Heroica RPG - Quest Masters' Lounge

[Emjajoas]

What is the advantage of an artefact that takes up 3 of 6 slots, but only counts as 1 artefact?

The fact that it only counts as one artifact means it only takes up one artifact slot. Meaning a lower-leveled player, such as myself, can wear that and other artifacts and still benefit from a strong piece of equipment.

[UsernameMDM]

The fact that it only counts as one artifact means it only takes up one artifact slot. Meaning a lower-leveled player, such as myself, can wear that and other artifacts and still benefit from a strong piece of equipment.

But the description says it takes the Body, Foot & Hand slots. Why not just make it a single artefact that takes up one slot? What's the benefit of a single artefact that takes up 3 slots?

[Waterbrick Down]

I don't believe it's a benefit, I believe it's a check to keep it from being overpowered. 10 SP is pretty high for a single piece.

[UsernameMDM]

I don't believe it's a benefit, I believe it's a check to keep it from being overpowered. 10 SP is pretty high for a single piece.

That's what I figured. Thanks.

[Flipz]

But the description says it takes the Body, Foot & Hand slots. Why not just make it a single artefact that takes up one slot? What's the benefit of a single artefact that takes up 3 slots?

The advantage is that it takes one slot, as opposed to wearing (for example) a SP:5 bodywear, a SP:2 footwear, and a SP:3 handwear. The original version (Em's PC has a similar item) also can't be removed by enemies.

[UsernameMDM]

The advantage is that it takes one slot, as opposed to wearing (for example) a SP:5 bodywear, a SP:2 footwear, and a SP:3 handwear. The original version (Em's PC has a similar item) also can't be removed by enemies.

Eh, eye of the beholder/PC build I guess. It may be an advantage to some PCs, but with better artefacts and more slots becoming available, it loses it's value at high level PCs. Plus I haven't seen too many enemies that de-equip PCs.

[Flipz]

Eh, eye of the beholder/PC build I guess. It may be an advantage to some PCs, but with better artefacts and more slots becoming available, it loses it's value at high level PCs. Plus I haven't seen too many enemies that de-equip PCs.

Dragoon Arthur equipped with the armor plus Shadeaux Cape, Helmet of the Duplovian Guard, and Soul Link Chain to Pretzel.

You should go on a Pie Quest (or an Endgame one, except he's said he's done after 105).

I really want to see you host now. We've seen a lot of detailed analysis and PC building from you, so it'll be interesting to see how you handle the other aspects of QMing.

[Comrade Commander]

Is there a location which has tips for balancing battles on hosted quests?

I ask because it has been mentioned that there is a shortage of quests, but I know for people like me, the 'story' is the easy part and the 'mechanics' is an intimidating part.

Maybe a wiki page or some other source to show example "templates"

(Aka: for monsters to use against stock lvl one players use this construct, for monsters against players with 10+ power use this, against 4 players us XX monsters, etc)

It doesn't have to be a set standard, and simply be a consolidated place for former/current QMs to add their tips.

Hope this makes sense!

[CMP]

Is there a location which has tips for balancing battles on hosted quests?

I ask because it has been mentioned that there is a shortage of quests, but I know for people like me, the 'story' is the easy part and the 'mechanics' is an intimidating part.

Maybe a wiki page or some other source to show example "templates"

(Aka: for monsters to use against stock lvl one players use this construct, for monsters against players with 10+ power use this, against 4 players us XX monsters, etc)

It doesn't have to be a set standard, and simply be a consolidated place for former/current QMs to add their tips.

Hope this makes sense!

I think that was the purpose of this topic once...

Personally I add up the party's current power to get a ballpark for enemy health and multiply as necessary based on what kind of enemy I'm going for (minions, elites, bosses, etc.). With few exceptions all enemies should be able to deal notable damage to each party member without instantly killing anyone.

[Chromeknight]

Yah. Not my best performance.

I've been trying to quantify why the quest felt slow. It only ran for 38 days (which for recent quests is very short). In that time I posted 54 times, Emjajoas 44 and Capt.JP 31, so the average is above once a day. There were periods where there was a gap of more than a day, and christmas/New Years was in there too. I think the other point was there wasn't a large about of interaction between heroes. Is that a QM thing or a player thing? I think both, the QM needs to give players something to talk about and the players need to pick it up and run with it. So, yep I dropped the ball there.

