Heroica RPG - Quest Masters' Lounge

[Scubacarrot]

By my count, the Voracious Vault is more accurately a 20 room dungeon.

That "room" system is interesting, but a bit confusing.

Basically every "standard", "good" "self-contained" story has these elements, whatever those mean . The "rooms" in this case are more like stages or events that happen.

[Pandora]

I really have to offer huge congratulations to Brickdoctor, JimB and Zepher for producing an absolutely stellar trilogy of quests in Dastan.  It is clear that the three of you have all worked exceptionally hard at this (and well together), with immense preparation and subsequent dedication purely for the enjoyment of us playes, and for that I thank you a lot.

I can only applaud your creative vision in the genesis of Dastan and its characters.  You created a complex world, with interesting geography, history and a variety of populations and races, and managed to flesh them all out, give them character and make them extremely realistic. I am so very happy to have been part of these quests, so thank you very much to Zepher for picking me.

For the time that Nyx was with the Rito, JimB was my temporary QM. It was a fish-out-of-water experience for both Nyx and myself, and you QMed it so well and took care of me, so thank you for that.

Zepher... I am filled with admiration. You ran a wonderful quest, and I was so happy to be part of it, and part of the full epic story. You were fully immersed with us, and part of the quest itself. The characters you create, both NPCs and Boomingham, are filled with life and spark and make it so easy for us players to interact and bounce roleplaying off. The dynamics you develop and allow to happen (Nyx and XX, Tarn and Ella) help make your quests even more interesting and you have a nice mix of discussion, investigation, decision, puzzle and fighting. You criticised yourself for 'railroading' us, but I don't think that criticism is warranted. I felt free to do what I wanted, and sure sometimes we suddenly wound up somewhere, but that's no big deal when three large quests are being synchronised into one mega-quest. I think the fact that you were willing to create side-quests for those of us who did something unexpected speaks of your willingness to ameliorate the concerns of 'railroading'.

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).

And one of mine too, even if Nyx had just suffered the beating of her life.

I will be posting the Side-Quests in the quest thread tomorrow!

And thank you for doing so without my initial reaction!

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.

I didn't know that, and the first KO for Nyx now seems much more worthwhile.

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.

I don't think you should feel bad for Nyx at all; she had an interesting time and met some interesting people. Now she just has to work out how she feels about them and about what happened to her. I was impressed (and somewhat touched) that you put little details from the players' pasts into the conversations with Wren. The comments about the orphanage and later Flaming Gumballs threw me for a loop a bit (in a nice way). I really would love to have the chance for Nyx and XX to interact together again - can I reserve a slot??? It's a shame that two of the people she feels the closest connection to are destined never to meet, because they're actually Boomingham and XX. A real shame, but I hope you take that as a compliment that I really do think you are one of the best character players in the game, and now also an exceptional QM.

Nyx drop in for the Rito battle was a blast, I think she and Nerwen hit it off quickly.

Definitely! Nerwen is one of Nyx's favourite new people, even though their personalities are completely different. It was completely unexpected, but a lovely surprise. Thank you, Chromeknight, for helping me feel part of the team while separated from my original questmates.

I should also say here that I had a blast interacting with Galen again (another person Nyx is particularly fond of), and of course Atramor (Nyx grudgingly quite likes him), but it was also fun meeting Skrall too. I think we all could have used Vipera for better interaction in the last fight, but with so many people it would have perhaps been hugely distracting in such a complicated battle. And that brings me to a congratulations to the QMs yet again for that final battle. It really was something to behold, and it was also clear how much time was required to run each round, so to keep the battle moving as you did (and work seamlessly between the three of you) was extremely impressive.

[Capt.JohnPaul]

Quest Title: The Joust

Assignment: The Fantome Croise is angry he was attacked in his tower during quest 37. He says he wants to fight honorably. He wants people who are opposed to the Croise's from all corners of the map to have a joust. The representatives who win will fight him, to the death. We want you to be representatives from Heroica, all you have to do is have one of you win the joust, and then you can fight the Fantome Croise. -Farmer Jonothan, Rebel organizer.

Requirements: 3-4 heroes, preferably knights, but we'll take any melee class.

Reward: 300 gold to share, plus a level of experience.

Sandy, I'll probably need to PM you about certain items/artifacts to get approval. Also, does anyone know how to phrase the assignment better?

