Profile for *i
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | *i |
| Member number | 6 |
| Title | The Establishment |
| Postcount | 3726 |
| Homepage | |
| Registered | Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
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| AIM Blades Chats in Blades of Avernum | |
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The Establishment
Member # 6
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written Monday, January 9 2006 06:40
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Well, you could use a search engine and type it in. I suppose I could just give you the link: http://www.aim.com/ -------------------- Your flower power is no match for my glower power! Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| BUGS! in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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The Establishment
Member # 6
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written Monday, January 9 2006 06:39
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quote:Wow. I don't know where I'd be without this button. -------------------- Your flower power is no match for my glower power! Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| BUGS! in Blades of Avernum | |
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The Establishment
Member # 6
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written Monday, January 9 2006 06:39
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quote:Wow. I don't know where I'd be without this button. -------------------- Your flower power is no match for my glower power! Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| I Want to Crush Your Dreams. in Blades of Avernum | |
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The Establishment
Member # 6
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written Sunday, January 8 2006 22:13
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Sorry if we are frustrating you. It's difficult to learn how to write an exciting story and we all know I have yet to master it. Actually the blood drinking was suggested by Ephesos, but that is a small point. I believe Ephesos was referring the Harry Potter plot. It is true one does not need a moral dilemma to make a good scenario. However, what one needs is for characters to be real and their motivations to be believable. The thing is there are very few people out there who do evil things because they believe they are evil. Everyone has rationale behind what they do. So here are some questions: 1) What does the villain gain from killing unicorns? 2) Why does the villain need the party anyway? I'll offer a similar suggestion that I had earlier without a moral dilemma that I feel would make a good scenario. Generally I don't like to get this detailed, but in this case I will. The main characters are as follows: An Imperial Governor The Governor's granddaughter A local mage which you are apprenticed to The eldest unicorn The scenario takes place during the reign of the oppressive Hawthrone III. You recently left the academy and have been accepted as an apprentice to a wizard in a remote forest village. The village is small, but is home to an important Imperial Governor who lives in his manor with his orphaned granddaughter. The wizard is in his early thirties and has a wife and two small children. Upon arriving, the mage is seriously bothered. He tells you his dilemma of having to find a cure for a rare and horrible disease that the governor's granddaughter has. WIth all of his research, the only option is to get an alicorn potion, a draught that can heal the most serious wounds, cure any disease, and even stave off death for decades. The governor arrives soon after this first meeting and asks about progress on the cure. He hands him a blood colored potion and tells him, here is the potion he asked for and that he working on procuring an alicorn. Your master introduces you to the governor, he smiles, and invites you to visit his mansion. Not wanting to refuse an invitation of such an important person, you oblige. In his manor he introduces you to his sick granddaughter as he gives her a spoonful of the blood colored liquid. He urges you to reason with the unicorns as your master has been unable to do and convince them to give up an alicorn. So you go into the forest to find the unicorns. You meet the leader of the unicorns. A curious thing about unicorns is that they always tell the truth and can always tell if someone is lying. Also, killing a unicorn curses a person to a lifetime of misfortune and pain, therefore the mage or the governor cannot get the unicorn horn himself. The leader of the unicorns is now over 400 years old and his health is failing. You speak with him about the governor's granddaughter and his plea. The unicorn is touched and gives you his horn, knowing full well that he will soon die. You take the alicorn back to your master and he is able to make the alicorn potion for the governor. Late that night, you hear an argument between two men outside. You creep around the house to get a closer look. It is your master and the governor. The governor is apparently not satisfied with one alicorn potion. He knows that by sipping the amount over time would only prolong his life by another five or ten years at most. The governor wants more and threatens the mage and his family that he will have them sent to Avernum. He also tells him to supply more of the blood poison so he can keep up the ruse of a sick granddaughter. He says to tell the apprentices that the alicorn was not enough and another is needed. The governor leaves and you confront the mage. Your master tells you that he does