Heroica RPG - Quest Masters' Lounge

[Capt.JohnPaul]

Awesome quest Doc! I didn't really care for the railroad. If you wanted us to go somewhere, there was a reason. And those ending sets and pics were AMAZING. I felt there wasn't enough normal battles. The hex map was fun, but it should've only been used once or twice. I think it was slightly over used, I wanted my character to fight. But great job.

[Zepher]

...here we go...

Final Notes:

Alright, so, tons of thoughts, but before we get into personal feedback, player feedback, and story analysis, over-view, and moral I have a things I need to get out of the way.

JimButcher and BrickDoctor – This was AWESOME. Super awesome. You were great to work with, and well, we’ve worked together for about 8 months total at this point, planning and then executing. It was a huge pleasure, you were both easy to work with, and I am so thankful that we did this.

Sandy – As ALWAYS, thank you for your support. When I first told you that we were doing this, you were supportive. When I told you our ridiculous idea for the final battle, you said you trusted us to pull it off. Thank you.

NOW, what we’ve been waiting for:

THE STORY FEEDBACK

THE POINT: Did you notice that you were confused almost the entire quest? Everyone seemed to be demanding something different from you, and you rarely had the right information to make the right choice. THAT WAS ON PURPOSE. You were supposed to feel sort of lost. U’Stus and Constance refused your protection, and the Emperor demanded that you protected them. Side quests went on right and left, and you knew that somewhere out there, there were other heroes at work. This was all to help me prove my (and Wren’s) point. You can’t please everyone. Sometimes, there is no good solution, only the best solution given the circumstances. Wren quests are all about taking the heroes down a peg and teaching them a harsh reality of the world. This quest taught this: you can’t always win, you can only achieve the best possible out-come, which is nearly never the “perfect” outcome.

So, quick story explanation and analysis:

Wren – Wren took a back-seat on purpose in this quest. I’m afraid of portraying her as TOO powerful. The players (me in particular) need to remember she is a sub-plot to Sandy’s over-all story. So, this time, she was not the main villain, and she stated on many occasions that she could not succeed without her allies. This was true. I also don’t want to lose Wren’s human weaknesses. She has fallings, many of which will become even more apparent next quest. I wanted to allow those to shine through a bit.

Felton & Constance – Here I wanted to do something new. Many of the Wren quests have dealt with liars and false promises (Quest 7’s advertisement, Quest 19’s Fake Felton). I haven’t focused, however, on someone who has purely good intentions but is a broken person doing something wrong. Felton really did believe that Constance was evil, and really thought the heroes needed to act against her. He has trust issues, and they appeared, even while he was trying to do good. Constance, on the other hand, was racist and a snob, but she too had the good of Dastan at heart. I also wanted to see if the heroes of Q 30 would kill her, even though it brought them closer to failing the quest.

Ambiguously Good & Evil Characters – Wren is not supposed to be purely evil, more clinically insane, but I decided to play with the idea of likable villains in this quest, along with unlikable protagonists. XX spares Nyx’s life in U’Stus’ Manor (one of my favorite moments of the whole quest, actually. It came to me suddenly and it worked so well, and it made XX far more interesting). U’Vires actually likes U’Stus, and is sad about his death, and also turns on Wren. Wren and U’Vires both assist the heroes when they go to fight the Chimera, a force that they both deem too dangerous, even for the likes of them. Sphinx likewise fights honorably, and spares Mallelio when the heroes win him back. Claw offers to kill him anyway, but Sphinx prevents it. Felton and Constance, both “broken protagonists” have already been discussed.

