Heroica RPG - Quest Masters' Lounge

[Waterbrick Down]

QM question: When your quest sets are physical builds, do you photograph every possible encounter ahead of time and then retake ones that might need to be changed due to happenings in the game? Or do you photograph each encounter as the players progress?

Depends upon your questing style, if you plan on letting your players deviate from the quests objective then it helps to be able to build as the quest progresses. If you take all of your photos ahead of time you may find yourself unable to allow any deviation. I generally build the first 1/3 of my quest and have ideas of how I'd ideally build the latter 2/3's. This style does however require more invested time while hosting and as both Sandy and Khorne have mentioned, sometimes stress.

[Asphalt]

My quest will be involve free travel within a confined environment. The route the characters take will be there decision, but they won't be able to stray beyond the planned confines. Kind of a very open dungeon crawl.

[K-Nut]

I think that could be easily photographed beforehand.

[Asphalt]

I have the majority done, so I think as soon as I know which quest number I will be and get my banner put up I will be ready for signups. I am both excited and terrified.

[JimBee]

I have the majority done, so I think as soon as I know which quest number I will be and get my banner put up I will be ready for signups. I am both excited and terrified.

I'm looking forward to seeing you taking the reins as a QM. When you mentioned that you were looking to host a newbie quest I meant to tell you that my second character will be joining the ranks as soon as 129 concludes, but that may be a ways off. Though I'm sure you'll do fine with any group of heroes! If you ever need help with running battles/wrestling with the mechanics or any other part of the quest, there are many of us who are glad to help.

[Asphalt]

Thanks JimBee, I hope I do well. I'm old hat at pencil and paper, but this will be new for me. At the moment I have two fresh off the wagon characters and one level 5. So I have a bare minimum. I would drove to get another one or two entry level folks, but three is a fine number.

[Kintobor]

Quest #122

I dug this quest quite a bit. I will agree it went on a little too long, as I had hoped the quest would last a month and half to two months... oops.

The quest had a much more comedic vibe than most quests, and it was done intentionally, from the broken cart, to the aliens being allergic to wool, to being offered the opportunity to be willing probed, to Kaz's constant belittling of the party, it was all meant to enhance the bizarre and wacky situation with the aliens not being as threatening as they could've been. Some things didn't go as well as I planned, so I did cut them short, but I'm happy with the two main battles with the Others. They were tight, and they didn't drag on.

Characters

Siercon: Siercon was interesting when he was around. I think my one complaint might have to be that you seemed to be on and off sporadically, but you did state your reason why, and I understand real life comes first. I think the one problem is nothing really stood out about him. He was sort of just there. However, you did say some things and you did speak to Sorsha in a way I didn't intend for you and Matthais to, so then again maybe it's just me not remembering things. I tend to do that. Anyways, I'd love to have you again sometime!

Purpearl: I freaking love Purpearl. I hosted you on your first quest, and here you are. The innocent little mage is now a headstrong mystic knight. I enjoyed having you along, and I dug you trying to negotiate with Kaz to little avail. All that aside, I got no real complaints and not a lot to say. I like Purpearl as a character, and I'd love to host you again!

Matthais: I really enjoy Matthais. He's a down to earth, humble kind of guy, but he's got a sense of humour and he's easily irritated. Your reactions and conversations were always colourful and interesting, and I enjoyed you and Lind arguing from time to time. Fun stuff! All in all, I enjoyed having you, and I'd love to host you again!

Lind: Okay, let me warm up. Time for constructive criticism mode to start...

This was not your best RP, and it's surprisingly is one of the rarer instances of this type of bad PCing: Spotlighting. Avoid it like the plague. If you happen to find yourself in it through story means, take it. Sometimes a quest just clicks with a PC, and they do find themselves a little forefront, but Linds actions consistently made him try and push his way up to the front, and it was really distracting from both the other PCs and the quest through rather contrived and player made means. Also, I may be in the minority here, but I found "black knight with a purpose and angst" Lind less interesting than "cheeky, happy go lucky rogue, pun spewing" Lind. He had more of an interesting character, I guess.