not have a choice. He is doing this to protect his family from the governor's influence. The mage's wife overhears the conversation and now also knows the truth. She convinces her husband that he has to tell the unicorns of the lies he created. You and your master head into the forest and meet the unicorns and tell them the truth. The leader is still alive, but barely. The mage begs for forgiveness from him. The dying leader offers it on the condition that he free the governor's granddaughter from the wicked man. You head to the governor's manor. You and the mage stand outside. The governor looks out of his balcony. The mage tells him to release his granddaughter, he laughs, and orders his guards to kill the trespassers. Suddenly creatures emerge from the forest and help defeat the guard. Your master is wounded and you go on ahead to find the granddaughter. You manage to find the governor fleeing with his granddaughter. You trap him, he sets the sick girl aside, and pulls out the alicorn potion. He drinks the rest of it and gains incredible strength and vitality (normally he would drink it slowly over years to prolong his life rather than waste it all). You fight the governor and are able to kill him. You bring the granddaugher outside. The unicorns have shown up and they heal your master and the granddaughter. They offer to find the granddaughter a caring human home. You are also informed the leader has passed on. The unicorns express sadness at their leader's passing, but they understand that all things must die eventually and that death is a part of life. The unicorns offer a bit of natural magic (+1 nature lore and an item that can be used for healing once per day). The mage returns with his family; he knows they must leave here soon and go somewhere far (probably settle in wild Valorim) where he and his family can live without so much fear of the Empire. He sends you back to your school to find a new master, but not before offering you to view his spellbooks. THE END Basically, we have no real moral dillemma for the party. The governor was old, but wanted to live longer. He did not dare kill the unicorns himself, nor did the mage do it because of the curse. He needed to trick someone to intervene on his behalf and convince the unicorns to give an alicorn willingly, for no rational person would kill a unicorn. That is why he made his granddaughter sick, so that he could fool you into telling the unicorns the story. The unicorns can only somewhat detect lies, but they can only see intent. If one honestly believes a lie to be true, the unicorns will believe it is true. This incorporates the mage, a ruse of making a sick family member, and the unicorns. It would require three towns (perhaps a few more for multiple levels): mage's house, governor's manor, and the unicorn grotto, and one outdoor section (which could even be optional). The motivations for the characters are decent: 1)The mage is generally good, but driven to evil by the desire not to see his family not be harmed. He is also able to redeem himself at the end. 2) The governor has a lot, and people with a lot tend not to want to lose it, even by death. He sees his struggle against death as one of survival of the order he made in Empire. Like many in the Empire, he sees humans as a superior race and all magical creatures as resources. He believes he is doing the world a favor by keeping himself around. 3) The leader of the unicorns is generally a caring creature that was able to give her life for a human in trouble, or so he believed. The ending is more or less happy for most: the unicorns are free of the wicked governor, the governor's granddaughter will get a good home, the mage was able to redeem himself and will find new opportunity in the wild land of Valorim. Anyway, I hope this is an idea of how to do something. As always, feel free to use any of it that you like. At very least, I hope you enjoyed reading my story. -------------------- Your flower power is no match for my glower power! Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| AIM Blades Chats in Blades of Avernum | |
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The Establishment
Member # 6
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written Sunday, January 8 2006 19:46
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A simple Google search will give you the answer you seek: http://www.timezoneconverter.com/ -------------------- Your flower power is no match for my glower power! Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| AIM Blades Chats in Blades of Avernum | |
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The Establishment
Member # 6
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written Sunday, January 8 2006 18:08
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In an effort to include more people, we have decided to try out AIM as a means of doing the next Blades Chats. The chatroom will be called simply 'blades'. So to join: 1) Get AOL Instant Messenger if you do not have it already. It's free and easy to sign up for. 2) Select chat under the People option in the menu. Invite yourself and put in the phrase 'blades' for the name of the chatroom. This should allow you to join the room. Now, chat times. It's always difficult because it is impossible to please everyone around the world. If these times do not work for you, do not worry; we be changing the times such that hopefully one works for somebody. Also, the official times are just there as a reference. Feel free to come earlier or later. The next few "official" chat times: Monday, March 6th at 10 pm EST Wednesday, March 15th at 10 pm EST Saturday, March 25th at 2 pm EST After this, the chat times will probably go to once per week, alternating between weekdays and weekends every other week. If you have any requests for official chat times, please let me know. [ Thursday, March 02, 2006 16:30: Message edited by: *i ] -------------------- Your flower power is no match for my glower power! Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| I Want to Crush Your Dreams. in Blades of Avernum | |
