help with story line for a rpg i am creating

[Glafe]

Hello,

I am new to this forum and I am trying to get help on creating the story line of a rpg that I am creating using 3d game studio. 

The basic of the story so far is this...

There are 3 races of being that live on a single planet. 
           1 race has nature magic.. can control animals, plants and elements
           1 race has technolgy and can create technolgy (guns, lazers and such)
           1 race is more primative but is more physical than the other...stronger, senses are better and more agile


these races live reletively peacefull together and have hardly any problems interacting with each other.  This all changes when a Alien force comes and invade.
any help fleshing out the story will be appreciated

[DragonBlaze]

Trust me, when spending hundreds of hours of your life pounding out a game, you want a story that you really dig, which usually means you should try to come up with most of it on your own.

Anyway, that being said, you have a decent base for a story, but in order for it to develop in a good way, there's a couple of key concepts you need to come up with.

1. What is this Alien force and why are they invading? Once you have a reason for them attacking, they story will get a lot easier to develop. For example, if they invade looking for an artifact, the main characters could spend a while trying to find the artifact first. If the aliens are killing everyone to steal everyone's life force, the main characters would try to find a way to stop that. Point being, once you have a who and a why, you can develop part of a story line where the characters are trying to stop them.

2. Who are the main characters? The story to pretty much every game is the main character(s) overcoming a problem, but what makes a story memorable, is memorable and unique characters that have to overcome inner conflicts in order to prevail. Each character should have a goal, and they should try to accomplish this goal throughout the game, even if it does not have to do with the main quest. How the characters interact/conflict with each other, and how the characters drive to accomplish their goals, will really help in developing the story line.

3. Personally I find games that have more than one story arc the best. For example, if your game started with the aliens invading, and you spend the whole game trying to stop them, and then in the end you stop them, no new concepts are thrown to the player. If however, you had a story where the aliens invade, and then that story arc lead to an even bigger and more epic plot, or if you had multiple conflicts/stories weaving together throughout the game, then you're introducing more elements to the player, and it usually leads to a more entertaining story.

4. Finally, don't leave anything unanswered, and always ask why. People should do things, or things shouldn't happen, without a good reason for it. When things happen for no reason, the story gets confusing and simply bad. Having a good reason behind every action will lead to a more solid story, and usually will open up more doors for the story. For example, the main character could be chasing someone. Why? He killed his wife, well why did he kill his wife? Well maybe she had plans for a new weapon that this guy wanted? And from there, you could expand it even more, and things just logically fall into place.

Good luck with coming up with a story! I don't know where you want to go with this plot, and like I said before, it's best if you come up with your own story if you're going to spend hours bringing it to life, but I'd be happy to give you some pointers/feedback/suggestions on a plot once you come up with more of one.