The Altdorf Chronicles community project: The Vision

[Gold Bearer]

The central idea of this project is to create a setting that's used in between traditional type quests. The city will be made up of tiles and have different districts. To start with only one or two districts will be accessible and the city will open up as the game progresses, think GTA. There'll be various things they can do around town like compete in tournaments, go to the tavern to pick up hints of where to look for stuff, work for various people or explore the surrounding forest and stuff. Some of them will trigger a traditional type quest with others will just be based around the city. When they go to see Mentor and they've done enough things around the city he sends them on a mission and one the campaigns begins. When the campaign is over and the go back to the city new districts will have opened up and some other things will be different, like they'll be an evil sheriff running things or they come back in the middle of and orc invasion.

The idea is to create a system for linking campaigns together so that pretty much any campaign will plug straight into it. They'll be a basic and an advanced mode so that it will attract veteran gamers as well as being easily accessible to casual ones. The advanced option will feature things like advanced training (specialising in something like getting a reroll with one handed swords for example, as apposed to standard training that will unlock a predefined ability), an expanded armoury (the standard one will still have a few additions) and rules for travelling.

They'll be a whole slew of artefacts scattered about based on ones from WH but they won't be able to keep them for long. The story will be that someone broke into the imperial armoury and nicked basically everything. When they have one of these artefacts they'll have to give it up when they return to Altdorf in exchange for a reward. The mundane ones can be scattered around the city quests with the more interesting ones in the proper campaigns so they can be used for longer. They'll also be completely new artefacts that they get to keep of course.

The main thing is the city of Altdorf. It will be using tiles and each district needs to have its own character. The best way would be to tiles for each building that are placed on top when that building is explored. The hardest thing to incorporate will be multiple levels for the buildings. I can't imagine a city made up entirely of bungalows. It will probably mean needing two boards side by side, one for each level. Not ideal but I can't think of a better way of doing it. Towers will be easy. Each level will be small and the can be three boards used while they're in it, the level they're on and the two either side of it.

I'd like there to be other towns the can go to done in the same way, but not to the same degree (Altdorf is the capital city of the empire). It will need lots of things to make seem like a proper vibrant city. One thing will be fighting tournaments like underground illegal pit fighting, legit tournaments that if they do well enough in will lead to an invitation to fight in the coliseum. They'll be magical tournaments as well for artefact prizes. It will work a bit like Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, where they can renovate buildings and turn them into an armoury, alchemists shop, tavern, inn, training hall or anything else that will work. So they slowly build up to owning a whole district.

This is the basic plan, to create a way of linking unrelated quests and quest packs that can be used by anyone to add a new and interesting element to game. The main things I need help with are presentation (because I suck at it), fresh ideas of how to make this work better and of course quests that have been designed with this in mind. It should work with any quests but for example a quest that has this in mind could have something in that dongion that can be used to do something new in the city. I also need city tiles. I can't get the hero scribe addon pack to work so I don't know how many there are at the moment. It would be nice to have some new ones though made specifically for this and I don't/can't do that kind of art.

I've sent out a few PMs and already have some members keen to help out so I know there's some interest in this idea. I've spoken to drathe and this project is going to have its own forum here. This is an idea I had a while ago and now I'm no longer working on HQ25 I can redirect my energy into this. I'm not looking to compete with HQ25 and I wish them well. So if you think this sounds like something fun to work on then feel free to get involved. I could use the help, especially with art and presentation.

Thanks for reading.

[TMU]

I like it! Especially the town thing is nice, how it sorta grows along. I wish you get all your ideas to good use

[Gold Bearer]

Cheers TMU Yea that's pretty much the heart of the idea. I think it's got a lot of potential if it's done right.

[Daedalus]

The central idea of this project is to create a setting that's used in between traditional type quests. The city will be made up of tiles and have different districts....

Sjeng downloaded a sewer and village board in the Gallery. There's also his Dragon Strike boards thread to check out. Maike05 has created his own tile system and some city stuff. Check the Tiles threads and his sig link for more--they may prove useful. Also, check out how shy-design handled town boards and Quests in this thread.

The idea is to create a system for linking campaigns together so that pretty much any campaign will plug straight into it. They'll be a basic and an advanced mode so that it will attract veteran gamers as well as being easily accessible to casual ones....

I like the idea of making a basic mode seperate. This should offer general appeal for more fans. The advanced mode is the place for new flash and options. Taken together, anyone can mix and match for their group's style of play.

The main thing is the city of Altdorf. It will be using tiles and each district needs to have its own character. The best way would be to tiles for each building that are placed on top when that building is explored. The hardest thing to incorporate will be multiple levels for the buildings. I can't imagine a city made up entirely of bungalows. It will probably mean needing two boards side by side, one for each level. Not ideal but I can't think of a better way of doing it. Towers will be easy. Each level will be small and the can be three boards used while they're in it, the level they're on and the two either side of it.

A simple method would be to require all Heroes in a building to enter a new level together. When the last Hero makes it to the stairs, ladder, or whatever, then remove the contents of the lower room and place the upper tile on that room. All Heroes are then placed adjacent to the connecting square/squares. It would be possible to place an adjoining-level tile or group of tiles to the side of the board and split the Heroes, but that might prove awkward if table space is limited.

[Gold Bearer]

Sjeng downloaded a sewer and village board in the Gallery. There's also his Dragon Strike boards thread to check out. Maike05 has created his own tile system and some city stuff. Check the Tiles threads and his sig link for more--they may prove useful. Also, check out how shy-design handled town boards and Quests in this thread.

Oh cool. I didn't know that much had already been done.

A simple method would be to require all Heroes in a building to enter a new level together. When the last Hero makes it to the stairs, ladder, or whatever, then remove the contents of the lower room and place the upper tile on that room. All Heroes are then placed adjacent to the connecting square/squares. It would be possible to place an adjoining-level tile or group of tiles to the side of the board and split the Heroes, but that might prove awkward if table space is limited.

Yea that's an option but I'd prefer it if everything on a specific board was on the same level so that heroes don't all have to be on the same level at the same time. Maybe upstairs could be handed by single room tiles that can be put together as need for floors with multiple rooms.