The quest pitch was to find the mummifying murderer, so it seemed like it'd be a mystery quest, with exploring locations, unearthing clues and finally confronting the nefarious monster in their lair. Instead it turned political, 'save the Kingdom' which, for various past quest reasons several characters were not going to buy into, not without personal connection or a game-breakingly large incentive.

We just got handed the solution to the murders, which took some of the fun out of it.

As for characters, what was up with Garett? Was he a Mary Sue? Or a more important character who got edited down? His not coming on the final battle was all me, I'll take some responsibility for the tearing down characters comment above. But if he was important why wasn't there push back from him (or Slate) saying "Hey, wait, you need me". But if he didn't need to be there for story reasons, why make the offer? It wasn't like you'd worked out battles were too hard and were throwing in an NPC to help balance the team or fill a role that was lacking. His picture was in your avatar, was it just that you liked the LDD work you'd done? Or was it that he was going to be the Ironwill prince and when Guts confronted him you were scared he'd just be murderlized right there and then? Anyway, I've just come from two Zeph quests, every one of his NPCs that joins the party has their own agenda and will betray the party if needed. I expected the same (especially as it was clear he wasn't a helper NPC) and didn't want to deal with that among a party that wasn't working together well in the first place.

And we weren't working together. Sure battles were fine, but we weren't being threatened or pushed, everyone was just doing their own thing and there wasn't a need to prioritise targets. I think you did get the brown end of the stick with minstrel, it is in some ways overpowered (I'll post re that in the class discussion thread). But contra what was said above, I don't think it was Artificer and Alchemist that were the problem (though Guts dispensing 1000+ damage a round is a factor), but Assassinate and Mystic Knight's spellspin both of which chewed through enemies.

I will come back to the battles, not to comment on what you should have done differently but to talk of the effect they had on the characters. Difficult battles that need strategy build teams. Easy battles just build contempt. Both for the enemies and for the 'good guys'. The first is obvious, the second is because if the enemies are easy beats, but the group the heroes are helping has trouble with them then clearly that good group can't be all that skilled since they can't beat easy beats and need the heroes to do it. That may explain some of the 'attitude' Slate (and Garett) copped after the second battle and why the third battle was treated with disdain, seeing the same enemies again.

After all that, I probably owe you an apology Em, I wasn't up to my usual standard and let some metagame stuff influence how Nerwen reacted. You put in hard work and we could see you were knocked around by the first battle walkover and then the smith thing. It was a tough audience (four of six players have QMd) with some abrasive characters. Shake it off and work on the next one. I, for one, would happily quest under you again, if you'd have me.

Edited January 28, 2015 by Chromeknight

[Emjajoas]

I just really liked the way Garrett's figure turned out, so I wanted to use it as my avatar. There wasn't much of a reason other than that.

And to answer the meatier question, he was supposed to have a bigger part in the quest before I made a bunch of cuts and decided to end things quickly. He was never meant to be the Ironwill Prince; just a wandering NPC that I wanted to introduce and start plugging now. He got really dumbed down with his appearance at the end because I was running out of steam, and I'm sad that his character suffered for it. I hope to make him shine better in future appearances, flesh him out more.

I appreciate your apology, and I'd be happy to host you again.

[UsernameMDM]

Dragoon Arthur equipped with the armor plus Shadeaux Cape, Helmet of the Duplovian Guard, and Soul Link Chain to Pretzel.

Like I said, depends on the build. Not everyone can quest with Pretzel, and I would argue the Soul Link chain is OP AND requires a slot from another PC. Plus, at our level, a body, hand and foot artefacts are probably much better together than a SP 10.

You should go on a Pie Quest (or an Endgame one, except he's said he's done after 105).

Wanting a Pie quest for Marauder. And I think I have yet to make it on a CMP quest...

I really want to see you host now. We've seen a lot of detailed analysis and PC building from you, so it'll be interesting to see how you handle the other aspects of QMing.

Done it before, would like to do it again, but probably not anytime soon. You never know though.

[Waterbrick Down]

Is there a location which has tips for balancing battles on hosted quests?

I ask because it has been mentioned that there is a shortage of quests, but I know for people like me, the 'story' is the easy part and the 'mechanics' is an intimidating part.