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The Establishment
Member # 6
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written Sunday, January 8 2006 17:27
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quote:Seems VERY cliched and we are back to a "mwa, ha, ha!" style villain with shallow motive. Why is the party even needed? Why does she manufacture an overly complex ruse and not just kill the unicorns herself? This is probably more untenable than any of the other four options you had discussed previously. -------------------- Your flower power is no match for my glower power! Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| 2016 in General | |
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The Establishment
Member # 6
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written Sunday, January 8 2006 17:10
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To celebrate my 2016th post, I want to raise a topic: Where do you see the world 10 years from now culturally, politically, or technologically? -------------------- Your flower power is no match for my glower power! Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| I Want to Crush Your Dreams. in Blades of Avernum | |
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The Establishment
Member # 6
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written Sunday, January 8 2006 17:09
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Too add: It does not even have to be the soldiers, just an important aging Imperial governor or something has demanded that they make him an alicorn potion so that he can extend his life another 10-20 years. Suppose the Imperial official is protecting the unicorns from extermination for this reason alone. -------------------- Your flower power is no match for my glower power! Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| General Enquiry in Avernum 4 | |
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The Establishment
Member # 6
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written Sunday, January 8 2006 17:05
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Resting in A4 is done by returning to towns now as there is no outdoors. -------------------- Your flower power is no match for my glower power! Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| doe's anyone mind..... in General | |
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The Establishment
Member # 6
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written Sunday, January 8 2006 17:03
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Spiderweb Code of Conduct They are, by the way, in big bold letters on the top of the front page. Read them and either follow the rules or leave. -------------------- Your flower power is no match for my glower power! Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| I Want to Crush Your Dreams. in Blades of Avernum | |
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The Establishment
Member # 6
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written Sunday, January 8 2006 17:00
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You can have a scenario that ends with everyone happy, but it generally requires a lot of work to not make the whole thing trivial or require a lot of suspension of disbelief. For a shorter scenario, I would suggest a simpler dillemma. I'll call these options 1 through 4: 1) It could work, although it is a little complicated and would require more work than 2 or 3. It does beg the question: If it was so simple to cure this, why didn't the mage just ask the unicorns in the first place? They don't lie after all, and the mage presumably would know that. Any motive for not doing this other than lunacy or incompetence would be pretty shallow at best, and those would create other questions as well that need to be answered. The problem is that we are back to a suspension of disbelief for the reasons I stated above. 2) This idea I discussed above; no need to discuss further. 3) Essentially similar to idea 2 but it suffers similar problems as 1. Why is the party needed? Why didn't the mage just ask for help himself. Surely a father with a dying daughter would invoke much more sympathy than the party can. Additionally, I just don't see a whole lot here: no moral dilemma, no action, just some dialogue scenes. As it is it might make for a nice short story, but not a very good scenario. Adding some combat would just be adding filler as far as I can tell, which wastes everybody's time. 4) This one has potential. The main problem is that it would be significantly more work than the others. The motives of the mage are to help the Empire army in some combat with valuable Alicorn potions. To add another twist, the mage does not have to be entirely evil either. He could have been forced by the Empire to help them. The political climate can be such that refusal to help the Empire gets you thrown down to Avernum (if you set it before Avernum 1), or have his property and wealth confiscated, or something that the unicorns would not be overly simpathetic to. This solves the problem of why he needs the party. Suppose unicorns can detect lies. The mage knows this and needs you to honestly believe in a sick child. It could be he even made the child sick with his own magic to save himself and his family from the fate the Empire would provide had he refused to help them. I'll stop here, but in closing I will say 4 has a lot of potential to it if executed well, but it could be a bit more work than 2. 1 and 3 are problematic as they stand from a believability standpoint. Hope this was informative. -------------------- Your flower power is no match for my glower power! Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| I Want to Crush Your Dreams. in Blades of Avernum | |
