ScenarioReview

STAREYE This scenario, simply put, is not Alcritas’s best work. In fact it does not even come close. There are a few points that are intriguing and creative, but they are definitely overshadowed by the negatives. I was able to beat the whole thing in about twenty minutes. Now I know that the purpose of the scenario was simply to extend the plot. It serves kind of to fill in the cracks, so to speak, by introducing a few elements to prepare us for the finale, Falling Stars. I does a good job at doing so on face, however the real effectiveness can only be judged after the release of the aforementioned. However, I will simply judge the scenario on its own merits and try not to allow the overlaying plot of Alcritas’s scenarios to intrude. My impression after completing the scenario is that it leaves me empty. In fact, the scenario seemed to have one theme: Go in, hack up a few monsters, do whatever you came to do, and get your asses out. I was expecting more from a skilled designer such as Alcritas. Now to the meat of the scenario. I think the most effective way to review this is to flow through the story line. Note that if you have not played Lamentations, you may wish to discontinue as this will probably spoil the plot for you. Besides, if you’ve read this far, you already know my impression. With that warning aside, I shall begin at the beginning. You begin returning from a difficult intelligence mission and are immediately thrown into combat. This is generally not something that is preferred, but it seems to go with the plot. Also, this accomplishes the more devious goal of telling the player if the party is at an appropriate level. I would say the fort in Xancrest is the apex of the scenario. The creative dialogue, superb graphics, and uses of special nodes really made a good impression on me and redeems some, albeit far from all, of the disappointment. On a side note, there was even a bug that allowed the player to get into the blank outdoors with the employment of a flight spell! In fact, you could potentially not visit the fort at all and wander into the rest of the game. I was surprised by how much of the outdoors was wasted, but oh well. I felt a lot of what came after was just filler and an excuse to extend the plot. The Jayhawks felt like such. Although this can be forgiven by the reason given for having you do the mission: To play along for the time being so Cornell does not suspect you. Yet what cannot be forgiven is the Jayhawk dungeon which consisted of: going in, killing ten or so Jayhawks, they flee and light fire to the base, and you escape. On my replay, I searched the outpost, but found nothing of value. Needless to say, I was kind of disappointed by this. Renalda’s murder is definitely the next high point of the scenario. I thought, after the Jayhawk’s disappointment, that things were going to pick up! Yet, I turned out to be disappointed again. Instead of just being able to get into Cornell’s home to get the banner, we have to do another plot filler mission with Hegla’s Brew. I can forgive the Jayhawks because they had some reasoning, but the Hegla’s Brew mission seemed to be so contrived and pointless. Basically: you go see Hegla, she makes you go out to the swamp to get some ingredient, you go there, slaughter a few Moss Fiends, find the ingredient, and bring it back to Hegla. This seemed so pointless! Going to the swamp felt like an excuse to extend the story line. However, I will say that the nodes and concept of the Brew itself were what impressed me most, the last real high point of the scenario. Cornell’s Mansion was two steps above a cookie cutter dungeon. I thought the use of nodes with the Marble Guardians was all right and the Shades of Anger and such were creative. Yet, it felt like the aforementioned theme held through here as well. There were no logic puzzles to speak and it was pretty much just hack your way through. The one part where the plot has a hole is this: If the Banner you were sent to retrieve was so valuable, why didn’t Cornell take it with him when he fled? I hope this question is answered in Falling Stars. Anyway, the scenario ends with one final strike back by the Jayhawks at the bridge. Why they would waste their time on you is beyond me unless, of course, the UNL put them up to it. Anyway, it was a nice tactical puzzle, but still left more to be desired. The ending is not all that satisfying, but then it was not meant to be. Perhaps I missed something, but I’m reviewing on the basis of what I saw. I think the scenario could have been improved if the dungeons had a bit more substance. But, there were things I liked such as the bridge and the use of stairway graphics to replace the silly white dots. There is little more to be said except the my final score of Average

TERROR'S MARTYR I really liked the 'passing through walls' section of this scenario, but the entire 'witch is needed' portion really bottomed out. The Jayhawks were unoriginal and unexciting, and the final bridge battle is nothing that we all haven't seen, before. Extra points for the juggler from Ultima, though. Average