Maybe a wiki page or some other source to show example "templates"

(Aka: for monsters to use against stock lvl one players use this construct, for monsters against players with 10+ power use this, against 4 players us XX monsters, etc)

It doesn't have to be a set standard, and simply be a consolidated place for former/current QMs to add their tips.

Hope this makes sense!

I'm working on something, will post it here when finished.

[UsernameMDM]

I'm working on something, will post it here when finished.

Great!

[Zepher]

CMP shared with me the strategy that he outlined above when we were planning the Baltarok trilogy, and I have to say I was very impressed with it (and felt silly that I hadn't thought of it). I would vouch for it.

On a totally different note:

123. I really had a fantastic time. I think it wasn't a perfect quest (what is) and I'll outline its weaknesses once I allow the players to talk, but I feel with 92 and 102 and 107 and 123 I have really gotten back into the groove of producing quests I'm happy with, something that certainly fell down for me as far as 68, 72, and 88 (and even 53 a little bit) go. And, sorry to my questers, but if I'm happy with a quest then that's at least something I consider pretty good.

But anyway, would love some thoughts, and I'm likely to do character reviews and my own thoughts later in the day or tomorrow. Thanks so much for playing with me, Bio_Fan, Mencot, and of course WBD. You were a great party, and I'll say it again, I had a lot of fun.

[CMP]

CMP shared with me the strategy that he outlined above when we were planning the Baltarok trilogy, and I have to say I was very impressed with it (and felt silly that I hadn't thought of it). I would vouch for it.

I don't think I came up with that, I believe I read at some point in this topic.

It actually might've been WBD in the first place, I forget.

[Zepher]

Well, I learned it from you (or at the very least saw it in practice for the first time) and while I don't strictly follow it I do use it as a check for myself to see if I'm in the right ballpark.

[bionicle_fanatic]

Loved playing #123 (lucky number! I'm an idiot.D] I'm an idiot.P] JK I'm an idiot.P]), I thought the NPCs were particularly strong, especially after reading some of Zeph's previous quests (such as the Wren saga). Having reoccurring characters really makes the game feel like it's set in a believable, real world, however whacky and fantastic some of its aspects. Henri's story struck a particular chord, and I was very happy with the way that arc turned out.

The scene in the sewer was interesting, I wonder if we're going to hear more from those soldiers, or their masters... I'm an idiot.P]

Pleasure to game with you all, Zeph, Mencot, and WBD! I'm an idiot.D]

EDIT: ....... Waaaaait.... Someone's replaced all [ and : together with I'm an idiot... O_O What in the brick???

Edited January 28, 2015 by bionicle_fanatic

[Lind Whisperer]

EDIT.

Edited January 28, 2015 by Lind Whisperer

[Waterbrick Down]

Traveling all day, so I'll say more later, but this was one of your better quests, Zepher, so great job!

[Waterbrick Down]

Had some free time creep up on me.

Quest 123:

Characters:

I'm a sucker for reoccurring characters, as Bio_fan pointed out they definitely add to the believability of the world. Reoccurring characters are great, but consistent reoccurring characters are awesome and while Skrall hasn't had a ton of interactions with all of your characters it was good to see them organically growing from your past quests. It was good to actually interact with them as well, your RP only phases are one of my favorite parts of your quests as it really gives the heroes opportunity to engage with the world and form relationships. You did a good job of adding more information about your NPC's without it seeming like unnecessary facts for the benefit of the reader and not for the characters.

Story:

Basic. As it should be for beginner quests, sometimes your plots get pretty convoluted or heavy handed and if you throw brand new characters into those situations it can be difficult to get them to truly care about what's going on. Having established the party's relationships with Elba, Uor's, Chauncey, and Shawe, it is so much easier to create tension with storylines concerning these characters because the party now has a history with them. Too often QM's try to get a party to care about NPC's in super epic dire straits just moments after they've been introduced. Building up to those types of high stakes allows a party to go from "Oh we should help these people because we're the good guys, or the pay is good" to "Oh we should help these people because we know them". The story itself was perfectly paced in my opinion, you showcased a good portion of Eubric without making it feel like a whirlwind tour. The conflict of the story was believable and flowed really well without ever feeling heavily railroaded. You excellently portrayed NPC's and organizations/world-powers without feeling the need to vomit a huge chunk of unnecessary back-story and dialog on the party. They were told all they needed to know for what concerned the situation and had the opportunity to dig deeper if they wanted to, not if the QM wanted them to. Only one question, what was Chauncey's gift?