Take risks! I think a lot of us would've found it interesting if Lind slept with the two women, because that's a character trait, and a character flaw. I could buy a womanizing Lind. If you really want to take a shot at dating Annienal, who really would've known you slept with Rachelle and Lily? How many other women would Lind sleep with afterwards? It's stuff like this that bleeds off of saying "yes". Saying yes leads you into things more often than "no", but no is a valid answer to. However, it occasionally leads to nothing happening. I know this, I was on an improv team.

About the Munchkins and Lind knowing about aliens. No. Just no. Like CMP said, I could've had bears on unicycles, and your character would've looked like a jackass. Metagaming is generally frowned upon, so avoid it because it's never really fun for the other players to be told that you know what's coming, and it makes you look silly when what you think is coming is something completely different.

In a sudden burst of Munchkin inspiration, the Black Knight suddenly smiled towards the Hypaxxi horde.

"Greetings, friends! Have you yet heard the good words of the Dodekube?"

OoC: Disclaimer: This is a non-canon post. Any actions or dialogue never actually occured, nor should any response to it be considered canon, in the event that a response is made.

*slaps Lind* No. Bad Lind! You do not do this! Seriously though, there is no need for any of this. It's fun to muse about non-canon stuff, but keep it out of an actual quest, especially in this format. It threw me for a loop when I saw this, and I'm certain it confused others.

Also, I know your stance on Hide, but Dodge already exists as a positive effect. The idea of Hide is that the player's character hides from any damage dealt to them throughout the round. Since the quest had a comedic nature I had Lind hide in the sheep pile. I'm sorry if this bothered you, but you should've came to me about it so we could come to a conclusion.

That being said, I like your conversations with Lily and Rachelle the first time around. That was a fun conversation! That and I enjoyed your conversations with Matthais! There's a chemistry between you two, and I want to see it again. It just seemed that before and after Lind had sort of this "chosen one" mentality that really didn't mesh well with the group and the quest.

In short, you've got work to do. Make sure Lind doesn't unintentionally spotlight, avoid being a Mary Sue, and tone the metagaming down drastically. This may seem hard, but with practice and time, you'll get there. I'm still more than willing to host you since you were very active, so hopefully next time will be a bit more positive.

References

-Wise Old Owl, or Owlowiscious, is actually two references rolled into one. The hard to pronounce name is actually from MLP: FiM. It's the name of Twilight Sparkle's pet owl. The long rambling dialogue was Kaebora Gaebora from the Legend of Zelda franchise, in particular Ocarina of Time.

-The cart fight involving the two old men had two references as well! Statler and Waldorf were named after the two old men who sit in the balcony seats in the Muppets, and Big Mark was named after Big Macintosh, another MLP: FiM character, this time Applejack's older brother who doesn't have a lot to say usually besides "eeyup" and "nope".

-Sorsha mentioning the green clad kid was a reference to the quest's inspiration, the alien invasion of Romani Ranch on the first night in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.

-The Other Engineer was loosely, and I mean loosely, inspired by Team Fortress 2's Engineer.

-Kaz and Gik were based off of Zim and Gir from Invader Zim, and Gik's Taco Tuesday nonsense was from Invader Zim (I'm almost positive, anyway), but also

from Rainbow Rocks.

If you guys have any questions, feel free to ask. Otherwise, I've got a spooky, scary necropolis to work on.

Edited April 23, 2015 by Kintobor

[Lind Whisperer]

Lind: Okay, let me warm up. Time for constructive criticism mode to start...