Three Quests – This was one of my favorite things. By all three of us going to Dastan, you can really see the entire geo-political landscape. The racism against the U’Kin is mentioned in every quest, the three Emperors, the Dragons, the Chimera… you all got to see it all, and by showing it from so many angles, we got to paint a better picture. Think of all the nations we talked about. Lion Knights, Dastan, Dragons, Rito, U’Kin, etc. Fitting that all into one quest would have been impossible, but with 3, we got to tell you EVERYTHING about Dastan. That was a huge thrill. I also drop little things about the other quests in my quest. XX says, for example, at some point, that he was hired by Roland, though he doesn’t mention the name exactly. He lists everyone else who could have hired him to fight alongside the heroes, and ends the list with Alandri and Septrine, but says that “the others got to me first.” Little drops like that... I also hid U’Stus’ funeral in Quest 29 when Felton asks them to kill Constance. They didn’t know what it was, but now, after reading all three quests, they’ll get it. There are other little nuggets. Wren, when meeting the heroes in Quest 31, talks briefly about XX and U’Vires. Sir Lyons, almost every time he was met, referenced Loren and his other men. The more you read, the more you’ll find. I paid a lot of attention to the other quests, and so did the others. You can pick through for tons of fun surprises. Ella mentions the tunnels the villains used when she talked about Brunt, and Blackenord and XX discuss them briefly and in little detail before they fight Nyx.

Story Changes – Things the players did changed the course of the story. The first change was Atramor staying behind when the heroes went to go fight Sphinx. I was forced to produce an entire side-quest for him, that was actually a great thing, because I got to introduce Constance earlier on and show her actually fight alongside the heroes against a Chaos Beast. It also intro’d the whole Ella kidnap scheme, and let me introduce her early on as well.

The second change was when Nyx stayed behind with U’Stus. I couldn’t let her stop that battle all-alone, but she was smart enough to stay, so I wanted to give her some reward. By staying she discovered Blackenord was traitorous. This cut the number of Chimera guards he had in the final battle. Because Nyx saw him, Constance got to go arrest him, and story-wise, he produced less Chimera Guards. The final battle was supposed to have 15, but that number was cut down to 8. Likewise, if Blackenord hadn’t been found at U’Stus’, the heroes would have fought him while the Lion Knights invaded, and then fought Lyons and his troops in the Palace instead of fighting them outside and Blackenord inside.

Finally, I had expected the heroes not to save Ella, but they did. I thought since she was not an objective, they’d be sort of forced to let her go, but apparently they were strong enough to stand up to the Chaos Beasts, so kudos on that!

Railroading – Sorry, it had to happen sometimes. I could always ask you if you were ready to move on, and with a story this complex, a stop at the library of Dastan would only cost us time. I mean, this thing was four months with me guiding you. Sorry, but Zepher quests will always always move the players where they need to be. Again, I gave people two sidequests that weren’t supposed to exist because I did want to encourage freedom, but sometimes you just had to move from Point A to Point B without stopping at Point C, D, Omega, and Pi.

Brunt – The heroes embarked on a very short side-quest involving the insane Emperor Brunt. I thought it would be a fun thing to do to develop Ella more, along with the back-story of Dastan. It also proved that not every little event leads back into the main plot. The heroes had to exorcise a ghost, and that was the end of it. Helped the paint the NPCs and landscape, but didn’t do much more than that.

PLAYER FEEDBACK

Alright, this is already getting super long, but I have so much to say:

Whole Team – I think coming off Quest 19 I was a little spoiled. The team dynamic of that Quest was absolutely fantastic. I think this team dynamic was a little slow to get on its feet, but after that, it really took off. The splitting into group hurt it at first, I think, but those groups got really strong. When Tarn and Nyx kept ending up together, especially after the Sphinx fight, they actually got chummy. Atramor and Tarn after fighting Brunt actually got pretty close too. It was fun to see. Even Nyx being the misfit in the group that visited the Ritos was an interesting mash-up.

