Handyman

The readme did not tell me which levels to use--that was irritating. Combat was generally too easy... the author wished to use a variety of creatures, but he didn't change their levels at all, so I would fight one very high creature with a slew of very low-level ones... for example, 20 goblins and an ogre mage. It's a shame, since it's pretty easy to edit levels for whole creature types. Combat was generally easy at level 15. And one pet-peeve: Why is the priest who's "helping" me SELLING me spells, rather than just TEACHING them for FREE--never mind pretty average prices?! :-( Of course, I'm only taking note of such a complaint because the scenario does actually work--especially so for a beginning designer. It's very standard affair, with both rewards and difficulty being a bit low until near the end. Still, I kind of appreciate that--and there were some nice tricks thrown in, too! And, I was very fond of how to save the villagers. The dialogue seemed convinced on telling me there was "no secret" in an obvious fashion, revealing it only mildly less subtly. However, Also, it's far too easy to just get lost at some points. Since this isn't plot-necessary, I'm just going to shout out: 1. PICK UP THE BOOK-AS-ITEM YOU FIND AT THE END OF CRYSTAL CAVERNS 2. THE SECRET PASSAGE IS THE RUG IN THE MAYOR'S ROOM There. I've just saved you 1-2 hours of frustration. Overall, I have to rate this scenario [rating]Average[/rating]. But really, for a first effort, that's more than to be expected, and it showed a great deal of promise! So, good going.

Ah--thank you! And good on you to respond quickly.

If you're talking about the book in the wood-walled room telling me that someone (Elizabeth, presumably) was trying to create an Unshackling Crystal, yes. I found it of little help, in talking to anyone or searching for anything. Where was it supposed to point me?? :-(

tridash--just got your message, and responded. To the rest of you, I'm totally capable of submitting my scenario at the moment. It may not be as polished as I'd like, but it's beatable and relatively balanced. I don't know if judging has started covertly, but so it goes.

Where do I go?! :-( I've talked with the music man, went through the humming caves, went through the caves with the rats, cleared the marsh, and searched around town, etc., and I have no real leads to speak of.

I've sent out a new version. To those who haven't started yet, and preferably to those who have, I would prefer if you started playing the most recent version. (You can play the older one if you want afterwards, I just want to see how my edits change players' reactions.)

I'm with Donald. Nioca, your reviews take about as long to read as most scenarios take to play. Anyway, the scenario is nice, and cute. Fighting snowmen! :-) Very hipster/indie. It's incredibly sparse. I don't want to insult the author, but, what even *is* there? I suppose she made it on her day off. ;-) Anyway, it does have a nice trick! It's very creative indeed. I hope people are capable of replicating tricks like that in the future. And anyway, it's not actively bad. [rating]Substandard[/rating]

If this scenario isn't average, no scenario is. I mean, it's big, which sets it apart from dang near every custom scenario I've played. It lets you do whatever you want, whenever you want. Of course, there's some degree of trappedness: You have to do X to proceed to Y part of the dungeon, and there's never any real confusion about what you have to do next. Still, there are some neat little dungeon-y places crammed in there that aren't wholly necessary, so that's nice. Also, the passages to the surface were a bit irritating. And the way I escaped was SO DAMN EASY--I guess it wasn't the worst thing in the world, but I wanted a finale! Instead, I got literally teleported to "the end." But, really, [rating]Average[/rating].

Interesting! I have no real experience with drugs, but I don't think the story really depends on that for its success. I agree about the opening dialogue--hugely unnecessary! Although at least the town was short. The scripting really showed me a trick or two, too! The gameplay really didn't offer anything interesting, but it was a good enough vessel for the scenario's essence. Still, in all fairness, it's three stinking towns long! How can a scenario that short ever receive the rating "good"? (Maybe the rating system here is too primitive. I'm not sure how to remedy this.) Anyway! Really: Worth playing, but [rating]Average[/rating].