This was not your best RP, and it's surprisingly is one of the rarer instances of this type of bad PCing: Spotlighting. Avoid it like the plague. If you happen to find yourself in it through story means, take it. Sometimes a quest just clicks with a PC, and they do find themselves a little forefront, but Linds actions consistently made him try and push his way up to the front, and it was really distracting from both the other PCs and the quest through rather contrived and player made means. Also, I may be in the minority here, but I found "black knight with a purpose and angst" Lind less interesting than "cheeky, happy go lucky rogue, pun spewing" Lind. He had more of an interesting character, I guess.

I'll keep that in mind, thank you. The irony is that I feel the opposite way as the "Cheeky, happy go lucky rogue" is such a common character that it feels a little bit flat to me because it's so common - but I can see what you mean. In future, I'm going to try and find a middle ground between the two of them.

Take risks! I think a lot of us would've found it interesting if Lind slept with the two women, because that's a character trait, and a character flaw. I could buy a womanizing Lind. If you really want to take a shot at dating Annienal, who really would've known you slept with Rachelle and Lily? How many other women would Lind sleep with afterwards? It's stuff like this that bleeds off of saying "yes". Saying yes leads you into things more often than "no", but no is a valid answer to. However, it occasionally leads to nothing happening. I know this, I was on an improv team.

Again, as I've said, I get that it would "create conflict" - but I, for one, am sick and tired of characters always, making mistakes. Just for once, I wanted a character to have the mental strength to make, the "right choice" and not give into temptation.

About the Munchkins and Lind knowing about aliens. No. Just no. Like CMP said, I could've had bears on unicycles, and your character would've looked like a jackass. Metagaming is generally frowned upon, so avoid it because it's never really fun for the other players to be told that you know what's coming, and it makes you look silly when what you think is coming is something completely different.

A., there's a lot of things going on here. I see what you mean to a point...to a point. Nowhere did Lind say anything that couldn't be reasonably hypothesized from what had been said in quest, or from a general knowledge of "aliens fly flying saucers". WBD made an excellent point in another thread about the difference between acting and RPing, and I was guilty of acting - but it was mixed with honest RP.

*slaps Lind* No. Bad Lind! You do not do this! Seriously though, there is no need for any of this. It's fun to muse about non-canon stuff, but keep it out of an actual quest, especially in this format. It threw me for a loop when I saw this, and I'm certain it confused others.

My apologies. #130 had just come up, with the requirement that players be "strong of faith," and I thought it'd be funny.

That being said, I like your conversations with Lily and Rachelle the first time around. That was a fun conversation! That and I enjoyed your conversations with Matthais! There's a chemistry between you two, and I want to see it again. It just seemed that before and after Lind had sort of this "chosen one" mentality that really didn't mesh well with the group and the quest.

Thank you for the compliments. I'm looking forward to playing with Matthais again as well.

I wasn't trying to go for a "chosen one" mentality - more that Lind, as a Munchkin, had the duty to kill any aliens he encountered - but I can see how it would come off that way. Again, my apologies, and I'll work on that.

In short, you've got work to do. Make sure Lind doesn't unintentionally spotlight, avoid being a Mary Sue, and tone the metagaming down drastically. This may seem hard, but with practice and time, you'll get there. I'm still more than willing to host you since you were very active, so hopefully next time will be a bit more positive.

-Sorsha mentioning the green clad kid was a reference to the quest's inspiration, the alien invasion of Romani Ranch on the first night in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.

Thanks for sharing - I wondered what that was about. I assumed it was a reference to some previous quest I was unaware of.

...and Gik's Taco Tuesday nonsense was from Invader Zim (I'm almost positive, anyway)...

I see. I thought it was a reference to The LEGO Movie.

[Duvors]

I see. I thought it was a reference to The LEGO Movie.

Probably that too.

[Yzalirk]

I took a look at Quest #130 because Cutcobra mentioned there can be optional objectives, side-quests if you will, within the main quest. I could always do this as well, right? Along with the party being in different locations at a time?

I'm working on a quest idea that I've had in mind for the past week which could go pretty good with those additions.

