Next Scenario

[DesertPlah]

So I've got a basic idea (plus a land/set of outdoor sections to put it in) for my next scenario. I'm thinking you're on half an island (bordered on one side by mountains, but that's unimportant) where you've lived for a good portion of your life (let's say you grew up there? Maybe not, I don't want to make all the people with "know you" dialouge).

 

There's been a problem with the island for most all of the colony's existance (not a horrible, plague-level problem, just a setback to settling). Spiders. Not just any spiders, but advanced aranea. Around lvl4 mages in the latter half of the main mission, with a lvl 5 boss or two. There'd be warrior grunt spiders, of course, but they'd be stronger than just the generic spiders, to make up for the level of the party (I'm thinking low-medium level at the beginning.) There'd also be a few encounters with spiders (or other monsters) that require a special strategy or tactics to beat.

 

You're dealing with the spiders now, because you finally feel strong enough (after doing a few other quests in previous scenarios). There'd be a few side quests that are completely unrelated to the main plot (not ready to have plot-affecting sidequests yet, I don't have the experience or the effort), but serve to get the party treasure and experience. (A camp of Ogres has set up, for instance, at the end of the peninsula.)

 

The main quest will be divided into a few different goals. The story will take place in a judeo-christian universe (for the sake of not having ridiculous temple names such as "The Temple of Divine Healing). Mage and Priest skills will be considered gifts from G/god, and will not be looked upon as good or evil by moral authorites, they will just be part of life. (Might have a priest order you to purge the goblins, who are "minions of the devil" or something.)

 

The thing I look forward to doing about this scenario is that there will be no central "Bob" (the mission-giver, explained in another article/topic by…was it Thuryl? or someone else…). The party itself will be the "Bob" for the main quest. Side quests will come from citizens of high standing (priest/governor, maybe).

 

The point of this topic is to open my ideas to critical analysis and suggestions.

 

And please, no stupid suggestions, because there's a such thing as stupid ideas, despite what your teamwork counselor told you .

[Lilith]

Much as I'd like to take credit, I'm pretty sure Bob was written by Stareye.

[Kelandon]

Creator, actually.

[Ash Lael]

Yeah, I wrote it. 80-90% of those articles were written by either myself or Drakey in a bit of a competition.

 

Anyway, you asked for feedback, so brace yourself.

 

I'm confused about what you mean when you say "The party will be Bob". Can I expect my party to say "Hey, we should go and beat up those spiders now!" or will things simply be made obvious enough that no artificial direction is necessary?

 

Other than that, I don't really see anything of value. Tough spiders? Meh. An island split in half by mountains? Er, I tried that once, and don't really recommend it.

 

I'd drop references to previous missions/scenarios. After all, many of us will play with a level 1 party anyway.

 

Since all you've really given us is the setting, that's all I can comment on. I don't know if there's some cool story behind the spiders or anything. But if the idea was meant to make me excited to play the scenario, well, it didn't. It just sounds like a spider hack'n'slash fest, to be honest.

[Thralni]

To me it sounds a bit like Avernum 3 in a way, but what do I know. I myself am making a scenario which may look a bit like Avernum 3, with one major difference: The monsters are very intelligent, and no hack'n slash slaves.

 

Ash, I was wondering if you'd already read what I sent you? You can skip the first question. That is all I wanted to say.

[DesertPlah]

tThralni: What? What's Avernum? I know not what you speak of. Perhaps you refer to the land of Exile? (I reject such heresies.) No, it's definately not E/A 3.

 

tCreator: Your party's decision will all be explained to you at the beginning, in the third person. This only counts for the main quest of the scenario. The sidequests will have little Bobs.

The island cut in half by mountains is not really what it is. Think of it as an island with the northern side bordered by mountains instead of water. It's for the atmosphere (see further down).

I chose spiders because I thought "Hey, I don't want goblins, nephs, undead, or sliths, that's just too typical for low-to-medium scenarios (scenarios in which the party is raised from low to medium, in general). I'm gonna do…spiders!" I didn't want to go through the bleh of creating a new species just yet (had a bad experience with that). So I chose something expandable, something that I can build more types into. (Types of spiders, that is.)