It's very pretty! I never thought a scenario would literally take me into the skies, although in all honesty, the way it was done seemed a bit too easy. I guess the combat really is a bit boring, but, I suppose that does fit with the plot. Maybe it should be considered story combat? If I was making real combat, it would have been much tougher. The "real" fights are also pretty easy... none of the enemies really have any magical skill. So, the plot: All the God, none of the Jesus. Hasn't redemption been the theme of Christianity for the past 2,000 years? :-) Or, I guess, maybe Sir Siegfried is Jesus? If so, he's a very Protestant Jesus--which seems to be the theme of the whole scenario. In fact, that theme seemed to be a bit heavy-handed: The author gives a literally European setting, complete with collapsing monarchies and religious hierarchy. Still, I'm a bit irked that he only explored the history of things, while totally neglecting the human aspects: It was like a Marxist postcard from Jesusland. So, the score? Well, it's not bad, so: [rating]Average[/rating].

Maybe you could recreate your party using the Blades of Avernum editor? If I recall, all of Avernum 3's artifacts are present in the default Blades of Avernum items. Although honestly, Blades of Avernum scenarios seem to have so many ridiculous items that they may be unusably weak. Is there a way to quickly get the right sort of artifacts for one's party level?

Well, fair enough. Anyway, y'all should totally be playing my stuff now!!

Well, I've started my beta... if you really, really don't care about the deadline, I should be able to offer Waterweb by some time this weekend. :-)

Ok, I've sent out the beta version. And as an aside, do you guys really think hiding your emails with "(at)" is going to trip up even the simplest algorithms? Heck, I don't even know if "name at subdomain dot com" would evade detection. Ah well--thanks again for the help!

Well, if you're desirous enough of other entries, mine may well be done tomorrow.

I don't care about the OS; I'll take whatever's available.

Forgive me, but can't one find basic dialog pics from google image searching? http://torvenius.com/temp/ghost.jpg http://www.travelchannel.com/static_file...001_596x334.jpg Ah well.

Sure. homotechniens@gmail.com

Well, I don't know what to say. I haven't played it since the beta version, so I'll try to be fair, but I don't see the "real" version surpassing a few major complaints. One, there's no real plot. There's some very secretive organization that has lots of resources, and for some reason, an interest in sending wolves to attack people... it's all quite diffuse, and this is probably because of the requirements of the contest. His requirements are thus: Make a scenario where the party has to stop a monster plague. The scenario will take place in a river or lake system. The party will spend most of the time fighting wild beasts. Three things will be important to the plot: a trap or ambush, a container of mysterious contents, and the mastermind behind it all. And, well, it has all of these things. Except, there's no theme tying them all together: It's as if they all overlap in the simplest way they could be jammed together. Like, "Ok, I'll have a mastermind interested in a container of mysterious contents create a plague of wild beasts that ambush the party in a river or lake system." And that is basically the entire scenario. I don't want to be too harsh. The combat isn't bad, especially the final fight--some interesting twists are tossed in. And, having the innkeeper clean up the floor was pretty awesome. Scripting here is well done. However, there were some places with silly town design. And, generally, it's too short to really leave an impression. It's pretty bloodless. :-/ [rating]Substandard[/rating]

And if I'm right, I missed the deadline. To heck with it; I'll submit it when it's done and after a quick first play-through.

...ha ha. If late submissions are allowed, then I may as well get to bed. :-P I'm not sure whether I should submit first and wait for beta revisions to submit later, or whether I should just run my beta after the deadline and submit it late. (I'm not sure if any of this matters, really. :-P ) I'll probably submit by the deadline, and then revise it as I go on, unless there are rampant errors... (Ha ha--I suppose there will have to be. ;-) )

This really may not get done at all. Ah well; I must try!

Same. If I am lucky, my scenario will be done early tomorrow, giving me and my testers less than a day to polish. Which, I guess, is workable, but so it goes, no?

...as a nocturne, a deadline of midnight might be prohibitive. That said, do these "official" things matter? If I'm not mistaken, we'll probably get under 10 scenarios anyway.

...I totally need an extension too. Granted, I'm above the limit for towns, but I really could use it regardless!! :-)