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Role ideas:

 

Mad Monk

Nationality: Empire

Skill: Stealth

Attack: Physical

Immune: Physical

 

Ability: Once per game, can go into a Berserk Frenzy for 24 hours. While in this frenzy, he gets first strike and his attacks bypass physical immunities. However, he loses his own physical immunity, and any kills made while berserk, offensive or defensive, become publicly known.

 

Goal: Kill, by your own hand, five random targets. The targets will be made aware that you are in play.

 

Guard Captain

Nationality: Avernum

Skill: Power

Attack: Physical

Immune: None

 

Ability: When any player commits a crime (killing or stealing), the Guard Captain becomes aware of which two parties were involved. He is not informed which party perpetrated the act.

 

Goal: The following criminals must be dead by any means necessary: Adventurer, Darkside Blademaster, Darkside Mage, Domont, Empire Spy, Necromancer, Sacred Item Cultist, Skribbane Addict, and Vahkohs.

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Uh, Nioca, WAAAAAAAAY too many targets for the Guard Captain, and there will never be a situation were all of them are playing, because there are 4 optional roles there and only 3 random roles get chosen, and if the Captain is a random role, the number is reduced to 2. Make it so that 5 of that following have to be dead.

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Not quite. If the attack rebounded, the dead guy would be the attacker, and the living one the victim. And he's not told whether the victim fended off the attacker.

 

Originally Posted By: Xelgion
Uh, Nioca, WAAAAAAAAY too many targets for the Guard Captain, and there will never be a situation were all of them are playing, because there are 4 optional roles there and only 3 random roles get chosen, and if the Captain is a random role, the number is reduced to 2. Make it so that 5 of that following have to be dead.

Actually, the Infiltrator has more targets. Anyway, if a target role isn't playing, then killing it isn't an issue. It's the same way it works with Ronaldo, Infiltrator, Adventurer, and Empire Spy.

 

The Guard Captain isn't exactly meant to be an easy role. He's like the anti-Darkside Blademaster. Only without the Physical immunity.

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Originally Posted By: Nioca
Role ideas:

Mad Monk

Goal: Kill, by your own hand, five random targets. The targets will be made aware that you are in play.


Having to personally kill five targets seems like a stretch when games don't usually last five days.

Actually, this brings up an issue with Vahkohs as well. If on day 4 there's an alliance of five survivors who have all met their win conditions, there's basically no way for Vahkohs to win, even if none of the survivors can defend themselves against him. The timer will run out before he can kill everyone.
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The Guard Captain's special ability sounds fun, but possibly overpowered. He'll have the Adventurer on Day 1, for one thing, which means the Adventurer is doomed (if the game has one). His victory condition is appropriately ambitious for such a powerful ability, but a bit unoriginal. Lots of roles already need those targets dead.

 

The Mad Monk, I don't like so much. Five "kill by your own hand" requirements is completely unacceptable- the game could easily be unwinnable on day 1. And, again, we already have lots of death-oriented victory conditions.

 

Wow, all that was a lot more critical than I planned. I guess it's only fair that I think of something myself:

 

Channeler

Nationality: Whichever

Skill: Standard

Attack: Magic

Immunity: None

 

Ability: Dead players are allowed to speak freely with the Channeler. Apart from this, they are still asked not to influence the game in any way.

 

Goal: I'm not sure about this part yet, to be honest. I'm trying to think of a good win condition to go with the ability, because I like the ability so much. Any ideas?

 

EDIT re Vahkos: Part of his job is to prevent that. If I were Vahkos, I'd be looking for potential alliances like that and trying to take out a critical member of them, so that the survivors have to resort to a plan B in which they have to keep killing. It's challenging, sure, but the role was designed to be.

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Okay...

 

Guard Captain

Nationality: Avernum

Skill: Power

Attack: Physical

Immune: None

 

Ability: When any player commits a crime (attacking, stealing, or trading/giving Skribbane), the Guard Captain becomes aware of which two parties were involved. He is not informed which party perpetrated the act, nor which crime was committed.