There will be no reference to previous scenarios. I should really leave that part out, you're right. Though the novice BoE player (who I tend to cater to, for some reason) might want a slightly stronger than beginner party to start with.

You're not supposed to get excited about this, I don't have the interesting parts of the story thought up yet.

 

Another thing, from a designer's perspective. I hope to make this scenario big on atmosphere and environment. Using a Judeo-Christian universe means that this atmosphere will be different than any other scenario created (as far as I know or remember, anyway). I'm using this to also increase my ability with atmosphere and scenario design in general.

 

Thanks, Creato.

[Milu]

Desert Plah's text does not yet answer to the question "what will happen and why", but I can imagine possible ways of carrying out the story.

 

What came to mind first about the background: OK, the party is coming back home, where there has been a spider problem. Maybe the problem has grown while they were gone and has become a serious threat? That would be interesting.

 

If the party had friends (or people they know) on the island, it would give more motivation for them to do something about the problem.

 

An island divided by mountains - I've seen something like that in a few scenarios but I don't see any problem in it. It can be used well or badly.

 

The main quest with its different goals could be anything. Maybe the party finds a small object, which is an important clue of larger things (like a rare spell component, which they could show to various experts); maybe they hear that their aunt or nephew or tenant is missing after a spider attack; etc.

 

I can't say much about what it sounds like yet, but I can't say that it sounds boring.

 

EDIT: It seems I missed Desert Plah's response when I started to write this..

[DesertPlah]

I'm gonna have to think of a creative way to get around this problem:

 

I don't want the community/world to have "know you" talk. Meaning I don't want anyone to be familiar with you in the sense that they are very friendly/warm/talkativeaboutthepastish. I don't want them to be like Clara from AC 1 and 3. I want no…yeah. Don't get me wrong, I don't want them to be cold, I just don't want them to know you already.

 

I can do that just fine. But I also want the motivation to get rid of the spiders to be from within, something that you've set out to do as a service to a community that you've known for awhile, something almost personal. And if the party knows the community or has known them for awhile, that wouldn't fit as well with a neutral community.

 

One thing that comes to mind as I type this is having the party be a visitor to the island in times past (not directly saying that in the scenario text, but suggesting/implying.)

[Thralni]

Quote:

Originally written by Desert Pl@h:
tThralni: What? What's Avernum? I know not what you speak of. Perhaps you refer to the land of Exile? (I reject such heresies.) No, it's definately not E/A 3.

What I meant was, that the story reminds me of Avernum 3/Exile 3. Its a plagued island, plagued by probably dumb animals. What I'm trying to do in my scenario, is creating an interesting monster society, with religion, interesting books, that sort a thing.

However, the one thing I do like about your idea, is the fact that the spiders weren't created by something or somebody. There is just one thing I don't understand: if it was such a threat in the past, why didn't they just kill all the beasts when they came to the island to live there? And why an island?

[Ash Lael]

Quote:

Originally written by Thralni, emperor of Riverrod:
Ash, I was wondering if you'd already read what I sent you? You can skip the first question. That is all I wanted to say.

Yes, haven't had time to get to it yet, sorry.

That is also why I will offer no further comments at this time.

[Thralni]

That's okay, Ash. I didn't really expect that you would send me something soon. However, I would like to ask what you think of the principle of what I wrote you, cause I would like to get on designing (that also counts for Drakefyre, by the way). I myself am also quite bussy with school, so there for I'm not in a hurry to get all your replies. But I would much appreciate it. Don't feel that I force you, though. Take your time.

[DesertPlah]

Aranea are not dumb animals, what with the spells and the government and the labs. I think that's a given.

 

Colonists come to an island not expecting to have to conquer a thousand and one beasts. They just aren't prepared for it. And the problem doesn't threaten the whole island (which is really rather weak, in terms of orthodox scenario design), so the "Empire" or ruling state doesn't care.

 

An island because I need borders that don't just happen because your party can't go further in one direction.

 

Most scenarios take place in one of 3 places: a valley, an island, or underground in caves. These provide simple reasons why the party can't go off the edge of the outdoor map. Other scenarios, such as Falling Stars, have mixed borders, between mountains, sea coasts, and thick forests.

