Heroica RPG - Quest Masters' Lounge

[Zepher]

I have to disagree with this, though:

That's fine! That's why we've got more than one QM! Different strokes for different blokes! It's actually not how I do quests either, but I think it works well for some people. My FAVORITE technique is killing a villain. That makes the villain that kills them ten times scarier.

Great guide, Zeph, but I'd disagree about the Act I placement. If we try to force the "main" plot into a single arc, think Act I ends with Quests 44 and 50, which properly introduce the Veterans and the Ji Pei; prior to this, there were still a large number of important players who still had not been introduced.

(I believe Sandy's already stated that the Wolfgang is THE main storyline of Heroica, so the other Act III's will likely be timed around them--also note that this is by far the hardest plotline to pin down this way, in part BECAUSE it is linked to so many others on such a large scale.)

Those two statements have been highlighted to explain why I think differently than you. As of Quest 33, all the elements have been introduced, but not fleshed out. We know who the veterans are, and we know who the Je Pei are. We don't need to know anything more about them for the MAIN PLOT's Act I other than the fact that they exist. We already understand the plot at that point - there are the six houses, the wolfgang, and the veterans, and they are all trying to steer Eubric in different directions. We recognize as well that they are all important players. I don't think I could consider 44 or 50 "inciting incidents". I could read the Wolfgang stealing from 4 of the 6 houses as an inciting incident.

Disappointed that there was no bigger reward to gain, the heroes saw it best to return to Heroica Hall. Outside the hall they ran into none other than Captain Patricia. Oddly enough, instead of fuming with anger, the captain of the Town Watch had a weary expression on her face.

"I cannot express the magnitude of my disappointment. If you weren't members of this accursed organization, I'd have all of you hanged. Just so you know, I complained to the Veterans about you three, but they had the gall to ignore my plea, saying that you were free to do as you saw best. This city is fast crumbling to dust... Am I really the only one that sees it?"

Shaking her head, the captain left the party at the doors of the Hall. The Town Watch's trust on Heroica was greatly damaged, but perhaps some other group of heroes would be able to restore it.

That is, absolutely, in my mind, the end of Act I. And remains one of my very favorite speeches written in the history of this game. Still makes me feel so strongly, every time I read it.

Edited December 10, 2012 by Zepher

[JimBee]

Just finished catching up and reading through Quest 51. Nice quest, Pie, short and simple. I liked the enemies (very cool specials) and drops, although that last battle took forever. Great pictures, as well.

[Flipz]

"Really wish you'd listened to us, Harkenshire."

"Ah, Ellaria, well met." William says as he equips his Chimera Armour, Pauldrons and Shield. He struggles with his armour as he tries to put it on and takes off his amulet.

[Waterbrick Down]

Anyone have any good ideas as far as a name for this race?

Edited December 14, 2012 by Waterbrick Down

[CMP]

Quikkins?

[JimBee]

Darko(s)?

[Waterbrick Down]

Quikkins?

Going for the straight out pun, I like it.

Darko(s)?

A bit darker than I was thinking, but also viable.

Edited December 14, 2012 by Waterbrick Down

[PsyKater]

Quikkins?

[Scubacarrot]

It'd have to be something Monty Python inspired, I think. Kill the rabbit...

[Zepher]

Yay! I finally get to put all my praise in one place!

Etzel, you are a really superb quest master. Your two quests have both been unique in their techniques, and have both had absolutely beautiful sets. You have really fleshed out a group of people, something that I think is a great story-telling device. We don't need to see the same NPCs each time, we see an order. That's awesome. Your inclusion of the characters in the sets make them perfect. This is sort of stream of consciousness praise, so I apologize for that, but seriously, superb job. I also love all the outfits in your quest - they give the Paladin Order distinct colors and designs while still using a series of different clothing. Jorke and the Novices and even the second battalion... they all look so perfect, so in color, yet so unique. Finally, as I've said, you beat me to the murder mystery quest, and I wouldn't want to have been beat to it by anyone else, because the quest was just fantastic.