WILD KARRDE SMUGGLER A little buggy, but interesting, the plot was an improvement on FER, but at times it was a bit monotonous, pretty much the same old fights and such that we are all used to by now. Still, a decent scenario. Average

JEWELS As a newcomer scenario, ND is pretty good. It's jampacked with great nodework, and some original stuff like the use of forest fire when a mage casts firestorm. The author really shows good comprehension of the editor. The story lacks and was not well thought out, but with the eye candy and short length I didn't mind that much. That said: technically sound, few bugs(which I hear have been fixed), good use of custom graphics, shaky storyline. Average

MILU K Average The plot/story had some problems but less than Fort Emerald Robbery. It was nice that there were secret doors, and a nice change that the player must rely on the archery skill. (Though a text in the end refers to an infinite arrow, which I didn't get, and therefore couldn't use the nice bow very much.) The scenario isn't quite as balanced as it could be. You can't buy arrows. I got a lot of treasure from the nephils, couldn't carry all the unidentified items and accidentally shot or angered the identifier many times. The game unfortunately doesn't ask before shooting friendlies. I couldn't spend the money. Skill trainers or something like that might have been a nice addition. Some bugs: * Locked, "impassable" doors are not impassable for monsters. That would be otherwise OK but the player can't walk through open "impassable" doors. I found the identifier that way. * There is a friendly nephilim archer that should be hostile in the city where the identifier is. It's very difficult to spot before one has killed it. * I got in to the abovementioned city before getting the required password. * Some texts end in the middle of sentence. The graphics were good. The story was fast-paced enough. The beginning of the story was better than the ending. All in all, this scenario needs a little fixing and improvement but it's not bad. Belongs to the category of scenarios that I might play again some day.

ARACHNID I enjoyed this scenario. Better than BainIhrno's other scenario by a long shot. Not the most brilliant scenario, but definitely worth playing. Average

DRAKEFYRE A lot of text gets cut off (blame the beta-testers!), combat a little better than in FER, story a little better too. All around a good improvement, and hopefully the next scenario will be even better. Average

BRUCE MITCHELL A good scenario (despite the ReadMe telling me otherwise!). Challenging, at least on first run through. The plot was neither good nor bad. I was confused when given my orders to complete within 6 or 15 days - the 15 days to hold out really confused the issue. Sometimes I found the gas key did not work (despite pulling the lever for power) until you pull the levers a number of times (related to saving and reloading?). Avoiding unnecessary combat is a time-saving and resource-saving strategy. If you win on first playthrough (without reloading if you die etc.), you have done exceptionally well. On second play through, you would have a better idea of what combat to avoid and what to bring from the starting area. Enjoyable in a challenging sort of way. Shortish but worthwhile. Average

S.M. ADVENTURER Nephils' Defense was a pretty good scenario, with very nicely done custom graphics. The plot was decent, but it could have had more of a story. Breaking through moldy walls without Move Mountains was pretty interesting. Although I think it's been done before. Then there is the locked door click signal. It's sheer brillance. Overall I had quite a fablous time playing this scenario, and it's really interesting. My Rating: Good

MILU K Average I would have liked this scenario very much without certain things regarding the plot.. I like secret door finding and the various nice little details that this scenario had everywhere. Moreover, it had an interesting atmosphere and nice unique ideas, like the ship and the merchant that could be summoned. There were some minor rough points, like cave floor dialogue graphics where they shouldn't have been, here and there. And a few of the fights were too difficult for my fresh party. I had to use the walkthrough sometimes but it helped enough, so that's nothing negative (in my opinion). The symbolism, and especially the sermon - as I saw it - was irritating to me. (I've played 3 of TM's scenarios and I didn't get their endings, so I can't compare them to this. Not that it's absolutely essential...) I strongly disagreed with the final ending, and the text response that I got results in a minus in my score.

