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Babysitting


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Babysitting

Mac/Windows

 

Author: Khoth

Rating:

Difficulty:

Version: 1.0.0

 

[composite=eyJ0aXRsZSI6IkJhYnlzaXR0aW5nIiwidGlkIjoiMTU2NTIiLCJ0YWdzIjpbXSwiYmdhc3AiOnsiNSI6MCwiNCI6NiwiMyI6MTQsIjIiOjQsIjEiOjB9fQ==]

Composite Score: 3.1/5.0

 

Best: 0.00% (0/24)

Good: 25.00% (6/24)

Average: 58.33% (14/24)

Substandard: 16.67% (4/24)

Poor: 0.00% (0/24)

[encouragenecro]

 

[/composite]

 

Keywords:

Edited by SylaeBot
Automated Sybot edit; worker IPB::csrThread/vanadium
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From TM on the CSR:

 

Khoth clearly has no clue how to design a town or outdoors. It showed up to no small extent in Demon, and it shows up here. I know, I know- "but TM, a town isn't the important part of a scenario!" This is usually true, except this town is used as a wayward point for the party. And that aside, it's designed horribly. I'm obviously biased in saying this, but at the time of its release, Babysitting has the most uninspired towns and outdoors ever. No messages describing the town, hardly any objects, et cetera. Towns should be fluid like water, not mucky and bad like tar.

 

Plot here is not the greatest. It holds up solidly, but really only exists to try out neat little tricks (more on those later). Your sister is kidnapped by bandits, you hack up the bandits and rescue her. Character motivations are all derived from stocks that we've seen before, even if all hold solidly.

 

Combat is fair- I entered with a level 4 archer singleton, but could have pulled off level 1 well enough. Combat offers nothing special, although props to Khoth for continuing the "ambushing-the-party is a challenge" school of thought that I sadly helped establish with RoR-BoA. The final battle is a horrendous experience if Kjellklaka (the nomenclature used for characters here is hideous) is not killed immediately. I sniped him in a single round, though, making the experience a great deal easier. There was a Demon (ie. "Hell for a singleton"), but I managed to beat that as well.

 

That said, Khoth is among the two most advanced scenario designers for BoA to date ( ). There are many things that make this scenario worth playing- the three wands are incredibly neat, and are clearly the best part about this scenario. Another trick is making a see-everything pool. The type that Exile, Avernum and many scenarios make as water terrains and then describe only with messages is featured here, except it actually works- neat. Cinematics are used even less than in RoR, but considering that they're used period, it makes for a more complex exposition than such "masterpieces" like Za-Khazi.

 

To put it as best I can? The other four BoA scenarios are probably more "solid" than this one. Nevertheless, it stands that some of the tricks employed here are just plain neat. It's worth a play.

 

[rating]AVERAGE[/rating]

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From Morgan on the CSR:

 

First things first - this is not the longest, best or most enjoyable scenario you will play, and I doubt it was ever intended. What it is, is a fun, short and solid scenario and exactly what BoA needs right now.

 

To date, only TM and Khoth have risen to the challenge of making scenarios which show what BoA is capable of. For that, I give an extra 1 point more then I would if this had come out three years down the line.

 

Town design didn't bug me like it did TM, though the outdoors were sparse and uninteresting (though forgivable, given how small they are).

 

There are a bunch of neat things in the scenario. The wands and seeing pool, TM mentioned. The race flag for the sister struck me as innovative, despite being very simple to implement.

 

The final battle in this scenario is really the biggest challenge I've faced yet in BoA, with my Lvl 1 singleton archer. I got through by the skin of my teeth, but I doubt I'd have such luck again. However, that was only a challenge because I made it so - if I'd gone through with a four PC party, I imagine I would have walked it.

 

Overall, 5.5. Then add 1 for being the second solid third party scenario for BoA. Then add .1 for the race flag.

 

6.6 ([rating]AVERAGE[/rating])

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From an unknown reviewer on the CSR:

 

 

What is here is okay. The problem is there's not enough. (And I'm not talking about more towns or plot, rather more development with the existing towns and plot.) Characters are sketchy, dialogue is skimpy, motivations are scant, and plot resolution is lacking. A very telling symptom is when you leave the scenario after completing it, you get no message at all.

 

The combat is okay, with regular use of the ambush, though the main battle is a little over the top for a first level scenario. There's one puzzle that's very well done.