I hope Boomingham gets to butt heads with your Order sooner or later, both for character reasons and for the superb quests you host. Congrats, Etzel, and thanks for somehow meeting my deadline down to the day.

[Palathadric]

Yes, Etzel, superb quest! No words really, but I found this one every more interesting than your last one, and I loved that one too!

[CorneliusMurdock]

Thanks for hosting another great quest, Etzel. What was Haldor's side quest?

I really enjoyed the mystery, it was too bad that I didn't have the time to really go back through he quest to recheck the facts until the end. We could have solved it earlier. I do want to know why Jorke did it. I think it has something to do with the letter on his wall from his sister but I don't understand why he waited until just then to do it.

And woohoo, levels and gold! Just what I needed.

[Rumble Strike]

Loved the quest Etzel, great to see one that doesn't revolve around fighting. Lovely sets, strong characters, and a lot of freedom for the players all add up to a superb quest!

[Masked Builder]

Great quest Etzel, I was getting a bit antsy towards the end. It was very enjoyable, much more to it then what I signed up for. (A good thing.)

[CMP]

A very different Quest than usual, Etzel. There've been mystery Quests before, but nothing that revolved so tightly around it. The reward was fitting, considering there weren't many battles. I was a very different concept, and you pulled it off very well.

I'd love to see these sidequests posted, by the way.

Edited December 20, 2012 by CallMePie

[Endgame]

I loved 49, Etzel. My favorite part? The alternate expressions you had for NPCs. I just loved that for some reason.

[Etzel]

Yay! I finally get to put all my praise in one place!

Etzel, you are a really superb quest master. Your two quests have both been unique in their techniques, and have both had absolutely beautiful sets. You have really fleshed out a group of people, something that I think is a great story-telling device. We don't need to see the same NPCs each time, we see an order. That's awesome. Your inclusion of the characters in the sets make them perfect. This is sort of stream of consciousness praise, so I apologize for that, but seriously, superb job. I also love all the outfits in your quest - they give the Paladin Order distinct colors and designs while still using a series of different clothing. Jorke and the Novices and even the second battalion... they all look so perfect, so in color, yet so unique. Finally, as I've said, you beat me to the murder mystery quest, and I wouldn't want to have been beat to it by anyone else, because the quest was just fantastic.

I hope Boomingham gets to butt heads with your Order sooner or later, both for character reasons and for the superb quests you host. Congrats, Etzel, and thanks for somehow meeting my deadline down to the day.

Thanks Zepher, it really means a lot coming from you who does such amazing quests yourself.

This definitely was different from my previous quest, both in terms of goals and actions during the quest and also how it was to host them. I enjoyed hosting this second quest very much since I had got experience from the first one, had prepared most of the sets from before, and of course because my players were very active and interested in the quest.

The characters were a very big part of this quest so I really put a lot of effort in them and I*m happy they turned out nice. Fun that you noticed the outfits, The Paladin Order's colors are white, gold and different shades of blue, so the outfits are centered around different combinations of those colors.

The murder mystery theme was fun, you should definitely try one for yourself if you want to. It's not like there is only one such story to tell.

I'll probably try and host the "Race to Duplovia"-quest I have ideas about before the next Paladin Order quest, but Boomingham is welcome in any of those.

Thanks again!

Yes, Etzel, superb quest! No words really, but I found this one every more interesting than your last one, and I loved that one too!

Thank you very much!

I also think this one was more interesting then the first, but that might be because we all (and me especially) had more knowledge about the Paladin Order from the beginning of this quest. A background is always good to get the right feeling for the quest.

Thanks for hosting another great quest, Etzel. What was Haldor's side quest?

I really enjoyed the mystery, it was too bad that I didn't have the time to really go back through he quest to recheck the facts until the end. We could have solved it earlier. I do want to know why Jorke did it. I think it has something to do with the letter on his wall from his sister but I don't understand why he waited until just then to do it.

And woohoo, levels and gold! Just what I needed.

Haldor's side quest is his to decide if he wants to share, I won't do it.