 

Goal: All criminals dead by any means necessary. A player is considered a criminal when he has committed two crimes. A player is also considered a criminal if he or she is currently in possession of Skribbane. Note that if the player gets rid of the Skribbane, he or she is no longer considered a criminal, and that trading/giving skribbane does not count against a player's crime record.

 

Note: The Guard Captain is enemies with criminals only (plus any roles that might be targeting him).

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I just added the possession of Skribbane as a crime to make the role a little harder (since it's rather powerful). Furthermore, if Gladwell were to compel someone, the Servant would take the rap.

 

EDIT: Also made it so that the Captain is aware of any Skribbane exchanges. As a drawback to his ability, he is left unaware of exactly what crime was committed.

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Originally Posted By: Celtic Minstrel
What about making it so that he has a 50% chance per crime of knowing?

That's basically the normal suspicion system, and it'd throw it to the other extreme (underpowered).

Quote:
Or maybe he can only become aware of one crime per day; which one is picked at random from all the crimes committed. (That could be expanded to 2 or 3 per day.)

That'd be tricky. He would only learn of crimes at the end of the day, which means that his knowledge could be sorely out-of-date.
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I don't expect this role to actually come in to play, but just for fun...

 

Demon

Nationality: Avernum

Skill: Power

Attack: Magic

Immune: Magic

 

Ability: (1) Can target a player. Doing so renders all items in their inventory useless for 24 hours (2) Can make any player appear to be the demon for 24 hours

 

Drawbacks: Can only kill someone on the first strike, and can't possess items.

 

Victory Condition: Destroy all allegiances (Anama, Gladwell, DLs)

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Vahkos will be difficult to play. Note that I give him the option of specifying a physical or magic attack now, so he has more flexibility. For defensive stuff, I will by default use the last attack done unless the person says otherwise. Granted, he still cannot simply point and shoot, time is not on his side in this respect. He must scheme and have other people kill and maximize killing. Another part of the strategy is to convince people to attack him and end up killing themselves.

 

The Mad Monk is interesting. I think I will have to do something with regards to the fiesty slap of pain. I like the Guard Captain, but he may need some refinement. I had similar ideas for a role like this before this game was developed, but I dropped it prior to the first draft of roles. I may look into reintroducing said character.

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That's nice. That version of the Channeler would be cool.

 

A rejigged Pacifist:

 

Pacifist

Nationality: Avernum

Skill: Standard

Attack: None

Immune: None

 

Ability: May prevent a target from attacking or being attacked for 24 hours.

 

Win Condition: Must (at least temporarily) prevent three deaths this way.

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Originally Posted By: Ash Lael
Ability: May prevent a target from attacking or being attacked for 24 hours.

Win Condition: Must (at least temporarily) prevent three deaths this way.


It's funny how the best way for the Pacifist to achieve his goal is to talk people into attacking each other.
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Originally Posted By: Ash Lael
Okay, I think I finally have it. The pacifist's goal is that two people with mutually exclusive win conditions survive the game.

This means that as long as the game continues, it's technically possible for him to win. As soon as his job becomes impossible, the game ends.


Now that's an idea that could produce some interesting strategies. Ideally, you'd want to pick a target with no natural allies and neutralise him while making sure to ally with his enemies and ask them to please not kill him. For example, if you knew that an Anama Hunter existed in the game, one viable strategy would be to ally with the Anama and latch on to the Hunter like a limpet for the rest of the game to prevent him from killing anybody.
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Originally Posted By: Ash Lael
Okay, I think I finally have it. The pacifist's goal is that two people with mutually exclusive win conditions survive the game.

This means that as long as the game continues, it's technically possible for him to win. As soon as his job becomes impossible, the game ends.
But doesn't the game end when all survivors have fulfilled their victory conditions? So, if the Pacifist's two targets are alive, and their victory conditions are mutually exclusive, they cannot both have satisfied their win conditions, and so the game continues.

Or.... hmm... are you saying simply that they must survive as long as possible?

EDIT: Would it be viable for his victory condition to involve something like "less than x deaths"?
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Originally Posted By: Celtic Minstrel
But doesn't the game end when all survivors have fulfilled their victory conditions?


