fabled trip wire that you need to avoid in order to make the players feel as though they had really accomplished something once they reached those gates and secured the area. However, once they get past the gates, the difficulties have just started. There is a little surprise waiting just behind the prison doors, but, hey, I never said I was nice.

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