Puzzles:

Not too complex and fitting for the story, so good job, maybe one more would have made the puzzle/battle ratio perfect in my opinion.

Battles/Loot:

Tough but fair, we had some hard rolls, but I don't think things were impossible. I'm grateful we got reimbursed for our consumables as it did seem we drained through them pretty quickly in order to stay alive. You did a good job of introducing a lot of the basic mechanics without making things too tricky or simplistic; Free Hits, Poison, Stunned, etc. Loot wise you were more than fair and I'm always a fan of customized yet not overpowered loot and the presents at the end embody that.

Fellow Players:

Bio_fan (Karl): Karl is a good mix of action and reflection. We know some of what he's thinking and feeling, but not every post is filled with his interior dialog. I think you're going in the right direction and I'd encourage you to keep on playing up the impact of his childhood in the hovel on his perspective of the world. One encouragement, let your past experience in quests and interactions with heroes have an impact on your character, make sure he isn't too driven by his past or too driven by a predetermined future you have planned out for him. From a mechanics perspective, you did a pretty good job as party leader, you're still learning the mechanics and how each class can best be utilized (trust me it takes a while) but you definitely showed improvement from the first battle to the last.

Mencot (Keliim): Keliim is fun to read and again he has a unique perspective on the world and the right blend between back-story and the impact of his current situation. He was enjoyable to bounce some dialog off of and I'm sure Boris wouldn't have any issues questing with him again. You're more familiar with the game itself since you've been observing it for a while now and it definitely shows. Keliim felt pretty natural, like he had been on plenty of quests before and it helped to characterize him as an experienced fighter. Overall, a good job.

That's about it. It was fun questing with all of you and I'm glad this was my second secondary characters first quest and feel confident in continuing on with him.

[Capt.JohnPaul]

To be honest, I don't think Em should be so hard. We all make mistakes, QMing comes with practice. That being said, I wasn't engaged much. The characters had no development and I didn't feel the connection and had difficulty understanding the situation. (Though maybe it is due to the delays long periods of inactivity and stuff.) I wish parts weren't dropped from the quest cause I feel we could've had more to do, leaving the quest more fun.

Don't worry about the blacksmith either. Just move on and practice. I personally would go on another of your quests because I feel like you learned, and we all get down sometimes.

[Waterbrick Down]

Heroica RPG

QM Battle Guide

Setting up battles can be one of the most difficult aspects of QMing. Unlike your plot, puzzles, NPC’s, or building sets, battles are often something that you can never be fully prepared for until you are writing them up. With practice, crafting appropriate and enjoyable battles for both your players and yourself is possible though it takes a lot of trial and error and even then you’ll still make mistakes once and a while. This is not meant to serve as the end all of battle planning, this is merely one QM’s thoughts. Also as soon as you talk about how you plan your battles, players will adapt their strategies to compensate, it’s simply the nature of the game, so be aware that some adaptations might need to be made as the player base expands and evolves. Now, moving on to some basics:

Some key things to consider from the onset

Difficulty of the battle

Length of the battle

Party stats and synergy

Difficulty of the battle:

Whether you plan out every aspect of your quest or you have a more improvisational style, figuring out what would be realistic is generally a good starting point. Party going up against a horde of rats? Probably shouldn’t be the end of the world. Party charging the stronghold of a deadly necromancer? The stakes/challenge should be high and the party should feel it. Generally length and difficulty of a battle go hand in hand. The easier the battle, the quicker it should be over, the more challenging the more grueling. There are other combinations. Fast and deadly can be good for boosting excitement and anticipation in the party, but a boss battle that’s over in 2 rounds while maybe riveting but often leaves the players sort of empty (not really there fault, they’ve just been conditioned to believe that challenging = deadly = long and drawn out. There does come a point where a battle maybe so challenging and drawn out that you’ll lose your players interest, it’s best to avoid this. Now onto specifics. Challenge generally is equated with how close the Party comes to dying or how dependent they feel they need to be on consumables. The former is pretty easy; figure out how much damage a PC can take and then divide it by the number of hits you want them to be able to withstand before they’re KO’d. Generally I like to do something like this:

Easy Battle:

Party member can be taken out in 5-6 hits

Medium Battle:

Party member can be taken out in 3-4 hits.

