Thanks for the replies... I guess I may cut down on a few of the quests I was planning, since the actual area of the game wasn't -too- large, and I had m... 140?... as a target number! 
I finally finished downloading Coldstone (it took all night.. I hate AOL!!) and took a look at it.. I was a bit startled. Will the graphics and interface always be like that? I was under the impression that they were -completely- flexible- that you would be creating something that was entirely your own creation, rather than determined in part (a rather large part!) by the makers of the tool. ?? :eek:
Back to what was mentioned in my earlier post... here is the plot I was considering. Again, any comments are welcome (why else would I be positng it on a webboard??).. I've talked about it a little with a friend who makes games, but that's about all.. Anyway,
Plot (as it'll be presented in the opening of the game.. explanation follows.):
You were born into an age of confusion, in a simple place never before exposed to controversy.
An archipelago stretched into the ocean not too far from the mainland.. an outpost of a small and unobtrusive coutnry, no war had troubled it, no turmoil and turnover of government.
Until events came about with seemingly no cause, and chaos briefly struck.
For a full year, the dark-haired, brown-eyed, tan-skinned people of the islands noticed change.. Change in their children, in their grandchildren, in all the generation that was born that year. An unexplainable deviation from the norm.. Nearly all of the thousands upon thousands born that year, on those untroubled islands, had blue eyes.. And they dreamt.
No people in this land had cause to dream.. sleep was untroubled and simple, like life. "Dreams are a cause of madness, and madness is a cause of dreams.." ran a line from a nursery rhyme. But now blue-eyed children dreamt. Blue-eyed children, in a place where all looked alike and darkened, and slept quietly in the deep nights.
Tremors swept through the towns. Was it a blessing from the gods? A curse? A disease, a deformity, a warning, an act of magery, of witchcraft... speculation ran wild. Accusations began. The tremors became earthquakes of suspicions. Doors were locked against strangers. Governors and mayors kept rule by the strangth of their troops.
And into this you were born.
With blue eyes.
And something else... Something that only those whose children were afflicted had yet noticed.
Sometimes.. besides your dreams..
You were struck by visions. Words, phrases, would trigger landslides of images before your eyes, leaving you blank and unhearing for moments.. Images of madness, of underwater cities, inhabited by translucent-skinned people with blue eyes and pale hair... Images that, if discovered by those who believed that the blue eyes and dreams in themselves were diseases and deserved death, might tear apart the society more than so far.
A place untested by hardship was struck by a mystery...
And a generation of children lay at the heart of it.
Who could foresee what might happen when they were grown to adulthood? What atrocities might be committed by them?
Or against them?
You grew, as all children do, to adulthood. And found yourself without an easy home, uncomfortable among those you had loved, who knew that they need no longer shelter you in a world that hated them for it. You were struck into the world, not journeying out of your own choice..
And as the first children of that year left home, the atrocities began.
A dangerous place for those with blue eyes.
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Warning! Plot Spoilers ahead! 
Since (as you should have gathered by my -lengthy- exposition) you play a blue-eyed person in this archipelago, not everyone in the game will be friendly. In fact, a lot will be downright hostile (there's going to be one town where they try to burn you at the stake!). Eventually, you'll find people who seem to be intentionally triggering your "visions".. this will get explained and all the visions will get connected.. it's complicated, and I'm getting tired of typing so I'll put the rest of the explanation in some later reply. (Note.. my replies tend to be just a tad few-and-far-between, on account of the previously mentioned lack of time.)
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I had a question on interface, too, that I forgot to add (I already read the multiple-character thing, so my question on that is no longer necessary :-P).. how customizable is the array of buttons and icons that controls your game? What aboput the opening screen? Or what happens when your characters gain levels? NEED HELP!!!
-G
Thanks again! 
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(This message has been edited by Galadriel (edited 09-16-2002).)
we'll have sufficient motivation to finish the second.