TERROR'S MARTYR This scenario is morally repulsive. It's not politically biased like Bandits or Two Strands, it's outright morally repulsive. A hint in advance- this scenario outright calls you a coward for not killing a mother and her child in cold blood, and rewards you with 100 EXP if you do. This is, of course, because the child will turn into a demon and kill people- taught to you by a "magic pool of capitalism". From the very beginning, the capitalist propaganda is just piled onto you. An example- the party lives in Utopiasia, a land with little taxes. (EDIT: The author spelled "Yenom" as "Venom" at the entrance to one of the diety's temples. Needless to say, this sent my interpretation off-track quite a bit.) The final boss is an invulnerable Vampire who is guarding the two pools of knowledge and the way to achieve what you want. When you slay Sociali-- err, I mean the Vampire, he dies in peace because what he was doing was wrong. It seems to practice pre-determinism, which is well and good, but it does it in all of the wrong ways- namely, presenting the party's "Destiny" by having the party do things that anyone with a conscience would steer away from. If Two Strands lays down heavy propaganda, at least it has some degree of realism and dare I say moderation in it (for reference, try killing only the Lucrists in the final fight!). This scenario does nothing but lay down right-wing propaganda from beginning to end. "You feel good about doing a task and getting a reward for it, don't you boy? Sit, heel, beat the reds with a pointy implement. GOOD boy!" I'm surprised that by NOT killing the child, I wasn't smitten by God. If I ever play this scenario again, it will be with a God Party brought in with the explicit purpose of killing everything that moves in this justice-forsaken land. The read me indicates that there is something to learn from this scenario. To call this scenario "Reaganomics on crack" would be an insult to Reaganomics. And crack. Aside from the plot which I personally would see burned alive, this scenario doesn't really offer anything new. Certain things were done oddly, and it was way too easy to lose aside from dying in combat (I counted three times total in one playthrough)- perhaps this is to help instill notions of conservative jump-or-die politics? Town design was nothing BUT spotty the whole ride through while including such classic errors as placing cave walkways on grass and vice-versa, and there really was no dialogue that didn't serve to further the propaganda. Secret passages were relied on a little too much, and combat was vicious but uninspired. The final dungeon had a neat moment or too- being able to climb/jump off of walkways was nice- but they were too far and few between, and the incessant combat combined with the lack of direction, possibilities for getting trapped outright, spotty town design, etc... You get the idea. I really WANTED to quit towards the end, but I thought, "ya know what? There might be something redeeming to this scenario." I guess that's just because I'm a crazy, dreaming Communist whacko. Final Comment- May Modeerf (Spell it backwards) be with you? Good god. SUBSTANDARD

BOOTS Average An incoherent plot combined with ruthlessly linear game-play: all to dispense a coarse bit of irony along the lines genre fiction writers enjoy. It might then have worked, or at least had a recognizable effect, as a short story (maybe Alcritas made this point in his review? I can't remember). But as a scenario, it tends to play like spending a day at How To Be A Good Little Capitalist Camp -- something worth noting since TM takes a fair helping of abuse for trafficking in the other brand of re-education scenario. It's also worth noting, I guess, because a major special item in the scenario is purported to summon upon command an omnipresent representative of the globalized marketplace. What does it mean that I never managed to find him? As for the ending: well, in something like the immortal words of John Waters' turn on The Simpsons, "That's great, Homer. Now if every gay man in America could just save the life of one straight man, all our problems would be solved." In any event, the sermon-for-a-plot aside, Destiny is a well-designed, fast-paced small scenario. Sharp dialog, diverting details, a few elegantly nasty fights -- particularly for a beginner party -- and an interesting place or two. A fine way to pass an hour or so. Just don't expect to make any meaningful decisions (odd, since its whole lesson appears to insist that the opposite is the case . . . oh well, as TM would tell us, such is the inevitably self-canceling logic of bourgeois antinomies). TM: Alexandria has it.

THE CREATOR Didn't really get the ending, but the rest was quite good. Pretty dark. Good

