BainIhrno

Top Scenarios (at least 30% of reviews rated 'Best') Adventurer's Club 3: Retribution An Apology At the Gallows Emulations Falling Stars Redemption Roots Shadow of the Stranger Tomorrow Quality Scenarios (at least 75% of reviews rated 'Good' or higher) A Small Rebellion Areni Adventurer's Club 2: Asylum Back to Normal Bandits II: Ballad of the Red Star Brotherhood of the Hand Chains Deadly Goblins Demon Doom Moon II: Dragon's Revenge Election Farmhands Save The Day!! Final Spire Fog Forsaken Hut of Baba Yaga Islands of the Wheel Masks Nature of Evil Nebulous Times Hence Nephil's Gambit New Life Nightfall Of Good and Evil On a Ship to Algiers Quests of the Spheres Quintessence Requelle's Nightmare Revenge (Creator) Rubacus Spears Tatterdemalion Truffle Days Worthwhile Scenarios (at least 30% of reviews rated 'Good' or higher) Adventurer's Club 1: The Presence Amazonian Saga Bandits Changing Faces Corporeus Destiny Doom Moon Earthward Road Echoes: Assault Echoes: Black Horse Eye for an Eye Gathering Storm Isle of Boredom Lamentations Leaving Lost Hope Northern Kingdom 0: Prologue Orb of Hayune Pyramids River and Leaf Riddle of the Spheres Treacherous Waters Trouble in Mendor Two Strands Wreck of the Slug Zankozzie's Big Mistake Top Ten (By average score; ties broken by greater number of reviews) 1. Redemption - 4.67 2. An Apology - 4.59 3. Falling Stars - 4.58 4. Roots - 4.53 5. Emulations - 4.50 6. At the Gallows - 4.44 7. Adventurer's Club 3: Retribution - 4.44 8. Shadow of the Stranger - 4.43 9. Tomorrow - 4.33 10. Adventurer's Club 2: Asylum - 4.29 Top Ten (By % of "Best" ratings; ties broken by greater number of reviews) 1. An Apology - 68% 2. Redemption - 67% 3. Falling Stars - 58% (tie) 3. Roots - 58% (tie) 5. Emulations - 50% 6. At the Gallows - 47% 7. Adventurer's Club 3: Retribution - 44% 8. Shadow of the Stranger - 44% 9. Tomorrow - 39% 10. Adventurer's Club 2: Asylum - 29% Unrated Scenarios 100 Evil Sliths The Draining Duke of Rahaxy Foolish Giant The Crusaders Pilgrimage to Thakos

Haven't been around much lately, I know, but I'd love to.

A bit forced... But still a decent scenario. It had perhaps the best customized graphics for BoA yet, and it is pretty well coded. And the designer only included himself as a prisoner, not the Uber-Ultra Lord of All Universes:p The story was interesting, as well. Some parts were pretty enjoyable. Sometimes it can be a little unclear what to do next. I found the fights in this scenario to be a bit easy. (Okay, I played with a level 26 party, but he DID say 20-30, and I usually go somewhere around the middle.) But maybe the monsters need to be a bit more powerful, or the scenario should be rated lower in terms of difficulty. The scenario seems to be a bit forced. You are just controlled by cutscenes, and get to make no choices. I also didn't like having to take damage repeatedly from the dragon. I don't find it a "challenge" to have to keep taking damage without any way to stop it, I find that just "annoying." I would have liked it better if I could just fight the dragon, instead of take damage and watch the Priests kill it. I have to say though, even though it WAS forced, I liked the cutscene of Oakleaf rescuing Ephesos Overall, worth a look, but not great. More gameplay and choices would have made it much better. I rate this scenario [rating]Average[/rating].

Now that we've had this running for a while, any chance we can make one for BoE as well?

Ehh, I find Tales a tad overrated. My main probem with this scenario is too much text. I get many dialogue boxes, and then little action. (I'll admit, the 'overuse of text' bothers me more in BoA than in BoE, because it's slower to move through boxes in BoA and keeps playing that annoying sound.) The same story from five different points of view is interesting, although it can be a bit repetitive at the end. I also would have liked a better way of dealing with the prisoner's death than "that's not how the story went, game over." In some ways, it tries to be BoA's "An Apology", but it just nowhere near as good. A decent scenario, but not that much fun. I rate this scenario [rating]AVERAGE[/rating].