The tempo in the quest went a bit up and down which is something that might have effected it negatively and caused some stress at the end but I think you all did a great job moving forward and constantly looking for new perspectives in the investigation. I would maybe had made it more clear that the objective was to find the person who the party found most suspicious, not the one they had clear evidence on because such didn't exist. As for Jorke's motives, well I can tell you that the letter had importance in his hatred against sir Mandric, who as a young officer denied Jorke to leave the 2nd Battalion of Light and Justice for going home to save his mother. But exactly why Mandric died that night when the party was visiting is still not fully discovered, and it may take another quest for the truth to be revealed...

Loved the quest Etzel, great to see one that doesn't revolve around fighting. Lovely sets, strong characters, and a lot of freedom for the players all add up to a superb quest!

Thanks! I really wanted to explore how a quest without much fighting could be done, and I think I have to say it went pretty well. Characters and player freedom were what I laid focus on instead, I'm happy you liked it.

Great quest Etzel, I was getting a bit antsy towards the end. It was very enjoyable, much more to it then what I signed up for. (A good thing.)

I think we all got a bit anxious at the end but I think it turned out great. Thanks for playing, you did a great job as party leader and I'm happy that you liked it.

A very different Quest than usual, Etzel. There've been mystery Quests before, but nothing that revolved so tightly around it. The reward was fitting, considering there weren't many battles. I was a very different concept, and you pulled it off very well.

I'd love to see these sidequests posted, by the way.

Yup, the XP rewards was because of the few battles in the quest (the 1 on 1 training battle that only 1 of the 3 heroes got XP for, the catacomb battle and the battle with Jorke which ended without any XP gain). I got the feeling from my previous quest that it was just a story of how the heroes moved from battle to battle and I wanted to take a different route this time. Thanks for the compliments!

The sidequests and private conversations between players and NPCs will be up to the players to post, some of them might be stuff that the heroes want to keep to themselves for some time or maybe not share until a future quest.

I loved 49, Etzel. My favorite part? The alternate expressions you had for NPCs. I just loved that for some reason.

Thank you very much!

I love double sided heads so I tried to get at least of my characters to have such.

My personal favorite part of this quest was the collision of Haldor and Jorke at the end. I knew that there was a possibility that it would happen but it all came down to a lucky die roll. Thanks Cronk for that Special Damage!

[Scorpiox]

Thanks for hosting another great quest, Etzel. What was Haldor's side quest?

I'm a tad reluctant to reveal it at the moment, as it would sort of mess up everyone's opinions of Haldor for the future. And anyway, Haldor succeeded in his quest so that it wouldn't have to be told.

I might post the link after Quest #53, so no harm can be done.

[CorneliusMurdock]

My personal favorite part of this quest was the collision of Haldor and Jorke at the end. I knew that there was a possibility that it would happen but it all came down to a lucky die roll. Thanks Cronk for that Special Damage!

If there's one thing you can count on, it's that Cronk will roll Special Damage. And Meditate... repeatedly.

[Brickdoctor]

If there's one thing you can count on, it's that Cronk will roll Special Damage. And Meditate... repeatedly.

At least Cronk rolled Special Damage when it was okay to. Docken usually rolls Aura when it's not so okay to.

[CorneliusMurdock]

I'm a tad reluctant to reveal it at the moment, as it would sort of mess up everyone's opinions of Haldor for the future. And anyway, Haldor succeeded in his quest so that it wouldn't have to be told.

Haldor slept with one of the novices didn't he?

[Zepher]

Wouldn't be the first time that Haldor slept with someone to complete a quest...

I'm actually glad that we are having more potential sexual things in Heroica. It's a real part of life, and when artfully handled, it can be an important part of fantasy! Game of Thrones plays with it wonderfully! Before we had too many relationships, now we have too few.

[CorneliusMurdock]

Haldor, the Gigolo of Heroica... Just what are people hiring heroes for these days?

[Flipz]

Haldor, the Gigolo of Heroica... Just what are people hiring heroes for these days?

We HAVE a class called Harlot, you know...

[Scorpiox]

Haldor slept with one of the novices didn't he?

Not necessarily. Could be better, could be worse.