ALCRITAS Destiny, by Robert Ashton (Tiddlyflop AT aol DOT com), winner of Best Small Scenario in the Third Scenario Design Contest, begins with your group — a novice band of adventurers, being assigned the task of delivering the annual tax collection to the local lord. The scenario takes several rapid turns after that, plunging the party into a seemingly unrelated series of increasingly cryptic events. The scenario eventually breaks down into four parts — some early meandering around your home town and a neighboring village, a voyage across the seas to get to the local lord, an exploration of the lord’s land, and a fairly strange segue to what the scenario refers to as your ‘Destiny’. (Hence the name, one would suppose). It is unfortunate that, with the exception of some early foreshadowing in the scenario, very little is revealed as to what exactly is happening, or why, until the traditional bad guy’s lament of, “Here’s why I did it... And I would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for you pesky kids!” This lack of plot construction is especially troubling given the theme of the scenario — notably that your party has embarked on a monumental and fated quest, with immense ramifications. Beyond the lack of mid-scenario plot development, however, Destiny plays out fairly well. A short scenario, each of the successive stages varies nicely on previous ones, giving the scenario a fair amount of flexibility and diversity for its size. The ship sequence is quiet nicely done, and the exploration of the ruined city is also quite interesting. Figuring out what to do next is perhaps a bit vague, but it never rises to the level of a headache, as simply exploring everywhere within your power will eventually reveal all necessary secrets. Technically, the scenario is a bit rough around the edges. Thankfully, there were no fatal glitches. However, glitches did impair scenario aesthetics on several levels — the most notable being the many dialogue nodes with no picture specified (leaving the basic cave terrain as the only visual accompaniment). The scenario does include a fairly interesting “Ring of Recall”, which enables the party to summon a friendly merchant to wherever they are. However, this innovation isn’t put to particularly great use, as the item is granted late in the scenario, and there is very little additional shopping/selling that will need to be done by the time the item is acquired. Finally, the ending of the scenario itself felt far too abrupt. Given the scenario’s length, I was more expecting a “To be continued...” rather than the abbreviated conclusion I did get. Furthermore, given the ending’s two pronged choice, I was a bit disappointed by the reprimand my party received when I explored one of the possible conclusions. I’m not quite sure where it came from (the author does not inject his opinion elsewhere), and why it is necessarily true. Contained within the overall dynamic of the scenario, I frankly felt it inappropriate. All said, however, Destiny is quite a fun little scenario. It is designed for low level parties, and is rated PG. My score: Good

I don't know how much good this review will do with the current state of the board, but I'll write it anyway. The scenario was on the high end of mediocre. It was fairly enjoyable, but nothing to write home about. I'll list the bad points first. There's a lot of them, but most of them are small and/or overlookable. Combined, they're enough to take the scenario down a few points, but I don't want to give the impression that the scenario wasn't worth playing. The bad points: There were minor bugs (graphical glitches, messages that should be one-shot appearing repeatedly, a blank Special Item that I picked up somewhere, etc.) and one major bug (a special node that gives an essential Special Item only runs once, so if you refuse to take it you presumably can't win), but the scenario is finishable. Locked (including overly-strong magical) doors and hidden doors are used gratuitously. The plot is pretty cliché. The first town's layout is based on Warrior's Grove. The rewards aren't quite Monty Haul (artifacts aside), but they're sometimes still a bit much for a low-level scenario. The value of one of the artifacts was set to 2000 per charge, and with 25 charges, the value goes negative until you use most of the charges. The outdoor wandering monster rate was way too high; at one point I was in a boat near the shore and there were nine groups of wandering monsters waiting for me on the shore, plus more elsewhere on the island. I highly recommend turning on the Make Fewer Wandering Monsters option in Preferences. Now for the good points: While the plot was mediocre, it was at least easy to follow. The dialogue and descriptions themselves are generally quite interesting and enjoyable to read, if sometimes a bit sparse. In spite of the lack of custom graphics, the scenario was visually beautiful, even the first town, which was quite obviously modified from Warrior's Grove. I didn't even notice it until TM pointed it out to me, however, because, although the buildings are in roughly the same places with the same NPC types performing the same services, the map was made a bit more unique and much nicer to look at, and the personalities themselves were totally redone in a very colorful way. I particularly enjoyed talking to the sage that was once Walner but is now Lytton. The main city was wonderful, as well as not being remade from a premade city as far as I can tell. The colorful writing is a big part of what carries this scenario. Also, if you remember to talk to everyone thoroughly (it's not hard, there's not too many talk nodes), unlock doors, look everywhere, and search for hidden doors, it's pretty difficult to get lost. If there's something that doesn't make sense or that you can't figure out at any point, its purpose will become quite clear as you do other things. Something about everything locking together felt refreshing, if a bit "lucky". Another important good point is that it is one of the few BoE scenarios that you can expect to take your party from Beginner level (freshly made) to Medium level (average level 8). I actually went slightly over the line and doubled monster HP. Overall, it was a fun scenario to play. Some general hints I think are useful if you want to enjoy this scenario: 1) The only impassable doors are the ones the scenario specifically tells you can't be opened. This is easy not to notice since the difficulty of the magically locked doors is so high. 2) If you've talked to everyone and done everything and you're still stuck, wallbash. I rate this scenario Average