Hey, is there any possibility we could try to get the arrow keys to work in Carbon BoE, if there isn't already a version where they do? My new laptop doesn't have numlock and I can't use the keyboard at all the move the characters.

Maybe they could also have an advantage with capture soul/simulacrum spells

So, what movies did you see the past year and what did you think of them. Here's my list (movies with the same score aren't necessarily in order): Harry Potter 6 - 9/10 (best) Knowing - 8/10 Star Trek - 8/10 A Christmas Carol - 8/10 Coraline - 7/10 Angels and Demons - 7/10 Race to Witch Mountain - 6/10 Aliens in the Attic - 5/10 Hannah Montana: The Movie - 4/10 X-Men: Wolverine - 4/10 (worst) I still want to see Sherlock Holmes. For 2010, I'm looking forward to Alice in Wonderland, Toy Story 3, and Harry Potter 7.

Emerald Mountain is an interesting scenario, but very mediocre. It is very short, and besides some goblin fights, not really that challenging. The plotline was okay, and had a reasonably interesting twist at the end. The premise is that you are guarding the Aquos Gem (a rather silly name, IMO) and it was stolen by a fellow guard, and you have to recover it. Past this, the scenario just seemed like a standard single dungeon scenario. There's not really much to say. I rate this scenario [rating]Substandard[/rating].

Like many of TM's scenarios, it did feel pretentious at times. That being said, it was still a pretty good scenario. It has some crazy combat, but it has some unique "spells" and an interesting plot, at least until the end which was a huge letdown. I don't see, however, why the "spells" are wands that can be picked up. It would be much more believable to just say they are wands that use spell energy. And sometimes they did make fights a little easy. Also, near the end, the armies of Sud Canopy give a long speech and then block your path with trees. Seriously, why not just attack while they are too busy talking? Still, an enjoyable scenario. I rate this scenario [rating]Good[/rating].

Mad Ambition, one of the earlier TM scenarios for BoA is decent. It has decent graphics, challenging fights with a unique fight with Chika. The plot was interesting, if bizarre, and the scenario seemed to have a pretentious atmosphere. The ending seemed a bit of a letdown as well. It was fairly interesting and worth playing. I rate this scenario [rating]Average[/rating]

I'm not sure if I can submit keywords for scenarios I didn't write, but I think that "Contest Winner" should be noted under Echoes: Renegade and Frostbite

By far the best scenario made for Blades of Avernum. It had a reasonably interesting story which got scarier as the scenario went along, and great combat challenges. The graphics were very good, and unlike other scenarios with cool graphics, they really added something to the atmosphere of the scenario. The scenario is about a soldier on a mission to hunt down a beast, simple, but creepy. While the premise stays the same throughout the scenario, unexpected things happen adding a layer of depth to it. I almost could feel like I was in the scenario. My only real complaint is that the Beast itself came off as disappointing. Not showing the Beast throughout most of the scenario, and it only making a few appearances made it much more scary. If the fight was handled a similar way, it would be great. That said, this is a great scenario. It won the Second 1/10 Contest and the 9th Contest, being the first scenario made for a themed contest to win an annual contest. Both wins were well deserved. I rate this scenario [rating]Best[/rating].

Well, there are a lot of BoE scenarios, and I'm not trying to be rude, but are really complete garbage. My suggestion would be to hold off and put these scenarios up last. A lot of designers are not around anymore so I doubt they would mind their scenarios being up. I'll also contribute all of my scenarios to the new CSR.

I haven't been able to play The Eternal, Nobody's Heroes, and Quarhag Pass because my BoA version is too low. How can I get an upgraded version? Do I have to pay again?

I also was thinking that maybe we should put some popular scenarios that many would be familiar with, such as Bahssikava, Canopy, Mad Ambition, Frostbite... Just an idea. Also, I'll be starting to work on a file with all my BoE reviews, so once that CSR is up, I can just cut+paste.

Kill them Dead is a hilarious joke scenario, reminding me of my own <span style="font-style: italic">100 Evil Sliths</span> at times. It was pretty easy and there could have been more detail, but it still did what it was supposed to. ("I want you to KILL THEM DEAD", with the captain growling like a maniac was just great.) It was a pretty short adventure, besides the humor, there's not much I can really say about the scenario, but it's definitely worth playing for the laughs. And hey, <span style="font-style: italic">Kill them Dead</span> made it to Best Scenario in the 9th Contest, so what can you say? I liked the scenario overall, but it needed to be a bit longer for a better score. I rate this scenario [rating]Average[/rating].

