Heroica RPG General Discussion

[CMP]

Hail fellow players, Finnegan is wondering what you, the reader, want from his Bestiary.

Should All creatures be added, stats and all or just examples of creatures and their locals with a little flavour text? Should they be collected by type or by environment? Would human and character foes be posted too, or left to their quests? Or should a simple write-up by quest occur, with each beast thumbnail and what happened in the battle?

I am open to suggestions.

The last option sounds good. The special abilities of each creature, their type, and level are probably the most important stats.

[K-Nut]

I say put every enemy in, so we know all the different kinds of Humanoids, Beasts, etc.

[Peppermint_M]

By Human I mean characters like Umbra and such, while I currently list stats on guards and other faceless mooks, characters that may be an enemy in one quest could be an allie in another or even return with new stats. I have listed humaniods, I may dispense with stats altogether as we progress to a point that the level one beasts could be ignored and kicked aside by background antics.

[swils]

I don't think the bestiary needs multiple entries of any baddie just because it was encountered at different levels. If you wanted to get fancy and ambitious, you could include under a list of all levels it has thus far been encountered at, and link those levels to the encounters.

E.g. Basic Brown Rat

Levels: (url=post_from_questX_of_battle_where_rat_lvl_2_is_fought)2(/url), (url=post_from_questY_of_battle_where_rat_lvl_8_is_fought)8(/url)

Where, obviously, the stuff in parenthesis is code and will merely make the "2" and "8" into hyperlinks. But that's really not necessary at all, and would just be garnishing an already great resource.

If you really wanted to get into it, you could expand upon THAT by including the habitat:

(url)2 Freeport Sewers(/url), (url)8 Catacombs(/url)

But again, that's a whole lot of fancy polish. Up to you

For classification/indexing, I'd break it into two parts. The first would be each archetype, as laid out in the elemental weakness chart (Vermin, Humanoid, Beast, etc.), and following each, a list of *all* baddies that have that type. This means that foes such as the Pongcanae from Q5 would be listed twice, once in Beast and once in Humanoid. To keep things clean, I'd limit these lists to species, like "Pongcanae" "Rats" "Frogs" "Skeletons" "Zombies" "Humans" "Elves" etc. This would enable people to see what sorts of enemies have been used for encounters vs. any given archetype. The second part would be an alphabetical list of species, perhaps using spoiler tags to keep things neat and clean. So "Pongcanae" would then have an individual entry for each "Pongcanae" type foe, listing the particular details (archetype(s), levels/locations/quests where it was encountered, special ability, etc). For Uniques & Named's, I'd organize them separately, and do it by quest.

So, as some quick examples, I already mentioned the Pongcanae enemies. They'd only be indexed in the general bestiary. The transmogrified mages from Sandy's quest could be referenced in the generalized bestiary, but would have their actual entries in the By-Quest section. Continuing with Sandy's quest, if there were any additional foes that fought alongside the uniques, they could be referenced here, but their entries would be in the generalized bestiary. So the entourage of flying, colored books could be noted in the flavor text for that particular mage, but would have their detailed entries in the generalized bestiary, under "Flying > Flying Book", with a note in the entry that the books came in a variety of colors (perhaps list the colors). From Zephyr's quest, the NPC Gladiators could be referenced in the generalized bestiary as "Humanoid > Factionless > Gladiators", but would have an expanded entry in the Uniques section, where each gladiator is given an individual entry.

That reminded me of another classification/tiering issue. For Humanoids in particular, I think their allegiance should be a level of distinction. So from Q6, the thugs would be "Humanoid > Wolfgang > Wolfgang Thug", then make a note that they have been encountered wielding daggers and clubs, unless the distinction between their weapons affects their special skills or something (though in this case, it doesn't). From Q4, I would index the Pongcanae as "Humanoid > Factionless > Pongcanae > Pongcanae Mage(/Cleric/Ranger/etc)".

I think it would be a good idea if you came up with a template for each entry, and requested that the QM's submit a log of all their encountered enemies to you at the conclusion of a quest, just so all you have to do is organize it, rather than gather the data AND organize it.

Whew, essay! Love having free time between classes, heh

[Zepher]

Just a heads up to well... everyone who wants to know. I'm currently predicting maybe another week and a half, maybe two weeks, to my quest!