Also, what do you guys suggest about photographing scenes? Would it be better to take pictures of smaller scenes like this where the background it LEGO or something larger-scale with a white background with a border around it?

[Lind Whisperer]

I took a look at Quest #130 because Cutcobra mentioned there can be optional objectives, side-quests if you will, within the main quest. I could always do this as well, right? Along with the party being in different locations at a time?

As far as I know, there's nothing preventing you from doing that*, but keep in mind that the more places you have, the more MOCs you will have to make.

Also, what do you guys suggest about photographing scenes? Would it be better to take pictures of smaller scenes like this where the background it LEGO or something larger-scale with a white background with a border around it?

The size of the scene really depends on the emotion you're trying to create**, but backgrounds should try and meld with the LEGO.

*Except possibly that Sandy may feel that a quest of that size is a bit big for a first time QM.

**For example, #131 was originally supposed to have huge panorama shots, mimicking the Old West feeling I was trying to create. For more normal, interactive scenes, shots should be smaller.

Edited April 25, 2015 by Lind Whisperer

[Yzalirk]

I do plan to have a few hundred dollars set aside to expand upon my LEGO collection for creating beautiful and detailed scenes. I'm also very motivated when it comes to storytelling so hosting a fairly large quest in the future and building fairly large scenes wouldn't be a problem.

Would it also be wise to have a LEGO built background for a scene that would be in an area where there would be no walls, like a trail? That's what got me really confused.

[Waterbrick Down]

Angles are everything when it comes to photography. All of my scenes use either a plain black, blue, or white background. CMP and Brickdoctor have wonderful outdoor scenes that doesn't involve a ton of brick built backgrounds, I'd suggest looking through their quests. It's definitely not necessary to build everything out of Lego, it's really dependent upon the amount of time you want to invest in it. Also, I'd suggest planning little to no side quests for your first quest. Keep it simple, straight forward, and allow it to be a learning experience. Don't jump in the deep end until you've learnt to swim, given time you'll be swimming laps with the rest of us.

[Yzalirk]

I'll take a look through their quests for a general idea. My first quest I plan to host won't involve any side quests, by the way. For a quest I plan to host as a more later quest will.

[Asphalt]

Goliath I think my quest that I will be starting Friday will be a good example (I hope) of a small dio shot quest. Keep an eye on it and see what you think.

Edited April 25, 2015 by Asphalt

[Yzalirk]

Goliath I think my quest that I will be starting Friday will be a good example (I hope) of a small dio shot quest. Keep an eye on it and see what you think.

Alright, I'll keep an eye on it.

[CMP]

Angles are everything when it comes to photography. All of my scenes use either a plain black, blue, or white background. CMP and Brickdoctor have wonderful outdoor scenes that doesn't involve a ton of brick built backgrounds, I'd suggest looking through their quests.

Yeah, I don't think I've built a set with more than two walls since Quest 69.

[Palathadric]

Yeah, I don't think I've built a set with more than two walls since Quest 69.

Cause we deserved sets in 3-d or what?

[Asphalt]

Any experienced QMs want to take a quick look at a couple of my battle set ups to give me feedback?

[Waterbrick Down]

Sure thing, send them over.

[Asphalt]

Well my first quest is live. Wish me luck and keep me honest.

[Endgame]

I'm suddenly tempted to be like Oregon Trail and just randomly go "INADEQUATE (insert thing here)", but that'd be a little too mean.

Honestly, the first quest shouldn't be too daunting. Players are understanding people.

Which brings me to a point I've been wondering for some time: Do you think quest hosting has gotten harder over time, QMs who have hosted 1+ times, and in what ways/why?

[Asphalt]

It's not the players I am worried about. After reading all of Lind's feedback I am afraid of the other QM's.

[Endgame]

Well, you have two in your party that I know of off the top of my head, and we have 10% of Heroica's quests between us, so there's an overlap.

[Asphalt]

yeah you two should be able to keep me straight when I need it.