 

The coding of this short scenario, however, is well worth looking at. There are a number of creative tricks woven into it, both flashy ones and invisible ones. It's just a shame a similar effort wasn't put into fleshing out the characters, the story, the town, and the text.

 

Incomplete.

 

[rating]SUBSTANDARD[/rating]

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From an unknown reviewer on the CSR:

 

The released version is much better than the beta, but it is dispiriting that some of the issues that I described to Khoth in the beta were not fixed for the release. I ran into one bug that I told him about that he didn't fix.

 

The scenario is fun. The plotline is solid, if somewhat predictable, and I suppose the characters are utterly lacking in motivations, but this isn't that kind of scenario. The one town is uninspired, and the outdoors are very empty, as per TM's comment above. And really, if this were one town among dozens, I wouldn't care, but this scenario is too short to justify being so empty. The coding is good, however. The wands were fun to play with, and although I didn't figure out how to work that seeing pool, that's probably my fault.

 

A thought: It would be reasonable to enter this scen with a level 5 party. It will start out easy, but the fight with K and D (don't want to look up their names, no point) will be challenging even so. If you're not a skilled player and don't want to restart a whole bunch of times for the final fight, don't go in with a level 1 party.

 

I start with a 7 for overall feeling, -.5 for the towns and outdoors being so sad and empty, -.2 for a bug, +.3 for a few cool code tricks, and -.2 for being so darn short. I give it a 6.4 ([rating]AVERAGE[/rating]): worth playing if you've finished all the other BoA scenarios released to date.

 

EDIT: Ah, that's how it's done. That didn't occur to me. Shows how good a player I am, I guess tongueold.gif

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From Linthar on the CSR:

 

This is a modifyed review of my review on the spiderweb tables.

 

All in all its decent scenario but not one that I feel any urge to play again, although with BOA being new still I don't expect the best scenarios to be released yet..

 

Good points:

 

A: The three wands, all have interesting effect. Although that polymorph wand seemed to be bugged as the mage I polymorphed appeared later when I exited the town and re entered.

 

B: The looking crystal: This was a nice peace of work, very interesting. What needs to be made more clear is that you can move the view about, because I didn't figure that out until I read the message boards.

 

The Bad:

 

A: The climatic battle, with two enemies that can cast lighting spray, there only seemed to be one way to win. I used the wand that allowed you to switch places with an enemy on the mage leader and dog-piled on the two mages to kill them before they could cast lighting spray. This was only possible by sitting outside of the door and casting spells to prepare myself. I would have liked a battle if its going to have a surprise like a teloportation to be winnable if you are surpised, not just after a reload when you die.

 

B. My complaints on the quickfire cells, and lack of explination of the wands (see the spiderweb software reviews) I withdraw because between looking at the scripts and reading the boards both are inacurate.

 

C. It seemed a little unpolished in areas. The documentation was slim, and there never was any quests on my list.

 

So I give it a final rating of [rating]AVERAGE[/rating]. Its worth playing now while the scenarios avilable is still a slim list, and later someone may want to come back to see an example of early scenario design. The technical inovations are good as well.

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From an unknown reviewer on the CSR:

 

I liked it. It was fun and didn't take itself too seriously.

 

Admittedly the town wasn't very fleshed out, but it had everything my reluctant adventurers needed. And they weren't adventurers out looking for quests, random goblins or whatever, so any more outdoors would have been superfluous to the scenario.

 

I really liked the dialogue snippets. Things like the armourer who didn't care that he was only a one-dimensional character who filled space in a town, the death speech about post-modernism that we never got time to hear, the reactions of the mayor and Ashdod at the end of the scenario. (I knew I should have left him to rot). These dialogue snippets kept me smiling throughout the game. It doesn't take much to keep me happy, I guess.

 

I encountered a minor bug after I killed the slimes - the door to the next room kept opening when I was leaving the slime room simply by walking past the door (I wasn't trying to enter that room). I managed to get out of the situation by walking 2 steps straight out of the slime room and going nowhere near the adjacent door.

 

I liked the way the animations were handled - I didn't get the jarring feeling that I was walking one second then suddenly moving beyond my control the next. They were smoothly done in that respect.

 

This is my first ever review, so I'm not sure what's an acceptable score for a scenario that I really enjoyed playing.