Apart from the time limit, the game also ends if the only non-winning survivors are ones who cannot possibly meet their win conditions. (For example, if there's a role who needs to personally kill a certain number of targets, but all its targets have already been killed by others.)
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Originally Posted By: Thuryl

Now that's an idea that could produce some interesting strategies. Ideally, you'd want to pick a target with no natural allies and neutralise him while making sure to ally with his enemies and ask them to please not kill him. For example, if you knew that an Anama Hunter existed in the game, one viable strategy would be to ally with the Anama and latch on to the Hunter like a limpet for the rest of the game to prevent him from killing anybody.


Or he could try to ally with the Gladwell and neutralise the Micklebur. This is actually even better than killing him, since the priest could ressurect him.

JKust occured to me that our alliance could have happily used a pacifist last game to neutralise Bain at the end.

EDIT:
Originally Posted By: Celtic Minstrel
But doesn't the game end when all survivors have fulfilled their victory conditions? So, if the Pacifist's two targets are alive, and their victory conditions are mutually exclusive, they cannot both have satisfied their win conditions, and so the game continues.

Or.... hmm... are you saying simply that they must survive as long as possible?

EDIT:
Would it be viable for his victory condition to involve something like "less than x deaths"?


The game ends after seven days, if it hasn't ended before then. In order to win, the pacifist would need to keep the game going that long.

And no, that isn't really viable, since once more than x deaths have occured it becomes unwinnable for the pacifist. This was, in fact, the original win condition proposed for the pacifist, but Stareye didn't like it.
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Alright, tons of ideas here. First, a streamlined, simplified version of the Guard Captain.

 

Guard Captain

Nationality: Avernum

Skill: Power

Attack: Physical

Immune: None

 

Ability: When any player attacks another, the Guard Captain becomes aware of which two parties were involved. He is not informed which party perpetrated the act.

 

Goal: All criminals dead by any means necessary. A player is considered a criminal when he has attacked twice.

 

Note: The Guard Captain is enemies with criminals only (plus any roles that might be targeting him).

 

--

 

Also, some other ideas for roles.

 

Soultaker

Nationality: Avernum

Skill: Standard

Attack: Magic

Immunities: Magic

Mage

 

Abilities: Once per day, can examine a living player's abode. You will learn whether that player is a mage or not. If so, you will drain their ability (they won't be able to use it for 24 hours. If their ability's effects are active, then the effects are disrupted; e.g., if Shanker warded someone, those wards would be dispelled, though Shanker would recover the ability at the normal time).

 

Goal: Drain three different mages. Draining the same mage three times does not count. If there are not enough mages left alive to meet quota, collect one randomly chosen artifact in place of each draining.

 

Enemies: Anama, Mages

 

 

Conjurer

Nationality: Empire

Skill: Standard

Attack: Magic

Immunities: None

Mage

 

Ability: Once per day, can summon a creature. That creature can then be sent out to either attack or defend another player. When defending, the creature remains active around the player until killed, at which point the creature will disappear. Each creature can only be summoned once. The creatures are:

 

* Wolf: Standard Skill, Physical Attack

* Giant Lizard: Stealth Skill, Physical Attack

* Lava Bat: Standard Skill, Magic Attack

* Asp: Stealth Skill, Poison Attack

* Demon: Power Skill, Magic Attack, Magic Immunity

* Quickghast: Stealth Skill, Physical Attack, Wins First Strike (barring Skribbane use or Vahkohs)

* Dark Wyrm: Power Skill, Poison Attack, Physical Immunity

 

Note that normal rules regarding first strikes apply. Also, if a wand of death is used, it will kill both the creatures and its intended target.

 

Goal: Protect two of four random roles, and make sure no more than 3 beasts die over the course of the game. Note that a successful attack does not count as a death, and that the random roles you are to protect will not be enemies with you. You will, however, be enemies with anyone targeting the roles you have to protect.

