I had some ideas that I thought would be fun for the next Mass Effect game. Just some story beats and some neat ideas. I am not saying I could make a better game than bioware, and I’m not trying to offend anyone. These are just some ideas I thought were cool.

Here’s the intro to the story-

Game boots up. Press Start. Choose biological gender of Agent.

(Narration)- This narration establishes that some time has passed since the reaper war, at least a hundred years. Do not commit to any of the ending in mass effect 3. State that the effects faded only after a few years. Control ending: All reapers and reaper tech shuts down and deteriorate. Synthesis Ending: the green glow disappears, Reapers fall apart and things in the galaxy go back to normal. Destroy Ending: Reapers are dead, but there are numerous synthetics (geth) that survived.

Main point is that all the Reapers are dead and gone, and a lot of the mass relays are broken.

Liara Narration: “It has been many years since commander Sheppard ended the Reaper war, and brought peace to the galaxy. But no peace can last forever. Life began to grow back, but life is messy, there are still those who take advantage of the weaker. Those who would exploit the kind and generous. Those who hunger for power. There is an old human saying, ‘heroes aren’t born, they’re made’. But the galaxy doesn’t need heroes, the galaxy doesn’t need saving, but it does need to be taken care of, it needs people to nurture it, to guide it and protect it. The galaxy needs Sheppard’s.

That is why I built my academy, the most advanced education facility in history. Where students of ever species are trained and taught in biotics, combat, and diplomacy. These are my students, my agents I send out into the galaxy to protect and guide all people. ”

In this game you start in an academy, you select your class (maybe you can switch between classes like in Andromeda) you build your character here, with a few options on back-story and what kind of student you are. It is established that you are heavily genetically modified to be one of the best. How dialogue options work is established with your character interacting with other students and teachers. Today is your final exam. A mock battle with other students. This is the combat tutorial. Someone mentions that Liara might be here, to see the new graduates.

You graduate, and are assigned a ship with a captain and crew. You are the captains 1st mate, and have limited authority. Good characters are key to any Mass effect Game, your team captain is a perfect opportunity for a really interesting character.( There are so many options, ranging from a grossly incompetent captain, a stern emotionless one, a party animal who sees their job as a fun game, do they like you? Do you butt heads with them? They could be any species, the possibilities are endless)

There should be 2-3 other students on the crew too start, maybe the ones you did your final exam with.

There should be another few missions that get assigned to you from Liara, Including Stopping space Pirates, getting medical supplies to a colony planet. Fighting bandits. Clearing out hostile animals from outposts. Fighting mercenary gangs. Visiting Omega, doing favors for Aria T’loak, (maybe, to show her age, she will have a robotic limb. (It’s implied that you shouldn’t ask about it,).

Liara will also mention that mush of the Milky Way still has uncharted planets in it, so exploration and setting up bases will also be a few missions.

But the first act of the story is missions that have to do with fixing the Mass Relays, finding recourses and materials, (element Zero is in short supply and is needed to fix the relays) and people who can help. The surviving Relays are heavily guarded, mostly by Asari. Easy travel is nearly impossible for the average galactic citizen. This is causing an arms race, but not for weapons, for relays. Whoever controls the relays can control the galaxy. Liara wants to fix and open up the relays for everyone, but she is met with opposition.

On one of your missions to fix a relay, you are attacked. You find out that this group are actively sabotaging the relays. Go on another mission to find out who.

Nemesis Revealed. Some info leads you to an agent of this mystery group. You go on a mission and discover that this evil agent is actually a student of Liaras academy. You take them into custody.

(In Mass Effect Andromeda, the gender that you don’t choose ends up being your sibling, in this story, the gender you didn’t choose to play as is your nemesis) This nemesis tells you: that they are only working for the mystery group to get revenge on Liara. They don’t care about the mass relays and the politics of establishing travel routes between star systems. They were the academies best student; they were going to be the greatest! But Liara didn’t like their way of dealing with people. Liara said they were too bloodthirsty. Too sadistic. That why they joined the asari military, they’re the ones that want put a stop to Liaras Academy.

So your nemesis reveals that the mysterious group is the Asari military. They were the most powerful race before the reaper war and the want to be the dominant power again. They think Liara is being too generous with who she teaches in her academy, she should have only allowed council races into the school.

You learn that the Asari military have plans to attack Liaras School. You go back and defend the school. (There should be a choice here about who to prioritize saving, Liara, who is alone and vulnerable, or the younger students. Both will be attacked by hundreds of asari commandos.)

In the chaos your nemesis escapes the holding cell that you had them in.

