4. HQ25 - Story Arc discussion

[Gold Bearer]

Club: A1, crushing (-1D), can be used by the wizard, 100gp.

This bit actually does belong in this topic. I was thinking about the ogre mercenary idea and I think it would work better as part of a quest. Ogres are one of the monsters you've agreed on so in a quest with ogres in one of the small six square rooms (cells in this case) they come across a chained ogre and have three choices, ignore him and move on, kill him, or free him (maybe if they've found a key). If they free him he becomes a follower of the hero that released him. If they kill him nothing happens. If they let him live he give them some information or other (also if they free him).

Uhm. NA rules. No debate, please.

US monster and men-at-arms stats only.

[MrBigB]

Uhm. NA rules. No debate, please.

Yes please.

[knightkrawler]

Anyone interested in working out my storyline idea for the 2nd part (between introductory quests and something else)?
See page 6 or 7 of this thread.

[Goblin-King]

Uhm. NA rules. No debate, please.

Yes please.

no objections - I just needed to know

[MrBigB]

So I'm going to take a stab at writing out some details of a story for the introductory levels. Someone earlier mentioned the idea of having the first quest be kind of like The Maze, which I took to mean introducing some basics (movement/battle and such) which I liked a lot and wanted to put in.

The rough outline I was thinking of would go like this;
Q1: Group is enjoying a brew in Ye Olde Inn when the village gets raided (couple variations of goblins, skeletons, orks, end with a mildly buffed-up Ork chieftain/Mage/Boss). Just before the group chases after the retreating horde they are flagged down my Mentor who hastily explains a little bit of the sub-plot, but insists the group go on as the village children have been kidnapped. [introduce the ammory]

Q2: group chases down the horde to a cave/dungeon. They fight through (and introduce traps/searching/treasure/ect) to a large room where they encounter [Insert monster/mini-boss the group cannot defeat]. One by one the group is poisened/petrified/rendered immobile.

Q3: group awakens split into 2 dungeon cells (Barbarian/Wizard, Dwarf/Elf) with no weapons [other items/potions collected/purchased still theirs]. If group bought a toolkit they can use it to try and pick the lock of the cell door [Dwarf has this ability guaranteeing success eventually]. The weapons can be found in an adjacent room on a weapon rack if searched. The group fights their way out of the cavern and eventually escapes back to town and relays the story to mentor. Mentor launches into full explanation of the plot (gives the true introduction to the game).

Thoughts? Comments? Better ideas? (you know you have some). I have very thick skin so don't hold back, I'll just learn faster I'll try and flesh it out a bit and post it ASAP.

[Gold Bearer]

So I'm going to take a stab at writing out some details of a story for the introductory levels. Someone earlier mentioned the idea of having the first quest be kind of like The Maze, which I took to mean introducing some basics (movement/battle and such) which I liked a lot and wanted to put in.

The rough outline I was thinking of would go like this;
Q1: Group is enjoying a brew in Ye Olde Inn when the village gets raided (couple variations of goblins, skeletons, orks, end with a mildly buffed-up Ork chieftain/Mage/Boss). Just before the group chases after the retreating horde they are flagged down my Mentor who hastily explains a little bit of the sub-plot, but insists the group go on as the village children have been kidnapped. [introduce the ammory]

Q2: group chases down the horde to a cave/dungeon. They fight through (and introduce traps/searching/treasure/ect) to a large room where they encounter [Insert monster/mini-boss the group cannot defeat]. One by one the group is poisened/petrified/rendered immobile.

Q3: group awakens split into 2 dungeon cells (Barbarian/Wizard, Dwarf/Elf) with no weapons [other items/potions collected/purchased still theirs]. If group bought a toolkit they can use it to try and pick the lock of the cell door [Dwarf has this ability guaranteeing success eventually]. The weapons can be found in an adjacent room on a weapon rack if searched. The group fights their way out of the cavern and eventually escapes back to town and relays the story to mentor. Mentor launches into full explanation of the plot (gives the true introduction to the game).