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The Establishment
Member # 6
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written Sunday, January 8 2006 15:27
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It seems a bit weak to have an everyone happy situation in a scenario that hopes to present a moral dillema. For such a thing to work, there cannot be one truly good outcome otherwise we do not have a real dilemma. How I would see it, the mage has a dying daughter that REQUIRES a unicore die to cure it. The unicorns are understandably not very agreeable to help on this. You have to make a choice: 1) You help the mage get an alicorn by killing a special unicorn. Potion gets made, daughter lives, and you get magical training as reward. 2) You decide that unicorns are more valuable and side with them. Mage will do anything to save daughter and you end up killing him. Daughter dies of disease eventually, but is cared for by unicorns. Party gets some nature appropriate reward. Basically it comes down to take a life to save a life. -------------------- Your flower power is no match for my glower power! Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| General Scenario Design Contest in Blades of Avernum | |
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The Establishment
Member # 6
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written Sunday, January 8 2006 13:41
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A key point to note is that only USED outdoor sections and towns will be counted. Outdoor sections and towns that are not used in the scenario will not be counter. This is usually relevant to outdoors only. -------------------- Your flower power is no match for my glower power! Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Undead Topics Need Loving Too (aka "Give Me Your First-Born") in General | |
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The Establishment
Member # 6
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written Sunday, January 8 2006 11:20
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I will sacrifice three times the number of posts here to the void to keep this thread alive. [ Sunday, January 08, 2006 12:45: Message edited by: *i ] -------------------- Your flower power is no match for my glower power!! Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Designing towns. in Blades of Avernum | |
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The Establishment
Member # 6
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written Sunday, January 8 2006 11:13
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A caveat on the last comment is that if you have a lot of trees for a part or forest, be careful not to make too many tall tries as it obstructs the view. I usually place all of one type of small tree, make half the other type, and then take 10-20% of what's left and make them big trees randomly. The same consideration should go for adjusting height. Be careful so you do not block the player's view too much. Otherwise, this thread has lots of good ideas. What I try to do is make at least one thing unique for each town, be it a kind of building, a river, a hill, etc. -------------------- Your flower power is no match for my glower power! Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| I Want to Crush Your Dreams. in Blades of Avernum | |
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The Establishment
Member # 6
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written Sunday, January 8 2006 07:50
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quote:We have played Za-Khazi, and yes, it is a pretty bad scenario. In case you didn't get the whole story with the Empire soldiers down there, here it is: They were stationed in some very remote tunnels and in the confusion of the Empire defeat, for whatever reason, they were completely forgot about and they still think the Empire war is going on. That's the only reason the Empire soldiers in Za-Khazi make sense. Incidentally enough, there was an incident in the 1950s where some WWII Japanese soldiers that were stationed on a remote island finally surrendered, believing the war was still going on. It was off this that Jeff based that Empire Fort. So for your scenario to make sense it must take place during or very soon after the end of the Empire war. Make sure this is abundantly clear as you need to explain the presence of enemies. Also, if you are picking Empire soldiers because they are "tough" that really is not a reason. You could, with little extra effort, make level 100 Goblins although I would not recommend it. quote:Pyrog was really into power and his opinion of the other dragons was probably neutral. Yeah, he saw Motrax as weak I grant you that. His opinion of the other dragons was more neutral if I remember. The question that needs to answered is NOT "why would he not try to keep a small Exile army from exploring drake territory..." but Why WOULD Pyrog's spirit try to keep a small Exile army from exploring Drake territory and burying Motrax's bones?. Pyrog was in the northern waters and we have heard nothing of his possible haunts before. If he's just there because you want to