Idea for Scenario
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Warrior
Member # 3978
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written Tuesday, February 1 2005 09:29
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I'm thinking about making a scenario after I beat the rest of BoA's scenarios and I wanted to know what you guys thought of it. The scenario will be named "X Incantatrix" and will be about a lone adventuring mage (You) that wishes to become the arch-incantatrix (taking place sometime before A3, probably just before or something, since Erika seemed free at that time) I have the plot and all rough-sketched in my mind, I'm just wondering how a single-character plot would roll with the community, and whether or not people would want to play someone who aspires to be the greatest mage in Avernum by challenging Erika *Shrug* Edit: It will involve a large number of the cast from the normal storyline, of course, and I imagine any plot-conflictions with the official storyline would grate on peoples nerves. I havent beaten A2 yet, and I dont want the story spoiled for me, but I also don't want to not know if there something important in A2 that I dont know :\ [ Tuesday, February 01, 2005 09:33: Message edited by: Solodric ] Posts: 125 | Registered: Friday, February 13 2004 08:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 156
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written Tuesday, February 1 2005 10:03
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quote:I am one of those wacky people who think plot is inconsequential to a good CRPG so keep that in mind while reading this. I still play BoE(was going to register BoA around New Years but had to endure a burglary and cancelling all of the credit cards and such while the thieves were merrily hitting up ATms on New Year's morning using the Debit cards) and I stay the HELL away from anything with either pre-generated characters(why not just write a book if you are going to take away teh only real interaction the player has?) or single PC parties(again, it's an interactive game. If you are a great storyteller and you have a great story in mind about a particular character, go write the book!). I will do the same with BoA. I am probably in the minority I might as well pipe up anyway or you guys won't know we exist. -------------------- "I am in a very peculiar business. I travel all over the world telling people what they should already know." - James Randi Posts: 219 | Registered: Saturday, October 13 2001 07:00 |
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Apprentice
Member # 4265
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written Tuesday, February 1 2005 12:09
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It's not a *bad* idea, I just don't like being forced to play a party dictated by the scenario. -------------------- "The Fate of Norns awaits us all." -Amon Amarth Posts: 24 | Registered: Thursday, April 15 2004 07:00 |
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Triad Mage
Member # 7
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written Tuesday, February 1 2005 12:54
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Unlike these two above me, I enjoy a scenario that defines the character much better. -------------------- "At times discretion should be thrown aside, and with the foolish we should play the fool." - Menander ==== Drakefyre's Demesne - Happy Happy Joy Joy Encyclopedia Ermariana - Trapped in the Closet ==== You can take my Mac when you pry my cold, dead fingers off the mouse! Posts: 9436 | Registered: Wednesday, September 19 2001 07:00 |
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Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
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written Tuesday, February 1 2005 13:12
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Forcing the player to use a singleton is probably fine. It's been done before. In fact, one of my favorite BoE scenarios, The Election, does this to good effect. Using major characters from the Trilogy may be a bad idea, though. You run into Rentar-Ihrno syndrome: you end up centering your story around a character that wasn't that good to begin with and saying a whole bunch of things about that character that conflict with everyone else's idea about how that character behaves. Especially if you haven't made a detailed study of your character's role in the Trilogy, your story's continuity may suffer. -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
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BANNED
Member # 4
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written Tuesday, February 1 2005 14:05
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Areni, Chains, Dirty Gold, Echoes: Assault, Election, Emulations, Quintessence, Nebulous Times Hence, Roots and Zankozzie's Big Mistake among others I'm probably forgetting all have pre-fabricated 1PC parties. You certainly wouldn't be the first person to do this, and I'd make a fair bet that your scenario wouldn't be the best one to do this either. If you make a 1PC party, some people will (as noted above) complain. Others, like myself, are fine with it. Regardless, with so much control over the party's stats, you should be absolutely sure to manipulate the combat so that it's ingenuitive and always challenging- but entertainingly so. 1PC ain't an easy task to do well. I'd suggest making an alternate engine to supplement your PC. [ Tuesday, February 01, 2005 14:05: Message edited by: Solomon Strokes ] -------------------- * Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