ARACHNID This was the first non-Vogel scenario I played. I loved it. Good

JEWELS I was too generous on this scenario when I rated it last. It was fun up to a point (that point being when I couldn't figure out where to go next). The player is not guided well enough. It does, though, make very good use of space. It's a fairly big scenario for only one outdoor section. The towns were well thought out and interesting to explore. If ever I go back and figure out how to finish it I may raise my score back up but for now it will stand at Average

MAGOICOCHEA Average

ORGGG This was a nice, clean, small, well done scenario. The plot made sense, even if it wasn't hugely original. The combat balance was very nice -- I found variety and challenge. The two towns were interesting with hidden surprises, and the dungeons had decent design. The main weakness was in figuring out what to do next. Typically you could only progress at one point, and it wasn't spelled out what said point was. One obscure event/flag you needed to trigger could only be located by putting together the two unrelated and unused mysteries. This scenario could get away with this because it was so small (7 towns/dungeons), and there was only so much you could do, but it was still a shortcoming. Magically locked doors were set at somewhat too high a level. Treasure was usually balanced, with a very few off-kilter spikes like the endgame reward, or a mace so valuable (one-handed 18+6, with 25 Martyr's Shields) that it overflowed the cost field and had a negative price. Short and solid. Average

ROSYCAT ..but not, in my opinion, a great one either. It struck me as being a bit tedious. IIRC, there wasn't a very good explanation for the crazy farm animals.The main city had a spectacular layout, who ever said that was right. But the dungeons were.. well, pretty meh. It showed promise, I guess, but I don't think it was that far above average. Substandard

MILU K It was one of the first scenarios I played and I don't remember it very well. I liked it enough to play it again later, which I don't do often. My rating: Good

BRETT BIXLER Still one of my fav. short scenarios. The town layout was superb, IMO. The plot was fair to good, and play was excellent. Good

MEASLE A word of caution to any budding scenario designers out there about file names for your scenarios. The Blades engine only accepts the first sixteen scenarios in alphabetical order so you have a higher chance of getting your game played if you begin your file’s name with the letter “a” than with “z”. Perhaps this is why Treacherous Waters, which has a file name beginning with a “w”, has been unplayed for so long. I don’t know about you, but my folder tends to get cluttered up with epics that I start and haven’t got around to finishing yet as well as a few of my own works in progress. Treacherous Waters (by dec1910 AT aol DOT com) is a nifty little scenario from the early days of BoE scenario design. All the action takes place on a single piece of outdoor terrain and it has a plot involving two popular themes among early designers: pirates and crazed barnyard animals. It’s everything a first scenario should be, not overly large, not overly ambitious, not overly buggy yet still highly playable. It won’t inspire you to drop your jaw gaping at the grace and artistry of the programmer, it will do something much more important for a young designer, it will inspire you to say, “You know, I could have done that.” And hopefully go out and do it. The plot is fairly linear and it does suffer from a common trap of when you finish one quest you just happen to find the special item that will allow you to start the next. Use of special items is quite good though. One of them is a whetstone that you can use to improve your weapons in combat but if you want to progress, you have to give it up. It’s a judgment call by the player as to when they feel the party is strong enough to not have to use it any more. There’s a few unformatted terrain bits and some bugs that while not earth-shatteringly fatal, can be a little annoying and a few secret passages that you wouldn’t guess at without a magic map spell that are crucial to finishing but the pacing is good and there’s always a surprise in store plotwise. Worth a look. Average

TERROR'S MARTYR Ehh... I got stuck along the way, but many parts of the scenario were... ...well, they beat Valley of the Dying Things, I guess. Overall, one of the scenarios in the community that defines mediocracy. Average

MORGAN I remember liking this scenario...Let's go with Average