[Capt.JohnPaul]

Let me guess based upon the latest battle results-

You guys now officially hate that stupid Super Scarab?

[Fred Daniel Yam]

Let me guess based upon the latest battle results-

You guys now officially hate that stupid Super Scarab?

Did you restart your character?

[Capt.JohnPaul]

Did you restart your character?

Yep.

[Sisco]

Exactly. (it's a shame that I forgot to check the marketplace though, seeing as it was written so literally there ) So then Althior couldn't have gotten a magic burst with his diamond-imbued dagger in Round 1 of the Crozen Porthiar Battle in Quest#5, and Crozen should thus have 16 HP more at the moment.

I realize my mistake now. Thanks, but I'll just let that one go. It's going to be a hard fight!

[Fred Daniel Yam]

Yep.

Ah, no wonder, was your previous character Bacari?

[Capt.JohnPaul]

Ah, no wonder, was your previous character Bacari?

Yes.

[Jebediahs]

Just a heads up to well... everyone who wants to know. I'm currently predicting maybe another week and a half, maybe two weeks, to my quest!

Aw, I thought the heroes were due to escape soon(er). I need more Lady Wren!

Let me guess based upon the latest battle results-

You guys now officially hate that stupid Super Scarab?

It wouldn't have been so bad if the few potions the party had were used on members more generously or if heals were attempted.

[K-Nut]

Ah, no wonder, was your previous character Bacari?

Yes.

It should be your current character. I miss having a crossbow in my face every other day.

[Zepher]

Aw, I thought the heroes were due to escape soon(er). I need more Lady Wren!

Don't worry, she may still be around to cause some mischief in the future. Maybe.

[Khorne]

I'm loving the Arena quest so far, but I hate it that I can't participate more. Everything seems to happen when I'm not around . Damn you, different time zones !

[Sandy]

Thanks for answering the questions in my stead, guys. The answers were absolutely correct in all cases, so if someone was still waiting for my confirmation, this is it.

And Peppy, thanks for keeping the Bestiary in check! It's one less topic I need to manage.

There's some new quests coming up very soon, so all available heroes should keep an eye on the Heroica Hall.

[CMP]

There's some new quests coming up very soon, so all available heroes should keep an eye on the Heroica Hall.

At last!

[Jedi master Brick]

Yay more quests. On the book about enemies add Umbra, yes and p,ease do all of them I would help if I could and thanks for doing it.

[Tamamono]

"One more thing: I don't want any funny business. Just to make sure you don't try anything, one of you must stay behind in R'Kilf with me."

How is this going to work? Will the person who stays behind not be able to participate until we come back to R'Klif?

[Tanma]

How is this going to work? Will the person who stays behind not be able to participate until we come back to R'Klif?

Maybe that character can spend their time investigating the elves? We know that they might be using us, so the player who remains might look for clues.

[Brickdoctor]

How is this going to work? Will the person who stays behind not be able to participate until we come back to R'Klif?

The player will return to the party later on in the Quest, which is all I'll say for now.

[Tamamono]

The player will return to the party later on in the Quest, which is all I'll say for now.

Okay, that makes sense. Would I be able to give control of the NPC to the player who stays behind?

[Brickdoctor]

Okay, that makes sense. Would I be able to give control of the NPC to the player who stays behind?

That's probably a good idea. Hadn't thought of that. Go ahead.

[Sandy]

Now Masked Builder has joined the growing group of Quest Masters, as he has selected the duty to host Quest #9. Go sign in, all you adventure-hungry heroes!

[Peppermint_M]

You know, Finnegan is only really interested in beasts and monsters although I have heard that there is a socialite in town who is creating her very own almanac of important people and characters...

I have decided to sort enemy creatures by their type, at my own discretion (So if they are duel type I choose which to class them under) I will keep stats for their basic first appearance forms, as future foes will all be dependent on player level and such, but the basics are always nice to build off. I will list higher level special abilities in the notes on the beasts to inform anyone who wants to know. I do not want this bestiary to stifle creativity and Quest Master ideas or inhibit choice. I just felt that a little record of them was a cool idea and showcases the talented QMs instead of them being confined to quests that sink to the far pages of the board.