The Bonded Ones

Funcom’s sandbox survival game Conan Exiles (released in 2018) has evolved a lot over the course of its life. At its core, it’s a base-building survival game within an inspiring setting that can make for some memorable adventures. But that alone would only carry it so far; fighting your way through the Exiled Lands is fun, but can be subject to some of the same bugs that plague survival games as a genre. What has kept it fresh for so many years are the vibrant online communities that have sprung up around it, including the Role Playing community that have transformed this game into a canvas for their collective imagination.

 

I’ve been writing in Funcom’s world since 2018 when I was introduced to the game, joining my first server and stepping into a character, to build stories with the people around me. Players ‘emote’ their actions and dialog in Local chat, responding to each other and building upon the scene. While other games, like Neverwinter Nights and Elder Scrolls Online offer a similar platform for RP, the sheer number of GM tools in Conan Exiles makes it one of the most incredible games for a story teller. Over the years I’ve crafted events and story arcs, always pushing the limits of the mods and tools available, breathing life into the setting provided by Funcom and Ron E. Howard.

 

Session-Based RP

(Coming Soon)

The story of The Bonded Ones concluded after Season 7, when the Shining Trapezohedron was destroyed. Exiles escaped the prison, returning to their own time. The Bonding Bracelets have lost their power and the Cursewall has fallen. This marks the beginning of a new chapter and a new world to explore. Unbonded is a new map I’m working on where we aim to continue where the previous story left off.

Unreal Modding

To push the medium forward, I began working on mods in Unreal Engine 4, using the Conan Exiles dev kit. This allows modders access all kinds of in-game assets and systems, as well as the entire game map which can be edited in chunks. In the development of TBO season 7, I took the existing world of the Exiled Lands and brought it back to a time so far only described in Lorestones around the map. We’ve been adding dungeons, villages and changing the landscape to evolve the world and tell a more dynamic story, removing the previous constraints faced by a static world. Factions rise and fall, territory changes hands, and new adventures liven up a old classic. See how, check out the case study.

Case Study

World Building

Every server has its own take on Funcom’s story. Or some just throw it out altogether to turn it into Dungeons & Dragons. The Bonded Ones has always tried to stay true to Conan lore, taking inspiration from all sources (yes, even Marvel to some extent). But since I've been Story Lead, I've delved deep into Howard's original material and every scrap of lore I could find about Funcom’s Exiled Lands. The game tells an interesting story in tiny, vague fragments; I've always tried to push that story forward and fill out the many missing details. Across the seasons we've built out our own version of the history behind countless factions, characters and POIs. This has all culminated with our latest season, in which we tackle the largest part of the game’s history, by immersing exiles in the war between the empire of the Giant Kings and the Lemurians they first enslaved with the Bonding Bracelet. To see how we've shaped that world, check out the case study below.

Case Study

Systems Design

In order to create a broader range of RP interactions between players on The Bonded Ones, I have endeavored to bring tabletop RPG mechanics to Conan Exiles. Using a mod called RP Redux, players can setup character sheets that allow them to interact with a wide range of abilities that I’ve programmed into the mod using their custom editor. I’ve built a class system upon this foundation known as the Spheres of Mastery, allowing characters to specialize and express themselves in ways that go beyond just stats. Automated abilities take care of common interactions and unique ones can be built into the environment, giving players things to discover and breathing life into the world. Learn more about some of the systems in the case study below.

Case Study

Quest Scripting

Scripting quests in Conan Exiles can be done a number of ways. One of the most useful mods for this is called Pippi. It has placeable “Thespians” that stand in for NPCs as needed and can be scripted using a node-based editor called Mushi. This gives you access to nodes for Dialog, Options, Conditions, and a wide range of Actions that can do anything from assigning variables and quest flags, to triggering other tools within their suite. With some creative hacking, you can also find ways to have it integrate with other mod interactions, like RP Redux. I’ll go over some of the ways I’ve used these tools to bring the server to life, guiding players toward story hooks and creating fully automated dungeons.

Case Study

 

Dungeon Automation

Over the seasons, me and my team have taken advantage of the Conan Exiles building system to build many dungeons and set pieces for our stories. It provides a lot of tools for level design, not only it terms of building structures, but in scripting interactivity. There are scriptable NPCs who can be used to guide players and trigger objects in the environment, like spawners, loot containers, doors, lights, sequencers, popups and more. There's a system of variables and quest flags you can use to set conditions for events to fire. And that's just from the Pippi mod. The RP Redux mod provides a character sheet, and programmable abilities using those stats. Abilities, buffs and information can be embedded into an area or item, giving a wide range of tools to create immersive dungeons that challenge and surprise players.

Case Study