 

 

Brigand

Nationality: Avernum

Skill: Stealth

Attack: Poison

Immunities: None

 

Ability: Once per day, can anonymously threaten another player into an action. Once threatened, the player can either refuse your demands or carry them out. If the player acquiesces, he will perform that action immediately (or as soon as possible) and you will get the results. If he refuses, he is marked as an enemy and automatically attacked by you. Note that you cannot attack a person directly. If you try to threaten a person into an action they can't do (giving an item they don't have, using an ability they don't have), the attempt simply fails.

 

Goal: Acquire a random artifact and kill two random roles.

 

Enemies: Guard Captain

 

 

Healer

Nationality: Empire

Skill: Standard

Attack: Physical

Immunities: Poison

 

Ability: Once per day, can monitor a selected player for 24 hours. If the player is fatally injured, he will be revived, though he will lose any items he was carrying. Note that players hit with the wand of death cannot be revived in this manner (Also, if the poison potion under my item ideas is implemented, having a healer monitor you will cure that as well). You cannot target yourself with this ability.

 

Goal: Save the lives of three different players. Note that saving the same person repeatedly does not count.

 

 

Divinely Touched

Nationality: Avernum

Skill: Power

Attack: Physical

Immunities: None

 

Ability: Once per game, can call for divine aid. For the next 24 hours, the player will gain total immunity, a guaranteed first-strike, and will recharge his action every six hours. Furthermore, if an attack is launched against someone with a physical immunity in this state, the player's attack will switch to magical.

 

Goal: All faction members dead AND have possession of three randomly chosen artifacts.

 

 

Berserker

Nationality: Empire

Skill: Standard

Attack: Physical

Immunities: None

 

Ability: When attacking, your skill becomes power. This does not apply defensively.

 

Goal: All passive roles (Aimee, Alchemist, Craftmaster Strine, Healer, Machrone, Oliver) dead by any means necessary.

 

 

Shaman

Nationality: Empire

Skill: Stealth

Attack: Magic

Immunities: None

 

Ability: Once per day, can cast various blessings and enchantments on a player. Each spell lasts for 24 hours. The enchantments are:

* Skill: Boosts the target's skill to Power.

* Speed: Hastes the target, guaranteeing a first-strike against unhasted players, and normal combat rules against hasted players (Skribbane).

* Bladeshield: Provides immunity from Physical attacks.

* Prismatic Shield: Provides immunity from Magic attacks.

* Serendipity: Provides a 15% chance of recovering from a fatality. Note that the player will still lose any items.

 

Goal: Collect one random artifact, and cast all five spells.

 

 

And some item ideas.

 

Shielding Knife – Can be used with an attack. Changes attack to physical, and grants immunity to physical and magical attacks. Applies defensively as well. Once it blocks an attack, it disintegrates.

(Basically, an item that blocks one attack)

Shielding Trinket – Provides immunity to Physical and Magical attacks so long as it is held. Once it blocks one attack, however, it disintegrates.

(Same as above, but not a weapon)

Haste Potion – Grants you first strike regardless of enemy status for the next 24 hours. Hastes equally to Skribbane, causing normal combat rules to apply against someone high on skribbane.

(Basically, a way to guarantee a first-strike other than Skribbane, though obviously not as powerful)

Scuttler Eggs – Causes a scuttler swarm when used. For the next 24 hours, all actions performed by other players have a 50% chance of getting interrupted by scuttlers, failing. The user is exempt from the item's effects.

(A kind of super-item that can bring fighting and scrying to a dead stop. Basically holds everyone else up whilst giving the user an opening)

Coins – Can be traded in to the moderator for any other (non-artifact) item.

(A wildcard.)

Xian Coins (Artifact) – Once per day, can get a free item of your choice from the moderator. Counts as an ability use.

(A once-per-day wildcard. Turns a person into a veritable item shop. It's probably way too powerful, though)

Invulnerability Potion – Provides six hours of total protection. Absolutely nothing can kill you, not even the Wand of Death.

(Basically, the Wand of Death's equal and opposite. To compensate, it's very short-lived)

Truth Philter – When used on another player, you can learn one of the following: skill, immunities, enemies, faction, nationality, and inventory. Counts as an ability use.

(A truth serum. A way of getting reliable information, if somewhat generic)

Wand of Absorption – Sets a target's skill level to Standard for 24 hours. Counts as an ability use.