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Warrior
Member # 3978
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written Tuesday, February 1 2005 23:30
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Control over a persons stats? All my scenario requires is: You must play a 1 player character, and they must be a mage. It's a scenario mage for people who want to play a loner mage, instead of trying to play a loner mage in a 4-PC scenario and having troubles, this one is custom-tailored so that anyone who likes playing that particular concept has a whole slew of quests and monsters made specifically for thier characters archtype. you can make them a mage/priest, mage/fighter, or straight mage, whatevers your fancy *Shrug*. I don't intend to force people to play a mage, the idea is that they download my scenario because thats the type of char they wnat to play. And the whole thing is designed so your character can journey around Avernum and Valorim, and even into Vahnatai lands, learning all the various magicks he/she can, gaining experience and items, with the ultimate goal being to become Avernum's greatest mage *shrug* and of course theres plenty of noble quests to take up, for those who don't like that type of main quest. I'm making this scenario partially because after playing a solo-mage in A2 and A3 and playing one atm in BoA, I always got so annoyed when all those great mage spells like Arcane Blow that I learned turned out to be completely useless against later enemies, considering that mages are the weakest of the archtypes at the begining, and supposed to be the strongest at the end, yknow? Mages are pretty powerfull early, I admit, but warriors and priests are more so. Priests can heal, and thier magic is 1 sp per skill cheaper than mages'. Not to mention, Priests seem to be able to cast most anything better than mages, except for direct-damage spells.... Which really dont matter if most of your enemies are just immune to magic, does it? :P As far as changing peoples views on cahracters in the trilogy, thats my main concern :\ I figure people won't be happy if my scenario conflicts with something in the trilogy because there'd be conflicting canon's, and people hate those. And I do intend to make some conflicts between the main story and mine, so I'm wondering how I can alleviate some of the tension there? By the way, Solomon, I'd appreciate you ellaborating your previous statement on how to make combat ingenuitive and entertaining? The idea of my scenario is to have challenging combat in which you must truly fight like a mage. Not with your power - with your mind. Strategical 1 person combat, fighting against challenging monsters with your low level mage, using various terrains and all to your advantage. For example, I intend to script one particular encounter with goblins in which theres a group of goblins around a fire. Well, theres no way your level 1 mage is going to take down a large group of goblin fighters who can alert others, retreat, call in reinforcements and block your way to the exit.... So what do you do? Hm, gotta get past the goblins but I cant fight them....Hey, theres a rock on the ground here *tosses it at a distant wall, sound distracts goblins, runs past* stuff like that. Oh, and by the way, in response to Skeletony: The game is still interactive, its still an RPG, in fact I intend to make it highly flexible. Your character could shuck his goal to become the arch incantatrix and turn to a life of banditry, granted I'm not making a big long continuity for that, but you could still go down that path and get an ending to the game (a real ending, not some "You turn to a life of crime and so its over" endings :P ) I also didn't intend to make it about one specfic person that I basicly put you inside of - although that's been done a lot in Final Fantasy and it worked fine, people here might not enjoy it....I dunno, what do you guys think? SHOULD I develop the persons personality, or leave him open-ended as I originally intended? Ever since you noted that you thought I would develop the character, I've been thinking on it....And I can roll either way. If you think it would do better to go Final Fantasy-esque and have a character that says certain things on his own in cinematics and such, but is still under the players control (AKA you could still turn around and make him into a bandit or somesuch if you wished to) I can handle that, too. [ Wednesday, February 02, 2005 13:59: Message edited by: Solodric ] Posts: 125 | Registered: Friday, February 13 2004 08:00 |
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Warrior
Member # 3978
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written Wednesday, February 2 2005 15:59
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Wow. Haven't gotten a reply to this for a couple days, hope you guys haven't forgotten about this topic :P Since theres some argument over the gender of "incantatrix" I'll probably change the name of the scenario. Posts: 125 | Registered: Friday, February 13 2004 08:00 |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Wednesday, February 2 2005 16:05