Echoes: Renegade, winner of the Eighth Design Contest, is definitely one of the better Blades of Avernum scenarios available. I would say that it doesn't quite live up to most of the other contest winners, but is still worthy of the honor of winning. TM did a lot of cool stuff in this scenario, such as the boat fight, the special arrows (although sometimes seeming unrealistic), and some fights, such as falling down, special spells (while limited), and the final battle. Aside from some of the boss fights, I found the scenario a little easy (I was playing with an L23 party with items from Mad Ambition, for reference). I'm not trying to be engine biased here, but archery is way too powerful in the Avernum games in general. I mean seriously, I can kill bandits with one/two hits of the arrow, and if I can resupply arrows every time I kill an archer, it really makes things easy. Additionally, I could have done without some of the profanity. I did like seeing some of the sanctuaries recreated in the BoA engine. The plot, drawing from both Mad Ambition and the Echoes Arc was good enough, and it kept me interested in what was going on. Terror's Martyr is thusfar the only designer to make a cross-engine series. I rate this scenario [rating]Good[/rating]

I would say Witch Hunt is a decent, relatively short scenario, after all, it was made for the 1/10 Contest. At one point, your items will be stripped, and you can't get them back, so don't play with a party that has items you really like. However, the scenario also offers some nice items after this point, so its not a total loss. Combat is a little on the excessive side. Graphics are pretty good. Overall, I would say that there's nothing wrong with this scenario (aside from the excessive combat, but that's minor, at least in this case), but it lacks anything that would make it above the average short scenario. I rate this scenario [rating]Average[/rating].

I personally preferred the Blades of Exile version, but maybe I just prefer Blades of Exile overall. I know upon my arrival I trashed the BoE version completely, but in retrospect, I was probably just frustrated that for a long time, it was the only available scenario. The BoA version was enjoyable, it was very much just like the BoE version, with little changes. One change that sticks out in my mind is the cutscene in the Mayor's office. That annoyed me. It's sort of a mini-Avernum game, which I like. I rate this scenario [rating]Average[/rating].

I also think it was the best of the four. However, I also thought it was a step down from the Blades of Exile version of A Small Rebellion. And quite frankly, the Exile version, while still the best of the three scenarios that came with the game, is vastly overrated. The story did not really seem that interesting, because there wasn't any real conflict between the Rebels and the Empire, it seemed more like Jeff wanted to have a scenario with two sides to play. The Rebels just seemed like the average cookie cutter villains, just this time you can join them. Still, the idea of choosing paths is a good one, and I really appreciated that some BoE scenarios (e.g. Of Good and Evil, Spears) could put this to good use. It may sound like I'm reviewing the BoE version, but really, the two versions seem almost identical. One thing I will say, Creator mentioned this years back, is that when fighting Stalker, there was a drawn out cutscene of the villains discussing what to do with you. Why not just attack while they're doing this. That being said, I have not played the Rebel's side in the BoA version, only in the BoE version. Feel free to dismiss the review if you don't think I've played enough to fairly evaluate it. I rate this scenario [rating]Average[/rating].

Will we ever have BoE scenarios up?

I think A Perfect Forest is a very good scenario, definitely one of the better scenarios to come out for BoA. I liked the idea of it taking place in a non-human setting, and thought it made good use of cut-scenes and graphics. The end, however, was disappointing in that the laser puzzle was obnoxious and slowed the pace down, and I didn't feel that I accomplished much after I finished. Still, it had a good atmosphere, good graphics (by BoA standards), reasonably interesting characters, and a reasonably good story. Definitely deserved a higher rank in the 8th Contest, and very worth playing. I rate this scenario [rating]Average [/rating](unfortunately, the laser puzzle and lack of things to do really brought it down.)

You can use Leave Town to bypass Blackcrag, but there's nothing worth seeing back there. There's a huge blackness,one time I walked through it so long the game just dumped me back into Valorim, in the middle of a lake. Just if you're interested. Yeah, see above to enter the fort. You will have to fight a Doomguard to enter.

This method seems fine with me. Many of my reviews are a little vague at the current CSR, I'll rewrite them to be in the hundred word mark. I still think that a "10-100" (which is really what we have) is clunky, so I will only award whole number scores on my reviews (and will try not to be obsessed with putting scenarios in 'order'), but I won't complain if everyone uses the decimal system we used before.