[Endgame]

Quest Title: The Joust

Assignment: The Fantome Croise is furious over the siege led on his tower by Heroica heroes. He says he wants to fight honorably. He wants people who are opposed to the Croise's from all corners of the map to have a joust. The representatives who win will fight him to the death. We want you to be representatives from Heroica, all you have to do is have one of you win the joust, and then you can fight the Fantome Croise. -Farmer Jonothan, Rebel organizer.

Requirements: 3-4 heroes, preferably knights, but we'll take any melee class.

Reward: 300 gold to share, plus a level of experience.

Sandy, I'll probably need to PM you about certain items/artifacts to get approval. Also, does anyone know how to phrase the assignment better?

How is that?

[Capt.JohnPaul]

Perfect, thank you. You get more gold in the quest.

Quest Title: The Joust

Assignment: The Fantome Croise is furious over the siege led on his tower by Heroica heroes. He says he wants to fight honorably. He wants people who are opposed to the Croise's from all corners of the map to have a joust. The representatives who win will fight him to the death. We want you to be representatives from Heroica, all you have to do is have one of you win the joust, and then you can fight the Fantome Croise. -Farmer Jonothan, Rebel organizer.

Requirements: 3-4 heroes, preferably knights, but we'll take any melee class.

Reward: 300 gold to share, plus a level of experience.

[Palathadric]

Perfect, thank you. You get more gold in the quest.

Quest Title: The Joust

Assignment: The Fantome Croise is furious over the siege led on his tower by Heroica heroes. He says he wants to fight honorably. He wants people who are opposed to the Croise's from all corners of the map to have a joust. The representatives who win will fight him to the death. We want you to be representatives from Heroica, all you have to do is have one of you win the joust, and then you can fight the Fantome Croise. -Farmer Jonothan, Rebel organizer.

Requirements: 3-4 heroes, preferably knights, but we'll take any melee class.

Reward: 300 gold to share, plus a level of experience.

Quest Title: The Joust

Assignment: The Famtome Croise is furious after heroes from Heroica led a seige against his tower. He is hosting a joust for all those that oppose his reign. The winner will fight him to the death. We are too weak to fight the Fantome Croise ourselves. We need a team from Heroica to help us by winning the joust and then killing the Fantome Croise.

Requirements: 3-4 heroes, preferably knights, but we'll take any melee class.

Reward: 300 gold to share, plus a level of experience.

I don't know where the hell we poor farmers are getting this money from, but I guess we're not as poor as you may think.

How's this?

[Capt.JohnPaul]

I don't know where the hell we poor farmers are getting this money from, but I guess we're not as poor as you may think.

That will all be revealed.

It's good. But I'll go with Endgame's because I'm lazy and don't want to copy and paste again I like it.

Nah, yours flows better.

Quest Title: The Joust

Assignment: The Famtome Croise is furious after heroes from Heroica led a seige against his tower. He is hosting a joust for all those that oppose his reign. The winner will fight him to the death. We are too weak to fight the Fantome Croise ourselves. We need a team from Heroica to help us by winning the joust and then killing the Fantome Croise.- Jonothan the Farmer

Requirements: 3-4 heroes, preferably knights, but we'll take any melee class.

Reward: 300 gold to share, plus a level of experience.

Edited August 18, 2012 by Capt.JohnPaul

[CMP]

It's not really an honorable fight if you kill him, though, is it?

[Capt.JohnPaul]

It's not really an honorable fight if you kill him, though, is it?

Trial by combat? Chivalrous duel?

[Zepher]

I think the fact that you were willing to create side-quests for those of us who did something unexpected speaks of your willingness to ameliorate the concerns of 'railroading'.

I don't think you should feel bad for Nyx at all; she had an interesting time and met some interesting people. Now she just has to work out how she feels about them and about what happened to her. I was impressed (and somewhat touched) that you put little details from the players' pasts into the conversations with Wren. The comments about the orphanage and later Flaming Gumballs threw me for a loop a bit (in a nice way). I really would love to have the chance for Nyx and XX to interact together again - can I reserve a slot??? It's a shame that two of the people she feels the closest connection to are destined never to meet, because they're actually Boomingham and XX. A real shame, but I hope you take that as a compliment that I really do think you are one of the best character players in the game, and now also an exceptional QM.

I had a ton of fun creating a side-quests, and they really allowed me to introduce plot points earlier than I thought I'd be able to. I will never again host a quest in a full city though... there were too many places that people could go to .