You defend the school, maybe gain another crewmate, and Liara gives you new recourses and a better ship.

Now for Part 2. At this point, your crew should be mostly assembled, and your relationship is progressing with all of them. Lots of options for crewmembers, it would be cool to have some aliens on you ship that don’t get a lot of spotlight in the other series. Maybe you have a batarian mechanic, or an elcor or krogan medic. A volus weapons expert. (I have other ideas for crewmates, maybe which will be a different post.)

There will be a few other combat missions, then Liara sends you a message that she has learned of a huge cache of element zero, a much needed and dwindling recourse. Actually, what she learned about is the person who knows where the cache is. It’s the last Vorcha.

You are told that there is only one living vorcha left in the entire galaxy. Many died during and after the reaper war. And you are tasked with meeting him, making him happy so that he’ll tell you where the element zero is. You meet him at his brother’s funeral. “and now” he says to the body of his brethren “I am the last of my kind, I told you Id outlive you brother!”

There could be a joke about he is the one who killed his brother, or this could be framed as a tragic event. Could go either way.

Liara wants you to make him happy, and he has a bucket list. This should be a couple different missions. Could include stealing something, a heist mission. Killing a big animal. Ride a thresher maw, fight you (you decide if you let him win or lose)

Unknown to the player, there will be an invisible mission countdown. If you ignore the vorcha missions for too long, it will trigger an event. It is possible to complete his entire bucket list, and he will tell you where to find the element zero, but if you don’t complete his list this happens:

The vorcha sends you a distress call, he’s under attack, and you go to help him. It’s your nemesis. You see the vorcha get gunned down. This should be framed as tragic; he is, after all, the last of his entire species.

Your nemesis is after the element zero location as well. But you fight them off, and you approach the dying vorcha. Depending on how much you did for him will affect the dialogue he says, whether he likes or hates you. Will be something along the lines of:

“*cough up blood* thank you, you drove them off, but I think it’s the end for me, it’s the end of all the vorcha, I thought I was going to have more time as the last one. I would have done more.... *cough* I know the other races will be glad to see me go, I know how you all saw my kind. We all knew ...not worth saving. *cough* but you made these last days of mine more exciting than I had any right to, being what I am, just a vorcha..... the element zero...... it’s not just a cache..... its... a... planet. An entire planet, of eezo. Hidden in a nebula gas cloud...near the Nemean Abyss........”

He gives you the co-ordinates, (or you find them in his small home) Maybe there are some interesting audio recording about what he thought about you.

There will be a few missions to narrow down the location in the gas cloud that hides the planet. You find the planet, land and fight off the wildlife, its rich in element zero. If your nemesis knew about this, they would tell the asari, and others would hear about it, and there would be a ‘gold rush’ to this planet.

While on this planet you discover a sentient alien race. And this is their first contact war (more like a battle, or skirmish).

You decide how to react; you are the first aliens they have ever seen. They didn’t believe in life outside their nebula cloud. This makes the problem of the element zero more complicated. It is technically owned by a race of sentient beings.

You leave the cloud, since signals can’t penetrate it, and contact Liara. You give her an update and get some advice. But then, your nemesis shows up, with fleet of ships to start mining the element zero. They contact you on the coms to gloat. “Thanks a bunch for leading us strait to the eezzo cache, we’ll be taking it from here. It really is a shame you didn’t think to bring more ships. Well, maybe next time. I’ll see you around, probably at the end of my pistol. Oh, and do tell the spy I left on you ship: thanks for the tip.”

Now the story is about defending, or rescuing the new race, and figuring out who the mole is on your crew. (and it will be a crewmate, it won’t a tracking device or a camera, one of your friends actually betrayed you.) Sort of like Among Us, but as a mass effect mission.

The story could go numerous ways. But I think you should defend the new planet, have a boss battle with your nemesis, get permission from the new race to use the element zero, and welcome them into the galactic community, that is slowly being restored,

The End.

Replay value: new classes are unlocked, including the ability to play as different species. This would be explained that since you are genetically modified, you have traits of other races to make you stronger (also explains why your nemesis is so strong). So you are still mostly human in your DNA, you just happen to look like and asari, or krogan, drell (ECT). This could be a significant plot point; you confront Liara about what you really are, and how you feel about that.

I didn’t mention many crew members or romance options, maybe I will in another post.

And there should be more key choices that are made by the player, these are just a few of them.

It would also be interesting to have a pacifist option, using stun grenades and paralyzing ammo. And at the end of the game you could see your body count. (Maybe that could affect the next game...)

Thanks for reading.