However, when the team got back together for fighting Lyons, I nearly had tears in my eyes you were all playing so well. It was a really interesting dynamic – you had all seen different things in

Thothwick – I enjoyed having Thothwick around! He’s one of my favorite characters. He reminds a lot of Hoke from my last quest, a voice a reason amid all the more strange characters. He still has a great flavor to him; he’s just not goofy or sad. He’s simply Thothwick, quiet, polite, thoughtful, friendly. He’s an all-around good guy who makes good choices and thinks before he acts. He is the only hero to sit out the Constance battle. I love it. I would have liked to see some more conflict with him and some others. Out of all the heroes and villains in the quest, the only person he seemed to have any personal sadness or hatred towards was Atramor, and he didn’t seem super friendly with any of the NPCs (might be a choice you made, maybe none of them were really his style). I would have also liked just a TAD more sadness or thought or conversation about Hoptet. Maybe he could have talked to one of the other characters about it? Over-all, great job, thanks for being the Party-Leader, I had a ton of fun.

William – Where were you? You seemed to check in with the Quest every week or so. You posted more while you were knocked out in the final battle than you had for the previous month. For the parts you were around, you were pretty helpful, and sometimes you had bursts of good speeches… just wish they had been more consistently there, because when they did appear, they were a ton of fun. Perhaps I just don’t host the type of quests you really get engaged in? Thanks for playing with us!

Tarn – Man oh man. I had a ton of fun with you. You and Atramor take the cake for interacting with the most NPCs, though I think Atramor might have outdone you a little. I purposely had Ella be attracted to you because I wanted you to feel more guilty if/when she was taken by Wren (again, shocked you guys stopped that). You played with that beautifully, and you and Mallelio developed a friendship through it. You saved his life and he fought with you against Brunt. You also had an interesting, albeit brief, relationship with U’Stus, and I think you took his death properly, and played that well. You were another good straight guy, and yet you had conflict, rising and falling emotions… and of course you blew up Constance.

Atramor – Holy crap, I swear you spent more time with NPCs than with other players, and damn you did a nice job with it. I think you saw more of Dastan than anyone. McCaffrey was awesome too, meeting with all the people of Dastan and giving her unique thoughts on it. You met Ella for real before anyone else, and Constance as well. You had that whole side-adventure with Felton and Hans when the three of you stayed in the city. You made U’Vires a true enmy of your’s, and were the only hero in the entire quest who got the experience of a true Wren Quest by chatting with Wren in the Library. You were even one of the only two heroes to fight Brunt, and luckily you were the hero that read about him earlier on. You also did a damn fine job of roleplaying through my rail-roading, very impressed. I also believe firmly that you had one of the best grasps of everything going on… again, possibly because you met the most people and got the most information.

Nyx – I felt a little bad for Nyx this quest. The people she seemed to interact with most were the enemies. She built up an extremely interesting relationship with XX (who is slated to appear in at least two more quests because I really love him, so I hope you get the chance to see him again and see that friendship/rivalry/hatred grow). She also had her stomach issue thanks to Blackenord, and that caused her to hate him, something you played very well as well. Nyx is funny and serious at the same time, and that makes her a lot of fun. She is already one of Boomingham’s best friends, and now she gets to join the cast of heroes who know the NPCs of the Wren Quests. I’m very happy to have taken her along, and hope to see her again soon either as a quest-mate or a questie.

All in all, a lot of fun. I loved the NPCs, I’m proud of the story I told, I’m thankful to my “co-workers” and players alike. It was four months, but the three of us set out to tell an epic story, and I really think we did. I can’t wait to hear everyone’s thoughts on it all.

And Characters too look forward to who will be returning in either later Wren Quests or Other Zepher Storylines©:

XX (2 quests at least), Phil (1 quest at least), Vipera (1 quest at least), Mallelio (1 quest at least), Felton (2 quests at least), Hans (3 quests at least), Poletad (4 quests at least), Ella (possibly one quest)

I will be posting the Side-Quests in the quest thread tomorrow! I'm going to go celebrate this being done by getting awesome burgers!

[Brickdoctor]

Awesome quest Doc! I didn't really care for the railroad. If you wanted us to go somewhere, there was a reason. And those ending sets and pics were AMAZING. I felt there wasn't enough normal battles. The hex map was fun, but it should've only been used once or twice. I think it was slightly over used, I wanted my character to fight. But great job.