Thoughts? Comments? Better ideas? (you know you have some). I have very thick skin so don't hold back, I'll just learn faster I'll try and flesh it out a bit and post it ASAP.

That's very much like one of the standard quests. To put a slightly different spin on it, how about using the downgraded starting weapons idea from a recent thread so that the elf and dwarf start with daggers and the barbarian with a short sword, and when they search the weapons rack they get the proper starting equipment. Also they could be separated (even though the cells are next to each other) so that they have to go round in pairs for a while. The barbarian with the elf and the dwarf with the wizard I think is a nice combination. The barbarian breaks his chains and can eventually (on a six/black shield maybe) kick the door down. They underestimated him, nice character moment for Barbie.

This bit actually does belong in this topic. I was thinking about the ogre mercenary idea and I think it would work better as part of a quest. Ogres are one of the monsters you've agreed on so in a quest with ogres in one of the small six square rooms (cells in this case) they come across a chained ogre and have three choices, ignore him and move on, kill him, or free him (maybe if they've found a key). If they free him he becomes a follower of the hero that released him. If they kill him nothing happens. If they let him live he give them some information or other (also if they free him).

...He could even be an ogre shaman. They locked him up because they're afraid of him and don't trust magicians. He could have the three spell sets that the wizard and elf don't have, and always get the three left over ones if he stays with them for a while.

I've got another idea for incorporating the battle wizards as enemies, kind of like a condensed Wizards Of Morcar quest. It could come straight after the ogre quest as a kind of nod to those two expansions. There could be a quest where the big bad (Morcar) has magically enslaved some imperial wizards. The three non orc wizards of Morcar and the chaos sorcerer can represent the four elemental battle wizards with one in each section of the board, and when they're all defeated the central room opens up with the other three and an actual chaos sorcerer who's the leader and the one who's holding the spell in place. If they kill him first it breaks the spell and the quest is complete, and maybe they get a gold bonus for figuring that out and saving three of the wizards. Chaos monsters for the standard enemies.

I wouldn't mind having a crack at making these two quests. I wasn't going to make quests for this because I've got ideas that I want to use in my own campaign but I'll be using ogres and battle wizards as mercenaries so it will be nice to use them in a different context. If you're all okay with this I'll try to get heroscribe to work again. I downloaded it before but couldn't get it to run and gave up.

[knightkrawler]

I do love the heroes having a brew in Ye Olde Inn idea. It has to be in that pack. That bit alone justifies the "Ye Olde Inn anniversary pack" moniker.
I agree with down-moduling the Attack and Defend weapon stats in that reasonable way. So, yes, let the heroes start with a dagger each.

The Barbarian should also start with a dagger, but he should nevertheless have 2 AD that way. He then keeps his fighting advantage when all heroes are later equipped the same.
There MUST be differences, I think.

[Teldurn]

Okay, guys. Maybe my workload has addled by comprehension abilities, but I've read through this thread (and the couple other ones linked throughout), and for some reason I can't seem to make heads or tails of it. There seems to be a bit of waffling back and forth.

Can someone please lay out the facts of what we have set in stone thus far. This will help me figure out where I can help out with stuff. Thanks.

Side note: In regards to making vector files, using the inkscape tutorial is one way; the other way is using Illustrator's Live Trace tool.

[Goblin-King]

Okay, guys. Maybe my workload has addled by comprehension abilities, but I've read through this thread (and the couple other ones linked throughout), and for some reason I can't seem to make heads or tails of it. There seems to be a bit of waffling back and forth.

Can someone please lay out the facts of what we have set in stone thus far. This will help me figure out where I can help out with stuff. Thanks.

I understand your confusion!
Someone correct me, but here is how I understand how we do it.

1) Read the story that has been made so far. http://forum.yeoldeinn.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=2102
2) Pick a place and write a "chapter" spanning 3-6 quests. This should be a coherent arc.
3) When we have all the chapters we evaluate how we can knit them together. This can be done via Mentor's messages or via in-game events.
Just little touches that all add up in the end to reveal the big final arc.

