Fyora Toast With Roamer Butter

Here goes. There seems to be some problems with the submission process. This is especially true with beta testing. Kelandon has written an article on what to do when testing a scenario. However, there seem to be some problems before you the beta process is started. 1) Lack of an effective email to send and receive messages. Do not use hotmail it looks like spam. Norton antivirus sometimes blocks sending messages to multiple recipients with hotmail and other free emails. Yahoo email is fairly reliable for sending and receiving email if you want to create an account just for betatesting. 2) Do not expect that all of your betatesters will actually do betatesting. Assume at least one will not follow through. Waiting for everyone to send in reports sometimes doesn't work. 3) Factor in the time after beta- testing to fix the bugs which people spot. The person who sends out the beta test early can both fix the bugs and create scenario updates v. 1.1, v. 1.2, etc. before a contest is finished. This is true of Emerald Mountain. 4) Try and finish the beta before it is sent out. Incomplete scenarios are frustrating. 5) Assume it will take longer to create a small scenario than you planned. It took 6 days for Emerald Mountain to reach beta. It took 7 days for Edge of Ciprius to reach beta. Real life interrupts all the time. It will take at least 2 days to receive reports for a small scenario, then another 2 to fix problems. For a really fast experienced scenario designer it takes 10 days to do a small scenario. For others 14+ days. These are some thoughts.

Change the boat graphic to a piece of terrain. It will float. May make the party disappear though.

There are two historical figures where most of the vampire legends come from They are Vlad Dracul, a real person, and Countess Bathory. Vlad was a transylvanian count and crusader known for his incredible cruelty and fiercesomeness in battle. He was supposed to have impaled people on stakes. One incident has him nailing a diplomats hat to his head because he refused to take it off his head. Countess Bathory was rumored to believe that bathing in the blood of Virgins would make her immortal. Some vampires do not drink blood. They decapitate their victims then drain the blood into pools so they can bathe in it. There are vampires in other cultures. Chinese vampires drain the ki or life force from their victims not blood. The only way to kill them is to destroy their burial urns. They are supposed to be attracted to degenerate behavior. It would be interesting to have a vampire that drained both spell points and hit points.

I would like to be able to start as a servile-- there should be two types of serviles the character could be warrior servile and craftsman servile. Craftsman serviles should be able to make stuff like living tools, potions, wands and have good spell casting ability, etc but should have very limited shaping skills. In fact it would be interesting if they were the only ones with strong alchemy skills.

If the continent is conquered most of the non-humans, rebels, and outlaws would have been driven into the deserts and inhospitable places. Where the empire cannot go they will have to go. This should toughen them up being the survivors of imperial "killing fields". I can imagine a combination of paranoia and heavy armament. Sliths would especially do well in deserts. They are heat resistant and very hardy. I can imagine a kind of desert slith different from the swamp sliths. The surviving non-humans would try very hard to keep the empire out hiding their resources well. In addition there would be the local nomads. The nomads would already have known about the empire from the non-humans creating a strong sense of hostility. There would have to be a very strong reason to go into the deserts for the empire. The resources which stand out in the deserts of Africa-- gold and diamonds, Australia-- opals, Arabia-- oil possibly for Greek fire, dry land plants-- myrrh, cinnamon, spices and potion ingredients. Salt flats near where the desert meets the sea.

I've told Kelandon about the judges forum. Am still looking for one-two more judges. Some thoughts on the challenges in the scenario. 1) The outdoor section will have to be either surrounded by high walls or possibly water then blackness. I think water might add an interesting effect to the outdoor section. 2) I think that you may have to use the Louvre for pictures of some of the new items or creatures. http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/b/x/bxb11/boa/louvre/ 3) There is going to have to be a transition between levels for the two level structure. These are a few thoughts.

It would be fine to make a plot uniting all four aspects of the short scenario. I have set a date of August 17, 2004 for submissions.

I haven't even figured out who the judges are yet. This is all new to me. I also have to figure out prizes. I think there should be about 4-5 judges. Here is the first try at a web page for the contest. http://butterytoast.tripod.com/

1) It would be one traditional town with 4-12 buildings in it. 2) An outdoor section with two encounters. 3) Another structure which can be entered separately from the town with two levels. This should be an original dungeon idea, not a cookie cutter dungeon. Some examples might be a gremlin still-- gremlins have take over the local brewery outside of the town and are brewing gremlin wine and have stolen the local grape harvest and set fire to a couple of homes. Wizards Tower-- a local wizard has gone mad, has been making monsters, and they have been escaping into the countryside. Border Outpost-- the empire has run into a small potentially hostile kingdom on another continent, they have built a small colony. They want you to raid the kingdoms border outpost, kill everyone inside and get maps of the kingdom.

Because I am new to this. Is there a place where I might host the contest. I do not have a separate web page.