There were only supposed to be three hex map battles, with only one of the last two hex map battles outside the walls of Drakencourt. I got carried away advancing the storyline, and had to throw in that last battle so that you'd arrive at the palace at the same time as the other two parties. It resulted in a nice roleplaying opportunity with Sir Loren and Sir Laurant, though. There were originally also only two hex map battles: the search for Lady Leofwena, and the final battle. Then I threw in the battle with the Teuthisal and Pongcanae so that you would already know what you were doing when you got to the search for Lady Leofwena.

[Tanma]

I like that the lesson was supposed to be that you can't please everyone and such; but we still managed to save all the NPC characters including Ella, capture Rolando, defeat all the guards, and beat the three quests. The first of which we were expected to fail. I know there were mistakes made in the quest as a whole, but for the final battle at least, that I think was a solid win.

In the words of a good man; just this once, everybody lives!

[Waterbrick Down]

Thanks to all the QM's you did a marvelous job, I'm not a big fan of railroading as I've already mentioned, but I think you did a good job of handeling it none the less. This was a great opportunity to expand who Skrall is, especially with his aquiring Leojagd as well as his interactions with Arthur, Alexandre, and Isabella. I really liked getting to play Luke and would like to have a shot at developing him some more as I believe he is quite a unique character. Overall the battles were great, the drops excellent, and the pace just right. Keep up the good work.

[Brickdoctor]

Leojagd

What, you didn't like my totally original and creative name, Greatsword of Lion Nobles?

I really liked getting to play Luke and would like to have a shot at developing him some more as I believe he is quite a unique character.

I'm glad to hear that. Because of Flipz, Count Lewis has become an unforgettable NPC who's almost a full-fledged hero, and I'd love to see Luke become that, too.

[Waterbrick Down]

What, you didn't like my totally original and creative name, Greatsword of Lion Nobles?

Everybody else gets to name their fancy sword why not me.

[Professor Flitwick]

Great Quest Zepher, it's my favourite thus far. The pictures you supplied were great, and almost always on time (I believe the exception was the Chimera, whose pictured arrived several days late), as were the NPC's. I felt U'Vires to be a very believable villain, tired of the oppression of his people, and wanting to enact revenge. It takes a lot to make a villain with whom people feel some sympathy for, but you did a great job with him.

I do have one complaint. After Constance was killed, we seemed to spend several days waiting for other quests to catch up, and once we were on the move, Constance's funeral took place in the exact same place when the group dispersed, leaving no opportunity to roleplay the events of the funeral. If another group of interlocking-Quests happens, I recommend stretching out some of the more unimportant events to give the Heroes something to do.

I agree with your criticism about Thothwick. I didn't want him to seem too lovelorn, so I tried to keep it just to himself. I think the main reason Thothwick doesn't befriend many heroes is because of his background of, gentry/Downton Abbey-styled rigidity (which I should really start to bring up more, but I have difficult trying to bring up what he's thinking, as opposed to what he's saying). There are heroes he gets a long with, such as Thormanil/swils from his second Quest, or Tarn in his most recent Quest, but I'm not sure if they'd be considered 'friends' (William could've fallen into this category, they fough the Cultists who were going to sacrifice the Dragon together, the Chimera together, then starting the final battle together, but due to VP's unfortunate absence, it didn't come to fruition). Due to his gradual hatred and exposure to Witches (Wren in his first Quest, Baba in his second, Atramor and Wren in his third Quest), he mainly focused his distemper on Atramor.

Speaking of which, CallMePie, I hope Thothwicks constant distrust of Atramor didn't grow too weary.

Also, VP/Zepher, I hope you didn't mind what I did with William whilst you/he was away. I didn't want to make him talk, for fear of making him say something out of character, so I made him mime his actions, which later evolved to full on acting! So, I hope his acrobatic nature didn't ruin his character/any serious moments.

Overall, great Quest Zepher. Now, I'm off to read Quest 29 and 31!