Hard Battle:

Party member can be taken out in 1-2 hits.

Now something to keep in mind is that your players are going to prioritize which of your monsters they are going to attack or leave alone and deal with the free hits. This is where specials can come into play, but generally unless all of your monsters have the same stats, the players with the highest SP will take the strongest monster and so on and so forth. You can avoid this trait by adding specials that deter the general strategy, i.e. Bleeding, Poisoned, or Burning effects to encourage the tanks to stay away (since SP is not counted towards these effects) or a Sealed or Blinded effect to deal with Ether classes or physical attackers respectively. One thing to note, if you’re specials are too nasty then players will more than likely take a free hit rather than chance it, especially if the odds are in their favor. To combat this, you either need to include lots of enemies to ensure that more than the tank takes a free hit, or include passive specials that are used on free hits, like SP defying or Row defying, or effects that are dealt on whenever the enemy strikes a party member. For example:

Party:

Knight: 20 SP

>Ranger: 8 SP

Rogue: 2 SP

Enemy:

Bad Guy 1: Level 25, Special Damage: Bleeding

Bad Guy 2: Level 20, Special Damage: Steals Gold

Bad Guy 3: Level 15, Special Damage: Stuns

Bad Guy 3: Level 15, Special Damage: Heals Party

In this scenario, while it would seem likely for the Knight to take on the hardest hitting enemy, to avoid the Bleeding effect, the Knight will probably soak up a free hit from the first bad guy until the odds are in the party’s favor and he can easily be remedied should he start bleeding.

One thing to consider in terms of difficulty is allowing players builds to benefit them. If a player has immunity to Bleeding and you’re not aiming for a super difficult battle, don’t force him to attack another enemy who doesn’t deal Bleeding because he has to compensate for another of his Party’s weaknesses. Same goes for SP and consumable usage. The best strategy is to look at your battle and predict what your party will do and make your battle such that it has multiple options. For easier battles there should be hundreds of options/strategies for them, for medium battles they should have to think a little, and for difficult ones they should have a limited number of strategies that don’t have consequences. Now all of this is dependent on dice rolls, so one thing to consider is that more often than not, your enemies are only going to do damage or have a negative impact on the party 1/3 of the time and if they’re lucky, even less of a chance so factor this in.

Length of the Battle:

Battle length (i.e. how many rounds of combat) can be tricky to estimate, partly due to the random nature of battle rolls. In reality, battle length is merely a factor of how many successful hits from your party it will take to destroy your enemies. Many things factor into this, consumables, party classes, party stats, and as always the luck of the roll. Generally I’ll take a look at the damage output of each player and figure out how many HIT’s it would take the most probable assailant of my enemy in a given battle to reduce them to 0 HP multiply that number by 3 and use that as my length estimate. Example

Knight: Hit does 20 Damage

Bad Guy 1: 60 HP

Estimate 6 rounds of battle to beat Bad Guy 1

Of course all of this changes if some of your PC’s finish off some of your enemies and start to double team them, or if they roll so poorly that the odds start going against them. One should also factor into the equation the difficulty of the encounter. If the PC is going to need to spend every other round healing themselves up, then it is going to take two times as long to defeat your enemy. Consumables can play a big part of this equation as well, if a hero becomes hastened, lucky, or encouraged, it will drastically affect the amount of rounds and this is where the reading of your players becomes important. Being able to tell whether or not your heroes are going to use a consumable can be tricky and one should always make sure that one rarely plans a battle that requires consumable usage and that the advantage of using them is not lost. Unfortunately the math isn’t in the QM’s favor when it comes to balancing for consumables usage, generally their usage gives such an advantage to the PC that one needs to change stats a little bit if you think there’s a remote chance they might use them to ensure that they don’t wipe the floor with your enemies and your battle become a cake walk. One obvious counter to this are enemies who either compensate with boosting specials of their own or specials that negate the use of the consumables i.e. weakening, slowing, stealing effects, etc.