Alright. Here is a bit more fleshed out contest set up. This is the first time I would be doing this. This is short scenario design contest. You have two weeks to submit your scenario by August 15, 2004. We will have one week to judge the entries. There are two winners. 1) Best overall scenario design. 2) Most original scenario ideas and execution. The parameters for the scenario are: 1) One town with between 4-12 structures. 2) One outdoor section with at least two encounters and three types of terrain. 3) One original structure wizards lab, gremlin still, bandit fortress, border outpost, volcano, etc. This cannot be a traditional dungeon. There should be be no more than two levels. 4) At least one new monster and one new item. The item should be something usable by the characters.

Look at the code for icy longsword, or burning longsword. I think you can add special types of damage with a sword. Icy sword does +8 cold damage, and burning does +8 fire damage. You might have to come up with a special type of damage though.

This is a suggestion for a fast scenario design contest. The contest is to create a very short scenario over a weeks time. It should consist of. 1) A town. 2) An outdoor area with at least two encounters. 3) An original two level structure-- it cannot be a "dungeon" in the original sense of the word, but could be a ghost town, haunted mansion, gremlin still, wizards lab, etc. 4) There must be at least one new monster and one new item. Just a thought.

I thoroughly enjoyed the test dungeons. It might be nice to see some people put up some practice areas for us to try out. For example a sample large forest, a large volcano-- I've never seen anyone do a graphic for a volcano yet. Short and sweet.

Oops wehireu@yahoo.com

Please send dungeons to wehiru@yahoo.com . Haven't used for a while.

It might be a good idea to stop expanding the scenario and focus on polishing it so it works better. Every time a new thing is added it needs to be edited... This will extend it beyond a reasonable point. This especially true if it is not your design-- pieces won't fit in with story. People will always ask you to add more, even if something is practically finished. Length does not make a scenario better. Content does. Polish, polish, and finish. You have two towns-- the one at the beginning, and the one at the end. This is good enough for me. Save the towns for the next scenario. I was hoping to get the fourth edit soon... so I could make my final comments and you could get the scenario published in about a week. Please be considerate enough to finish the scenario. I think the other testers would appreciate it as well.

There should be a utilities section added to the scenario list. The 3D Blades of Avernum Editor and the HLPM- High Level Party Maker are utilities not scenarios. I am fairly sure there will be some others as well. I think the Louvre has a 2.5 MB graphics download as well. It might be nice to see these next to the scenarios.

Collaborations work quite well. It is called being a beta tester. They write the scenario. You play it and make suggestions about plot, monsters, traps, and other things. I am not a coder but I do like beta testing.

Hmm. I am no scripter. Just pushing a few people and hoping they will produce a nice new dungeon for me to chop holes in. I wouldn't mind being a beta tester. Been on vacation for a week. How about some insane ideas for Avernum dungeons. 1. As fas as I can tell there has never been a solid desert scenario in Avernum. (I don't see any really decent desert or ruin graphics in Exile or Avernum.) In fact I am wondering if there is such a thing as a desert in Avernum. Maybe an unpassable desert where everyone who has tried to cross it has died would be nice. The Sahara desert was never crossed by Europeans until the twentieth century. It could be a true death trap-- sand storms, heat damage during the day, unpassable fiery landscape, sink holes, all sorts of horrid new critters-- giant scorpions, a dead kingdom in the center of the desert. Crazed religious fanatic Nephilim who travel by night. 2. Where are the barbarians -- every decent empire has at one point had to face barbarian invaders which have nearly brought them to their knees. The sliths are supposed to be this, but they don't strike me as particularly barbaric. (Maybe they might come out of the desert wastelands which Avernum has never had.) Hint, hint 3. Erika Reborn. The great Nephil Shaman Orgun Khan from the deserts of Zahaduen has gone down into Avernum and resurrected Erika to torture her and learn of her magic. He holds her for a long time imprisoning her soul in a soul crystal. Erika eventually escapes learning of an artifact called the Amulet of the Blood Moon from Orghuns library. Supposedly if a vampire wears it, the day will become as night to him and he will be able to move about during the day. Erika thinks that if she gets the amulet and becomes a vampire lord she may be able to return to the surface of the Empire despite the curse. However the amulet is in the lost city of Urik in the desert of Zahaduen. Every attempt by Erika to send creatures to retrieve it has failed. She teleports you in and asks you to retrieve the amulet. Then she disappears quickly. Orgun Khan teleports in surrounded by raksasha, demons, and henchmen and makes a counteroffer...

The best spear is the "blessed spear" in the za-khazi run sold by the efreet smith.

It would be very easy to make a nice spear. Burning Spear-- 6-36 +1-6 level strength and pole weapons +20 fire damage Ice Lance as above +20 ice damage Spear of Piercing +10%attack 6-36 + 1-6 level, strength, and pole weapons (makes it exceptionally deadly) +2 assassination +2 lethal blow

There could be a best anonymous scenario contest. We would never know who won, but we would know which one was the best. It could be just a secret recognition thing...

I know that people are making some test scenarios which they do not want to release under their name. However, there are very few scenarios out there. Would there be a way to release some of the initial scenarios anonymously so we can play them without the persons first try being embarrassing. Like the last one. Just a thought.

Can we get the Spiderweb Scenario Design Contest going a bit earlier. http://www.avernum.com/blades/workshop/contest.html