[Lilith]

If you want a single piece of advice to make your plot more interesting, it'd be to make the Aranea sympathetic characters. After all, if they're intelligent, they have motives for their actions. The fact that humans have colonised their lands and many of them probably try to kill giant spiders on sight is a good start.

[Thralni]

Quote:

Originally written by Desert Pl@h:
Aranea are not dumb animals, what with the spells and the government and the labs. I think that's a given.

Colonists come to an island not expecting to have to conquer a thousand and one beasts. They just aren't prepared for it. And the problem doesn't threaten the whole island (which is really rather weak, in terms of orthodox scenario design), so the "Empire" or ruling state doesn't care.

An island because I need borders that don't just happen because your party can't go further in one direction.

Most scenarios take place in one of 3 places: a valley, an island, or underground in caves. These provide simple reasons why the party can't go off the edge of the outdoor map. Other scenarios, such as Falling Stars, have mixed borders, between mountains, sea coasts, and thick forests.

Ah! Aranea! Sorry, I probably missed that. Aranea indeed are rather smart, but I also suggest maybe addinf things to their culture not previously know before. Maybe, like thuryl said, if tehry are intelligent, make them sympathetic. Maybe even go further and make them pathetic characters. Let them say interesting things, like the GIFTS always say stupid and interesting things.

About the island: Why an isalnd? Easy borders. I'm not convinced. What I'm doing in my own scenario, is simply thick forests around the province. There is own big mountain that also helps a bit, but it certainly isn't a vale. I also have hardly water. Only some rivers. Caves I only use for underground. I still don't really see the real reason for an island. I think, that if you would want to make your scenario more interesting, you should also think of the setting, and don't make it to standard.

[DesertPlah]

Tell me, how realistic is a colony that's 4 cities large, complete with mining, forestry, farming, and fishing going to fit in the middle of a forest?

A clear area in the middle of a giant forest is simply less realistic than an island. Besides, they look nicer on maps .

 

EDIT: And Thuryl, you're right about the sympathetic enemy, though I don't think they should be able to communicate with humans. I think it's best if I leave them as non talkers.

[ben4808]

Sounds pretty good. I would suggest, however, some way to get some good web-resistant items.

[DesertPlah]

Yes, web resistant items. So that my party won't be overwhelmed by what is possibly the most annoying creature ability evar. Because I totally WON'T alter the spiders.

 

Gawsh, I'm being too* cynical and being a jerk. That's not a bad idea, Ben.

 

*-EDIT

[Lilith]

Or it wouldn't be, except that there's no way to make an equippable item give you resistance to webbing.

 

(On the other hand, there are ways to remove webs, but that doesn't help if you're already webbed into immobility. Just keep in mind that the special node to add and remove webs has a bug; if you try to add webs it removes them and if you try to remove webs it adds them. This isn't a problem as long as you remember it.)

[Thralni]

Quote:

Originally written by Desert Pl@h:
Tell me, how realistic is a colony that's 4 cities large, complete with mining, forestry, farming, and fishing going to fit in the middle of a forest?
A clear area in the middle of a giant forest is simply less realistic than an island. Besides, they look nicer on maps .

EDIT: And Thuryl, you're right about the sympathetic enemy, though I don't think they should be able to communicate with humans. I think it's best if I leave them as non talkers.

You convinced me on that island point. I guess it fits in my scenario, but maybe not in yours, but I don't think they look nicer on maps .

About the talking thing: Maybe its indeed not better to have them talking, but what about literature, religion? I think you get to know something about there religion in Avernum 1 or 2, but I'm not completely sure.

EDIT: That reminds me, maybe its nice to link it to the Avernum aranea's?

[DesertPlah]

tThuryl: I was being sarcastic about webbed items. I'll probably take off web throwing spiders, except in special parts, because spiders can't really throw webs . Of course, we don't want to be TOO realistic.

 

tThralni: What's this Avernum you keep referring to? (I have NO idea what you're talking about, really.) Maybe you mean Exile? Okay, time to stop goofing around with that. Yes that's what I plan to do, is to study what religion is presented.