(Brings a power role down to earth, leaving them open to attack by standard roles)

Nephil Longbow – Can be used to attack a target. Counts as a physical attack of Standard skill. The target will not be able to retaliate against this attack, nor will he know who attacked him. Comes with only one arrow, and thus can only be used once.

(A toned-down wand of death. A sneak attack against an opponent)

Chitrach Eggs – Causes an outbreak of Chitrachs when used. For 24 hours, anyone who attempts to attack runs a 33% (1-in-3) chance of fighting a chitrach instead. Chitrachs have Stealth skill, an attack of poison, and always get first-strike. Does not count as an ability use, but the user is not exempt from the item's effects.

(Another super-item. Effectively imposes a ceasefire on the game for 24 hours, since anyone who doesn't abide by it runs the risk of becoming chitrach chow. Normal abilities and trading is not effected)

Poison Potion – Can be used on a target. The target is poisoned, and will die in 24 hours without an antidote. The target is aware of being poisoned. If the target has an antidote, it is automatically used to cure the poisoning. This counts as an ability use. Note that, because of the 24-hour delay on the poison, it can be used on day 1.

(A sneaky way to get someone, but they're given a chance to requisition an antidote before dying)

Xian Skull – Reveals one detail regarding a random person at the beginning of each day. The detail will be either the person's skill, immunities, nationality, or faction alignment. Is an intrinsic item and is not used. Also speaks in an odd annoying voice, has a taste for deli sandwiches, and wants to be your friend.

(Basically, an intrinsic charm that gives the player a tiny edge in information gathering)

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Items will be handled a bit differently in the next game.

 

People will receive either an artifact or an item called coins. There will be a shop run by the Moderator with a finite supply of items, each with a cost in coins (2-4 depending on its power). Players may trade in their coins to purchase items on a first come, first serve basis.

 

I may even make it so artifacts can be sold to the shop in exchange for two coins (another player may buy it back for four).

 

Also, players will need ways to get more coins. I propose to make certain roles like the Adventurer, Empire Spy, and Micklebur able to receive a bounty for their targets. When these roles are successful in making a kill, they receive three coins. A few other roles may be able to get extra coins too. I'm thinking of changing Domont and the Bound Servant's abilities to help in this regard.

 

The merchant characters (slot 12) will be reworked somewhat to allow them to compete with the moderator shop, which will charge premium rates.

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I foresee the shop idea causing complaints about fairness. The reasons being; since the game has a start time that happens near randomly, I'm sure you'll get complaints of a nature about not getting to get a "good" item because "My schedule conflicted with the start of the game". Also, taking the random element out of something tends to make some people feel they've been put in a unfair position. Mainly due to the fact that, with the random element, they tend to accept the fact that they can't control how luck works, but with something more ordered, they feel more cheated, since they can't always control when they would have access to the internet.

 

Hmm, I rambled a bit, did that make sense?

 

(Also, please note, I'm not trying to preemptive complain, just pointing something out that may not have occurred to you)

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There will also be the complaint about how the start time did not work, regardless of what system we use. It is virtually impossible to run a game with 17 people from around the globe with vastly different lifestyles and have one time work for all of them.

 

The way I see, the shop will be a much smaller concern because no one will have enough money to buy any of the really good items up front. I plan on making the Wand of Death cost four coins and most things will cost three. The most anyone would start out with is two. Another reason I brought in this system was to delay people getting good items and add an incentive for making alliances.

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Originally Posted By: Xelgion
Nioca, that list needs to be toned down in power, especially the conjourer. He can summon almost unbeatable guards, and since the game will only go on 5 days, he has enough powerful creations to have one uber guard all at the same time.

Um, not quite. His job is to protect at least two out of four randomly selected roles. That means handing those creatures out to other players instead of keeping them on himself. Furthermore, if he did focus all creations on himself, all it'd take is one wand of death blast to knock both him and his guards out.

Also, technically, any enemy attacking him would likely get first-strike, unless they hit the quickghast. So odds are greater that a creature will die in an attack than the attacker.