As for the comments on players past - I always pick players that I really like for my quests, so they're also players I know fairly well. I may have put in the Flaming Gumballs because I talk about them so much as Boomingham and sort of forgot which character I was playing... but I like that Wren likes them too . As for you getting to meet XX again, I'll make sure you're there! He's going to be around for a while. Of course, he works for the highest bidder, so you never know where he might pop up.

Thank you for the compliments, I'm glad you enjoyed the Quest!

[CMP]

Trial by combat? Chivalrous duel?

Generally jousts are just tournaments for honor, you're not really supposed to kill your opponents. But I'm just nitpicking.

[Capt.JohnPaul]

Generally jousts are just tournaments for honor, you're not really supposed to kill your opponents. But I'm just nitpicking.

The last battle wasn't supposed to be a joust. The joust is only to decide who gets to fight the Fantome.

[Palathadric]

The last battle wasn't supposed to be a joust. The joust is only to decide who gets to fight the Fantome.

Wow! Is it supposed to be an honour to fight the Croise to the death? I nominate Docken to go.

I wonder if the quest is a bit too straightforward though. Undoubtedly, it may become less so, but it seems almost a bit too simplistic. Don't know if all the heroes will be able to fight together or if only one will be able to fight the Croise.

[Capt.JohnPaul]

Wow! Is it supposed to be an honour to fight the Croise to the death? I nominate Docken to go.

I wonder if the quest is a bit too straightforward though. Undoubtedly, it may become less so, but it seems almost a bit too simplistic. Don't know if all the heroes will be able to fight together or if only one will be able to fight the Croise.

There's some side tasks to do as well, along with tons of NPC knights to joust... in first person. It will be like a tournament, where the winner of a joust faces the winner of another. Though I'm still unsure if everyone will fight the Croise or just one. If it's one, the Fantome will get a serious nerfing.

Edited August 18, 2012 by Capt.JohnPaul

[Flipz]

I had a ton of fun creating a side-quests, and they really allowed me to introduce plot points earlier than I thought I'd be able to. I will never again host a quest in a full city though... there were too many places that people could go to .

As for the comments on players past - I always pick players that I really like for my quests, so they're also players I know fairly well. I may have put in the Flaming Gumballs because I talk about them so much as Boomingham and sort of forgot which character I was playing... but I like that Wren likes them too . As for you getting to meet XX again, I'll make sure you're there! He's going to be around for a while. Of course, he works for the highest bidder, so you never know where he might pop up.

Thank you for the compliments, I'm glad you enjoyed the Quest!

I agree, of all the new Dastan characters, I have to say that XX is my favorite. I really, REALLY want to see him and Sir Poletad forced to work together, I don't care how implausible it may be.

[Zepher]

I agree, of all the new Dastan characters, I have to say that XX is my favorite. I really, REALLY want to see him and Sir Poletad forced to work together, I don't care how implausible it may be.

[JimBee]

I hope this helps you all in desiging your own Quests; it's certainly changed the way I look at writing mine!

I will definitely keep this in mind for any future quests I host, thanks for sharing.

It became apparent after a while you had a different philisophy to the others regarding drops from battles, tending to have less artifacts/weapons and less cosumables (perhaps counterbalancing not burning them either!). I don't know if it's better or worse, just different.

Thanks Chromeknight. I guess that is just my style, to drop less. I tried to have more consumables (even though it wasn't that much), and I threw in stuff like the treasure chests in the fort to give you all something extra. I guess I just don't want to make everyone overpowered, though I tried to drop more unique items because of the length of the quest. The only item I regret dropping was the Lance. I did it for no other reason than the fact that we didn't have any in Heroica yet, and it turns out that it was pretty useless to Cronk.

Thanks Pandora, I'm really glad you liked the quests.

Now, a few other things lingering on my mind.

Did anyone from Quest 29 notice that "James", the translator in Dragonclaw, looked exactly like XX? This was complete coincidence, but I think to myself that it might as well have been XX, since he was already in Dragonclaw trying to blow up the marketplace just the day before. He could've been in disguise.

Also, some things on planning: yeah, it took a lot. I think Zepher brought up the idea to Brickdoctor and I when I PMd them about choosing players for Quests 17, 18, and 19. We agreed, so this must have been sometime in late fall/early winter last year. In that time, we had no less than 7 PM threads between the three of us (they start to not work after about 6 pages in), not including any PMs between us and the players or Sandy. And if we looked at our original plan (planned out in 7 phases) and compared it to the final result, I don't think there would be many similarities.

[CorneliusMurdock]

I keep forgetting to post my thoughts.

It was a great quest JimB. My favorite part was the sidequest with Foog. It was great to play one on one with him (and keep him out of trouble).

It was fun to meet the other Dastan Questies unexpectedly. Sorry we spoiled all the QMs' fun when we talked our way out of the fight with Skrall's group (not really, Skrall would have kicked our megablocks.) And the Constance Bomb Debacle was a great chance for roleplay, although, I don't feel we were given enough information to make a good decision there.

The final battle was quite epic. Just wow, and good job QMs.

I'm not quite sure what to think of Roland at the end. Was he bullshitting us with the "for the greater good" speech? He seemed all serial-killer creepy before they led him off.

Thanks Chromeknight. I guess that is just my style, to drop less. I tried to have more consumables (even though it wasn't that much), and I threw in stuff like the treasure chests in the fort to give you all something extra. I guess I just don't want to make everyone overpowered, though I tried to drop more unique items because of the length of the quest. The only item I regret dropping was the Lance. I did it for no other reason than the fact that we didn't have any in Heroica yet, and it turns out that it was pretty useless to Cronk.

Cronk may get some use out of the lance (Now the Beast Skewer!). He's going to look awfully funny using it while not on a horse, though. So you should have given Cronk a pretty horsy as well.

I did try to participate as much as possible with all the stuff happening to me. I really hate to do the "someone else can play me while I'm away" thing. Sure someone can direct Cronk's battle actions, but it's not really Cronk. Sometimes it can't be helped, though. For a few weeks there, things were just beyond my control. Windstorms, kidney stones, plagues of ants... stupid, stupid ants. And then the new baby and some medical situations relating to her. Hopefully, there won't be anything like the convergence of all those things for me again and I can focus on what's truly important: EB and building LEGO.

[JimBee]

It was a great quest JimB. My favorite part was the sidequest with Foog. It was great to play one on one with him (and keep him out of trouble).

Thanks, I'm glad you liked the side quest. You two were the first "Friends of Dragons". I was surprised at how well a level 19 Paladin worked with a Level 7 Rogue in that battle. Although Galen got knocked out once, he held his own.

I'm not quite sure what to think of Roland at the end. Was he bullshitting us with the "for the greater good" speech? He seemed all serial-killer creepy before they led him off.

I was trying to make him seem fair and noble, for a bad guy. He wasn't the type to run away or panic while under the heroes' judgement, but to accept whatever they chose for him. It's all about sending a message.

Cronk may get some use out of the lance (Now the Beast Skewer!). He's going to look awfully funny using it while not on a horse, though. So you should have given Cronk a pretty horsy as well.

Well you could have stole Xander's.

I did try to participate as much as possible with all the stuff happening to me. I really hate to do the "someone else can play me while I'm away" thing. Sure someone can direct Cronk's battle actions, but it's not really Cronk. Sometimes it can't be helped, though. For a few weeks there, things were just beyond my control. Windstorms, kidney stones, plagues of ants... stupid, stupid ants. And then the new baby and some medical situations relating to her. Hopefully, there won't be anything like the convergence of all those things for me again and I can focus on what's truly important: EB and building LEGO.

Geez, sounds like you had an awesome last couple of months. And again, thanks for sticking with it. And now I don't think you're allowed to eat dinner for four to five weeks, at least while Portia Poodle is alive.

[Brickdoctor]

Cronk may get some use out of the lance (Now the Beast Skewer!). He's going to look awfully funny using it while not on a horse, though. So you should have given Cronk a pretty horsy as well.

No! No more Horses!

[CMP]

No! No more Horses!

In its current form it's unique and helpful. If we'd thought ahead with it Xander would've been a lot more help in the last Dastan battle.

[CorneliusMurdock]

No! No more Horses!

But Cronk. Like. Horseys.

[Brickdoctor]

But Cronk. Like. Horseys.

Can't we just get Cronk a puppy instead?

[Flipz]

Can't we just get Cronk a puppy instead?

Wasn't Zeph supposed to turn Barkington over to Cronk for rehabilitation or something?

[Zepher]

No, Zeph was supposed to hold on to Barkington so that he'd reappear when he was supposed to. Don't worry, Barkley's story will come to an end as with all my plots, and when that day comes, Cronk may have him. It may be about a year from now... but... yah know, worth the wait (?)