[CMP]

That was an awesome Quest, Zepher. You're by far the most roleplay-savvy QM, and it makes perfect sense that you have the longest-running quest trilogy going on. (Referring to Wren Quests.) The whole idea behind the Dastan Quests was great, all 3 QMs did a really fantastic job of running it all and having it coincide. The delays because others were often behind, during side quests, were eating at my mind, but considering you pretty much improvised the longest one it was completely understandable, and I was very glad to have gone on it.

I loved all the NPCs, there were a few bit characters, but even they had some character and a purpose. The battles were always fresh, even if you trying your best to murder us every single turn. We completely burned through our supply of consumables during the Lyons battle, are we just barely managed to scrape through it, even after going through around 3 Phoenix Essences. The Brunt battle was creative, and it's a fun time having to fight Chaos Beasts. The final battle was just mind-blowing, but not only did it pose a serious threat of us all failing our quests, it was innovative in its mechanics, not to mention nearly every enemy was unique and had a different style of trying to get us killed. I cannot imagine how much the QMs had to go through to run each round of it.

My party was really awesome. Atramor's quested with nearly all of them before, and the one he hadn't with absolutely hated his guts. Tarn and Nyx are always awesome to roleplay with, I had a hell of a lot of fun with the former in the Brunt sidequest and throughout the whole quest, especially with convincing him to nuke the other heroes when we killed Constance. Thothwick actually shows a lot of character, simply by not roleplaying much. I mean this completely seriously, he occurs to me as a usually reserved, quiet guy, quite a stretch from the characteristics you'd usually see in a rogue, and his choice to not make a choice in the Constance battle I thought really fit into his personality. I really hope Atramor gets to see Wren again, the interaction with her and U'Vires were awesome.

A truly great Quest, Zepher, and an epic trilogy in all. :drool:

Speaking of which, CallMePie, I hope Thothwicks constant distrust of Atramor didn't grow too weary.

Nah, I've had a lot of practice, Atramor is not a widely-liked hero. And for good reason.

[Jedi master Brick]

Amazing quests all three of you. The battles were amzing and the choice the players had to make intresting. I don't think the railroading was that bad, I guess time mangling all 3 quests was hard. I really hope there is a new story to do with the Knyhton because the way Flipz has roleplayed him is great.

[Brickdoctor]

I cannot imagine how much the QMs had to go through to run each round of it.

For me, the first Round I ran was terrible, but it got better as I got used to handling that many enemies and heroes. I did this on a smaller scale in Q17, so I had an idea of how to go about running one of those Rounds. Converting all the heroes to the standard stat format was a pain, but once I did convert them, it got easier to run the Round and keep track of all the effects that were in effect.

[CMP]

For me, the first Round I ran was terrible, but it got better as I got used to handling that many enemies and heroes. I did this on a smaller scale in Q17, so I had an idea of how to go about running one of those Rounds. Converting all the heroes to the standard stat format was a pain, but once I did convert them, it got easier to run the Round and keep track of all the effects that were in effect.

The calculations are one thing, but I can't imagine having to go through all the crap needed to upload a picture every battle. At least, not using MS Paint.

[Brickdoctor]

The calculations are one thing, but I can't imagine having to go through all the crap needed to upload a picture every battle. At least, not using MS Paint.

...and that is why Photoshop was created. The key is having all your layers grouped, organized, and named so that you can easily rearrange all those avatars.

[Zepher]

I like that the lesson was supposed to be that you can't please everyone and such... that I think was a solid win.

That was the lesson of my quest, not the trilogy, so you did get to see less of it than the others. But I agree, kudos to all three quests on obtaining all the goals!

I do have one complaint. After Constance was killed, we seemed to spend several days waiting for other quests to catch up, and once we were on the move, Constance's funeral took place in the exact same place when the group dispersed, leaving no opportunity to roleplay the events of the funeral. If another group of interlocking-Quests happens, I recommend stretching out some of the more unimportant events to give the Heroes something to do.

Also, VP/Zepher, I hope you didn't mind what I did with William whilst you/he was away. I didn't want to make him talk, for fear of making him say something out of character, so I made him mime his actions, which later evolved to full on acting! So, I hope his acrobatic nature didn't ruin his character/any serious moments.

Note taken! Thank you for the feedback, I will stretch out the roleplaying stimulating events more so in the future!

And I absolutely loved the dancing and miming. It was very funny, and a great explanation.

That was an awesome Quest, Zepher. You're by far the most roleplay-savvy QM, and it makes perfect sense that you have the longest-running quest trilogy going on. (Referring to Wren Quests).

I cannot imagine how much the QMs had to go through to run each round of it.

Thothwick actually shows a lot of character, simply by not roleplaying much. I mean this completely seriously, he occurs to me as a usually reserved, quiet guy, quite a stretch from the characteristics you'd usually see in a rogue, and his choice to not make a choice in the Constance battle I thought really fit into his personality. I really hope Atramor gets to see Wren again, the interaction with her and U'Vires were awesome.

The rounds were hellish to run. Seriously. Very cool, very exciting (especially when things went horribly wrong or awesomely right for the heroes) but VERY hellish. And time consuming. A round usually took around an hour for me.

And yeah, Thothwick is the polite quiet guy who is very well played. I'm with you there Atty. I also hope that you get to run into Wren again!

[Masked Builder]

Epic quests you three! (Though I'm sad I have to leave the fields now. ) Doc, I love how your quests end. So Zeph, how long 'till the next Wren quest goes out?

[Zepher]

Epic quests you three! (Though I'm sad I have to leave the fields now. ) Doc, I love how your quests end. So Zeph, how long 'till the next Wren quest goes out?

I'd say four to five days? Got other Heroica things to do first! The NPC index needs some love and care, and then after that, I think I'm taking a day or two of rest, but as soon as that's done, we'll be back out! I'll at least let you finish this battle in the Fields, it's got some pretty swell drops.

[CMP]

Epic quests you three! (Though I'm sad I have to leave the fields now. ) Doc, I love how your quests end. So Zeph, how long 'till the next Wren quest goes out?

Awesome, I need that Cat 'O Nine Tails.

[Rumble Strike]

What can I say about the Quest that hasn't been said already? It's by far the longest Quest I have ever been on, but it went along at a good pace. We were confused a lot of the time, but we always tried to make the best decisions using the information we had at the time. Because of the simultaneous nature of the three Quests, sometimes enemies kinda popped in but we as a group didn't really know who they were, especially early on. I don't feel we were heavily railroaded, as a QM I know that if you have a story to tell, you sometimes need to hurry the players along. The fact that 2 other Quests were happening at the same time compounded this, but was totally worth it for the times we were all able to fight together (and each other).

I was really lucky to be picked with such a great group of dedicated roleplayers. I know in the past I've said Tarn is boring, and I loved the verbal jab Wren gave him when they first met, she was so dismissive! But in this Quest, this is where it all came together for him. Being able to play off Atramor was brilliant, as they have got on in a previous Quest and in the Hall, and he's reallly almost a pariah so it makes for some interesting interactions. Almost like an odd couple. I'm not sure if Atramor actually cares for anyone else but I know Tarn thinks very highly of him for his unique take on things.

I really enjoyed Tarn's banter with Nyx too, I feel there was a genuine spark of camaraderie between them that was played up by both of us. And the NPCs, they each had quirks or goals that they wanted and that gives a roleplayer some good ammunition. I loved Tarn's battle speeches to Sphinx, it's where he really found his voice, and I liked the way he was portrayed as an honourable foe, it was very refreshing to see that.

There were a lot of events that happened that will define Tarn's character from now on - the death of Constance and his role in it, the heroism of Phil, the loss of U'Stus, his feelings for Ella - and that's full credit to Zeph for having the vision to allow all that to happen.

Thank you to everyone who took part in this, in all the Quests. It was an incredible experience to be part of it and I am actually quite sad it is all over.

[Palathadric]

Overall/Self Criticism. You all were great. No, perfect. simply perfect. You all were active and fun, I couldn't ask for anything more. I made some mistakes, but not as much as #24. That really was not up to my expectations, and I made mistakes left and right. But this was alot better IMHO. I'm not sure what us up with the boss battle, you did pretty good. But I do believe I owe an apology to TBW. I made the level exactly the same as his health, so he could never go front row at all if he didn't want to get KO. I'm sorry, I need to pay attention. Anyways, I hope you all buy some good stuff with your gold.

I think one of the main problems was that you had three heroes on very different levels. It makes it really hard to make a balanced enemy since, for example, Lycan is so much weaker than Benji.

For the boss battle, I really think you guys should have given the nostrum to Benji since he was hastened as well. Hastening can be more dangerous than helpful when a nostrum is not used as well. With a nostrum added, however, it is deadly.

[Flipz]

Thanks to all the QM's you did a marvelous job, I'm not a big fan of railroading as I've already mentioned, but I think you did a good job of handeling it none the less. This was a great opportunity to expand who Skrall is, especially with his aquiring Leojagd as well as his interactions with Arthur, Alexandre, and Isabella. I really liked getting to play Luke and would like to have a shot at developing him some more as I believe he is quite a unique character. Overall the battles were great, the drops excellent, and the pace just right. Keep up the good work.

What, you didn't like my totally original and creative name, Greatsword of Lion Nobles?

I'm glad to hear that. Because of Flipz, Count Lewis has become an unforgettable NPC who's almost a full-fledged hero, and I'd love to see Luke become that, too.

Remind me to PM the two of you in a couple days, once we've all had a chance to rest up from the epicness of Dastan.

This was SUCH an epic Quest, I really enjoyed all of the roleplaying opportunities. Zepher, I know you didn't really have a "lesson" in mind for us when Wren joined us in Q31, but I took one away nonetheless: as Wren so eloquently put it:

"Do not try to predict me, Regulus."

Dastan COMPLETLY shook up my plans for Arthur, while in an odd way reinforcing them. These Quests seem to have done that for a LOT of characters, taking their vague thoughts and characterizations and crystallizing them into brilliant gemstones of geat roleplaying. Even the quieter, less active characters like Isabella and William seem to have developed thanks to these Quests.

Doc, I have to say, I LOVED the hex battles. My only complaint was that they dragged a little at first, but as we got the hang of playing them and you got faster at Photoshopping them, they seemed to speed up. I also loved the Final Battle; it was HUGE, but even so it was all just an extension of basic rules, combining them in interesting, unexpected ways. I love things like that, where it's the same sort of mechanic you're used to, simply delivered in a revolutionary way. (I also enjoy managing resources on that scale; one of the great disappointments of my vacation was that I didn't have time to really dig in and strategize battle-wide the way Atramor was doing.) The three of you seem to be VERY good at doing that.

Aside from missing several great roleplaying opportunities, my biggest frustration this Quest came from not knowing what to do. Ironically enough, early on I don't think we in Quest 31 were railroaded enough; Loren and the other Rogue Lion leaders just sort of materialized out of nowhere towards the end, I didn't feel like we really did anything to track them down. Part of Arthur's despair when Skrall and Isabella disappeared came from this place of "well, what the hell are we supposed to do now?" I really thought that the Rogue Lions were sort of a diversion from the "real" plotline, especially with the Cult of the Chimaera carrying such Lion-esque overtones; I was sure they were part of the Rogue Lion movement right up until it was explicitly revealed that they were not.

Speaking of that "now what?" moment, I really enjoyed getting to be a Party Leader, even if just for a short while. Capt. JohnPaul, you were great, Arthur and Alex had a real "good cop/bad cop" vibe going, I'd love to see that happen again sometime. I also really appreciate those "improvised" encounters like the bar and the battle to break into Roland's wing, Doc, it was comforting to know I wasn't the only one who felt like I was completely missing the plot of the Quest. There's a tiny gripe in that, though: I really liked that improv work, and would have liked to have seen it more. *cough* Alandri's Library *cough* Even if you didn't feel like writing up all that stuff, it would have been nice for Arthur and Alandri to go "off-screen" and chat and learn about it, instead of that knowledge being simply "inaccessible". That's just a tiny gripe, though, and really it's all a matter of style.

I'll likely have more thoughts once I read through the entirety of the other Quests, so I'll go do that once I'm finished in the Marketplace.

[Brickdoctor]

Aside from missing several great roleplaying opportunities, my biggest frustration this Quest came from not knowing what to do. Ironically enough, early on I don't think we in Quest 31 were railroaded enough; Loren and the other Rogue Lion leaders just sort of materialized out of nowhere towards the end, I didn't feel like we really did anything to track them down. Part of Arthur's despair when Skrall and Isabella disappeared came from this place of "well, what the hell are we supposed to do now?" I really thought that the Rogue Lions were sort of a diversion from the "real" plotline, especially with the Cult of the Chimaera carrying such Lion-esque overtones; I was sure they were part of the Rogue Lion movement right up until it was explicitly revealed that they were not.

Speaking of that "now what?" moment, I really enjoyed getting to be a Party Leader, even if just for a short while. Capt. JohnPaul, you were great, Arthur and Alex had a real "good cop/bad cop" vibe going, I'd love to see that happen again sometime. I also really appreciate those "improvised" encounters like the bar and the battle to break into Roland's wing, Doc, it was comforting to know I wasn't the only one who felt like I was completely missing the plot of the Quest. There's a tiny gripe in that, though: I really liked that improv work, and would have liked to have seen it more. *cough* Alandri's Library *cough* Even if you didn't feel like writing up all that stuff, it would have been nice for Arthur and Alandri to go "off-screen" and chat and learn about it, instead of that knowledge being simply "inaccessible". That's just a tiny gripe, though, and really it's all a matter of style.

I think it was just that there were a lot of factions involved. I'm not even sure how some of them got into the storyline, but Zeph pulled it all together into one incredible outline, and I just nodded my head and said, "okay".

As for Alandri's Library, I'm not a huge fan of fantasy, so I don't think I know enough about those topics to write anything about them. If someone else has a better idea of how to create a fictional process for performing such magic as was described in the books, feel free to expand on them.

[Masked Builder]

I'd say four to five days? Got other Heroica things to do first! The NPC index needs some love and care, and then after that, I think I'm taking a day or two of rest, but as soon as that's done, we'll be back out! I'll at least let you finish this battle in the Fields, it's got some pretty swell drops.

Okay thanks Zeph, that sounds great.

Awesome, I need that Cat 'O Nine Tails.

Who says you're getting it?

[Palathadric]

Wow, The Dastan Trilogy is finally over. What a tremendous set of quests all! Both the QMs and the questees were fantastic. A lot of really good role-playing went on, and I have to say those quests were tremendously enjoyable to read through. Now that they are finished, I will probably have to read over them again...sometime.

PS: I hope Count Knighton is not still running around unshaven and with that ridiculous forestman hat on.

[Zepher]

I think it was just that there were a lot of factions involved. I'm not even sure how some of them got into the storyline, but Zeph pulled it all together into one incredible outline, and I just nodded my head and said, "okay".

I can vouch for that. All the ridiculous confusing backstabbing enemies who were sort of working together and sort of not working together... that was a Zepher creation. The Cultists were a cool "side-plot" that actually wove itself around all the quests. Again, showing that not all threats are the biggest threat. The heroes had to worry about their objective, the cultists, and Wren, all of which were differently oriented.

[CMP]

Who says you're getting it?

You can't use it and I don't think 4 damage at best to each enemy is as effective as you guys think. And I've got money.

Edited August 16, 2012 by CallMePie