 

[rating]GOOD[/rating]

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From an unknown reviewer on the CSR:

 

I thought it was well done. There wasn't too much cheezy humour and the plot was easy to understand. I especially liked the part in the Inn when the brigands break in and kidnap the girl and the king or whatever. That was well done. Since I played it a while ago i cant recall a lot of it, but I would say it was too short and too easy. A little more complexity would have made it better.

 

[rating]GOOD[/rating]

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From Imban on the CSR:

 

I'd have to say that Babysitting is the sort of scenario I'd be looking forward to in the future - challenging and packed with excellent uses of Avernumscript.

 

I also have to say that future scenarios by this author should take longer than 45 minutes to complete.

 

[rating]SUBSTANDARD[/rating]

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From an unknown reviewer on the CSR:

 

Mostly plain and uninspiring....

 

...but a few highlights manage to keep Babysitting's head above water. The wands added a couple of useful tactics - the teleportation wand was very useful in the final fight, particularly for the singleton I played with. (I gave myself a rather nasty challenge; he was a melee fighter and started out at level 1. Needless to say, I got creamed in the final fight and ended up having to cheat. laugh.gif ) The seeing pool was an interesting little gimmick, but it didn't really add anything to the scenario besides a mild "oh, that's cool" factor. The wands were probably easier to make, but they were utilised much more effectively than the pool, so I give them more points.

 

Town and outdoors design was more utilitarian than decorative. Khoth really needs to spend more than 10 minutes per town. tongueold.gif

 

This is an okay scenario, which I had fun playing, but the ratings table needs more space at the top for the excellent quality scenarios we'll hopefully see once people have got used to the editor.

 

The basic scenario gets maybe a 5. I give an extra 0.5 points for the wands and 0.2 points for the seeing pool; so that makes a total of 5.7 ([rating]AVERAGE[/rating]).

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From The Creator on the CSR:

 

I really like Khoth's quirky sense of humour. The readme file alone cracked me up.

 

Like Demon, I see Babysitting more as a parody of various Blades conventions than anything else. As such, the simplicity of the storyline isn't a drawback. However, the clumsiness with which the story is advanced at times is. This is probably the scenario's biggest problem.

 

The other big flaw is, well, that it's not very big. No matter how you look at it, this scenario is too short.

 

I give it a higher score here than it really deserves, to reward its innovations - I appreciate stuff like that.

 

[rating]GOOD[/rating]

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From shyguy on the CSR:

 

Be prepared to throw logic out the window when playing this scenario. The bandit's lair made no sense whatsoever. It's full of mages, rooms filled with quickfire, and a demon to boot.

So, they decide to kidnap some big wig and grab your sister as well. You'd think they'd have bigger plans considering how powerful this group is. And expect combat to be very frustrating for a level 1 party. For your average player, go into this thing with a few levels under your belt.

 

Okay, there are some interesting tricks here, (Though I missed the scrying pool completely on the first run through) and you've got to give the author credit for being one of the first to even release something. But I wish he'd spent a little more time and fleshed this thing out a bit more.

 

The first time through, I completely forgot to rescue Lord whatsisname and still won the game. The second time through, I stuck my sword through his belly (along with the jerk of a mayor) with absolutely no repercussions.

 

All in all, the nodework is quite competent. But as a game, it is somewhat lacking.

 

[rating]SUBSTANDARD[/rating]

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From S M Adventurer on the CSR:

 

This scenario was too short, it went like this sort of: Adventurers and sister Diana came to town,

adventurers shop, adventurers sleep, adventurers kick bandit butt, adventurers rescue Diana and prisoners, scenario ends.

Not very well put together.

 

Although I have to say, the Mayor at that town was pretty funny, and insulting.

 

What I have to say about this scenario overall, short and

not really worth playing.

 

[rating]SUBSTANDARD[/rating]

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From miluk on the CSR:

 

There were some nice and interesting ideas like the wands. However, this scenario is incomplete in some ways. For example, I think there should have been an ending of some sort. Still, I felt it was worth the play.

 

I encountered a bug (I think): I wasn't able to shop in the town while the sister was kidnapped. I just got a message "you finish your shopping" or something.

 

(Edit: A change of opinion, again...)

 

[rating]GOOD[/rating]

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From Pascal on the CSR:

 

I like this scenario. The plot was good. Though i really hated that lord or whatever. I slew him. Nice coding work. The town was not that good designed, but it did the trick.