Party Stats and Synergy:

So you’ve set the encounter’s difficulty and length now to get into the nitty gritty of actual party counters. First off, most of the time you want to leave things pretty generic. Build the initial battle as if your heroes didn’t have awesome weapons, consumables, or gear and then adjust from there. This will help avoid either becoming too bogged down in details and overwhelmed or to focused on countering every advantage your PC’s have that it doesn’t make a difference that they have awesome weapons, consumables, or gear. As with difficulty, you need to in some ways figure out how the party is going to approach the fight. Sometimes the party finds loopholes in your plans, this is why it is key to go over the battle at least twice before you post it to make sure you don’t miss anything. One thing to remember, every battle should be winnable (not easy, not even probable, but winnable), however every battle should also be losable. There is a spectrum and straying to either end is generally not a good idea and can start to wear on your players. Now, onto specifics.

Class Counters:

High SP classes – You have a few options, the easiest is creating an enemy at high enough level that it will still hurt them. Sometimes this is necessary, but remember that the enemy will also probably be tough enough to KO the other party members without high SP in one hit. Alternatively you can add the *Ignores SP* modifier. After a while this gets kind of boring and you can’t give this to every enemy because it negates the advantage that the PC has worked hard to obtain. Other options include effects like Bleeding, Poisoned, and Burned again be careful with over-disregarding your PC’s immunities that they’ve also worked hard to obtain. Free hits can be a big part too after a while they aren’t going to be able to stop everything.

High Damage classes – SP on your enemies, healing specials, weakened or afraid effects.

Ether Classes and Debuffers – Immunities are a big part and a QM should be careful that they don’t overuse them. Nothing is more discouraging to a player than an *Immune to all effects* it limits a player’s strategy to simply “I attack” until either the player dies or the enemy dies. Things that swap effects, remedy negative effects, or use the Sealing effect or drain ether are good uses.

AoE Classes – Passive specials that specifically negate the effects of AoE attacks. Generally an outright immunity isn’t the most enjoyable thing for a player, so try using an immunity that’s dependent on something else in the battle, like a leader staying standing, or an enemy support unit of sorts.

Final Thoughts:

There are many ways to design battles this is simply the thought process that I utilize when creating them. There’s not necessarily anything right or wrong about it. If you find something that works and your players enjoy go with it. One thing to consider is disconnecting success with all the enemies being defeated. Battles that involve extra elements like a limited number of rounds to achieve victory, protection of an allied PC, destruction of enemy forces in a particular order, and other goals all add nuances and variances to the traditional setup that can make PC’s reconsider their usual strategy and generally lend themselves to a more memorable battle. This isn’t to say that every battle should be like that, but just as quests can benefit from having a good mix of RPing, puzzles, and battles, so too battles can benefit from having a good mix of difficulty, length, and ultimately goals. Finally, battles are simply another means to an end, they play a big part in the advancement of the PC’s but they’re simply another obstacle to move the story of Heroica RPG forward. If they can do so in a way that brings enjoyment to the PC’s then I think our job has been accomplished.

Edited January 29, 2015 by Waterbrick Down

[Zepher]

The scene in the sewer was interesting, I wonder if we're going to hear more from those soldiers, or their masters...

The Order Imperial will be back in force soon enough, and they've appeared in a large number of quests! If you have any interest, they're in 92, 107, and a number of Kinto Quests!

Quest 123:

Characters:

I'm a sucker for reoccurring characters, as Bio_fan pointed out they definitely add to the believability of the world. Reoccurring characters are great, but consistent reoccurring characters are awesome and while Skrall hasn't had a ton of interactions with all of your characters it was good to see them organically growing from your past quests. It was good to actually interact with them as well, your RP only phases are one of my favorite parts of your quests as it really gives the heroes opportunity to engage with the world and form relationships. You did a good job of adding more information about your NPC's without it seeming like unnecessary facts for the benefit of the reader and not for the characters.

Thank you! I really wanted to host a quest this holiday season because I ended up with more time than I thought I'd have, and there are clearly too many players in the Hall at the moment. But I didn't know what to do with it exactly. I didn't want a beefy story-heavy quest, but I at the same time really did want to work towards my finale. And then it dawned on me that something I've never considered "important" as far as preparation for my finale was good characters. Obviously in the past characters have always been important to me, but the end "goal" of most of my quests was to, utilizing hopefully strong characters, supply the next piece of information for the "grand finale". But the most important piece of the grand finale is the players in it, so really developing them is even more important than moving all the pieces into place. That can happen naturally if I focus on the characters, and even some things in this quest surprised me. So, in conclusion, I'm glad you thought the characters grew organically, because that was my goal.

Story:

Basic. As it should be for beginner quests, sometimes your plots get pretty convoluted or heavy handed and if you throw brand new characters into those situations it can be difficult to get them to truly care about what's going on. Having established the party's relationships with Elba, Uor's, Chauncey, and Shawe, it is so much easier to create tension with storylines concerning these characters because the party now has a history with them. Too often QM's try to get a party to care about NPC's in super epic dire straits just moments after they've been introduced. Building up to those types of high stakes allows a party to go from "Oh we should help these people because we're the good guys, or the pay is good" to "Oh we should help these people because we know them". The story itself was perfectly paced in my opinion, you showcased a good portion of Eubric without making it feel like a whirlwind tour. The conflict of the story was believable and flowed really well without ever feeling heavily railroaded. You excellently portrayed NPC's and organizations/world-powers without feeling the need to vomit a huge chunk of unnecessary back-story and dialog on the party. They were told all they needed to know for what concerned the situation and had the opportunity to dig deeper if they wanted to, not if the QM wanted them to. Only one question, what was Chauncey's gift?

So basically what I said above applies here too, thank you for the kind words.

Chauncey's gift actually is the only "big piece being moved into place" as far as my finale goes. So I'll wait a few months before answering that exactly, but you'll learn at some point.

Puzzles:

Not too complex and fitting for the story, so good job, maybe one more would have made the puzzle/battle ratio perfect in my opinion.

Battles/Loot:

Tough but fair, we had some hard rolls, but I don't think things were impossible. I'm grateful we got reimbursed for our consumables as it did seem we drained through them pretty quickly in order to stay alive. You did a good job of introducing a lot of the basic mechanics without making things too tricky or simplistic; Free Hits, Poison, Stunned, etc. Loot wise you were more than fair and I'm always a fan of customized yet not overpowered loot and the presents at the end embody that.

I was happy with the puzzle too - I generally don't do them because I'm no good at creating them, but I thought this one was a-okay! And yeah, it was just rough rolls - I've had unbalanced battles in both directions as a QM before and I think these actually were some of the best balanced. After all, in theory, a well-balanced battle should be "losable" if you do get bad rolls (not one or two, but you guys really did just happen to have some real bad luck streaks, and I think they showed in a way that proved the battles balanced as opposed to otherwise). I'd also say that the shuriken really hurt you guys, and there were a few strategical mistakes throughout beyond that too, so if you didn't feel the hurt I'd say also that the battles weren't balanced.

Own Critique:

Like I said above, this quest was a lot of me moving characters forward - not towards my finale, but in a way that hopefully once we get there, the stakes will be high and the story will be easy to follow because while it's looking like there will be a lot of players, KNOWING the players makes it so much easier to keep track of what they're doing and why they're doing it. I felt U'Or was underdeveloped in his current state, and Elba even more so even though he's technically been around for nearly 100 quests now (but you wouldn't know it, wouldja ). I feel equally good about Shawe and Henry, who have developed into characters I'm quite fond of, and hopefully have fleshed out the Houses a little bit more. Grady too. I have a soft spot for Everstien and his nasty attitude, but have trouble fitting him into quests because he doesn't really have a good place to exist within the Heroican system. Anyway, I won't babble on about how much I like all my characters, but I really did wedge most of my favorites into this quest. Lane even continues to surprise me with how much fun he can be.

Like I said above, battles, puzzles, and loot felt good too me. Maybe too little gold/consumables and too much unique drops? But over all I felt it was fair, even if the proportions of those two things were a little off.

The sets and photography were a particular pride for me this quest. I think they were not perfect, but I think I have been improving significantly over time.

Player Critiques

Firstly, I agree with pretty much everything WBD said. As is often the case.