Also, Divinely Touched is supposed to be powerful. However, it's a one-shot-per-game deal, and it has extremely high requirements (all factions dead, plus hold 60% of the artifacts in play).
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I like some of Nioca's ideas, some I feel are needlessly complex, and some seem like they might be fun to play but would probably make the game less enjoyable for other participants.

 

I like the changes to shops and to the Shanker. Together I hope they'll push more people into forming alliances. So far we've only seen one game with two large alliances, and in that case one was built on the ruins of the other. There's never really been two competing alliances.

 

Stareye probably will do this without me saying anything, but Oliver's win condition should change to getting a certain number of coins. He can set his own prices.

 

Also, another probably-won't-be-used-but-what-the-hell-idea:

 

Bounty Hunter

Nationality: Avernum

Skill: Stealth

Attack: Physical

 

Ability: Once per game, may attack a role without knowing his identity.

 

Win condition: Have 4 (?) coins at the end of the game.

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My goals with Oliver are as follows:

 

1) I want him to actually have to do trading, and not simply be a coin collector. People cannot just give him their coins at the end of the game.

2) I want his total wealth to increase at the end of the game. It is not enough that he just gives away his items for cheap, he is in business to make money.

 

I'm not sure what the best way to achieve both of those goals are. I don't want the following to happen:

 

1) His allies to just give him coins.

2) Him to offload his stock for cheap so he loses money.

3) Recursive trading of the same item.

4) Him or one of his allies to kill to get coins/items for his shop.

 

I will probably change his victory condition to require x coins or item equivalent in his inventory or shop (moderator shop will inflate the true value by +1). The value he needs to be some net increase (perhaps 50% rounded up) of his original shop's value.

 

My one concern is that people will wisely buy items only when absolutely necessary and use them immediately. To help this out, I plan on totally changing the contents (except for artifacts) of the moderator shop every day. If you see something that may be useful, you should buy it because it will be gone later. Further, I may randomly distribute some mid-level item to a lucky random player every day.

 

I'm open to other ideas.

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I think there are fundamental problems with money that makes Oliver difficult.

 

So here's what I'm going to do with money. Coins can only be given/traded in blocks of 5. Items in the moderator store will be marked up 50%. The value of items will be 10, 20, 30, and 40 and will cost 15, 30, 45, and 60 respectively. Items can be sold to the moderator store for half their value in coins. The reason for this is to add more flexibility for merchant roles.

 

People will start out with some number of coins or item equivalent (10-25 coins worth).

 

Oliver's goal will be to increase his net worth by a certain percentage to be decided. I will also give a +5 "coin" bonus for each item in his possession at the end of the game. This gives him a preference to trading items as opposed to just for money. I do like the idea of him only being able to trade for things.

 

I will need to think more. Please keep the suggestions coming!

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The problem I see there is that Oliver has no reason to sell an item for less than its value plus 6, so for the lowest-value items the mod shop is actually a better deal. Oliver is more competitive the more expensive an item is, but still has very little room to turn a profit. Creative play possibilities like starting a bidding war over the game's only Wand of Death are substantially reduced, and his advantage in prices is undermined by the fact that he is less safe to deal with and could be Fae.

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For the mod shop, I have an idea. Have everyone that is playing in one pm, where *i would post the shop. He would update it by editing, so we have to be careful to see if there is anything new. If a player wants an item, then they would say so to *i in a seperate PM. If there is a bidding war, the *i could just tell the people that others want it, and sell it to the person who doesn't give up.

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The thing to keep in mind with Oliver is that alliances win in this game. The best winning strategy for him is to trade items to his allies for cheap to help them win, and then they buy overpriced items at the end with all the loot they've acquired to help him win.

 

If you want the role to operate outside of alliances and trade with everyone, this cannot be a viable strategy. One way is to make it so coins are not recovered from dead players - they are simply lost. Thus, if the coin requirement is high enough, Oliver cannot simply stick with the same team of five who pool their resources. Nor can he wait to trade, because people will start dying. He has to go out and hustle.

 

I also think that the moderator shop probably shouldn't be introduced for now. See if we can get Oliver to work as a trader properly before we start giving him competition.

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