Dragon fight, probably not needed. ****** I'll offer a setting: You are a hardened group of Avernite soldiers in the closing days of the Empire War. With their leader Garzahd slain and the aid the Vahnatai, the Empire is in retreat. You are far from any action and stationed in the Lair of Motrax. The dragon died a few hours ago and an Empire Dervish approaches the fort. It turns out the Dervish had his mind taken over by the Dragon Sulfras and is being used as an envoy. Sulfras brings a message to Avernum: Out of gratitude for freeing her, she has decided to give Avernum the honor of taking Motrax's heart to the Crypt of the Dragons and putting it into the eternal flame there. She opens a teleporter and you take Motrax's heart inside. Avernum, desiring good relations with the dragons selects you and now you have to get it to the eternal flame to return. ****** Feel free to use any of the above entry. It would make it a little more interesting than "cleaning out some arbitrary cave and fighting Empire soldiers and a Dragon". -------------------- Your flower power is no match for my glower power! Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| My aMAZEing idea... in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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The Establishment
Member # 6
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written Saturday, January 7 2006 22:00
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Did you push the button thrice? -------------------- Your flower power is no match for my glower power! Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| My aMAZEing idea... in Blades of Avernum | |
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The Establishment
Member # 6
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written Saturday, January 7 2006 22:00
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Did you push the button thrice? -------------------- Your flower power is no match for my glower power! Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Windows Beta Testing - Waiting for the email in Avernum 4 | |
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The Establishment
Member # 6
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written Saturday, January 7 2006 20:22
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Keep your eyes open on the Spiderweb page. It is possible that enough testers from the last game will return such that new testers will not be required. -------------------- Your flower power is no match for my glower power! Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| General Scenario Design Contest in Blades of Avernum | |
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The Establishment
Member # 6
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written Saturday, January 7 2006 18:14
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This is a Blades Community thing, i.e. represented by you, me, and all the other players and designers. Spiderweb Software is not an official sponsor of this contest, at least not currently. -------------------- Your flower power is no match for my glower power! Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| I Want to Crush Your Dreams. in Blades of Avernum | |
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The Establishment
Member # 6
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written Saturday, January 7 2006 10:56
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quote:A decent start, but needs more fleshing out. I'll offer a few suggestions that you are free to use in any capacity you wish: Probably more interesting if the party is a bunch of students or apprentices to the archaeologist. The stock hired adventurers is a bit too cliched. It gives a better motivation to why the party is there. Also, freeing their master from possession later on would make a good plot motivator. The artifact needs to be defined. I assume it possesses the archaeologist so what is it, an idol, a sword, or something else? Answer this question before proceeding anywere as the type of artifact dictates the story. Bug infestations are a bit cliched. They could work well, but make the bugs special or unique in some way. Preferably related to the artifact at hand. Perhaps a cult of Aranea could be fairly interesting. Throne? I got totally lost here. Almost feels like two separate scenarios at this point. You really need to flesh out where this comes from. Perhaps instead of searching for the artifact outright, how about they are searching for a Lost City in the mountains? Perhaps the people in the Lost City would have the trait of immortality (they can still be killed, but otherwise live forever) and they enslave mortals. Not sure how the violent slave rebellion works in? Is the artifact a different one or the same one? I'd vote for recovering the artifact, feels less random and two artifacts are a bit much. -------------------- Your flower power is no match for my glower power! Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Blades Chat in Blades of Avernum | |
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The Establishment
Member # 6
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written Saturday, January 7 2006 07:59
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We could, although then we might exclude some of our Australian friends. I suppose it does not hurt to ask. At any rate, we can always move the chat time around week to week in some regular interval to try and get everyone. How does 3 pm EST sound for people, is this better or worse? -------------------- Your flower power is no match for my glower power! Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |