About writing an expansion as a contest?

[torilen]

Well...how about if we brainstorm for some themes here, then, just to see where it goes in case this becomes a reality.
- Dwarf/Traps theme
- Wizard/Magic theme
- Undead theme
- Go Get Skulmar theme
- Major chaos minion (dragon, demon/devil, etc.)
- Against Nature/Animals/Plants theme
- Elemental theme
- Original heroes during first war with witch lord
- Rescue the princess (lame? Cliche? I don't know)
- Go get the artifacts (for each hero type/race/etc.)


Just some ideas.

[Sotiris]

It depends where the official storyline stops. If it stops at WoM then of course we don't need a wizard/dwarf quest pack.
If not, then just compare their body&mind points. My main problem is not the expansion's name rather than heroes balance.

[knightkrawler]

For THAT the solution is simple. Make Mind points important.

[Patroclus]

about this expansion writing contest...I'm not sure I understand what would be our goal. There have been quest
contests before. I don't see how this would be different?

The idea is to use the poll system this time, so to choose the best quests for each “level”. If the expansion has 10 quests, for each quest we could do a poll. So, if for the first quest the participants are 4, the poll will have 4 quests to choose the best from the people here (and the participants too) for the first quest.

So, if the participants are many, the result will be better. And that’s the idea…

For each poll we could have a winner, but I think there is no better prize than a final collection of 10 quests which are the best of the bests.

But first we could make a poll to choose the settings… after the last movie of Jackson, “the hobbit”, I think a theme with dwarves is ideal... for example the “yeoldeinn expansion for dwarves”, with a title, the main story, and something like what chaoticprime did, but without the maps. If we choose the story we could continue with each quest.

But only if we are a lot of participants it has a meaning. I don’t have too much free time to organize this, and my English does not help, but I could make 10 quests and try my best. Also I could write a story but it will have lots of grammar mistakes and if I win the “story competition” it will need rewriting from a native speaker.

[Patroclus]

in my opinion it’s wrong that every expansion is more difficult than the others. I believe that the best thing for a smooth HQ experience is to begin each campaign with new characters. In the barbarian’s quests if your heroes don’t have 4 Defense each, they are in real trouble... It’s ok for some expansions but this can’t keep going… we can’t design quests for heroes with 4 Attack and 4 Defense each… if someone finish it he can continue of course creating more difficult custom adventures for his players…

[The Road Warrior]

in my opinion it’s wrong that every expansion is more difficult than the others. I believe that the best thing for a smooth HQ experience is to begin each campaign with new characters. In the barbarian’s quests if your heroes don’t have 4 Defense each, they are in real trouble... It’s ok for some expansions but this can’t keep going… we can’t design quests for heroes with 4 Attack and 4 Defense each… if someone finish it he can continue of course creating more difficult custom adventures for his players…

I couldn't agree more.
The very first map note in my last quest pack took away all the Heroes equipment so they had to start from scratch.
I'm also working on converting the WHQ roleplay book to slow the Heroes progression down

[ampersand]

so is this a competition or a communal gathering to make an expansion? id be more up for lending a hand to create a great fan made campaign of sorts.. the solo quest packs were crap too. they have only become inflated due to the rareness of them.

[chaoticprime]

in my opinion it’s wrong that every expansion is more difficult than the others. I believe that the best thing for a smooth HQ experience is to begin each campaign with new characters. In the barbarian’s quests if your heroes don’t have 4 Defense each, they are in real trouble... It’s ok for some expansions but this can’t keep going… we can’t design quests for heroes with 4 Attack and 4 Defense each… if someone finish it he can continue of course creating more difficult custom adventures for his players…

This is why the challenge in each of my Quest's isn't derived from combat. Its easier to run from the men-at-arms than it is to fight them. Reaching the objective is the point.

[Goblin-King]

Agree with you guys here. Power Creeping sucks. It doesn't make sense making new tougher monsters if the heroes get equally better equipment.
The challenge should be encountering new kinds of danger, not just beefed up versions of old stuff.

The story is also pretty important. I always thought the "Crazy Castle" quest where you search for the goldmine felt kinda out of place. While it's not a bad quest in it's own right it really feels like filler.
If you come up with a good story the quests will pretty much write themselves.

[torilen]

I have to agree with the whole "progessive toughness is not always the best" idea. That seemed to be the
example they gave us with the official published quest packs, but as we all agree...not all of those were so great.

That's one reason why I like to add in actual role-playing material and more focused spells and magical items. For example,
the holy symbols that turn a hero into priest who can heal, turn undead, and bring back the dead. That doesn't necessarily
have to be a harder quest than the others - but it can be different.

Some of my spells hold little purpose in most of the official quests - someone would have to design quests in which they
could be used - again, not necessarily harder than other quests, just different.

Harder in the sense that the require the more specialized spells (or holy symbols in the case of the priest).