Karl/Bio_Fan: I like Karl a ton! He was a ton of fun to have along with the party, and I agree that he is a wonderful mix of dialogue, action, and interior thought. You handled him extremely well, and he had clear opinions about nearly all the NPCs and even the party. I enjoy that he comes from the city, and I like the way that it has influenced his views - I don't know if we've had a poor character from the city any time recently (I know Atramor was way back when, I think, but then we didn't really "know" what Eubric was like because we hadn't explored it yet) and I think you let that past influence his actions a lot. I think it's interesting that he doesn't like the Wolfgang, but doesn't really love the houses either. He seems like the compassionate sort too, and a bit of a loner. Really, just all around strong playing, I'd say. I'll add to the chorus of voices that request that you stop with the typed faces, though. I can promise you the auto-correct is there to teach you a lesson in a friendly joking way, but certainly to teach you a lesson. But that's coming from someone who will gladly host you again whenever, because when you're writing without the typed faces in character, you're a pretty fantastic writer and player!

Keliim/Mencot - Another really strong start to a character. I enjoy Keliim's attitude, he is a more reserved character overall, often simply accepting things as they are or staying silent, but in battle he is fierce and taunts his foes. It is a fun dynamic, and I'd love to see you play with it even more. He feels like he very much comes from a specific culture. That being said, his accent sometimes fluctuates a little, so keep an eye on it if it's something you are committed to! I also wonder where he got the title Cruel, as he doesn't seem it. I think he's got lots of room to grow, so just keep pushing him and see what happens, because all the traits you've found so far as strong and unique.

Boris/WBD - I don't think it's any accident that we host each other (or quest together) so much. I always enjoy your writing, and your attitude towards quests is absolutely always respectful. I know you didn't love 107 as much as I did, but you were a total trooper about it so I'm happy that I was able to get another shot at letting you have a good time, and it paid off! Boris is a fun character. I like his... I don't know the right word for it. Frankness? Acceptance? Interior calm, even. I loved when he took a rat to eat - it was a strong statement that he has already adjusted to being a vampire, and says a lot about his internal world: assumedly he is able to make peace with his situation, which is a strong trait and must have existed in him when he was a Paladin too. I'd be careful not too make him too much like Skrall, however. The similarities, to me, are there in many ways: his stoic behavior, his "older and wiser"ness, his reluctant gung-ho in a fight. They both strike me as old cowboys, in some ways. The thing is: I think those things work extremely well for Boris. I'm not suggesting you lose them, because they make perfect sense from a character stand-point (they are a byproduct of his strong interior self, I think, whereas those same traits in Skrall stem from a different place). So don't abort them, just find the things that make him different as well, and explore the nuances of how the same traits can manifest in minutely different ways. I'm very excited to see his future, and would of course of course host him or Skrall again.

[Mencot]

Some feedback about #Quest 123:

Awesome quest, thank you Zepher for running it. After all I have followed and read many quests and the RP going on in Heroica for the past 2 years but I have to say after playing one quest, I have learned alot more about this RPG world. And guess what, I like it .

So when this was my first quest, I can´t really say more about what could had been better, maybe the first battle was too hard for us newcomers, especially when the party had some unlucky dice rolls .

The story was great and really intresting, we meet and learned many new things about the NPC around us. And there was plenty of time to RP with them. The pace was also good, as me and Bio-fan were beginners.

What more to say, I don´t know.

My party members, were great and their contribution to the story with RP was awesome (more than I did ) And we had a good team, I think I will look forwards to team up with them again.

You did a great job Zepher and i look forwards to have a chance to play in one of your quests sometimes in the future.

Player Critiques

Keliim/Mencot - Another really strong start to a character. I enjoy Keliim's attitude, he is a more reserved character overall, often simply accepting things as they are or staying silent, but in battle he is fierce and taunts his foes. It is a fun dynamic, and I'd love to see you play with it even more. He feels like he very much comes from a specific culture. That being said, his accent sometimes fluctuates a little, so keep an eye on it if it's something you are committed to! I also wonder where he got the title Cruel, as he doesn't seem it. I think he's got lots of room to grow, so just keep pushing him and see what happens, because all the traits you've found so far as strong and unique.

Thanks for the feedback, seems pretty spot on .

The nick name the cruel comes from the time he was an slave/gladiator back in Roawia. Forced to fight for his life, he was a fierce and deadly opponent and many times the fights to death were really brutal and without rules. So the nickname comes from there.

I planned to drop it (and i made some small RP when keliim wrote his name on the questboard) but I don´t know if it is too soon because Keliim hasn´t really gotten any name for himself yet here in Eubric. We will see.