 

Overall, compared to all other scenario's up to now, a solid [rating]AVERAGE[/rating]

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From Wizcozski on the CSR

 

Eh, it was alright. It started fun but ended really weak. It took me less than 30 minutes to complete, and that was straight shooting through the bandit lair. It's a start. A very basic, fun, yet somewhat lacking scenario.

 

[rating]AVERAGE[/rating]

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From Smoo on the CSR:

 

 

General: This is a short scenario with basically one town and one dungeon. The design of the town was squared. The wands were neat, but I didn't really use them. The swap location wand turned out to be useful in

the boss fight, though. The humor in the scenario, one-dimensional blacksmith and the postmodernisim thing,

actually got me laughing out loud.

 

Combat: My party of four (no magic or priest spells whatsoever) was at a level of five when they entered

Babysitting. The bossfight got me killed a few times, but other than that I didn't die much.

 

Plot/Characters: A group of quite powerful bandits decides to kidnap an important man and winds up kidnapping the

players sister as well, right why did they do that?

 

Because the scenario is so short the characters don't really

have time to shine. The mayor did bug the living hell out of me though, so I killed him and nobody seemed to

mind. Not that this is a complaint... it makes sense.

 

Overall: Babysitting is fun while it lasts.

 

[rating]AVERAGE[/rating]

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From Arachnid on the CSR:

 

The first scenario I played through after getting Blades of Avernum was quite short as others have said. The wands were super-cool- I especially liked the Polymorph wand.(turning the demon into a cockroach actually made me giggle.) Unfortunately, too short to be given a serious score- [rating]AVERAGE[/rating]will suffice, I think.

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From Ephesos on the CSR:

 

The demon and the boss fight were unpleasant, to the point of broken-ness. Being forced to use the wand of translocation was not really cool, and I was afraid to use polymorph on the bosses (though it took care of the demon nicely).

 

I liked the unsympathetic bureaucrats, but I didn't like the town design of Valusia. Too empty, too standard.

 

In the end, 'tis solid, and that's enough...

 

[rating]AVERAGE[/rating]

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From Nikki on the CSR:

 

It's been said before, but this scenario is solid. And that's it. It does everything alright, but not much brilliantly.

 

Town design was ick - I mean, one or two message_dialog() calls wouldn't have gone amiss, and would have really helped create some sort of atmosphere. And the outdoors were just... there was no need for them. A secret tunnel from town to the hideout would have worked as well, and would have been better plot-wise.

 

Now for scripting - the wands and seeing pool are very, very cool, and worked brilliantly. The polymorph wand was an absolute must for that final battle, but more on that in a second. The alarms were a nice touch, but I found myself setting them off just for the exp.

 

Finally, the difficulty of the thing. It was alright, except for the last battle. But I'm willing to concede that I just suck at combat... So...

 

Overall, a solid yarn. It's not gonna set the world on fire, but if you've got half an hour to spare, you could do a lot worse.

 

[rating]AVERAGE[/rating]

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From Enraged Slith on SV

 

Not sure if I reviewed this one yet. It's fairly well-balanced, save one or two occasions, but very bland. This scenario needed a lot more polish before being released. It's sad too, because it was plainly visible that Khoth clearly knows how to write entertaining dialogue and design a solid adventure. Despite the overall blandness of the terrain and people, this scenario was quite innovative at parts which I have yet to see replicated elsewhere. There were also a few bugs, one of which almost made this scenario unbeatable.

 

[rating]AVERAGE[/rating]

 

It's entertaining, but needs more work.

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  • 10 years later...

This is definitely my least favorite scenario. I'm giving it a poor rating. 

 

Other not-that-good scenarios I've noticed were "stairway" and "Turn that Frown Upside Down".

 

This scenario does everything better than both those scenarios...except for having an interesting plot.

 

The combat is pretty good for the level requirement. There are three very creative wands. There are some interesting mechanics too...but none of that matters to me because the plot is so incredibly bland.

 

"Stairway" seems specifically designed to irritate the player as much as possible, but it has a very interesting plot. "Turn that Frown Upside Down." is pretty simple and kind of dumb, but it too has a somewhat comparatively interesting plot.

 

I wish there were better attempts at humor, and some more areas to explore, and a back story in which more of the events were relevant. Unlike most of these scenarios, There's no story. 

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