So basically right now you just write a great chapter/arc, or join/create a team in doing so.

Side note: In regards to making vector files, using the inkscape tutorial is one way; the other way is using Illustrator's Live Trace tool.

You volunteer? I really don't care to learn all this if someone else can easily do it in 5 minutes. I'll provide the images, someone with know-how just needs to convert them

Room 5: OPTIONAL!
The 4 Ogres from Ogre Horde (chaos enforcements?)
The 4 wizards from WoM
Giant Spider, Rat, Bat

Actually I was under the impression that we used game system + new monsters?
The point is that the quests should be centered around the new monsters.
We are not suddenly dragging other expansions into this one?
No other expansion has used monsters from another expansion (I don't count AotOh and MotM as they were exclusive to EU/NA)
Per default I only expect people to own the game system.
If they want to play this they need to get minis. The number of minis needed shouldn't be boosted by just allowing all official material.

tl;dr: NO OGRES!

************************************

Anyone interested in working out my storyline idea for the 2nd part (between introductory quests and something else)?
See page 6 or 7 of this thread.

Chapter 2
Q4-Q8: path 1: follow the dragonkin lead: (Knightkrawler, gootchute and sajungzak: My ideas revolve around Kobold Dragonpriests and Dragonshields flooding the swamps and convincing the Fimir that the Great Wyrm is supposed to be awakened somewhere deeper in the bog where even the Fimir who worship dragons in general and the Great Wyrm in particular didn't think it is.
Of course, the two factions work together grudgingly to find the resting place, all under the eye of Morcar who wants the body of the Great Wyrm as a vassal all for himself (his essence), sending his chaos henchmen to steal the surprisingly young and little dragon thingie.
Morcar finds out it fell mystically asleep as a mere hatchling (or was "convinced" to do so) and abducts it into the chaos wastes for the beastmen and chaos dwarfs who have been called from their own industrious purposes in their own bloody brass city to watch over it and for their practitioners of magic and science to find ways to accomplish Morcar's plan.)

(I'm not really sure if this is thought as a prelude to a bigger quest or just it's own single chapter...)
Having a plot revolve around awakening a "Great Wyrm" and not getting to fight a dragon is not optimal (Dragons are NOT a part of the monster list!). Thoughts on this?
Perhaps it could instead revolve around a dragon artifact? Fang of Bloodwing or whatever. Or the dragonling has already been killed for its blood which is a potent magical ingredient in a magical ritual.

Possibilities for some quests. Needs some tweaking still, but it's a start.
Q4 - Kobolds have been spotted venturing way too far from their usual habitats. Been spotted in the swamps. Heroes must push back the kobold threat before it escalates. At the end the kobolds are surprisingly assisted by a band of fimirs.
Q5 - The kobold and fimir alliance doesn't bode well! Mentor suspects they might be looking for the TOMB of BINGBONG which contains the Dragon Relic a powerful dark artifact. Locate the tomb in the swamps.
Q6 - The tomb is already crawling with kobolds and fimirs! Find the relic and get out! ...... But as they enter the holy chamber... The relic is already gone! Dun dun duuun!
Q7 - Quickly go to the fimir camp. Get the relic back before they manage to ship it. But they are again too late! It's already been sent to Dark Castle.

My chapter could actually easily be re-written to be about the C-dwarfs having just received the relic which they need to complete their demonic ritual.
Maybe the chaos dwarfs evil ritual is the point where Mentor first truly realizes Morcar is on the move again!

dunno...

[knightkrawler]

Actually I was under the impression that we used game system + new monsters?
The point is that the quests should be centered around the new monsters.
We are not suddenly dragging other expansions into this one?
No other expansion has used monsters from another expansion (I don't count AotOh and MotM as they were exclusive to EU/NA)
Per default I only expect people to own the game system.
If they want to play this they need to get minis. The number of minis needed shouldn't be boosted by just allowing all official material.

tl;dr: NO OGRES!

I was under that impression, too. I thought we decided on game system + very few select new monsters (that was the point of the previous thread) to accomodate for many of us only owning the game system.