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We haven't forgotten the topic. It's just that most of us have grown too jaded to reply to people who have scenario ideas for long, because most are never heard from again. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
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Warrior
Member # 4484
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written Wednesday, February 2 2005 17:19
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Mmh, yeah, be carefull with the "I'm gonna change Avernum" kind of scenario...The oldest and wisest (mmh, more wise ?) Avernum's player don't like, and just don't believe in that. A singleton scenario can be nice, and your strategic fights ideas sounds good. But the main idea "I want to be the most powerfull mage" sounds too Diablo-esque. The ultimate quest for power is kind of...overused idea, no ? If you like the mages, the Tower of Magi, and the Triad, (like everyone, I think), why don't you write a scenario about being an apprentice in the Tower ? Have small quests about searching for an ingredient, for a book, and whatever...You can have lots of political intrigue, other mages who want to be part of the Triad, who assassinate each other. I think about a "Terry Pratchett's Tower of Magi" ! Can have fun, good plots, and perhaps it's easier to write a scenario about a mage in the Tower than a scenario about the potencially Archi-incantator/-trix. Voila ! -------------------- "Il est interdit de se battre sur le Champ du Massacre; dit-il avant de marquer une pause, le temps de reflechir a la logique de ses propos." Discworld, The Colour of Magic Posts: 178 | Registered: Monday, June 7 2004 07:00 |
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Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
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written Wednesday, February 2 2005 18:05
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quote:Be careful how ambitious you get. This sounds enormous. The rule of thumb that we like to cite around here is that the more a designer talks about a scenario, the less likely s/he is to make the scenario. -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
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Warrior
Member # 3978
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written Thursday, February 3 2005 03:48
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Okay, the first time I made this post it was huge. I'm editting/summarizing: This isn't a "Change avernum" thing. It's a personal quest by an apprentice to the tower of Magi to become the archmage (I had already planned on him being an apprentice) And don't think it's going to be some plotless "Power....POWEERRRR" quest. Theres a lot of intrigue to be had by someone who has to go around and visit mage after mage learning magic :P . And of course I have other main quests, other things that might mean more to the character than becoming archmage. It all depends on the player. Only the most persistant/determined/intelligent player is going to get thier mage to finish. That or someone using the Character Editor :P I've already though of what I consider a pretty decent plot. My main concern, and my still really unanswered question, is: Will using characters from the trilogy (quadigy?) ruin my game in the eyes of other people? This isn't a "change avernum" thing as I noted above - I know those types of things bother me, too. But I DO involve people from the series, so I want to know whether or not that's going to kill it or not. Oh, and note to Kalendon: Yes, I know it sounds frikkin huge, don't worry, I don't intend to make ALL of avernum or Valorim, only the parts relevant to the characters quest('s). Sometimes you'll walk down a road and it'll say midway down it "You look down the road, and realize theres nothing for you past this point. Your business is back east/west/north/south/etc.," Edit: AS A NOTE: I will have a recommended party, but in no way shape or form is it one of those "Prefab party" scenarios. You can make your own character, the ONLY requirements are that: That character be a mage, be a singleton, and want to become archmage (at least at the start) As far as wanting to become archmage, thats plotwise. Basicly, it means, your character might say a few things in cinamatics that assume that that is his goal, so be prepared. [ Friday, February 04, 2005 07:22: Message edited by: Solodric ] Posts: 125 | Registered: Friday, February 13 2004 08:00 |
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Warrior
Member # 4484
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written Thursday, February 3 2005 17:31
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Using characters from the trilogy can be great and fun, some purist will not like that, but you can't please everyone... I've played some BoE scenario with renowned characters, there were absolutely fun and playable. It just depends on what you gonna make them do and say... -------------------- "Il est interdit de se battre sur le Champ du Massacre; dit-il avant de marquer une pause, le temps de reflechir a la logique de ses propos." Discworld, The Colour of Magic Posts: 178 | Registered: Monday, June 7 2004 07:00 |